IMO Store Chains with bargins?!

[spook]

You know how we are all griping at certain store chains, be it Wallys World or not, we often forget that price is a great motivator on the final purchase.
That takes oriental or outside of this countries crafts people to produce an inexpensive affordable product that most of us can afford.
We get mad at these business', stuff breaks, led paint, and the list goes on. We of try to do away with needing these stores, refusing to buy the products, putting our foot down.

These stores would never have taken hold if we didn't appreciate the low prices and under one roof shopping. Frustrating isnt' it, maddening too.
Keep in mind that not only do they do what we desire, cutting prices, but they employ our community. People that work there may not make much money, but, its work, steady income and no need to stand in unemployment lines or public assistance.
So are we being fair to our neighbors when we do not purchase items? We need to keep America moving!
I realize there are so many aspects to this subject, but what do you think? Without putting anyone down, give me a for instance something that we need to look at differently, anything as I welcome your opinion.

 

[Shared Acres]

A lot of times big box stores like that put other businesses out of business and bring in low paying jobs and jobs with no benefits, things that other businesses might have been able to provide.

One site to look at: http://walmartwatch.com/

This is just some info from THAT site, which targets Walmart.

INFO ABOUT CHINA AND WALMART:
Wal-Mart is China’s sixth largest export market. In 2006, Wal-Mart imported $27 billion of Chinese goods. Wal-Mart’s
imports are responsible for 11% of the growth of the total U.S. trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2006. [Time,
6/19/05; EPI Issue Brief #235, 6/27/07]

Wal-Mart’s imports from China cost American jobs. Wal-Mart’s trade deficit with China alone eliminated nearly
200,000 U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2006. On average, 77 U.S. jobs were eliminated for each one of Wal-Mart's 4,022
U.S. stores in 2006. [EPI Issue Brief #235, 6/27/07]

Wal-Mart encourages American companies to open Chinese factories. In order to obtain Wal-Mart contracts or to
continue relations with Wal-Mart, American companies are coerced by Wal-Mart to open factories in China.

Here's some of their links to info about jobs and such: http://walmartwatch.com/research/list/cat/labor_relations/

The Walton family is now worth over $100 billion. From November 2007 to September 2008, the stock prices rose by over $21. This means the Walton family made around $35 billion off the stock price increase alone!
[Forbes 400 Richest People in America, 2008]

The Walton family could afford to raise wages. That same $35 billion could provide every Wal-Mart employee with an $11 an hour pay increase for one year or raise the company’s minimum pay to $14 an
hour for the next three years. [Internal calculation with help from UC Berkeley Labor Center]

Most Wal-Mart Retail Jobs Pay Far Below the National Average Wage. Of Wal-Mart’s top retail jobs (Sales Associate, Cashier, Team Leaders, Overnight Stocker) Wal-Mart typically pays 26-37% less than
the national average for the same jobs in the retail industry. [Brennan Center for Justice, Economic Policy Brief,
No. 2, August 2005, http://walmartwatch.com/img/documents/brennan_center.pdf]

Study Shows Women Earn Less and Hold Fewer Senior Positions at Wal-Mart.


Costco, for example pays their people much more:
"I figured that if I was making something like 12 times more than the typical person working on the floor, that that was a fair salary" – Costco CEO Jim Sinegal [ABC News, 8/2/06]

Higher wages means lower turnover rate. According to Costco CEO Jim Sinegal, “In my view, some of these industries that pay minimum wage are constantly turning their people over. They spend more on turnover than they would in paying the additional wages.” [Washington Post, 1/30/07]

Costco offers a higher average wage. In addition to a low turnover rate, Costco average wage is around $17 an hour while Wal-Mart’s average was hovers below $11. Coincidently, Wal-Mart’s number
represents the average pay of the lowest paid employee at Costco. [Washington Post, 1/30/07]

Healthcare
Wal-Mart Employees Still Wait Twice As Long For Health Care Coverage Than Workers At Other
Retailers. The Wal-Mart average for full-time workers to qualify for benefits is six months, compared to the
retail average of 2.6 months. Part-time employees must wait a full year before receiving benefits. Since the
majority of workers do not stay a year, the majority never get health care.4

Wal-Mart’s health plan options are unaffordable for its employees. To get Wal-Mart’s choice network
family plan (associate + family) with a $322.60 bi-weekly premium, $700 annual deductible, $500 health care
credit, and $4000 out-of-pocket medical expenses could potentially cost over $12,000 a year and the average
Wal-Mart employee makes approximately only $20,000 a year.7

Study Finds that Wal-Mart is Causing an Increase in Medicaid Spending.

