Ha! Wal-Mart retreats from Germany

[siron]

I doubt that most of the low income folks in germany ever visited walmarts. After all they seem less mobile than their US counterpart.

The only walmart here in the region, that I am aware of replaced some old "Wertkauf", far away from the center. And Wertkauf was more known for quality than for cheap stuff. The last time I visited that store......I cant even remember if it was already walmart then....

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by VJ

Trying to sell food and consumer goods as cheaply as possible

Including . . .

Failing to pay employees adequate wages, forcing them onto welfare rolls, and forcing society to pick up not only that costs, but also the costs of their health care...leading to increased taxes.

Requiring suppliers to move their factories overseas, exporting American jobs.

Closing down any store that dares to join a union.

Driving mom & pop stores out of business, erradicating the American dream.

Destroying the American middle class.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Sava
Some people have a compulsion to not support a corporation that does business with suppliers from other countries where labor conditions are awful. Nowadays, it's almost unavoidable to purchase such products, but one can make a conscious choice to not support the very worst offenders.

Yes, if you feel very strongly about fair trade goods or organic then their are a number of retailers catering to that niche (Whole Foods, Henry's Market, REI, and a number of not for profit co-ops come to mind). I agree that consumers should have a choice of only giving their business to companies which they consider socially responsible but I disagree with the mentality you find in the San Francisco Bay Area where people say they're going to prevent companies like Walmart (or just about any big box retailer) from doing business in their area. Those protesters really are elitists bastards because they tend to be very wealthy people who can afford to pay twice the price for any good in order to be "socially responsible" while the under class ends up being screwed because they can't make ends meet.

Marketing is a powerful tool and many retailers have used marketing about things like social responsibility to successfully compete against Walmart. So much so that Walmart is now trying to create a greener image by designing stores and delivery systems which use less energy (even if they cost more to build and maintain), offering more organic food (even if that organic food comes from south America or Africa thus producing more pollution), and imposing new labor practices to ban the worst abuses overseas. All in all Walmart is good to have in a community as an option you just need to make sure it isn't the only option.

[Ecthy]

Zkrib, my points exactly.

[St Leo]

Originally posted by VJ
Yes. Providing food and consumer goods as cheaply as possible does that, doesn't it?

Armwrestling their suppliers so that they have to adopt unethical business practices and cut their margins to near insolvence (thus becoming likely to go out of business in a recession) does that. A company should be going for a stable price in the long term, not the lowest price now. Wal-Mart will disappear in 20 years, leaving behind a wasteland in place of a healthy economic ecosystem.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Oerdin


Yes, if you feel very strongly about fair trade goods or organic then their are a number of retailers catering to that niche (Whole Foods, Henry's Market, REI, and a number of not for profit co-ops come to mind). I agree that consumers should have a choice of only giving their business to companies which they consider socially responsible but I disagree with the mentality you find in the San Francisco Bay Area where people say they're going to prevent companies like Walmart (or just about any big box retailer) from doing business in their area. Those protesters really are elitists bastards because they tend to be very wealthy people who can afford to pay twice the price for any good in order to be "socially responsible" while the under class ends up being screwed because they can't make ends meet.

Marketing is a powerful tool and many retailers have used marketing about things like social responsibility to successfully compete against Walmart. So much so that Walmart is now trying to create a greener image by designing stores and delivery systems which use less energy (even if they cost more to build and maintain), offering more organic food (even if that organic food comes from south America or Africa thus producing more pollution), and imposing new labor practices to ban the worst abuses overseas. All in all Walmart is good to have in a community as an option you just need to make sure it isn't the only option.

I just choose to not shop at Wal-Mart.

It's like the donut monster from that one Simpsons episode... if people don't pay any attention to it (i.e. don't shop there), it will go away. No need for all the grandstanding.

And to be perfectly honest... those hippie Wal-Mart protestors piss me off, too.

stfu noobz

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by St Leo
Wal-Mart will disappear in 20 years, leaving behind a wasteland in place of a healthy economic ecosystem.

If you actually believe that Wal-Mart will disappear in 20 years, you are smoking something.

[Q Classic]

Wal-mart left Korea, as well.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12913201/

But that was a while back.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by St Leo

Originally posted by VJ
Yes. Providing food and consumer goods as cheaply as possible does that, doesn't it?

Armwrestling their suppliers so that they have to adopt unethical business practices and cut their margins to near insolvence (thus becoming likely to go out of business in a recession) does that. A company should be going for a stable price in the long term, not the lowest price now. Wal-Mart will disappear in 20 years, leaving behind a wasteland in place of a healthy economic ecosystem.

20-30 years ago it was Kmart which had the lowest prices. The cool thing about capitalism is that it is a constant race to be the most efficent. If a company losses sight of that goal then they will be out competeted. Walmart is no different. If they don't deliver what their costumers are looking for (namely the totally cheapest price on any good) then they'll go the way of Montgomery Wards.

[pchang]

Walmart is not really the cheapest

They are only the cheapest on their lead item in any category. Here is a hypothetical example:

Walmart carries 5 types of fans. The lowest quality/price fan is really the lowest price for that fan around. This is their lead item and the item they advertise. Right next to it are superior fans with increasingly more features and increasingly higher prices. The prices of these fans are not the lowest around. Walmart makes much of its money when consumers decide to upgrade to the next higher level of product without checking the competition's prices on that same product. Consumer's are fooled into thinking Walmart always has the lowest price due to the ads/marketing of the lead items. This strategy works in the US. Apparently, the German consumer was not fooled.

[Zkribbler]

Re: Ha! Wal-Mart retreats from Germany

Originally posted by Ecthy
"The US company announced a loss of one billion US dollars ...

See what happens to Wal-Mart when it's not allow to underpay its employees and when the employees can get healthcare.

[Pyrodrew]

Re: Walmart is not really the cheapest

Originally posted by pchang
Consumer's are fooled into thinking Walmart always has the lowest price due to the ads/marketing of the lead items. This strategy works in the US. Apparently, the German consumer was not fooled.

Of course not. They already have Aldi and Lidl who always have the lowest prices.

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


Including . . .

Failing to pay employees adequate wages, forcing them onto welfare rolls, and forcing society to pick up not only that costs, but also the costs of their health care...leading to increased taxes.

Requiring suppliers to move their factories overseas, exporting American jobs.

Closing down any store that dares to join a union.

Driving mom & pop stores out of business, erradicating the American dream.

Destroying the American middle class.

Q F T

[Ecthy]

Liberal Lancer

[Lancer]

Don't bother me. My total inability to recognise irony has led me to be a social outcast in this thread and I'm sulking.