HOW BIG IS WAL-MART? (Z: another one I wish I WROTE!)
1. At Wal-Mart, Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day.
2.This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!
3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th)than Target sells all year.
4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot +Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco +K-Mart combined.
5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million peopleand is the largest private employer.
6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.
7. Wal-Mart now sells more foodthan Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years.
8. During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy(including Winn-Dixie).
9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.
10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are SuperCenters; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.
11. This year, 7.2 billion differentpurchasing experiences will occurat a Wal-Mart store.(Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.)
12. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart
13. Let Wal Mart bail out Wall Street!
Z: Of course, Wal-Mart's non-union success MUST be stopped by the Left.....Can you believe this? No one is safe from those who can't take American success stories. "You're doing too well...you MUST be stopped!" When did this HAPPEN in America, folks!?geeeeeeZ!
z
37 comments:
Z, Walmart might be a "non-union success story", but their 1.6 million employees are being screwed compared to what they should be making. When Walmart marches into a town, they end up costing other businesses employees their jobs. Usually, the Walmart employees are compensated less than the jobs they replaced. That and their heavy reliance on product from China puts them on my boycott list. I hate Walmart and what they do and I DO NOT SHOP THERE! I'll pay more somewhere else first. My principles are worth more than the extra it costs me.
Thanks for that, Average....we don't have a Wal Mart near us in LA.....so I've never been.
A friend emailed this:
"The interesting thing about all this is the extreme efforts that have been made, especially in cities like Chicago, to keep WalMart stores out of certain areas, by unions. These areas often have high black populations who would benefit from WalMart's lower prices. Many of the politicians actively opposing WalMart are themselves black and are being paid off by unions for their efforts. Every see ANY of this in the media?"
He gets a little extremist, so I hesitated putting this in the blog piece but I think you're probably right that Wal-Mart isn't always above board.
Anybody got anything else to say about this?
my main point was the 'joke' that WalMart has so much money they could heal America! BUT..Average has a point, and maybe my email friend does, too??
I'm curious, not knowing much about Wal-Mart myself.
Two superstore Wal-marts moved into my area in the last few years, one of them quite accessible, but I've found that I can get better deals on some things at Safeway and Smith's. So I only go there to shop for the particular things they do give a better deal on, which really isn't even as often as I go to the other stores in town. I'd heard that many feel the way Average American does, that they don't take care of their employees as well as they should, but people line up at a new Wal-mart for jobs so they must be doing something right.
When a Home Depot opened about eight miles from our home, the local hardware store closed down within a few months. Of course we miss it because the hardware store was five minutes away and convenient.
When a PetCo opened nearby, the local longtime family run pet shop closed soon thereafter.
This is the way it is, a sad thing for those small businesses, but it's a free country and a free market, or it's supposed to be.
Isn't it possible that the employees at Wal Mart, may not be the most qualified to get better jobs at better wages initially, when they're hired at Wal mart?
Maybe Walmart was a godsend for some of these folks, employees and customers. No one is forced to work there or shop there. From what I hear, the people who do seem satisfied as far as I can tell.
There's only one reason politicians are against Walmart. They pass legislation for the benefit of the unions, and the payback from the unions to the politicians mainly the Democrats, is huge.
And none of them give a damn about the employees. They're just cogs in the wheel.
The reality is the employees once they're unionized, have two masters instead of one.
Pris
close down wal-mart they are hurting my (unionized) america... yours truly jimmy hoffa....
no walmart in your area z. you have got to be kidding me. i would think that would be a prime place for a store. they have an endless supply of employess with all the illegal immigrants around the city of angels.. oh that was terrible....
I loved the post up to this point:
"13. Let Wal Mart bail out Wall Street!"
Terrible idea! There are a number of reasons the left HATES Wal Mart with a white hot passion and propogates nonstop lies about this incredible American corporation.
1. Wal Mart refuses to unionize it's workforce. Good for them! This whole union idea has worked SO well for the rust belt and Detroit, eh?
Here's why that matters for Dems. A unionized workforce is the most DIRECT way that the Democrat Party loots businesses. Nearly all labor unions give huge money to dems.
Follow the money...
2. The Dems/left are always claiming to be the party of the "little guy" versus the big, mean, greedy corporations. NOTHING could be further from the truth! Government slop from the public trough is dehumanizing and destroys people's initiative.
