Progressives and Card Check

This is a fine example of "progressive" thinking:

When workers get unionized they earn higher wages. When they earn higher wages, they can spend more and maybe then we'll get out of this recession faster.

In progressive bizarro world there is no inflation.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/17/721185/-The-battle-at-Walmart-begins.

When workers get unionized they earn higher wages. When they earn higher wages, they can spend more and maybe then we'll get out of this recession faster.

Is that not a weird form of "trickle down economics" that guarantees that the peons will have to worker harder just to survive?

.

Jimmy,

You've got a stronger stomach than I do. I understand the keep your friends close and enemies closer concept very well, but I just can't do the daily kos. They're too scary.

They're not the worst. I think myDD is much crazier.

As Pulitzer Prize winner William Kennedy wrote so profoundly:

Old Shoes Gilligan was a merry old soul
With a cast iron belly
and a rubber ***hole.

Is that not a weird form of "trickle down economics" that guarantees that the peons will have to worker harder just to survive?

I think they work to achieve their own demise, yes. What's more I think they won't be happy until they screw up Wal-Mart for all the rest of us, too.

You like Wal-Mart?

If one watches the pennies,

the dollars take care of themselves.

You like Wal-Mart?

No, but there are some items I feel offer real value. I don't want well-meaning do-gooders to ruin it for those who do.

Hey, to each his or her own. For me personally, I avoid Wally World whenever possible.

That said, my mother-in-law has been working for them for about 5 years and they are pretty good to her.

Did any of you all know that Carnival glass, to wit:



Often called the "poor person's Tiffany",

it was originally produced just so the "poor folks" could enjoy a little bit of the "finer looking things in life", and got its current name because it was given away as "prizes" at the local travelling carnivals and circuses.

Well now, the WalMarts are the "poor folks" boutiques which permits them to enjoy a little bit of the "finer looking things in life".

The Unions want to deny them of that little bit of pleasure.

.

I was talking about Wal-Mart with my ex-MIL today, she's worked there for 4 years, and she said that overall, they are not a bad company to work for. Between her quarterly bonuses plus profit sharing and her employee discount, she averages over $13.00 per hour as a cashier. If she were willing to take on more responsibility, she could move that number up but she's happy doing what she does.

They're not near as bad as unions make them out to be.

They're not near as bad as unions make them out to be.

No. They have seriously destroyed many small, locally run businesses, though.

They not only have destroyed many locally owned and operated small businesses, although that is one of the top reasons we avoid shopping there whenever possible.

The other is they've used their size and purchase power to force companies to produce inferior products. Beware of anything sold at WalMart that says it was produced "Exclusively for Wal-Mart" etc.

Man I hate that company.

WalMart surely has destroyed local businesses. They used to have a chant (maybe they still do) "pile them high, stack them deep, hear those downtown merchants weep." One of my friends in grad school remembers chanting something like that.

The malls also destroyed local business, however, and are just as culpable as WalMart. As for inferior material, it cannot be denied. WalMart deals in volume rather than in quality.

However, the answer to WalMart is in convincing people to buy local, and I have no problem with government encouraging the creation of small businesses provided that they do not deny OC and friends the right to shop there. I remember a neighborhood in Hurricane where most every neighbor worked at WalMart, and was relatively happy to be doing so. A friend of mine gets 13 bucks an hour before benefits at the WalMart 15 miles down the road (towards Chicago), which around these parts is liveable money.

You know, I just can't have a conversation about WalMart without thinking about Rodney Carrington saying, "Git yer ass in the truck! We're going to Walmart".

Now you all know just how scary the voices in my head are!

TerryRC wrote:They're not near as bad as unions make them out to be.

No. They have seriously destroyed many small, locally run businesses, though.

Perhaps the management of those small, locally run businesses had as much to do with their own demise then Wal Mart did.

I still remember going to the local hardware store and hearing my dad bitch about paying twice what he would at Hecks for a hammer and the response of the owner was, "Drive to Hecks."

So he got what he wished for except Hecks was replaced by Wal Mart.

You WalMart Haters really make me laugh ….. after I get through shaking my head in disbelief of your heresy ignorance on most everything concerning retail businesses.

WalMart has just as good or even better Return Policy than does Sears. They don’t manufacture anything therefore their goods are the same as sold by other retailers. We have never had a problem returning anything that was faulty or we didn’t like.

The Dollar Store and the Dollar Tree sells many similar items cheaper than WalMart does.

Taxes, Workers Comp, licenses, permits, fees, utilities, telephone, advertising, insurance, rent, etc., etc. has harmed small businesses“ more than anything else. Said expenses can range from $500 to $2,500 per month and have to be paid out of the profit made from each item sold which requires a gross monthly revenue of several thousand dollars each and every month. And that doesn’t include paying one’s self or an employee(s) their wages. Or the expense of doing one’s payroll and accounting and filing monthly/quarterly and year-end records with the State and Feds. And collecting Sales Taxes, FICA, etc. and sending it to them.

