Someone please, explain Wal-Mart to me.

[PinkTiger]

I don't understand why a company that can be so good at merchandising that it undercuts everyone else in the business can be so blase about paying its people practically nothing. How is this good for the world?
Yet, the managers and the executives live very well. I live near Bentonville, Ark., and it is now full of gated communities and Mac-Mansions, all purchased and paid for by Wal-Mart execs and support execs.
Meanwhile store personnel make $6-7 an hour and have lousy benefits, if they get benefits at all. And jobs are sent to China because that is where Wal-Mart gets many of its goods now.
It makes no sense.

[mumon]

1. Your answer is in your question...

undercuts everyone else in the business BECAUSE THEY ARE so blase about paying its people practically nothing.

[DuctapeFatwa]

go to google.com and type "feudalism" in the search box

It will tell you all about Wal-Mart and help you understand all the confusing changes you may notice in the economy in the current months and years!

[Wickerman]

2. They are entirely without soul

They do have Elvis in them - but, its the fat, Vegas years Elvis.

[Orangepeel]

3. what's not to understand?

Wal-mart is good at making money -- that's part and parcel of its ability to undercut everyone else in the world. They have very efficient business processes, engage in predatory pricing policies that drive competitors out of business, and negotiate ruthlessly with suppliers.

They don't offer low prices because it is good for the world. They couldn't care less about what is good for the world.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

11. Rampant Capitalism w/out a soul

Profit, profit, and even more profit. All available 24/7.
They only pay what they can because they can get away with it.
Are these those so-called "jobs" that many small rural areas are promised? Yes. I've seen it in action. Unfortunatelly, in many small towns and counties all across America, this is the reality: long hours, low pay and shitty benefits.
Yet, the opening of a new WalMart is heralded as a major event. What a damn joke.

[arcane1]

4. you explained it pretty well, makes perfect sense

"the managers and the executives live very well"

that statement will answer any questions you have about Wally-world

[Deja Q]

5. Not to forget,

in order to become an employee you need to answer 8 pages of pointless personal questions which a COMPUTER determines your mental health based on your answers. No, nobody uses people to analyze people any more, they use computers. (also note that those who do get hired are often not very happy and are either busy with their own tasks and/or irritable or annoyed at customers who dare ask them questions.)

The 60s generation was RIGHT about their fear of computers.

And given how I could invalidate an MMPI test, I doubt I'd ever be able to get a job for any company who uses these computerized "I think I know what you are" tests. So far I haven't, 16 companies and counting since 1988.

At some point, I will probably be homeless. A pity, despite these computers I have a fairly good reputation at the job I've been able to hold for over 6 years. :eyes: The fuckwads don't even bother to look at a job history, just their psychoanalytic test.

Fuck them all and let them rot in hell for this form of discrimination. They control society so they want to ensure that the population is up to their standard. Those not fit to their standard can die. x( x( x(

I wonder why I wait to die at times.

[htuttle]

12. Dude, get a taxi permit

I've always felt that a hack license was a passport to intellectual freedom.

(warning: having been in the taxi industry in one capacity or another for 18 years, I often look for ways to rationalize my 'career'...)

[HEyHEY]

6. Greed..that's my guess

[junker]

7. just think Bush-Mart when you see the Walmart sign.

When G. Bush senior was in China as the Ambassador of the Skull * Bones (also of the US of A, though this was more of a sideline) he entered into deals with the Chinese govt for the Skulls/himself which created over 400 state factories with private participation. Just guess who sells the output from these factories?

AND now, when you are a senior Wal-Marty-Dude, and you are used to going over to China and seeing the bloodshops (sweat blood, don't you know) where they work 13 hour days with no lunch break and then 'retire' to 9 slaves a room 'barraks' where there is no heat.....and no benefits of any kind....

why then, as a Wal-marty-dude, would you come back here and treat these workers any better than you are required by law? Eh, tovarish?

[PinkTiger]

8. That just makes me sick.

I think if the ordinary Joe and Jane in the US knew the truth of all this, they would boycott Wal-Mart. We have to do something. Get the word out somehow. Wal-Mart must be made to change its ways.

[SoCalDem]

19. Nope.. they would not.. Because they like cheap stuff

and the reason they NEED cheap stuff??? Because they cannot afford to live without getting cheap stuff..

