Good Employer # 1
I will print the info from the web address so EVERYONE can read about Wal-Mart.
Let's talk about why I HATE WAL-MART http://www.russelltharp.com/walmart
UP AGAINST THE WAL-MART
Wal-Mart is the nation's (and the world's) biggest retailer. But the problem is not just Wal-Mart - Toys R Us, McDonalds, Microsoft, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, the Gap, Kinko's, Circuit City, Home Depot, Nations Bank...all wipe out the smaller, more local competition. Why? Because they can. McDonalds in the Eiffel Tower, K-Mart in Greenwich Village - is this our destiny? Read on....
Only a company of their size can buy direct from manufacturers, cutting out the distributor. They buy so cheaply they can resell to other stores at cheaper than wholesale. Thus they can ruin the competition through PREDATORY PRICING.
WAL-MART REPORT CARD
Human Rights - F
Diversity - F
Community - F
Ecology - F
Spirituality - F
The trend of mega-mergers and huge chains is wiping out small business everywhere, and with it the distinctiveness of local cultures. Not just in the U.S., but all over this great varied planet. Chains are everywhere, and who benefits? Not the small business, not the small town, not the individual - only a few guys pretty high up in the chain's food chain. Consider: Wal-Mart's annual sales are larger than the entire Gross Domestic Product of 161 countries! Do the Wal-Math: They are bigger than most nations, yet they have no government that answers to the people it affects. They are unaccountable to anyone. Democracy must include the ability to control those who control us!
WAL-MART RULES
If a town declines to welcome GodzillaMart, the next town over will take it, pulling trade and tax dollars out of local coffers. The town has no choice - the terms are dictated by the retail giant from afar. Is this right, fair, or decent? Is this Middle American family values? No more mom and pop stores here. The nation is being covered by a Wal-to-Wal-Mart carpet, the nation blanketed not with daisy chains of wildflowers, but something more like kudzu. Welcome, Weed-Mart.
Big businesses put their money in big banks, taking it far out of town. Money spent in a chain store leaves town on the next electronic transfer, while money spent in a local store circulates in the community seven more times before leaving. In other words, chains use local workers and consumers as a colony, extracting their wealth and exporting to the mother country. Sound familiar? Can you say American Revolution?
BUT IT'S CHEAP AND CONVENIENT!
YES. For shoppers. But guess what: Democracy, human rights, and social justice are never cheap, and seldom convenient. If we shop conveniently while Rome burns, we'll have only ourselves to blame when they've reduced our workforce to workfare and our towns to malls, our culture to cookie-cutter sameness.
YES. IT'S CONVENIENT TO HIRE CHEAP LABOR.
But there are harmful, hidden costs to convenience.
I will print the info from the web address so EVERYONE can read about Wal-Mart.
Let's talk about why I HATE WAL-MART http://www.russelltharp.com/walmart
UP AGAINST THE WAL-MART
Wal-Mart is the nation's (and the world's) biggest retailer. But the problem is not just Wal-Mart - Toys R Us, McDonalds, Microsoft, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, the Gap, Kinko's, Circuit City, Home Depot, Nations Bank...all wipe out the smaller, more local competition. Why? Because they can. McDonalds in the Eiffel Tower, K-Mart in Greenwich Village - is this our destiny? Read on....
Only a company of their size can buy direct from manufacturers, cutting out the distributor. They buy so cheaply they can resell to other stores at cheaper than wholesale. Thus they can ruin the competition through PREDATORY PRICING.
WAL-MART REPORT CARD
Human Rights - F
Diversity - F
Community - F
Ecology - F
Spirituality - F
The trend of mega-mergers and huge chains is wiping out small business everywhere, and with it the distinctiveness of local cultures. Not just in the U.S., but all over this great varied planet. Chains are everywhere, and who benefits? Not the small business, not the small town, not the individual - only a few guys pretty high up in the chain's food chain. Consider: Wal-Mart's annual sales are larger than the entire Gross Domestic Product of 161 countries! Do the Wal-Math: They are bigger than most nations, yet they have no government that answers to the people it affects. They are unaccountable to anyone. Democracy must include the ability to control those who control us!
WAL-MART RULES
If a town declines to welcome GodzillaMart, the next town over will take it, pulling trade and tax dollars out of local coffers. The town has no choice - the terms are dictated by the retail giant from afar. Is this right, fair, or decent? Is this Middle American family values? No more mom and pop stores here. The nation is being covered by a Wal-to-Wal-Mart carpet, the nation blanketed not with daisy chains of wildflowers, but something more like kudzu. Welcome, Weed-Mart.
Big businesses put their money in big banks, taking it far out of town. Money spent in a chain store leaves town on the next electronic transfer, while money spent in a local store circulates in the community seven more times before leaving. In other words, chains use local workers and consumers as a colony, extracting their wealth and exporting to the mother country. Sound familiar? Can you say American Revolution?
BUT IT'S CHEAP AND CONVENIENT!
YES. For shoppers. But guess what: Democracy, human rights, and social justice are never cheap, and seldom convenient. If we shop conveniently while Rome burns, we'll have only ourselves to blame when they've reduced our workforce to workfare and our towns to malls, our culture to cookie-cutter sameness.
YES. IT'S CONVENIENT TO HIRE CHEAP LABOR.
But there are harmful, hidden costs to convenience.