Progressives and Card Check

I'm not a union member. I have never been a union member, nor has my husband or my parents. I hate Walmart for reasons that have nothing to do with the way the treat and/or compensate their employees.

So why do you hate them?

I hate them because they drive small, family owned businesses out, resulting in limited options for consumers like me. They sell primarily junk, inferior products and have used their buying power to force manufacturers out of our country.

They are also hypocritical. They have no qualms about selling any version of Vice City, yet they demand record companies censor music in order to be sold in their stores. They have promoted themselves as some sort of "family" centered "Christian" company yet demand their employees work holidays, including the biggies like Thanksgiving and Easter.

Over all, I believe WalMart's impact on our economy, and our society and our communities has been negative.

I'm not entirely sure the model exists that you think exists: Wal-Mart becomes the anchor store at the new strip mall and all the businesses downtown empty out their storefronts.

After suffering a dearth of Wal-Marts here, we now have three within a fifteen minute drive. Guess what? The local True Value is doing just fine. The owner talked for about five minutes at the local tea party and only complained about high taxes on the federal, state, and local level. The store is always full and alwyas has what I need. Sure, if I need a retaining wall I'm going to Lowe's. To put a new wax ring in my toilet? I'm going to True Value.

And it isn't just my experience. I think this is true on a much larger scale than just me.

Loath though I am to post twice in a row, GE doesn't make anything anymore. I looked at GE flourescent screw-in bulbs the other day. The package said GE but the bulbs did not. Made in China, they were. GE is a bank.

You mean the world is not limited to Ohio County?

Perish the thought!

Many local hardware stores are doing OK--I have noticed this as well. I have witnessed the death of many, many independent clothing retailers, however.

I'm a big guy, so I appreciate going to a store in which they actually can look at me and realize that an XL ain't gonna cut it. So I don't go to WalMart generally as I like quality and buying from a small business.

My disagreement is with those who would use the law the trample WalMart. Those of us who think that WalMart is bad for communities (and I am one of them) should exercise our right to go elsewhere.

I had that very conversation about GE with Zachary last night OC. I was replacing a light bulb in the kitchen and he mentioned that they were the only company that has been on the S and P's (I think) top 100 for the past 100 years and we talked about how they went from a manufacture to a licensee and a bank.

As for the Wal Mart model, I used to do a lot of business with co-ops like True Values and local lumber yards like Evans in South Charleston. There are a lot of them that are not only around, they are thriving. They do so by providing better service and a better product.

And I don't think it's just Hardware stores. Foodfair in Poca and Foodland in Eleanor both do good business and parts stores are all over the place.

Charleston Department store has been on the West Side in the same location since 1921 and as far as I know, they're still going strong.

And one of the things I've found since moving to Cincinnati is that even though it's a decent size city, it's really just a collection of small towns connected by housing developments and small businesses not only survive, they're surviving.

I'm sure Wal Mart aids in putting some mom and pops out of business. But it's not ONLY Wal Mart. They are other factors and how well they are ran before Wal Mart is part of the equation.

Aaron wrote: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.

YADA, .... YADA, .... YADA, ......... and YADA

But the FACTS are:

In the 1980s, Rubbermaid saw continued success. The company was named to the Fortune 500 list in 1983, and the following years became one of Fortune 500s most admired companies. Rubbermaid acquired Little Tikes Company, a manufacturer of children's backyard toys, in 1984. Rubbermaid's leadership earned accolades for its management style, and the company continued to appear on Fortune 500s list of most admired companies. The company also began to expand internationally at this time.

By the mid-1990s, Rubbermaid faced difficulties. Its management was increasingly criticized for poor decision-making, and other companies had begun to compete successfully with Rubbermaid products. In an attempt to solve its problems, Rubbermaid went through a series of reorganizations, which led to employee layoffs.

In 1999, the Newell Company, with headquarters in Freeport, Illinois, purchased Rubbermaid Incorporated. The merger created Newell Rubbermaid Incorporated, now headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Both Rubbermaid Home Products and Rubbermaid Commercial Products are divisions of this new company.

Newell also owns a number of other major brand names, including Sharpie®, Paper Mate®, Parker®, Waterman®, Rubbermaid®, Calphalon®, Little Tikes®, Graco®/Century®, and Levolor®. The reorganization did not solve all of Rubbermaid's problems, and the company still struggled with high production costs and management issues. Some of Rubbermaid's manufacturing line was moved to Mexico, and in November 2003 Newell Rubbermaid Incorporated announced that it was pulling its operations out of Wooster, ending Rubbermaid's long relationship with that community.

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=980

Aaron, you and Stephanie can blame Rubbermaid's "fall" into making shoddy and cheaper products (in order to decrease their manufacturing costs) on the devious marketting tactics of WalMart, ..... but in doing so, .... you are doing an injustice to WalMart.

Aaron, the wife bought a WeedEater “FeatherLite” weed eater at Farm n’ Fleet in Weston. It worked fine for about 5+ years. She decided she wanted a new one and purchased said at WalMart in Weston. It worked fine for about 4 months, and KERPLUNK. She took it back and they gave her a new one. The 2nd one worked fine for the 1st week and then KERPLUNK. She took it back, got another new one. The 3rd one worked fine for about 5+ months and KERPLUNK. She took it back, got another new one and it has been working just fine for the past 2+ years and is still going strong.

And if you have been counting the “# of months” I stated, those “returns” occurred over 2 growing seasons. And WalMart didn’t “question” a one of them. One gal at the Return Counter did tell the wife, ….”We have sure had a lot of ‘returns’ on that item”.

