if we didn't buy from wal*mart...

wouldn't the chinese people in the sweatshops be out of jobs? and would they rather work in sweatshops than not have any jobs?

i'm not saying wal*mart is good (because it isn't!), but making 54 cents an hour would be better than no money at all right?

 

I think the idea is that if enough people boycott the company will change its policies in order to gain back customers and continue making more and more money

 

i would boycott walmart if i could find cheap .45 ammo some place else.

 

It's been a wicked long time since I've been to Walmart to buy anything... The boy goes to get their BBQ chicken they sell in the deli and I go in with him, but that's about it.
As far as the issue goes, I always wondered about that too. While we're boycotting, someone is starving to death. It may help future generations, but I'm not sure it's worth the deaths of small children... It's just not the right method. Something needs to happen, though...

 

Haven't been to a walmart in ages...Prices kept going up, so I just started shopping else where.

And with all the crap from dollar stores, the Chinese will be fine without walmart.

 

Perhaps Wal-Mart embodies the worst kind of economic exploitation: it pays its 1.2 million American workers an average of only $9.68 an hour, doesn't provide most of them with health insurance, keeps out unions, has a checkered history on labor law and turns main streets into ghost towns by sucking business away from small retailers.

But isn't Wal-Mart really being punished for our sins? After all, it's not as if Wal-Mart's founder, Sam Walton, and his successors created the world's largest retailer by putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to shop there.

Instead, Wal-Mart has lured customers with low prices. "We expect our suppliers to drive the costs out of the supply chain," a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said. "It's good for us and good for them."
What are my obligations to the general welfare and when do they exceed my desire to get the lowest price on things that I purchase?
I agree I must take responsibility for my own behavior. I may act collectively with others, hoping to influence the policies of corporations such as Wal-Mart, but my own behavior is critical in “walking the talk” as well.

 

I hate Walmart. The last four times I've been to buy the mousse I use for my hair, they've been out. I went for the first time in at least six months Tuesday and they still didn't have it. I asked my store to order it, and Mr. Watts made sure it was on the shelf, but since he quit they've stopped ordering it. Grr. That's the only reason I went to Walmart. I wasn't going to pay six dollars for the stuff at Winn Dixie. (for the record, I'm going to end up going to work in a braid for the next few days.) They're making it real easy for me to boycott them. I went to get mascara one day and it was out, so I went to customer service and asked if they could reorder it and she told me no. Just flat out no. She said it was an auto order product, based on sales, and since it wasn't selling they were not going to reorder, period. I was a bitch to her and I do not feel bad. I work at a store where if a customer asks for something, you at least try to get it. I was taught to give better service than that, so I expect to receive the same kind of service I give. Doesn't matter now anyway since I don't wear mascara anymore except every once in a blue moon.
So to hell with Walmart. Lol. I'd rather support the little guy who remembers my name and sells what I need.

 

i ain't bought from there yet. i know several people who work there though.

if i want cheep for cheep sake i go to the dollar tree.
for electronics i go to fry's
if i want train stuff i go to railroad hobbies
if i want leggo blox i go to toys r us
for clothing and made from fabric type stuff i go to mervins,
ross, or "the sally"
for all that kind of personal hygene type stuff,
all the big grocery stores and drug stores have tons of it.
(though i get most of that kind of thing at the dollar tree)
so i've really never had any occasion to go to off the wall mart.
i don't know of anything they've got that i want that i can't do just as good in the places i normally go.

=^^=
.../\...

 

No, they were better off before. Sure, they had a shitload of problems, but the corporations just pretended to be their saviors to get legal slave labor. That worker is working for 59 cents an hour because we've robbed them of any other source of income. We tore down most local sources of jobs and farms, leaving them with no choice but to work for us. In the long run not boycotting exploitive corporations is what looses jobs.

 

The Chinese weren't dying and starving to death before WalMart, so why would they stave and die without WalMart now? Nature_Child has a great point. Wally World didn't come in to save the day, it came in and took advantage of the fact that it could get very cheap labor.

 

If anything, Walmart has driven DOWN wages for the Chinese people, just like they do with all of their suppliers. They basically dominate and then strangle them. If they resist, they are left to die.

I'm currently working to keep Walmart out of my town right now.

 

How about this one, one more reson to NOT buy from walmart or most stores for that matter, Everything is made in CHINA, CHINA IS A COMMUNIST COUNTRY, Buy Chinese goods = support COMMUNISM. Hear about the recent tragidies in Tibet? well that waht most of the money from buying chinese goods supports..

