WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Prices

mca47

Vedderlution_Baby! wrote:

Hey, I shop at wal-mart sometimes. And guess what. I don't even have a fucking car and I don't have a mullet either. I shop there because as a broke ass college student I can't go to other places where the prices are higher. I'm glad you think I'm disgusting though, it's really enlightens me.

When I was in college I was in the same situation. I pretty much lived from penny to penny. I went to Wal-Mart from time to time too. I just hate it. They are def. corporate cocksuckers, and the people outside of the college kids...in general...at the couple of stores I've been to...were pretty bad.
Now that I have a job, I haven't been back.

NMyTree

world wrote:

I just dont shop at Wal-Mart because only smelly scumbags shop there. The people in there are disgusting.

LOL:D Guess what? During the 2003 Tour Pearl Jam stopped at a Wal-Mart in Charlotte, NC and bought a bunch of bikes; which they all rode around the Wal-Mart parking lot for fun. It made the local papers down here.

LMAO!

What was that about "only smelly scumbags shop there" ?

world

NMyTree wrote:

LOL:D Guess what? During the 2003 Tour Pearl Jam stopped at a Wal-Mart in Charlotte, NC and bought a bunch of bikes; which they all rode around the Wal-Mart parking lot for fun. It made the local papers down here.

LMAO!

What was that about "only smelly scumbags shop there" ?

Where do you think they got their "Grunge" from?

mca47

NMyTree wrote:

LOL:D Guess what? During the 2003 Tour Pearl Jam stopped at a Wal-Mart in Charlotte, NC and bought a bunch of bikes; which they all rode around the Wal-Mart parking lot for fun. It made the local papers down here.

LMAO!

What was that about "only smelly scumbags shop there" ?

Hahaha! I didn't know that! That's great!!

Well, despite having millions of dollars they boys can look like scuzballs from time to time. LOL!
If you didn't know who Ed (now with his beard and long hair) and Boom were and they were in WalMart...well...

bootlegger10

ryan198 wrote:

It must be nice to have that privilege, some people don't.

Hey, let's not try to talk about people we are better than alright? We're trying to be open-minded, inclusive, and tolerant here.

bootlegger10

Liberals are the biggest "classists" of all. Sorry to break up all the making fun of people that you so desperately want to save from Wal-Mart. Hypocritical hippies.

Ahnimus

I don't exactly perceive this as a class problem. More of an economic problem. It's seems to be an accelerant of capitalism.

If we look at the methodology and how it fits into a capitalist society. We can see the wages going down, the cost of manufacturing going down, the manufacturers profits going down, etc... all the while, the income of the CEO $27,000,000 and rising, the net worth of the owners (The Waltons) 300,000,000,000 or so and the concentration of wealth. The employees of wal-mart gross 1% of the Waltons. That just doesn't seem right.

So what I see, and what I've always suspected about capitalism is a constant unabatable transformation of wealth and power. There becomes fewer and fewer corporations, larger and larger corporations and a greater transfer of wealth. How long will it take us to reach China status with the Capitlist method? In Capitalism everything is justified and supported by the system. In Communism, which I also dislike, there is someone to blame, the government. You can complain to your government about the standard of living. With Capitalism, we are faced with the dilemma, we can't give more money to the people, the government's income is taxes, if people need the tax money back just to survive we are in serious trouble. We can't blame the corporations because they operate within the guidelines of capitalism. Wal-Mart like any corporation has a panel who's primary responsibility is to increase revenue. Once a corporation has attained a certain supply/demand limit, it's nearly impossible to increase revenue. You can't sell more blankets than people want to buy. You also can't remain competitive if other people sell it cheaper. The only ways to increase revenue would be to sell more or make the product for less or otherwise decrease company overhead (e.g. lay people off). You can't sell more if people won't buy more, that's what supply and demand statements are about. So, if you can't lay people off and there is no increase in demand for your product. Then you have to pay your employees less or try to get the product cheaper. As pathetic as it sounds, Wal-mart and companies like it will make drastic changes to save $0.01 per product sold, because that translates into millions annually.

This is the capitalist society. I used to work for a call centre, two actually. First off, the call centres are typically paid by the contract for seconds of time spent on the phone. So as employees of a typical call centre, like Teletech, you are required to spend at least a certain amount of time available to take calls or on calls. A washroom break period is granted for people needing to use the washroom, this is typically 2 minutes per day. These companies claim that if every employee was 1 second in excess of those 2 minutes, they would lose millions each year. Additionally no time should be spent in aftercall or between calls, the agent is required to answer a call automatically immediately after the previous call. The first caller says "bye", hangs up their phone and the agent immediately receives a tone notifying them of an incoming call, at this point they begin their script. Several calls that I took were billing related, though specifically I was general customer service for Nextel. A lot of people called in to argue the amount of their bill, I can recall several occasions where the disputed amount was as low as $0.02. This is how capitalism works for a lot of people. They tend to accumulate great wealth, while others, perhaps more generous or forgiving with their earnings remain at a constant net worth.

