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Originally posted by bankshot
Wow. I'm very impressed. Can I move there? 😀 Around here, people would practically line up to be the first into a new Wal-Mart supercenter. They'll happily participate in the raping of the local economy to save a few cents, all while not giving a damn. And this is a pretty wealthy area!



Yep. Wal-Mart is pure evil, even more than Microsoft. Isn't it rather insidious how they coerce shoppers to participate in their own local economy's demise? Consider the facts:

- ALL FIVE of the Waltons are individually members of the top 10 richest people in the world. Think almost 5x Bill Gates!
- They pay their workers squat with crappy if any benefits.
- This is how they keep prices low to entice shoppers ... and any profits from economies of scale go straight to the Waltons, sucked right out of the local economy!
- Any place where they open up a store, the competition (whether Mom & Pop or smaller chain) generally dies because they can't/won't treat their workers poorly enough to lower prices and compete.

Granted, most of what they are doing is "fair" under the rules of capitalism -- about the only real abuse of monopoly power I can think of is the music/video censorship. But that doesn't mean it's not evil.

This is totally off topic but oh well. 😛 If you need any more proof that they are evil, read this. It was the straw that finally broke the camel's back, and my wife and I no longer shop there.



Wow folks don't know much about Wally World. Actually Walton was richest but when he died it went to all his children which didn't really know how to handle the business.

Locally here which is small college town and we have no mama and pop shops because they shut down over 5-10 yrs ago before wal-mart ever came near our town.

If you work at Wal-Mart here you get best benifits more then I ever got for working for Verizon DSL. Managers jobs here get paid 50K or more on avg. That avg is same as someone working in the Mall here gets. Also I have friend that works there and they started making $8.50 an hr with full benefits. They are now making $11.50 an hr after working yr there.

The company that actually put out alot Ma and Pa shops was K-Mart..which has recently closed most of it's stores down now due to all the new Super Targets and Super Center Wal-Marts/SAMs


The Super Center next to us includes a strip mall and SAM's Wholesale.

Most this info people spout off is not even true as I should know because I friends and family work at Wal-Mart. Maybe it's not the best in some places but here you can do almost do anything in one like buy *Krispy Kreme* doughnuts fresh and get free wifi connections and etc.

A friend came down once from up state NY and like everyone that see it gets all "wow" because they never seen anything like it. Plus, seeing Porsches, Mercs, and Bimmers all over the parking lot makes people think wow these people must shop here.

I probably won't buy their music but I will not let folks spread mis-information about them because alot folks think they are just too good to shop at Wal-Mart let alone a Dollar Bill Store.
 
Originally posted by Chooser
I read an article about a year ago that gave some info on how Wal-Mart actually runs it's business. It was kind of disturbing. But here are some keypoints that were discussed.

They are anti-union. If you affilliate or become unioninized you will get fired. They will find a reason, and if there is no reason then they will make one, i.e. you will get framed or set up.

Most of the products you buy in Wal-Mart were made in sweat shops.

When Wal-Mart buys their products from distributors/wholesalers they practically force them to lower their cost, thus the reason why most of the stuff you buy (except CD's/DVD's etc.) was made in sweat shops. It's the only way the distributor/wholesaler can keep from losing money on the deal.

That's all I can remember from the article.

So think of who actually made those shoes next time you buy a pair in Wal-Mart.

Ok in the SE most don't want Unions because of the few Unions that did get in all they did was end up losing folks their jobs. Our state has said a many times it does not support Unions and if your in a Union go live somewhere else. Unions in the past put alot my friends dads and moms out of work because they had to strike. Company just replaced them all with non-union workers. Then eventually the Union just gives up and says THANKS FOR PLAYING...it usually works in other states.

Sweatshops? Ok if your shoes were made in China, Tiawan or Korea then around 80% of your shoes are made in sweatshop. My mil. buddy said he can get his Vans really cheap at one those shops if he pays a kid extra for them. Total set of new kicks $10 bucks.
 
Surprised no one has mentioned this. Since Walmart primarily caters to lower income shoppers, wouldn't it stand to reason they are mostly dial up Internet users, if they use the Internet at all? Buying music on dial up is DOA.
 
I buy music on Dialup

So it's not DOA. I will be Dialup until I get my directway installed because I'm 1 mile from nearest CO which mean Cable and DSL are both out of the question. And if you ask when we will get them probably sometime in 2005 or 2006. I'm not waiting that long.
 
Originally posted by sethypoo

Just to add: I've probably purchased the majority of my CD's from retail places like Wal*Mart and Fred Meyer. I don't think it's very fair to say that they "suck." Many small town folks depend on them.

