Re: Walmart Voucher Scam

DJGordon wrote:

Wal Mart needs the products to sell, the manufacturers need Wal Mart's volume. If one or the other pulls out, it's going to hurt both of them.

Actually, not. Wal-Mart doesn't NEED anyone. Part of the article did refer to the fact that people have brand loyalty (e.g., Procter & Gamble) more than Wal-Mart loyalty, so that part could hurt Wal-Mart.

However, for other vendors, the article did state that Wal-Mart has chosen to "go vertical and do it themselves," meaning they figured it was cheaper to make a house version of some items. They do this a lot.

Frankly, I'm torn. I shop at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club because I can't stand going to different places for different things, and I know what Wal-Mart has that Target doesn't that I prefer of the Wal-Mart brand.

As a capitalist, I'm also torn. It can't be BAD that Wal-Mart has forced vendors to be streamlined and efficient--that's good for everybody. However, WM has gotten so powerful that our economy rests on its presence, and frankly, I see that as a BAD thing. Diversity and competition are the backbone of real capitalism and WM's constant lowering of prices is an artificial suppression of real-time and real-life economic cycles that are necessary for growth.

The problem with Vlasic was that while they were putting out the goods like crazy, its margin was too small to compensate for the usual quantity=profit paradigm. That is how they could be manufacturing 24/7 and losing money. And the fact that WM can and will threaten a vendor to leak money or go out of business now if they don't play ball is the unethical part.

I worked at WM for a time to make a little extra money. Its crappy treatment of employees wasn't any different (to me) than any other retail outlet, but then, I didn't have to work full time (face it, I didn't HAVE to work there at all) and I didn't have to try to get enough hours to get insurance.

But for the full-time employees (mostly old women struggling on their own), it was a constant game of being scheduled for 35 hours (just under the requirement needed to get health insurance) simply to deny them health insurance--and they are by far not the first company to do this. But their sheer presence in the economy at large is such that, over time, it destroys instead of builds. Of course, these women ended up working longer hours, but health insurance goes by SCHEDULED hours, not by WORKED hours.

In any case, the old ladies I worked with remembered when Sam Walton was running the place and they say it was a completely different place.

I'm really hoping Costco can give them some competition and not leave it all to Target because my Target which is across the street from WM (while I love going there) is all but deserted most of the time (which is why I love going there). And, frankly, Target really never has what I need. I go there to wander in peace and not in a cattle car.
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