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Why is Wal-Mart so EVIL?
Recently in my Economics class, we watched a video on the superpower that is Wal-Mart. Once the video finished, I remembered that Rym and Scott both boycotted the retailer and their practices, so I jumped over here.
Forum-goers, what are YOUR opinions on Wal-Mart and what they do/how they affect our economy?
Forum-goers, what are YOUR opinions on Wal-Mart and what they do/how they affect our economy?
Comments
The One and only time I was in WAL-MART, I cried. Then again, I was Six, I'd been far from home in another country for about two months at this point, and they played "Land down under" Over the In-store PA/Muzak system.
EDIT: I almost forgot, Bullshit's doing an episode on Wal-Mart in the coming season. Can't wait, although I'm guessing it's going to be a weak one like the recycling episode.
If you want to talk about truly evil corporations, talk about Abercrombie & Fitch or Hollister. These companies use incredible peer pressure schemes to convince pre-teenagers to spend $80-$100 on a single shirt or pair of jeans. They prey on the financial divide between poor and rich. They convince young people that it's okay to waste money, as long as it gains social status.
WalMart is the biggest, so it will draw the most criticism. But the fact is that it has done an incredible good for our economy, providing more jobs and resources to the ideals of social and economic mobility than any other business. In my mind, creating low prices and opportunity is far more admirable than handing someone a check and creating welfare dependency.
But then again, I'm one of those craaaazy capitalists who thinks that people should be rewarded for hard work.
Wal-Mart, due it is size, is able to bring prices down in a BIG way. Example: If you call the widget factory and place an order for 10 widgets you will pay the standard wholesale price. When Wal-Mart calls and places an order for 10M widgets (every month) they pay far less than the wholesale price.
There is a big caveat to selling through big chain stores though, returns. Even when the big stores order mass quantities they often reserve some for of return rights. This is why a lot of RPG publishers will not put there product on the shelves at chain book stores. AEG almost went bankrupt when Barnes and Noble carried the Shadis magazine due to over ordering and then over returning.
Which brings me to my business plan: I'm thinking about opening a neighborhood bar. It'll be called "Joe's Fuckin' Reactionary Bar". The only beer we'll have is PBR on tap. The only whiskey we'll have is Jack Daniels. We'll serve Maxwell House coffee. No soda, No tea. In fact, no other liquid at all. The only thing on the jukebox will be Led Zeppelin and Hank Williams III. The only thing to eat will be peanuts, pretzels, and a big jar of pickled eggs. Everyone who comes in gets a mandatory pack of Marlboros and a White Owl cigar and there'll be a two smoke minimum. And if you don't like it, you can get the fuck out!
As for why I avoid Wal-Mart, there are a few reasons. Only the final reason is a "real" reason that I can defend in debate.
The first reason is that I do not want to be near the type of people who shop at Wal-Mart. Every time I have ever been to one of those stores, other than once late at night, the store has been flooded with the trashiest lowlife people known to man. I do not like being near those people, so I avoid the store.
Secondly, Wal-Mart is slightly evil when it comes to their employees. There was once a guy who worked in the auto department. He wanted to unionize. He got everyone in the auto department to go along with it, it was all set. Wal-Mart came and made everyone watch anti-union propaganda videos. In the end, they didn't unionize. I remember a quote from one of the employees was along the lines of "Yeah, it was obvious what they did showing us those videos. I guess it worked." You'd think that since I'm mostly anti-union this would actually make me happy. Well, this is also a case of taking advantage of stupid employees. Not exactly the nicest.
Those aside, there is one big real reason I avoid Wal-Mart. That reason is to diminish Wal-Mart's influence on other companies. You do realize that Wal-Mart sells more CDs, DVDs and video games than just about anywhere else, right? Think about the influence that they have over the music and movie industries. Do you really want the retailer making those decisions?
There's a great story on the web somewhere about a guy who was a salesman for a high-end lawnmower manufacturer. He went to Wal-Mart to sell lawnmowers. Usually when a salesperson goes to Wal-Mart they beg and plead Wal-Mart to buy their stuff. If Wal-Mart buys your product and sells it in its many stores, your company obviously makes a lot of money. This guy went in, and Wal-Mart definitely wanted to sell his mowers. However, Wal-Mart is all about super cheap stuff. They couldn't sell these high quality mowers at the low price they wanted to. They asked the salesman if his company could make a crappier, cheaper mower with their brand on it. He's my hero because he gave them the finger. Would you ask Ferrari to make a cheap four cylinder everyone could afford? You would if you were Wal-Mart.
The reason I don't shop at Wal-Mart is mostly because I don't want to increase their influence in any way. Remember, your dollars are votes. A vote for Wal-Mart is a vote for cheaper, lower quality goods. A vote for Wal-Mart is a vote for censorship in movies, music and games. Most other retailers do not exert this kind of influence on manufacturers. You don't see Amazon, Borders or B&N telling publishers what books to print. If publishers print it, they sell it. You don't see Newegg telling manufacturers to make different motherboards. They just sell what's out there.
Every dollar you spend at Wal-Mart helps to decrease the quality of goods in some small way. Every dollar you spend at Wal-Mart brings us closer to a world where a single retailer dictates to the manufacturers what products to make. Imagine if you were CEO of some goods-producing company. Now imagine if some buyer at Wal-Mart had more influence over your product line than you did. I want to decrease the influence those Wal-Mart buyers have. The best way I can do that is to simply not shop there and encourage others to do the same. That is the number one reason I do not shop at Wal-Mart if at all possible.
