What has Walmart actually done to our economy?

I was speaking with my brother who was constantly bashing on Walmart last night but wouldn't give me any actual reasons why except for "I'm ruining the economy by shopping there".
so I had some days of meditation and here is my explanation:
Because Wal-Mart is too large, they have the power to tell their manufacturers the price of the product, rather than the other way around. They demand such a low price that the companies can't afford to manufacture in the states anymore. Entire towns which depended on the jobs that factory provided are economically destroyed.
What do you think?

 

Don't forget the small towns that do not want a Wal-mart Super Center that will destroy their downtown business base. Wal-mart keeps them tied up in court until the town runs out of money to fight.

 

Progress! Really, isn't progress what the left is all about? This is progress in marketing.

 

I think the lives of people in rural communities improved greatly because of Wal-mart.

Factories polluted our air and water. I'd rather see them destroy China's environment.

 

I've never understood this argument.

So the solution to small town economic problems is for people who live there to run around town to five separate business to pay 10-20% more for the same stuff they would get in one place with a Wal-Mart?/?

 

Walmart employees one million four hundred thousand people.

 

How many did they put out of work to begin with................

 

None. If you have different numbers, please share.

 

If the citizens of that town do not want a big box store, then they should get to say that, not have Wal-mart bring in their lawyers and practically bankrupt the town with legal fees trying to stop them.

 

How about the towns being creative and selling good products at a reasonable price. Then there would be no issue.

 

If I can buy the same product for less money at Walmart, I can buy other products with the money saved. That improves the economy.

Because of their buying power, Walmart gets probably the biggest quanity discount of any store. Thats why they can sell for less. If they didnt, that would be a reason to whine. The whine of course is by liberal democrat unionist since Walmart doesnt have a union. The prices the public pays at Walmart are not higher since they dont have to pay obscene wages to Union leaders.

 

That's what I say as well. The issue is the owners of those particular businesses go out of business but that's just a few people. Overall it improves the economy.

 

I know that because of Wal-Mart's buying power, I save a ton of money on my medications. I don't have insurance for medication, so it's out of pocket. At Wal-Mart, I pay $30 for a 30 day supply of generic Plavix. At the Wal-Greens across the street, the same generic drug is $130 for a 30 day supply.

I happily drive an extra 2 miles to save $100 a month. And that's not considering the other medications I take.

I save that money because of Wal-Mart's volume purchase power. Thank you, Sam!

 

Shhhhh, they have not been informed or experienced what happens to a local economy when Walmart comes to town, seen it several times and the communities that tried fighting them from moving in ended up in nasty fight.

 

The solution is simpler than that. If the citizens of a town do not want a big box store, all they have to do is...nothing. Don't shop there and the big box store will pack up and leave. The fact that this rarely happens means that quite a lot of the citizens DO want those stores.

When a "town" fights against incoming businesses then you can usually bet your bottom dollar that it is the moneyed interests within the town trying to stifle competition and protect their profits. If Wal-Mart did the same thing, trying to keep competing businesses from being allowed to establish themselves, you'd probably be up in arms and making an argument counter to your current one.

 

Except that many of those products are not made by Americans, so while spending more many others paid the price in your small savings, how very American.

 

And if the citizens of that small town REALLY didn't want a big box store they would

1) NOT line up for hours to get a job there.

2) NOT shop there so store is not economically viable.

You see, apparently the "citizens" are so uncommitted that they have to hire some lawyers. When if they were really committed they wouldn't have to do that.

 

Who cares? Certainly not me. I'd rather pay for a Chinese-made product than pay for some slob to collect union wages. When given the choice, it's non-union all the way for me. I recently had a business where I shipped products often. I always, always used Fed-Ex because they're non-union.

 

How about this for what is wrong with Walmart: They deliberately deflate their wages (and actively prevent their employees from unionizing) and then use government welfare to subsidize their profits instead of actually paying their employees more. They can afford it. Walmart could raise every single employee's wage by $10,000 and they would still make $5 billion in profits. Not Gross Income. NET income. Pure profit.

 

Such a confused "Patriot".

 

How am I confused? Fed Ex is an American company and the drivers and pilots who cart the stuff all over the country are Americans.

Talk about confused! That would be YOU.

 

What would be the impact on stock valuation if they did that?

I assume you realize that hundreds of thousands of Walmart employees own stock. Many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth.

For that matter, what would happen to literally MILLIONS of Walmart stockholders. You're asking them to take a major devaluation of their assets.

 

Don't bother with this guy lol. He doesn't get it. There is such thing as evolution.

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Thanks for pointing out the obvious! Very well said.

 

It is true that Wal*Mart superstores do in fact drive Mom & Pop business' out
of business.But the more encompassing saving grace is how Wal*Mart bends
over backward to help employ many in a Community that heretofore were
not employed yet alone considered.To me that is HUGE.
Plus Wal*Mart has lowest prices and keeps abreast of latest trends in
freshness and quality.Whereas much smaller grocery chains struggle with
newer technology and ways to improve the shopper experience.
But the one area that Wal*mart destroys almost every other retailer is
their Return/Exchange policy.I know that costs them dearly.
They are getting ripped off big time by certain type shoppers looking to
sneak items thru scanner or bypass scanners and buy stuff with no
intention of keeping.

 

I'm sick of the Walton family raking multiple billions of dollars while we subsidize their employees with food stamps/Medicaid/etc.