Redmart?

[Blackscare]

After watching an interesting documentary on Walmart (Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices), I came to some conclusions that the film makers may not have intended.


Whilst they were lamenting the awful practices that Walmart is known for and uses to drive out competition, I couldn't help but think that it is just the sort of capitalist monster that will help prepare the groundwork for socialist revolution and organization.



For one, there's the fairly obvious effect of proletarianization that it causes by driving out small businesses (thus destroying the middle class). This has been talked about so much, often by capitalists who are horrified by this but also by leftists, that I won't really go into it.


What REALLY interested me is the part of the documentary (link given below) that talks about how Walmart has transformed production.

Whereas previous "push" production centered on the idea of creating x amount of product and trying to sell it, Walmart, through the use of barcodes, tracks a massive amount of data concerning all of their given items, allowing them to efficiently determine what people want to buy, at what time of year/month/week/day, etc. All of the relevant information is collected in a highly centralized and streamlined manner. When an item is running low, a new shipment is ordered automatically. They then dictate to the producers how much of x product is made, even the price it is sold at. This the documentary calls "pull" production.


I'm sure this was done to a degree before in socialist settings, but I think this is an exemplary model for determining what to produce and how much, in a truly streamlined and modern way.


Capitalist walmart is of course based on the maximization of profit, but incidentally that also lays the groundwork for a system that is capable of providing people with all the products they need in one central location, guiding the entire system of production through the skillful interpretation of numbers.

In a socialist society we'll need to figure out what people want and need, and we'll be looking for the most efficient way to do so. While we spend plenty of time talking about improving the efficiency of production, we need to examine distribution as well.

Any thoughts? There's much more to it that I'll expand upon later, but I'm tired.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=walmart%20documentary&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wv#

[Q]

I fully agree. Capitalism creates its the embryos of a socialist planned economy. It does this by several mechanisms, but monopoly concentration and the need for planning are indeed important ones. All a socialist society has to do is to transcend this system onto the scale of the whole society.

The concept Walmart is using to plan and replenish its stock of products is called "Just in Time" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-in-time_%28business%29) and I consider it to be a vital cornerstone of a planned economy.

[NecroCommie]

This is an intresting manifestation of Marxist "prophesies".

Capitalism in its search for profit is forced to evolve more and more socialist features into its system. I think the next step propably is that all major companies start to enforce this "pull" economy, ultimately driving out of business the wasteful "push" economy. Through this more efficient exploitation of the proletariat, the bourgeoisie is actually helping the birth of class conciousness within the working ranks.

This new wave of efficient exploitation will furthermore polarize the income gaps, bringing more capital to those who have it, and taking it more efficiently from those who don't. When we add this to the effects of economic globalization, I think we stand on the brink of "another 19th century". Historically significant divide between the two classes.

[Omi]

Sounds reasonable.

Thanks for the link to this documentairy anyway, gonna give it a view later on. Sounds interesting.:)

[The Douche]

Whereas previous "push" production centered on the idea of creating x amount of product and trying to sell it, Walmart, through the use of barcodes, tracks a massive amount of data concerning all of their given items, allowing them to efficiently determine what people want to buy, at what time of year/month/week/day, etc. All of the relevant information is collected in a highly centralized and streamlined manner. When an item is running low, a new shipment is ordered automatically. They then dictate to the producers how much of x product is made, even the price it is sold at. This the documentary calls "pull" production.

If this strategy is used at all walmarts (to include the one across the street from me) then it has proven to be an utter failure. I don't see how this plan can actually be used at my walmart, I live in a college town, so the system should've been able to detect the spike in sales of snackfood and soda at the start of a college semester, and yet, every few months when I go to do my grocery shopping all the potato chips and sodas are gone, I mean, shelves completely empty.

Such a plan also means that workers won't be able to use their knowledge of trends noticed in the store to dictate what products should be ordered.

[Killfacer]

I work for walmart. All hail your consumer god!

[RedSonRising]

This is a really interesting concept, and reminds me of Allende's supercomputer plan to restructure the economy before the coup.

[Verix]

wait so does this mean that any actions against Wal-mart are counter-revolunary????
cause i have a friend whose stink bombed the meat section like 3 times....

[Jimmie Higgins]

Well, if there is a good thing about Wall-Mart it is that the potential to unionize there would make a huge impact in the balance of power for the union movement and the working class.

