What's the deal with WalMart?

[86SUPERCAB]

I was watching TV Christmas Eve and saw a commercial come on about how 70% of the stuff from Walmart comes from China and to check out http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/

I was just looking at the site and there's all kinds of issues there.

When I was a kid in the 70's and early 80's, KMart was the place to go to buy stuff at a reasonable price. Everything else my parents got from Sears. In the 90's WalMart too over. Most people live in rural areas where there isn't much to choose from. Around here we have Walmart and Kmart and Kmart never seems to have anything. If I travel from here to Tennessee it seems like there will be nothing and then a Walmart where people come from miles to shop at. Let's face it, you can get everything you would normally need practically from there when you shop. Food, clothing, gas, etc.

It seems Walmart really has sort of a monopoly over rural America. It also seems like there are groups out there that oppose Walmart. I always liked Walmart for their 1-stop shopping. Hell, they have a better meat department than my local grocery store.

Am I supporting a company that buys from the Chinese and underpays it's employees? Is Walmart bad for America? If so, where will I shop?

Is anything made in America anymore? This computer probably isn't. My Motorola cell phone's made in China.

I have found myself looking at things around the house wondering where it came from. It's bugging me so badly that I'm going to contact the manufacturers of the products I sell at TRS Fab & Off-Road and see where they come from.

I here people say nothing is made in America anymore. I think it's BS.

I think with our economy we're looking at the tags with the price instead of the tag where it was manufactured.

You know where you bought stuff the last time you went shopping, but do you know where it came from? Go look.

speaking as a former employee of walmart I can say the prices are great, walmart pays there employees really well I was making $10/hr, the company has great benifits thats offered to all employees even if they are only part time employees. I enjoyed working for them.

 

[MAKG]

You consider a $20,000 annual salary (assuming you can actually get full time) even with benefits to be "paying well?" Where in the Mother Lode can you survive on that? Aside from Mom's basement or in a tent.

I spend 3/4 of that on day care alone.

 

[skippy]

Yes, I'm aware that it's not the specific flat tax proposal that Ross Perot put forward.

It is, however, based on the same assumptions, plus others.

YOU made some false claims about it, particularly that it was espoused by (unnamed) university professors, when in fact it was published by a US Congressperson. Not exactly an impartial party....

There are hundreds of thousands of people who believe in the Tooth Fairy. That doesn't make her real.

won't reprint passages from the book here.the concept was devised by a "group of economists"from renowned universities,whom were ushered into a room and told to devise a tax system that was fair and equitible to "all" americans.then a bill was written by a ga representative,h.r.25 and introduced into the house of representatives in 1999 and every year since.the book was written by n.boortz and j.linder as a laypersons guide to the tax system.and it has really snowballed from there.in fact a dvd infomercial is being discussed.i would pay to hear you debate n.boortz at length about it.300 hundred pages of tax code versus the 66,000 pages of the current system,i don't know,you tell me.j.linder is a elected rep from ga.

 

[Carlos Murphy]

Sears/Mart

When I was a kid in the 50's early 60's Sears and Robucks was the K-Mart and Wal-Mart of the day but NOTHING they sold was made in a 3'rd world country, EVERYTHING was MADE IN AMERICA damn it!!!
You could even buy a Winchester 30-30 with the SEARS name stamped on it, their now high dollar collectors items.

 

[JoshT]

won't reprint passages from the book here.the concept was devised by a "group of economists"from renowned universities,whom were ushered into a room and told to devise a tax system that was fair and equitible to "all" americans.then a bill was written by a ga representative,h.r.25 and introduced into the house of representatives in 1999 and every year since.the book was written by n.boortz and j.linder as a laypersons guide to the tax system.and it has really snowballed from there.in fact a dvd infomercial is being discussed.i would pay to hear you debate n.boortz at length about it.300 hundred pages of tax code versus the 66,000 pages of the current system,i don't know,you tell me.j.linder is a elected rep from ga.