 

[addiedunn]

I got an email the other day about someone who went into his local grocery chain to buy a couple of items. In three separate cases, this person checked the name brand (made OUTSIDE the US but by a US company) against the value brand (or generic, or whatever). In all three cases, the value brand was cheaper. In all three cases the American name brand was made outside the country. And in all three cases the value brand was made right here in the good ol' USA. You actually CAN find stuff made here....and cheaper.....and works as well.....no matter where you shop. That is the message we should send to the big conglomerates. We don't care WHAT you sell. But we're only buying the stuff made here, by Americans who make it to earn a LIVING. There are 5 billion people in China. They can make things THEY need for THEMSELVES. You said it yourself. We need to keep AMERICA moving.
The Chinese work like slaves in slave shops for next to nothing. They can't even afford most of the CRAP they make. Buying from them is nothing short of supporting slave wage and to me it's about the same as continuing to buy store-bought eggs, even though you know what kind of life those poor chickens are living.

 

[Shared Acres]

BTW, here's some info on China and Walmart:
http://walmartwatch.com/img/documents/us_and_china_lose.pdf

 

[preppy*hippie*chick]

Well said Volume904!!!

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

I do not support stores like walmart. There is a DVD that I watched called "the high cost of low prices". Really good documentery.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wal-Mart-The-High-Cost-of-Low-Price-Spotts-Greg-Gr_W0QQitemZ110382662969QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Nonfiction_Book?hash=item19b351c539&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

ETA: here is a trailer for the movie

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

I refuse to shop the local WalMarts.
They have put small family owned business's out of business. Their products are cheaply made in other countries, which therefore impacts the US negatively job wise.
I know Target isnt much better, but at least the quality is there. and my local Target draws a better "class" of people. meaning people that dont leave the house in their pajamas.

I shop the big warehouse stores for food etc. And yes. I do check labels to see where a product was made. LOL but I also drive a Hyndai. cant beat the price and the warrantee on the things.

 

[preppy*hippie*chick]

I don't shop at Walmart either. They kill the Main Streets of America.

R & S Mom - You want to be careful with that car. Hyundai fights that warranty. You have to have the thing serviced within the guidelines set in the owner's manual & AT a dealership or they will not honor it. I have also seen Hyundais not even two full years old with rust here and there. This is their third try in the US after two miserable failures. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for. I worked for Hyundai for a year and Lincoln-Mercury for three. You can get a 4 cyl Mercury Milan on the cheap and it is an excellent car with a fab reliability rating.

Sorry - just had to throw that in - OT I know!

 

[Davaroo]

How many shoes do you have? Or DVD's? When we gave up the concept of lasting quality for immediate satisfaction - we tossed the notion of quality goods made at home. This is called rampant consumerism and we are all guilty of it to some degree. Of course, it is easier to blame WalMart than our own cultural shift for this.

The way to meet our demand for cheap, plentiful goods is to make them elsewhere. They could be made at home, but then American workers and companies would have to take less in wages and profits. The alternative is for Americans to want less of everything and instead have the pride in owning fewer, higher quality items made at home. Less is more, in other words.

But our consumer culture of the last 4 decades precludes this. Flatly put, America has changed. It is not just big corporations out to get us. If we as a nation didn't want a deluge of cheap goods and closets full of shoes overflowing on the floor, then they would not be able to sell them to us. That they do, in staggering numbers, tells who really drives our markets.
Sir Isaac Newton was right - for each action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.

Wanna beat WalMart and the Big Box Stores? Wanna be a champpion for Made in America goods? Save your money until you can buy one item of high quality, made at home, instead of five from Wally World.

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

preppy*hippie*chick :

I don't shop at Walmart either. They kill the Main Streets of America.

R & S Mom - You want to be careful with that car. Hyundai fights that warranty. You have to have the thing serviced within the guidelines set in the owner's manual & AT a dealership or they will not honor it. I have also seen Hyundais not even two full years old with rust here and there. This is their third try in the US after two miserable failures. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for. I worked for Hyundai for a year and Lincoln-Mercury for three. You can get a 4 cyl Mercury Milan on the cheap and it is an excellent car with a fab reliability rating.

Sorry - just had to throw that in - OT I know!

we have had three hyundais now. And they have given us no problems with warranty coverage. And I have had work done at my regular mechanics and then also brought it to the dealership. Only rust on the Santa Fe(which I am not kind to) is on the door where someone slammed a car door into it. I just didnt get it fixed in time to have it not rust.
I would buy another. And will probably eventually trade in our current for another. Plus have my 1st generation Camaro in my drive way.​