Wal Mart on the other hand is such a FANTASTIC place for the poor to shop because it let's their dollars go further. Wal Mart helps the poor, the government Cleptocrats seek to enslave them with handouts. Wal Mart wins and makes the government look bad.
Congratulations Average American! You repeated EVERY Democrat cliche and talking point about Wal Mart!
Way to go.
This was the real gem: "...but their 1.6 million employees are being screwed compared to what they should be making."
A simple question for you. WHO determines what they SHOULD be making? I know the answer, I await your opinion with baited breath.
Morgan
Am I the only person in America who has never been in a Wal-Mart?
Worry not Duckster, I'M your Wal Mart offset! I spend more than enough there to compensate for your RUDE absence. :-)
Morgan
I wish I could go to Wal-Mart
Let me attempt to provide a less passionate view, but I want to do that with reference to the automobile industry. Right now, we have three major automakers on the verge of bankruptcy. Why are they in this situation? Understand first that industries pass all of their costs along to consumers, and this is what drives the cost of goods and services up. We know that from $1,500 to $2,000 of every automobile sticker price goes to the manufacturer’s cost of employee health care. High (union) wages is another substantial add on. And now, the economic situation being what it is, automakers have over-produced vehicles and no one is buying them. Accordingly, all three automakers are downsizing labor and management. They not only should do it, they must do it.
Union wages and benefits drive the costs of automobiles higher and higher with each new labor contract. Who doesn’t want “more money?” The problem is these demands are typically shortsighted. Union negotiators aren’t sticking it to the automakers; they’re sticking it to consumers. Union employees should be looking at their job prospects over the next twenty years, rather than demanding extremely high wages and benefits packages for the next two or three years. If anyone wanted to know why this country has lost so many manufacturing jobs, this is exactly why.
If you understand how efficient companies operate, then Wal-Mart management is acting responsibly. They aren’t in business to hire people; they are in business to make a profit. People, whether working on the assembly line or in retail, are “tools” needed to make or sell products. Responsible companies will minimize their liabilities (materials, labor, and inventory) in order to maximize profits. What Wal-Mart did was actually smart. They only hire part-time workers; part-time workers are not entitled to medical benefits or retirement accounts. This is one of the reasons Wal-Mart prices are low. It is how they are able to drive competitors out of business—which has always been part of the Wal-Mart strategy for increased market-share. Target is another “non-union” operation.
Now if autoworkers continue demanding higher wages and increased benefits, no one should be surprised when even more manufacturing plants move to Mexico, and people who are now making a ridiculous $45.00 per hour suddenly find themselves working part-time at Wal-Mart for the minimum wage. And this is one of those self-inflicted wounds perpetrated by greedy workers and communist inspired labor unions. Unions and Democrats in congress would love nothing better than to have state-run industries such as found in the old USSR . . . and neither Congress, unions, nor union-workers are smart enough to understand what happened to soviet industries.
I know ZERO about Wal-Mart, but I see two sides here.
The minute Pris tells us smaller mama-papa, community shops are closing when a WalMart moves in, I'm against WalMart. Costco did that to us in Santa Monica...
i can't STAND to see the lovely bookstores and pretty gift shops closing, and they are.
Soon, America will be just one big mall from LA to NYC...NO small adorable shops.
Even a gazillionaire I know's wife shops at Costco sometimes. I feel like lunging at her and saying "Can't YOU at least support the SMALL SHOPS, the expensive ones with the really BEAUTIFUL quality items?"
We've got a great environment for China now, haven't we? We can only afford junk now and THEY are happy to support that$$$
makes me sick.
I'll see you all later...got a busy day.
Oh. Ducky..I have never been to a WalMart.
20% of the jobs out there are unskilled...which describes most employees at a Walmart....just how much should an unskilled worker make?
It should be motivation to get skilled.
Walmarts are good for the community and for jobs.
unions tend to hate competition...and eventually their product gets *hitty because they won't let management/the company be efficient.
Screw the unions!
The teachers union in California was the single biggest contributor in opposition to Prop 8.
I don't like Wal Mart, not because it's sexy to hate right now, but because it's darn near impossible to find anything made in America. The produce is awful and mostly from Chile, Mexico, etc. (where there are practically no regulations on pesticides).
Plus, I spend way too much money there on stuff I just don't need.
What's their slogan? "Live better, spend less." I say, "Live better, buy less."
