19 replies to this topic

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Article linked to below is about their food domination but consider all the side businesses
they are getting into (or have been into already.)
Phones
Pharmaceuticals
Eyeglasses
Health insurance
What did I leave out?

One nation under God? Not so much.
One nation under wal-mart? You bet. And soon to be one world.

Article on how wal-mart is devouring the food system from Grist-
here.

[Phil]

It was reported on one of the financial channels that Wal-Mart alone is worth 1.5% of the nations GDP, I'm glad they are an American company!

Expect consolidation to continue until we find some way to protect the consumer without smothering the little guy with red tape.

[johnygreen]

Wall mart is good for consumers because this way they get best things at best price with best customer services. In wall mart customers have a great shopping experience.

In the coming future wall mart would dominate other countries markets as well.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

johnygreen, on 28 January 2013 - 03:05 AM, said:

Wall mart is good for consumers because this way they get best things at best price with best customer services. In wall mart customers have a great shopping experience.

In the coming future wall mart would dominate other countries markets as well.

Have to wholeheartedly disagree. They are not good for the consumer, their vendors or the planet. And their
customer service is non-existent (from memory-I don't shop there anymore.)
They have bankrupted thousands of mom and pop operations, their store footprints are massive, they
don't pay a living wage, they skewer the vendors/market to fit their needs..........
I could go on but I'll just give them a no vote, instead.

[johnygreen]

Shortpoet-GTD, on 28 January 2013 - 03:29 AM, said:

Have to wholeheartedly disagree. They are not good for the consumer, their vendors or the planet. And their
customer service is non-existent (from memory-I don't shop there anymore.)
They have bankrupted thousands of mom and pop operations, their store footprints are massive, they
don't pay a living wage, they skewer the vendors/market to fit their needs..........
I could go on but I'll just give them a no vote, instead.

Yes you are right they have effected thousands or lakhs of Mom and Pop shops everywhere, but it is not the wall mart alone as there are so many malls and other big retail chains which have also bankrupted thousands of small shops and vendors.

I hope you may have got a negative experience at Wall Mart by chance. Although I am not an advocate or supporter of Wall Mart but still I believe that here customer can get a variety of products under one roof at reasonable price. If you are correct then I wish that they improve their service and should care about each and every single customer.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

http://grist.org/foo...he-food-system/

http://grist.org/bus...sustainability/

https://docs.google....e6GUPJv2XOL4jag

http://www.nytimes.c...lmart.html?_r=0

Just a few to read for now.

[johnygreen]

Oh that is really very big issue then!
Thanks for the useful links! Can you give me some more such links/information.

Than what we should do now? What is your opinion?

[Shortpoet-GTD]

johnygreen, on 28 January 2013 - 04:24 AM, said:

Oh that is really very big issue then!
Thanks for the useful links! Can you give me some more such links/information.

Than what we should do now? What is your opinion?

Don't shop there and encourage others to read our boards on the subject so they won't shop there either.

[johnygreen]

Yeah sure

Can you give me the link of some of our good threads(apart from this one) which are having a good discussion/information over this topic please.

thanks

[Shortpoet-GTD]

http://www.kvewtv.co...ll-meat-pink-s/

http://www.altenergy...l__+pink +slime

http://www.altenergy...mart#entry19672

http://rt.com/usa/ne...to-food-37-242/

http://rt.com/usa/ne...-bill-2008-398/

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of links on the web that show that walmart is no friend to
the consumer, their health, the wealth of it's employees (whether direct or via vendors).
Their installing solar panels is a good thing, sure. But what's the saying?
Lipstick on a pig.

[Phil]

It has raised the standard of living for millions that are less well off than most of us.   Not everyone can afford whole foods.  All markets are consolidating as i said above.  Safeway is huge as well as a number of other big chains.  Costco also has produce.  It is rather transparent to single one company out when they are all in the same boat.  Costco gets their items from the same Chinese factories that Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. do.

With record numbers on food stamps, Wal-marts prices are a good thing.

[yoder]

Walmart's full scale destruction of small town America is so well known that South Park parodied it.  Many of us are old enough to have been around before Walmart changed, and many of us lived in small towns and saw first hand what happened as soon as Walmart moved in.

As with anything, Walmart isn't all bad.  They do provide lots of minimum wage jobs, as long as you are ok with being locked in the store all night, getting passed over for promotion because you're the wrong sex or color and don't mind working for free when the boss "asks" you to.

