Posted on 06/26/2005 10:15:31 AM PDT by kellynla
When I was a kid growing up in a small Louisiana town, there was exactly one place to buy groceries: Gerald's. It was properly called the Red & White, but nobody ever used the store's proper name. Gerald was the town grocer, and the word people used to refer to the place reflected their relationship to it. It was personal, not merely commercial.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Thanks for the post. Rod is good on about anything he put his hand to.
I don't see much of him anymore since he left National Review. Recall that he was writing a book. Maybe that's it.
Article is a bunch of clap-trap. Shopping at "mom-and-pops" does nothing to keep jobs in America. Gerald gets his groceries from the same place as Wal-Mart and Piggly Wiggly.
But Gerald has to pay MORE that Wally does.
Ive got some serious problems with Wal mart myself.
"But Gerald has to pay MORE that Wally does."
And Gerald probably didn't send his workers to the local welfare office after he hired them to try and get health care and food stamps on the tax payers dime (probably didn't allow contractors to hire illegals to clean his stores either).
Gerald could probably buy his product from WalMart cheaper than he does from the distributors.
Of course, that might be too straightforward for the commies in Beijing. They like playing Sun Tsu games. But they still might pay cash for Wal-Mart, or Sears or J. C. Penny. That would be welcomed by most people because it would 'eliminate the middle man' for U.S. consumers. We would be dealing directly with the owner of all goods and services produced in that communist nation. It would almost be like living in China but without enduring the terrible heat, biting insects, and the bird flu.
Most Walmarts are not business killers, they are business MAGNETS. Open your eyes and you'll see plenty of businesses right next to the Walmart, and they are doing fine.
Even a Mega-Walmart only has about 300,000 square feet. There are plenty of items that Walmart does not sell. If you have a head on your shoulders, you avoid Walmarts items and sell others. Walmart is a net-positive for any community in which it locates.
Wallmart is one of the best things to ever happen to America. People save more money which they spend on other things for their family. The poorest people are helped the most, not the least.
The only way you can stop it is by expanding government, which always hurts everyone. The only way Wallmart can get an unfair advantage is by expanding government (scotus decision), which always hurts everyone.
My advice to the person writing this aritcle - stop whinning and shrink government!
Of course, that might be too straightforward for the commies in Beijing. They like playing Sun Tsu games. But they still might pay cash for Wal-Mart, or Sears or J. C. Penny. That would be welcomed by most people because it would 'eliminate the middle man' for U.S. consumers. We would be dealing directly with the owner of all goods and services produced in that communist nation. It would almost be like living in China but without enduring the terrible heat, biting insects, and the bird flu.
I didn't realize how low Wal-Mart's market capitalization is: it's only $200 billion at $47 per share. China could indeed afford to buy Wal-Mart, lock, stock, and barrel -- and I think that would be cheaper than building a faux Wal-Mart (call it "China-Mart") on their own. And on the face of it, it would be a good investment since Wal-Mart runs a tight ship with good technology, and as you say, it would remove the major middleman for China.
There are plenty of things to criticize Wal-Mart for, but this isn't one of them. When Gerald's was the only grocer in town, food stamps and taxpayer-funded health care were almost nonexistent. If they were around back then, I'm willing to bet that most of Gerald's employees would have been using them.
That's very true. Anyone who has ever worked for a mom-and-pop shop knows that, despite any affection you may have for the owners - and they're not always good bosses - you will make very little money and have almost no future employment prospects working for a family-owned small business.
ohhhh, and you don't think that when the time comes that we won't be saddled with doing the repairs?
maybe you are the one who needs "to do some reading about Panana!" LMAO
Well I remember the mom-and-pop shops and let me tell you, nobody ever got rich in them except maybe "mom-and-pop" themselves, at the expense, of course, of their "slave-labororers", many of which who worked under the table for less than what passed for minimum wage at the time.
Yes, it's true. I remember working for a mom-and-pop variety store myself back when I was 14 or 15. Owner asked me if I wanted to man the penny-candy stand on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and that I did, for the grand sum of a bag of licorice fishes or flying saucers (the wafers that contained those little candy balls). So I did, being the serf-in-training that I was at the time. And yes, back then, I could be easily bribed with a sack of free penny candy. And guess what? I didn't belong to a union, I didn't get health benefits and if I wanted to come to work dressed like a girl with earrings and bracelets and a George Michael WHAM! T-shirt (like they come dressed to work at Starbucks these days), I would have been thrown out on my sissy ass.
Yes, I remember the days of mom-and-pop shops. My mother used to drag me shopping every Saturday morning for hours and hours as she went from store to store to store, only to be told "ain't got that" or "we'll have to special order" by surly clerks who were very disturbed by the fact that we interrupted their reading of Mad magazine at the counter. Ah yes, the fabled mom-and-pops. Those were the days. Give me a break.
One of the sponsors was...WalMart.
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