WALMART: The HIGH Cost Of low Prices

aaharvel

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8999161366242516685

PhantomOG

holy crap... 1 hr 37 min. cliff notes anyone?

Demiurge

Thanks for reminding me to stop there on the way home.

ND13

Andrew, please tell me you didn't actually sit there and watch all of that.

tommyboy

watch south park, they give a great point of why wal-mart is the way it is now.

I don't shop at wal-mart but the problem isn't them, its us. Wal-mart would not be one of the richest companies if it wasn't for us. If you hate wal-mart, don't shop there.

AsSiMiLaTeD

What's wrong with WalMart?

I buy groceries and motor oil there for about half the price I can buy the exact same stuff elsewhere...

PhantomOG

Polkmaniac wrote:

What's wrong with WalMart?

I buy groceries and motor oil there for about half the price I can buy the exact same stuff elsewhere...

because all the poor saps that work there don't get paid well and have no health insurance, because all the mom-and-pop stores can't compete.

boo-hoo... that's why I went to college and don't plan on trying to make a living selling motor oil and toilet paper.

no offense intended to anyone!

ND13

I have a hard time believing that the FULL-time Wal-Mart employees don't have health insurance available to them.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I worked at a local grocery store and a Wal-Mart while in high school. I made $5.22 at the grocery store and $6.50 at the Wal-Mart - doing the same thing...

If they mom and pop store want to be more successful, maybe they need to be more innovative - offers products and services that Wal-Mart cannot due to it's size...

I used to try to buy from the hometown stores when i could, but have ultimately found that service in the big box stores is often times superior...

PhantomOG

ND13 wrote:

I have a hard time believing that the FULL-time Wal-Mart employees don't have health insurance available to them.

I believe Wal-Mart tries to maximize its part-time to full-time ratio, and thus the complaints. but seriously, have you seen the workforce at your local wal-mart? how hard would it be to work you way through those ranks and get a full-time position?

ND13

PhantomOG wrote:

I but seriously, have you seen the workforce at your local wal-mart?

NO!!!!! I try never to make eye contact with any of them:p

bobman1235

Free market. If they piss enough people off they cease to exist, if not.... T.S. for the haters.

aaharvel

Yes, I did watch in it's entirity. All I can say it's a serious shot of truth-serum to anyone willing to take the time to get educated.

I'd like to add that this video is no way political, NO WAY political, and in no way anti-capitalism or anti-free market. Actually it's very pro-American, and that's why I enjoyed it so much.

F1nut

**** Walmart and all you **** who shop there!

TroyD

I feel dumber every time I leave Wal-mart.

As a side note, I don't feel that Wal-mart is any less evil than Star-bucks who bends over every customer that walks through the door and nails them in the keister so they can profess to be a company that cares about it's workers.

Simple, if you don't like a store, don't shop there.


BDT

DarqueKnight

That's it! I'm finally convinced that WalMart is an evil empire. I'm selling all my Wal-Mart stock immediately. (Well, maybe not immediately...I think my broker is on vacation for three weeks, but as soon as he gets back and can put me on his schedule.... )

Demiurge

DarqueKnight wrote:

That's it! I'm finally convinced that WalMart is an evil empire. I'm selling all my Wal-Mart stock immediately. (Well, maybe not immediately...I think my broker is on vacation for three weeks, but as soon as he gets back and can put me on his schedule.... )

haha!

Strong Bad

F1nut wrote:

**** Walmart and all you **** who shop there!

Will you kiss me first? Will you cuddle afterwards?

F1nut

Only you John. Hell, I'll even give ya a reach around.

aaharvel

DarqueKnight wrote:

That's it! I'm finally convinced that WalMart is an evil empire. I'm selling all my Wal-Mart stock immediately. (Well, maybe not immediately...I think my broker is on vacation for three weeks, but as soon as he gets back and can put me on his schedule.... )

lmao

amulford

We got into this big to do over in CA about Wal Mart. F#ck 'em...

first capital

Go to 1:36:54 of the film and see who sponsered it. They are far from being lilly white but how many of us do not buy goods from third world nations.

Shizelbs

I never, never shop at Walmart. There isn't one close to me.

MacLeod

Walmart is the devil and Ill give you 2 reasons why.

1) Their management is the single largest collection of **** on the planet! Im a distributor and I deliver and work with these gawdawful places. It seems like they live to make your life miserable and abuse you. We have 3 other grocery chains in my area and all 3 are just fine to deal with and are easy to get along with. Not Walmart. They treat vendors and most of their employees like ****.

A couple small examples. Some have a rule of no more than 1 vendor inside the receiving area at a time. So youd have to wait outside for up to 45 minutes. Then when they finally let you in and you start getting together your empty pallets an credits, they come over and yell at you for taking too long! Youre thinking "this is what I wouldve been doing while you had me sitting outside for 45 minutes!!"

