Posted on 09/26/2009 1:08:18 AM PDT by Rufus2007
Whole Foods had you at “we reject Obamacare”? Whole Foods has gobbled up every mom and pop organic food shop in the country and become a multinational corporation that bases it’s charitable giving on making loans to foreign women.
Hewlett-Packard Co. changed the name of EDS to HP Enterprise Services. The tech giant explained that the change “marks the next major step in a year-long integration of EDS into HP and emphasizes the growing global role of enterprise technology services in HP’s portfolio.” H-P acquired Electronic Data Services, or EDS, last year in a deal worth more than $14 billion.
Actually, they had me at using personal medical accounts, something we fought really hard for to get through congress, which congress and the unions have virtually ignored. Give people money and let them make the choices? Unacceptable.
And no, Whole Foods hasn't even come close to gobbling up all the mom and pops, as I shop at one quite often, especially when I have glutten intolerant guests. And they're hiring more employees at this mom and pop, mostly because shoppers are choosing them over Whole Foods as the economic pressures actually force them to consider prices.
As for your assertion of charitable giving, it is made in ignorance. At the local food bank that I've helped, I've helped unload the Whole Foods truck that is filled with bread and food for the needy, not that Whole Foods is alone - that same mom and pop I shop at is also right there with daily bread, meat, milk and produce donations. The value of the bread that Whole Foods gives away in a day company wide probably exceeds the yearly loans for any foreign micro loan program.
But it really aggravates me when people spew the union line that some store is killing mom and pop businesses. First, if that were true, we wouldn't have small business employing half of all working adults. And competing with Walmart or Home Depot or Whole Foods is done each and every day, with the little guys going toe to toe and winning. I personally don't get it, why these union goons spread this crud, as it works against them - these big boxes usually cave to the unions, and a corporation is far more likely to accept union demands than any mom and pop business.
You skipped a step there. In 1984, GM offered a huge buyout of EDS, which was reluctantly agreed to by the board and H Ross Perot. Conditions of the sale included GM posting annuities to ensure that retirement benefits for existing workers would be protected, which was a good thing. Within weeks, the GM unions transferred over to EDS, bloating the company incredibly. Ten years later, GM finally saw how they took a tech leader and turned it into yet another union goon workshop. The bloodbath of firings that followed trimmed out the bloat, and the company doubled revenue, and revived the bankrupted company retirement program.
HP's purchase of EDS in 2008 was for $25 per share, and also included guarantees for existing workers. Within weeks, the company was again bloated with a new invasion of middle management, expanding by 80 thousand jobs.
Today, EDS is still EDS, a business unit of HP Enterprise Services, their largest contracts are still in the United States, including the Navy-Marine net, automation systems at many companies, but the HP invasion is starting to grind the unit as more bloat continues to invade a very responsive and technically knowledgeable company. Smartly, they've started to shed back the bloat into the ES umbrella, trying to retain the core technical knowledge while avoiding becoming GM'd again.
What was EDS' secret to success that made GM and HP both desperately want the company? Outsourcing the HR department to other companies to keep it from bloating the company. Using temp to hire companies to ensure that every new employee knew their job, and fit within their team, while limiting exposure to labor challenges, and knowing that they were a tech services company and nothing else.
HP wants the success that EDS enjoyed, but they'll never get it. Hopefully once again EDS will be able to shed it's new parent company and reemerge an industry leader.
Begging the feds to let you have tax write offs. That's not freedom, that's slavery.
Sorry - unions, corporations and politics are all in bed together. One is no better than the other and none of them represent American values. We must return to local control because the national system is now criminalized.
LOL
Figures, huh?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.