Walmart is now crying to the WTO about small towns keeping them out

Like someone said earlier, in the UK, Walmart is Asda (Or Asda Walmart in the case of new ones), and in my hometown we've got two of the damn things and hardly any little shops. In Cardiff the main evil of this type is Tesco's, and though they've already got a chugging huge superstore right near me, now they're trying to open a "convienience (SP?)" store in one of the main student areas to try and wipe out all the little independent grocery stores entirely (or at least that's how it seems). Tescos never really bothered me till that, but now I'm gonna try and get lots more stuff in the little shops, well as far as the student budget allows!

 

Theres a walmart right next to the highschool I go to. If you ditch school and go to the walmart, you have to buy something or the walmart security will call the school security to come get you. They don't say you have to buy something. I've just had plenty of friends go in there, and if somebody in the group buys something you're fine, but if nobody buys anything the security will come and you'll get busted. It shows you on a lesser level that walmart really doesn't care about the community or anything but their profits.

 

If it helps, this might be a sign that Wally's isn't making as much. Why are they suddenly THAT worried about taking over the cities that don't want them when so many are willing to throw parades? Are the boycotts working, then? Does the company need to attack alternate routes?

 

Anyone seen the South Park episode about walmart?

 

No, actually it shows that if you ditch school to do something as lame as hang out at WallyWorld, you deserve to be branded a shoplifing anarcho-truant and hauled back to school by the scruff of your neck to face the consequences.

Build a fort in the woods and get high like the rest of us did.

 

one thought that comes to me when thinking of wal mart is
"Off the turnip feilds and onto the retail floor"
if you catch my meaning

And yeh dude go build a fort

 

yes i have and i think we can learn something from it. turn everybody in town against walmart and then have some good old fashioned arson.(well, c-4 would work better actually) but the trick is to annihilate several thousand stores at once, that way the company wont be able to recover. then build a mall or a homeless shelter or a park or something on the site

 

Two Words: Operation Mayhem.

 

I second that motion =)

 

Why don't we have a parade to celebrate sunshine or something that actually does some good?

 

Yes, all the better for plotting against corporate giants.

 

if we just stop going and eventually theyll go bankrupt and have to close down

 

Has anyone told you that quoting things out of context makes me the ass but you the hole?

The guy admitted he cut school to hang out at Walmart. That kinda makes him a loser, no?

The solution to Walmart is DON'T SHOP THERE.

 

What? We used to make forts and do the same. Sorry it pissed you off that I quoted you. A moment of nostalgia overtook me. I also thought you already got your point across, & well at that.
I don't shop there. It's been at least two years now. Sheesh

 

they don't have walmart where i am but, what about this for a crazy idea..

walmart chooses a place where high unemployment occurs, in theory if people drive in from elsewhere then the town will start to get some balanced unemployed figures.
walmart consults with the local community and tries to model its range of products in tune with local shops and balance local needs with profits.
walmart balances its profits by injecting money back into the community by supporting libraries and apprenticeship schemes and money for local schools to create first class educational facilities or even something crazy like a university!!???
and most importantly looking at ways to source and create local manufacturing and products to decrease payments to foreign business entities. creating manufacturing jobs rather than destroying them and people displaced by walmart business activities go into other business areas.
unfortunately people will continue to buy from walmart, it is against human nature to pay more for something if it can be bought elsewhere cheaper, even the most hardened anti walmartian will buy from there. why? because at somepoint if you don't have much money you will buy there.
all these large companies need to practice some social responsibility and bathe in the kudos that rolls in. this my fantasy

 

They also have a hand in those nasty salmon farms that pollute the living shit out of the ocean.

 

Guy.
Dude -

Walmart is capable of paying for the kind of propaganda buzz that no small town (or a few thousand of them together) could ever afford.
And that's just for starters.

No matter what they actually do (to, for or against a community)
-you still end up with a giant fat ugly box. Complete with parking lot the size of Rhode Island.

They use public tax money to finance their payroll. This is well known. All the shit their employees can't pay for because their wages are shit.

