walmart will soon control your SOUL

[Icarus]

It doesn't do much good hating or boycotting the big stores. They all do about the same thing :\ Size doesn't matter when it comes to character.

A friend of mine hasn't shopped at Wally-World for a year now, for precisely these reasons. I will note that I do believe she would withdraw from modern society if it was the only way to truly express her opinions.

I, meanwhile, am more mercenary. Wal-Mart cuts my pay checks, so while I may not endorse everything they do, I won't boycott them.

Also, to quote Tom Hanks, "It's not personal, it's business." The people at the Home Office (it feels so weird to capitalize that) don't pick out 10,000 people, line them up and say "Sorry, but you don't get to have health care this year. Thanks for all you do, and have a great day." They get told "We have to save money somehow," and then get to thinking. A large number of their employees are there as a second job, are students, or are retired. All of those groups have access to health care from another source, so why not cut costs there?

//</pessimism>

[minakichan]

Do you realize this can be read as deliberately insulting to people trying to be compassionate, even when they stumble in doing so? Please don't look down on me and try to discourage me because my attempt to do good isn't good enough for your standards.

Don't look down on people who shop at Wal-Mart, and we'll call it even.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Criticizing capitalism is such a cliche. It's the reason you have choices in what products you can buy. It fosters innovation and creativity in individuals and companies. It allows Farm Boy Joe to dream about starting a high-tech startup company and becoming a multimillionaire-- and if he doesn't suck, it might actually happen. Yes, it does hurt some people more than others, and greed and indifference make it a flawed system (more flawed than alternatives? you'd have to prove it to me) but overall, it improves the quality of life and may lower the cost of living for those who are affected by it.

Never take me seriously. XD

[Shao Feng-Li]

Walmart

It's still more expensive then the internetz.

Seriously though, is Walmart the end all these days? I don't think so. I actually buy my shirts at Target. Why? I ride my bike and it's closer by several miles and I don't like the more formal styles I find at Walmart (I prefer the styles I find at Target... go figure).

Ultimately though, after reading that article earlier today, my opinion was.

Wha?! You think you're going to change where consumers shop by rearranging the order of the store?

They fail to get one thing, anyone who has shopped at Walmart or any other local store in the area will already have the store mapped out in their head. For any product they feel they'd buy at such a store, they already KNOW where that product is. Thus, if they re-arrange the store to "make it easier" they're just pulling a windows ribbon like in Word 2009. It's FTF.

I'm actually going to be more annoyed that I'm going to have to relearn a new layout for our locale Walmart because they decided to spin things up. Even more reason for me to stay with Target .

I agree with you there XD Our Walmart is laid out different seeing as how it's a new building, but man, even I can't find everything yet (but I do know general locations). Though, it is a much cleaner and less cluttered place. (The old store they shut down was making as much in sales and moving as much product as any Super Center- they moved the business into Washington due to less taxes than in Idaho.)

They do get the employees in on set ups and remodels and such, so that does help them to learn the new layouts and help customers. *shrug*

I tell you, I do wish we had a Target around here. There's not one for several hours.

[ashfire]

I don't know if anyone caught this news article.
A shoplifter was beaten to death by two Wal-Mart employees in China.
I guess they mean business over there if you shoplift?

[blkmage]

Right now, America's economy is the primary economy in the whole world. I really do think we need to worry about fixing things here before we start worrying about what's happening in China. Beyond that, some such trillions of American dollars actually belong to China. China might be suffering, but we're suffering as well.

China's the world's fastest growing economy, the weaknesses with the American economy are heavily in the middle class, many companies both large and small are certainly going global, American companies sell to customers all around the world (so does Wal-Mart!), and this board is not made up of only Americans.

To expand on this point, global trade is now at the volume and ubiquity that ignoring a trading partner is detrimental to the domestic economy. It's easy to forget that trade involves money and goods flowing in both directions.

America is not the primary economy in the world. America is the largest economy in the world, but it's certainly nowhere near independent or self-sustaining. Just like every other industrialized nation, it's highly dependent on global trade.

