The Wall-to-Wal-Martization of American Life (Wall-Mart story)

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/04/21/lost-washburn.php

Wal-Mart’s shelves are stocked with values because they are relentlessly hammering their suppliers for cheaper products, using the chain’s immense buying clout to play manufacturers against one another to produce ever-cheaper products. "The Wal-Mart Effect" talks about a Chicago fan company where the workers had made $13 an hour; due to pressure from Wal-Mart, the owner now has fans made in China by workers earning 25 cents an hour. In poor countries around the world, people work more hours for less money, always with the threat that Wal-Mart might move their job to another company or country where workers will accept even greater depredations.

Here at home, when a Wal-Mart opens near a town, it has the effect of turning downtowns into ghost towns, as the small businesses (the ones Republicans always claim to be supporting while passing laws favoring corporate giants) are driven under by Wal-Mart’s size and ruthless competition. A 1999 study conducted by UC Irvine’s Marlon Boarnet and UCLA’s Randall Crane found that Wal-Mart destroys 150 jobs for every 100 jobs it creates. They also claimed that if the Wal-Mart supercenter model took hold here, it could mean a yearly loss of $1.4 billion in wages and benefits to Southern California workers. It has also been shown in court that Wal-Mart systematically pressures its already-underpaid store employees to work overtime without pay.

[tom_paine]

1. Great article!

:kick:

[EllieDem]

2. This Walmart deal is a real tricky situation

for our party. The elderly and poorer among us RELY on Walmart prices to make it financially.

[loftycity]

3. Workers in China

Workers are being let go in record numbers. Even the Chinese can't make it cheap enough for Wal-mart or Target.
This is dragging the whole Global economy down. That is why our wages are in the crapper too.