Could Wal-Mart fix this country?

[Momz]

Wal-Mart vs. The Morons


1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.


2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!


3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.


4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.


5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English.


6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.


7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years.


8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.


9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.


10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago.


11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)


12. 90% of all Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart.


You may think that I am complaining, but I am really laying the ground work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys who run Wal-Mart to fix the economy.


This should be read and understood by all Americans... Democrats, Republicans, EVERYONE!!


To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature


It is now official that the majority of you are corrupt morons:


a.. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years
to get it right and it is broke.


b.. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it
right and it is broke.

c.. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right
and it is broke.


d.. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right;
$1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the
poor" and they only want more.


e.. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years
to get it right and they are broke.


f.. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right
and it is broke.


g.. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence
on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion
a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right
and it is an abysmal failure.


You have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our
throats while overspending our tax dollars.


AND YOU WANT AMERICANS TO BELIEVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED
WITH A GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM??


Folks, keep this circulating. It is very well stated. Maybe it will end up in the e-mails of some of our "duly elected' (they never read anything) and their staff will clue them in on how Americans feel.

AND

I know what's wrong. We have lost our minds to "Political Correctness" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Someone please tell me what the HELL's wrong with all the people that run this country!!!!!!
We're "broke" & can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless etc.,???????????
In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti , Chile , and Turkey ..And now Pakistan ........previous home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!


Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks...


AMERICA: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without 'needed' meds, and mentally ill without treatment -etc,etc.


Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries. Sad isn't it?


99% of people won't have the guts to forward this.


I'm one of the 1% -- I Just Did

[Jack]

I would hate to live in a "WalMart" govt led country.

[old2soon]

The"gubmint"believes whole heartedly that the RIVER of money coming their way is theirs. What is it-less than 600 people in gubmint is F-ing this whole thing up and we stand by and let them do it. We need to get the gubmint off of the gubmint tit. Did anyone ask you or me when they voted themselves lifetime retirement and medical benefits after gubmint service????? I didn't think they did!!  I'll quit afore i get really aggravated. RIDE SAFE.

[john]

" American Socialists Release Names of 70 Congressional Democrats in Their Ranks "           c & P


http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2010/08/american-socialists-release-names-of-70-congressional-democrats-in-their-caucus/

[fudgie]

And the only open lanes are on the far end of the store where you did not walk in.  

[MarkT]

The Evil Empire might be successful in business but unfortunately they are no bulwark of ethical behavior for anyone to aspire to. On the contrary they are the very antiChrist of ethics.  While our government is as pure as the driven slush.  Still I would choose another company to replace the govt in this hypothetical exercise.  Maybe Costco - they at least exhibit some ethics.

[BF]

And the only open lanes are on the far end of the store where you did not walk in.  

And there's usually just a couple lanes open too. 

Walmart is like a roach motel.  You can get in, but you play hell getting out. 

[Moonshot_1]

Well, if we had to vote for people to work as Walmart employees and we only voted for people that promised to give us stuff, I don't think even Walmart would stand a chance of surviving much less making a profit.

The problem isn't the government. We can fix that in one election cycle.

If we wanted to.

[sugerbear]

let sears run it. 

[Romeo]

I kinda agree with moonshot on this one. WE had our chance at electing a businessman to the presidency. WE failed to do it. They mighta voted for Sam Walton though, if we was still alive.

[YoungPUP]

Its been a popular saying for a few years now regarding terrorists, I wonder how it would go over if we started using it to refer to politicians?   "Kill'em all let God sort em out!"

[Steve K (IA)]

Because WalMart doesn't pay their employees a living wage, most of those working at WalMart are receiving government aid.    So actually WalMart is on the gov tit...as some around here like to say.     

[Romeo]

Because WalMart doesn't pay their employees a living wage, most of those working at WalMart are receiving government aid.    So actually WalMart is on the gov tit...as some around here like to say.     

funny, I have a few friends who work there, seem to be making a living, own homes, drive newer cars, the whole ball of wax.

[Master Blaster]

Because WalMart doesn't pay their employees a living wage, most of those working at WalMart are receiving government aid.    So actually WalMart is on the gov tit...as some around here like to say.     

funny, I have a few friends who work there, seem to be making a living, own homes, drive newer cars, the whole ball of wax.

Same here, got no bones with Walley World.   

