Walmart trying to force RIAA to lower CD prices

[KvHagedorn]

Your second link needs some touch-up, isochar.

The big picture of what Wal-Mart does is to totally devalue PEOPLE. That works to their advantage, as well.. the more peasants they can produce, the more Wal-Mart customers they will produce, that is, the fewer people will be able to purchase quality goods from normal retailers. I'm sure this has come up somewhere in the perverted train of thought there.

[isochar]

Fixed, thanks. KvH, I highly doubt that Lee Scott and co are sitting around in the executive boardroom talking about how to screw as many people over as possible. It's more likely that their decisions and actions focus on increasing shareholder wealth without any focus on the morality of them. (As most corporations operate) IMHO, Wal-Mart operates so well as a corporation that the fundamental problems of what a corporation is become readily apparent. *edit* For those of you interested in this issue, you would probably find The Corporation an interesting documentary.

[KvHagedorn]

That's probably about the truth of it, isochar. I just see that the results of Wal-Mart making more people poor could have a beneficial effect for them, and if I can see that, I'm sure some of their upper management has seen this aspect, too. You can't shop Gucci and buy B&W speakers if you make minimum wage and have a family to support.

[Dilitante1]

MM, I KNOW for a fact that management of wal-mart stores goes out of its way to make sure no OT is paid, and the Dept managers are expected to work off the clock just to keep thier jobs. I have seen it. I worked up here at #1749 for almost 6 years in almost every dept starting on nights. While stocking shelves, an asst manager comes out and taps the Dept manager on the shoulder, tells them they are about to hit 40 hours, he/she goes out back to punch/swipe out, then comes out to work the rest of the day off the clock. 20/20 last year had a big article about Wal-mart and being sued in EVERY state for labor law violations, working off clock/harrassment issues.

Corporate office has its head in a bag so it can plausibly deny any wrong doings out in any state.

So your claim the site dont know what it is saying (half-truths/etc) is way off. The issues I speak of, are ongoing

[MultimediaMan]

Isochar those are editorial articles; with no hard facts, graphs or other relevent data to support those claims past a container of Vlasic Pickles.

Most of the goods at Wal-Mart are considered to be mainstream. We sell a lot of name brand stuff that is the SAME stuff you buy at other locations. Sometimes we don't purchase the high line stuff simply because it will not sell well enough to justify our logistical outlay.

And right here is where other businesses comes in: Sell what Wal-Mart does not. And deliberately contrast what you sell by comparing it to Wal-Mart. More than a few few Wal-Mart associates have left the company and pursued this strategy successfully.

Yes, we will tell our suppliers what we think the price should be, because we look at our customer's buying habits very carefully: we know, for a given item, how many they buy, how often and how much they are willing to spend on it. That data is golden, and it is solid. When vendors sell us what the customer buys, then it all works.

As far as how we pay our suppliers; for a better look at how it all works, read the two Fortune Articles about the the "Most Admired Company" for the last two years to see how real-world suppliers interact with Wal-Mart.

[Dilitante1]

read here http://www.usatoday.com/money/workpl...mart-cov_x.htm
or

http://www.wal-martlitigation.com/currentd.htm

or here

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0503-07.htm

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_walmart.html

It is easy to find issues with a large company that squeezes its employee base to make profits.

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by MultimediaMan
As far as how we pay our suppliers; for a better look at how it all works, read the two Fortune Articles about the the "Most Admired Company" for the last two years to see how real-world suppliers interact with Wal-Mart.

You mean, like the one titled "One Nation Under Wal-Mart?" (If that title doesn't scare you, you are too stupid to be a responsible citizen.) Fortune sees things from a boardroom/stockholder perspective only. Whatever makes the rich richer is cool with them.. why else would anyone admire Wal-Mart? Notice how they hand picked an example that worked for their perspective.. Disney (what was the title of this thread again? Let's go ask Disney what they think of Wal-Mart NOW!) If Disney couldn't sell their videos in Wal-Marts nowadays they might not have the level of sales they do.. this is true. But do they really have more faith in the Wal-Mart brand name than they do in their own? Do they really think that other outlets would not sell more of their products if they refused to sell to Wally World? To name some other megacorps, Blockbuster, Target, K-Mart, Safeway, Sears, Amazon.. there are lots of places moms can buy those videos, and the prices are NOT necessarily cheapest at the Wal-Mart, either.. All it takes is some balls to tell Wal-Mart to go to hell. No one has power over us that WE DO NOT GRANT! This applies everywhere.

btw, here's that article:

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/mostadmired/articles/0,15114,423053-1,00.html

[MultimediaMan]

But they won't.

The whole idea of a big box store is to be able to do all of your shopping in one stop. Saves you time (Time=money), saves you gas (Gas=money) (you can buy gas for 3-5 Cents a gallon cheaper at Wal-Mart if you do it with a gift card), all of those little things add up to why shoppers go to Wal-Mart.

You're absolutely right: No one has power over us that WE DO NOT GRANT! This applies everywhere.

However, at this time, the majority does not agree with you.

