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This has nothing to do with unions ... except unions would make it worse. This has to do with a purchasing department that sits you down once a year and asks for a 10% discount and in return an "exclusive" supply arrangement. The money is HUGE. Sounds like a win/win ... until the second year. When the same purchasing agent sits down with you (after a long wait in their tiny waiting room) and says he "really likes the arrangement, it is working well, blah, blah. .. and so what is your discount to us THIS year?" Huh? We gave you one last year! "Yes, but for us to stay competitive, we have to continually lower our costs. And of course, if you don't give us the discount, we'll have to go elsewhere (it doesn't matter that you've tooled up and hired up to handle the increased Wal*Mart volume). And they do this year after year until there is no profit left ... always with the threat of losing all the business.

If you look at the "garbage pile" outside their purchasing office of vendors that have gone bankrupt ... you'll be amazed at the number of them and the size of some of them.

Selling to Wal*Mart is like getting a first free dose of nose candy from the local salesman. Man (they say) it feels good ... but in the end ... you're DEAD!

Wal*Mart premise is a house of cards, they base their savings on volume and use that volume to get discounts from manufacturers to maintain Wal*Mart's market share with consumers. At first when Sam ran it, everything was "American made" ... remember that? Well now see if you can find something you want that is made in America at Wal*Mart. Why? Because the local manufacturers in America cannot handle the profit losses of working with Wal*Mart ... so the Wal*Mart purchasing crowd turns to China and the third world. Where they don't pay their manufacturing employees. Wal*Mart simply supports the poor labor and environmental practices of our international competitors. The money you spend at Wal*Mart is appreciated by the Chinese as they build their new submarines and weapons.

Seeing Wal*Mart fail would be cheered by many ... not politically, but because they lost their jobs trying to work with Wal*Mart that only cares about the discounts from their suppliers ...NOT THE QUALITY!!!

(Unless you've experienced this first-hand, you haven't got a clue what Wal*Mart is "about.")

I’ve heard about that aspect of Walmart, and I have no doubt your personal knowledge of it is true.

As far as my experience, it’s all from the customer end, and I’m amazed that such a place can stay in business ... given how trashy they are, how bad the customer service is, and the kinds of misfits they hire. Walmart is truly an example of how many people will buy low-quality junk. As I said, I ONLY go with a particular name-brand item that I have verified before is quality, and (as I said) I’m always glad it’s a SEALED product! ... :-) ...