WAL-MART is going to take over the world

Just wait until China starts building robots...

 

... and Absolute Vodka at really cheap prices. Pretty sad when you stay at a 5 star resort, but catch a cab to go to Wal Mart to buy booze and cokes at a cheap price.... but we did. (A can of Coke was $5 in the hotel.)

 

Gotta go with 330 and S.K. on this one, although I am guilty of trips to Wal Mart myself.

For those that are upset by so many jobs (especially in manufacturing) going overseas.... stop buying cheap crap at Wal Mart.

There have been many stories of Wal Mart coming into a town and wanting a specific piece of property. If the owner does not want to sell, or wants to much money for the property... they just "get in bed" with the locals and the next thing you know that property has been re-zoned, etc..., or even TAKEN. (It's not "eminent domain" but it has a term, I forget it.)

Shipping containers are owned by the shipping companies and require a deposit to ensure they are returned in a timely fashion. (Most shipments from China / Indonesia come through Long Beach CA) A couple of years ago Wal Mart shipped the containers around the country to their different distribution centers. As the sent the empty containers back... they had all of them dropped of outside of Vegas and just held them. They were willing to pay the late fees and loose the deposits in order to "short" the containers so that other retailers couldn't get product for the 4th quarter (holiday shopping).

They have been successfully boycotted/banned from some cities such as Los Angeles, and they have been sued more than once by employees for multiple things. They lost a pretty big case recently.

We have a logistics guy that worked for one of their distribution centers. He said they were brutal to suppliers. At inventory time they would just send product back. His example was a patio set, 1 table and 4 chairs. They call the supplier and tell them that they are sending the set back with the umbrella. When the manufacturer told them that they did not get the umbrellas from them, they basically said "we don't care. Your taking it ALL back and after inventory you will send it all back to us... at your cost."

Soxcat-
I am far from liberal and as always, you make valid points. I respect and enjoy your opinions about football. But also... as always... when it comes to business or politics you are always right and anyone who has a different opinion is wrong. (Such as the time you told me that I obviously new nothing about running a business or the stock market, even though I have a successful business and what few investments I have, have preformed well.)

As everything on this board, these are opinions. Opinions to be discussed.
When you start your post by calling someone else's post "...one of the most ridiculous posts I have ever read", and then go into the "...to deep for the liberal mind to comprehend" ..... your good points are lost.

Yours is not the only opinion here, nor is it automatically the only right one. Ease up with the superiority and codescending.

PS- As far as where Wal Mart is... they are now HUGE in China. Wal Mart is the largest retailer in the world and if you total up the number of all employees they have... it is more than the population of some small countries.

I try to buy from locally owned business if possible. Obviously, there are some things you can't (cellular service, etc...). At least if you buy it from Wal Mart, they do employ local people and some of those dollars (including sales tax) stays in the community. The online purchasing with no sales tax is the one that gets me. I try my best to stay away from that if at all possible.

 

The attendance by fan base at the last Jaguars My first college final was on the topic "The Wall". Everyone in the class was handed an article titles "The Wall" and told to summarize along with answering some specific questions and pro's/cons type thing.

Why "The Wall" is evil:

1. The inventory on The Wall's shelves is owned solely by the manufacturer until it is purchased by the consumer. Meaning if you go into Wal-Mart and run through the isle breaking everything you see you only hurt the manufacturer not The Wall. If the manu. does not agree to this The Wall will not stock there product. Imagine if the Wall only sold Coke or Pepsi products not both. Because of the size of Wal-Mart they hold a competitive advantage over the distributor and use it. It is an unfair market practice because of how they use.

2. Leverage there consumer base (you) against there the distributor to get a cheap price on goods. Either you are with Wal-Mart or against them. No middle ground. A couple companies back I worked for the software company that developed the Wal's distribution center software. To have the privilege of the contract the company had to pretty much give up all expenses. Max hotel for a night was $40, Max meals in a day was $20 including tip. Allot of weird rules about breaks and had a max airfare rate they would pay regardless if they wanted a tech out there the next day or not. Basically gouged them.

