Hmm, okay. I'm trying, I'm trying, hold on a sec.. . Nope, i really just can't twist Walmart into a positive. I hear you thy, and think i understand your position. And I'm not coming down on you in any way, yeah there are other things to worry our pretty little minds over.

But if this egregiousness is over-arching and omnipresent- greed has become the one and only motivating factor to most Americans- is Walmart symptomatic or causal? More likely, it's a chicken-or -egg scenario, with it having come along and developed at the right time riding a wave of corporate greed combined with a complacent population who have conflated the dead 'American dream' with credit cards and debt. Walmart supplies the low wage jobs that pay for the cheap accoutrements of the American false prosperity. On credit.

BUUUT,when the 'American dream' existed, back in the days of a thriving middle class, where a single wage earning family could afford to buy and maintain a home ,this country and worlds was much different. Capitalism works, on a limited population field. There's just too many of us for there not to be a horribly unlevel playing field with the current economic model. As thy says, there's not a lot of folks who want to build a small business and with NAFTA etc, well sheesh, the wheels just don't roll.

I'm all for change, as the song says ' i can't imagine why you wouldn't welcome any kind of change'. Short of violence, earthquakes and tidal waves, what to do about it? What do you do? I live in a fairly big city that embraces small business, diy ethic and i neither need nor want s Walmart. But we're weird here.

I try to avoid Walmart at all costs, but what amazes me is the difference in the stores from one side of town to the other. Regardless get in and get out. Too many walking around in their pajamas and pants hanging around the knees. Really doesn't matter what store you shop at these days majority of goods are made elsewhere. Too late though because Walmart is a big hit, and probably has more say in things than some small countries.

No. Walmart is not good for America, or at least it's local communities. How many mom n pop stores have gone under thanks to walmart and other stores like it? When you shop at a locally owned store that stores profits stay in the local economy while walmart's enormous profits goes to shareholders, none of it stays. On top of that, my state is big on giving tax breaks to large companies, leaving normal people to pay all the taxes, thus we hear all this talk about how the state is open for business yet it has a perpetual budget deficit, the health care system has been privatized and higher education is next.

They pay horrible wages as well.

Luckily I live in a neighborhood which still has a mom n pop pharmacy, 2 mom n pop garden centers and several other local owned places, but trust me, in my city this is an exeption. It took a lot longer in my city for the chain stores and fast food to ruin mom n pops than it did in most of America, but eventually they did, it's very sad in my opinion.

One other thing is that Walmart stores which are located in large cities cause traffic on the streets around them. I hate sitting in traffic.

Walmart is a parasite in my humble opinion.

I must be double, triple the weird then - I am now a portland-austin-portland transplant, and austin was keeping it weird well before portland apparently. There is a walmart grocery on cornell out west. But that's different from a supercenter I suppose.

Next time I'm looking for a helping hand I'll try my best to find a local bakery, meat market, imported goods etc. for panhandle action, to support the mom and the pops.

I am nasty nasty nasty and can always stand a good coming down. No worries sport.

My whole problem I think stems from how long locally owned places stayed dominate for in my city. Like we just got our first Dairy Queen for example, and I live in a major US city of 1.5 M people. Maybe this is because the city is basically an island and it's physically and culturally isolated. Perhaps the giant companies didn't think they could make inroads into a city which isn't Anglo-Protestant like the rest of America, idk.

So I see what has been lost in America because back in the late 80s and early 90s when I was young we didn't have all the chain stores, yet when I traveled with my family to any other city they all looked exactly the same to me, like one giant strip mall or something. Like if one were to place various size versions of the same city onto different landscapes with slightly different skylines.

So perhaps I'm not even qualified to answer your question in the first place because my city isn't anything like "America," although it's in America. But I don't think walmart has been good here anyway. But Walmart IS good for Walmart.

I shoplift from Walmart every chance I get. I could boycott like everyone else, but I feel that if I'm going to be malicious I might as well be more proactive about it. I think that if you have so much stuff that you can't protect your property [from theft] then it isn't really your property. Plus I like the thrill of free things. So I guess what I'm saying is that I don't mind Walmart . For me it's like some sort of welfare.

Notes . My opinion ---- >

A refreshing thread . Thanks .

Exchange the word walmart for capitalism .

And when we talk about capitalism please see a difference between capitalism and comercialism . The difference between money lending and buying and selling things .

Sneaky question time ---- >

@ US citizens . You live in the biggest capitalist country in the world . ARE YOU A CAPITALIST ? If not ...... what are you ? ( ROTFL ) ............. Remeber a capitalist is a person who has enough of our money to lend it back to us and live off the interest without spending the capital . If he spent the capital he wouldnt have it anymore = he couldnt lend it = He wouldnt be a capitalist anymore .


I dont buy in walmart because it went bankrupt because aldi is better and cheeper . Aldi is one of the few shops where a customer gets something for his money . They make profit but they also deliver quality . Not the top quality but also not the worst . Price worth products and not cheep and nasty junk poducts .

Some of us need to think about what we say and do ----- >

I understand people who steal food from shops . BUT ...... When we steal from walmart they put the prices up for us all . It costs them nothing . So thieves steal from us .


Can people who chant capitalist / faschistoid propoganda like " "You are to blame because you bought cheep products " PLEASE think about what they are saying . Poor people are not poor because they are lazy . They are poor because the people in control dont represent them they represent their rich friends and their interests . They are poor for example because they have no job because it was cheeper for walmart and co. to use child labour in bangladesh . YOU / WE / THEY mean nothing to walmart . The only thing that means anything to walmart is MONEY .

