Is Wal-Mart good for America?

[hwbs]

i have a friend that is a manager for walmart....everything felicia says is dead on.....the rich getting richer....people just assume that they have great benefits for the employee......alot of the other big home chains like it , have excellent benefits...not walmart

[la2bkk]

I laugh when I read about those who complain about corporate executive salaries...

Tom Cruise (about $65 million on Mission: Impossible)
Bruce Willis ($50 million for The Sixth Sense)
Adam Sandler ($30 million for Little Nicky)
Julia Roberts ($25-30 million for Erin Brockovich)
Mel Gibson ($25 million for The Patriot)

Despite the numbers above, most Screen Actors Guild members earn less than $7,500 per year from SAG jobs and 25% of SAG members did not receive any earnings under SAG contracts. This is just one of many examples of the results of a market driven economy.

Stop whining about corporate executive salaries. They are no different than actors, athletes and entertainers. The market determines value. If you don't like it, try a different path or move to a country where the goverment will tell you what you will do, how long you will work and what (little) you will make.

[yourdaddy]

Felicia, great statistics, Maybe you should quote the same for McDonalds, Arby's, Burger King, Wendy's, Dominoe's, your local restaurant, etc. These places aren't an end-all for most people, unless they show some work skills and a desire to succeed. At that point, they can advance to management, or try another employer. Publix Supermarkets, one of the most succesful food chains, starts almost all their employees out as baggers. Nothing is handed to you, or guaranteed today. Honest labor is looked down on by too many people with their hands out.

[TrueBeauty TS]

Honest labor is looked down on by too many people with their hands out.

I haven't seen anyone here looking down on honest labor or the wal mart employees. In fact, the people that have a problem with wal mart are the one's sticking up for the workers.

Honest labor is not looked down on, dishonest management is.

[McRen]

I know a few people who work at the Futureshop here (i'm Canadian, i guess it'd be Bestbuy for you guys), and one of them is a mid 30's guy with 3 children. When I asked him why he works there, his answer was 'the benefits, they pay my dental, and with 3 young girls... i need it."

Also, to the person who said brands like Samsung are the same wherever you buy them, that is true, if you know what you are buying. Chains like futureshop also like to get 'exclusive' items, like ultra cheap LCD's that still have a brand name on them, but arent of the quality of anything else available from that same brand in the distribution channel.

What I find most disturbing about Wallmart is just how much food they sell.

[hwbs]

i just dont shop there cause the parking lot is a car accident waiting to happen anywhere in the lot.... doesnt matter what day or time of day.....crazy thing is that here it seems there is a wal-mart in every city...

[Felicia Katt]

Felicia, great statistics, Maybe you should quote the same for McDonalds, Arby's, Burger King, Wendy's, Dominoe's, your local restaurant, etc. These places aren't an end-all for most people, unless they show some work skills and a desire to succeed. At that point, they can advance to management, or try another employer. Publix Supermarkets, one of the most succesful food chains, starts almost all their employees out as baggers. Nothing is handed to you, or guaranteed today. Honest labor is looked down on by too many people with their hands out.

Fast food restaurants don't replace all other restaurants, the way Walmart takes over an entire area's retail base. McDonalds is a job, not a career. The people who lose their jobs when Walmart moves in are not hourly workers making money for their first car or college. They are the the shopkeepers and store owners and other small business people who are the heart and soul of a local economy.

as far as your example, Publix, its the nations largest employee owned supermarket chain. It has managed to be profitable and be listed as one of the top 100 companies at which to work. It offers its employees good salaries and full medical and dental and vision coverage.

Publix CEO Charles Jenkins received 2004 compensation of just $713,931.

Publix is as much like Walmart as wine is like vinegar.

FK

There simply is no need for many of these goods to be so cheap.

Shit, tell that to poor people. For a bunch of people who claim to be advocates of the working poor, language like "no need for many of these goods to be so cheap" sounds like typical limosuine liberalism to me.

A television is a luxury that most can afford but upgrading to the newest high-def, flat screen blah blah or having to have a TV in every bedroom, kitchen and bathroom is something people see as needing - when they don't.

You're a genius! You're so good, you're even good at telling people what they need and don't need.

When may I expect my grain rations, Mussolini?

American has a culture of expectation, based on the American Dream - the white picket fence, the kitchen with the mod-cons and the 2.5 children (yeh midgets!) but these things should come through hardwork and saving. However, people now see these things as their "right" to have regardless of whether they work hard (or at all). Walmart capitalises on that need - or greed.
Now, I'd be the first to argue as an individual, the ends justify the means and like to get my stuff for as cheap as possible, so I can see why people are so enamoured with Walmart but what happens when the money in the US dries out

Yikes! Do you walk around in life wondering what's going to happen "when the money runs out?"