;-)
Pinky, you sure you ain't a closet lefty?
$36 million an hour. Wonder what percentage is impulse buys of unneeded crap?
Bet WalMart knows.
I have mixed feelings about Walmart. I don't like the Chinese made goods (I'm not an absolute must be American made person but I do avoid Chinese products as much as humanly possible.) Here in Michigan there is a regional chain called Meijers and its stores are comparable to Walmart in size, product and price. One is Union and the other is non-union. A couple of years ago I compared their pay packages and the biggest difference I saw was that full time Walmart employees didn't have to pay union dues.
They do sell a lot of junk. I bought a couple of cheapo plastic fans made in China that work OK but you can't take them apart to clean them, which is a BIG problem. I will go there to get frozen tilapia and canned tuna which is more expensive everywhere else but that's about it. They used to have the best price on Prilosec but other stores are competing with them on that now. I don't have a membership card for Costco so don't go there (rich people shop Costco, really. They have good deals but it's mostly all bulk quantities which some of us can't afford even at a deal -- GREAT quality toilet paper but you have to buy it in huge packages you can't even fit in the trunk). And I do feel very bad about the pretty little local shops but I can't afford to go there anyway any more. I am sorry they are driven out of business though.
But I don't think America is long for this world anyway. I think we're going under. I think anyone who has any extra money should use it now to lay in supplies for hard times because very soon it isn't going to buy much.
Z, I know it's sad, but if we are a free market society, we can't say certain businesses have to be no larger than the average shop.
I will say, that we shopped at the local hardware store and pet shop, until they closed down even though the cost was a little higher.
And Ducky, I've never been inside a Walmart either. We do however buy certain items at Sams.
Pris
But perhaps more importantly we should ask: WHY can't smaller pet stores, hardware stores, department stores and other businesses compete with a Wal Mart, a PetCo, a Home Depot, an Office Depot?
I'll submit: MASSIVE and ONEROUS REGULATIONS on every level; local, state, federal -- and the resulting lawsuits when everything in your business isn't just PERFECT.
And American goods? Why do you THINK many products aren't made in America any more, and why much heavy industry has fled?
You can thank ATTORNEYS, wages and unions, folks.
BZ
That's ok, Pris. I'm a happy Costco shopper. They try to pay their employees decently.
Ducky, what in the world in Pinky's statement makes you call her a lefty?
BZ...don't the big companies have the same restrictions that the lovely smaller stores have?
My feeling is that the smaller stores can't survive because they don't BUY IN BULK. They don't get the price breaks.
I've heard that Trader Joe's out here in California (a fabulous grocery store with terrific products and a lot of organic stuff, etc.) REALLY screws their suppliers "Either sell it to us for this or we won't buy it. period" WE benefit, as buyers, but I hate to see the buyers to have to sell that cheaply to TJ's.
duckster wrote:
"That's ok, Pris. I'm a happy Costco shopper. They try to pay their employees decently."
BS Ducky! The ONLY difference between Costco and Wal Mart was the % that each of them gave to Dems and Republicans! You're such a dishonest hack.
Morgan
Beautiful post bz! The truth isn't usually easy to accept, but it IS still the truth.
Rush is fond of saying that "the most expensive commodity in America is economic IGNORANCE!"
That is so true. Economic ignorance has gotten the purile FOOL Obama elected too.
Morgan
I just got back from Walmart. I looked at the guns and bought another deer permit for hunting. I'm sure the lefties will especially hate me. Just perfect by me!!!
And let me remind the leftards that it was their precious Hillary Clinton that was one of Walmart's lawyers and served on their board. Probably the last useful thing she's done in her life.
That was pure poetry Papa! BTW I have always bought my weapons at small dealers. They usually "lose" the reciept for the transactions. :-) Wal Mart can't do that.
Morgan
....Congratulations Average American! You repeated EVERY Democrat cliche and talking point about Wal Mart!....
Not true Morgan. When have you heard much talk among any politicians about Walmart? My beliefs are shared by people from all political persuasions. The poor and not so well off will shop there, and I can't really blame them. I do NOT feel that government should limit them any more than anyone else. I DO believe that consumers have a choice to make, and I choose NOT to shop there. I also do the best I can to NEVER send my hard earned cash to China!
