My husband told me, this evening, that Drudge had a Wal-Mart article linked on his page, but when I went there, the page had changed, and going to the “Recent Drudge Headlines” we couldn’t easily find the link. He recalled it was from the Chicago Sun-Times, so going there we seached “Wal-Mart” and another article came up, it was from May 2, and I have that one below as what I wanted to comment about. Since then though I found the one my husband was referring to, it’s link is truncated on Drudge’s archive page so that one wouldn’t find it by looking for “Wal-Mart” … here that link is: Protesters bash Wal-Mart’s attempt to open 2 stores in city. It’s also from May 2, though Drudge just had it on his front page for a short time this evening, May 5, 2004 (Feliz Cinco de Mayo!).
Drudge hasn’t linked to this article below, a very newsworthy article, matching with the one he DID link.
www.suntimes.com/output/news/walmart05.html
City Council defers decision on two Wal-Marts
May 5, 2004
BY HERBERT G. McCANN ASSOCIATED PRESS
Quote:
The Bentonville, Ark.-based discount chain has run into fierce opposition from community leaders and politicians who fear Wal-Mart pays substandard salaries and will hurt established businesses.
My Comments:
I am one who does NOT shop at Wal-Mart, and that is on purpose. Wal-Mart sells substandard items, imports more goods from China than other retail establishments, after being a Made in the USA! kind of place not “so long ago” though I wasn’t a fan of them then either. Wal-Mart is a cheapy place and any that I’ve been in have been messy. Yes, I’ve been in them. Not as a purchaser, just as a tag-along with others. Just a few times, that’s enough. Word of mouth from friends and aquaintances supports my experience as true to most Wal-Mart stores around.
So do they pay substandard wages and benefits? I’ve read plenty of articles on this kind of thing, and suppose that this might be true. I mean, it’s not exactly a great place to work, IMO, if one wants to work and get ahead. Other than that, what about hurting other established businesses in the areas they go into? That’s documented all over the place. In my own neck of the woods K-Mart had to leave. Why? Wal-Mart is around, so it has to have SOMETHING to do with it IMO. There was a slummy Wal-Mart in the town near us. It closed when they opened a Brand New SUPER WAL-MART a few miles outside of the towns limits. It’s an atrocity to the landscape, it’s an eyesore traveling that nice, or rather used-to-be-nice, country road that leads to town. The town isn’t huge. It’s not tiny either. It has merchants inside it’s city limits. But it’s not exactly a thriving merchant place. As I said before, K-Mart closed it’s doors, last year it was. There are grocery stores, I have no idea how well they do. We support the nicer one closest to us, but not for everything. We find that ALL stores are import crazy, to the nth degree of ridiculousness. We want local stuff, and natural stuff (not necessarily “organic” mind you, now that the government has co’opted that terminology and regulated it to nearly no meaning). In order to get good food, stores need to import from some other region usually, but other states, across the continent for lots of things? I’m even just talking produce and meat and dairy, ok?
Anyhow, Wal-Mart is really into importing. They bring a huge store into a small area, and the wares inside are not from the region they are being sold in. How is it that helpful to the economy of any North American town? Aren’t things produced in those areas? Sure. And sold where? Who knows! Surely not there though! This is all messed up. It’s not all Wal-Mart’s fault, but they are much to blame for much of the price and product mess ups today.
See FastComany.com‘s article from December 2003 for some disturbing data:
www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html
Quote:
John Bisio, a Wal-Mart community affairs executive, said the City Council’s action was not a defeat.
“It is an opportunity for Wal-Mart to continue to tell our story, that we do provide good salaries and benefits,” he said. “That we are creating jobs with these projects.”
My Comments:
Not being privy to everything this man said, it’s interesting to note that in THIS article states nothing about the impact Wal-Mart has or doesn’t have on established businesses.
