Wal Mart - Growing Monopoly

[Admin]

Wal-Mart has been getting a lot of publicity in the business world.
Wal-Mart, always low price is expanding in different market and putting K-Mart and other competitors on their knees.

Today's frontpage of Los Angeles Times has an entire article regarding WalMart's expansion and how it affects everyone's life around the global.
Wal-Mart maintains an attractive price to its consumers because the company's distributor provides WalMart with large orders at a very low price. This is happy news for U.S. consumers while it means bad news for foreign workers. Most of the Wal-Mart supplies are made from foreign countries (mostly Asia).

Originally Posted by LA Times

"There is always an acceleration," said Reyes, 37, who can't lift a cooking pot or hold her infant daughter without the anti-inflammatory pills she gulps down every few hours. "The goals are always increasing, but the pay stays the same."

But what can they do. Everthing needs to work to provide a meal on their dinner table. And Wal-Mart is its biggest customer for foreign plants that employs 1,600 workers, mostly young women.




Also like to point out that getting low consumer projects can mean less job opportunities for the Americans. Since the labor fees are low at foreign countries, more U.S. companies are doing business with them. So more jobs available for foreign companies and fewer jobs available for the Americans. More unemployment.

[ak]

I NEVER knew that Walmart was such a big company.

I used to see it as a regular store with decent success.

On the good side: Walmart opens new stores in the US = More jobs (not a significant figure though)

[jack]

The GOOD thing about Wal-Mart is that as a corporation, they are dedicated to dealing with American companies and manufacturers as much as possible. The problem lies on the next tier, when the companies that manufacture products that Wal-Mart has been buying sends jobs overseas themselves. There just isn't as much manufacturing done in the United States period, not neccesarily that Wal-Mart is buyind foreign made products, because in most cases, the foreign manufcturers are owned by American companies.

On the whole, I appreciate that Wal-Mart tries its best, sometimes regardless of price, to push USA made products. Remember, this is a company from the grassroots of the south, where they will still look down on you for buying something made overseas. Wal-Mart gives companies who have an excellent product a steady stream of demand, especially when they negotiate exclusive deals, and can often help keep a manufacturer operating in the United States. It is just a shame when the manufacturer of that product is driven souly by capatalism, with no sense of nationalism, and sends manufacturing jobs overseas to save a few dollars, and make the company richer.

NOTE: Another thing that the supermarket workers HATE is that Wal-Mart does not hire Union members, which they of course are all apart of with this labor strike/lockout situation. I have never worked at Wal-Mart, but the people who I know have say that it is a more "close knit" type environment, that makes it more pleasant to work in.

[Tarak Chunsa]

Originally Posted by jack

The problem lies on the next tier, when the companies that manufacture products that Wal-Mart has been buying sends jobs overseas themselves. There just isn't as much manufacturing done in the United States period, not neccesarily that Wal-Mart is buyind foreign made products, because in most cases, the foreign manufcturers are owned by American companies.

Isn't that the huge problem? More and more companies are finding their distributors overseas and soon or later, Americans will be jobless.

[Admin]

I didn't even know Wal-Mart existed few years ago.
It wasn't a surprise to see K-Mart go downhill and bankrupt because of Wal-Mart.
K-Mart had a terrible selection of items and their goods did not target the vast consumers. More of low-end consumers.

Wal-Mart hit it big with great selections, location, and great price. Wonder how long Wal-Mart will be the number one consumer company.

[jack]

I'm just saying that it's not Wal-Mart's fault that the companies that they have been buying from for years ship their jobs overseas. I know that Wal-Mart always trys its best to buy American made products, and stock its store with pure made in the USA goods.

[orangecounty58]

did an analysis paper in EGR402 on walmart. 1 out of every 5 bucks made in groceries is made by walmart. biggest importer of chinese product. pay an average of 0.31 to employees in that country. and can go on and on. walmart is self sufficient and doesnt invest money into local markets. lots of pending law suits from sexual descrimination to illegal workers to noncompensated labor/forced labor. interesting company to research.

[JPWRana]

where do u research for that kind of stuff?!?!