Aaron, sometimes a “flaw” shows up in a “batch” of goods that the factory QA or QC does not catch because it doesn’t surface until an extended “run time”.

MDS was producing and shipping scads of a unit that had a “bug” in it from day 1, but no one knew it. It became known about 3 years later when a specific “format” was employed by a customer. It cost MDS over $500K to field retro all those units. I know because I had to make the design change. Shit happens as you are probably aware of.

cheers

I don't disagree with what you are saying Sam. But I do know first hand that in dealing with big boxes, they will force manufactures to continually go lower on selling cost in exchange for doing business. It's part of the reason I now work in Cincinnati.

Aaron wrote: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.

UH, .UH,.... let me add this to the conversation.

The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company - circa 1859
In 1912, the first A&P Economy Store opened, a grocery store format that allowed cost-cutting and standardized layout,[4] increasing their store numbers to 1600 by 1915. By 1925 they had 13,961 stores and sales of $437 million.[5] In the early 1930s, A&P was operating approximately 16,000 stores with a combined revenue of US $1 billion.[citation needed] In 1936 A&P opened their first supermarket in Braddock, Pennsylvania.[4]

Aaron wrote:

Stephanie wrote:WalMart did not get that model from K-Mart or Hecks or Hills. Sam Walton went to Ann & Hope.

And where did Ann and Hope get their model?

Now Folks, it wasn't the store "model" that exacerbated WalMart's rise to #1 Retailer position.

It was Sam Walton's visionary thinking to "go computerized" that propelled the company to dizzingly heights.

"Point-of-Sale" Electronic Cash Registers that directly interfaced with Inventory Control, Ordering and Product Distribution was the "key" that left all the competition "in the dust".

I will explain some of the benefits if anyone is interested.

cheers

Aaron wrote:I don't disagree with what you are saying Sam. But I do know first hand that in dealing with big boxes, they will force manufactures to continually go lower on selling cost in exchange for doing business. It's part of the reason I now work in Cincinnati.

Aaron, that is true for about every "producer" that must purchase vendor goods or raw materials. I not only designed and wrote an MRP Program, my 2nd ex-wife was a Buyer.

And another fact is, some vendors can not be forced to do said. Only those who "put all their eggs in one PO basket".

.

Jimmy,

I can't speak to what's happening in your neck of the woods and I haven't really lived in WV long enough to say what kind of impact WalMart has had on this state. What I can tell you is what WalMart did to RI.

Every community they built a Walmart in suffered the loss of locally owned small businesses. I'm not talking about just hardware stores, either. Grocery stores, pharmacies, electronic stores all suffered as well.


When it comes right down to it I don't like big chains. I prefer small, locally owned businesses and patronize them whenever possible.

I'll tell you one more thing about Wal-Mart (especially Aaron), they do net 20 days. And they mean it. We always defaulted to net thirty. Well, they charged us interest of a few cents that first ten days. I refused to pay so they cut us off. No Wal-Mart and no Sams would give us credit. Our Louisiana plant worked on them and finally got credit. I never figured it was worth it. We could always get something better from somebody who wanted to sell it. Sometimes it's too hard to do business with a retail outlet. Especially with some sucker who watches his pennies.

And if you don't like Wal-Mart you're doing the right thing by going someplace else to begin with.

Stephanie wrote:Jimmy,

I can't speak to what's happening in your neck of the woods and I haven't really lived in WV long enough to say what kind of impact WalMart has had on this state. What I can tell you is what WalMart did to RI.

Every community they built a Walmart in suffered the loss of locally owned small businesses. I'm not talking about just hardware stores, either. Grocery stores, pharmacies, electronic stores all suffered as well.


When it comes right down to it I don't like big chains. I prefer small, locally owned businesses and patronize them whenever possible.

A Walmart came to where we live. You would have thought, listening to the local businesses the world was going to end. Interestingly not one person went out of business. In fact, we have a local hardware store that stood toe to toe with Walmart, and won. They did so by offering things Walmart couldn't or wouldn't and by offering the best dustomer service around.

To quote Joe Hardy, owner of 84 Lumber, competition is a wonderful thing, it is what keeps everyone sharpe.

Bakeries & florists were hit pretty hard too.

Got any bakeries in your neck of the woods?

ohio county wrote:I'll tell you one more thing about Wal-Mart (especially Aaron), they do net 20 days. And they mean it.

And that is simply good business practice.

A business can not have their "profits" tied up in IOU's.

"Net 20 and mean it" ........ means they can only lose that much in "bad debt" that they can't collect.

Stephanie wrote:Jimmy,

I can't speak to what's happening in your neck of the woods and I haven't really lived in WV long enough to say what kind of impact WalMart has had on this state. What I can tell you is what WalMart did to RI.

And I can tell you why I can’t shop at WalMart anymore.

Yesterday I was buying 2 large bags of Purina dog chow at Wal-Mart, for my dogs Winston, Chief, Gus, and Maximus..

I was about to check out when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog. What did she think, that I had, an elephant?

Since I had little else to do, on impulse, I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, and that I was starting the Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because I ended up in the hospital last time. On the bright side though, I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of every hole in my body and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry and that the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.

(I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was enthralled with my story by now.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food had poisoned me.

I told her no; I had stopped in the middle of the parking lot to lick my butt and a car hit me..

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he was laughing so hard!

WAL-MART won't let me shop there anymore.

Oh, I like that, Sammy!

I'll bet a hundred dollars to a doughnut they don't pay net 20 days OC to those they purchase from. If they're anything like Lowe’s, they pay net 120 and if there's even the slightest discrepancy on the PO, they refuse to pay at all.