Is WalMart killing America

[szy]

Originally Posted by Boeing Guy

Walmart is not killing America. Nothing is killing America. America is still the greatest country on earth

Sorry not any more maybe it was at one time but at the present many other NATIONS claim that title " best nation in the world"

Best Countries in the World - Newsweek and The Daily Beast

People need to wake up and stop repeating old rhetoric

[tbwhit]

Originally Posted by szy

Sorry not any more maybe it was at one time but at the present many other NATIONS claim that title " best nation in the world"

Best Countries in the World - Newsweek and The Daily Beast

People need to wake up and stop repeating old rhetoric

Well you are using 2 of the most liberal sources on the market today! Not trying to get too political-But show me any liberal that is PROUD of America. Myself I believe in GOD and GUNS--God BLESS AMERICA!!!

[RanCarr]

Originally Posted by herbertgk

Walmart has run most small business out of business, but it is our greed to get the best price that lets this happens. Some day we will be sorry, We have not stepped foot in a Walmart in over 7 years, and we get along just fine, no need to support them
Herb, Mar and camping dog Lucy

Keep in mind that not everyone has your income. There are those who struggle to pay $15 for a pair of jeans or .89 lb for chicken. So it's not always greed. They can't afford to buy their clothes where you do. They have little choice but to support Wal*Mart and other stores selling affordable clothing, food and household items.

[wb6epp]

Amen!! Net profit runs the world. It takes smart people to make tough marketing stradagy to make money today. The price of raw materials is sky high, which forces goods to be more pricey. Walmart was wise enough to see this when Mr. Sam Walton was alive. Some of the stores were in the rural areas that opened in the earlier years. These towns had limited goods and limited retail suppliers, and alot had to be catalog ordered in from Sears, J.C. Penny, May company, ect., so Sam seen the need of the people. He bought in bulk at a low price, and passed on the savings to the customer. His net profit was built in bulk items, as the store was a one stop & shop business and remains so today. Small businesses could not compete in this kind of stradagy. There are a lot of such businesses out there doing the same. Many-Mo & Jack (PepBoys) took out Western Auto, along with Sears, I can't remember the company name, but they would paint your car for $29.95, so the moral of the story is smart marketing today. But prices are starting to get out of touch with the lower income people. Last Christmas [2011] we were shopping in our local market. We over heard a elderly couple struggling to buy the products that was one thier list. The market had some marked down meat going out of code at half price, and I had picked some myself, So I pointed them to it. As we checked out, this couple was right behind us. We picked up the tab for thier bill freeing up some money for them. So there is tough times out there for some people. And they don't have much, and sometimes trade food for meds, or visaversa. So God Bless Walmart, they do help people. They are not Neiman Marcus in quality of goods, and I don't buy a lot of thier produce, but do shop there or I would have to drive 55 miles to a middle size town to shop. We do have a market that carries better quality products [and at times beat Walmarts prices] and we shop there also to keep them here.

[laj]

That was Earl Schobe. Any car any time 29.95.
Did a good job too. My dad had them do one.

[laj]

Sorry, Schibe

[vincee]

To the poster that was talking about Detroit and the US auto industry, people in this country were told that "American Iron" is the best damn build cars in the world. Well guess what, they weren't! They leaked oil, rusted out like crazy, didn't last as long as the loan payment were due, but we were told they are the best. Funny, I have never heard anyone talk about Monday or Friday cars from Honda, Nissan, Hyundai etc. I know all of us in the country are grateful for the fight for the working conditions and honest days pay that unions have brought us. But, somewhere along the line they became as big and dis-honest as the companies they were fighting. When I was 18 years old I worked at a steel plant while finishing high school. The first Saturday I worked overtime, I almost got beat up because I was "working to hard" and the infamous "Don't Kill The Job" kid. It was competition from the way foreign companies made their cars that give us the kind of products Detriot is capable of producing, along with other companies in this country. Harley Davidson is another example of building junk, sell on reputation, saved by high import tariffs on bikes over 749CC's and eventually bought out and turned around by the employees.
Wal-Mart didn't create the problems at GM and Chrysler, but I bet alot of their laid off employees who had to stretch a buck secretly shopped there!

[Davdeb1]

The secret to getting ahead, I mean really getting ahead, is to work hard and always try to make your boss look good. When I worked at union jobs in the late 60's early 70's the work hard thing was frowned upon. It was "slow down, make the job last". If you didn't play ball, you were shunned, even threatened. When I started selling cars in 1977, were pushing cars off the truck on a regular basis because they refused to start. Workers from the plant even had the temerity to hang out for hours at the dealership or restaurant across the street, while on the clock.

What does this have to do with Walmart? My ex works at Walmart for about 10 years now, and has always bitched and complained about how she was treated. My son finally told her, stop bitching at your boss about your hours and schedule and maybe things will change. Two months later, she gets a promotion to head of deli, because she took her sons advice and started working and acting like a good employee should.

People are mad because now they have to work again, instead of enjoying the featherbedding they enjoyed right before Japan cleaned our clock in the automotive industry.