China is the typical whipping boy when it comes to these sorts of discussions, but the same principles apply to any other trading partner. What would happen if GM or Ford closed down a plant in Canada to bring back jobs to the States (something that is constantly a worry here)? You've removed a bunch of Canadians' spending power and now they can't buy American goods. Not only that, but now, that town is ripe for something like a new Toyota or Honda plant.

Basically, globalization and free trade have now made it impossible to ignore other countries. The health of any one country's economy is dependent on that of all the others.

[K. Ayato]

Don't look down on people who shop at Wal-Mart, and we'll call it even.

There is a distinct difference between not approving of how the store does business and obtains its products and looking down on the people who shop there. She's perfectly fine with other people obtaining their goods from Wal-Mart, only she herself prefers not to go there.

[Dante]

Criticizing capitalism is such a cliche. It's the reason you have choices in what products you can buy. It fosters innovation and creativity in individuals and companies. It allows Farm Boy Joe to dream about starting a high-tech startup company and becoming a multimillionaire-- and if he doesn't suck, it might actually happen. Yes, it does hurt some people more than others, and greed and indifference make it a flawed system (more flawed than alternatives? you'd have to prove it to me) but overall, it improves the quality of life and may lower the cost of living for those who are affected by it.

Says the bourgeoisie! Unfortunately, if I defend the proletariates and start preaching the wonders of socialism I might just get yelled at for bringing a Wal-Mart thread into political territory. You defend capitalism and it's seen as the status quo. YOU HAVE WON THIS BATTLE! But the laws of history are known to us ... and my hat. MY HAT KNOWS THEM ALL!

[uc pseudonym]

I'll give you the point on ethical treatment of employees, but in terms of products, that depends solely on what you actually purchase. If you're buying the same products you would at a Target or K-Mart (and really, most people are still buying Coca-Cola products, Fruit of the Loom underwear and crappy Kodak cameras), the fact that you're paying less for the same products does not necessarily hurt some poor Chinese sweatshop laborer any more.

That's completely true, which is why it's actually more effective to try to remember which producers are unethical as opposed to which retailers. Still, I don't really feel like researching every product I buy, so I prefer to avoid big chains and shop at places I know will be relatively ethical. I realize that's a function of privilege (in that I have stores like that at all), but I'm not saying that shopping at Walmart is inherently evil, just that we should be concerned by some of their practices.

Yeah, you know, if we're going to boycott companies and products for being unethical to their employees, why on EARTH are we all anime fans?

Is that really what anyone is arguing, though? For example, many third world banana producers are treated horribly, but if we boycotted them that would only mean they don't even get an unfair wage. The answer isn't to stop buying bananas, it's to try to reform the industry or to buy from fair trade companies that pay them a livable wage.

I have no idea if there are any anime companies that treat their employees ethically. That might be an interesting subject to research.

Funny how I was just reading about this:
http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slack...you-buddy.html

Hey, another Slacktivist reader. We read more of the same things than I would have suspected.

[mechana2015]

Wally-World? What's all this have to do with the theme park from Family Vacation?

[Roy Mustang]

Wally-World? What's all this have to do with the theme park from Family Vacation?

Because, getting there is half the fun!


[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[Bobtheduck]

Walmart wants your soul, but do they want the soul of Seoul? As I'm still looking into going to Korea, that's my real concern.

*cough*

[everdred12a]

Wally-World? What's all this have to do with the theme park from Family Vacation?

Wal(ly World)-Mart.

[Kaligraphic]

I would like to announce an important fact. By utilizing certain secret Soviet Russian technology, my soul now controls Wal-Mart. Bow before me, pitiful ant-people.

Oh, no! It's still on Soviet Russia mode!

*in Soviet Russia, Kaligraphic bows before the pitiful ant-people.*

[Shao Feng-Li]

I don't know if anyone caught this news article.
A shoplifter was beaten to death by two Wal-Mart employees in China.
I guess they mean business over there if you shoplift?

Lol. Well, don't shop lift then.

We can't do squat if a person walks out with unpaid merchandise...