[98valk]

Because WalMart doesn't pay their employees a living wage, most of those working at WalMart are receiving government aid.    So actually WalMart is on the gov tit...as some around here like to say.     

living wage is union code speak for socialism.
where the cashier makes the same as the engineer/designer that designed and engineered the cash register. maybe u should read on the living conditions of the former USSR that used the socialist/communist way.

[G-Man]

Because WalMart doesn't pay their employees a living wage, most of those working at WalMart are receiving government aid.    So actually WalMart is on the gov tit...as some around here like to say.     

living wage is union code speak for socialism.
where the cashier makes the same as the engineer/designer that designed and engineered the cash register. maybe u should read on the living conditions of the former USSR that used the socialist/communist way.

BINGO!  How much should and inexperienced, uneducated, unskilled person make?  $20, $30, $40 per hour?  These jobs are high turnover, unskilled, entry level jobs.  Just like the burger flipper in McDonalds, clothing baggers in dry cleaners, busboys, etc.  These jobs are generally held by students, or young folks just starting in the workplace, immigrants just figuring out the system.  They are intended to be just that.  And guess who holds the highest percentage of unemployment.....students.  And students need these jobs, which are high turnover and unskilled because they have no skills yet and their schedules change 2 or 3 times per year.  They also need money to buy gas, meals, clothing, entertainment.  In todays economy, many parents can't do this for their kids, heck, my parents couldn't do it for me back then.  I worked all of these jobs to keep my head above water when I was in school.

I still don't know what's so unethical about Walmart.  They bargain (demand) from their suppliers the lowest prices which they transfer on to the customer.  Millions shop there because their prices are lower than all of the other stores mentioned above.  Isn't that a good thing to the households that have to work with less each year.  I know, they're evil because they make a profit.  How dare they!  How dare they make a profit providing goods at lower costs. 

Guess what they've done with those profits..........they opened more stores, quickly, in rural areas, so more families have cheaper places to shop, and provided more jobs in those areas, and fixed up roads all around those stores so people can get to those stores.  And this brings more stores to the areas like Home Depot and gas stations, and food joints.  More jobs.  I speak from what I've seen right here in NY state.  And yes, they've even made a profit doing it.  Shame on them.

[salty1]

+1 G-Man! The chap from IA is wrong IMO.

[MAD6Gun]

 +1+1+1 G-Man. Right on. I flipped burgers at McDonalds for 4 years through high school and trade school making 3.15 an hour. I had enough for gas and my car. Sooo. Steve what do you think is fair wage for this type of job. 20, 25 an hour. Give me a break. Gread is the reason most companies have left this country. If they cant make a profit why should they stay?

I have been a GM auto tech for almost 30 years. I make less then most of the people working at the GM truck plant here in Ft Wayne. Do you really think that a person hanging parts on a truck all day is worth 25 to 30 bucks an hour plus benifits?  I Dont. It pisses me off to no end that I hear how some Union guys can sit on there collective asses and still get payed while I struggle to stay busy working on flat rate. Oh and I have to buy all my own tools to do the jobs. Some specialty tools are bought by the dealer BUT everything else I had to buy. I have at least 60 to 70 grand in tools.

Now before some of you jump all over me saying "you picked your job thats your fault" Your right. I could have done something different. But I could not sit on a assembly line and hang parts all day. Boring. I need a challange. I Just want the unions to stop bitching that they are not making enough money. Give me a break........

[Stars and Stripes]

The Kansas City Royals are run by an executive of walmart. their payroll is last in the league. They take more in shared profits from the other teams than they spend. We are a last or next to last team year after year. You get what you pay for. I would rather pay for quality than Chicom goods. Walmart drives American buiness to ship jobs to China so they can lower their cost to keep being a supplier.

[hotglue #43]

This is posted tounge in cheek:

Turn the Government over to the Mafia....... They couldn't be anymore crooked, and at least they would run it for a profit.

Ya don't pay yer taxes, or have an issue..... Guido comes to see ya....

[~ Timbrwolf]

This is posted tounge in cheek:

Turn the Government over to the Mafia....... They couldn't be anymore crooked, and at least they would run it for a profit.

Ya don't pay yer taxes, or have an issue..... Guido comes to see ya....

. . . ....AND. ...they make the best Italian food ya ever laid a lip on ! ..  


....we live in a tiny town way up in the woods of Northern Michigan....the local supermarket.."Glens" is abysmal....I call it a..Third World Supermarket...and I think folks in Russia have a better selection and prices.....