The small town folks depend on them only because they run all the small town shops out of business. Eventually they are the only store left.
 
MacDonalds are in BIG

Those friendly guys at MacDonalds are going to give away 1 BILLION tunes. Suddenly 100 million looks paltry. Great publicity for online music though, and unless they have a good music player and management option of their own, there will be one billion tunes hinting "iPod".

EDIT EDIT I re-read the article and it sounds as though they are talking 1 billion iTUNES !!!!!!!
 
How many times do I have to say it's not Wal-Marts ran folks out it's also K-Marts and any other major outlet like Target.
If Wal-Marts ran folks out business how come Wal-Marts here has strip mall attached to it with nothing but small ma and pa shops???
 
Yep, McDonald's will be giving away one billion iTunes songs.

Here's the text of the NYPost article.

If he pulls this off, Steve is a frickin' genius.

(This is also very interesting because McDonald's contract for soft drinks is with Coke, not Pepsi...)

Hoody-hoo!
 
Originally posted by Powerbook G5
So when will we be seeing a McDonald's music store? This is insane, everyone seems to be starting a music selling service now.

Have you seen this ?

Reuters
McDonald's planning iTunes giveaway - report
Thursday November 6, 7:56 am ET

NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD - News) plans to give away up to 1 billion songs to customers after PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE😛EP - News) announced a deal to give away 100 million downloads from Apple's iTunes music service, the New York Post said on Thursday.
Both the soft-drink maker and the fast-food company are paying Apple's (NasdaqNM:AAPL - News) retail price of 99 cents per song in their marketing campaigns, The Post reported, citing unnamed sources.

But because not all customers will take advantage of the offer, McDonald's spending on the campaign will probably be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the report said.

McDonald's and Apple officials were not immediately available to comment.
 
wtf

there are a few things that concern me about this.

1. walmart is notorious for censuring music. will they continue to do this with their online store?
2. this whole online music scheme doesnt seem to fit in with their whole demographic if you ask me. (and i'm not tryning to start more stupid walmart fights- i shop there once in a while)
3. the music companies must be making sweet dough from all these music services. and i wouldnt doubt if they are making more now than when they were just selling cds. think about it- they could sell rights to at leat 5 different providers.
 
What next? Is Costco going to start selling music online? Geeze. There isn't money in online music, if you can't sell something else, why then do you start it up? iTunes MS was set up to sell iPods, Napster's service to sell the Napster player, and same for Buymusic.com (*shutter*).
 
Wal-Mart is not evil

Wal-Mart is not evil, it is just the most efficient company in the world. Every last penny is accounted for because Sam Walton was one of the cheapest, penny-pinching guys in the world.

Small towns are not hurt by Wal-Mart as long as stores are willing to adapt. For example, if they move to upscale merchandise they will be differentiated from Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart also does not sell every product made. Small stores will die if they are unwilling to make changes.

They will probably cut special deals with the music labels to get the lowest prices on songs which may allow them to compete. The fact that they only sell censored music allows opportunities for other companies.
 
Re: Wal-Mart is not evil

Originally posted by onemoof
Wal-Mart is not evil, it is just the most efficient company in the world. Every last penny is accounted for because Sam Walton was one of the cheapest, penny-pinching guys in the world.

Small towns are not hurt by Wal-Mart as long as stores are willing to adapt. For example, if they move to upscale merchandise they will be differentiated from Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart also does not sell every product made. Small stores will die if they are unwilling to make changes.

They will probably cut special deals with the music labels to get the lowest prices on songs which may allow them to compete. The fact that they only sell censored music allows opportunities for other companies.

It's not that simple. Walmart gives VERY low pay and very little benifits to their employees. Whenever a Wal-Mart opens, something happens called the Wal-Mart effect. While the prices drop at the local store, so do employee wages and benifits, and many times quality plumits just to keep up the bottom line.

Wal-Mart is pure evil.
 
Originally posted by vwcruisn
You are right, it is not the corporations that are evil, but capitalism for making them that way.

Hmm... not sure how thats a good thing 😕 Corporate swines, raping the planet to make a buck... stepping on anything and anyone that gets in their way... yea thats great 🙄

It's not capitalism it is greed. Capitalism actually benefits both parties, seller and buyer. Greed causes the seller to take advantage of the buyer.

It's a good thing for consumers. Are you a consumer? If you are then you contribute to the corporate swines raping the planet. Roll your eyes all you want but tell me how you don't contribute to greedy capitalism.
 
