Commercialism

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   Beth37posted 12 years ago

   In my town there was a lone Food Lion. The town was small and not very developed at all. A growth spurt hit the town and it took off. Kroger built a new store near the new and budding subdivisions leaving the Food Lion to wallow in its mediocrity. However, as the town started booming Publix built across the street and gave Kroger a run for its money to say the least. But you can't keep a good man down... Kroger built a marketplace store, offering the public lower prices, upscale shopping and a huge variety. After all, who doesn't need a new sofa with their milk purchase? But the mother of all usurpers saw an opportunity and is building their Walmart right up the street. When you look at their record though, you see sweat shops and websites proclaiming that Walmart's lack of concern for their employees welfare has cost the American ppl billions of dollars. Who is greater than Queen Walmart though? Is there a King that can rival those kinds of business scruples?
   Working for a grocery store, I can tell you ppl are becoming incredibly spoiled. We want the best, we want it the cheapest and we want it now. I often wonder if ppl have left our town let alone our country or been to a third world country. Do you think this is good competitive business or do we as a nation lack maturity and wisdom? Just curious, what do you think?

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You've said it all - it's not so much lack of business scruples as it is filling a market niche that people want.  You don't give the lowest prices around by raising labor costs to even what others pay let alone above the going rate.
      
      Rather sad that we'd rather save $10 a week than see that the people working the store earn a reasonable wage, but that's the way we are.

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         Beth37posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         And the sweat shops etc. How do you feel about this business choice? Im sure most stores purchase their products from nations who can provide the cheapest labor/materials possible. I'm not a tree hugger, not that there's anything wrong with that, but I suppose that particular subject hits close to home with my daughter being adopted from China. She is 10 now, that is the age she would have left the orphanage to work in one of these shops... so that we Americans can have cheap crap cheaper. It kills me.

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            wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I shop WalMart, and all the other cheap places as well.  I must support the low wage costs, then.
            
            Easy to stand back and condemn but when we "vote" with our wallet (and I'm no different) for low prices it says more than any words can.

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               Beth37posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               You're right.

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                  Barbara Kayposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I buy very little at Walmart anymore. It is because everything I buy there falls apart. I'm not kidding. Returning 3 things in about that many months, I had enough.

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                     Beth37posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     There's gotta be a better way to save a buck.

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         Gcrhoads64posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         ++

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   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   Food prices are skyrocketing where I live. Getting to be a real problem.

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   Healthy Pursuitsposted 12 years ago

   We can say that people are getting what they deserve, but let's not forget that there are a lot of people in America who can't afford to ignore Walmart prices. Since the recession, the economy hasn't bounced back to what it was, and too many jobs that have appeared are lower paying than they were before the banks and Wall Street traders had such fun screwing America.
   
   I don't buy at Walmart except for one item, a prescription. I have to get that there because of the price. But I won't buy at a place like that, no matter what else happens. They hire a lot of single mothers, who are then paid such a low wage that they need to use food stamps and other gov assistance. They also make those women work holidays and weekends when they know that there are children at home with only one parent to raise them.
   
   Walmart went into my hometown several years ago (that's in Nebraska - I live in Oregon now) and made a ton of promises. They hired a lot of people, made promises to all of them, got the store set up, then let 80 people go. They had the prices so low the small local groceries couldn't compete. They were driven out of business. Then Walmart raised their prices to what they normally charge.
   
   Walmart has since expanded their store to drive the small local hardware and clothing stores out of business. My town was suffering, and the people needed the low prices. But they didn't think about what was quietly happening when they shopped at Walmart to make ends meet. This scenario is being repeated all over America in small towns. The economy was so bad that people shopped there because they needed every break they could get. My hometown now shops at Walmart, because it's the only game in town.
   
   I was reading about a plot of land that was secretly sold to Walmart for a store without the local people knowing about it until it was too late to stop it.  As Walmart's tactics are becoming known, they know they are unpopular. So do they change? No. They become sneakier about coming into small towns.
   
   In the meantime, the Waltons are living like the billionaires they are, with no conscience about the single mothers they hire for slave wages or the small towns they ruin with shady business practices.

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Just one thing; if WalMart is as unpopular as you say they will quickly go out of business as no one will buy from them.  WalMart is actually one of the most popular stores around as is clearly shown by their customer base. 
      
      True, they are very unpopular with their competition, but it isn't their competition that matters.  It's the people buying there that makes the difference.
      
      It's easy to blame the Waltons, or the high paid executives, for the plight of the average worker, but if you took all that income and distributed amongst all the employees it would make only a very minimal difference.  There are just too many employees.

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      Gcrhoads64posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Don't forget the huge tax breaks that Walmart also receives for hiring those on assistance. Walmart asks if you are receiving welfare before they hire you. Then the taxpayers subsidize that worker's wages with tax breaks for Walmart.

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         Beth37posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         There are tons of articles about this, this is just the first one I saw.
         http://www.ilsr.org/new-study-finds-wal … taxpayers/
         
         And my point is not even that Im anti Walmart, (though I sorta am.) It's that we Americans seem to fold like a house of cards when it comes to saving a buck. As I shared on another thread, my family was on assistance, a place we could have never imagined being, but when my husband lost his job due to the economy a few years back, we scrambled. I don't like it when ppl waste money either. Ppl who shop at stores b/c they are more prestigious or b/c they carry your groceries out and draw your bath water are pointless. I just think there must be something we should be doing differently.... but what?

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