Just read an article about Wal Mart that is something to think about. Remember the full service gas stations, the locally owned pharmacy that delivered, the milk man, and the hometown hardware store. Now the category killer and big box retailers dominate. I am guilty of shopping at Wal Mart, Home Depot etc.., because their prices are so darned good. The article said that when a Wal Mart Supercenter comes to town, that Two other supermarkets close. Are we really better off this way? Just something to think about.
Not only with Wal Mart but also happens with many others supermarkets and companies all over the world. It is called globalization and that's why many people complain about all this issue. It is kind of a personal choice: if you go only for a better price go to walmart, but if you care about how the wealth is distributed in your town go to the smaller stores.
Where I'm currently livin (The Netherlands) the law is so protective with small supermarkets that we barely find big WalMart size places, sometimes sucks, but the wealth is shared more evenly.
I rarely shop at Wal Mart. Indirectly, at least, all non-millionaires are better off if people don't shop at Wal Mart. If you spend a little more money at a shop where the money goes to pay a slightly higher wage and the profits to a local, more money stays in the hands of the lower- and middle-class than if you save a few pennies and shop at a store which pays poorly and sends their profits into the hands of a few incredibly rich people. At this moment, the US in the in midst of a "jobless recovery" - this means that businesses are making more money and that more money is being spent, but jobs are still being lost. Manufacturing and even some service jobs (call centers, programming, etc) are being shipped overseas and many lost jobs at smaller stores are being replaced by fewer jobs at big box retailers. Wal Mart doesn't affect me directly, but similar practices do. My employer provides web hosting and internet access to our clients. Our T1 is shared by our clients; it would be a prohibitive cost for us to provide web hosting if it weren't. The T1 formerly provided the company with a slight profit, but our smaller clients have left us for free T1s. Had our largest client not refused a free T1 recently, I don't know how my boss could afford to pay my salary today. Of course, BellSouth won't provide OUR T1 free, and I suspect that they won't continue to take a loss on those T1s for the next 50 years. They aren't creating any new jobs with those T1s. They're simply setting themselves up to charge for them in the future and increase BellSouth's profits while putting smaller ISPs out of business and smaller ISP's employees out of work.
......................I don't care whether other people shop at one place or another. That's their business. I work pretty hard for my money and how and where I spend it is my business. When a local grocery chain sells their crappy 'fresh' food like meat & produce at a price that's considerably higher than Walmart, screw'm. In a free marketplace, the buyer should satisfy their own needs as best they can. A lousy box of breakfast cereal can cost half again more than what Walmart charges at some of the 'local' stores here where I live. I recently purchased 330 sq. ft. of carpet at Lowes for 43 cents a sq. ft. I tried to give a local carpet business a chance to sell it to me but they kept pressuring me to 'upgrade' to a better type of carpet even though I kept telling them that it was just for the concrete floor in my basement. Even the stuff that they had which was somewhat equivalent to what I wanted was about 30% more expensive. It's my money and a local business has to be deserving of my business. I don't owe them anything. Just my opinion.
If you don't care where your money goes and all you think about is what it costs you now why not buy black market? Same product at half the price... Although the product is hot what does that matter? You save half of what you would spend in that there big box....
......................It's precisely because it is my money that you shouldn't be worrying yourself about where it gets spent. There are no taxes being paid on the black market and the goods would likely be stolen. Not hardly comparable to buying a few bags of groceries from a legitimate business. On the same note, if you think that getting carpet from a nationwide chain is socially irresponsible, then what you're really trying to do is manage other peoples' money for them. Get your own money and spend it where you wish, I'll take care of how mine gets spent thank you.
...............I'm not against the small family owned and operated business. I do support them when they deserve it. The way a business gets to be deserving is to provide a good quality product or service at a competitive price. It's as simple as that. If you sell stale loaves of bread at a higher price than a competitor who sells fresh loaves........adios muchacho!
.........As for taxes. I've known a few people, over the years, who lived 'off the books'. It's a bad idea in the long run and also places a greater burden on the rest of us who end up paying more than our share.
