Wal-mart rules the world!

[GuzziHeroV50]

Here is a terrifying account of the business dealings of Wal-mart.  It is an extremely long document, which is why I have posted the link, not the content.  If youre interested in how much a single corporation can control a global economy, put an hour aside and read this.  But how this firm does business will terrify you.  I for one will never shop at Asda (a Wal-mart chain) again.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

[lurker]

  excellent article, Guz.

Just for Wal-Mart...

 - lurker

[totalfolly]

I think it was the TV newsmagazine show 60 Minutes that did a segment on Wal-Mart some years ago.  I was appalled at the way they do business.

totalfolly

[Tiny_Mo]

Very good article, Guzz

[GuzziHeroV50]

They dictate the price they will pay you.  if you cant match it, its so-long sucker.

And now with the purchase of ASDA in the UK, theyre gonna do it here, too.

[electric_ian]

I dont think Wal mart are the only ones doing this.
Also your big coffee companies are the same..using kids as young as 5 to pick the beans...it is slave labour totally illegal but everyone turns a blind eye.and use the excuse they need to make a living..
Ian

[GuzziHeroV50]

In the 60's, some vacuum cleaner manufacturers (including one that shares its name with a former US president and a hydro-electric dam...) were using slave labor in Mexico to assemble machine parts.  It was accepted in high levels of US government because the parts were essential to what was a huge industry (which, perhaps, sponsored the elected party at that time) because the advantage to the economy then was more important and less costly than poo-fighting the companies that were exploiting this market.  Im sure this isnt the only example of this, just the only one (other than Nike, Kenco etc) that I can personally remember.

[electric_ian]

They are not the only ones Guzzi..In the town I lived in Scotland the biggest employer was Daks who made clothes for M&S  at one time 1 in 2 households had a a employee in the factory..they took their bussnees to the far east So the factory closed and devestated my home town,especially after the pit[mine] clousures and steel.. Churchill said during ww2 we had learned our leason we would never be depndent on other countries again...think our goverments now have forgoton that lesson.We have no coal, no steel,no ships,We are no longer a manufacturing country...
Ian

[Nick]

I don't see the issue here and I think the use of the phrase of "slave labour" is unfounded and unfair.

Supplier / Retailer market forces are an integral part of the economy in which we live. Buyers dictate the price they are willing to pay for a product thereby ensuring that those products can be marketed to us at a price that we are willing to pay.
Every company with a half decent purchasing department does this, every company with clout does this daily, and Wal-Mart have done that particularly well. If you are a company looking at supply costs and you find that manufacturing in the USA or the UK costs you 100% more than if you had the same manufacturing in the far east then only a fool would ignore the chance to increase profits and reduces costs.

Even in basic construction contracts this happens every day. An employer will take on consultants and tell them they want to pay £xmillion for a building, the consultant gets tenders from contractors and the contractor with the best deal wins. If they are all over the required price they are told that if they want the business they must "sharpen their pencils" and so the price drops, the margin drops.

That's the basic nature of business, buy as cheap as possible, sell as high but as enticing as possible. If it was meant to be fair then we'd all be driving round in Rolls Royces. All reatilers employ this tactic, so if you are going to avoid Asda then you can do the same for Sainsburys, Safeway, Tesco etc etc etc -
Blimey ! Where are you going to do your shopping now ?

[GuzziHeroV50]

The problem is that the minimum wage is right that people get paid a fair salary but its also taking away jobs from the democratic countries.  I cant blame any company for wanting to make maximum profit, but Wal-Mart is running small companies out of business doing it.  Many cant afford to provide for the price theyre paid, but they cant afford to lose the work.

Devil and the deep blue sea...

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart is a perfect example of what an elitist Communism would be like.  

[Nick]

