i wanna be a nomad...

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Wal-Mart

I am going to try my best to not step foot in a Wal-Mart for the rest of my life. I just learned some facts about them, how they operate, and how they take advantage of cities, taxes, etc... Their business practices are totally smart in that they make a huge profit for themselves; however, they do things that hurt communities, cities, and regions.

I don't like being judgemental, but dude.... Wal-Mart is totally eating our lunches.

Research it if you want to know more.

posted by Nomad at 9:50 AM

10 Comments:

  • I don't usually shop at Wal-Mart, but that's because they don't cater to my needs as well as other stores, like Target and Randall's, do. However, I recognize that I pay lower prices at the stores I do shop at because Wal-Mart is down the street.

    By Blogger Display Name, at 5:15 PM  

  • I can see how that works. I don't think Wal-Mart is a completely bad deal. In fact, one of my friends got a full-ride Sam Walton scholarship that focuses on helping "underdeveloped" countries. I just really, really don't like specific ways in which Wal-Mart is doing business and how those practices do not reflect, from what I know and believe, a strong value for protecting, enriching, and building stronger communities.

    By the way - I realize that I probably support other not-good practices in my daily life choices. Also, I am like Wal-Mart in that I do things that are not benefical to others. The not-shopping-at-Wal-Mart thing is just something that seems like a really clear choice for me to make. With all of that said, I also know that where others shop is none of my bizwax. :)

    By Blogger Nomad, at 7:58 AM  

  • if there were a walmart in every town of every country in the world, there woudl be no more war or famine. . .

    i love walmart. . i will talk to you later about why. . .in the meantime, don't drink the socialist's koolaid just yet. . .they are playing with your emotions and using this anti-Walmart hype to push their failed political agenda (federalizing healthcare, mandetory unionizing, and other crap policies that remove our freedoms and opportunities---and end up hurting the poor and underprivldeged they trot out and use as pawns)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:38 PM  

  • ok, so i didn't guess in the magical number of times. . .which means i basically fail at life. . .what is the correct answer?@??@?@?@/@?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:07 AM  

  • Read "NoLogo" by Naomi Klein. Basically everything that makes us what we are as Americans is provided from the literal sweat and blood of an oppressed working class. That's who we choose to be. We can turn a blind eye to it (as I do [shrug]) and keep shopping at the mall, eating mass-produced hamburgers, and drinking 4-dollar coffees, or we can do something about it -- which won't have any effect.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:29 PM  

  • Oh, and "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" -- that'll open your eyes, too. We live a manufactured existence, far removed from the soil we roll across.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:32 PM  

  • I don't know about any oppressed worker class. I do know that having a Wal-Mart in the rural town where my mom shops makes her dollar go further. If that means that some small-time operator who had a 'sundries' store in the town square has to shutter his business, then I feel sorry for him, but not for all of his former customers who had to pay inflated prices because the only place they had to buy those kinds of goods bought in such small quantities. Maybe that former sundry store owner should start making old-timey community-happy signs and sell them on eBay.

    By Blogger Display Name, at 4:29 PM  

  • The essence of the problem is that in order to keep the prices so low, companies have to either A. resort to immoral and unethical practices or B. trim profit-taking. And it's obvious which they prefer. (I left out a movie -- "The Corporation")

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:13 PM  

  • hurrah for kileeen xmas!!! when you get back to h-town, we gotta have a chorizo brkfst at brasil!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:54 AM  

  • As long as we're naming names, what about Barnes and Noble? They pay workers less than Wal-Mart does, and then there's Target, Sears, StarBucks, McDonald's (and the like). They are all eating our lunches (and some of us are eating theirs, too). But if you're looking for real oppression among the working class, you won't find it in the USA unless you want millions of people in Asia mad at you for referring to as oppressed those who they think are rich relative to their own situation. I mean, if you're going to think globally, then the only way to really help them out is to travel overseas and give them lots of money for stuff that really is worth much less to them.
    And the essence isn't that it takes immorality to make money, just good business sense. Buying a million units from a manufacturer certainly will garner a better price per unit than buying fifty. Then you get the savings too.

    By Blogger The Doctor, at 12:27 PM  

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