WalMart seeing the error of their ways?

[Aarlan]

Just read a story in NYT:

Even the chairman of Wal-Mart has endorsed an increase [in the minimum wage], saying that a worker earning the minimum wage cannot afford to shop at his stores.

Nice...They depress wages by putting everyone out of business, and now they're starting to worry about no one being able to purchase from them since they have no money...Beautiful...

AA

[Aarlan]

Especially since none of the stuff they sell (ok not none, but close to none) is produced by american workers in american factories...the irony is just killing me...

AA

[hcjilson]

Take a look.....

Especially since none of the stuff they sell (ok not none, but close to none) is produced by american workers in american factories...the irony is just killing me...

AA

Before taking this to the next level, take a look at your own shop and tell me how much American product you see there.Then, glance at the country of origin on your optical tools.Take a glance at where your telephone was made, or your cell, or your tv etc etc ad infintitum. That is one of our major problems......we don't make stuff anymore. It is now coming home to roost. Sad but a fact of life.

[Johns]

hcjilson,

I agree that it is hard to find products that are manufactured in the US. I was going to say that if more were available, then we'd be able to buy more made by our own workers -but we wouldn't. We had our chance, the masses ran to WalMart, WalMart ran to China, and now there are few manufacturers left.

A WM recently came to our town (which was featured in the movie "WM, The High Cost of Low Prices"), and many people were huffing and puffing about them coming here. Eight months later, those same people are very comfortable shopping at the Walton's store. At first it was just for "things you couldn't get anywhere else-because we're still supporting the locals". After awhile, the allegiences are forgotten, and WM becomes the one-stop shop. Ironically, our business has increased, and I've hired their optician away. Not all have done so well, and 8 months is still too early to be doing a victory dance, or calling for retreat.

Henry Ford gave all his employees raises so they could go out and spur the economy. He knew that he couldn't sell cars to folks without money. In the past, WM hsa gotten by paying it's people as little as possible. Maybe they're finding out that it really was too little.

[Blake]

Most WM employees around here start out above minimum wage - it's the competitors that pay less. So if the minimum goes up, it affects the competition's bottom line, not theirs.

[Aarlan]

Before taking this to the next level, take a look at your own shop and tell me how much American product you see there.Then, glance at the country of origin on your optical tools.Take a glance at where your telephone was made, or your cell, or your tv etc etc ad infintitum. That is one of our major problems......we don't make stuff anymore. It is now coming home to roost. Sad but a fact of life.

I do own my own shop, but we opened 18 months ago...Not many Domestically made frames by that time... or tools, or phones. However I do support my locally owned grocery store rather than the large corporate. I frequent local eating establishments rather than McDs, BK, etc. I purchase the locally produced milk, eggs, honey, etc. at the supermarket. It certainly costs more, but I do what I can.

Yes I agree entirely with your assessment that we don't produce anything anymore, and that it is about to come to a head. How many of our citizens produce anything substantive? We are becoming a "service" based economy, but that is just a shell game when you come down to crux of the issue.
My favorite example is the stock market. Here you have people purchasing shares of companies for prices that are 20, 30, 40 times more than that (Price/Earnings Ratio) share of the company will earn. In other words it wil take up to 40 years for that share to 'earn' in real terms what you paid for it. And that is after all of the company's accounting shenanigans ('I've seen one company lose close to $100 million, but due to 'One time' charges, and the like they claimed a net profit of almost $5 million...I wish i could do that with my business). The shares are not 'worth' a fraction of what they are being bought and sold for...but like an economics professor once told me, "they are worth what folks are willing to pay for them." Sounds a lot like baseball cards to me. Then you have options traders, who are people making a fortune on whether those inflated shares will go up or down...and then the derivatives markets, folks betting on those people who are betting on the activity of the shares that are are earning a small fraction of their current price. Billions of dollars transacted, but nothing of substance produced, sold, consumed, etc.
Oh well, I guess this global economy and service oriented economy is best for everyone...or so I'm told

AA

[Aarlan]

Most WM employees around here start out above minimum wage - it's the competitors that pay less. So if the minimum goes up, it affects the competition's bottom line, not theirs.

That was my point I suppose. A megachain on a scale of WalMart (revenues are roughly equivalent to 2.5% of the ENTIRE US GNP!) has the ability to squelch virtually anyone in almost any retail setting. By lowering it's prices by the degree that it does, Other businesses are forced to try to crimp in other ways (such as offering lower wages) to compensate for their unfathomable disadvantage in terms of purchasing power. As these other businesses are forced to lower the wages their employees are paid, these employees are forced to save where they can...by shopping at WalMart. As more and more folks are forced to shop at the only place they can afford (WalMart) due to the depressed wages (caused by WalMart), WalMart becomes more successful, and can expand into more markets to compete against other local retailers to repeat the cycle of forcing these business to lower wages to compete, etc.
Now that the syndrome has become may become pervasive in our society that the folks that shop at walmart work for companies that won't be able to afford to give their employees raises or even keep them employed. WalMart's ultra low price strategy may begin to backfire since they will not be able to squeeze any more money out of folks barely able to make ends meet in the first place..Because of WalMart.
You are correct then, since a raise in the minimum wage will in fact further hurt those trying to compete with the WalMarts. Then these businesses will stop hiring or cease operations altogether, leading to fewer dollars spent at WalMart...Because of WalMart.