That's all very well blaming Wal-Mart Guzz, but as you said yourself, "they cant afford to lose the work."  So the blame lies with the suppliers placing such a great need on supplying Wal-mart.
If a company doesn't have a broad enough customer base it will perish.
If the CEO's or MD's of the suppliers place themselves in such a position that they rely totally on a single buyer who holds such a strong grip over their company then they only have themselves to blame and the they are the ones that should be singled out for a roasting. It's the single biggest mistake in business - putting all your eggs in one basket.
The same thing happens when a town relies on a single company for the majority of their employment (British Coal, British Steel and many others). Take that one industry away, remove that one big "customer" of employment and what happens ?
Diversity and hard pricing is the name of the game. It's business, not charity. I expect every company to do their best to force the best prices on to the marketplace. If they didn't we would then be crying "Monopoly" and accusing them of rigging and raising prices.
The strong survive in business, the weak fold. Badly managed companies are the first to go and to be honest they don't deserve to be subsidised by me or anybody else. The workforces of those failed companies should look to the directors of the company for making such bad decisions rather than the mega-corporations that had agreed to be their customers. From what I personally know about the quality of directorships held in the UK I can honestly say that I am amazed that 75% of British Companies ever manage to trade at all. Most directors are nothing more than self-serving pillocks with an eye not for business, but for where the next plush company car and leather attaché case is coming from.
If a company is badly managed it is doomed, simple as that. I could even argue that having a customer like Wal-Mart would actually serve to delay the inevitable crash as Wal-Mart would at least be provided turnover at lower profit margins to the supplier. Tale away that turnover and lower profit and the company would fold considerably faster.
Ultimately though every comany has a choice - they can supply companies like WM or they can decline. They can trade or they can fold. It's all too easy to line up big corporations and accuse them of being greedy or malicious and trying to kill of small businesses, but speak to a Purchasing Manager and one of the top 3 things on his list will be
1. Supply at a good price (better prices on the shelf makes them more competitive)
2. Reliability of supply (they need to have a steady supply of goods)
3. Longevity of the company (they don't want to market a product only to find a few months later thet have to find another supplier, then another, then another .....)

Who in theor right mind would say "Right, I'm going to buy from you, invest $$$$ in marketing and distribution the product to our stores and then in a few months time I'm going to bust your company and then have to do all that work all over again"


Articles like the one that has been quoted remind me that the pen is mightier than the sword.
A journalist waits for a few minutes too long in a WalMart checkout, gets hacked off, storms out and what happens ? It gets slanted on the Internet with a totally biased report. No mention of the thousands of people that WM employs, or the millions it pays around the world in corporation tax, or the efforts it goes to to keeps its customers happy...... I could go on but I won't. There's plenty more unbiased information about corporations like WM if people care to look beyond the trash that Charles Fishman has spewed out. His kind makes me sick. He poisons peoples opinions purely form a single standpoint and fails to acknowledge that there is a bigger picture -

It's easy to single out a minute number of goods, from a tiny number of companys when the rtailer is someone like WM, selling 10's of thousands of products. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

[Monika]

A journalist waits for a few minutes too long in a WalMart checkout, gets hacked off, storms out and what happens ? It gets slanted on the Internet with a totally biased report.

If that journalist had any sense at all, he'd have known that the only time you go to WalMart and don't stand in line for a length of time is around 3 in the morning!      

No mention of the thousands of people that WM employs, or the millions it pays around the world in corporation tax, or the efforts it goes to to keeps its customers happy......

Good points Nick... and you know, not only the thousands they employ - but the care they give all of those employees.  I worked for WalMart for several months in college, and they are damn fine to their employees.  Great benefits, great room for moving up in the company, etc. etc.   Next to Barnes & Noble, I never had a retail job that treated its employees so well (and I had plenty of retails jobs, ugh!)  

[Gobe]

So has anyone bought the new cheap Levis now selling in Wal-marts yet?

[Monika]

I'm too short... gotta buy capris.    (it's true!)

[Nick]

Gobe, I'd be surprised if they are allowed to in the UK. There was  a legal battle last time Tesco tried to sell Levis at reduced prices - Levis won the battle because they didn't want the prices to be reduced .... but that only applied on Treasure Island ... sorry - The British Isles


http://www.prettys.co.uk/article/articleview/165

[GuzziHeroV50]

Okay, low prices I can get, but Wal-mart owes it to the economy they are supposed to be supporting and to their customers to buy from US suppliers who produce in the US.  

This reminds me of the Stagecoach bus incident, where they wanted to buy a smaller operator but the deal fell through.  Knowing that to register a stage carriage service, Stagecoach had to wait 42 days (now 63), The put spare buses on every single route the smaller operator had for free (they could afford it, they are the nations 2nd biggest bus operator) and ran the firm out of business.

Good business practice, maybe.  But its unethical.

[Fishs]

 

Mmm  

Well Nick is correct here with both his posts re slave labour and the Wal Mart ones.. Pretty standard practice and he has explained both points very very well..

 I have had national dealings in Austraila ith the top buyers from K Mart. All pretty standard business practice .

  Just remember in Business you Call the shots your way .. I remember after some many hours with the buyer over a deal to supply them with Motorcycle helmets . The deal was considerable . It was pressure .all the way and I bailed and the buyer stood up and really got stuck into me telling me I would go broke if i would not do the deal.. I just folded my books and said mate . my boss would fire me if I did that deal because we will go broke if we do the deal and walked out. he could not understand .. I pointed out to him that we would make more money if we sold a third of the quantity at twice the price just to the bike shops.
.