Quote:
The stores would be Wal-Mart’s first in Chicago. Wal-Mart officials said they have been looking at the city for a while, searching for space that would accommodate a store’s size. It is part of the retailer’s continuing strategy to penetrate urban markets. For decades, Wal-Mart has concentrated on suburban and rural communities that company officials deemed underserved.
If approved by city officials, the move would leave Detroit and the five boroughs that comprise New York City as the only top-10 urban markets without a Wal-Mart store.
My Comments:
For decades Wal-Mart has had no clue what the PEOPLE want. People may SHOP in their stores, but PEOPLE deep down inside want QUALITY, FAIR PRICE, FAIR WAGES for work performed, and products MADE LOCALLY, or REGIONALLY CLOSE, as well as QUALITY imports of items produced in other regions further away, as in what is a normal regional crafted item, not out-sourced production as is being done in China and Mexico and myriads of other third-world countries. (Companies used to produce here in the USA, but move to other countries, pay less for things to be made or put together, and then charge the same or some less than used to charge for USA made item, just that it’s made mass-ly now, and with cheaper products and with slave-labor cheap cheap cheap, so profits are HIGH, but product quality is poor cheap, ugh.) This is not what we really want, is it? Cheap? Cheap doesn’t last. It’s not that we want expensive for qualities sake, no. Fair price for quality item. Regions have crafts and products. Outsourcing only hurts communities. Wal-Mart doesn’t help communities, nor companies, see that Fast Company article again, if need be.
Fast Company is only ONE of many reporting on Wal-Mart problems. It’s a good long article. I’m glad to see more and more folks seeing the truth in it, and stopping their shopping at Wal-Mart. That includes Sam’s Club. Compare any Sam’s Club to Costco, and see the difference. Costco, for one, won’t put up a store unless the community will support it. And they sell bulk quality, and road show quality, and such things, but ONLY in large towns on the outskirts of cities, etc. Not in small towns, no way. Compare goods between the two different stores, and you’ll see that Costco is quality overall, while Sam’s Club is lesser quality overall, as well as look at the employees, the difference is immense: Happy, knowledgeable, helpful, descriptives of Costco employees, but NOT of Sam’s Club employees.
How do I know? Frequency of visits to Sam’s Club and Costco over the past few years. Yes, we had memberships to both. Costco by absolute choice many years ago, and Sam’s Club as an additional source via a cheap intro from hubbies Work some years back. It was something I didn’t like doing, going there, when being Anti-Walmart entirely. It was traitorous, two-faced, but not my liking, and not my absolute doing, as I never went there on my own … we’ve let the last membership run out though, and we’ve been free of them for many months now. 🙂 Anyhow, there are 3 Sam’s club in nearly equal distances from us, in three different directions of travel. There is one Costco in that same region of travel … with other ones spread around the very large city, only on the outskirt edges with MANY miles between each one. How many MORE Sam’s Club’s are there? Too many for me to count easily. At any rate, the difference then between the inside of the stores, the products and employees, is something I know about. And it’s true that the Wal-Mart corp doesn’t have such splendid dealings with it’s customers. Costco does. And that’s that. (We buy SOME stuff at Costco, but really it’s just stuff we can’t get elsewhere, giant tubs of Daisy Brand Sour Cream, a certain kind of whole Coffee Bean we like, big hunks of cheese, but then we buy most food at grocery stores and markets around … and Costco is a wares place for wacky finds, and just a pleasure to walk through and look for fun sometimes, and have employees say “Hi! Nice to see you again” really recognizing your family, not just one, but several to many employees)
We frequent local shops for many things, whenever we can. IF we were rich, we’d frequent local shops for as much as we could find locally. But we are not rich, and can do some things locally, but have to go to Home Depot or Lowes for some things, regional grocery stores for some things, and Costco, Blockbuster, etc. for other things. Internet shopping, Ebay, etc. Buying from intellectual philosophy neighborhoods is akin to shopping in ones own region as well. And THAT is key to why I am Anti-Walmart. They are not philosophically a match with me, not at all, quite the opposite.
🙂
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