Wal-Mart too liberal???

[maseman]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/139426

Read the above link. Not sure what to think of this. Seems like cheap crap made in sweat-shop China really should be the topic. You can dress up a pig but at the end of the day it is still a pig.

>>For investors, most annual meetings are anything but a hot ticket. They're typically held in small auditoriums and feature an agenda that makes C-Span look like an action thriller. Then there's Wal-Mart, the Arkansas-based retailer whose shareholder meetings are celebrity-packed, high-wattage showcases. Last year's gathering featured the comedian Sinbad and musical numbers by Jennifer Lopez and the cast of "High School Musical." But amid these surprise performances, the most unexpected moment came when shareholder activists were each given three minutes at the podium. Most offered run-of-the-mill liberal criticisms that hit every large company: a Roman Catholic nun urged Wal-Mart to support universal health insurance; several speakers suggested the company rein in executives' huge paychecks. But from the other end of the spectrum came Peter Flaherty, lambasting Wal-Mart for being too nice to unions, too concerned about the environment and too accommodating to gays and lesbians. "People shop at Wal-Mart because of low prices, not because the company is politically correct," Flaherty shouted at the crowd.<<

[asthmaticeog]

1. Peter Flaherty: please lay off of the crack. nt

[zonmoy]

20. Don't think its crack he is on.

something far more sinister is his problem.

[jmowreader]

2. Too NICE to unions?

What are they supposed to do, run mortar attacks on union locals?

[Canuckistanian]

5. He should tell that to employees of a Quebec store that was closed down

NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it will close one of its Canadian stores, just as some 200 workers at the location are near winning the first-ever union contract from the world's largest retailer.

Wal-Mart said it was shuttering the store in Jonquiere, Quebec, in response to unreasonable demands from union negotiators that would make it impossible for the store to sustain itself.

"We were hoping it wouldn't come to this," Andrew Pelletier, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada, said Wednesday. "Despite nine days of meetings over three months, we've been unable to reach an agreement with the union that in our view will allow the store to operate efficiently and profitably."

~

"Wal-Mart has fired these workers not because the store was losing money but because the workers exercised their right to join a union," Michael J. Fraser, national director of UFCW Canada, said in a written statement. "Once again, Wal-Mart has decided it is above the law and that the only rules that count are their rules."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0210-13.htm

[jmowreader]

8. He should tell it to the butchers Wal-Mart used to employ, too

IIRC, the meat department employees at ONE Wal-Mart decided to join the United Food & Commercial Workers Union. Wal-Mart retaliated by firing every meat department worker Wal-Mart employed, and introduced "case-ready" prepackaged meat.

Yeah, whoever said Wal-Mart was too kind to the unions was completely FITH.

[GOPBasher]

9. LOL

Good point. :thumbsup:

[Kitty Herder]

18. That's pretty much what I was thinking. nt

[blondeatlast]

3. Plant. Plantplantplantplantplant. Do they really think we are that stupid?

On second thought, please don't answer that. Of course they do--and lots of people are.

[LeftyMom]

4. Yep

Then they can act like they piss off both sides and are charting the middle course.

[NewJeffCT]

11. Is the guy being sarcastic?

I can't imagine anybody saying Wal-Mart is soft on unions?

[madmom]

6. I know I've said this before, but here we go again. I work at Wal-mart, I like my job, I

make pretty good money, I can pretty well pick my hours, my store managers are nice people, I'm even getting a profit sharing check this quarter.Wal-mart is not the evil that people make it out to be, I don't know how it used to be. As far as "cheap crap made in sweat-shop China" have you checked out other stores? I have checked out K-mart, Meijer, Target, JC Penny, they sell a lot of the exact same stuff, even other "stuff" that Wal-mart doesn't sell and it's still made in China.As for hurting the "mom&pop" stores that one makes me laugh. I live about a block from the local school (k-12) also there is a "mom & pop" across the street from the school. The owner of this store went to Wal-mart when we had cases of pop on sale for $4.88 for 24 cans,he then takes it to his store and sells it to the school kids at $1.00 a can.That's just one example, I've seen several more. So really who's hurting who here? This guy is making over $19 on each case of pop, off of kids!

