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I don't like McDonald's, and wouldn't patronize it even if they paid their employees a starting salary of $15.00 per hour. I get your point though. I personally like to support companies that treat their employees well, but I won't do so if I don't like their product in the first place.
I grew up in rural GA, and we had to drive a half an hour to a department store, which was a Kmart. But during the day we had a great downtown in Canton GA- we had a record store, a five and dime, we had a theatre, all sorts of shops. WalMart came in, and those shops disappeared. The cotton mill that everyone worked at had closed a couple years before. To move to China.
I haven't shopped at a Walmart in ten years at least, maybe more. I have always been poor, financially at least, but i keep my life simple. That is my agenda- keeping my life sensible and simple and little overhead. I have lived in vans, motor homes, a bus, a garage- I make a great home no matter where I go. I don't want to be tied into something that I don't trust. I watched my family tumble from debt and credit cards, and I have never had a credit card for that reasonI have watched all my friends get into huge debt to buy houses, cars, things they didn't need and everyone seems to be getting much less happy over the decades that I have been alive. I know how it used to be- and I know that those days are probably gone. Now they manufacture nostalgia like you can buy that sort of community sense and connection. They have Cracker Barrels all over the south that have taken real home-grown businesses and products, sold them out, then resold them back to the people they took it from. Its like a bad joke. I can't even imagine the days where there were plenty of jobs and no empty buildings. Its like "Allentown" writ large.
My point is is that I am not some ivory-tower type who doesn't know what its like to be poor. I do not know anything else, actually, but I have tried in my own small way to make what I do matter. And I know that if everyone else did the same and started wanting more American made products, that would be a HUGE step in a good direction.
I don't mind that there are cheap Chinese products- I do buy them, but I buy them at the 99 cent store. That to me seems like the appropriate price to pay for this stuff (and despite the cheapness to make and the MASSIVE markup it could literally be sold for a dollar, most of this stuff). If people wanted more quality, they could go to a department store and get a higher quality. That seems a far more equalized set up than the trillions of American dollars going to cheaply made products, paying workers 45 cents an hour in an oppressive regime that regularly eats its own. But that's just me.
I live in a huge city, and the record stores, book stores, and theaters also have trouble staying in business. It's not because of big box stores, but because of the Internet. The big box stores like Walmart are just able to weather those changes in the market better than smaller companies.
You could go to a department store and get higher quality, but it still would most likely be made overseas. If there was a store that only sold American made products, I would probably go there. Maybe there is and I just don't know about it, but I would think it would be a major ad campaign that I would have heard of.
And that's the way it should be. Walmart can't do anything if a company decides to pull their product out or not do business with them. I understand that Walmart is a great outlet for product. But if I'm making 2% on the sale it's not worth it to me to sell that low. Maybe my product is worth more. Do we wonder why you're not finding Prada, LV, Channel, Rolex etc (high end products) at Walmart? It's because those companies are not gonna lower their prices to appease Walmart. Their target customer is not a Walmart bargain shopper so thry don't cater to them.
Absolutely not! The price would go down to $5.00 an item on Chanel, Rolex, Prada and LV because of the VOLUME! That's why those vendors stay out ( Nike, Adidas.. whomever)
bsolutely not! The price would go down to $5.00 an item on Chanel, Rolex, Prada and LV because of the VOLUME! That's why those vendors stay out ( Nike, Adidas.. whomever)
They are not capable of making enough goods, to be able to sell to Walmart.
In 2013, Walmart announced a plan to spend an additional $50 billion on products “Made in the USA”over the next ten years. Suppliers looking to reshore manufacturing operations closer to Walmart can’t find a better location than Walmart’s own backyard.
I grew up in rural GA, and we had to drive a half an hour to a department store, which was a Kmart. But during the day we had a great downtown in Canton GA- we had a record store, a five and dime, we had a theatre, all sorts of shops. WalMart came in, and those shops disappeared. The cotton mill that everyone worked at had closed a couple years before. To move to China.
