The new warm 'n fuzzy Walmart finds an untapped market!!!

[Thtwudbeme]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060404/ap_on_bi_ge/wal_mart_jobs

Ten of those stores will anchor "Wal-Mart Jobs and Opportunity Zones" that will help local businesses, especially minority and women-run enterprises, with free advertising, grants to local chambers of commerce and seminars and advice on doing business near Wal-Mart and with Wal-Mart. The move is part of what Wal-Mart calls an effort to be a better community partner.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. This will be tragedy for every neighborhood into which they go!!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2207594

[warrens]

6. I disagree

If you have ever lived in one of these areas, ANY retail option is a blessing. People have to take public transportation or cabs miles just for everyday food shopping. Heck, the Jewel in my neighborhood often has a line of ad hoc car service cars lined up to shuttle people back and forth from the projects.

This ain't what to complain about with Wal-Mart. They're doing a good thing here. Just like small towns that had no or very limited shopping options, when Wal-Mart or Kmart or Zayre opened up, the people went nuts and the local merchants worth a damn adapted, moved to take advantage of the traffic, and prospered. The guy used to being the only TV store in town and refused to adapt usually crashed and burned.

Go into these neighborhoods and try to buy decent food at a decent price. It's not possible. The local merchants are in the Colt .45 and single-cigarette and off-brand potato chip business.

Wal-Mart has a lot to answer for. This ain't one of those things. Like the union guys said, this is just PR, but it will still do a lot of good for people with few or no shopping options.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. That need is EXACTLY what Walmart is taking advantage of.

If you think they are not going to up their prices and lower the product quality for these markets you are naive.
They are NOT trying to be altruistic and service a market. They are trying to MAKE MONEY. They see an untapped source of money and will do whatever they can to take advantage of it.
If any of these markets do not live up predetermined expectations, the store will close before you can blink your eyes. The local govts would be much better off investing their time, money and effort in supporting and building up many smaller locally owned businesses to service these communities.
They would be much more likely to reinvest the profits locally and support more local projects and people, and pay a decent wage.

Walmart is not the answer. They will take the money and run. They always have and always will. And that is AFTER they take the tax breaks and local tax money to subsidize their construction and other business startup costs.

EDIT: This does not even take into account the overwhelming percentage of Walmart products that are made in China. Locally owned businesses would be more likely to use more American made, and even locally made products, thus keeping more jobs here in the US.

[BrklynLiberal]

11. Wal-Mart's China inventory to hit US$18b this year

The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, says its inventory of stock produced in China is expected to hit US$18 billion this year, keeping the annual growth rate of over 20 per cent consistent over two years.

The trend is expected to continue, company officials revealed.

"We expect our procurement stock from China to continue to grow at a similar rate in line with Wal-Mart's growth worldwide, if not faster," said Lee Scott, the president and CEO (chief executive officer) of Wal-Mart.

<snip>

A market rumour says the retailer has its eyes on a 340,000-square metre warehouse at a logistics garden of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Bonded Area.

Scott covertly visited the site earlier this month, and hopes to own the whole warehouse to accommodate the firm's further expansion in China.

<snip>

Nevertheless, he said China is Wal-Mart's most important supplier in the world.

<snip>

"If Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it would rank as China's eighth-biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada," Xu said.

By the end of September, 2004, the top seven trading partners to the Chinese mainland are the European Union, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), South Korea and China's Taiwan Province, state statistics from the Ministry of Commerce.

Last year, the firm bought US$15 billion products from China, half from direct purchasing, the other from the firm's suppliers in China.

More than 5,000 Chinese enterprises have established steady supply alliances with Wal-Mart.

<snip>

Insiders point out Wal-Mart's imports from China have largely influenced the US trade deficit in China, which is expected to reach US$150 billion this year.

So far, more than 70 per cent of the commodities sold in Wal-Mart are made in China.

<snip>

"Buying more products in China means more job opportunities,(FOR CHINESE WORKERS!) which helps the firm win not only the government's hearts, but also the customers' appreciations," said Wang Yao, director of information department under the China General Chamber of Commerce.

<snip>


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/29/content_395728.htm


This was 2 years ago, so the numbers are even bigger by now.

