Walmart - did you see the show?
mwild31
1,441 Posts
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-15-04 AT 12:40PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Did anyone else watch the 2-hour show last night on MSNBC about Walmart? Wow.
It was a very interesting look inside the operations. I think the CEO is a little strange, the union leader represented in one segment (with union folks standing around in yellow t-shirts) sounds like a stereotypical mafia hit-man and the double talk around whether or not buying items from Walmart result in increased child labor or employee abuses in other countries was just unsettling. The funniest part was seeing the corporate headquarters, a real plain brick building where everyone has metal desks (except the CEO - he gets a wooden desk - at least I think the frames are wood, the rest looks like particle board) and the insistence by the CEO that he share a $49 room with one of the other executives when they travel - just to show vendors, employees and the world that cost cutting and cost efficiency is modeled even by them, but yet, one of the exec's (can't remember his name) pulled down $14 million in wages and stock options the previous year!
Very strange look inside - not sure if it benefits them or not. I have a strange desire to stop in and take advantage of the low prices, but yet don't want to contribute to low wages, possible abuse of employees here and abroad or corporate greed. Ah! The Walmart guilt.
It was a very interesting look inside the operations. I think the CEO is a little strange, the union leader represented in one segment (with union folks standing around in yellow t-shirts) sounds like a stereotypical mafia hit-man and the double talk around whether or not buying items from Walmart result in increased child labor or employee abuses in other countries was just unsettling. The funniest part was seeing the corporate headquarters, a real plain brick building where everyone has metal desks (except the CEO - he gets a wooden desk - at least I think the frames are wood, the rest looks like particle board) and the insistence by the CEO that he share a $49 room with one of the other executives when they travel - just to show vendors, employees and the world that cost cutting and cost efficiency is modeled even by them, but yet, one of the exec's (can't remember his name) pulled down $14 million in wages and stock options the previous year!
Very strange look inside - not sure if it benefits them or not. I have a strange desire to stop in and take advantage of the low prices, but yet don't want to contribute to low wages, possible abuse of employees here and abroad or corporate greed. Ah! The Walmart guilt.
Comments
Just as every "new" style of anything hits resistance, so too goes the tale of Wal-Mart. The younger generations of today will go for the lowest prices and the best service. It's no longer a class problem with the large discount stores. Our economy has gotten so stiff that most of the population is counting every cent. So to me, Wal-Mart is doing more good than bad.
I enjoy Wal-Mart but wish to hell it had never been invented.
Mark my words, they are after the grocery business BIG TIME. They want to be right up there with Kroger and Publix. Kroger got wise (pun intended) and has leveraged the union to keep them at bay in key markets.
I guess the other shopping and employment opportunities in a given community play a large role in whether you think Walmart is a blessing or a curse, along with some of the asthetic and environmental factors. My city is trying to keep Walmart and other "big box" stores from building on top of our aquifer, and I like Don's community's efforts to keep retail outlets from being eyesores.
Apart from those issues, it feels a little scary to me that one company is taking over so many sectors of the retail market. When they've wiped out all their competition, will they start raising prices? Will retailing become so bland and homogeneous that we won't be able to tell suburban Houston from suburban Boston from suburban LA? That's close enough to true already.