I haven't shopped at a Walmart in ten years at least, maybe more. I have always been poor, financially at least, but i keep my life simple. That is my agenda- keeping my life sensible and simple and little overhead. I have lived in vans, motor homes, a bus, a garage- I make a great home no matter where I go. I don't want to be tied into something that I don't trust. I watched my family tumble from debt and credit cards, and I have never had a credit card for that reasonI have watched all my friends get into huge debt to buy houses, cars, things they didn't need and everyone seems to be getting much less happy over the decades that I have been alive. I know how it used to be- and I know that those days are probably gone. Now they manufacture nostalgia like you can buy that sort of community sense and connection. They have Cracker Barrels all over the south that have taken real home-grown businesses and products, sold them out, then resold them back to the people they took it from. Its like a bad joke. I can't even imagine the days where there were plenty of jobs and no empty buildings. Its like "Allentown" writ large.
My point is is that I am not some ivory-tower type who doesn't know what its like to be poor. I do not know anything else, actually, but I have tried in my own small way to make what I do matter. And I know that if everyone else did the same and started wanting more American made products, that would be a HUGE step in a good direction.
I don't mind that there are cheap Chinese products- I do buy them, but I buy them at the 99 cent store. That to me seems like the appropriate price to pay for this stuff (and despite the cheapness to make and the MASSIVE markup it could literally be sold for a dollar, most of this stuff). If people wanted more quality, they could go to a department store and get a higher quality. That seems a far more equalized set up than the trillions of American dollars going to cheaply made products, paying workers 45 cents an hour in an oppressive regime that regularly eats its own. But that's just me.
Let's put aside the altruist-leftist collectivist rants. Walmart is a store. Not a country. It has no military. It doesn't force anyone to do anything. It achieves low prices through economies of scale in buying and selling. It's that simple. It owes NOBODY NADA. If employees don't want to work there, they are free to look elsewhere. If customers can find better prices elsewhere, they will go there. If other companies can outsource more and give us better prices, SO BE IT. If competitors cannot match price and selection, then they can find something else to do. That is correct, rational, logical, beneficial, efficient, and GOOD FOR EVERYBODY.
As far as putting small businesses out of business, that is utter bullfeces. If we have been overcharged by mom and pop retailers and Walmart or some other big box moves in and cuts prices such that small overcharging inefficient businesses have to close, than that is exactly what should happen.
There is no RIGHT to stay in business and overcharge people. If Walmart moves in and you can't match the prices, then up your game and offer something they don't, like faster and friendlier service, or home delivery, or invent something, or get the hell out of business.
I avoid Walmart for one reason. Slow checkout lines. I'd rather pay more and get out fast.
So let's stop making a shopping choice political. I don't give a damn about the rest of the world or it's authoritarian problems. Let them wise up and choose freedom and individualism and Capitalism and live correctly like us, or basically they have chosen their own Hell and deserve everything they get. Walmart can pay third world countries pennies and sell all there imported garbage here UNTIL THE COWS COME HOME. It's fine with me, and from the looks of their parking lots, it's fine with everyone else.
Let's put aside the altruist-leftist collectivist rants. Walmart is a store. Not a country. It has no military. It doesn't force anyone to do anything. It achieves low prices through economies of scale in buying and selling. It's that simple. It owes NOBODY NADA. If employees don't want to work there, they are free to look elsewhere. If customers can find better prices elsewhere, they will go there. If other companies can outsource more and give us better prices, SO BE IT. If competitors cannot match price and selection, then they can find something else to do. That is correct, rational, logical, beneficial, efficient, and GOOD FOR EVERYBODY.
As far as putting small businesses out of business, that is utter bullfeces. If we have been overcharged by mom and pop retailers and Walmart or some other big box moves in and cuts prices such that small overcharging inefficient businesses have to close, than that is exactly what should happen.
There is no RIGHT to stay in business and overcharge people. If Walmart moves in and you can't match the prices, then up your game and offer something they don't, like faster and friendlier service, or home delivery, or invent something, or get the hell out of business.
I avoid Walmart for one reason. Slow checkout lines. I'd rather pay more and get out fast.
So let's stop making a shopping choice political. I don't give a damn about the rest of the world or it's authoritarian problems. Let them wise up and choose freedom and individualism and Capitalism and live correctly like us, or basically they have chosen their own Hell and deserve everything they get. Walmart can pay third world countries pennies and sell all there imported garbage here UNTIL THE COWS COME HOME. It's fine with me, and from the looks of their parking lots, it's fine with everyone else.
Amen to that. By the looks of the huge numbers of people who apply for jobs at factories making stuff for WalMart, it also looks like the Chinese labor doesn't mind one bit.
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