They sell cheap, because they force their suppliers to race their labor costs to the bottom. (a nickel an hour, anyone?)

They have swooped in like vultures and jumped voraciously on a society that no longer builds, makes, manufactures, markets and sells to itself.
(When was the last time an American built a tv set?)
Where - do they build Gibson guitars these days? Blue Jeans?

Christ! Order up your blessed copy of the Constitution, conveniently reprinted in Indian Ink (silk-screened in Indonesia.)

It's a disease, man.

Walmart may not have (had the brains) to get all this going. (Smarter men than Sam performed that deed.)
However, they sure have exploited the crap outa this misfortune.

Another thing: Big cities don't seem to give a crap about Walmarts and any other brand of giant box that wants to join in on the crapshoot.
This may have something to do with the fact that there are always choices, in a big city. I know. I live in the largest city in my country.
I have yet to enter the box. (Well - that box, anyhow.) [smile]

So what is it with the small towns? Why such a frenzy of fear and loathing?
I'll tell ya:

Small towns have cute little Main Streets, walkable communities, funky and adorable public domains, the village square, the bandshell, the ladies' auxillary, dog-romped parks, neighborly concern (yeah and nosey Mrs. Grundies too...)
What do you suppose that paid for it all?
Locally owned business, that's what.
Walmart will never do this.
That it "pretends" to.....is as much a crock as the check that's in the mail.

And finally:
Did it never occur to you that an awful lot of decent, fine, caring, concerned and downright upstanding citizens might actually be trying to preserve a way of life, and a set of values, and a community that is actually worth living in?
Walmart is not the "better future."
It is very much the debacle of capitalism's most digusting greed. It's a sellout and a selloff.

I'll tell you this.
I grew up in a small city that had a Kresge's and a Woolworths. They were our "box" stores.
They were both part of a giant franchised proliferation of the time.
(refer to the Woolworth Building in NYC)
They both lived cheek to jowl and in resplendent harmony with every other small business up and down Main Street.
They put no-one out of business.
They were loved and adored by us kids (who walked and rode bikes there) for all the neat things we could find for nickels and dimes.
They rolled the eyes in patient tolerance of every self-respecting adult in town (who shopped elsewhere, mostly.)
They knew their place.

Wlamart's ascendency is kinda like Charlie Manson rising to sainthood, what?

later -

 

there used to be two grocery stores in my small town. One got blown over, leaving only one for about 3 years. Guess what? They triple marked everything up, you had to shop there, or drive 35 miles north or south to a larger place.

Walmart came in, and severly hurt that store, they got what they deserved. Now, we just go to walmart and ad match whatever Piggly Wiggly is selling.

"Small town charm" goes only so far. My town has prospered since walmart came. How many on here actually live in those small towns you seem so sympathetic for?

 

Squirrel: DONT TALK ABOUT OPERATION MAYHEM!

 

As much as I hate Wal Mart, I kinda have to agree.
The 'city' I live in was a small "charming" town just a few years ago, but getting a job here was pure hell. And so was buying anything. Now our little town has grown to have a wal mart, superstore, safeway, IGA, Home depot, Rona, and it's not done yet. The only positive thing that I can say about it, is that there is such a demand for jobs now you can walk in anywhere and get one.
I must agree about the low wages, though. Among all those I listed, the Superstore pays the best, the lowest starting wage is $8.50/hour, plus benifits to all employees and is union. Walmart starts their employees at $7.30 here, 30 cents above the minimum wage, no union, no benifits.

One thing that has really stood out to me, though, is that no matter where you drive in Canada, you're always going to come across a Walmart with the SAME group of buisnesses around it.....so far, it's Dollar Giant, First Choice Hair Cutters, Tim Hortons, Subway or Quiznos, EB Games, Hallmark, Super Pets, and there's a couple others I can't think of.
It's SICK! Everything looks all the same!!!!!!!!!
I swear, one day, everything is going to be a walmart....we're all just going to live in a giant-ass walmart........