Ever see a hamster on a wheel?? They don't really get very far do they???

Average income people are having a hard time making ends meet.. Their kids still need shoes, clothes, they need things and when their budgets are stretched to the max , they get amnesia about the working conditions necessary to produce the cheap stuff they can afford to buy..

I have not set foot in a walmart for ages, but when I drive past it, the lot is always full:(

[Some Moran]

22. No wonder...

Taiwan good, China bad.

[Some Moran]

23. No wonder...

Taiwan good, China bad.

[slaveplanet]

9. Not my personal

Opinion-mostly because I'd need more proof of these allegations.

But Shermy sure don't like'm , he says they rose to prominance so quickly because they're in cahoots with the Chinese heroin mafia, and they are the main hub for high grade "China White" in the USA. Along with the trucking network of JB Hunt are able to tranport it to every city in the USA. He says the Chinese have the goods on both Bush & Clinton , thus the special treatment.

go read his whole sordid take-5 parts?
www.skolnicksreport.com

"WAL-MART and the RED CHINESE SECRET POLICE, Part One"
by Sherman H. Skolnick 08/27/01


To understand Wal-Mart, you have to have a handle on Arkansas. And to figure out Arkansas, you have to be knowledgeable about the Rockefellers. And to fathom the Red Chinese Secret Police, you have to know a lot about the richest family in the world.
To begin. The Rockefellers like to own and operate entire states with a sizeable geography, good natural assets, and a relatively small population. That way, if need be, to win a so-called "election", they could more or less find it cheap to buy all the votes they may need to install their people. West Virginia is such a state. Like an ancient Colossus of Rhodes, astride the entrance to a harbor, the Rockefellers have a foot on both sides. On occasion, they pretend to be Democrats. Other times, as Republicans. They have installed as U.S. Senator (W.Va., D.) John D. Rockefeller 4th, great grandson of John D. Rockefeller, founder of the bloody and infamous Standard Oil Trust. Broken up by a U.S. Supreme Court decree in 1911, the Standard Oil Trust, changing its name slightly to fool novices, is back together again.

[Syrinx]

10. There's a pretty good article about Wal-Mart in...

The November issue of Playboy. And BTW, an nice excerpt from Molly Ivins and that other guy's book (Bushwhacked) in the October issue.

[Mari333]

13. Heres a fine site about Wallyworld

http://www.walmartwatch.com/

[JasonBerry]

14. Went to HELL after Sam died.... N/T

~

[farmbo]

15. They are, quite simply, the focal point of evil in the Modern World

Read Jim Hightower's "Theives In High Places".... Walmart is using .25 cents/hr Chinese convict and child labor to sell that $7 shower curtain for $6. They run smaller retailers into bankruptcy with predatory pricing in new markets; they are vicious in their aversion to union organizing (and would be hauled into court in any progressive administration); they're presently being sued by a class of their female employees on sex discrimination; they routinely shave hours off employee paychecks; they treat their employees like chattel.

We'll need moral leadership from the Whitehouse to restore dignity to our retail sector.

[Hippo_Tron]

16. Sadly most corporations have no business ethics...

But I'm not going to boycott wal-mart because they are actually helping the economy. What I think needs to happen is that major employers like wal-mart need to have some kind of promotion plan for those who plan on staying at their jobs for a long time.

[yankeedem]

21. How are they helping the economy exactly?

nt

[canuckagainstBush]

17. walmart is evil

Wal-Mart really baffles me, that's why I go out of my way not to shop there. A recent New York Times article about Wal-Mart being poised to squeeze out unionized supermarket jobs in Southern California made me proud that I've been boycotting Wal-Mart for two years. :think:

[tom_paine]

18. also boycotting Wal-Mart on my own for 8 years

n/t

[leftofthedial]

20. huge, right-wing, indifferent to quality

Classic Murkan company.

Screwing the worker is just part of the same equation.

[salin]

24. Does Walmart still use the "peasant policy" insurance policies?

Where lower level employees are asked (required? some controversy around that) to sign insurance policies that go to the company (help fund executive benefits) in the case of the employees death - with no money going to the employee's family?

The issue was reported around the time of the Enron implosion. There was some talk of Congress cracking down on companies (those promoting and underwriting the policies) who used these means to underwrite corporate benefits.

Haven't heard nary a word on the topic in over a year.