All the small capitalists that Wall-mart puts out of business (with 5 employees each or so) would be much harder to unionize and rally together, but Wall-mart certainly gives all those workers common cause and a common immediate exploiter to fight.

I think organizing retail workers now is as hard ,and will have a similar impact, as the unionization of industrial workers in the US in the 1930s. If I am right, Wall-Mart is the new Ford/GM put together and unionizing will take as much of a heroic effort as the sit-down strikes in the 1930s.

[Diagoras]

Such a plan also means that workers won't be able to use their knowledge of trends noticed in the store to dictate what products should be ordered.

No reason to think that a worker controlled setup could not adjust distribution plans for a perceived increase in demand, since product managers can adjust orders at the stores already (could just be an idiotic wal-mart you are near). Shortages could occur regardless.

[Q]

wait so does this mean that any actions against Wal-mart are counter-revolunary????
cause i have a friend whose stink bombed the meat section like 3 times....
You misunderstand. The capitalist exploitation is something that we of course must organise against. Its planning model however is a progressive feature.

[Blackscare]

Well, if there is a good thing about Wall-Mart it is that the potential to unionize there would make a huge impact in the balance of power for the union movement and the working class.

All the small capitalists that Wall-mart puts out of business (with 5 employees each or so) would be much harder to unionize and rally together, but Wall-mart certainly gives all those workers common cause and a common immediate exploiter to fight.

I think organizing retail workers now is as hard ,and will have a similar impact, as the unionization of industrial workers in the US in the 1930s. If I am right, Wall-Mart is the new Ford/GM put together and unionizing will take as much of a heroic effort as the sit-down strikes in the 1930s.



Yes that is an excellent point, it concentrated workers in one area that makes it possible for them to unionize. Conditions for retail are becoming closer to factory conditions (ok, not type of work but the way it's run).

What is Walmart but a retail factory?

[Jimmie Higgins]

What is Walmart but a retail factory?Right on the money. I think it's the single largest employer in the US and that's not including all the trucking and shipping to WalMarts.

A large-scale strike by Walmart workers - truck drivers and dockworkers could be convinced to not cross the picket line and stop the deliveries there... hmm sounds like the seeds of a General Strike in the US!:)

[LOLseph Stalin]

wait so does this mean that any actions against Wal-mart are counter-revolunary????


I wouldn't say so. They're Anti-Union Reactionaries. They're willing to close down stores if their workers want to Unionize. That happened here in Canada before and even in my friend's very own place of employment they refuse to hire more people. My friend works at a department store that is seriously under-staffed yet they won't hire more employees because that's more money they have to pay out. One word: Greed.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I wouldn't say so. They're Anti-Union Reactionaries. They're willing to close down stores if their workers want to Unionize. That happened here in Canada before and even in my friend's very own place of employment they refuse to hire more people. My friend works at a department store that is seriously under-staffed yet they won't hire more employees because that's more money they have to pay out. One word: Greed.

Yeah, they are really terrible in the Robber-Barron type anti-worker anti-union craziness. They're on a Mr. Burns level. They systematically used implied threats of firing to get their workers to put in unpaid overtime.

You'd think their anti-union prop would be slicker:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-w1nqzYTS4&feature=related

I'm one of the reasons that unions are getting smaller... because I hafta work at Walmart:(

[PRC-UTE]

Great opening post and excellent topic. I think it's accurate to say that Wal Mart is accomplishing some tasks that will make socialism easier- by creating a distribution network that is multinational.

I think the data in the OP shows one of the biggest flaws with the Soviet Union that is not mentioned enough. simply that it lacked the technology needed to plan a modern economy. if only they'd had those computers then.

[LOLseph Stalin]

I'm one of the reasons that unions are getting smarter... because I hafta work at Walmarthttp://www.revleft.com/vb/redmarti-p1456824/revleft/smilies/sad.gif

That's terrible. I feel for you. :( You guys don't get any kind of employee benefits there do you?

[Jimmie Higgins]

That's terrible. I feel for you. :( You guys don't get any kind of employee benefits there do you?

Oops, no I don't work at walmart... I totally effed that up, it was a quote from the walmart video: "I'm one of the reasons that unions are getting smaller"

Then I added... "because I haafta work at walmart" :(