Slightly OT but after looking at the friggin mess in California, I'd rather pay the higher taxes here just to NOT be them all over again. California is just plain screwed, by their own initiative.
The lil guy can't afford to give you the deal you want cause he can't afford to buy the bulk to get the price down because you won't buy from him because his prices are to high because you won't buy from him. See the circle yet? Go ahead run the lil guy out of business. Then you can only buy what the big box wants to sell you at the price they want out of it because there is no competition. In the end you will be the one bending over and spreading. Enjoy! ;-)
I agree with the original posters comments. "Are we really better off this way? Just something to think about."
................The little guy can often have a lower overhead than the big guy, spend less on advertising, do the work himself inorder to maintain a higher level of quality, eliminate pilferring by keeping a close eye on employees if there are any, make an effort to meet the individual needs of each customer, etc., etc. A lot of small businesses fail because the owner(s) simply weren't able or willing to do whatever it takes to be successful in the marketplace. Blaming Walmart is a lot easier than admitting that your dissatisfied customers were looking for something better and found it. There are many small businesses that do very well because they make sure that their customers remain loyal by providing them with what they want at a competitive price.
..................Here's one example that comes to mind. We have an Olive Garden nearby like most places. It's moderately successful but not busy enough that you'd bet too much money on it still being here in ten years. Maybe, maybe not. Ten minutes away is a locally owned Italian Restaurant that can't seat anyone in less than a half hour on any given Friday/Saturday. They have people standing in their parking lot even during the winter months sometimes who may end up waiting for 45(?) mins. before they can get a table. Their food is better quality and it costs less! They make their own sauces from scratch, bake their own bread, hand toss their pizza dough that was made from scratch that day and fire any employee who isn't prepared to make sure that every customer is treated to the best meal that they could ever imagine for about $10.
.............It's not always just buying processed items by the truck load and then passing on the savings.
I thought that the big companies were "whoring out" product at below market value to bring people in to screw 'em on other products after they break the competition...........................That's my experience anyway.
The little guy can't compete if he's not willing to become one of the big boxes.....................he'll have to shell out all of his investment dollars on ONE product to use it as a leader to get the customer in his store......................and then the customer takes it to the big box to get accessories and stuff cause the little guy can;t compete ther too, cause he spent his load buying the one product .......................Vicious circle huh.
I like walmart for one reason........................It takes the dregs of society away from the places I'd rather Shop for my stuff.
other than that I have no real use for them......................
In Small Town USA, they go in and all the legitimate small businesses are forced to close because of two things,.................they pay better, and they have lower prices.
THEN,...............after they shut all the other businesses down, they cut their employment size down, and cut payscales to keep everybody in poverty, except the management..............that way, they get all the beans in the town, and none of the poor folks figure it out til it's too late, and they have to live with it cause they didn;t plan ahead for such an event.
No,..............Don't take this wrong folks. Walmart isn't the one making the decision to shop at their stores ,...................the patrons do it. I know how it works................But small town folks are looking for the same "bargains as everyone else, and get caught up in that Circle and it's fairly routine..............Walmart Corporate decision makers know what they're doin' too.
I'll stop now, Cause I could go on forever about this walmart thing too.........................Just something that makes you think and get pissed (not drunk), and stuff................
Remove "YOURPANTIES" to reply MUADIB®
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Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
..................nope............It's all about quality and cost. That Italian restaurant that I mentioned is about 10 min. drive out of the way for most of its customers.
On Tue, 7 Oct 2003 23:11:53 -0400, "Tim Rogers" shared the following:
Dude! That's what my doctors have been telling me all these years!!! C'mon now, let's have a big ol' idiot/stupidity group-hug. I'll start. Just kiddin'. No I won't. I'll just back up a few steps and take pictures of you stupid idiots hugging each other with my camera and post them to:
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DORKS!!! C'mon, now.... Much easier to laugh about it than to cop an attitude.... Like my friend Sammy from back in '86 used to say... LAUGH, DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-- Travis FOR SALE: '63 VW Camo Baja... $1000 *FIRM*
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that soak into your ears are whispered, not yelled.
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