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The Wal-Mart Trade-off
Dallas Morning News ^ | June 25, 2005 | Rod Dreher

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News
KEYWORDS: business; buymorejunk; chinamart; economy; itscrapjustbuyit
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Thanks and I agree. The anti Walmart nimrods like kellynla continue to live in fear of everything. People were upset by the Made in Japan items 30 years ago. Nothing has changed. These fools will never realize that the unionized manufacturing jobs are gone forever and were before the Chinese got involved.


41 posted on 06/26/2005 12:35:34 PM PDT by bfree (PC is BS)
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To: Doohickey
well who would want a Walmart in London, Ct?

they don't have a walmart in Baghdad either...

hey, mister, if you're looking to start an argument, bark up someone else's tree, 'cause I don't have the time or the inclination to teach Econ 101 to a moron! LMAO
42 posted on 06/26/2005 12:37:24 PM PDT by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
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To: lt.america
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

Nope, they probably had to do it on their own. I'm sure the thousands of employees that ma and pa kettle had were making big money.

43 posted on 06/26/2005 12:38:09 PM PDT by bfree (PC is BS)
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To: bfree

hey, genius, if you're going to talk about me, at least have the manners to address me.
DUHHHHHH


44 posted on 06/26/2005 12:41:10 PM PDT by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
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To: hsalaw

The amounts that most corps contribute to charities is relatively miniscule and have tax benefits. The donations themselves are weighed against public relations benefits and strenghtening the "brand." Corporations are not people who have an emotional stake in a charity or charities, nor should they be. It's a mistake to attribute human qualities to a corporation in the same way that some people attribute human qualities to their cat.


45 posted on 06/26/2005 12:43:02 PM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: bfree

Yep. I did a check a few weeks back, just to see how many "Made in China" items were in my Wal-Mart cart when I went on my usual run last week.

Guess how many? None. Nadda. Zip. Everything I buy there on a regular basis IS made in the Good Old US of A. I'd have it no other way.

As 'Barbie' might say before she got into trouble with all that "math is hard" stuff:

"Reading package labeling is HARD!" *Rolleyes*

Have a good day! See ya at Wal-Mart. ;)


46 posted on 06/26/2005 12:44:11 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
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To: bfree

People were upset by the Made in Japan items 30 years ago. Nothing has changed.


Wow! You don't follow the car market much, do you? Same for the electronics market. Everything changed for those industries.


47 posted on 06/26/2005 12:45:01 PM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: kellynla

The only moron I see on this thread is you.


48 posted on 06/26/2005 12:46:41 PM PDT by bfree (PC is BS)
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To: durasell
The donations themselves are weighed against public relations benefits

But who are those PR benefits directed at if they support military celebrations, better education for kids, and even WW2 memorials?

Walmart could give that same money to any number of liberal causes including supporting abortion and antiwar activities etc.

49 posted on 06/26/2005 12:47:51 PM PDT by No Blue States
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To: durasell

You think maybe innovation, quality and price are the key?


50 posted on 06/26/2005 12:48:05 PM PDT by bfree (PC is BS)
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To: bfree

Innovation is definitely essential. Quality is now largely a function of manufacturing techniques and can pretty much be duplicated by anyone. Price is important, but not essential.

I remember reading stories about Toyota testing its first car in San Francisco and the vehicle couldn't make it up some of the hills. GM execs cracked up and then went back to sleep. A few years later, Japan was eating their lunch.


51 posted on 06/26/2005 12:53:04 PM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: durasell

I think you just pointed out the key, American industry went to sleep. Price is important because it is in a direct relationship to the cost of the product. Look at GM with $1500 acar worth fo benefits to employees and retirees versus $500 a car for Toyota.


52 posted on 06/26/2005 12:59:05 PM PDT by bfree (PC is BS)
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To: bfree

"The only moron I see on this thread is you."
yea right...

and you didn't even know the correlation between the Supreme court decision this week and Walmart???

try again, genius! LMAO


53 posted on 06/26/2005 1:01:15 PM PDT by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
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To: bfree

American industry went to sleep. Remember, the first transistor radio was made in America. So was the first video game. Atari was an American company. Sega was started by Americans.

But look at who was running the companies. If you began your career at GM or Motorola in 1960, you would still have a 1955 frame of reference for American industry.Rising through the corporate ranks, you would be in a position of power at the company in the 1970s when the world began to change. Those decisions you made as a hot shot in the 1970s would echo through the company for another decade...long enough for the competition to get a foot hold.


54 posted on 06/26/2005 1:05:53 PM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: kellynla

You are just about the dumbest poster on this or any board.
Where did I ever say anything about the Supreme Court ruling? Only a fool like you, with limited reading abilities, could say something as silly as you do constantly. Made you ought to change your name to "One note Charly". Now you twist to Supreme Court ruling to be a Walmart ruling.


55 posted on 06/26/2005 1:07:38 PM PDT by bfree (PC is BS)
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To: bfree

Let me add something -- the first job interview I had out of college was with AT&T. This was in the late 1970s. I sat in the office of an executive vice president, a man in his late 50s and he told me, "This is the phone company, we're the phone company. Not much changes."


56 posted on 06/26/2005 1:10:11 PM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: No Blue States

Well they did kinda-sorta- give $640,000 to La Raza, the very folks who don't like Northern Europeans?


57 posted on 06/26/2005 1:14:16 PM PDT by investigateworld ( God bless Poland for giving the world JP II & a Protestant bump for his Sainthood!)
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To: investigateworld
You got me there. I had not read that one.

Im just drawn to Walmart threads like a fly to a turd. lol

58 posted on 06/26/2005 1:28:00 PM PDT by No Blue States
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To: Lokibob

What makes you think we won't end up financing most of any new improvements?


59 posted on 06/26/2005 1:28:17 PM PDT by Fog Nozzle
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To: durasell

You and I are about the same age then. Who's fault is it that the companies didn't adapt? If foreign companies' are more efficient and less costly, why should we keep them out? Our industries have to compete and if they don't they will die. It is a shame, but free enterprise doesn't mandate you have a business forever.


60 posted on 06/26/2005 1:32:09 PM PDT by bfree (PC is BS)
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