Wal-Mart China Connection.

Did anyone on ATS last night view the PBS documentory on Wal-Mart and China.

I know Wally World is a monster company, but after watching this story on how Wal-Mart has killed the US worker and the tactics they use to get us to buy a more expensive item at Wal-Mart, its a bait and switch store!

If you watch one News story this year, it should be this one.

Its a must see!

Is Wal-Mart good for America?
www.pbs.org...

Secrets of Wal-Marts Success
www.pbs.org...

Transforming America
www.pbs.org...

The China Connection
www.pbs.org...

If people don't wake up, see what is wrong with this, and start shopping elsewhere, they are going to have a BIG HUGE PARAMOUNT shopping experience in the future. It's ok to be cheap, but shop where they won't be taking away from you later on.

Yeah, but then again, I am probably wasting my breath here.

I wouldn't shop at WalMart if I was paid to, there is nothing at all patriotic or kind about Sam Walton and his corporation of greed. If Timothy McVeigh had taken out WalMart Corporate or Philip Morris Corporate offices he would be considered a national hereo by now.

Does anyone remember the late 80's and early 90's when Wal-Mart was really taking off and moving all over the country? Do you remember what their sales pitch was? MADE IN THE USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This company was built off that slogan, and the first chance they had to jump to cheap imported goods and put american workers out of jobs, they did. To hell with wal-mart. I have officially been wal-mart free for over 1 year. Turds to them I say!

Wal- Mart? What's a Wal-Mart?

Just kidding! If I go to Wal-Mart, I'll do some grocery shopping.

I have a really bad (or is it good) habit of looking at the labels of where clothing and other products are made. It use to irritate my ex-wife and now it irritates my girlfriend.

It's really sad that Americans can't find products made here in the U.S.A., but then maybe we need to go shop in Beijing or Tokyo, our products are going somewhere and it's not on the shelves at Wal-Mart, that's for sure!

Americans should start demanding American-made products by boycotting merchants that sell imports from nations that flood our markets of cheap and shoddy goods.

Here's my list of top nations that the U.S. should do business with: Canada, United Kingdom and Italy. There's several other countries that I find favorable, but not China. Taiwan: yes (limited), China: a big,fat NO!

[edit on 17/11/04 by Intelearthling]

Yes, that was a great show - I'm glad I caught it. It was clear that the CEO of Walmart didn't give a rats butt that his greed might be responsible for the loss of thousands of American jobs.

The trade agreement was signed by Clinton & they say that's responsible for what's happening in our economy today due to loss of all the jobs. Something like 100 billion in goods imported from China & only 3 billion exported.

I'm sure that's true in the short run, but in the long run when the rest of the world catches up with our standard of living the jobs will once again go to who can do it the best - not the cheapest. For the time being expect the middle class & poor standard living in the U.S. to get worse.

if it's clintons fault... than why has the bush administration done nothing?

in fact they have openly increased trade with china... presumably he thinks it will help the US economy from the hole it's in

And like you said, it was in the early 90's and at that time, the majority of what was carried there was "Made in the U.S.A." But, the day after,(hell, probably within the hour after) the death of Sam Walton, his greedy-good for nothing kids were making trade agreements to line their pockets...

I used to like Wal-mart, but that company died the day Sam did...

True.

However, I'm on a pretty tight budget myself. When I go grocery shopping at Walmart for two weeks' worth of groceries, I save an average of about $30-$40....so too bad. I can't afford to piss away that unfortunately...that's a full tank of gas.

My mom believes the grocery items there are not fresh so its gross to get groceries there just like it's gross to get such items from a convenience store. She's got me brainwashed about it. I don't do much grocery shopping anyways. I'd rather eat out.

In fact, there's no need for me to go there at all. The clothes are made for bag ladies IMO.

I caught the documentary and it was excellent. A perfect demonstration of the new world economy. I don't have a problem at all with Wal-Mart's strategy. It seems to me the only complaints were from overpaid, inefficient and obsolete US factory workers who didn't want to go back to school and find gainful employment in the tech or services sector where the US is king.