Also, Scott's argument is equally valid.
You can order McDonald's food from the checkout line.
That is a terrible thing to do to the impoverished people who already shop there. You shouldn't make it easier on anyone to eat that stuff.
I support stupid people's right to be stupid, but that right ends the moment they cause actual problems for non-stupid people (or even other stupid people). Eating McDonald's every day in line while you buy your ever-increasingly enormous thongs? Fine! Overdrafting your last credit card on said thongs? Keep up the good work!
Expecting tax-dollars to pay for your gastric bypass, knee surgery, electric scooter, and Type II Diabetes complications? Not so fast!
I won't patronize establishments that facilitate human stupidity in a futile attempt to starve it of my dollars.
/Ha ha! Godwin'd!!1!!1!
So, we've learned something today SniperDragon: Many people have many different ideas about why Wal-Mart is so EVIL, but no one really knows for certain. It's a lot like vampires, werewolves, and zombies. There is true evil in the world and, while we might try to figure out why it exists, the best thing to do is stay away. Very far away.
How does Wal-Mart push their ethics on the entertainment industry?
If you are going to say, "they will not carry certain movies/magazines" my reply is, "It's a free country, they do not have to stock every item that exists."
A good example of this (often called bait-and-switch) is when you see an item in the circular for a ridiculous price such as an LCD TV 15" for $100! You say, "damn that's cheap," and head for the store. Once you get there you find that the LCD is super cheap and looks like crap. Yeah, it's 15" but it only has a coaxial input on the back. Sitting next to it is another LCD (for more money) with better jacks and specs... They are hoping you will come in for the item that is priced low and buy the more expensive one instead.
Also, let me give you another example of retailer influence at the expense of the consumer, DVD cases. DVDs could be distributed in slim-cases. They would protect the DVDs just the same, and they would take up less space. History has shown that consumers like slim-cases. They like saving space on the shelves in their homes. There are even people who are happy to do away with cases altogether. They put all their CDs or DVDs in those expensive zippered binders. So why are DVDs still sold in standard DVD cases? Retailers want them. Retailers love the standard DVD case because it has a large binding, like a book. You can put it on a shelf sideways and it still has a presence. The DVD case is a great example of manufacturers creating a product to please retailers as opposed to consumers.
Another example is that damn plastic bubble packaging. I'm sure you've bought some products and then not been able to open them without some powerful cutting implements. It's not consumers who want that packaging, it's retailers. Shoplifting is a big deal, and retailers are perfectly happy going completely overboard with security.
You might be saying, hey those two examples are all retailers! Well, you'd be right. Obviously you didn't read the lawnmower story. Manufacturers are often so desperate to sell their product to Wal-Mart that they will make these kinds of changes at the request of a single retailer. Yes, the Wii at Wal-Mart is the same as the Wii everywhere else. But look at the packaging design of the Wii, its games, the demo station, etc. Nintendo has been in the business a long time. They already knew the kinds of things they would have to do in order for a store like Wal-Mart to carry their product, and they did them without being told. I prefer to live in a world where the considerations of the actual consumer are put before the concerns of the middle-man retailer. Wal-Mart is the #1 culprit in this department. I don't need to shop there, so I'm not going to.
Democracy can go either way: there is no inherent rightness in the conclusions it comes to, and I can imagine a great many instances where I would refuse to accept a democratically-derived action. Talk about a leap of logic. How am I opposed to public works, utilities, etc? I don't find them stupid at all, and I see a lot of intelligence in collectivising as a society to produce such things.
I simply use my personal discretionary spending as responsibly as I can to promote in what little way I can the ideals that are important to me. Walmart is contrary to many of those things, so I deny it my dollars even to my own possible short-term detriment in hopes of long-term fruition. As inefficient as the US government can be at times, I haven't given up on it by a long shot, and I see great value in much of what it does.
I understand and have known about the DVD thing. Wouldn't it be nice if manufacturers printed a double-sided jacket label for your DVDs so you could trash the over-sized DVD box, buy some slim lines, and move your DVDs over?
lawnmower: Those who live by Wal-Mart also die by Wal-Mart... returns are a bitch when Wal-Mart over orders...
The real issue is that, at some point, a profit-motivated company might be forced to make a decision that benefits either them or the consumer exclusively, and when that happens, most any profit-motivated organization will choose the route most beneficial to them, often at the consumer's expense. Sometimes, profit-motivated companies specifically cheat or otherwise cause detriment to their customers in order to profit even more. For example, my laboratory caught a company called Stay Slim making fraudulent nutritional claims on their line of diet foods. Things like this do happen, and are to be expected when an entity is primarily motivated by profit.
However, being profit-motivated doesn't necessarily make a company "evil;" that notion seems to stem from a notion that profiting at all is bad. There are some truly heineous corporate practices done in the name of profit, but many people simply pick the big guy and say, "Well, if he's that profitable, he must be the most evil too."
This is not to say that I think Wal-Mart is hunky-dory; indeed, they have a lot of shady business practices (moving into a small town and monopolizing the local retail economy, thereby destroying what was once a vibrant community), and their anti-union stance can sometimes be problematic. I'm not very pro-union myself, but it IS nice to have a place to turn to when you feel there is a legitimate work-related issue.
So, I don't say that Wal-Mart's evil density is necessarily higher than any other company's; it seems that way because the absolute value is high. This means, as always, it's very important for the consumer to stay as informed as possible, and for regulatory bodies to keep an eye on things that a consumer couldn't reasonably, or even possibly, know.