[Phil]

Total BS.  I live in a small town and the new Wal-Mart super store has all kinds of other shops springing up around it.  The same thing happened when Home Depot moved in, more business, not less.

No one is being forced to work there, every time I hear of a store opening on the news it's lines of people waiting to sign up.  I guess they must be misguided.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Phil, on 28 January 2013 - 07:40 PM, said:

Total BS.  I live in a small town and the new Wal-Mart super store has all kinds of other shops springing up around it.  The same thing happened when Home Depot moved in, more business, not less.

No one is being forced to work there, every time I hear of a store opening on the news it's lines of people waiting to sign up.  I guess they must be misguided.

When you're out of work and they are the only ones hiring, you take it; hoping for something better. As much
as poor people want to get ahead, often they can't afford the cost of school to get ahead.
Not all poor people are stupid, they just don't have the education to become middle class or above.

[Phil]

The fact is that they do provide jobs and in every area I've seen other shops open up around them.  That also provides jobs.  What is the alternative, no jobs?  

Most can afford the cost of Junion College and get a technical degree, there are tons of scholarships out there as well.   My mother wrote an essay for the DAR, (daughters of the American Revolution), and that paid her way through nursing school at age 48.  My wife also got a grant that paid for her nursing degree in her 40's, again at our local JC.   Where there is a will, there is a way.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Phil, on 29 January 2013 - 04:16 PM, said:

The fact is that they do provide jobs and in every area I've seen other shops open up around them.  That also provides jobs.  What is the alternative, no jobs?  

Most can afford the cost of Junion College and get a technical degree, there are tons of scholarships out there as well.   My mother wrote an essay for the DAR, (daughters of the American Revolution), and that paid her way through nursing school at age 48.  My wife also got a grant that paid for her nursing degree in her 40's, again at our local JC.   Where there is a will, there is a way.

You're right. wm is the best thing since sliced bread. whatever.

[yoder]

Phil, on 28 January 2013 - 07:40 PM, said:

Total BS.  I live in a small town and the new Wal-Mart super store has all kinds of other shops springing up around it.  The same thing happened when Home Depot moved in, more business, not less.

No one is being forced to work there, every time I hear of a store opening on the news it's lines of people waiting to sign up.  I guess they must be misguided.

Now my turn to call total BS.  As Walmart came into these small towns, they drove mom and pops out of business until there was nothing left but Walmart and any other big box that didn't compete directly with anything that Walmart sold.

[yoder]

This 10 year study shows how Walmarts adversely affected the economy in Iowa at local and regional levels.  It also shows how the smaller towns were hardest hit and how the areas never recovered from the damage.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Still not a fan of wal-mart, but their new policies on chemical ingredients (toxins) and their reduction
from vendors, is a baby step in the right direction.

"The process started with a list of hundreds of priority chemicals.
Walmart defines a priority chemical as one that “meets the criteria for classification as a carcinogen, mutagen, reproductive toxicant,
or is persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic; or any chemical for which there is scientific evidence of probable serious
effects to human health or the environment which give rise to an equivalent level of concern.
” Assessment was based on a large set of authoritative, scientific and regulatory reference lists."
http://blogs.edf.org...paign=edfhealth

[Besoeker]

Shortpoet-GTD, on 27 February 2014 - 06:59 AM, said:

Still not a fan of wal-mart, but their new policies on chemical ingredients (toxins) and their reduction
from vendors, is a baby step in the right direction.

"The process started with a list of hundreds of priority chemicals.
Walmart defines a priority chemical as one that “meets the criteria for classification as a carcinogen, mutagen, reproductive toxicant,
or is persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic; or any chemical for which there is scientific evidence of probable serious
effects to human health or the environment which give rise to an equivalent level of concern.
” Assessment was based on a large set of authoritative, scientific and regulatory reference lists."
http://blogs.edf.org...paign=edfhealth

We also have the Walmart influence here in UK.

From Wkiipedia:

Quote

Asda Stores Ltd. (stylised as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile phone network (via theEE network as of the 25th November 2013), Asda Mobile. Its head office is at Asda House in Leeds, West Yorkshire.^[1]
In 1999, Asda became a subsidiary of the American retail company Walmart and today is the UK's third largest chain by market share. Asda's marketing promotions are usually based solely on price, with Asda promoting itself under the slogan Britain's Lowest Priced Supermarket, 16 Years Running. As a wholly owned division of Walmart, Asda is not required to declare quarterly or half-yearly earnings. It submits full accounts to Companies House each October