[BrklynLiberal]

12. A synopsis of a FRONTLINE Show onWalmart from 2004

WalMart's Deal With the Devil

Frontline tonight had a story about WalMart and what has led to their becoming the largest retail company in the US today. According to Frontline, the success of WalMart comes from a three basic tactics:

* they have been exceptionally focused on making their internal processes as efficient as possible by taking advantage of the innovations from software engineering advances to manage their business processes
* they use their power and market reach to drive the lowest possible prices for their low price point items
* they are increasingly using their global reach to force changes in the marketplace

As Frontline showed, when WalMart first expanded through America as the low cost big-box store, it was a good partner with its (American) suppliers. In 1994, RubberMaid had a great relationship with WalMart because RubberMaid provided excellent quality, high valued items for a reasonable price and much of its product was sold through WalMart. Back then, RubberMaid was rated the #1 company in the US because it was able to compete on efficient, yet high quality products for the American marketplace - and WalMart helped as the largest retail outlet for RubberMaid products. Yet, when RubberMaid was forced to increase their prices due to the costs of their basic supplies, WalMart refused to accept the new prices and dropped many of the RubberMaid products from their stores. In a fairly short time the loss of WalMart as an outlet led to the demise of RubberMaid.

When WalMart hit a slowdown on its own part, they decided that the way to deal with the competitive marketplace was to aggressively use lowcost foreign suppliers to lower their prices more. And then they started to force their suppliers who considered WalMart with its purchase power, their most important customer, to also lower their prices significantly.

WalMart's focus in low prices has caused them to force their suppliers to move manufacturing to China. Suppliers have been forced to cut their prices if they wish to supply WalMart and this has forced the closing of numerous American factories and opening factories in China, all so the supplier can meet WalMart's price requirements.

Frontline shows that the hardball tactics that WalMart uses doesn't stop at our nation's border. They are now bullying their Chinese suppliers in exactly the same way. WalMart's focus on using costs to drive company behavior is having the predictable result: the race to the bottom is now afflicting China as well because WalMart's only value is low prices. WalMart is the a perfect example of the Darwinian corporation - "nothing matters except what *I* want" and "what's good for WalMart is good for America" even when we know that WalMart only cares that it achieves the highest level of profit with lowest cost.

According to Larry Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute about WalMart's China policy, "A very conservative estimate could say that we have lost over a million jobs to China."

WalMart is using its size and power to drive the political direction of the country as well. As TV manufacturers were facing severe competitive pressures from Chinese manufacturers, one company accused the Chinese manufacturers of dumping their product on the US market and took their case to the WTO. They were surprised to see that WalMart, a company that claims what's good for WalMart is good for America, weighed in on the side of China in this dumping suit. Nevertheless, the WTO agreed with the US manufacturers and ruled against China in this case, but not until most of the American TV manufacturers were put out of business.

So what is WalMart's impact on America? Is it really true that WalMart is good for America? They've lowered the prices for lots of consumers, yet they've also created an environment has moved numerous jobs to China and they've also lowered the standard of living for countless American workers who no longer can expect benefits for healthcare or living wages because these benefits don't fit into WalMart's pricing requirements.

Do remember that WalMart as a corporation could have decided that community and social impact were as important to its future as profit. In that case, they might have decided that the investment in automation could have been returned to employees as higher benefits rather than profits for the shareholders. Instead, they decided that short term profits (maximal individual gain) was worth undermining the long term health and wealth of America and Americans. WalMart is the American capitalist's dream which today manifests itself as the America worker's low wage and unemployment nightmare.

http://www.pacificviews.org/weblog/archives/000714.html

[MadHound]

10. The husks of dead or dying small towns across America

Tell a different tale. Wal-Mart has killed hundreds of small towns across America by predatory pricing. They would come into a small town, undercut the prices of the local small businesses, drive them to ruin, empty the downtown area, and then, when no competition was left, jack the prices up through the roof. And none, absolutely none of the money they made in that town stayed in that town, it was all shipped back to Bentonville on a chartered plane each and every week.

And once there was no more money circulating throughout the town, once all the businesses dried up and blew away, the people started following, leaving behind ghost towns throughout the country. And finally, after sucking the last red cent from the town, WalMart would pull up stakes and move on to its next victim, leaving it's big box store as a tombstone marking where a once vital and thriving small town once was. But sadly, no more, no more.

Don't fall for this latest crap from WalMart. They're just doing this for the PR value, the better to fool the suckers in the next town down the road.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. T- R-O-J-A-N H-O-R-S-E

[Turbineguy]

3. Adverts like:

"GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! FANTASTIC REDUCTIONS!"

[Cerridwen]

4. Using taxpayer dollars.

I wish I could find the link about walley world receiving gov't grants. You know damned well that the purpose for getting gov't funds is for this PR horse-hockey! It doesn't cost them one damned dime and they may even make some money while doing it!

:nuke:

edit: missing word and grammar

[Vinnie From Indy]

5. LOL! Wal-Mart throws around a few thousand in a neighborhood and

then they spend a million telling everyone. Then they rape and pillage everything and everyone in the area. Trojan horse is exactly correct.

[AndyA]

7. Don't. Shop. At. Wal-Mart. It's. Un-American. n/m

[Thtwudbeme]

9. Haven't stepped foot in one in years

horrible place

[BrklynLiberal]

13. Kicked and recommended