What is really wrong with Wal-Mart?

[brerrabbit]

We shop at Wal Mart all the time. There is one about 1/2 mile from the entrance to our neighborhood. We have two others in town and they are both places I don't like to go because they are messy and I don't feel comfortable shopping there. Wal Mart has forced most of it's suppliers into uncomfortable positions in their dealing with them. For instance even Coke and Pepsi have to put their product into Wal Mart on a consignment basis. In other words Wal Mart does'nt pay for the product until after they have sold the product to the consumer. On top of that they usually don't pay till 15 days after the month ends. That significantly reduces Wal Mart's risk and the amount of cash Wal Mart has to tie up, thus increasing their profits. They do this with numerous vendors and in the case of Coke and Pepsi they cannot afford to not be in Wal Mart if the other one is. Many manufacturers choose not to sell through Wal Mart because of their policies and they still survive. I shop there because I cannot get the same products anywhere for the price I can at Wal Mart. Have they caused companies problems and forced them to outsource jobs and lower profit margins? You bet they have. Have they run people out of business through competition? Yep. Do they pay some people less than others to work for them? Yep. Is this all a bad thing? Who knows? It's terrible when anyone outsources but the reality is everyone is doing it. I work for a major energy company and we have sent hundreds of jobs from America to other countries. Not low paying manufacturing jobs, but accounts payable jobs, IT jobs, professional degreed positions. Are we evil for doing it? Some would say yes but hundreds of companies are doing it. It's easy to attack Wal Mart because they have such a huge public presence. But before anyone singles them out as the only one you need to realize that its the practice of hundreds of companies to do the same thing in order to survive. If you loose 50% of your jobs to outsourcing but retain 50% of your jobs in the US isn't that better than shutting down completely and loosing all the jobs. Its all a matter of perception and if your job is the one affected.

 

[kasar]

I'm a talk radio fan and there was an expert on the other day (sorry, don't know his name) who had some interesting points to make. Yes, talk radio is sometimes suspect in it's reliability so I don't know if his statements were true.

He stated that if WalMart was a country it would be China's 5th LARGEST importer of goods. He basically said that we, through our need and desire for cheap, disposable goods, are totally enriching a country which could easily become a threat to our country. Basically, we're killing our own economy and enriching theirs. Yes, other companies do it too but not on the scale of WalMart.

His other statement sounded a little weird and maybe someone in Arkansas can confirm it. Evidently, WalMart requires vendors to be near the headquarters all the time (to basically have access to them all the time and to work on them to lower their prices) which has resulted in a housing shortage and overinflated home prices in the area pushing locals out of their town.

I have shopped at WalMart but I don't anymore. I don't like their stores and I don't want to give them my money, simple as that. But I do see why people go there if they can't afford to go somewhere else. I'm all for free market and people making money but I have the choice to not contribute to a company if I don't want to.

 

[RobinMarie]

Kasar: thank you, that is interesting information.