Find a single article at USA Today that was positive about Wal-Mart. You won't find one. USA Today is is as bad as Fox if not worse because they allow their journalists to stack the deck any way they want it. Example: Their entertainment editor scores points for ethnic diversity before even getting into content. USA Today supports Unions, and we are not a Union shop. Pardon me, but right there is enough reason to cry "bias".

You know, in Italy, supermarkets are just now starting to take hold: why? No one has time to shop everyday anymore. You can't blame Wal-Mart for that, we have never setup a store there, nor do we have any suppliers for our US Stores their either.

All of those articles make Wal-Mart look like a monopoly when in fact we are 12-13% of Retail sales, and you know what? 12-13% is not a whole lot to worry about when you try to compare us with Bell Telephone 25 Years ago or Microsoft today.

With over 1.5 Million employees, you are going to have disgruntled employees and so-called whistle blowers. Couple that with Jackpot Justice lawyers and it's not hard to see why so much is made of even inadvertent infractions. The articles and the innuendo make for a poisonous atmosphere: The merits of their complaints can be summed up by our court record: We win far more often than we lose, and we generally don't settle. As far as the percentages go, we are in the top 100 best places to work for and for a Multinational company with such a huge employee base, that is really something.

So we

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by MultimediaMan
But they won't.

Who won't what? Shop elsewhere? Yes they will. What sort of brainwashing do you go through there if you think people won't shop outside of Wal-Mart to get an item like a video, especially if their toddler is whining for it?

The whole idea of a big box store is to be able to do all of your shopping in one stop. Saves you time (Time=money), saves you gas (Gas=money) (you can buy gas for 3-5 Cents a gallon cheaper at Wal-Mart if you do it with a gift card), all of those little things add up to why shoppers go to Wal-Mart.

I tried to do this once, after your goddamn superstore ran off its only competition here, a KMart that had been here 30+ years. It took me an HOUR to find what I needed in that monstrous jumble, when I could have been in and out of KMart in 15 minutes. And now that you killed the competition in this town, I noticed the prices are higher.

Find a single article at USA Today that was positive about Wal-Mart. You won't find one. USA Today is is as bad as Fox if not worse because they allow their journalists to stack the deck any way they want it. Example: Their entertainment editor scores points for ethnic diversity before even getting into content. USA Today supports Unions, and we are not a Union shop. Pardon me, but right there is enough reason to cry "bias".

Bias? Well, if they are biased against you, look at all the publications that are biased FOR you! In America the only heresy seems to be saying something bad against an icon of capitalism, since greed is the only common denominator here. We don't hear about this stuff nearly as much as we should.. novels like The Jungle don't get published anymore. There are no political heroes like Teddy Roosevelt out there to fight for the common good anymore, so your company has had no trouble brainwashing the public with its marketing.

All of those articles make Wal-Mart look like a monopoly when in fact we are 12-13% of Retail sales, and you know what? 12-13% is not a whole lot to worry about when you try to compare us with Bell Telephone 25 Years ago or Microsoft today.

You can't compare even Microsoft to Wal-Mart. Bell telephone was regulated, and their business practices were rather tame. Microsoft is a problem, but they are a specialized entity. When you talk about "only" 12-13% (currently.. you didn't mention the trend.) of something like ALL RETAIL SALES in the largest economy in the world, that's staggeringly huge. If you narrowed that down to only the commodities that you sell, your percentage is MUCH higher. (I think cars are part of retail sales, btw, which takes a huge chunk out of most people's paychecks every month.)

With over 1.5 Million employees, you are going to have disgruntled employees and so-called whistle blowers. Couple that with Jackpot Justice lawyers and it's not hard to see why so much is made of even inadvertent infractions. The articles and the innuendo make for a poisonous atmosphere: The merits of their complaints can be summed up by our court record: We win far more often than we lose, and we generally don't settle. As far as the percentages go, we are in the top 100 best places to work for and for a Multinational company with such a huge employee base, that is really something.

Personally, I trust Dil's point of view here more than yours. I have worked for corporations and gone for training at corporate headquarters, and you are probably more disconnected there than a General is from the grunt in the trenches.

[Helevitia]

KvH,

I think you have a couple of points wrong. Though, I am just speaking from personal experience.

1. I actually hate going to Walmart. I shop there for items way less than any other place. I'm not sure how other people feel, but the only things I buy at Walmart are dog food and some household items. And every once in a while, I buy clothes. I always feel like I am getting a subpar product when I go there, therefore, I choose to shop elsewhere.

2. You last point. Really, 1.5 million people...of course there are going to be pissed off people. On top of that, I am sure the educatin level of most employees is very low. When you get a bunch of people together making close to minimum wage and you couple that with a store like Walmart, you are going to get conspiracies. Just go read walmartsucks.org. I laughed reading those things. It' just a bunch of uneducated, bored, nothing better to do, brainwashed people, all complaining. Personally, I say, if you don't like it, find a job elsewhere. I know I would.

3. And the whole Kmart thing. Are you tryng to tell me that Kmart wouldn't fill the shoes of Walmart if they knew how? OF course they would. They used to be king and they got beat, plain and simple. In my eyes, Kmart = Walmart anyway as far as items go.