Walmart's been quiet for the last few years, but don't lose sight of the fact that they, as much . .

[Stinky The Clown]

. . . . as anyone, contributed to the loss of American jobs by vigorously chasing the lowest prices by buying from the lowest wage manufacturers. Then they created an addiction to them.

That might be bad enough, but they went even further. They killed any and all competing small businesses. Walmart became the strongest, most virulent cause of urban blight by decimating small town downtowns.

Sure we all want to pay the least and get the most. So what's the solution?

[shraby]

1. The solution is for more people to be earning paychecks that

allow them to be able to shop where they want. If they have limited funds because they aren't working, they are going to shop where their money will go the farthest.

[Donnachaidh]

2. we also need to actively support OTHER businesses, locally owned businesses

It's not enough to call for better wages - we need to fight to kill the profits of the Walmart supercenters that are destroying whole communities around this country.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. For what its worth, I can tell you that I do that, even when it is more costly or time consuming

Try finding a locally owned gas station. That's not easy in many places.

I used to not patronize franchises, but it is almost impossible now to find some services that are not franchises.

How about clothing? That's a difficult one, too.

But yes, your sentiment is spot on and the right thing to do.

[HopeHoops]

3. WalMart is predatory. They're trying to squeeze one into a small space to kill a Toys R Us.

The space is way too small - solution: multi-level parking garage. It requires tearing down a stand of tall trees that has served as a buffer for the houses opposite the lot for decades. It will be 24 hours and have high intensity lights that will be glaring all night. The residents are upset about this - solution: 10' privacy fence that won't do shit to keep the light out.

They'll do the same thing they did with every other toy store - sell below cost until the store goes out of business and then jack the prices up to way more than what the other store was charging.

[mopinko]

4. return the minimum wage to some connection

with reality. like make it $12 tomorrow and see what happens to us all.

[Sirveri]

5. Break them up as a monopoly. They're too big, bring in Teddy.

[zbdent]

7. remember the days when they advertised "American Made"?

long ago ... and, for some odd reason, Sam did it for ... Bill Clinton ...

Of course, that was back when the inheritance goobers weren't running the show ...

[Donnachaidh]

8. that was when Sam was alive -- his spawn are too frigging greedy

they don't car how many children make their crap.

[littlewolf]

11. are his kids even on the board anymore ?

I heard that they had been force out ....

[Donnachaidh]

12. Even if that is true -- do you think their board doesn't listen to what they want?

???

[zacherystaylor]

9. planned obsolescence

One of the biggest things that the multi-national corporations have been doing involves conducting research into ways to increase planned obsolescence. This involves studying the complacency of the consumer. When people don’t complain about shoddy merchandise they decrease the quality of the products so they fall apart sooner. There research is protected by trade secret or proprietary information laws. Instead of protecting the rights of the consumers and the workers the government is protecting the rights of the people participating in fraud. Be sure to save your receipts and don’t be afraid to speak up.

I wrote more about this in a recent blog about “Complacent Consumer have little if any rights” if anyone is interested.

http://open.salon.com/blog/zacherydtaylor/2011/06/06/complacent_consumers_have_few_if_any_rights

It wouldn’t take much to calculate the rough cost too consumers. My blog talks about sneakers which if they fall apart for everyone the way they did for me they would cost the public billions of dollar4s a year and that doesn’t even count appliances or other stuff.

[Brickbat]

10. They weren't chasing the lowest prices. They were chasing what would give them the largest possible

profit margin without regard to a sustainable customer or supplier base.

[nigelrmurray]

13. Found an interesting book on the subject

I've been following the Walmart story for a while and, though it's true there are two sides to every story, the evidence seems to be mounting that it's evolved over time into something bad. When Sam Walton was around they just seemed to be tough businessmen. Without him, they seem to have lost their moral compass.

I just came across a book on Amazon that seems to predict where all this is going (http://www.amazon.com/Il-Vendetta-ebook/dp/B0053DQR24/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1307621737&sr=8-3). Interesting idea ...