I'm okay with competition. I love capitalism. I just don't like Wal-Mart. We've had this discussion before.
I'm not cool with the fact that Wal-Mart hires enough people that they can then average out the total number of hours worked for each employee to right around 28 hours, and making the average salary of a Wal-Mart employee $11,000/year. I don't like the fact that most of the things sold at Wal-Mart are manufactured in China by women and young children for $0.13/hr. I understand that both of the people in those situations typically entered with their own free will, but when Wal-Mart enters a town, most of the other businesses close, and for every two jobs it creates, the town it enters loses a third, so often, despite the fact that it is free will, Wal-Mart often becomes the only employer in town.
It bothers me that Wal-Mart is the largest employer on Earth, and has so much sway and power. It bothers me even more that Dubya brags about having created jobs when most of them are at Wal-Mart, and people had to take pay cuts and lose benefits to take them (only 38% of Wal-Mart employees can afford to be on health care insurance of any kind), but they need to earn money to live.
Is the other side of this economic coin (lower prices and convenience) worth the above listed costs?
Not for me. That's why I don't shop at Wal-Mart.
Sorry, someone brought up the good point that I didn't quote my sources for the above statistics. My apologies. That was bad form. Here they are.
What is the source for the statistics you are quoting?
I just wanted to tell you this. I worked for Walmarts Distribution Center in Johnstown, NY.
I went through all the training, but one night I watched the move "The Matrix". The reason I mention this is that this is how they train you. They are on a matrix type system. I looked up Matrix and matrix means "CONTROL".
The more I thought about it the more it bothered me. So, I went to my Coach and asked him if he knew what a matrix was...and of course the first thing he came out with was the movie. I said no...do you know what it means. And he said no.
So I told him, and I also said, don't you think it's kind of funny that Walmarts has the matrix system...and he said that's not what that is, and I said, come on...That's what Walmarts is all about CONTROL. And they do control don't they????? They Rule. I resigned after three months there. They didn't really have a job for me, and I didn't particularly care to be cleaning off racks for the rest of my life...so I resigned and got another job that paid less, but felt so much better there.
Um, Linda, dear, "matrix" doesn't mean "control". It means network, or array, or grid, or mold. And you're a kook.
It's interesting that Walmart is always criticized for low wages, yet you managed to find your level at an even lower one. Because you're a kook. A nutjob. I'm no fan of Walmart, but I certainly wouldn't want you working for me.