The Pepsi merchandiser was told to pull out all his pallets and sweep and mop the floor. He said "get bent" because he is a merchandiser and not a janitor. The store manager called the local Pepsi house and told them the merchandiser was no longer allowed in their store and to get somebody in there that will mop their floors or come pull ALL their Pepsi products out.

I could go on, but you get the drift. They were born **** and just grew bigger!

2) Walmart is famous for wanting to expand or build a Supercenter on land already owned by a little old lady. The little old lady doesnt want to sell so Walmart goes to the local government and tells them, "hey youve got Ethel over here on land she owns paying you $1000 a year in property taxes. You guys condemn that property and give it to us and we'll build a Walmart and stip mall and youll get hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in taxes". Well many more times than not, the local government goes along with it.

Therefore we do not support or shop at Walmart at all!

opus

F1nut wrote:

**** Walmart and all you **** who shop there!

I'll tell my wife and my daughter that you told them to **** off.

danger boy

they want to build a Wal Mart next to my work.. i can't wait. the neighbors are putting up a big **** fight though. So it may never get built. If it does.. it'll completly destroy the Shopko already there.

I don't think Wal Mart is evil. Their prices are pretty good. Starbucks is evil. their prices are high.. luckily i don't drink coffee/espresso/latte's, etc.

MacLeod

I agree that its lame to hate them because they "put other stores out of business". Its the people that no longer shop at the local stores that are doing that.

I just hate them because theyre a bunch of **** AND they have no respect for and are taking a lead in ripping away our private property rights.

shack

F1nut wrote:

**** Walmart and all you **** who shop there!

Not only do I shop at Wal-Mart, I'm a stockholder. Wal-Mart IS capitalism. It is an efficient economic system...much like natural selection...survival of the fittest/strongest. I persoanlly wouldn't want it any other way.

aaharvel

MacLeod wrote:

Walmart is the devil and Ill give you 2 reasons why.

1) Their management is the single largest collection of **** on the planet! Im a distributor and I deliver and work with these gawdawful places. It seems like they live to make your life miserable and abuse you. We have 3 other grocery chains in my area and all 3 are just fine to deal with and are easy to get along with. Not Walmart. They treat vendors and most of their employees like ****.

A couple small examples. Some have a rule of no more than 1 vendor inside the receiving area at a time. So youd have to wait outside for up to 45 minutes. Then when they finally let you in and you start getting together your empty pallets an credits, they come over and yell at you for taking too long! Youre thinking "this is what I wouldve been doing while you had me sitting outside for 45 minutes!!"

The Pepsi merchandiser was told to pull out all his pallets and sweep and mop the floor. He said "get bent" because he is a merchandiser and not a janitor. The store manager called the local Pepsi house and told them the merchandiser was no longer allowed in their store and to get somebody in there that will mop their floors or come pull ALL their Pepsi products out.

I could go on, but you get the drift. They were born **** and just grew bigger!

2) Walmart is famous for wanting to expand or build a Supercenter on land already owned by a little old lady. The little old lady doesnt want to sell so Walmart goes to the local government and tells them, "hey youve got Ethel over here on land she owns paying you $1000 a year in property taxes. You guys condemn that property and give it to us and we'll build a Walmart and stip mall and youll get hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in taxes". Well many more times than not, the local government goes along with it.

Therefore we do not support or shop at Walmart at all!

...and that's just scratching the surface of what that film gets into.

Demiurge

I have a love hate relationship with them. They use muscle in a way that's just unethical in business, but on the other hand they do one hell of a job taking care of the customer and giving them what they want.

I don't hear people bitching about Target, and they're not hurting at all despite WalMart...

aaharvel

Demiurge wrote:

I don't hear people bitching about Target, and they're not hurting at all despite WalMart...

"Target Corporation is consistently ranked as one of the most philanthropic companies in the country. According to a November 2005 Forbes article, it ranked as the highest cash giving company in America in percentage of income given (2.1%). Target donates around five percent of their pre-tax operating profit; it gives over $2 million a week in the communities it operates in.

During disasters, Target Corporation is a major benefactor for relief efforts. Target provided monetary and product donations during the September 11th terrorist attacks on the U.S.; it also donated money for relief efforts for the tsunami in South Asia. Most recently, Target donated $1.5 million (U.S.) to the American Red Cross in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It also allowed its store properties in the affected area to be used as command centers for relief organizations. It also donated supplies such as water and bug spray. Besides these major disasters, Target also regularly lends its support to disasters that are not as well known or only affect a regional area."

Wikipedia- Target

Walmart, a much bigger company, makes a much bigger annual profit than Target, yet gives much less. Not to mention what MacLeod said in bullying others for land. I've never heard of a Target, or even a K-Mart do that.

In the film, it shows that Walmart employees give more to their community and to each other than the company itself. Sad.