Not sure why Wal Mart is being singled out here anyway ?

Just have a look at Tesco,   Marks and Spencer , and Sainsbury's,  your own chains ..  All do exactly the same thing .. I could tell you of similar examples with tesco for example with  lamb and Cereal products .. and a range of Emu Oil products with Sainsbury's.. and these chains are British  .

I could take you to a factory in China which produces about 50 brand products in the cosmetic line for Sainsbury's also.

If you bothered to actually speak to the Chinese that work in these factories there and ask these people  I can tell you that thy are most happy . There is a huge line up of people just beegging to get in there for a job. What you do not hear is the relativity of the dollar value .. Those guys are actually very, very well paid  by chinese terms .. and if you bothered to actually go and visit these factories you may well be in for a surprise .. . I have visited them  along with two factories who were making Fox Motocross clothing  and they were very well organised and happy and clean places ..

Please do not take everything one reads as gospel.. Most of what is being portrayed is wide of the mark . Much written is biased leftish, Anti big business , Anti American and Anti Capitalist  portrail by the likes of which you find in the left,  left Pilger Doccos and the jargon which  Moore trots out etc ..

primarilarly aimed at those " Big bad American Corporates" ..

I have seen almost parrot fashion, items  in most of the left papers such as the Observer and the Guardian .all aimed at big Corporates .. same method, same theme .. about ..BRM, Phillip Morris, Reebok, Nike, Macdonalds and Microsoft .. Nothing much changes . all attacking these Compamies for their so called reasons . usually always bringing up exploitation , Anti American themes and Capitalist corporates ..

Some of these Ludite Idealogs, I am sure would like to see all these successfull companies closed down . . I am not sure just how they are going to replace the jobs created in china though . I suppose the price of their obsession with killing off the big bad corporates would be supplying the poor Chinese with  money extorted from those left working although if you take out the number of workers these giant corporates employ that would be very little .  Just a cynical preamble there . I am sure a few of you may well see my point..

And If I may go back to this Fast Company  tabled as the original source ..

  I see the Journalist who put this feature together is Charles Fishman..

   I admire this Guy ..he is an excellent Journalist ..I have read many many of his articles .. he is quite diversified in his writing .. Quality stuff ..

  It is no coincidence that  Fishman was called up to advise  a Canadian media corporate called Can West. His job was to train all their Jurnos and reporters on how to spin stories to read or portray a certain Editorral Directive ..

 It is no secret that CaN West applied Editorial restraint  and tossed out any who would not report a left wing,  Anti American bias  as directed ..

They were carted for it and a few other manipulation of facts etc in Court ..

This same Mob ran the campaigns in Canada re promoting and pushing through legislation for the same sex marriage caper   and also was right into this latest social agenda in canada right now where they are promoting seperatism  by pushing forward the rights for sharia law to be applied in canada for a certain group of citizens only and they have moved into france and swooped up a radio network at bargain basement  to support Chirac  as well .. ..

Please draw your own conclusions ..

There are always hidden agendas  If you know what to spot and follow up a pattern always emerges.... I fear this is so with what as started here as well in relation to the content matter of the original source link on this thread ..

Don''t believe all that is written  ..  Most often it is not always on the up..

Fish

 

[GuzziHeroV50]

The only thing Im against with the corps is taking jobs away from their own countries.  I agree that though the Chinese workers are on a relatively low dollar wage, at least its a job and for them, its what they need to feed their families etc.  Its just a bit greedy-capitalist from the US point of view.  However, if they were to use US labor and prices were higher, they would be under-cut by those who were not afraid to use foreign labor so its a damned if you do, damned if you dont.

Of course, I would like to see nationalised industries so you cant get more controlling and monopolising than that!!!!!  Nationalised industries should be run by the people for the benefit of the people.  However in a capitalist country, Wal-marts way of business is probably the only way that will succeed.  Sad world

[Nick]

Hey there Guz,

One thing I am certainly not in favour of is large companies employing underhanded tactics like the ones you mentioned. Market economy i sone thing, but using clout to purposely undermine your competitor with a view to folding their business is very wrong and like you I find it quite disgusting that it should even be allowed to happen.

* Nick looks at fishs post enviously ......

He puts things so much better than I do!

[electric_ian]

* Nick looks at fishs post enviously ......

Its his job Nick...thats what I keep telling myself Nick..
Ian