http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/...ine/shows/walmart/view/

Well.... what do you think?

Probably not.
Try explaing why to a redneck though.
Wal mart, pbr, nascar, & 'merica is essentially the redneck 10 commandments & speaking otherwise is herasy

I think that show is over 10 years old and came out before the doc "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" that exposed a lot of Wal-Mart's bad business practices. Wal-Mart is one of America's largest welfare Queens. Wal-Mart is only good for a small handful of people, it screws just about everyone else.

This documentary was a required assignment for my American Politics class. I found it incredibly interesting that wal-mart sided with the CHINESE in regards to the international trade policy violation. Wal-mart sides with anyone who benefits walmart, even if it does not benefit Americans as a whole.

LMAO!!! Kikker knows.

In response to the bold- I'd rather not. LOL. I'm sure they would turn the discussion it into: They're tryin' to take our guns!!

Are wal-mart warehouses good for any locality? Around here, they shut down local business. I don't support. Ain't never had respect for them. Especially when a wal-mart has an indoor mcdonalds that's less expensive than the other mcdonalds in the same town, just so all the folks at wal-mart stuff their cheap faces.

Does anyone else ever feel overwhelming existential horror whenever they enter WalMart?
Maybe it's the light, or the size, or the mindless consumerism, but within five minutes of entering a WalMart, I'm pretty much ready to slit my wrists and pass into the void because I know life is meaningless.

It's sort of like the anti-psilocybin.

I also feel this weird urge to go buy every single plant in their garden center becuase I know a terrible death awaits 80-90% of them and I want to save them all.

Blessings
~ND

I don't know. it's good for low income families who don't know / have alternatives. like goodwill, it creates jobs for disadvantaged people. and it's good for me when I need to go somewhere and beg.

That is a joke right? Wal Mart helps the poor in a conceptual sense, since it helps create so many.

I don't know if there's any truth to it, but i was told they are one of the biggest players in the for profit prison industry.

It's sort of a vicious cycle: WalMart takes over the markets, giving people no other places to go but to them for pretty much everything they need. People who would ordinarily be able to support themselves running and working at small business are undercut by WalMart, and so have no where to go but there.

Then, WalMart says: look at us, our low prices are good for poor folks, despite the fact that a lot of those folks might not be as poor if WalMart didn't exist in the first place.

Blessings
~ND

I"ve never been to a wallmart before but, as far as i can make out from this article, a proportion of the blame must lie at the feet of those that wish to buy cheap tat from China. Or cheap useless tat from anywhere.

China is hoovering up resources at a rate of knotts and, by way of our desires for smart phones, laptops, usb sticks and limited edition my little ponies, we are complicit.

Thank you for elucidating my thought so clearly and concisely, natty! That's exactly what i meant.

I was just going to say they have been raping America with a smile for decades, but you put it so much better.

DING DING DING!!!!!! We have a winner, folks! It is the very same consumer that shopped at wal-mart, which eventually put the local manufacturing plant out of business and lost his job. Now, he has found a job at a reduced wage and a reduced quality of living; but thank god that he can still get a frozen turkey and some shot gun shells all at one stop....

Achtung, ze Germans are coming and the question for Walmart will be: how low can you go?



also:

Why Aldi Is Giving Walmart A Run For Its Money - Forbes August 2013

No. I most likely wasn't joking, null42.

I don't know anything about walmart behind the scenes and what they might actually be doing. But up front walmart is like the watering hole so to speak for undesirables and derelicts like me. It puts little businesses under I hear. Which I'm told isn't a very good thing. It demolishes our eco-diversity so to speak.. I get it. But there are people that aren't interested in running or working at a small business, selling merchandise. A lot of people. And a lot that simply can't.
I am indifferent to walmart. I know the existential horror, I know the meaninglessness. But that's everywhere. It's in the malls, it's in the shopping centers, it's in the airports. But I've developed a huge tolerance. And that's part of living on this rock. Developing tolerance, because there are so very many people, and we are all so different from one another. Different needs, different visions. Towering babylon and meaninglessness abounding. There are other things to worry about; walmart can be.

Or not, I don't care. And so probably there is a lot about it that I don't know. Maybe Walmart is bad -- But how bad??

I can safely say wal mart is pretty bad.

I get what you are saying, thymamai.... but it's healthy to have these discussions in a civil manner where we can learn from each other.

Some people tell me that giving money to beggars on the street is bad, but how bad is it? The person sits at an exit off of a major highway holding a sign that says "God Bless" and asks for money. Some people give him a few bucks, some people yell at him and tell him to get a job. (not that it matters, but I keep a cup of change that I give to any begger I see standing on the exit ramp.... it's part of an experiement to see how many other drivers behind me donate after seeing another person donate - it usually starts a chain reaction)

The clergy man standing at the front of a church yelling "GOD BLESS!" also passes around a small box or basket where people HAPPILY donate their hard earned funds.

Same guy. Same requests. GOD Bless. What if the money being paid to the rich clergy men was actually given to the beggar. well, it all comes down to implications and expectations. The beggar simply offers, "God Bless." But the Clergy man can guaruntee the lowest price to heaven!!!

We generally expect the beggar to buy booze or drugs - associated with the "bad"(especially if hee buys it from walmart, jk jk ). We ASSUME the clergy man does some godly thing with his donations, but there's no telling what he does... Maybe he invests in wal-mart stock... Or, if he is really clever, he'll buy into a manufacturing plant in China