With that kind of nail-biting I need to ask you a question.

Do you call yourself a man?


American expectations of nice living go hand in hand with the American expectation that you get out there and earn your living.

The pinnacle of the liberal entitlement culture ain't the expectation of unlimited porn and mobile DVD systems, it's the belief that EVERYONE is entitled to a nice place to live, free healthcare, government mandated "living wages" and marketplace protections for those who are afraid to compete.

Welcome to America! Free lunch not included.

[chefmike]

Sweet Fancy Moses!

You can't even make this shit up!

Now the bible-bangers(who own the GOminorityP) are turning on the right's favorite sweatshop because of their "radical homosexual agenda..."


Conservative plan to protest Wal-Mart

NEW YORK - Long under fire from the left, Wal-Mart is now a target of Christian conservatives urging shoppers to boycott the huge retailer's post-Thanksgiving sales because of its low-key outreach to some gay-rights organizations.

One group, the American Family Association, is asking supporters to stay away from Wal-Mart on Friday and Saturday — two of the busiest shopping days of the year. Another group, Operation Save America, plans prayer-and-preaching rallies outside many Wal-Mart stores on Friday.

The corporate actions that triggered the protests were little different from those taken by scores of major companies in recent years — Wal-Mart paid $25,000 this summer to become a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and donated $60,000 to Out and Equal, which promotes gay-rights advances in the workplace.

Conservative leaders viewed these actions as a betrayal of Wal-Mart's traditions, which have included efforts to weed out magazines with racy covers and CDs with explicit lyrics.

"This has been Christian families' favorite store — and now they're giving in, sliding down the slippery slope so many other corporations have gone down," said the Rev. Flip Benham of Operation Save America. "They're all being extorted by the radical homosexual agenda."

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. spokesman David Tovar said the company's outreach to the gay-rights groups was part of a broader effort to best serve its diverse customer base.

"We take pride that we treat every customer, every supplier, every member of our communities fairly and equally," Tovar said Tuesday. "We do not have a position on same-sex marriage. ... What we do have is a strong commitment to diversity. We're against discrimination everywhere."

Justin Nelson, president of the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, said conservative activists had misrepresented his business-oriented group as a leading advocate of gay marriage in order to tarnish Wal-Mart.

"Their campaign has not been to educate, but to mislead," he said.

Wal-Mart ranks in the middle among companies rated by the Human Rights Campaign, a major gay-rights group, for workplace policies toward gays. Scores of companies now have a perfect 100 rating, while Wal-Mart's rating has risen from 14 in 2002 to 65 this year as it added sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination code and offered some domestic-partner benefits.

Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese said he spoke with a Wal-Mart executive Tuesday and came away confident the company would continue efforts to promote workplace equality for gays.

Tim Wildmon, the American Family Association's president, said he and his allies had not ruled out extending the boycott against Wal-Mart, depending on how the company responded to the weekend protests.

"They are so gigantic, it's hard to make a dent," he said. "We're just trying to see if there's some measurable effect this weekend, see if we can get their attention."

Wildmon said Wal-Mart had been responsive to conservative pressure on a different issue, approving use of the word "Christmas" in advertising and employee greetings this season after shifting to a "happy holidays" phrasing last year.

That campaign was one of the first times Wal-Mart came under sustained criticism from the right. Far more often, it has been a target of left-of-center groups, such as WakeUpWalMart.com, complaining that the company pays low wages, skimps on employee benefits and outsources too many jobs.

The company has responded by adding low-cost health care plans, launching environmental programs and increasing diversity among employees and suppliers.

Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com, sent a letter Tuesday to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott urging the company not to cede to the boycott.

"We not only look forward to Wal-Mart remaining steadfast in its support for equal rights, but to the coming day when Wal-Mart will do what is truly right — become a better employer," Blank wrote.

Gary Chaison, an industrial relations professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., said the conflicting pressures on Wal-Mart are "the price of being big and having many constituencies."

"Everyone expects Wal-Mart, because it has so many stores, to set the moral tone for America," he said. "The company has been trying to find a middle road, and it's had a great deal of difficulty doing that."

Another major corporation, Ford Motor Co., already is the target of an American Family Association boycott because it advertises in gay publications and supports gay-rights groups.

The Tupelo, Miss.-based AFA says 550,000 people have signed a pledge to boycott Ford and it takes partial credit for the company's financial problems. Ford spokesman Oscar Suris declined comment; an industry analyst, University of Detroit professor Michael Bernacchi, was doubtful the boycott was having much impact.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061121/..._mart_protests

[chefmike]