# Wal-Mart haters, what have you done lately? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 27, 2005, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446 "2005-03-27T07:48:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/41 "2005-03-28T01:48:02Z")
> [@This Year's Model](#): > > And here I was, cutting you a break over your preference for that nasty pepper sauce because I was picturing you slaving over a cutting board of jalapenos. You were skiing. Well! It only took a couple of minutes after skiing to stir up the sauce (I was lucky to have the ingredients already), warm up some shredded sliced beef, and toast some buns. Then it was into the big old lion’s foot tub for a hoat soak and fine sandwichs. The SDMB posters really came through for me this morning with the recipe link. ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/42 "2005-03-28T02:25:08Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > What if we get ninjas to burn them for us? Could we then have plausible deniability? 🙂 \ **Gabe** , I like your style. We should band together and form our own clan of ninjas. That would be sooooo sweet, I’d probably crap my pants. \ **duffer** - you ask what I do to oppose the evil empire. Well, I actively boycott Wal-Mart and actively encourage my friends and acquantainces to do the same. I actively support groups and sign petitions that seek to limit the ability of the big-boxes (any of them) to expand into areas in the vicinity - Sun Prairie being the big uproar in these parts (Madison, WI region) currently. I educated myself on which candidates were opposed to big-box encroachment at the local, city, county and state level. I specifically informed my alderman as to my thoughts on the issue, and considered the candidates’ stand on this issue as a strong factor on my decisions in the voting booth. I have emailed state officials, including those in the State House and Congress. I have written physical letters to the Mayor. I actively encourage and support small and locally owned businesses. I avoid big-box stores and the entire area around them (restaurants, bars, banks & ATMs in those areas) so as not to contribute to the financial well-being of those areas. If enough people avoid them, it could eventually have an impact. I realize it really won’t, but I won’t contribute in any way unless it’s absolutely necessary. I pick up trash habitually in public. But not around those stores or their parking lots. I figure the eyesore factor might eventually convince some people to raise a stink or vote with their pocketbook. At least, maybe the store will have to hire an extra body to clean it up if the outcry get loud enough. And that cuts into the bottom line a tiny bit. And that’s all I can hope to do as an individual - take active steps to ensure that no action of mine will ever contribute to the well-being of that company. That’s what I’ve done to oppose Wal-Mart. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/43 "2005-03-28T03:06:50Z")
> [@TwistofFate](#): > > what’s the point of this thread, Duffer? The point of the thread was to see what people are doing to try to stem the growth of the company into their communities. And a few have done something about it. I’ve seen some that have signed and passed out petitions, some have spoken to city council members, etc. That’s the point of the thread. I apologize for any snarkiness. It really was supposed to be little more than a poll, but given the topic it would likely end up here anyway. And I don’t remember mentioning anything about burning down buildings. Don’t attribute that to me. **Soul Brother Number Two** , I’ve been around guns my whole life and I’m very familiar with gun safety. Wish death on me in another way, the gun ain’t gonna happen. Little turd. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/44 "2005-03-28T03:26:35Z")
**Duffer** , a question, and an honest answer would be appreciated: Are you pro-Wal-Mart, are are you just anti-anti Wal-mart? I ask this because, to me at least, many (if not most) of your posts seem to be motivated by a desire for character assasination. It’s not that you’re particularly \* for\* something, but that you just hate people who are _against_ something. It’s pretty immature, but I understand. To this day I can’t stand Bob Dylan. Not because I have anything against his music, but just because all of the people I have met who considered him such a genius have struck me as panty-waisted poseurs. So I gotta ask: What is it about Wal-Mart that makes you feel that you have to rise to their defense? ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/45 "2005-03-28T03:34:26Z")
Character assassination? If it looks like that, I worded it wrong. If people hate WM and refuse to shop there, more power to them. I’m just trying to keep them honest about it. For example, one biggie bandied about is: “Wal-Mart locks thier employees in the stores overnight.” Well, no. WM doesn’t do that. The owner of that store and/or the managers did that one. Yet, instead of flaming the people that did it, the corporation as a whole is blamed. If the company routinely did this, I would have heard about it long before reading a link on these boards. It’s not so much that I’m defending the company, nor am I attacking anyone that hates the company. I’m trying to see beyond the hysteria and figure what the core reason is for hating this one company above all others. Call it Devil’s Advocate, if you will. That’s the closest I can come to describing my take on these threads. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/46 "2005-03-28T03:48:52Z")
I see so the accusations haven’t passed the duffer test? I mean of course if \* you \* haven’t heard about it then it must not be wide spread. Perhaps you ought to do a wee bit of research before you start defending something or at least try to be less vigorous about it. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/47 "2005-03-28T03:54:46Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > It’s not so much that I’m defending the company, nor am I attacking anyone that hates the company. I’m trying to see beyond the hysteria and figure what the core reason is for hating this one company above all others. Call it Devil’s Advocate, if you will. That’s the closest I can come to describing my take on these threads. Oh. Ok…Playing Devil’s advocate is good and all, but personally, I’d much rather deal with my neighbors and put my money in their pockets and keep things local. I see Wal-Mart as part of the Great American “Race to the Bottom,” and I fault most people for confusing price with cost; to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, Americans (especially my daughters) “know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.” ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/48 "2005-03-28T03:59:51Z")