Skippy I must say you ain't helping ourself by stating that he's from here.

 

[Mutant Pony]

If It were harder to buy things from overseas, There would be more jobs in the U.S. and we would all benefit from that.
My wife insists on shopping at walmart and sometimes she drags me along (kicking and screaming). I walked around the last time I was there looking for where things were made. ALL the boots and ALL the DVD players are all made in China. China isn't just putting the hurts to us, they are also hurting Japan (AWWW).
Ours has:
Regular Walmart stuff
food
Deli
a Beauty salon
pharmacy
eye center
subway
photographer
bank
garden center
Tire/service center

 

[skippy]

josh,something wrong with being from ga?iirc linder didn't write the bill,think that was isackson.wish i could remember the name of the universities that the economists are from,but it hardly seems important to me know.trying to put passages from the book into my own words is not making a convincing argument w/mike,i'm not a eloquent speaker.but i won't reprint the authors work here without permission,it's stealing just as downloading copyrighted recordings.so,if anyone is interested they'll be able to go to the website and see for themselves or read a new york times best sellers book on taxes.any way,i've lived in several states,including california and i'm proud to now call georgia home.

 

[skippy]

wally world is a staple in my household,practically everything here comes from there.i hate being off on grocery day and being drug down there and rarely set foot in there alone.ace hardware,lowes, home depot well thats a different story.it's not just wall mart,look carefully in auto parts stores or lowes home depot,bet you find china on some items.oh,and don't even argue w/the other half about shopping at the beloved wall mart.

 

[projectnitemare]

Jim don't even get me started with Sheetz. They are based in my hometown, Altoona. They are the wal-mart of the local level gas station. Their shining jewel gas station/fast food joint is a regular pain in the nuts. It's full of young punks that harass you while you get gas, damn near run you over when you try to put air in your tire (if the pump ever works). I never go there, same as walmart for the pure fact my ranger will not run on their gas.

Matt

 

[jgrnot]

It seems Walmart really has sort of a monopoly over rural America. It also seems like there are groups out there that oppose Walmart. I always liked Walmart for their 1-stop shopping. Hell, they have a better meat department than my local grocery store.

IMHO, I actually believe Walmart has a monopoly over rurual AND urban America.....almost the rest of the world..........right along with Mr. Bill Gates.

I can't really say any good or bad about the place. I shop there and probably always will. I could shop at Albertsons, Safeway, or Raleys........and spend twice as much. I'm certainly not hurting for money, but I'd rather save as much as possible and use it toys or tools. My Dad won't shop there because he is really into his "union" beliefs and doesn't like how they treat their employees. I'm a union worker as well, but like I mentioned, I'd rather spend $50-100 per week on food than $100-200.

Well, I lied. I do have a bad thing to say about them. I hate Walmart's meat and produce. It's not always too fresh, the fruit usually goes bad pretty quickly.

The other stores can't beat the price on clothes, toys, kitchen stuff, etc. And I really like their $5.50, $7.50, and $8.88 DVD bins!!!

This whole made in America thing........

Half (or more) the parts on our FORD's aren't even made here.

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

my 2

greed is killing this country period.people do not care anymore as long as they can make a buck or 20 and live better than the next guy.

its our own freakin fault.politics and money run this country.

if you wanna save the enviorment your labled as a tree hugging hippie.....
if you wanna kick some of the lazy f#$s of welfare your a war mongor....
theres no right and wrong anymore,walmarts main idea of being a one stop shop for the average guy left when sam walton died.it was what it was .......cheap sh#@ for a cheap price.
sorry if this was somewhat off topic ...........i guess i have a little after christmas bah humbug....

 

[Evan]

You consider a $20,000 annual salary (assuming you can actually get full time) even with benefits to be "paying well?" Where in the Mother Lode can you survive on that? Aside from Mom's basement or in a tent.

