I work for a small privately owned manufacturer of electric heat, ventilation, and lighting equipment and I can tell you first hand that we do not and will not ever sell to Wal-Mart because they force any supplier to move production to China to meet their price expectations. After all of the US jobs are eliminated WM will then find a new company to supply the goods that you were supplying and drop you like a rotten apple. Yep, they will leave you with no customers or production ability. This is how they operate and any company that does business with them risks being sucked of its soul and them discarded like so much trash. Yeah they have low prices but the reason is because they are a predator of domestic manufacturing. Maybe one day the public will realize that every dollar they spend at Wal-Mart is ultimately funding the "Middle Kingdom" aka China that has its own agenda for the good ole USA.

Other than the shear aggrivation of any trip to wallyworld, this is why I refuse to even buy gasoline there!

Any company that tries to screw its employees out of a fair wage is really nothing more than a thief and deserves to be treated that way.

 

Whats worse, people bashing your employer with harsh falacies, or not standing up for the truth. I hate WM, but I work there. Since I go to college full time, its pretty much the only job that caters to my available hours. walmartfacts.com is a pretty good website... Walmart isn't the only company importing from China, in case you haven't noticed. I don't shop at WM... I buy my groceries at Albertsons, and other items at Target.

WM is incredibly anti union, it is, however much harder for me to be. There are lots of jobs around here that are union positions that start out at $15.36/hour its technically the same job that I do at WM, just paying $5/hour better.

 

Yes I have noticed Wal-Mart is not the only company mass importing from China and it is disturbing. I always look nowadays where anything is made and then make the desicion on what to buy. Made in the USA is always a large part of the consideration. Unfortunately, because of companies like Wal-Mart I often do not have a choice anymore.

Perhaps some of the things that we have heard about Wal-Mart are not completely true. There are always two sides to any story. However, their must be some truth to the problems because the issues keep resurfacing.

I am not pro-union, I am however for keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States. All the little manufacturers (and businesses) are ultimately what has made this country what it is. Think for example about building a tank. If a key component is supplied from CHINA because the US supplier was driven out of business due to cheap Chinese labor and then China suddenly disagrees with US Policy or worse, then what? Manufacturing is important an we should be doing everything we can to keep it here in the United States as US Citizens and as a US Business. Ironically, I believe, Toyota has shown how this can be done with great success without Unions.

Matt, best of luck to you with your employment at Wal-Mart. I wish you great success in your formal education as well.

 

Sorry for the politcs in the last post, I just remembered that it violates the guidelines for the forum. I think that I probably should have just read and not responded to this thread because I may be just furthering the argument. I suppose I think my $0.02 is worth $0.10 from time to time.

 

Most of us are consumers....walmart drives prices down for us...whats wrong with competition...why should i pay more at a smaller store just because its smaller? And dont tell me they steal jobs from people or some junk like that. I am for free trade and competitive competition, probably bc im an economist and dont understand why someone could hold a different position other than them just not understanding the subject matter very well.

 

WWBeast...I felt pretty much the same as you, until I did a little research. There's alarming evidence (at least IMO) that Walmart is destroying our manufacturing base in this country by forcing manufacturers to seek overseas solutions since they can't sell cheap to Walmart (as WalMart demands) as suppliers unless they do. Once we've driven all manufacturing jobs overseas...who's going to be left in this country to buy any of their stuff? In a way...it seems like they're shooting themselves in the foot and our labor force in the back (longterm) while giving us short term benefit of lower prices..."ALWAYS".

We (Americans) can NOT compete with foreign manufacturing at their labor rates. Most of us enjoy a MUCH better standard of living. I'd venture to say that Americans on welfare have more income than many of those Chinese manufacturing workers. And once WalMart has destroyed all its competition stateside...they'll set their prices at whatever they want...of course, who'll be able to afford to buy it?

Scott

 

But economics will tell you that if you can't make a product cheaper then the competition, then you have to

1. Make a better product.

or

2. Make a new product the other guy can't.

American innovation has been hurting lately, theres your problem.

 

Maybe read this LONG article.

http://www.bmo.com/economic/commod/bfin.html

 

That doesn't work when you're dealing with countries that have zero copyright, trademark and patent enforcement. Anything you can make, they can buy the equipment to copy it.

 

Not true. In the past we have produced products, that they couldn't reverse engineer, or just didn't have the manufacturing capacity to make for almost 7 year stints. Stone washing jeans is an example (the guy who inventend the process is from my home town)

This is how the human race became the top specices on the planet, If you can't be stronger, you've got to be smarter.

 

Snake,

That sounds great...but the visible evidence in lost jobs here and the increased ramp-up in China's industrialization bodes otherwise...the handwriting is on the wall.

My brother-in-law just worked his last week with Crane (plumbing fixtures). His plant shut down after 40+ years...guess where production went...you guessed it...CHINA!
Because it's CHEAPER labor!!!

Americans (especially nowadays) on the whole don't care about BETTER...they want what they can AFFORD!!!

A perfect example - A Loaded Lincoln Navigator may be "better" than a stripped Expedition, but I can afford the Expy... so I buy IT...despite the fact that I would REALLY LIKE TO HAVE the Navigator. Probably not the best example...but I think you get my point. And...as the standard of living continues downward in this country...less and less will be able to buy their "Navigator".

Scott

 

Must be some really rosy glasses you're wearing because stone washed jeans isn't the reality for the vast majority of products. A few limited examples, such as the stone washed jeans doesn't even begin to cover the entire spectrum of inventions and products innovated in this country and copied in China with no compensation for the inventor. Patents were put in place by our forefathers for good reason... it encourages innovation by helping to insure the invention process can be profitable.

I don't care for unions and I'm all for free trade, but I'm not going to con myself about the reality of what's going on in the world. We don't seen Eurpean countries pulling this type of knock-off stuff in what amounts to government sanctioned activity.

Just do what I'm doing... plan an exit strategy from the USA.

 

Refer to my post in this thread about wood flooring, youre right on.

like that "landwind suv" that looks like a rodeo

 

I think your talkin about having a comparitive adv in producing a good. We have an absolute adv in making these goods here in the US. But then you run into the problem of the opportunity cost. Wal-mart, im sure you can do research on both sides sayin good or bad. Bottom line is you cant do a darn thing about it..everyone responds to incentives...whats the incentive for goin to wal mart you save money and its convient. they have everything it seems. Im currently studying the effects of Socialism on a capitalist society. You would never guess how much wal mart excels there haha its really odd you wouldnt think it at all...But listen if wal mart went away right now (im makin this number up) 100,000's of people would be jobless...tell them that wal mart is bad...I dont think they will understand...and about wal mart mal treating there employees...ya i have no idea if they do but if they are the employees are free to leave. I dont think anyone is holding them there against there will

 

If Walmart went away right now someone else would take there place. You have just removed 25% of the retail sales in the US creating a vacuum. Someone will fill that vacuum.