Posted on 08/22/2013 6:35:11 AM PDT by xzins
Edited on 08/22/2013 6:40:19 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is hoping for a groundswell "made-in-America" movement.
The world's largest retailer is hosting its first two-day summit starting Thursday bringing together retailers, suppliers and government officials that it hopes will build on its recent commitment to drive more manufacturing in the U.S.
(Excerpt) Read more at onenewsnow.com ...
Looked for shirts in Wal-Mart the other week, and all of them were from Islamic countries: Jordan, Pakistan, etc.
No way I’d support a jihadist economy.
Besides, American retailers sold America’s textile industry down the river over slave labor producing cheap clothing.
That’s not a free market.
That's the equivalent of just more than 10 percent of what Wal-Mart will sell at retail this year.
Is it just old age, or do I remember a time when Wal-Mart proudly advertised “Made in America” as their STANDARD?
Am I imagining that???
Sam was still alive and active in the company.
I always make it a point to check their patriotic themed T shirts around Independence Day. I have yet to find one with a made in America tag.
They love to fly American flags - made in Taiwan.
Now let me just say, if they started selling only American made products they’d be out of business in about 3 months. All their customers would move over to CheapMart.
Back when WalMart was opening stores in the northeast and decimating local businesses, their selling point was goods "Made in America". It turned into a mini-scandal because it turned out that in most cases the only things that were made in American were the tags that said it.
The other thing they do when they move in is to sell high-quality merchandise, cheap, until the competition goes under. Once they do that, it's a fine-tuned operation to figure out exactly how cheap the merchandise can be without affecting their bottom line.
I despise WalMart and won't buy anything there.
His son Rob made the decision in 1990s to start buying everything abroad, and so that was the end of Sam’s “Made in America” tradition.
I think you’re right.
With one proviso:
Currently America has no national “buy American” policy, so anyone who attempts one will be crushed by foreign competition.
America appears to be the only country with this sort of suicidal “buy stuff from everywhere but here” policy. China for example is CRUSHING American companies, and by some accounts now exports more than America.
And is growing.
We need our government behind a “buy American” movement.
Every other country in the world buys their own stuff.
Why is America alone, selling off our own best assets?
Buy American.
I want to say sometime during Clinton II, but that's just a guess.
It seems like it was about the same time as the just below the belt gut punch that brought the end of the American textile industry.
Because manufacturers have been driven out of the country by trade unions, regulatory czars and bureaucrats, and lawyers with their consumer & employee lawsuits. One-sided "free trade" agreements have sweetened the deal.
Right-to-work legislation, tort reform, and regulatory overhaul will go a long way toward correcting this, but much of the damage is permanent.
The kids should have listened to dear old Sam. They opted for cheap foreign markets to fill Walmart’s coffers.
Now profits are falling because America has no industrial base and the people are running out of money.
What is left to buy in America?
I remember that, many moons ago.
* Is it just old age, or do I remember a time when Wal-Mart proudly advertised “Made in America” as their STANDARD? *
Sam is spinning like a lathe.
What is hard to believe is that most people are so wrapped up in “Walmart” that they either are ignorant of the truth in how they have systematically helped to DESTROY us manufacturing and production.
When Sam Walton died, his heirs took Walmart in a vastly different direction. Sam’s “We buy American so you can too” slogan was ripped down nearly as quickly has Obama tells a lie.
Oh - they continued to “buy American” - by finding manufacturers that were “on the ropes” financially - offered them lucrative contracts to produce goods in large quantity. After sealing the deal, and after the production run, Walmart would then go back to said manufacturer - who had by this time put all their eggs in the Walmart basket - and demand slashed prices for the same goods - prices so low that the manufacturer is faced with a decision - continue to produce for Walmart - losing money, but at least keeping factories/facilities open until you go bankrupt, or simply walking away and dying anyway (without the additional debt).
Walmart did this in their pet departments as well - with the live fish. I have friends who were beaten down by Walmart the same way -
So - I will believe Walmart is thinking about American workers and manufacturers when I see it - and see it last beyond a single contracting “season”.
Further - how many of those “American” factories will be staffed with imported/illegal labor?
File this in the ‘been there, done that’ category.
In the late 80s, Walmart was in trouble with its expansion ideas. At that time, major imports came from the Japanese and Taiwanese and South Korean. Existing stores were losing customers.
They decided on a ‘made in America’ campaign.
It worked and drew people to their stores.
It would be interesting to see how this would impact prices: cheap Chinese or more expensive American products.
They certainly have chutzpah!
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