[danandcarol]

Originally Posted by ga traveler

I was born in the same town as a famous dentist. His name was Doc Holliday. (yes he was a dentist before he became a famous gunfighter) Griffin was a mill town. The majority of people were in low paying jobs. Before WalMart came to town the only place to buy anything was from a mom and pop store. They had to pay full retail. My cousin paid $295 for a deer rifle. When Walmart came to town, they sold the same gun for $179. These hard working people could now afford to buy more things because of WalMart. Some of the mom and pop did go out of business, but many, many more people were able to see their money go much further. I think a lot of people have forgotten how the small shops always charged full retail and their idea of a sale was a $5 discount on a $300 item.

I live near Griffin. Yes, it was a mill town and when WalMart came, the mill workers could afford to buy more things from them. People also bought cheaper clothing, towels, bedding, etc from WalMart. WalMart didn't purchase these things from the local mills; they imported them from China. Now there are no mills left in Griffin (plus a lot of other places). The mill workers might have been able to buy more goods in the beginning, but when their jobs were given to the Chinese, so were the paychecks. In the end, the mill workers lost out while WalMart grows bigger and bigger. Just a little food for thought.

[WhiteEagle]

For those that dislike Walmart and believe it's the reason smaller businesses don't survive, I have a suggestion....
1) Buy your products from Walmart when you want to shop,
2) Take the $ you saved by buying the identical product at the lower cost,
3) Find the business you feel has been wronged,
4) drive there during the hours they may be open,
5) find a parking space (may have to pay the meter to park),
4) give them the money you saved.
Everybody's happy......

[jamesgr81]

Ok, so American cars and motorcycles are junk. WalMart is a great store with low prices. The unions destroyed this country.

Drive the foriegn cars, buy China goods and to hell with unions.

Net result - the loss of millions of jobs, the shrinking of the middle class, and turning China from an agrarian nation to the worlds greatest manufacturing power and soon to be number 1 economy.

Ok so you are retired and don't give a damn about where stuff is made as long as it is cheap. I got mine. I wonder how many of iRV2 posters have government pensions or retired from major corporations or utilities?

Now if you are a major stockholder or CEO what do you care about jobs anyway - profit is king - and it's unAmerican to suggest that somehow profit shouldn't be the only benchmark for success.

So now it's time to pay up. Bellyache about how the economy suffers, there are no jobs, those damn unions - how dare they want things like wages and benefits, it's too bad the middle class is shrinking but it don't affect me.

You can't have it both ways. We gave up our standard of living and sent our manufacturing offshore to buy cheap junk.

These jobs will never come back until we work as cheap as the Chinese, Indians, Vietnamese, whatever. All those good factory and blue collar jobs - gone. I have witnessed entire factories, machinery torn out and sent to China, and the answer always is...this is what we have to do to compete.

How does this benefit the country as a whole?

What will our children and grandchildren do? We are well on our way to being a service economy - but can they all flip burgers, be WalMart greeters, or design video games? What kind of retirement can they look forward to?

[jmrkav]

It would be nice if those discussing the auto industry actually knew something about it rather than what they hear on Fox news. I worked in the industry more than 30 years. First, the union did not design or engineer the cars. They gave us the parts and the tools. Although the work was hard and fast (and still is) we did the best we could with the time allowed.
What did the auto industry in was competition from manufactures that payed less than could possibly be lived on here. Although that looks good for you foreign buyers, it's why we have the economy we have today. Now the focus for the foreign manufactures is cheap parts made in China and Korea. With draconian working conditions. Many factories are stringing nets around their plants to prevent workers from leaping to their deaths. That's what you are buying into. Then assembling those parts on at least some of their vehicles here. With a large number of day workers working for $10 an hour and no benefits. No voice in working conditions. Little in the way of safety.
Politics, specially trade agreements, have allowed massive numbers of these vehicles to be sold here. With their governments subsidizing their production, manipulating their currencies, and virtually barring our vehicles from entry.
It's shameful what has happened to this industry.

[Possum]

Buy cheap Japanese or Korean cars and then match parts costs during minor repairs. Years ago when I still did the backyard wrenching bit, I did the brakes (complete) on my Fargo 4 X 4 (master cylinder & wheel cylinders plus brake lines included) and my outlay was about $300.00. I did my then wife's Corolla and the master brake cylinder was more than the whole brake rebuild.

[Davdeb1]

Believe me, I'm not just blaming the unions, the American manufacturers let the engineers design a lousy car. The American manufacturers let the the workmanship be shoddy. They were making money, gave the workers what they wanted, no matter what, so they could keep those assembly lines rolling and keep raking in the cash. The union leaders of course knew this and squeezed every dime they could in the way of wages, benefits, work rules, and anything else they wanted.

All I can say is , thank goodness that the Japanese did what they did, because it is the only reason we have well built American cars today. Competition is the best thing there is for the consumer. It brings up quality, and lowers prices on many things.

Some American manufacturers are already bringing back some of the manufacturing from China. The cost of construction, shipping, and the robotic mentality of the workers make it very difficult for small to mid size companies get anything done. On a really grand scale, it pays to manufacture in China, but things are changing.