Others are payed so low wages that they have no choice . Capitalism doesnt mean freedom of choice . It means the only people that are free are the ones that can pay for it = The ones that have a monopoly on money . A monopoly on OUR money . Money is a medium of exchange one cant own it one can use it . It belongs to us all . If it flows freely it benefits a lot more people ( ALL of us ? ) .

AND ...... what choice have we ? Even the big expensive stores buy from slave labour factorys in asia .

One of the big problems is interest from money lending . Where should it come from ? The money in the world is suposed to represent the value of the goods , resources and labour in the world . When money is lent interest has to be payed . That means that that interest is " synthetic " = it doesnt realy exist except as as debts . BUT on paper it does . That means that the goods resouces and labour stay about the same but as there is now more money in the system the goods cost more and the money is worth less = Inflation and debt for ......... guess who ?............. = US .

The world as a game of monopoly where all the streets , hotels and houses are already owned by the criminaly rich . Where the whole population has to run round the bord like mice in a treadmill in circles and every time they pass go they have to pay taxes / interest . The rich and their poly-tricker front men dont pay taxes or interest or for anything ......... WE pay it for them .

When the inflation that they cause causes a crash and things get for example 1000 % more expensive WE cant pay it .... BUT .... they can ...... and still dont have to work .

Another EASY to see PROOF that things are not healthy , fair or honest is the state of the world . The majority of the world population doesnt want poverty or war or hunger or slavery . How can it be that the 1 % / THEM / the military industrial complex / the establishment/ the criminaly rich have " 99 % " of the money ? Because the rich and poly-trickers sell wars and profit from poverty ?

In capitalism money is suposed to flow freely . BUT ...... it never has . It flows from the bottom upwards and from the top to the top . That means that the governmments dont represent democracy = US ........ they represent the interests of the rich .

There are now only two classes . The international rich and their traitor poly-tricker friends and the rest of us . They have built themselves a state within a state useing the means that were ment to protect US from outside attack and crime . A parasitic state that floats on the top of us / society but seperate from us and the financial peasures that we " live " under .

Govenments have the right to tax us and to spend the money and we have the duty to pay those taxes . The governments borrow money from their rich capitalist / money lender friends and buy themselves things ......... from the same people they borrowed the money off ...... and we have to pay their debts . Thats why they keep talking about the need for growth . Its ponzi = borow more money than you can pay back and just pay the interest with the money from the " growth " . Sometime that bubble will break . MUST BREAK . Because ...... growth from what ? From where ?

Another word for capitalism is money lending . Another word for money lending is usary . Another word for usary is slavery ?

IF we want to see proof that the rich are criminals we could just take all our money back off them and give every single one of them a shovel and see how long it takes them to make a million $ doing honest work as a labourer on a building site or as a sower in a clothing factory in bamgladesh .

@ Beggars .......... I have had to beg to survive after being robbed . I stood outside food shops and asked for food in exchange for work . I was given food and didnt have to work . Thank you humans .

I give food to people who obviously need it . I dont give to profesional beggars and frauds .


Comments ? Ideas ? Thoughts ?

Actually, it costs them $1 for every dollar that is stolen. Since other people aren't forced to shop at Walmart, it costs them nothing. If Walmart decides to raise their prices, that's Walmart's business, and if people continue to shop at Walmart that's their business. You're talking about Walmart prices like they're taxes!

Very well said my friend. I didn't go to college basically because I screwed off in high school. I paint houses for a living. For years I was disappointed in myself for that but the more years I live the more I'm proud of what I do instead. I do honest work which I trade for honest income, I get to interact with the end customer when they move into their new home (which unfortunately they had to deal with predatory lenders to buy), as opposed to working in a cubicle or something for a faceless cooperation. I wouldn't want it any other way, unless of course someone offered me an opportunity to somehow make a living working with plants / fungi and save the planet.

hixidom ...... Please explain that .


A person steals for 1$ . Do mr and mrs walmart pay for that ? Out of their own pockets ? Or out of their customers ?

Walmart pays for their stock up front, so it is actually their property at the time of theft. Whether they pass those losses onto their customer is up to them (heck, they can raise the prices for no reason at all). We are not sheep walking around in Walmart's backyard: They don't take money from our pockets when they need it. Rather, we throw our money at them because they have THE cheapest goods that slave-labor can produce. Do we deserve to pay less for such products? Are we not taking on some of the evil by demanding such cheap products at whatever cost?

I am not Robin Hood. I am just harvesting a resource more efficiently than other people. Maybe that leaves less of the resource for everyone else, but they are my competition as well as Walmart is, so why should I care if they willingly pay for more expensive Walmart products. It is their choice. My point is that we don't have to pay: Join me and we can ravage Walmart together like a pack of wolves. The worst that can happen to Walmart customers is that they have to shop at Target.

Sam Walton started Walmart with some very noble intentions. Intentions like open book policies, employee participation in decision making, providing excellent customer service, purchasing American made products in quantities that allowed for resale at prices competitive to foreign manufacturers. Serving under-served rural communities and creating jobs domestically.

Basically the opposite of everything Walmart stands for today.

Sam established the 3 basic values:
Respect for the Individual
Service to our Customers
Striving for Excellence

He also maintained one core principle:
Everyday low prices for the American working class

Looking at the current state of Walmart Corporation, what can I say? Sorry Sam.

References:
American National Business Hall of Fame - Sam Walton
Mr. Sam Must be Rolling Over in His Grave
Wikipedia - Same Walton

Shoplifting is a drop in the ocean in comparison to retail waste.