Distributor pricing and delivery is another negative for small businesses. These costs are greater for them than for large retailers, thus they have to charge more for each item sold.

Vehicle parking is another problem for small businesses. No one walks anywhere any more. And as the ole Jewish Proverb says, …… “if you can’t get them to stop you can’t sell them anything.”

cheers

Sam,

You're dead wrong about WalMart's goods being the same as every other retailer.

Right on Steph.

And the difference between a WalMart brand and a Kroger brand is the "name" on the label.

And the difference between a fish filet at McDonalds and a fish filet at Long John Silvers is who cooked and served it. They are all Alaskan Pollock which are caught and processed by "factory ships" operating in the Gulf of Alaska and Arctic Ocean. They net upwards of 100 tons at a time and process and freeze it and is is ready for shipment to customers before the boats gets back into port.

Steph, if you purchase a great enough quantity from a producer ....... they will package it however you want and put your name on it. But the quantity has to be great enough to warrant "changing the assembly line" ....... because that "takes time" and "time is money".

.
.

Yes, Sam. When some of these companies do this for WalMart, they change the design and/or the quality of the materials to save money. The result is that GE toaster made "exclusively for WalMart" is inferior to a similar GE toaster being sold at another retailer.

Stephanie is right about some of the goods Sam. Years ago, Rubbermaid entered into an exclusive agreement with Wal-Mart to sell a certain style of tote that they could not sell anywhere else. After years of doing business with them, of playing the Wal-Martization game and being forced to shut down a couple of manufacturing facilities and combine them into one and Wal-Mart still calling for price cuts based on sales numbers, they finally got out. That's why now you can't hardly find a Rubbermaid as it’s all pretty much Sterilite now.

Wrangler would have to double their sales to their next 10 clients to make up for sales if they lost Wal Mart as a customer.

But vendors know this going in and they choose to do business because it gets their brand out there and increases their sales 10 fold. Most companies would rather make 2% profit on billion of dollars sold then 10% on millions and that is why they do the deal.

And Sam is right about Wal-Mart as well Stephanie. They are no worse then how many chains that have tried the exact same thing. Hecks, Hills, K-Mart, Magic Mart are a few that I know of around here. Wal-Mart just did it a hell of a lot better and thus has had much more success.

You can't blame them for perfecting a model that was tried dozens upon dozens of times before they came along. Yet if you listen to unions and the government, they are the destruction of America.

And all because they make money. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Profit is not a bad word.

WalMart did not get that model from K-Mart or Hecks or Hills.

Sam Walton went to Ann & Hope.

He didn't just visit the store, he was given lots of advice and guidance from founder Martin Chase.

And where did Ann and Hope get their model? They didn't open their fist store until 1953 whereas Sears, Roebuck and Co opened their first store in Chicago in 1925.

I think it's one of those things that Sam Walton took a lot of little things that worked in other industries and made it work best nationally.

And for being successful where others failed, including Ann and Hope, his legacy is now some kind of villain.

I say hogwash.

I don't think so, Aaron.

I think part of the difficulty is I grew up with Ann & Hope and remember the store well. They sold a lot of lower end things but also name brand stuff. I used to buy toys, diapers, seasonal goods, and a whole lot of household goods there.

Ann & Hope literally would take anything back. They had the most lenient return policy I have ever seen or even heard of. The store was enormous and sold nearly everything, including appliances. The stores also had large snack areas with pinball games and that sort of thing.

I'm pretty sure Sears changed a whole lot between 1953 and the 1970's when you were old enough to remember the store, but I'll defer to those members who can remember the Sears of the 50's and 60's, I don't either. I know the Sears I remember from the 70's was very different from the Ann & Hope of that era.

I felt bad when Ann & Hope closed. I remember when I was a kid my father would go there to buy a Christmas tree. Back in those days most of the trees they sold were of the Charlie Brown variety.

I felt much worse when the Outlet Company went under. Now that was a beautiful department store. The only parking ticket I ever got was while shopping in the Outlet Company. I bought a lot of baby clothes there, and at Peerless. Those stores where my mother always purchased our clothes from when we were little. They had this gigantic ladies room with a lounge and stalls that cost a dime to use. The site of the old Outlet Company now houses Johnson & Wales students.

Holy crap I guess I am getting old.

Stephanie wrote:
I think part of the difficulty is I grew up with Ann & Hope and remember the store well. They sold a lot of lower end things but also name brand stuff. I used to buy toys, diapers, seasonal goods, and a whole lot of household goods there.

Ann & Hope literally would take anything back. They had the most lenient return policy I have ever seen or even heard of. The store was enormous and sold nearly everything, including appliances. The stores also had large snack areas with pinball games and that sort of thing.

You just described Hecks almost to a Tee.

At any rate, where ever or how ever Sam Walton came up with the model, he perfected it to the point that unions despise him. And the biggest reason is they are not getting their share of the pie.

Once again, profit is not a dirty word.