Some time ago PBS aired a Frontline on Walmart called “Is Wal-Mart good for America?” I was fascinated by the company’s history, policies and overall POWER. It’s amazing and heartening to me to see how communities in Los Angeles and the Chicago area are (among others, I’m guessing) organizing to block Wal-Mart stores.
I’ve never set foot in one, but it’s not an intentional boycott. Living in a large city, I have plenty of choices and shop at small independently owned stores whenever possible. Sometimes I pay a little more, but this is offset by the relationships I form with the owners and the service I receive.
I have lived in a small town with mom and pop style businesses. The selection at those places sucked. It was nice when some of the big chains finally started putting stores in. There is a line between supporting the local businesses and being taken advantage of by the local businesses. A lot of local businesses I have seen are on the screwing me over side of that line.
I prefer not to give my business to Wal-Mart, and I feel lucky because I don’t have to. The closest Wal-Mart to me is about 15 miles away, while the grocery store is across the street, and the mall, Target and Ross are a 10 minute bus ride away. We have a nice little “downtown” area full of small business stores that seem to do quite well, though the only one I regularly patronize is the art store.
I think it’s perfectly fine to boycott a business for whatever reason (put your money where you mouth is, as it were), or even organize a reasonable protest or group boycott. In fact, I’d probably think less of someone’s complaints about Wal-Mart, or Target or whatever if the person continued to shop there while continually bashing the place.
I’ll go to Wal-Mart occasionally, and sometimes I’ll even hold my nose and shop there.
But every time I do, I hate myself, not even because I hate their business practices-but because their stuff SUCKS. I hate the organization, the layout, the crap they sell. And my own local Wal-Mart seems to attract every Dale Earnart worshipping mullets and mallclaw sporting troglodyte in the tri-state area. shudder
Wal-Mart could cap the salaries of execs at $60k/yr and give every penny of profit to local Chambers of Commerce to disburse to local retailers based on percentage of income in each county and we’d still have these threads.
Wal-Mart is doing the same as Target and K-Mart but we don’t see these on a regular basis.
(There, go ahead and flame me once again for not bashing a company that is doing some good for Americans. I don’t know of a single business in this city that folded because of them.) :rolleyes:
Iwould like to re-iterate this point. My wife is a slave to this stuff. Were it not for the hated Wal*mart, I would be spending an extra $.75 a bottle for diet Dr Pepper.
My apologies that the link didn’t work-it works for me, probably because the cookies are set. From the Fast Company April 2005 issue:
FWIW, I do put my money where my mouth is-I won’t shop there, period. I’d rather support other businesses who offer employees a better wage, don’t have draconian practices, and care more about people than the bottom line. As a small business owner, these are more than idle phrases, they’re core principles.
I’ll not flame you; I think Wal-Mart is a good example of capitalism in action. As per my understanding, their inventory control and automation is way better than what other companies have. They also use volume to leverage against price. They do it better and get rewarded for it.
At the same time, their hiring and scheduling practices (again, as per my understanding of them) are unethical (34 hour workweeks to avoid paying benefits, sexual discrimination suits, “time shifting”, expecting employees to work until a job is done even if it means working off the clock, etc.). Yes, they “do some good for Americans”. So does a company that sells cheap products but dumps toxic waste byproducts of manufacture illegally (taking it extreme just to make my point). The mounting evidence is that Wal-Mart falls on the side of hurting more than helping.
Wal-Mart hate is pretty equal among political bents and usually the same reasons are given. Lots of Fox viewers, Bush voters, supporters of Terry Schiavo’s parents, gun owners, etc. have the same irrational Wal Mart hate expressed by the left.
You know, I work exclusively with small businesses, and I still think threads like this are nothing more than so much jealous bullshit. WalMart gets slammed because they are successful at what they do. When something is number 1 it’s always got a target painted on it’s back. Where I come from success in business is to be admired and emulated, not criticized and condemned. They provide decent quality merchandise at good prices-and as an added bonus they keep the unions out-why shouldn’t I shop there?
Except just looking at raw income figures isn’t very helpful. What matters more to poverty level is the purchasing power. If Walmart moving into town means on average everyone’s income goes down by 10% but the average price of goods goes down 13%, then Walmart has improved the living standards of that community.
No. Because the small amount of money I spend will not make any difference to either punish or reward one retailer or another. I will happily save a dollar on a box of cereal and not worry about any potential evil that the company is up to.
Most people who shop there don’t want to. I despise their corporate politics, and would rather support small places. I try to buy groceries at Whole Foods or Trader Joes, and I try to buy Other Things at non-big-box stores. But the bus stops right in front of Wal-Mart, they’ve got cheap clothes, and while their ramen isn’t as healthy as the stuff I get at Trader Joes, it’s 10 cents/pack, rather than 30.
Thirty cents a pack for Ramen? That’s a little crazy. My local convenience store (attached to the gas station) sells Ramen in six-packs for a dollar. Have you tried looking at one of those places?
Really, it makes no sense at all for economic conservatives to be pro-Walmart. Walmart workers cost American taxpayers millions every year in food stamps, housing assistance, and federal medical care, none of which they would be utilizing if they were paid a decent wage. Every time you shop at Walmart, that’s just redistributing more money to the federal government. But I guess cheapness and irrational union hatred know no bounds.
What do people who support Walmart’s wage scheme and oppose social welfare programs expect Walmart workers to do? The money for these people to live has to come from somewhere. Would you rather pay less at the store, but have more of your taxes go to welfare, or pay more at the store and have fewer people on welfare? I guess the first option affords more opportunity for judgement.