I spend 3/4 of that on day care alone.

That IS a good wage for someone like a cashier or stock person (I'm making the assumption he did something like that). You can't just start paying $40,000 a year for that type of position.

It's a good wage because many other employers wouldn't pay that much.


To clear up a couple things I've seen on here:

1. Wal-Mart does NOT have a monopoly over their industry. Pick up an Intro to Econ textbook and take a look at what criteria determine monopoly status.

2. If you buy high-volume, low-priced commodity items from a vendor other than Wal-Mart, chances are they came from China too.

 

[Thumper113]

I gotta say that we buy our groceries at w/m every week. A couple weeks ago, we didn't wanna deal with the w/m christmas crowd just for grocery shopping so we went to safeway & used the safeway club card. We bought the same name brand food items that we buy at w/m. When we got the total at the cashier, I thought, "WTF?". we paid & came home.

We dug up receipts from previous w/m visits & found what we previously paid at w/m for each item that we just bought at Safeway. On this trip to Safeway, and using the club card discounts, we spent $44.21 more at Safeway on one weeks worth of groceries than we would've spent on the EXACT SAME items purchased at w/m. That's $221.05 for 5 weeks worth of groceries that we would just piss away for the exact same food just for sake of not shopping at w/m. That's $2298.92 extra a year I'd be spending if I bought all my groceries at Safeway all the time. The year before, we did that at King Soopers (a Kroger store) & had a similar number.

Sorry if it offends anyone but I'll keep buying my groceries at w/m. King Soopers shut down some grocery stores here in town around when Albertsons did. I'm pretty sure w/m didn't help them keep their doors open but I just can't see pissing away $40+ a week on the same quantity of food. Hell, a $0.62 can of Campbells tomato soup should not cost $1.18 at Safeway. If the big chain grocery stores want me to buy my groceries from them, don't almost double the price on me so that they can pay their union cashiers $21.00/hr. It cracked me up 4 years ago when I saw a Safeway cashier & his family pushing a shopping cart full of groceries toward the checkout at w/m. I guess he likes to save money too when he can.

The things I usually buy at w/m other than food are, Motorcraft oil filiters, Mobil1 oil, some fishing lures, Hanes undergarments, & toiletries. We buy our clothes & shoes elsewhere.

 

[Will]

We're decently well off--six figures.

When we had no kids, we never went to Wal-mart. What a nightmare.

Now, I have 4 kids. I have limited time and even though our tax return would shock most people, it's damn expensive to keep a family of 6 going. There's a 50% difference between Wal-marts food department and the other 2 choices--Kroger/Jay-C's and IGA. In fact, if I shopped in my own county, it would be more like a 75-100% increase.

My own county is Brown County Indiana. Our last school district report put the average family income at only $18,000/year. I spend $2,400 a year on food alone--we buy no prepackaged things and eat ground beef and chicken. I do not know how people that have 1/10 the income we do make ends meet. Without Wal-mart, they couldn't. If Wal-mart actually succeeded in wiping out the competition, they wouldn't. Wal-mart plays the game to a T. They are a hugely successful business. I never heard of them when I left home in 1986. When I came back in 1991, they were the biggest thing in town having wiped out Pamida, Woolworths, Osco and the local grocery store. They were the largest employer in town.

When you bash Wal-mart, who are you bashing? They assembled the best business plan. That's what the American system is based on. Wal-mart gets an A+. You don't grade on a curve and cut Wal-marts wings to force the C- Pamida and IGA to an A.

 

[86SUPERCAB]

You consider a $20,000 annual salary (assuming you can actually get full time) even with benefits to be "paying well?" Where in the Mother Lode can you survive on that? Aside from Mom's basement or in a tent.

I spend 3/4 of that on day care alone.

I didn't work at walmart here in cali, I worked for them when I lived in az and I was a full time employee. I now work for the Jackson Rancheria Hotel and Casino. I am also single with no children.