Most people aren't crunching their bank statements and making projections about their future earnings. They aren't fine tuning every aspect of their life to be the richest and most wealthy they possibly can be. Most people are satisfied with the necessities and desire a few material posessions. I know very few people, save my ex-girlfriend, that want to be multi-millionaires, own several cars, boats, houses and host million dollar parties. The system caters to those people, not the average folk. It's designed for the people that dedicate their lives to getting there. It's cost is very high, as they accumulate more and more wealth it's at other's loss. It's the only way they can make more money, is to pay you less, sell you crappier stuff, lie, cheat and steal.

A good artist copies, a great artist steals.
~Steve Jobs
Apple Computers

zensideofyin

Wal-Mart is a monopoly, but the people who shop there aren't disgusting slobs or anything of the sort. Keep in mind where you are. You are in a Pearl Jam forum. We don't put others down here that can't defend themselves.

Everyone wants to point the finger, place the blame. Wal-Mart is not the only bad guy here. You also have to look at employees in our American businesses. It seems we as Americans want more and they want it for less. Employee health care benefits, pension plans, 401k, etc; but they don't want to pay the high premiums so this ends up costing the company dearly each fiscal quarter. Now, think about this. A company doesn't have to handle a larger sum of the premiums for their employees but they do, why? Because a happy work force is an efficient work force. But this causes problems with the profit margins, so a company will lay off a few workers to start, next year comes around, premiums go up, in order to keep workers happy the company will continue to pay their share of the premiums to keep everyone happy but in the meantime they lose more money. So now they need to cut costs, so they decide to get manufacturing materials through China instead of their American counter parts, this causes a loss of jobs. Now annual raises come up, premiums go up again, so a company decides to provide early pensions to shave a little off the top, now the work force is too small to meet the demand of the consumer. The company can't hire more workers because profit margins are too low and doing so would cause the company to possibly shut down. So, that in mind let's take TV's as an example. If you could manufacture the same quality TV in China for the price of the glass with a Chinese workforce that doesn't require the health insurance, pensions and 401k what would you do?

The problem isn't just Wal-Mart, sometimes you have to look at yourselves and ask yourself, "Am I asking for too much?"

NMyTree

I'm not exactly fond of Wal-Mart, their business model and how they treat employees. In fact you'll never see me defending Wal-Mart. But.....


The Elitist attitute in this thread, regarding Wal-Mart shoppers, is unbelievable.

I can't wait till one of the Elitists show up spouting equal rights, or defending radical Muslims, or preaching love and peace; it's going to be hilarious.

Good job snobs.

even flow?

Wal-mart shows its true colours when you are in the store and if you can find somebody to help you look for what you need. They can't help you find what you need. Top notch employees I tell you. But the prices are cheap. Right! Have you really compared the prices?

even flow?

NMyTree wrote:

I'm not exactly fond of Wal-Mart, their business model and how they treat employees. In fact you'll never see me defending Wal-Mart. But.....


The Elitist attitute in this thread, regarding Wal-Mart shoppers, is unbelievable.

I can't wait till one of the Elitists show up spouting equal rights, or defending radical Muslims, or preaching love and peace; it's going to be hilarious.

Good job snobs.

Are you kidding me!!! The Muslim Wal-mart workers are the best at helping me find my, burqas, sandals, korans, sand for the living room to make me feel like the old country. Cut them some slack or ask them for some help next time you are in the store. They even speak English and have a nice white smile.

NMyTree

even flow? wrote:

They even speak English and have a nice white smile.

Why do you have to bring dental discrimination into this?:D

Oh yeah, always has to "white" for you, doesn't it?

farfromglorified

ryan198 wrote:

It must be nice to have that privilege, some people don't.

Everyone has the privilege to not shop at Wal-Mart, whereas many Wal-Mart shoppers have the privilege not to pay taxes, whereas many others do not.

mca47

NMyTree wrote:

I'm not exactly fond of Wal-Mart, their business model and how they treat employees. In fact you'll never see me defending Wal-Mart. But.....


The Elitist attitute in this thread, regarding Wal-Mart shoppers, is unbelievable.

I can't wait till one of the Elitists show up spouting equal rights, or defending radical Muslims, or preaching love and peace; it's going to be hilarious.

Good job snobs.

My comments are not coming from any "elitist attitude". Maybe the WalMarts that I have been to in the past are different then yours.
I've seen a fight break out, I've seen people steal stuff, I've seen people taking things from other carts, I've seen lots of rusty, muffler-less cars in the parking lot, kids running around knocking stuff off shelves...I can go on and on.
Maybe I've just had bad luck in going to WalMart, but never in my life have I seen the things that I have at any other store.

baraka

This thread made me laugh. It reminded me of a Southpark. I fear a giant cloud of 'Smug' might suffocate us all.

I live in Northwest Arkansas, home of 'The Wal-Mart' (I actually live in the college town of Fayetteville). We are infested with Wal-Marts. I try to avoid Wal-Mart, but having few choices, I am forced to stop in one every now and again. It's funny, because a few of you stated that you never shop in Wal-Mart, yet you are so familiar with their clientele. I have to say, the last time I was at one, there were all walks of life there.