Unfortunately the US is no longer competitive at manufacturing. Given we are a mature industrial nation this should come as no surprise. Why would anyone in their right mind pay an inefficient US factory worker $58k per year to do a job a Chinese worker is more than happy to do for $1k per year??? Wal-Mart and Costco are the business models of the future and work extremely well. Why should I spend more of my hard earned $$$ I made by being a competitive and efficient worker simply to keep some lazy American employed in a useless job that wastes valuable resources??

The investment we are all making now in China by supporting their manufacturing industries will pay handsome dividends down the track when they reach a higher standard of living and purchase our tech and services and shoot the Dow Jones above 20k.

i can not stand wal mart or the chicomms, it dosent surprise me one bit.

Sorry to say, but she's wrong. Throughout high school and college, I've worked for both Grocery stores, and Walmart. Walmart gets trucks FAR more often than grocery stores, and their meats, and produce (at least the one I go to) far surpass the grocery stores' in quality. (and my wife's late husband was a meat cutter, so she's pretty picky in this regard).

China has a comparative advantage over the US on the production of many things


therefore, it is to the advantage of the US to purchase those products from China instead of producing them at home. This is simple economics and it shifts the efficiency frontier rightward for Americans and Chinese.

These big box stores sell you a line about being cheaper. It's a relative trick since they now control the supplyside. What this does is force up the price that other stores are paying while they inch the prices up pulling in the maximum capital. A typical Wally pulls in over a million in sales is a day, more in December. This money leaves your hometown immediately, they pay only a small amount of that in wages. Taxes are collected regardless, it's just that your town has to have a Wally, Home Depot etc else the taxes got to other counties and cities.

The current Food sales at Wally is squeezing out the grocery chains forcing them to use these stupid clud cards to make think you're getting a better deal. I find it hard to believe anyone really saves $30 -$40 at Wally unless you aer springing $500 for groceries. Remember to include the impulse items you bought that you may not have picked up otherwise.

sorry to tell you this but they laid off all meat cutters because they wanted a union for that department. thats why you know see all there meats in nice little packages. I say down with the litte turd buckets.

Wal-mart will only get stronger, they will keep importing china goods, they will keep running little businesses to the ground, unless..... unless the gov. steps in and regulates it. that is the only way. because their is a very few number of people who really know the truth. about what is happening with wal-mart and their misleading ways. a man is more likely not to shop at wal-mart than a women, a women will always look for the best deal. you know clip coupons and all that good stuff, but a man who has beliefs will not shop there, they will go pay a little bit extra at say target or k-mart instead of dumping his hard earned money into a company that dont need it. i mean come on, how much money do you really need, is... lets say walmart makes 5 billion in profit a year. well use that. you mean to tell me that 3 billion a year isnt enough money to split up between all of the owners of wal-mart, what a joke. i mean you couldnt sacrifice a few bucks so that you can keep wal-mart what it was when your dad ran it. a true and honestly america made store. thats how he started the corporation and it did just fine. honestly what is the difference between 875 million and 1.2 billion.

oh and wal-mart will do everything possible to keep unions out of their stores. i was a manager at wal-mart. and we had manditory meetings every 6 months at the drury inn for all managers on ways to spot union people. they beat it into our heads that wal-mart didnt want a union, that it would benefit us if we didnt have a union. what a bunch of bs. i stood up at the meetings and specifically questioned the district manager. lmao, i will say what i want when i want. he knew it was bs, but he has to tell you this because it is part of his job. he dont care he probably already makes a quarter million a year anyway. but we all know a unionized wal-mart would be better for its workers than a non-unionized wal-mart. this is how you get a union started in a store, you must get the majority of the store employees signatures stating that they want a union in their store, it is that simple, if you do that, then you will have a union in that store. wal-mart then would have to go union, their would be nothing they could do about it. and boy would they hate that chit. so at these meetings they would try and tell us how to point out and recognize people or persons trying to petition to get a union started up, wal-mart will absolutely not go for that. they will fire you on the spot. no matter who you are, pretty fuggin sad isnt it.

BTW - Target is using Chinese imports too, not to mention that Sears & Kmart have become one company & plan onl matching the Walmart business model in order to stay in business. Another words whether you shop at Walmart, Target, Sears, Kmart & possibly even Home Depot it makes no difference. You have to shop at locally owned & operated business if you want to be sure where your dollars are going.