....And we are not in the above mentioned 90%....there two "Super Walmarts" by us...one is about 30 miles South and the other is 25 miles North...we food shop (and other things) at the one that is 25 miles North of us...not because its closer, but because its newer and nicer and there is a Meijers Supermarket about 3 miles up from it that has really good produce...food Items at Walmart are on average at LEAST 1 dollar cheaper then at Glens here in town...example is Arnolds Oat Nut Bread, which I like...at Glens its  $4.19 a loaf !  .....Walmart...$2.50....$1.69 less...we save on average 30 - 50 dollars food shopping at Walmart with a LOT bigger selection of food goods...and thats figuring the cost of gas into the equation....Most of the employees who work at Glens tell me they dont shop there...because they cant afford the prices...one lady at Customer Service told me once she was talking to "Management" down state on the phone one day soon after the Meijers opened, and they said...They (local people)...wont dive 25 miles to go food shopping will they ?...And she replied...you dont know these people...thats the mindset of the people running Glens...a calculated risk in order to keep ripping locals off....and now that gas is "down" to $3.39 a gallon and dropping...folks will have even more incentive to take a 25 miles drive...


...Walmarts notorious for not treating their employees good...but what company does ?
Chili,s son works there ...part time...because they have no full time employees on the floor and he seems to make a living doing it, but then he,s only 24 yrs old...our main concern is money...where can we get the best food items for the cheapest price.....and thats Walmart...and thats why we shop there..

[MarkT]

I WILL NOT SHOP THERE.   There are SIX - COUNT EM - SIX - walmart "supercenters" within 20 minutes of my rural house.  DO YA THINK THEY HAVE ARRIVED AT RETAIL SATURATION YET?  .  They just built another one THREE MILES from my place, on the edge of a small rural town of 1500 souls. There is now NO POSSIBILITY of the dead town center reviving. 

It saddens me that the majority of the comments in this thread about walmart, are about simply saving a few bucks without regard to walmart's destruction of small town America - and their other horrid behaviors. Yes I know, in these tough times, a few bucks can make a big difference.  So the decision becomes, what is your price to support compromised ethics?  Unfortunately, it's bigger than that - YOU ARE MISSING THE BIG PICTURE. To begin with - after walmart drops their prices below cost to put the other stores in the local market out of business - what keeps them from setting their prices in the stratosphere when the competition is gone?  Did you notice last year, that the Supreme Court THREW OUT the women's complaint about discrimination, ON THE BASIS THAT THEIR SAMPLE WAS TOO SMALL TO REPRESENT ALL WOMEN EMPLOYEES OF WALMART.  What chance did these poor women have, up against the unlimited legal resources of THE WORLD'S LARGEST COMPANY?  Do you know, whenever walmart is ordered to produce evidence in the discovery phase of every lawsuit, they SIMPLY REFUSE TO PRODUCE AND THEN PAY THE COURT ORDERED FINE FOR CONTEMPT.  Which might be six figures, but it's peanuts to their bottom line, and a pittance compared to the ramifications of what the court might order as a result of the discovery evidence.  THEY NEED TO BE FINED IN THE BILLIONS.

Did you notice in the news last year, walmart announced a BIG increase in employee health care co-pays, with a reduction in coverage to their full time employees (of course, part timers get no health care). I'm recalling, it was around a 40% increase in cost.  Analysts reported, WALMART IS WAY OUT OF LINE WITH THE REST OF INDUSTRY, HEALTH CARE COSTS ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE 5% NOT 40.  They said it appears to be a corporate decision to boost walmart's bottom line.  The already underpaid employees interviewed, said they will have to choose between food and health care.  Food will get the nod, and their health care will now be emergency-room care, and other welfare methods. Guess who pays for that?  YOU DO! 

Dave Lippman has assembled the points better than I can.  ITS NOT JUST A MATTER OF CONVENIENCE, OR SAVING A QUARTER HERE AND THERE.  IT'S ABOUT AMERICA, AND OUR WAY OF LIFE - WHICH HAS BEEN, AND IS BEING KILLED BY WALMART.

From Dave Lippman:

Let's talk about why

I
HATE
WAL-MART

I don't like whips, I don't like chains
I don't go choppin' up my neighbors' brains

UP AGAINST THE WAL-MART

Wal-Mart is the nation's (and the world's) biggest retailer. But the problem is not just Wal-Mart - Toys R Us, McDonalds, Microsoft, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, the Gap, Kinko's, Circuit City, Home Depot, Nations Bank...all wipe out the smaller, more local competition. Why? Because they can. McDonalds in the Eiffel Tower, K-Mart in Greenwich Village - is this our destiny? Read on....

