Explaining about Walmart to my son

[lostnfound]

I don't shop at Walmart. My son just asked for a particular toy which he says is sold at Walmart. I told him why I don't shop there. The workers get paid minimum wage, the company treats them poorly and they have a terrible track record. And the cheap stuff that they sell is only cheap because they are basically using "slave-labor" in poor countries. So we do a little googling.

Would he like to try to live on $7.25 an hour? "No way", he says. What if he were a janitor locked into the store all night and there was a fire? His eyes are getting wider. There are reports on the Internet of the workers in Bangladesh getting paid 16 cents an hour, working up to 20 hour days. "Wow. They wouldn't have any time to spend with their friends."

And where does this money go? I show him the Top 10 Forbes list of richest people in America. There are FOUR Walton siblings on the list, each with $23 Billion dollars. He says Wow. The four of them combined have almost $100 Billion dollars. That's right -- $92 Billion to be exact. I tell him, that means that if they gave away all of their money, they could take 92,000 peoplewho have NO money and turn them into millionaires. Instead of 92,000 millionaires, there are 4 people with $23 Billion each.

Yes, you can buy a cheap shirt or a toy at Walmart, but the people who make them will be working like slaves, and the people who sell them are struggling to pay their bills, but the people who own the stores will still keep getting richer and richer.

[thecrow]

1. Good on you:)

Teach your children well...

[stray cat]

2. Was the toy also made in China?

[lostnfound]

9. Aren't they all???!

Yes, we've had that discussion as well, many times.

[leveymg]

3. Please also tell him that each Wall*Mart store probably put 20 smaller stores out of business

and that the reason why so many people are out-of-work in America is because we no longer have many factories and businesses here. The AFL-CIO estimates that seventy percent of the non-food merchandize sold at Wall*Mart stores in this country is made in China.

That $100 billion dollars translates into 2 million $50,000 a year jobs that have been lost just to create the profits that went into the pockets of 4 members of the Walton family. To put that into perspective, that number is equal to one-in-every-four unemployed Americans whose jobs have been eliminated since the recession started in late 2007. Even if we subtract from that number every Wall*Mart employee working for the company in the U.S., those profits are still equal to 600,000 $50,000 a year jobs that have been lost.

Thank you and your son for not buying his toys at Wall*Mart.

[xchrom]

4. recommend

[monmouth]

5. I'm going to c&p this and send to friends. Great post and many thanks..n/t

[TheDebbieDee]

6. I'm not a big fan of Walmart either...........

I think that in just a few years or decades they will have put all of their retail competition out of business and become an anti-trust issue.

But,

For people without health insurance (as I recently was), Walmart gives working people a chance to be able to afford their prescriptions.

Also, I take several dietary supplements; Vitamin D, Co Q 10, Omega 3 Fish Oil. I checked out the prices of these supplements at WALGREEN'S last Sunday and all of these items are at least twice the price Walmart's.

I hate Walmart, but I'm not awash in money.......I'd be a FOOL to pay at least twice as much to make a point.

[rustydog]

7. Yes, I boycott Walmart too...I can afford to.

The medication issue is HUGE. If I did not have insurance and did not make decent money, I'd be buying medications and doing my grocery shopping at Walmart.

Since I can afford to make the choice, I do not give them my business. Every person has to make a choice depending on their circumstances.

[surrealAmerican]

8. It already is an anti-trust issue, and has been for many years now.

A & P was broken up for a far smaller share of the market than Walmart has now.