This is a very good article. Even if you do not subscribe to some of the ideology it none-the-less paints a good picture of the situation. Let the Wal-Mart discussions ensue.
Wal-Mart knows its customers, and it knows how badly they need the discounts. Like Wal-Mart's workers, its customers are overwhelmingly female, and struggling to make ends meet.
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An enjoyable article on the other side of this argument from The Ludwig von Mises Institute.(This organization describes themselves as "the research and educational center of classical liberalism, libertarian political theory, and the Austrian School of economics."
"...
If the truth be told, Wal-Mart improves the lives of people in rural areas because it gives them access to a lifestyle that they otherwise would not have—a gigantic store showcasing the world's greatest choice of products from groceries to music to automotive products. When it comes to prices and service, try finding 70% off clearances at your local mom-and-pop store or try going to that same store and returning shoes you've worn for three months for a full-price refund with no questions asked."
Matt, did you read the article I posted?
Then why would you give "the other side" that says the same thing?
I don't see how you could say these articles say the same thing! Your article describes Walmart as a "grave threat to America" (last page). The article I posted portrays Walmart as providing value to consumers and attempts to show that many of the arguments against "evil" Walmart don't hold water.
Walmart basically engages in product arbitrage, trading on the gap that exists between the disparate lives of different people.
They take what is cheap there and sell it here.
Eventually, its going to level out.
It's working already: the dollar is worth shit, the income of people is dropping so we're all gonna be Mexicans, and just in case we choose to not take that path, well, the importation of Mexicans and the Spanish language will do the rest.
Remember "True Romance"?
"You're Sicilian, right?"...
However, that's just shopping. Literature, arts, sciences, culture... Unless shopping actually displaces everything else, we're OK.
" I don't see how you could say these articles say the same thing!"
The two articles do appraoch Wal-Mart from two different veiw points. That does not mean they have nothing in common. I'm sure you can figure out what that is. I'd call it the subtext even.
A yes, the famous "Ludwig von Mises Institute" that everyone talks about.
The sad part is the level of argument which degrades into hyperbole with the second paragraph.
"Kathie Lee Gifford was almost run out of the country for indirectly giving jobs to otherwise unemployable, Third World workers."
Really, almost run out of the country?
The article then goes on to talk about free markets as if they were real.
The article then says that those in the countryside would suffer without Wal-Marts. Otherwise they'd have to buy everything from a mom-and-pop for much more. That is a fair critique, but does not apply to you Matt since you live in a well developed suburban area with plenty of shopping choices.
The article then ends with a bandwagon fallacy of "Wal-Mart must be good because everyone shops there."
Some of the most stinging criticisms of Wal-Mart from the article I posted are not even addressed by this article. Like Wal-Mart's reliance on welfare, their conversion of low paid workers into super low paid workers (and thus Wal-Mart shoppers), etc.
This may not be your sharks tooth to pull Matt, that's fine. Not every fight is your fight. I still buy gasoline at Exxon and Shell despite all the boycotts. But don't cover up your guilt with justifications. How about just saying "that's not my fight."
I think you must be thinking of someone else. The only guilt I ever feel at Walmart is when I take advantage of their liberal return policy and get my money back for something after having used it for a while. Why would I feel guilty about shopping there? Walmart provides me with convenient access to low priced, high quality merchandise that comes with a no-hassle guarantee of satifisfaction.
If I had a very low income, you would think it OK for me to shop there, wouldn't you? It's OK for "poor" people to shop at Walmart, but not people with higher incomes. So all anti-Walmart activity is really just more economic prejudice and racism disguised as morality and virtue. It seems that the real reason you don't like Walmart is because you don't want all those creepy poor people in your rich town. Don't worry, Boulder won't be allowing a Walmart to move in anytime soon.
I think that any company, including Walmart, should be punished for illegal activity, but you've lost your mind if you want to go shut them down to "protect" people from working there. Let them quit if it's that bad. Maybe we should we halt e-commerce because all this internet buying/selling you've been doing is hurting the local computer and book stores?
Your overstatements, justifications, and accusatory reactive language tell me you feel guilty. Am I wrong?
If you were right Ken, I would agree with you, but your brevity and feeble attempts to provoke me indicate that you can see that I am right. Am I right?
Humm. Brevity as sign of "being wrong". That's a good one. You're right Matt. I don't know what I was thinking.
Walmart is an interesting phenomena. To the extend that it is bad, and there certainly are some bad points to it, it will adapt or die.
All this is happening in a short time. What's all the rush? In a hundred years or so, well, we'll see what happens.
Meantime, other merchants are adjusting. And after shopping in kafka-land (where the prices are good and all the extra's from "Cocoon" seem to have found work), Mom and Pop stores are incredibly delightful! Shopping at the Dollar Store is also cool. And from a retailer point of view, the LAST thing I want to do is carry an inventory of tons and tons of cheap shit that I have to charge way too much for. But the cheap shit at Walmarts, by all means! But if you have a choice, live in a place where you can walk to the store, to the library, to the hardware store, book store, farmers market.
Again, Walmart is in an arbitrage bubble, much like the great dislocation in sea life when the Panama Canal was dug and the Atlantic and Pacific were joined and the little fishies had a shit pot of adjusting to do.
On the other hand, you know that if Walmart could get some cheap lampshades or leather goods made from ex chinese prisoners, they wouldn't bat an eye and most shoppers would be happy with the bargain. But you do have to watch out for cheap chinese zippers: they really to jam up a lot.
A real case in point: certain incredibly rare turtles, some actually unknown, are being discovered, in China, at the food markets.
Walmarts: lets see, global warming, war in Iraq, and 1.3 billion Chinese are getting cars. Then there's the good part: there'll be no queers getting married in this country, not if George (the risen Christ)Bush has anything to say about it.
Moderation in all things, including moderation.
I know you're disappointed that I'm not writing more, but, another time :-)
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