[Earth Bound Misfit]

13. The fact that the owner went to Wal-Mart to buy "pop"...

NOT a distributor or wholesaler speaks VOLUMES on the inability of "mom & pop" operations to compete. That same case of pop, purchased directly, would have cost much more.

[madmom]

17. So it's ok to buy from Wal-mart indirectly then? Why is it ok for this mom&pop to fleece school kids

He does it with other things too, this was just an example. This is a double standard to the max!

[Earth Bound Misfit]

21. I never said it was ok to "fleece" ANYONE

nor was I attacking Wal-Mart, just pointing out the huge purchasing power advantage held by the large chains, SUCH AS Wal-Mart, over "mom & pop" stores IN GENERAL.

[madmom]

23. Misunderstanding.. the point I was trying to make was that everyone seems to think

Wal-mart is this big evil entity and we should all support our local mom & pop stores, when in reality buy doing this we are still supporting them and in some cases making it worse by letting the middle man fleece the public.

[avenger64]

7. Yeah, they're really friendly to unions and that health care plan ...

... n/t

[melm00se]

10. there are crackpots

everywhere who believe what they believe and it is very difficult to persuade otherwise.

While Wal-Mart may have some regressive ideas and taken regressive actions, they do provide something to their communities: namely low cost consumer goods.

There are studies floating around that Wal-Mart's pricing ranges 20-30% less on grocery items than their competitors and their forced efficiencies thru their supply chain has, to an extent, a positive impact of keeping inflation down.

Because of that, the people that benefit the most are folks in the lower income brackets.

everything comes with a good and a bad side.

Personally, I haven't been in a Wal-mart in over 10 years, I find them dirty, crowded and claustrophobic, so I shop elsewhere.

[NewJeffCT]

12. A little story on "forced efficiencies thru their supply chain"

My wife worked for a mid-size manufacturing company in Massachusetts that employed 600-700 people. For years, they had supplied items to Wal-Mart that they manufactured in Massachusetts and the company itself was over 100 years old. They even had their own little displays set up in Wal-Marts everywhere and Wal-Mart was, by far, their largest customer.

However, earlier this decade, Wal-Mart informed them that all of their items must be shipped to Wal-Mart in Guangzhou, China (a huge port city in southern China not far from Hong Kong)- who would then ship the items to the US.

So, the company had a choice: (1) they could ship the items from Massachusetts to China at a prohibitive cost, which would quickly lead to them going out of business; (2) they could drop Wal-Mart as a customer, which would also lead to them going out of business; or (3) they could have their items made in China and shipped cheaply to Guangzhou... it would mean they would lay off all but 100-150 people, but they would at least still be open for business. They chose option three.

The killer is that the items were not any cheaper to actually make in China - it was the fact that the items were required to go through Wal-Mart in China.

And, I'm sure the story is the same for dozens of other small to mid-sized manufacturers here in the US.

[melm00se]

14. From strictly a business stand point:

So, the company had a choice: (1) they could ship the items from Massachusetts to China at a prohibitive cost, which would quickly lead to them going out of business; (2) they could drop Wal-Mart as a customer, which would also lead to them going out of business; or (3) they could have their items made in China and shipped cheaply to Guangzhou... it would mean they would lay off all but 100-150 people, but they would at least still be open for business. They chose option three.

From strictly a business stand point:

#1 - I agree, you can't operate at a loss and continue to function

#2 - This begs the question: why are all their eggs in one basket? Diversification, not only in products but also in suppliers and retailers, is the key to survival.

#3 - It is better to lay off 100-150 and stay in business employing the remainder, than to go down the tubes completely.


