Wal mart

[kidicarus20]

http://www.indyweek.com/durham/2002-05-08/news.html

Have you all seen this yet? Great story on wal-mart. How they treat their workers (paying them lower than the chinese minimum wage), how they conduct their ruthless competition, what they have done to communities, customers, workers, is all covered. Great article by progressive Jim Hightower.

[Fires of History]

Thanks KidIcarus20,

The article stated, "By slashing its retail prices way below cost when it enters a community, Wal-Mart can crush our groceries, pharmacies, hardware stores, and other retailers, then raise its prices once it has monopoly control over the market."

And they couldn't be more right, I have seen this happen myself. In Georgia, there is a little town by the name of Lawrenceville, great little place, for the South anyway. When the local developers started to build a Wal*Fart, the controversy began immediately. The protest was small but loud, however since most people think Wal*Fart is God's greatest shopping gift to the world, nothing was stopped. The wiser folks in town knew exactly where this would lead- the forced death of virtually every small business in town.

And they were right.

And what did we see? We saw Wal*Fart open, but they weren't actually open for business even though they opened their doors. You see, when a new Wal*Fart opens, they intentionally drop their prices, sometimes even below cost. Over time, I saw this kind of empire building suck Lawrenceville dry as one by one small businesses couldn't compete (and from those I keep in contact with, the drain is still continuing). With most small businesses in their graves, Wal*Fart was then free to export all the profit away from the local economy.

And what Lawrenceville didn't know was that when Wal*Fart felt comfortable in their new territory, they jacked their prices back up. But it was too late to go back at that point. And the Waltons are laughing all the way to the bank.

So, in exchange for generations-old small businesses serving the local economy, people there now have the cheap wares and absurdly bad customer service of Wal*Fart- not to mention how the town traded in their say over their own business affairs for dictates handed down from Arkansas.

Boycott Wal*Fart! Don't send the Waltons any more of your money!