WalMart
After my post about the Duggars, Susan asks
what’s wrong with shopping at Wal-mart?
The obvious first answer is that shopping at Wal-Mart gives money to Wal-Mart. Duh. And we don’t want to give them any more money than they already have. Duh.
But why do we need to actively resist shopping at Wal-Mart? Because of their business practices.
Wal-Mart is against establishing carbon offset guidelines
They are attempting to defeat passing of the Employee Free Choice Act, which, if passed, would give more power to employees to join unions, which would enable them to negotiate better wages and secure better health care coverage. Their history of employee treatment is legendary, of course, and EVERYONE SHOULD ALREADY BE AWARE OF THIS SHIT. The AFL-CIO has also leveled charges against WalMart about this.
Wakeup WalMart has a bunch of stuff here, which includes facts about their treatment of employees, the cost to taxpayers, and SOOO many other things are listed, with citations
WalMart is known for swooping into an area, sucking in shoppers with promises of “lower prices”, which in turn works to destroy independent business, including the LOSS OF JOBS and healthcare to the people who use to work in other places.
WalMart Watch also has a bunch of information
Here’s Dave Lippman’s “Why I Hate WalMart”
And there are SEVERAL Web sites where individuals are telling their own Wal-Mart stories of mistreatment, abuse, and just plain badness. I’ll leave others to dig those out, since angry patrons should be taken with a grain of salt. I’m more concerned with their business practices, their treatment of their employees, their treatment of the towns they suck themselves into, the low quality of their products, the child abuse involved in creating those tacky products in other countries (instead of employee Americans in American manufacturing plans like they should), and a bunch of other stuff. For them, it’s all about “low prices” at any cost. I don’t believe American can afford the high cost of those low prices.
Have I shopped at WalMart? Yes. Only when I could not get what I needed elsewhere, or if I was tagging along with someone who wanted to go there instead of someplace else. I don’t like it, and only go when I have to. Ditto for Sam’s Club, another chain in the WalMart family. I go when I have to, and use it because I feel locked between a rock and a hard place. I would much prefer WalMart would just close down and go away. Too many Americans are too stupid and prefer convenience over conscience.
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ETA: Confessions of a WalMart Hitman:
Union dues alone will make working at Wal-Mart unbearable. They don’t pay them enough now - then to give half of what they take home to a union? Think of the employees. The only reason that people have to work at Wal-Mart is that it is the only store within 25 miles or so from their house. Rural people live in a faux-communist society. Why did the city fathers of rural America decide to let Sam Walton control their towns back in the mid-1970’s?
August 26th, 2008 at 2:55 am