Wal-Mart and the Economy

[Sun Baked]

from To grow, Wal-Mart must find new worlds to conquer

With almost $250 billion in annual sales, Wal-Mart accounts for
	6 percent of all U.S. retail sales and
	2 percent of the gross domestic product. 

If you want to know what's going on with the American economy, Wal-Mart
is the place to look.

The growing trade deficit?
	Wal-Mart imports $12 billion worth of goods from China, about
10 percent of the U.S. total.

Improving productivity?
	A team of consultants from the McKinsey Global Institute found that
Wal-Mart's superior logistics and use of computer technology was a key
contributor to the economy's efficiency gains in the past decade.

Deflation?
	What do you think those smiley yellow faces on the falling prices
signs are all about?

---

Wow...

Billion dollars in retail sales every day and a half.

---

Sort of expect gas stations, banking, and maybe a larger electronics sections at some point.

* - Paragraph breaks and tabs inserted.

 

[iJon]

yep, walmart is a pretty cool store. i can just about everyday necessity there. they have been really smart about the sams club's too. putting them in mexico was real smart, hispanics love sam's club. everytime we have foreign exchange students from tokoyo, and they loved wal mart. they had never seen anything like it. now if only wally worlds stock would go back up to when i bought it at, then i would be a happy camper.

iJon

 

[mactastic]

Places like Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Costco etc. have been doing very well because of the reduced amount of traveling people have been doing since 9/11. In addition, the price of gas has gone pretty high lately, so people are traveling less and fixing up their homes more.

 

[Dros]

There is a problem with Walmart and other "big box" stores. They are efficient and convenient, so people of course go to them. But if you go to a locally-owned store, the profits go to a local owner, who then puts money back into the local economy. This gets multiplied as it gets passed around, so the local economy get 3x-5x what was originally spent. Spend money at Walmart and the money goes out of town. Net result is a loss of tax revenue and the ability of the town to provide services. So shopping at Walmart is good for the short term (lower prices) but bad for the long run (less tax revenues). Hard to figure out how to stop a situation like this since it is hard to think efficiency is bad.

 

[rainman::|:|]

one of my biggest fears is that walmart will continue to spread until they've taken over, infecting the entire world with ****ty products and awful customer service. but hey, good to know that they have a good business model...

pnw

 

[Backtothemac]

I like the customer service at Target better than Wal-Mart. Still, wal-Mart is thinking of selling cars before long.

 

[mactastic]

Originally posted by Dros
There is a problem with Walmart and other "big box" stores. They are efficient and convenient, so people of course go to them. But if you go to a locally-owned store, the profits go to a local owner, who then puts money back into the local economy. This gets multiplied as it gets passed around, so the local economy get 3x-5x what was originally spent. Spend money at Walmart and the money goes out of town. Net result is a loss of tax revenue and the ability of the town to provide services. So shopping at Walmart is good for the short term (lower prices) but bad for the long run (less tax revenues). Hard to figure out how to stop a situation like this since it is hard to think efficiency is bad.

Of course the city gets a pretty fair chunk of tax revenue out of a big-box store. And a whole lot of people have jobs. I understand your point about money headong out of town though, it's just not all bad. There are other problems related to big box stores ie they sure don't contribute to a walkable neighborhood, they tend to be hideously fugly, contribute to our consume-in-massive-quantity fixation in this country and can cause major traffic headaches for whatever community is "lucky" enough to acquire one. But the whole thing is a mixed bag of benefits and problems.

 

[MrMacMan]

Support your local stores.

For all (eh, okay 95%) of my goods I go to local stores. And if not local stores, no really massive businesses.

Local Stores + C-Town ~ My Local Town profits.

'Excuse me, Where is the soda isle?'
'Um... I don't work here, ask someone else'
'Your shirt says differently'
'I think I know what store I work at, I work at Costco'

His shirt read "My Name is Bill, Please ask me questions

Wal-Mart

Real Story.