[Puffguts]

"Isn't that the huge problem? More and more companies are finding their distributors overseas and soon or later, Americans will be jobless."

This is a very interesting topic. Even though I am some what affected by this situation since many computer firms are hiring overseas for cheaper paid programmers and system adminstrators, I can't blame the corporations nor the Capitalism, which is the driving force for this country.

What makes it ironic is some people's passion for capitalism and hatred toward a controlled economy collide at this moment. I've heard about people bashing other countries for having governments having great influence at the economy and how "un-capitalism" it is to have government control the corporations.

We Americans have always been proud of the government's relatively "hands off" approach toward the nation's economy sector. "This is what makes America the most competitve nation in the world!" Many have said. We have always been proud about how we as a nation does business without Uncle Sam looking over. "I dun wann'a hav' anythin' to do with Socialism non-sense." A man with a cowboy hat and a Southern accent pronounced when asked about the Socialist policies in Norway and Canada, namely the nationwide government subsidized and funded healthcare system and government regulated industry and economic sector.

Capitalism is all out to make the most proft with the lowest cost. Many Americans embraces this concept yet expect the naturally greedy corporate entities to "care" about the community it operates in, to "use more local goods, labor, and contractors." To the corporation, labor's national origin, IQ level, political stance, or location or residence doesn't mean a thing as long as the labor force does what its required for them to do, at the lowest cost possible.

Do we want Walmart to buy more U.S. made goods and sell them? Big Brother has to enforce Walmart to do just that. Walmart with its business sense will stick with the lower price imports as long as there is profit to be made. Employees will be drawn from the cheapest pool and trained from there.

It could be Monopoly, unfair business practice or others, but I really didn't expect Walmart to be the #1 ranking corporation of the fortune 500 businesses without being aggressive on cutting cost and overheads. Did you believe Walmart is there to make your life better? Did the smile face on Walmart's shopping bags have their desired effect on the consumers?

[Admin]

Market is all about cutting cost and profits, right?
Dell began to outsource their tech support to India and a cut down of american employees in the department. Sucks for the americans who lost their jobs in the IT department and now working at Starbucks or elsewhere. Outsourcing to India is more profit to Dell since cost in India is much cheaper for the corporation. However the downside is, recent Dell customers are complaining about Dell's horrible customer services. Customers are having difficult understanding what the tech (Indians) is saying due to their enunciation and pronounciation. The tech representative can be rude and even hanged up on the customer.

Everyone should know that you get what you pay. Paying a higher price means you will get a higher value in return. If you want a high customer service for a computer, you would look at IBM and Apple products. If you want to save few hundred dollars, you would look into Dell and receive the value that you put your money into.

The 21st century is a global business and not a one nation business. Most corporation survive thanks to businesses across sea.

Originally Posted by Puffguts

It could be Monopoly, unfair business practice or others, but I really didn't expect Walmart to be the #1 ranking corporation of the fortune 500 businesses without being aggressive on cutting cost and overheads. Did you believe Walmart is there to make your life better? Did the smile face on Walmart's shopping bags have their desired effect on the consumers?

[orangecounty58]

walmart is on top for a reason, being smart and USING resources to get what the need. resources include the elderly, the mentally challenged, foreign government, even our own governments. we are talking about a company who can create and change laws in the united states on a local and national level. imagine in other countries were the laws are not as strict. walmart can boom economies and these govts are giving walmart everything. they say the richer get richer, its true. waiving of taxes and developing land to suit walmarts needs at no cost, even when the govts can not afford to being doing so. nothing can be done until walmart takes over all aspects of the retail market, then the government can step in due to a created monopoly. until then not much one can do.

[Admin]

Incredible, more corporate companies are outsourcing to cut down on their expense. I just hope that 2004 will have a brighter economic compared to 2003, whether outsourcing will have a large effect or not.

But if you think about it, it all makes sense. If you were an employer and had an option of paying $50 to one employee and $15 to another, the answer is quite simple.

[Young Entrepreneur]

The idea of companies (more of corporation) are outsourcing IT technicians, coders, programmers, and much more is a scary thought. Think of all the jobless college graduates, especially from the CS, CIS and other computer related majors.
Survival of the fittest.