walmart madness

wal mart might not be doing anything to me directly, but i do live in america, and planet earth for that matter. however, ignorance is bliss. wal mart isnt the only problem; its a general scape goat because it is the biggest corporation in the world.
of course, mcdonalds is not the only franchise promoting bad eating habits, but since its the biggest, it takes the most heat.
 
the wallmart by me some lady fainted and stopped breathing. Everyone got mad that the checkers wernt trying to get them out but trying to help this dying lady.
 
I think all of these Black Friday sales where they have crazy deals on a limited number of items need to stop. They're inciting riots. Last time I checked, that was a prosecutable action.
 
For anyone that's either/or fascinated by/just wants to get more educated about WalMart, I recently read a very interesting book called The United States Of Wal Mart...well worth the while. FWIW, I read that alongside another peek behind the corporate curtain called The Smartest Guys In The Room which is an in depth telling of the Enron story that stands a significant chance of blowing your mind to some degree.

Some of you are right, these guys can only get away with what we let em. It is from the ease and quickness that we sell out that they are able to breath. But there is little realistic possibility of "us" uniting in strong enough numbers to force "them" to operate in a holistically positive manner.....way too many of "us" are of a sheeplike mentality.
 
After pondering all this, my overworked brain, given a choice, would have no qualms...I would take...."The RED pill!"
 
MattinSTL said:
They'd be watching the Walmart video and thinking, "Hmm I wonder if we can use their teeth for something?"
Click to expand...

ROFL!!

michael_summers said:
wal mart isnt the only problem; its a general scape goat because it is the biggest corporation in the world.
Click to expand...

While they may be the largest STORE chain in the world, they're no where NEAR the largest corporation in the world ... those would be insurance companies, major conglomerates like GE, FOX, etc.

I'll probably get a rash of crap for this, but I don't blame WalMart for anything. They're not the bad guy ... they're just doing business. It's the people that react the way they do that makes things bad ... people going berzerk over sales, etc. Crazy.

Really though, if any of us were starting a business that began to grow, you look for ways to acquire MORE business, if you have a money making business sense about you. Whether it's doing it BETTER than the competitor, or for less cost, or both, you do what you can to acquire more business & increase profits.

The guy who started Walmart started small, but grew quickly with a good business sense. EVERYONE has started some place. So while I do feel bad for the small mom & pop stores that get forced out of business because of Walmart, no one can blame Walmart for problems. Like someone else said on here, if they started selling our AV gear for low, low prices, we'd most likely be in line as well.
 
Envision, clearly you didn't read that article. (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html)

Not only do they claim that Wal-Mart is indeed larger than GE, but they offer some intriguing food for thought about many of the rest of your points.

I'm not taking a stand about whether the article is correct or whether Wal-Mart has indeed done anything "bad", but it sure is intriguing to read.
 
You're right, Barry, I've not read the article. I'll see if I've got time in tomorrow, as I'll assume it's rather lengthy. I pay fairly close attention to business, as I'm a Business Relationship Officer for a financial institution ... I guess it really depends on what they're grading Walmart as the largest ... if it's for being the largest in the world based on assets, then the article's wrong. If it's the largest for sales, possibly ... then again, I'm not sure if they're comparing it with the massive conglomerates out there, or against the individual businesses (i.e. comparing one company to Taco Bell's sales and not Pepsi as a whole, even though Taco Bell is owned by Pepsi, etc.).

I did a quick peek at their "ABOUT US" for fastcompany.com to see what they're about, and it looks like (at a cursury glance), that they're about shaking things up, so it would lead me to believe the article could be biased ... here's a couple of things I've pulled from their ABOUT US that caught my eye:

"They are also the readers who made Fast Company the fastest-growing business magazine ever, going from zero to a circulation of 725,000 and 3.2 million readers in seven years. It took Business Week 41 years, Fortune 62 years, and Forbes 67 years to reach the same number of people."

(See, even THEY are interested in being the biggest, the best, etc.)

"We will draw every reader into an ongoing debate about people, ideas, organizations, society, and rules. We will engage and provoke, inform and entertain, surprise and delight. We will give our readers the knowledge to help them work smarter and lead better. We will be the magazine for every thinking person in business ............... For us, this work is personal."


These are things that make me believe this magazine likes to "shake things up", and give their spin on what they feel about who, etc. Just like a documentary, which may CLAIM to be unbiased, rarely is it ever so.
 
Personally I don't even get it. Buy a pair of shoes at Walmart and they'll be the biggest pieces of poo poo (actually typed "poo poo" but you'd never know) on the planet. Most of their clothing is the same way... like their ironically labled "faded glory" line. It's almost ALL garbage! Most of the kitchen supplies are also LAST RATE products. About the only thing I can see buying at Walmart is dog food, distilled water, and personal hygiene items... even all the tools are the crappiest you can get. There's a reason that the stereotypical Walmart shopper is a dull hillbilly... but I guess there's enough Walmarts going into more urban settings that you can change that stereotype to cheap-ass or something. Personally I don't care if you get some stuff there, but it blows my mind with how much of the world embraced second and third quality product to save SO little. You're still getting what you pay for!

There was a Paul Harvey commercial for Walmart where he explains how lucky you are to have a Walmart in your town and he goes on and on about the savings. The commercial actually states that if you do ALL your shopping there... including GROCERIES... that average household can save $120 per year! $120!? WTF? Are you guys insane? So far I've bought $120 worth of SOLDER in the last two weeks! Jesus... that's NOTHING... per YEAR??? So you've been getting 80% crap products and supporting this place for THAT lousy savings? I say YEAH... do the math.
 
Just like a documentary, which may CLAIM to be unbiased, rarely is it ever so.
Click to expand...
Oh, I have no doubt it's not unbiased. But nobody has to believe everything they read, especially on an internet article. Thing is, Wal-Mart's getting a lot of bad press recently, Ebert gave big thumbs-up to an anti-Wal-Mart documentary just the other day, and now this, etc... seems like a lot of visible smoke, so I figured it was at least worth looking at to see if there's any fire. Doesn't make it true; maybe it is, maybe it isn't, maybe it's embellished, maybe it's outright fabrication. But it does make you look at the thing from different angles. I have no doubt that there are groups out there who have ulterior motives in wanting to tarnish Wal-Mart in the eyes of shoppers as well, and one has to take a big ol' grain of salt with any of these stories.

But as a potential product marketer who has toyed with getting some projects onto Wal-Mart shelves, I can say that I found the read most interesting. I only usually go a paragraph into these type of things; this one held my attention all the way through. Doesn't make it true, of course, but I also think it doesn't hurt to have a full perspective. If the things they talk about are indeed true, even partially true, one would be wise to keep it in mind before entering any deal with them. Again, doesn't mean you don't do the deal, just means you go in with your eyes open and understand what you're getting into, and what you should expect, so you can make a fully informed decision.
 
I think anything that can make you THINK is good. I try do do that with our Bible study group, but instead I'm now known as the blasphemer or heretic. :)
 
42 inch plasma tv for $999.00 ?? I'm sure it has a great picture, definately worth trampling some old ladies for, I'm sure. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top