In regards to Walmart and music, Walmart controlled much of the public's access to music in the more rural areas of the country until digital music buying became more prevalent. But I haven't forgiven them!

And for those who think it all about dollars, maybe you should think about people more, and less about your bullshit Econ 101 class that you keep regurgitating.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really, we don't necesarily want low paying manufacturing jobs. We should prefer to have R&D here.

And yet we won't give visas to all the foreign engineering students who would die to work here and create new things. And our own kids won't go into engineering.

Why do you think that is? Can anyone please explain it to me?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Over the years they have forced US manufacturers to produce their products, like TVs and other electronics, for example, at a low price, which sends the manufacturing jobs overseas where there is cheaper labor. Not sure how much that has lead to the 10% unemployment we have, but clearly manufacturing jobs are rapidly disappearing in this country.

That's not really true. Do you really think we would be buying American-made TV's if Walmart didn't exist? Of course not. Overseas manufacturers are low cost producers, and consumers want to buy their televisions. Walmart does what any company does, which is to get the best deal on the products it buys, so that it can sell at low prices to you and me. Do you really think that if Walmart never existed, that we would still be buying TV's from GE, Westinghouse, and Quasar? I don't think a major manufacturers produced TV's here since GE stopped in the mid-80's, long before Walmart became a powerhouse in electronics. Maybe Zenith, but I think they went offshore at some point. Today they are part of LG.

The fact is that we lose manufacturing jobs because there are people in other countries who will work for lower wages and because consumers will buy their products. Not because a retailer is a meanie.

My dad was a plant manager for Zenith when I was a child. He started working in the Chicago area but the jobs kept moving further and further south. When he left the company, in the early 80's, most of the jobs and moved to Mexico. We lived down on the Texas/Mexican border and he would commute in every day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They like to turn up their noses at Walmart but then they go to Target, which operates pretty much the same way except with commercials that portray it as hip. And they shop at Trader Joe's, which is relentless in cutting supplier costs but looks folksy, even though it has been owned for over 30 years by the founder of the Aldi discount grocery chain.

It's all image. Don't give in to snobbery. These people shop at discount stores. They need the illusion that they are doing something else in order to feel good about themselves.

This is partially true, about the image. Because the image of Walmart that i have is dirty, stuff not where it should be, and an annoying experience. Target is clean, things are easy to find, and it doesn't make me want to kill myself. So I almost always to go Target, except when I need new Geranimals for my son.

I used to HATE wal-mart with a passion, for all of the reasons that have been listed here. But I also know that they are working very hard to change that image people have of them, as a store that kills the little guys and is wrecking the global economy. Maybe they still are, but they at least have better PR about it now.

It seems to me that the standard of living in China and other countries is going way up as a result of our interest in buying foreign-made goods. I am not sure they are wrecking the global economy. Maybe it hurts people in manufacturing here in the U.S., but that makes for more jobs overseas.

Anonymous wrote:I haven't ever entered a Walmart because I read a blog post years ago by a woman who found a $9 crockpot for sale (not on sale) there, and subsequently wondered if her purchases there were in some way taking a little bit of humanity from a person (or several people) in the line of folks who made it possible for her to buy such a cheap item.

That something is cheap is not my first, or only, motivator to buy it. Besides, I try to shop locally, and there's not one in DC (that I'm aware of). Like another poster I can't stand hearing my friends who make $100K+ saying they "hate going there, but I save .50cents on toilet paper."

Of course capitalists love Walmart, they are the shareholders. The employees can't afford to be. And, unfortunately they don't understand how cannibalizing their actions are. The midwestern Etch-a-sketch town lost their jobs to the Chinese when Walmart demanded that they put the toy on the shelves for $9.99 (when they should be $24.99 with inflation) and so shop at (and are employed by) Walmart and, as a result, put the Mr. Potato Head town out of business. There you have a cycle.

I already give a significant amount of tax dollars to Walmart without shopping there. Like the first poster said, I support the employees ER visits, WIC visits, school lunches for their children, etc. I didn't know this, on top of everything else, until I watched this documentary: Walmart: The High cost of Low Price http://www.walmartmovie.com/

This is such flawed logic. In the 1870's, a kilogram of flour cost 2.06 oz of silver. In current dollars, that is $32/kg, or $14.60 per pound. The cost of a Bendix washing machine in 1947 was $249.50. In today's dollars that is $2370.

Do you think that you should be paying those prices? Of course not. Any industry learns to produce goods faster and cheaper and better over time. So when you say the price "should" be $24.99 with inflation, you are effectively saying that it is wrong to get better at producing things.