AA

PS THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A PERSONAL ATTACK ON WALMART!!!!! I Think Walmart is only doing what the average american consumer is clamouring for...and they do it better than anyone. Which is why they are in this position.

[Jubilee]

Please.. there has to be other South Park Fans out there. The guys did an excellent job pointing out the whole Walmart Dilemma. In fact it was this episode that got me watching it again...

Walmart comes to town.. prices drop... local business can't compete price wise, so they go under. People realize that local businesses are closing, but they only think in terms of their own pocket books. So they talk about how bad it is, but still shop there anyway...Nothing will close them down, except for lack of business.. which will never happen cause too many people have to shop for price. Not service or quality.

Sam Walton probaly didn't set out to have the power of China in terms of economic power when he started the business. (In an ABC news report they stated that if Walmart was a country it would have the 9th highest GNP right behind China)

Manufacturers want to sell to Walmart, because of the sheer volume of orders they will get, but have to be able to provide the product at Walmart rates. Walmart tells them how to succeed to do that, but then the company starts to lose money, or is producing more product for less money, and becomes a slave to Walmart. Sometimes Walmart ends up buying them out in the end.

I admit though that I do shop at Walmart. For staples, such as canned goods, or back in the day, diapers, the savings was something I couldn't afford to miss. Or in the case of my hometown, they are affectively the only store to shop in for most things. There is no competition. Its either Walmart, a 30 miles trip to a bigger town, or high priced "specialty" shops, that half the population can't afford.

Other items such as meat, I get from local sources (one of our patients is a farmer who has some of the best meat products) or in the case of electronics (computer stuff) I get from online sources (NewEgg.com)

The funny thing is that it is so hard to out right say whether foreign manufactured things are bad or not..

In Indiana we have more foreign car plants that are solvent and have more Indiana workers employed than the factories we have for the American auto makers.

My sister's employer makes display shelving and units for the big retailers who provide the foreign produced goods..

The amusing thing is I remember when Walmart's big selling point was its Made in America brands...


Cassandra

[Ed_Optician]

American Manufactured goods

Unfortunately there is no supplier of American Made dispensing tools. Most of my dispensing/adjusting tools are made in Germany only because of the quality of the goods compared to the alternative from Pakistan and elsewhere.
Pathway is gone so is May. Are Art-Craft frames still made in the USA?
Today our edgers come from all over the world but not the USA. It used to be AIT was made here as was Edgemaster
Our diagnostic instruments are no longer made here. Reichart bought out AO and B&L equipment. Our beloved B&L 70 lensometer is no longer because the asian manufactured ones are almost half the price of the Reichart reincarnation of the B&L 70.

Ed

[Johns]

I don't own a television, but one of my opticians did have the South Park episode on her laptop, and it really hit the nail on the head. It was uncanny.

[For-Life]

Wal-Mart lost what was it? $157 million in a lawsuit last week for not allowing its employees who work 6 hours daily to get a 30 minute lunch break?

That is a stupid mistake.

Underpaying its female employees.

That is a stupid mistake.


I really doubt they are seeing the error in its ways. It is just trying to please those who found out about its horrible practices. I have seen them brag about how when you buy from them you support American manufacturers. It is nothing more than PR that is mostly made of lies.

[AWTECH]

What happened to American Made

I think two significant factors have caused the term "MADE IN AMERICA" to almost become a memory or dream.

1 - The lower wages available are obvious

2 - The access to capital for production for new ideas in almost non-existant unless it is a too good to be true story. The investment community is dreaming of products fully developed for the market, fully patent protected, global demand and the ability to be produced by outsourcing (no capital for a manufacturing facility as this capital offers too low of a return).

An point raise earlier in this post is one reason there is no investment capital for new manufacturing. Current successful public companies trade for 20 times earnings or more. Most private companies trade for 3 to 6 times earnings. So where does one put the capital into a startup? for 3 to 5 times or buy a private company and build it up a little and sell it to the public for 20 times earnings?

There is a reason major stock brokerages have to employee 6 figure sales people to sell listed securities.

Many new manufacturing ventures in the US are backed by a foreign investment. Most of the new auto manufacturing capacity in the US is in non-union area built by foreign owned companies.

[Johns]

Awtech:


Add these to your list:

- There's no EPA in China.

-There's no OSHA in China

-There's no unions in China -Not posted to start a union/non-union war, but I think that is partly to blame for many jobs going overseas. The auto companies that are hiring in the US (Honda & Toyota) are non-union.

[cinders831]

Awtech:


Add these to your list:

- There's no EPA in China.

-There's no OSHA in China

-There's no unions in China -Not posted to start a union/non-union war, but I think that is partly to blame for many jobs going overseas. The auto companies that are hiring in the US (Honda & Toyota) are non-union.

You may have just hit the nail on the head.

[ziggy]

Sam Walton probaly didn't set out to have the power of China in terms of economic power when he started the business. Cassandra

Sam was hugh on the "made in America" thing. He resisted for years going out side this country for goods. After his death the company made the move into the third world for the best price on any given item. The americian worker has, in many cases, priced them self out of the market. Nothing personal, just business.