Anti-Walmart

What ever happened to this motto used by Sam Walton? WalMart isn't for us or the USA, as a matter of fact it isn't for you the consumers, producers, or employee's. As of Aug. 13th 2009 Walmart and Sam's Club and subsidieries operates in 9 countries including the US, and 4 territories. Totaling more then 8,000+ stores, 2.1 million employee's and a combination of more then $400 billion in sales. The truth is there is a darkside to Walmart that they try to cover up. As it is well known Walmart is one of the largest sources of outsourcers. Mainly to China and other countries that have lower pay rates. In 2000 Walmart sent over $12 billion dollars to China for products making up for more then 10% of the total amount traded with China. I can only imagine what that number is today.

Why Walmart is bad for suppliers

Any company that provides from WalMart should know that they intend to slash costs by $3 billion a year. What does this mean to you? In order for your company to keep there contract with WalMart they need to cut costs. As a consumer which will affect me less a company that cuts a few employee's or getting less value out of my product? Tell you the truth in the publics mind if it means saving money they would rather get the same product for less. Therefore in order to ensure this happens your company will more then likely lay off people to keep that nice contract WalMart offers. Another option which takes place quite often is WalMart will look elsewhere i.e. oversea's to save those few pennies.

Why WalMart is bad for the Consumer

You will notice WalMart has a good neighbor policy. Truth is how many of those product that are in a WalMart were actually made in your area? Broaden the idea perhaps state? Nation? Truth being in your area if your lucky maybe a few items it depends obviously on your location. WalMart carries probably about 100,000 different products. That is going on the light side I believe. With the majority of them coming from various other countries. Just think everytime you buy from WalMart it isn't helping your local economy it's being sent away. As the world fights sweat shops why do we support the biggest provider of sweat products? On average a product that sells for about 15 dollars on a WalMart shelf only cost $0.18 cents to make. Please I urge you take a look at these reports http://www.nlcnet.org/searchresults.php?companyid=4 do you want to support a company that expects this to save money? Women and Children are beaten and starved all over less then a quarter an hour? These articles are not fabricated they are the truth. It is up to us the consumers to bring back American jobs. Shop local, buy local know where your money is going. Look on the back of the next product you buy notice where it is made. Show that you support American owned and American made products.

You the Employee

WalMart has no respect for you either. As stated before WalMart looks out for WalMart and you fit in to serve that purpose. From 1999 to 2005 Walmart had over 44 class action lawsuits in 31 states involving hundreds of thousands of employee current and former who had there wages and hours abused. In two well noted instances Walmart was found to have actually deleted or wrongly adjusted time cards. Here are two confirmed reports of this : http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/01/20/walmart20.DTL&type=printable

and http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2008/07/wal-mart-loses.html

These are just some examples of WalMart doing what it can to save a buck. If this corporate giant really supported you the employee don't you think it should offer more then an average pay of 8.23 or $13,861 a year? ( http://www.walmartmovie.com/facts.php ) This is a so called fortune 500 company in an industry where there is about a $2 an hour pay difference. ( http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Country=United_States/Hourly_Rate/by_Employer ) Does Walmart really care for you or do you just serve a purpose for there agenda? Make a stand demand competitive industry pay. My personal experience http://hubpages.com/hub/DontWorkWalmart

And Finally why WalMart is bad for the community

As of March 2005 WalMart had about 27.7 million square feet of store's sitting empty. For a better idea imagine the size of a football field now multiply that by 500 and your still not there. http://www.sprawl-busters.com/search.php?readstory=1757 To make matter's worse Walmart included a clause in there Non-Binding Letter of Intent, which says under Section 19, Restrictions: "The demised premises cannot be used for a discount store, wholesale club or drug store/pharmacy." Doesn't this put a damper on competition, in order to compete a new company has to come in and destory more of your precious land to build. Also take for example the fact that Bill Gates the worlds wealthiest man has donated over half of his wealth back to charities and research while the Walton family combined has donated less then 1% of there wealth. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_48/b3910402.htm You might say well WalMart the store itself has donated to my local community and yes while its true, this is a cover up. Most area's where donations take place are area's that are actually against a WalMart coming in so to bolster there appearance in the area they offer more to the community to ensure they weasel in. Walmart averages around $47,000 a year in donations, however a store costs communities ten times this amount in various forms of government asistance. In a report in 2004 it was found out that $1,008,000,000.00 in government assistance and writeoffs were given to 91 stores. That much to only 91 stores? http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/wmtstudy.pdf The Walmart employee's themselves have the right idea they donated over $5 million dollars for an emergency fund to help other employee's in case of a disaster such as fire, tornado or flood. How much did the Walton family donate to this fund? $6,000 instead that same year the Walton family spent 3.2 million in political contributions.

And Finally another reason why Walmart is bad take a look at this that just happened this past week in order to develop a new Wally World. http://walmartwatch.com/battlemart/archives/marion_nc_wal_mart_displaces_40_families_from_mobile_home_park/ 40 families in a mobile homes park are going to be displaced just to make way. I've personally been to Marion, NC it has a population of about 5,200 people and already has 4 locations within a 25 mile radius. One being in the city of Marion itself. To make things even more terrible the City Manager tells local news that the sale will take place. The city is so positive to displace 40 families they have raised 1 million dollars to help close the deal and pay for the extension of water and sewage to the new location. http://www.marionnc.org/Projects.htm

Again I ask you IS WALMART FOR US?

-Thomas M.

Aug. 13th 2009