I just hate Walmart because it's always crowded and I am constantly navigating around children running through the store, not watching where they're going. Also, I've yet see a clean Walmart. I also associate Walmart with the incident where a really obese woman wasn't watching where she was going and she bumped into me with the motorized cart and scraped the backs of my calves! She didn't even acknowlege that she hit me and then she went over to the cereal shelf, stood up and got the box of cereal that she wanted and then sat back down and rolled away. WTF!

Anonymous wrote:You know what is unbelievable? How many people making six-figure salaries who feel they have the God-given right to buy $2 PJs for their kids. You are making a CHOICE to give your business to a company with a long history of stepping all over their employees, and that makes value judgments (by requiring artists to sell censored music) at their stores. You like hosting a Walton sword fight in your mouth? Fine. But don't think you can be a little corporate-loving bitch and not be called out as an asshole. Because I think you are, and evidently, a lot of others here do to.

They don't require artists to sell censored music at their stores. Is it some sort of constitutional right that Walmart has to stock whatever you put on a CD, even if they don't like it? People create cleaned up version of their CDs, because they want to make money from Walmart customers. That's their choice.

So who has the right to reject your CD?

The record company definitely can reject it - even if they have signed you.
The small Indy CD store can reject it. They only carry what they like.
Amazon can reject it.
Barnes and Noble can reject it.
The customer can reject it.
But Walmart, being in some special state, must carry your CD, including any foul, misogynistic or violent lyrics.

I haven't ever entered a Walmart because I read a blog post years ago by a woman who found a $9 crockpot for sale (not on sale) there, and subsequently wondered if her purchases there were in some way taking a little bit of humanity from a person (or several people) in the line of folks who made it possible for her to buy such a cheap item.

That something is cheap is not my first, or only, motivator to buy it. Besides, I try to shop locally, and there's not one in DC (that I'm aware of). Like another poster I can't stand hearing my friends who make $100K+ saying they "hate going there, but I save .50cents on toilet paper."

Of course capitalists love Walmart, they are the shareholders. The employees can't afford to be. And, unfortunately they don't understand how cannibalizing their actions are. The midwestern Etch-a-sketch town lost their jobs to the Chinese when Walmart demanded that they put the toy on the shelves for $9.99 (when they should be $24.99 with inflation) and so shop at (and are employed by) Walmart and, as a result, put the Mr. Potato Head town out of business. There you have a cycle.

I already give a significant amount of tax dollars to Walmart without shopping there. Like the first poster said, I support the employees ER visits, WIC visits, school lunches for their children, etc. I didn't know this, on top of everything else, until I watched this documentary: Walmart: The High cost of Low Price http://www.walmartmovie.com/

Yes, but Shoppers in union. And Walmart (and Target, for that matter) are not. That is why I won't do my major food shopping there. They are going to kill Giant, Safeway, SFW, etc.

Walmart is significantly cheaper than Target and the grocery store most times...it is however not as clean as it should be and the crowd can be sketchy sometimes but I go. Excellent deals. Target doesn't just market itself as "hipper" they are hipper. They have much cooler stuff in terms of home decor but their prices are higher too. It's the same difference between Shopers grocery and Safeway. Shoppers is WAY cheaper but the crowd is different and the store is sometimes not as fancy. No big deal to me. I love Shoppers.

Target also annoys the hell out of me. Everything is always out and it is ALWAYS packed. Uggh!

Anonymous wrote:Walmart is bad because rich white liberals say it is.

I am neither rich nor white and I think Walmart is bad, as do many, MANY of my non-rich, non-white friends.

I hated Walmart too!! until a few weeks ago when we were close by and stop to buy a few things. We ended up buying all our groceries that day and saved almost $50. and their produce looks better than my local grocery store!!!

Anonymous wrote:The entire Walmart experience is depressing. I shopped at Home Depot and Office Depot on Labor Day. I looked across the street and the entire parking lot at Costco was empty. It seems that they gave their employees the "Labor Day Holiday" off from work.

Everything about Walmart is degrading.

'This' times 1000.

And, yes, that's why we have contempt for Walmart shoppers.

The "little guys" were/are just as greedy, just on a smaller scale. And yeah, Trader Joe's pushes suppliers, and Target operates under nearly the same business model as Wal-Mart.

Also, some Wal-Marts can be dirty. I suspect that is more a function of the community and not of Wal-Mart.

Welcome to globalization. We'll just take turns here until the Chinese buy us out or fizzle in a 1989-style Japanese bubble.