Only a company of their size can buy direct from manufacturers, cutting out the distributor. They buy so cheaply they can resell to other stores at cheaper than wholesale. Thus they can ruin the competition through PREDATORY PRICING.

WAL-MART REPORT CARD

Human Rights       F
Diversity             F
Community          F
Ecology              F
Spirituality           F


The trend of mega-mergers and huge chains is wiping out small business everywhere, and with it the distinctiveness of local cultures. Not just in the U.S., but all over this great varied planet. Chains are everywhere, and who benefits? Not the small business, not the small town, not the individual - only a few guys pretty high up in the chain's food chain. Consider: Wal-Mart's annual sales are larger than the entire Gross Domestic Product of 161 countries! Do the Wal-Math: They are bigger than most nations, yet they have no government that answers to the people it affects. They are unaccountable to anyone. Democracy must include the ability to control those who control us!

WAL-MART RULES

If a town declines to welcome GodzillaMart, the next town over will take it, pulling trade and tax dollars out of local coffers. The town has no choice - the terms are dictated by the retail giant from afar. Is this right, fair, or decent? Is this Middle American family values? No more mom and pop stores here. The nation is being covered by a Wal-to-Wal-Mart carpet, the nation blanketed not with daisy chains of wildflowers, but something more like kudzu. Welcome, Weed-Mart.
Big businesses put their money in big banks, taking it far out of town. Money spent in a chain store leaves town on the next electronic transfer, while money spent in a local store circulates in the community seven more times before leaving. In other words, chains use local workers and consumers as a colony, extracting their wealth and exporting to the mother country. Sound familiar? Can you say American Revolution?

BUT IT'S CHEAP AND CONVENIENT!

YES. For shoppers. But guess what: Democracy, human rights, and social justice are never cheap, and seldom convenient. If we shop conveniently while Rome burns, we'll have only ourselves to blame when they've reduced our workforce to workfare and our towns to malls, our culture to cookie-cutter sameness.

YES. IT'S CONVENIENT TO HIRE CHEAP LABOR.
But there are harmful, hidden costs to convenience.

SMALL BUSINESS PEOPLE...

...end up working in a department of Wal-Mart, nostalgic for their homey store and friendly neighborhood shopping experience. And lots of these jobs are part-time and without benefits.Who are the pillars of your community? The merchant, the banker, the principal, the poet, the police chief, the alderman.....None of these people can decide what sort of town you'll have. ONLY Wal-Mart CAN. Megastores tear the social fabric.

SMALL TOWN LIFE ALTERED

Downtowns destroyed, the shopping experience robbed of its community flavor, reduced to Downtown in a Box. Shopping malls are all the same - you could be anywhere in the country (or world), except where you really are - your town.

THEY'VE GOT US...

...filing through their aisles and checkstands in orderly fashion, buying their wares and buying their revision of the flavor of our lives. Perhaps we've forgotten what it was like to walk instead of drive, to encounter our neighbors on foot instead of in traffic. Perhaps we've forgotten the vibrancy of civic life - the discussion of issues, the (God forbid!)...

POLITICAL ACTIVITY

that takes place on city streets. In a privately owned shopping mall, it's illegal to pass out leaflets telling shoppers about the suffering of the workers who picked the strawberries, sewed the sneakers....This separation of commerce from social responsibility means that we don't get to vote on basic human rights where it really matters, where we have power: at the point of sale.

STAY IN YOUR CARS.
DO NOT TALK TO STRANGERS.
DO NOT QUESTION THE WAY WE'VE ORGANIZED
  YOUR SHOPPING FOR YOU.
SHOP TIL YOU DROP.
HAVE A NICE DAY.

WHAT ABOUT THE WORKERS?

The concentration of ownership and power, along with treaties like GATT and NAFTA, means more and cruder exploitation of workers everywhere. Jobs flee America as manufacturing is done by people like Wendy Diaz in Honduras. Diaz told Kathie Lee Gifford what it was like to earn 31 cents an hour, allowed to go to the bathroom only twice a day, be cursed and screamed at, and be able to do nothing about it. There is one unionized Wal-Mart - it's in Ontario.
Wal-Mart's "Faded Glory" t-shirts were made by workers earning 23 cents an hour. Faded Glory indeed! One wishes to ask Wal-Mart, in the famous words asked of Senator Joe McCarthy, "Have, you, at long last, no human decency?"
Most of the workers in these cheap or slave-labor factories around the third world are WOMEN - or GIRLS!. Think FAMILY VALUES here. And two-thirds of employees in the retail industry are women. Retail is marked by low wages, low benefits, poor health care, and powerless employees. The United Food and Commercial Workers led a Women's Day protest against Wal-Mart; according to UFCW Vice President Patricia Scarcelli,

    "We cannot change the economic condition of women until we change the wages and working conditions in the retail industry. And we cannot change the retail industry until we change Wal-Mart. They will not have our consumer dollars to wage war on our paychecks."