3. They have specific analysis teams that go into small markets to look for "the little guy". Soxcat you say that there are other stores that do the same thing but this is not exactly true. Wal-Mart looks for cities located between cities in order to attract all local business. If you can get tires at big-o in one town and get keys made at another store in a different town or you could just travel to one Wal-Mart store and get it all done for cheaper the answer is obvious. They run "super sales" when they first get into an area for long periods of time in order to squash competition. In most cases they break the competition laws that dictate you must sell something at some profit if you have competition. South West Airlines got in allot of trouble for this. The thing is Wal-Mart is a corporation and the prices are dictated over the entire corp. So in one market they gouge in another they sell slightly inflated to balance out. It is underhanded to say the least. Once the competition starts to thin out prices go back to normal and you are stuck with a slightly cheaper price then you were getting before and less competition.

4. They have been caught on several instances using illegal workers. The execs knew about it. Specifically when they started the "Role Back the Prices" campaign the cleanup crews were heavily illegal workers. They are under a huge investigation about it right now but it is one of those will never hear about it for 10 years type deals. A few execs have already left over it.

5. The union thing was mentioned. They are a privately held company so they have that discression but they are breaking laws in some states because of the work force held and # of employees with out medical.

The argument you made Soxcat was basically touting trickle down economic. Say that if x pays less here he will be able to spread that money to y, z etc. Also called Reganomics. Great on paper as long as you forget about greed. What is to say that person does not now take a trip out of the country with that money? Go out and buy a non American car? Wal-Mart is banned in Marin Country by me. I know it is banned in part of San Diego and as mentioned LA. The run a very aggressive corporate hostile take over business plan and really do not even try to mask it at all.

 

Actually if you look at your year end tax forms there is a place for you to claim and pay the amount of missed "use tax". Several states have tried to implement a more refined may to collect taxes for this type of thing. Most states actually have laws already on there books with regards to this. Mainly for businesses but Tennessee is one of the harshest on this rule. The only thing that stops them is that little old thing called the constitution that says you can only collect taxes if nexus is formed. They have not budged on it so we all get a few more moments of relief. The main reason the laws have not changes is due to the lack of employees to audit the findings. One of these days you will have to submit an eBay 1099 that shows your purchases and taxes still owed. That will suck!

 

First of all, for both posts.... thank you. Those were great. Very insightful.

As far as the internet and sales tax go, it should be that way but it is not enforced. I would show and demonstrate products (in a former life) for 30 minutes on a product I had been trained on for hours and hours. Only to have that "customer" come back 2 weeks later and ask how to do a certain thing with it. When I asked if they had come in while I was gone, the reply was "No. I bought it online. It was the same price but I didn't have to pay sales tax on it." For which my reply was ... "Well then, I'll be happy to show you how to do that. It will be $60 an hour.":evil:

I just fear a day when everyone buys EVERYTHING online. Groceries and all. What happens to the local job market then? It's like I tell my kids... Put down the mouse and experience life. You can find a picture of a beautiful sunset on "youtube", but that is nothing like sitting on the beach and watching it for real.

I am a small business owner and I fear for the small business man (woman) owner.

 

Pretty weird Wal Mart, huh?!?!?
I couldn't find jack squat. Everything is in boxes... oreo cookies, coffee, everything. And I kept looking up at the signs on the isles... like I could really read them.
Also, the "seafood" section is like an open fish market. The whole place stunk.

We were evacuated 3 days later for hurricane Wilma. I'm sure "WallyWorld" was back up and running quickly though.:ha:

 

The enforcement would cost the country too much to calculate. That is why no rule changes have come. Utopian thinking I guess. Honestly most every state is so different that until the states can agree on a flat sales tax and share the revenue it will never happen.

I have files sale/use tax in 20 of the states that have sales tax and they are almost all different.

It is the way of the future. Honestly you have to think back a few years. How many jobs have been eliminated by computers? As programs get smarter jobs will be eliminated.

The true answer is to get away from a monetary system. Do your work get your food chip. If not computers will take over your job.

Seriously 75% of the work I do could be replaced by a computer that could write execl or crystal programs that extract info and used even a little bit of common sense to compare the data, Kind of sad.

 

There's one thing that the Wal-Mart warriors forget to mention in these arguments:

Many small businesses actually thrive off of Wal-Mart. WM brings loads of customers, and specialty stores sales jump due to the increased traffic that comes from being adjacent.

With that said, I hate the place. Yes, I'll go when I need something that I can't find anywhere else, but only if it's when I can do it quickly. I hate crowds, long lines, and crying babies.

I'll walk barefoot through broken glass to get to a Target if I have the choice. Sadly, there's no Target on Maui. Yet.