I just saw the most OUTRAGEOUS WalMart Commercial: "Healthcare Plans at under $1/Day??"

[The Cleaner]

I couldn't believe my ears. This WalMart puff piece commerical actually praised the company for offering employees flexible individual health care plans for under $1 per day. Actually from reports on the ground it's the COMPLETE OPPOSITE!

Naturally they were trying to make WalMart out to be some kind of employment/retail utopia, so far from the truth I'm gonna :puke:

:wtf:

[TwilightZone]

1. They revamped most of their health-care plans because of all the negative publicity.

So, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were indeed pretty inexpensive.

For now.

[sarge43]

5. "....pretty inexpensive."

I imagine those are the ones that allow one covered doctor's appointment per year. More and we never heard of ya, galley slave.

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't."

[TwilightZone]

7. No, I think they're throwing a bunch of money at a PR problem, hoping it will go away.

I don't expect it to be a long-term strategy.

[sarge43]

9. Good point. Thinking past the next quarter seems to be

a strategy they go out of their way to avoid.

[spanone]

2. Well, the oil companies have commercials about how environmentally aware they are...

they all lie. It's the American way of selling....be it widgets or politics.

[China_cat]

3. I just learned this morning that the ad company

responsible for the Geico ads now handles the Wal-Mart account.

[NJCher]

4. I saw that and thought, "Fools!"

Stay away from Wal-Mart. They will squeeze every dime out of you and you'll be working for free.

There are businesses out there that have their agencies working for next to nothing. BMW is one of them. Their attitude is that they are a prestigious account and the agency should make its profit on someone else. The agency should just be happy to have them on their client list.

I've no doubt whatsoever this is the way Wal-Mart works.



Cher

[demrabble]

6. WalMart Relies on the Stupidity of Millions

Let's face it.

Wal Mart relies on the absolute stupidity of millions of people in order to make and increase its obscene profits.

Without all those stupid people who tramp in and put down their hard-earned money for the junk that Wal Mart sells, Wal Mart would go out of business.

Without all those stupid people who accept starvation wages in order to work for "Wally", Wal Mart simply could not function.

Wal Mart has made billions of dollars relying on peoples' stupidity.

Why is this ad so surprizing? It is what Wal Mart does best.

[sarge43]

8. OK, here we go again.

It isn't always stupidity that causes people to buy and work at Wally World. It's often a lack of choice and a lack of money, neither of which is usually caused by a lack of intelligence.

Democrats make no friends or supporters by calling the vulnerable stupid. Republicans certainly do believe that, but they have the good political sense not to say so publicly.

[pop goes the weasel]

10. Yes and no

I shop at Walmart probably once a month, maybe twice. I live in a poor rural area and there just aren't that many choices. As for all the small businesses who are "competing" with Walmart--it is stupidity on their part that they aren't doing better. But it isn't stupidity on the part of either employees or customers. They are behaving with some savvy, considering their limited options.

The main street stores, each and every one, lock up their doors promptly at 5 pm. Oh wait. I lie. Some of them lock up at 4:30. Only a couple have hours on Saturdays, and that just until 1 pm. The only locally-owned store that does not follow this policy, that stays open long enough for people to get home from work and make a purchase and that has weekend hours, is the thriving hardware store. It is growing by leaps and bounds. And it pays its employees wages competitive with Walmart and HEB (a state-wide chain grocery), which is $2-$3 more an hour than the other local businesses do. So, yes, Walmart sucks in oh-so many ways. But compared to the local businesses, which are anti-union, low paying, low service, high priced, it comes out far ahead. Of course people buy their children's clothes at Walmart. It's either that or Dollar General. (You think Walmart is bad? Pity the poor wage slaves at Dollar General!) What did people do before Walmart for things like children's clothes or fabric or or books or small appliances and such, you may ask? Didn't they buy them from local retailers? No. They bought them from Sears and JC Penney's, both of which used to have a small town presence but closed up shop decades ago. The reality is that Walmart, despite its faults, isn't going anywhere for the simple reason that no one else is even trying to move into its niche. And don't get me started on Costco. I have a Costco membership, for when I go into the Big City in search of things I can't possibly find here. And even there, Costco is only on the well-heeled side of town. At least Walmart plops itself down near the neighborhoods of janitors and taxi drivers and desk clerks, giving those folks their only book stores.

So who is stupid here? Not the customers and employees. I'd say it is the retailers, both big and small, who don't offer the least real option to Walmart. The shops that do, whether large (like HEB) or small and local (like the hardware store), are making money hand over fist. There's a huge opportunity in the local area for a pharmacy to come in and actually be open all weekend. Even Walmart doesn't do that. There's a need for a hobby store. I have to drive to the next county for those things. The only shop that meets the needs of teenage social positioning is the flea-market's purveyor of pirated goods, and the teens will pay as much as if they were buying the real deal. You can't even buy a comic book in this town. So if you are ever looking for a large quantity of stupid, just walk into a local chamber of commerce meeting.