I can appreciate anyone having an issue with Wal-Mart's business practices, but it is a bit shallow and short-sighted to simply make fun of the clientele.

drivingrl

I watched this film for the first time today. I'm so blessed that I can afford to not shop at Wal-Mart. What an awful business.

Rats of Multa

Ahnimus wrote:

I don't exactly perceive this as a class problem. More of an economic problem. It's seems to be an accelerant of capitalism.

If we look at the methodology and how it fits into a capitalist society. We can see the wages going down, the cost of manufacturing going down, the manufacturers profits going down, etc... all the while, the income of the CEO $27,000,000 and rising, the net worth of the owners (The Waltons) 300,000,000,000 or so and the concentration of wealth. The employees of wal-mart gross 1% of the Waltons. That just doesn't seem right.

So what I see, and what I've always suspected about capitalism is a constant unabatable transformation of wealth and power. There becomes fewer and fewer corporations, larger and larger corporations and a greater transfer of wealth. How long will it take us to reach China status with the Capitlist method? In Capitalism everything is justified and supported by the system. In Communism, which I also dislike, there is someone to blame, the government. You can complain to your government about the standard of living. With Capitalism, we are faced with the dilemma, we can't give more money to the people, the government's income is taxes, if people need the tax money back just to survive we are in serious trouble. We can't blame the corporations because they operate within the guidelines of capitalism. Wal-Mart like any corporation has a panel who's primary responsibility is to increase revenue. Once a corporation has attained a certain supply/demand limit, it's nearly impossible to increase revenue. You can't sell more blankets than people want to buy. You also can't remain competitive if other people sell it cheaper. The only ways to increase revenue would be to sell more or make the product for less or otherwise decrease company overhead (e.g. lay people off). You can't sell more if people won't buy more, that's what supply and demand statements are about. So, if you can't lay people off and there is no increase in demand for your product. Then you have to pay your employees less or try to get the product cheaper. As pathetic as it sounds, Wal-mart and companies like it will make drastic changes to save $0.01 per product sold, because that translates into millions annually.

This is the capitalist society. I used to work for a call centre, two actually. First off, the call centres are typically paid by the contract for seconds of time spent on the phone. So as employees of a typical call centre, like Teletech, you are required to spend at least a certain amount of time available to take calls or on calls. A washroom break period is granted for people needing to use the washroom, this is typically 2 minutes per day. These companies claim that if every employee was 1 second in excess of those 2 minutes, they would lose millions each year. Additionally no time should be spent in aftercall or between calls, the agent is required to answer a call automatically immediately after the previous call. The first caller says "bye", hangs up their phone and the agent immediately receives a tone notifying them of an incoming call, at this point they begin their script. Several calls that I took were billing related, though specifically I was general customer service for Nextel. A lot of people called in to argue the amount of their bill, I can recall several occasions where the disputed amount was as low as $0.02. This is how capitalism works for a lot of people. They tend to accumulate great wealth, while others, perhaps more generous or forgiving with their earnings remain at a constant net worth.

Most people aren't crunching their bank statements and making projections about their future earnings. They aren't fine tuning every aspect of their life to be the richest and most wealthy they possibly can be. Most people are satisfied with the necessities and desire a few material posessions. I know very few people, save my ex-girlfriend, that want to be multi-millionaires, own several cars, boats, houses and host million dollar parties. The system caters to those people, not the average folk. It's designed for the people that dedicate their lives to getting there. It's cost is very high, as they accumulate more and more wealth it's at other's loss. It's the only way they can make more money, is to pay you less, sell you crappier stuff, lie, cheat and steal.

A good artist copies, a great artist steals.
~Steve Jobs
Apple Computers

not to brag,.. but i was sort of arrested when i was 16 for shoplifting rolls of film from the wal-mart in gettysburg. subseqently i'm banned for life from all wal0mart stores, which now tops the list of rit, davidson, and st. john fisher colleges. if it's any consolation, the popo only took one of the four rolls from my underpants, so i still successfully stole three rolls of film from those overbearing deuschebags.

810wmb

what a bunch of snob shits some of you are.....


but, you'll take up for hitler and adjahenaraghead in a heartbeat...


see yr true colors

Kel Varnsen

The one thing I appreciate about walmart is that they definitely hire employees who don't really have the skills to be working at your higher level department or grocery stores. They are basically giving jobs to thousands of people who might not be able to find jobs otherwise since a lot of them just don't have the customer service skills. I shop at Walmart, it is near my house and it is cheap. But when I step in there I know exactly what I am going to get.

RolandTD20Kdrummer

Exploitation is so cool....especially when it's backed up by military impunity!

I love when those already super exploited items go on sale even! What a scenario that is! Every day it get lower? too cool... Thanks little brown and yellow kids!!!

Brings back a little slice of that 18th century slave trade. Get's me all gooey inside for another Wally World bargain!!

Ahh the nostalgia...