Posted on 05/17/2006 10:55:50 AM PDT by A. Pole
In the meantime, unemployment is the lowest it ever gets and illegal aliens stream across the border for non-existent jobs at the rate of 2,000 per day.
But go ahead and say "we are shopping ourselves out of jobs." It's not like you can be held accountable or anything.
--I can't help but notice the same people who think Wal-Mart prices are too low think gas prices are too high--
Exactly said and I should care that they are unable to unionize Walmart. Attention Walmart haters - get a clue.
The biggest positives are the two for which Wal-Mart is beloved of blinkered free traders: its deflationary effect upon prices and its relentless promotion of efficiency up and down the chain of production, distribution, and sale.
This actually has nothing to do with "free trade" at all, except that it clearly illustrates the importance of operational efficiency at all points in the supply chain -- and how the relationship between labor and transportation plays such an important role in supply chain management. If the transportation cost associated with shipping a product from Asia to New York are less than the cost of shipping the same product to New York from Michigan, then moving production to Asia would be a viable option even if U.S. and Asian labor costs were the same.
It's 'pay me now in price' or 'pay me later to the goverment'. Knocking down the domestic payroll makes the company more profitable but is a loser for the population in growth of government [have we noticed?] . The government makes up the difference in building safety nets plus the social costs of family degeneration.
"Penny wise and pound foolish is no way to go through life" to paraphrase Dean Wormer.
"Attention Wal-Mart bashers..."
BTW - your comrade Willie Green has been banned.
Currently, Wal-Mart seems to sell relatively little that is not made in Red China or some other Asian country. However, the Chinese have managed to produce goods of acceptable quality at low prices. Like it or not, the decision to eliminate most trade barriers was made by the Executive Branch, with the advice and consent of Congress. The blame for the decision not to use quotas or tariffs must fall on the Feds, not private companies that must deal with the existing economic and political environment.
Must be "success" envy for pat, since his magazine is floundering like a fish out of water.
If we are truly headed towards the point of "shopping ourselves out of jobs", then capitalism will correct it LONG before we're all unemployed.
Walmart is subject to the same quality-price-value equation that all other folks are subject to.
I often find that buying a quality product, regardless of where it is made and where it is sold, is worth the initial cost, if at all possible
All I can say is, this is a really dumb article. The function of a consumer is to seek the best quality for the price, not to bestow charity on inefficient and unresponsive economic entities. That is why WalMart is a success: it gives you what you want.
On Canadian TV I saw a skit lampooning anti-WalMart demonstrators. A middle-aged woman was interviewed, and stated her objections to WalMart thus: "Do you know what they have in that store? Do you? Why, they have PEOPLE in there to HELP you, and to assist you in finding what you WANT!! Why, it's contrary to every principle of Canadian commerce."
It is interesting to find a supposedly conservative magazine running a vague attack-article like this one, which one might expect on a hard-left website. Where is the source substantianting the charge that the founder of WalMart wanted to overrun the whole country? The author is beginning to foam at the mouth.
The only reason WalMart is successful is that it supplies needs for people. It does not do anything unethical. When I need underware, or socks, or DVDs, I often go to WalMart. Plain, ordinary stuff, efficiently delivered. It's much better than going to some mall-city and wandering around through over-priced boutiques.
As for encouraging foreign imports: you will find foreign imports everywhere, and at the high-price end, as well as with cheaper goods. People buy what they choose: I never buy imported wine when good California wine is avialable.
Try buying an American-made TV: I don't think that there are any. That is not WalMart's fault.
I would buy an American car, if I could find one that had good technology, and would last, and had tasteful design. I buy the best for my purpose. The last car I bought was built in Belgium, and presumably the dollars which flowed to Belgium eventually made it back to the USA to buy something here. I got a good car, now ten years old and running well, and there was NO equivalent made in the USA -- none!
WalMart is my friend! So are other outlets of my choice. I will buy where I want, and will ignore false moralizing from articles like that above.
That is only true if every employee Wal-Mart hires would have otherwise been working at a far higher pay scale without Wal-Mart. You'd have a hard time making the case that this is true with any Wal-Mart employees -- let alone all of them.
The "burden" that Wal-Mart places on taxpayers is a myth, and I'm surprised at how much traction this myth has gotten even here on FreeRepublic. It's not as if Wal-Mart builds a new retail store somewhere and imports welfare cases from all over the country to work there.
I know this is from "American Conservative" but this article smacks of socialism.
"A former Vlasic executive comments that consumers would “eat a quarter of a jar and throw the thing away when they got moldy."
Wow, a Vlasic exec who doesn't even know what pickling does. Maybe tht's why your company went belly-up. I can assure you, large jars of pickles sat unrefrigerated on the counter at a c-store I worked at. I have never seen a moldy one.
"Fishman discerns the same “devastating success” among other suppliers, from Huffy bikes..."
Huffy bikes are crap and have been ever since the onset of a host of US companies in the 70's who made good bikes out of quality materials that would last. Mongoose is an example. Wal-Mart now caries them. We learned the difference between a good bike and crap, Huffy did not. Nice of the guy to blame Wal-Mart, though.
Jeez, I could go on and on through this dung-heap of an article.
Sometimes... I personally only go to Wal-Mart for toiletries and household cleaning items. I don't buy plants, or food, or clothes, or CDs, etc. I think the quality of their products is sub-par and customer service is non-existent. Combine that with rude customers who crash into you, cut in line, take three shopping carts through the express lane... No, I hate Wal-Mart, and I hate them for a lot of reasons. But I hate them for my experiences in their stores, not at all for their economic power.
"Currently, Wal-Mart seems to sell relatively little that is not made in Red China or some other Asian country."
Good post but I always like to address this issue. Information avalable on Wal-Mart's site. Last year, Wal-Mart spent 8 billion with China. They spent 150 billion with American companies.
Some of those American companies do choose to have some of their products manufactured in China. The same products are sold in stores all over America, not just Wal-Mart. Your comments about trade agreements and the Feds is right on.
What's a day on FR without a thread inviting the usual suspects to bash Wal-Mart, Toyota , or Honda? Today it's Wal-Mart's turn.
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