Wal-Mart is the king of commodity products - do they sell anything "cutting edge"? something that appeals to the innovators, early adopters and/or the 1st half of the early majority? I don't believe that they do. The products that they stock and purchase are ones that are on the latter half of the curve, where the products are readily available from a multitude of vendors allowing them to cherry pick who their suppliers are (in my business they call it "razor blade business", invite all the suppliers to one meeting, pass out razor blades, invite everyone to cut their wrists and whoever is willing to bleed the most wins).

If I were going into any field, it wouldn't be in a mature commoditized market, it would something making/selling/servicing products/services in the earliest part of the adoption cycle:



When you are on the left side of the curve, you can pretty much name your price and reap huge rewards, the trick is to stay ahead of that wave by re-investing the majority of your profits to R&D the next great thing (Apple is a good example:

- non-MS desktop (MS/Intel commiditized).
- non-MS laptop (MS/intel commiditized).
- iPod - 1st audio only, then audio and video and then smaller, more solid state) and that is now commoditized (and don't forget iTunes).
- iPhone (slowly being chewed away by the other phone manufacturers).
- What's next for Apple? Don't know but i am sure that they have something on the drawing board.

Apple keeps building off this stack and brand - they have not, nor do I believe that they will, abandon any products until they have to but they will keep building off them and realizing revenue from them but the lion's share of their profits will come from the latest product introduction.

[NewJeffCT]

15. They didn't have all their eggs in one basket

But, Wal-Mart was a good 30% of their business and they would not have been able to survive that loss of 30% of their business. Most of their items were pretty low cost and low tech stuff and Wal-Mart dominates the retail field in that area.

[melm00se]

16. then

Most of their items were pretty low cost and low tech stuff

their relationship with Wal-Mart probably sped up the inevitable.

[Uncle Joe]

19. This is just more corporate media propaganda, the title and first two paragraphs are the giveaway.

Is Wal-Mart Too Liberal?
Once a paragon of Red State values, it's being criticized for bowing to political correctness.

For investors, most annual meetings are anything but a hot ticket. They're typically held in small auditoriums and feature an agenda that makes C-Span look like an action thriller. Then there's Wal-Mart, the Arkansas-based retailer whose shareholder meetings are celebrity-packed, high-wattage showcases. Last year's gathering featured the comedian Sinbad and musical numbers by Jennifer Lopez and the cast of "High School Musical." But amid these surprise performances, the most unexpected moment came when shareholder activists were each given three minutes at the podium. Most offered run-of-the-mill liberal criticisms that hit every large company: a Roman Catholic nun urged Wal-Mart to support universal health insurance; several speakers suggested the company rein in executives' huge paychecks. But from the other end of the spectrum came Peter Flaherty, lambasting Wal-Mart for being too nice to unions, too concerned about the environment and too accommodating to gays and lesbians. "People shop at Wal-Mart because of low prices, not because the company is politically correct," Flaherty shouted at the crowd.

Come again? With its deep roots in Red State America and a reputation for upholding "family values," Wal-Mart seems an unlikely target for conservative criticism. It's the company that banned sales of CDs with offensive lyrics, refused to stock racy magazines like Maxim and declined (until 2006) to sell the Plan B emergency contraceptive pill. But in recent years, as it faced growing pressure from liberal activists, Wal-Mart has begun to make changes. It began offering more-robust health-insurance coverage to workers. Its CEO voiced support for raising the minimum wage. It has launched an ambitious environmental program. As a result, while Wal-Mart continues to face criticism from liberal groups, it's now simultaneously being criticized by some conservatives, who say the company's concessions to liberals are hurting its business. "This is kind of a guerrilla fight," says Flaherty, who heads a tiny right-wing think tank called the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), which holds just a few thousand dollars in Wal-Mart stock

<snip>

Now ask your self who does corporate media member Newsweek give power to in this article the most or the tiny?

[Earth Bound Misfit]

22. They make like, 500 ska-trillion dollars and they get SINBAD?

Then there's Wal-Mart....whose shareholder meetings are celebrity-packed, high-wattage showcases.

SINBAD???