A few have touched on manufacturing jobs going overseas. That is the old "chicken and the egg" thing. When Americans started buying more and more shit from other countries, we lost jobs because of it. It has progressed so far now that it actually is hard to buy American, at least for some items. We can't have our cake and eat it too(we can't manufacture stuff for good jobs and buy Chinese stuff cheap to save money). It just doesn't work that way.
Almost forgot, Walmart uses almost entirely part-time help. THAT is why I say they screw their workers. A community loses x number of fair jobs with at least some benefits in return for jobs that pay less with no benefits everytime a Walmart opens a new store!
---Not true Morgan. When have you heard much talk among any politicians about Walmart?---
Continuously. They say things that sound suspiciously like the things you wrote. EXACTLY, as a matter of fact.
---My beliefs are shared by people from all political persuasions.---
Mainly leftists who are infuriated that Wal Mart has blocked the labor unions. That's worked SO well for the rust belt and Detroit. Right?
---I DO believe that consumers have a choice to make, and I choose NOT to shop there. I also do the best I can to NEVER send my hard earned cash to China!---
I'm with you there! All of my vehicles are GMC and we make a concious effort to purchase American whenever possible. What makes you think that Wal Mart has a higher % of Chinese goods than Target or Cosco? Care to look it up? I've done this argument already, so it's YOUR call.
---A few have touched on manufacturing jobs going overseas. That is the old "chicken and the egg" thing. When Americans started buying more and more shit from other countries, we lost jobs because of it. It has progressed so far now that it actually is hard to buy American, at least for some items. We can't have our cake and eat it too(we can't manufacture stuff for good jobs and buy Chinese stuff cheap to save money). It just doesn't work that way.---
Who do you think is MOST to blame for jobs going overseas? Again, I can tell you the answer, but you might not like the truth.
---Almost forgot, Walmart uses almost entirely part-time help. THAT is why I say they screw their workers. A community loses x number of fair jobs with at least some benefits in return for jobs that pay less with no benefits everytime a Walmart opens a new store!---
Not quite true. But once again, if you know the answer to my question above you'll know the answer as to WHY they use so much "part-time" help.
AA you've bought into too many leftist lies and populist misconceptions. I'm a business owner who deals with economic ignorance daily, and I swore to myself that I wouldn't get so frustrated that I threw my hands up and quit...
Morgan
November 20, 2008 3:52 PM
Thank you Morgan! I also tend to purchase guns from small stores and have only ever purchased one from Walmart. As a matter of fact, my favorite little gun store is owned and run by one of our Missouri State Representatives -- God bless him!!!
Ducky,
some of my family accuses me of being a bit of a lefty, others think I'm a right wing nut job. Whatever. I am what I am. If a person can't think independenty, what's the point?
I try to go with my gut no matter what.
I just want to go to Wal- Mart and buy some zip lock bags...
A feisty, lively thread, for sure. I'm of 2 minds about WalMart. It was the unions that drove up American manufacturing costs to the point of companies going overseas for some relief and yes, PROFITS, i.e., the point of a business.
Whereas I don't like sending the ChiComs my dollars either, but don't blame WalMart for taking an advantage that the union greed provided for them.
BTW I doubt that WalMart employees feel as downtrodden as some of the libs make them out to be. I think many of them are happy to have jobs even though they have little to no job skills.
Jungle Mom...I know how you feel. When you live away from America, you MISS THINGS!
Even in Paris, which is way more full of modern products than I imagine Venezuela is, I missed American things...till I fuond The Real McCoy and was able to buy French's Mustard (the French don't carry that in Paris!!!), maple syrup, Campbell's tomato soup (which tasted like nectar of the gods after not having had access to it for months and months between US visits, etc.)
Ya, and things like Ziplocks....you really learn to appreciate what we've got here!!
I got a job at Wal-Mart this week, and am proud to have joined the evil corporation! :)
Of course, I'm now selling them some of my time that would have been devoted to blogging.
Well, look at Wal Mart with no unions and look at the auto makers and indeed one can only form a certain conclusion:
Unions screw up jobs .
As to paying people what they are worth. Well, I have seen some pretty uneducated, unskilled people getting a job at WalMart and I wouldn't pay them what Wal Mart pays them, because I think THAT is too much for them to get.
I am not crazy about the Chinese Products, but I do utilize the store for certain items. It is a free country and one can shop where one wants.
WVDOTTR
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