The White House, under pressure from workers' movements around the world, has instituted a Task Force on sweatshops, pushing for independent monitoring and a living wage. Wal-Mart has refused to join in. They have also opposed health care reform and minimum wage increase, and defied the embargo on Haiti's former military regime, paying workers 14 cents an hour. Why? That's their job. What's ours?

MUSIC

Wal-Mart tells the record industry what they don't like, and the industry produces special "clean" versions for sale by Wal-Mart - versions which are then resold to other retailers. Not to defend obscenity, but look who's deciding what's obscene? Is Wal-Mart your daddy? They are the biggest music retailer in the country - in many places, the only music retailer. Wal-Mart has become the W-chip, blocking or altering album covers and lyrics - not on your home television, but at the global level. Such power is never restricted to obscenity - it always leads to wider controls. They cause musicians to censor themselves in advance. Get Wal-Mart out of the censorship business!

THE ENVIRONMENT

The more concrete we lay, the more we get in a motorized box to drive to a great box to buy things in boxes to take home to our boxes...the more we box ourselves and the environment in. Mall means sprawl. Look at the landscape that is our heritage, our birthright, and decide if you want it malled. Do you want America to become Generica? Stop Sprawl-Mart.

IT'S INEVITABLE - IT'S PROGRESS.
YOU CAN'T STOP IT. IT'S MORE EFFICIENT.
IT'S CONVENIENT. I LIKE IT. GET OVER IT.

Well, God help us. Convenience and efficiency do not make it right. Placing a high value on economic effectiveness and a low value on human fairness and diversity is not the American way. It's not any way at all, except the survival of the meanest.

IT'S NOT PROGRESS!

Wal-Mart may have won this round, but David did beat Goliath in the end. Among those opposing Wal-Mart are the UFCW, FIEF (an international labor organization working against Wal-Mart's exploitation in many countries), and community organizations from Gig Harbor, Washington, Santa Clarita, California, De Land, Florida, Bath, Maine, Guelph, Ontario....to the fine folks at "Save Our Small Town Way of Life" in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

When you make decisions as a consumer, you may be cutting your own throat as a worker.

BE A CITIZEN

think, learn, and act. It's a matter of community vs. consumerism.....

BRAINS VS. CHAINS

For more information, check out the following websites.
www.wakeupwalmart.com
www.walmartwatch.com
National Labor Committee at www.nlcnet.org
Corporate Watch at www.corpwatch.org
www.sprawl-busters.com
www.theroc.org/boycotts/walmart.htm.
http://www.hel-mart.com/links.php
http://www.1worldcommunication.org/Walmart.htm

[~ Timbrwolf]

..While I admire your moral fortitude Mark, I have to disagree. This country and whats left of the
middle class have already been decimated to the point of no return by big corporations, the supreme court and so called "politicians"....and it doesnt matter who,s "side" your on. walmart could not get away with what it does if government would do their job and and enforce the labor laws that are already in place, and some that in my opinion should be Initated. But then a LOT of folks around here would scream long and loud about over regulation and how its killing competition and jobs....you cant have it both ways.


And its more then a few bucks that we save its more like one to two hundred dollars a month, and believe me, that makes a BIG difference. We do what we have to to survive and live life at a certain standard that believe me is by no means extravagant. We have all lived long enough to see the demise of this country to a level that most thought they would never see. The enviorment is in extremely bad shape and Im glad that I wont be around to have to live in this world in a mere 50 years.
In the mean time it is my intention to...fall off the grid...and get as much wind in the next 20 years as I can...if I live that long.  

[Romeo]

Does anyone have any thoughts on how consumerism became so prevalent in our culture?

[fudgie]

Hell a parking booth attendant at the hospital starts out more then I make (and most medics) and I been here 12 yrs at the time! 

[Daniel Meyer]

Does anyone have any thoughts on how consumerism became so prevalent in our culture?

Pretty much any other activity is regulated or banned?