> [@treis](#): > > I see so the accusations haven’t passed the duffer test? I mean of course if \* you \* haven’t heard about it then it must not be wide spread. Perhaps you ought to do a wee bit of research before you start defending something or at least try to be less vigorous about it. You silly little person. I haven’t seen anything in Newsweek, on CNN, in the papers or anywhere else in the mainstream media that reports rampant cases of, say, workers being locked in overnight. Oh, I suppose if I had a hard-on for a certain company I could scour the internet and find some cases to cite. But that wouldn’t pass the duffer Test[sup]TM[/sup] either. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/49 "2005-03-28T04:05:25Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > Oh. Ok…Playing Devil’s advocate is good and all, but personally, I’d much rather deal with my neighbors and put my money in their pockets and keep things local. I see Wal-Mart as part of the Great American “Race to the Bottom,” and I fault most people for confusing price with cost; to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, Americans (especially my daughters) “know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.” I really can’t argue with anything you’ve said, **bizzwire**. Nor do I wish to. You see, what you’ve done is in a rational way expressed why you don’t like the company. No hyperbole, no histrionics, just your opinion on the company. That’s all I’m looking for in every other thread. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/50 "2005-03-28T04:06:07Z")
:smack: The NY times ran a fairly long (front page IIRC) article about workers being locked in at WalMarts about a year ago you dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/51 "2005-03-28T04:07:27Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > I really can’t argue with anything you’ve said, **bizzwire**. Nor do I wish to. You see, what you’ve done is in a rational way expressed why you don’t like the company. No hyperbole, no histrionics, just your opinion on the company. That’s all I’m looking for in every other thread. Sorry…I didn’t mean to go all rational on your ass… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/52 "2005-03-28T04:12:01Z")
> [@even sven](#): > > I keep waiting for them to try to build a WalMart in Santa Cruz so I can see the fireworks. So far no luck. > > Anyway, I make it a point to patronize local businesses. I can think of three times I’ve visited chains (mostly fast food) in the last month. It is _abolutely_ the business of a city council to look at large developments and stop them if they will have an adverse affect on the city as a whole. Santa Cruz is, I think, #7 on Men’s Journal 50 best places to live- in part because of it’s unique and wonderful local businesses, amazing selection of non-chain restaurants (I can walk to about twelve taquerias), pedestrian and bicycle friendlyness, and our festive public pedestrian mall. How does your city measure up? > > Do you think we’d really have the same quality of life if we plunked an Olive Garden and Chevy’s downtown and replaced Pacific Avenue with a huge windowless private mall and a sea of parking lots? I have the same general attitude. I like to patronize local businesses and avoid the chains. But most people like the chains, and if an Olive Garden was plopped down in SC, it would go out of business unless people ate there. No one forces people to eat at Olive Garden instead of Dos Companeros Taqueria. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/53 "2005-03-28T05:28:14Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > You silly little person. I haven’t seen anything in Newsweek, on CNN, in the papers or anywhere else in the mainstream media that reports rampant cases of, say, workers being locked in overnight. I don’t have a subscription to the New York Times, but I believe [this](http://www.mindfully.org/Industry/2004/Wal-Mart-Workers-Lock-Ins18jan04.htm) is the article in question. > [@](#): > > Mona Williams, Wal-Mart’s vice president for communications, said the company used lock-ins to protect stores and employees in high-crime areas. She said Wal-Mart locked in workers — the company calls them associates — at 10 percent of its stores, a percentage that has declined as Wal-Mart has opened more 24-hour stores. > > Ms. Williams said Wal-Mart, with 1.2 million employees in its 3,500 stores nationwide, had recently altered its policy to ensure that every overnight shift at every store has a night manager with a key to let workers out in emergencies. So, from this we learn that about 350 stores did this, that the practice was indeed corporate policy as opposed to store policy, and that until recently, there wasn’t even necessarily someone on duty to open the door in case of emergencies. While there are emergency fire exits (note: even they used to be chained up at night, but a person dying inside a store got that changed), employees claim that they are told that opening those can result in reprimands or firings. ---
**Author:** ![UnwrittenNocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6de8d8/32.png) [@UnwrittenNocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwrittenNocturne)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/54 "2005-03-28T06:49:39Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > This is the last time I’ll try to clarify. Read the thread title. If you hate Wal-Mart, I want to know what you’re done about the company. These stores aren’t just built because someone feels like laying some concrete. There are government agencies that have to give approval. > > In the bigger sense, being such an evil company, your congresspeople have oversight of the company. What have you done, i.e., which Representatives and Senators have you raised your concerns to? > > Violence? Where did I mention that? > > Grasp all the straws you want. When you finish, come back and let me know what you’ve tried to do to stop the Great Satan. > > Don’t worry, I don’t expect anything to come of it. Though there’s a high percentage of Dopers railing against them, it’s still a small percentage of the populave overall. > > I just hope that some of the more ardent Dopers, and especially those slamming me for defending them, have the conviction to at least pay lip service to it. But bitching on a board is so much easier than taking a stand. You could, of course, read what I actually posted. Your comprehension skills may be below average, but I used small words just for you! ---
**Author:** ![UnwrittenNocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6de8d8/32.png) [@UnwrittenNocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwrittenNocturne)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/55 "2005-03-28T06:58:20Z")
Furthermore. What do I do, personally? Boycotting. Talking to others about doing the same. Encourage unionisation. If all their stores got burned down by ninjas I would not be upset. Not that I am advocating that approach. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/56 "2005-03-28T18:52:53Z")
I have been sitting here for a while now, wanting to post to this thread because there are several issue in it that I think are worth talking about, but hesitant because I fear that I will have some trouble doing so in a way that is productive. With that disclaimer in mind, please bear with me and be patient. First, **duffer** , I have a sincere and heratfelt request for you. Can you please stop mocking and baiting the Liberals? I know that you are protesting to the contrary, but this thread and many of your post seem to do just that. I would like to suggest that the folks that you have mocked for calling things eeeevvvviiiilllll (your words) not only have genuine concern for the state of the world, not only want things to be better for everyone but have arived at their opinions through observation and an intelegent reaction to what they encounter every day. And I will be the first to admit that this advice could just as easily be tendered to the Left side of the aisle. If memory serves, I have offered such advice from time to time though perhaps I could do it more often. Remember back during the election when there was a popular sentiment floating around that the Left could be more effective if only we would not be so srtident and we were more respectful and less supirior and smug in our sense of intelectual supiriority? Well, I am here to tell you that the shoe is now on the other foot. See, I am clasically Liberal. Meaning that I was raised as such, and a lot of the concerns that are Liberal are concerns that I share. Having said that, I am (I think) also a pretty open minded and anyalitical guy. I truly believe that Conservatives share with me a concern for the state of the world and also want things to be better. I also believe that they have arrived at their opioins (just as the Liberals have) by way of an intelegent reaction to the world that they are moving through. My point is this: I think that Conservatives may have something important to say to me and to other people like me that could lead to a further refinement of my personal politics and enrich me. But, I am having trouble hearing what you have to say because it feels as if you are mocking and deriding the things that are important to me. What it comes down to, as far as I am concerned, is a question of motive. Do we, on either side of the aisle, want to be loyal opposition to each other, debate and through this find an equilibrium that works, or do we just want to be 100% right, party loyal and to grind the opposition to dust no matter the cost? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/57 "2005-03-28T20:15:32Z")
> [@UnwrittenNocturne](#): > > You may or may not have noticed that we are, for the most part, essentially powerless against the likes of this company. Short of boycotting what do you suggest? Violence? If you honestly think that elected officials, in general, will go to bat for you against a major corporate then you know bugger all about the political process (which is apparent from your posts anyway). I don’t know about that. I mean, in 1972 Sears had an equivalent amount of power (over 2% of the nations GDP went through Sears’ coffers, which is the same percentage as Wal-Mart today). Today Sears is no more: after having been bought out by KMart (a company just 2 years ago in bankruptcy protection), its 100+ year “S” symbol on the NYSE is being removed even as I type this. In the 20’s and 30’s, the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company opened over 15,000 stores across the US, a grocery behemoth never seen before in the history of commerce, smaller grocers being crushed in their overwhelming push towards total market control. As for me, it’s been over 2 decades since I shopped at A&P, and over a decade since I’ve actually seen one open - their very own website lists a mere 120 stores, all in NY or NJ. ATT once had a government mandated monopoly over the entire countries phone service, now, akin to Sears, its ubiquitous “T” will soon be no more, the company slowly dying since 1982, selling itself off to competitors and its own spinoffs. This is the company that invented the transistor, laser, cell phones, and discovered the Big Bang. Dead. Gone. History (at least within the year, after the buyouts are approved). The point of this is that you are not powerless. You might not think that your single decision to not shop at a place that had a quarter-trillion in sales last year doesn’t mean a damn thing, but it, and the growing number of people who are refusing to shop at WM, does matter. In fact, it matters _a lot_. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/58 "2005-03-28T20:31:11Z")
And both of them pale in comparison to the East India Company. It was around for 300+ years and had its own army. Don’t worry too much about the power of corporations. Time has shown that they are slowly getting weaker, and their longevity is shrinking. WalMart will burn itself out sooner rather than later. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/59 "2005-03-28T21:59:39Z")
Yes, but that’s scant comfort if they take us with them… ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446/60 "2005-03-28T22:09:00Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Well, you’ve missed the point of the OP. (Don’t worry, many will) Maybe it ain’t such a good OP then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wal-mart-haters-what-have-you-done-lately/296446.md?page=4)