Re: Re: Wal-Mart is not evil

Originally posted by the_mole1314
It's not that simple. Walmart gives VERY low pay and very little benifits to their employees. Whenever a Wal-Mart opens, something happens called the Wal-Mart effect. While the prices drop at the local store, so do employee wages and benifits, and many times quality plumits just to keep up the bottom line.

Wal-Mart is pure evil.

BS if you call 8-12 dollars an hr low pay I want to know what your smoking. They make more money then most folks that work at the mall shops. They get full benifits and I should know I have friends and family that work there. Manager make on avg 40-50k a yr starting out. To me that is not bad pay at all. Only part timers don't get all the benifits but I don't know what company gives part timers full benifits anyway.

I swear most folks most just read whatever they find on the net and believe it true. You should actually talk to someone that works full time at Wal-Marts. The current manager here brings in around 60k a yr now after only a yr and half on the job.
 
... wow people... it seems that every1 here hates wal*mart...? i've only been to a wallmart like twice (the closest to a wal*mart around here is like a 20 minute drive). i think a walmart comes out soon... i don't see why people hate it but ok...
 
I have never set foot in a Walmart and don't ever plan to change that policy. I would much rather pay a few cents more and support my local retailer. If Apple resellers performed the same role as the Apple stores I'd feel the same way about them.

What gets me is that Walmart must be looking at taking a loss in the online music business to make more money elsewhere, but how? They don't put out an iPod equivilant and I don't see how this is going to bring more people into their stores. So why do this? More brand recognition for Walmart? It may undercut a lot of the other services but have no tangible benefit to their overall sales. What kind of business strategy is that?
 
If Wal-Mart only sells censored tracks, then people will buy from the competition. Simple as that.

As for Wal-Mart's business practices, it's funny that no one ever says that the mom and pop stores are price-gouging you. Because they are. They can't buy in enough volume to give you a fair price. Wal-Mart can. And they sell you a decent product too.

I buy stuff from Wal-Mart. Even clothes. In Port Angeles, once Wal-Mart came, our local general store, Swain's, swung to another market: Carhartt-wearing hicks. Just how the spread of Blockbusters throughout the country caused local video rental stores to turn to porn.

As for unions, they're often worse than employers. They tend to encourage promotion based on seniority, not talent or skill. They often collude with the government or their employers in some way; there have been cases of unions going on strike in order to constrain demand, thus raising prices and making profits for their employers.

In conclusion, capitalism isn't evil, and while Wal-Mart might be, it hasn't been proven yet. And we're already so far from capitalism that you can't really compare what we have today with capitalism.
 
Originally posted by Powerbook G5
So when will we be seeing a McDonald's music store? This is insane, everyone seems to be starting a music selling service now.

Can I supersize that and would you like our homestyle fries?😀
 
Originally posted by Phil Of Mac
If Wal-Mart only sells censored tracks, then people will buy from the competition. Simple as that.

As for Wal-Mart's business practices, it's funny that no one ever says that the mom and pop stores are price-gouging you. Because they are. They can't buy in enough volume to give you a fair price. Wal-Mart can. And they sell you a decent product too.

I buy stuff from Wal-Mart. Even clothes. In Port Angeles, once Wal-Mart came, our local general store, Swain's, swung to another market: Carhartt-wearing hicks. Just how the spread of Blockbusters throughout the country caused local video rental stores to turn to porn.

As for unions, they're often worse than employers. They tend to encourage promotion based on seniority, not talent or skill. They often collude with the government or their employers in some way; there have been cases of unions going on strike in order to constrain demand, thus raising prices and making profits for their employers.

In conclusion, capitalism isn't evil, and while Wal-Mart might be, it hasn't been proven yet. And we're already so far from capitalism that you can't really compare what we have today with capitalism.
Hey, lets just hire some more cheap illegals, work them like dogs and sell it all nice and cheap. Great business plan. PS where do we get the illegal servers??
 
Re: wtf

Originally posted by gwuMACaddict
there are a few things that concern me about this.

1. walmart is notorious for censuring music. will they continue to do this with their online store?
2. this whole online music scheme doesnt seem to fit in with their whole demographic if you ask me. (and i'm not tryning to start more stupid walmart fights- i shop there once in a while)
3. the music companies must be making sweet dough from all these music services. and i wouldnt doubt if they are making more now than when they were just selling cds. think about it- they could sell rights to at leat 5 different providers.
Do they still sell bullets?
If so does the occasional swear word cause more harm than a bolus dose of lead delivered at high speed?????





edited spelling error on bolus.
 
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