Why dont we just boycott any corperation or buisness that outsources to china.

I personally feel that if we use, need, or buy it in our country, its should be MADE IN OUR COUNTRY, so the money supports OUR workers and make JOBS in OUR OWN COUNTRY....

When are people gonna start thinking about OUR OWN ECONOMY.

sorry for the rant, but this kind of shit just pisses me off.

 

Not buying from China is harder than it sounds. It's really difficult to find some things. I've been working on not buying from China this year and I've simply had to not buy some things because I can't find them. For example, try buying a reusable shopping bag that's not made in China-they all are.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with your point. It's just tough is all.

 

http://www.herobags.com/ I know very little about them, just did a quick search. If you are unconcerned with fashion you can also use a potato sack. I did that for about a month before I could get a regular bag. Usually you can get some free at a farmer's market (Though they seem to be used more for corn, or at least thats how it is around here)

And hippie44...etc, please leave McCarythism out of it. What's happening in Tibet is wrong, but you don't have to be a communist state to persecute a group of people.

 

Thanks, Nature Child. I think that mini tote on the herobags site is just what I've been looking for to carry my lunch in. For shopping bags, I actually got free ones that the local health food store gave out at a Green Living expo-I was just surprised that even the health food store bags were made in China.

 

Shopping from dollar stores wouldn't make much of a difference, as long as it's from China. Where ever you shop from, if it's from China, you're screwed.

Myself I think it would be best to stop shopping from all of the big stores together. Stick with the stores that need it, the small town shops, and the thrift stores if you have to... but honestly we can't....

America would be fucked officially. We'd lose jobs, we'd use a hell of a lot of money from taxes, and woooo prices would gooo upppp....

Tough choices.. there's a lot more but i just ate some candy so i dont feel like typing.

 

please stop all this nay-saying Butterfly. we can stop shopping in the big box. i know a few people that have done it and i did too until Lowes and HomeDepot ran the last hardware store out of town. like TreehuggerT says do without. it's totally possible to learn how to make some of what you need too. never give in, never surrender!

what kind of candy causes your typing drive to wane?

 

All in all globalization fucking sucks. I work in IT and I'm scared to death for my job on a daily basis. The company that I work for has something called "Best Shore" practices. In other words, where ever the job can be done the cheapest. They try and get us to buy into this bs - it's sick how they promote it to us. Like we're supposed to get all excited about our jobs being shipped overseas.

You'll never kill walmart. Boycott them all you want and it won't do you any good. Because for every 1 who boycotts, 100,000 will shop there. Kinda like wanting in one hand and shitting in another and seeing which one fills up first. I quit going to the local quickie mart because the same lady that sells me cigs every day wouldn't sell them to me 3 hours after I had just bought some because my ID had expired within that time frame. I went in around 11 pm and she was working. Bought my smokes. Went back around 2am to buy more and she wouldnt' sell them to me. It was my fucking birthday for christ's sake. I called the store owner the next day and he told me that I could keep my money.

 

I can't kill WalMart. But I don't have to shop there.

Me and all my friends can't kill Walmart. But we don't have to shop there.

All the HipForumers combined can't kill Walmart.
But we can buy Local from someone who doesn't sue brain damaged employees for their medical expenses.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/25/walmart.insurance.battle/#cnnSTCText
"Shank suffered severe brain damage after a traffic accident nearly eight years ago that robbed her of much of her short-term memory and left her in a wheelchair and living in a nursing home.

It was the beginning of a series of battles -- both personal and legal -- that loomed for Shank and her family. One of their biggest was with Wal-Mart's health plan.

Eight years ago, Shank was stocking shelves for the retail giant and signed up for Wal-Mart's health and benefits plan.

Two years after the accident, Shank and her husband, Jim, were awarded about $1 million in a lawsuit against the trucking company involved in the crash. After legal fees were paid, $417,000 was placed in a trust to pay for Debbie Shank's long-term care.

Wal-Mart had paid out about $470,000 for Shank's medical expenses and later sued for the same amount. However, the court ruled it can only recoup what is left in the family's trust."

 

Maybe I can't kill Walmart and I'm sure they don't even notice that I'm boycotting them, but they are NOT going to build a store in my town, if I can help it. If you're looking for me this weekend, I'll be out in front of a grocery store collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to keep them out.

MikeE-I saw that story. Someone I work with has it posted on her wall. Really sickening. The depths of their greed is unfathomable. I don't know how some people can sleep at night.