Walmart movie showing friday

Jim Hufnagel · Senior Member

Walmart movie showing friday

RattyJenn · Senior Member

Thank you for reminding me of that! I got tix through MoveOn.org and woulda totally forgot...

Are you going?

Nitrogen_Widget · Senior Member

It's no secret sam walton was one of the richest men in the world. His kids arn't that far behind. It's no secret how they got that way either.

$12.95 for the walmart movie DVD? I can buy a dvd of a real movie for less at walmart.

Date: Thu Nov 17 6:58 AM, 2005

Nitrogen_Widget wrote:

It's no secret sam walton was one of the richest men in the world. His kids arn't that far behind. It's no secret how they got that way either. $12.95 for the walmart movie DVD? I can buy a dvd of a real movie for less at walmart.

It's ok go buy some dvd's there,buy some food,buy some gas,buy your toy's there.Remember it is a china run company now.Gone are the day's of Sam.Pretty soon you will be able to buy a car there,Maybe a GM car.I wonder where the jobs went to?

You know if you work for wal mart,maybe you will get a raise,a bowl of rice.

Remember do not complain that you have no main street in niagara falls.You have wal mart.It's the new main street.Be happy you are now owned by china.You will not even have to worry about who runs our gov.We are run by china.Big Yellow Smiley face!

Mindcrime · Guru

You're close, if you work for Wal-Mart, the bowl of rice is your wage. To get a raise means you've earned a drop of honey for your rice...

Nitrogen_Widget · Senior Member

Anonymous wrote:

It's ok go buy some dvd's there,buy some food,buy some gas,buy your toy's there.Remember it is a china run company now.Gone are the day's of Sam.Pretty soon you will be able to buy a car there,Maybe a GM car.I wonder where the jobs went to? You know if you work for wal mart,maybe you will get a raise,a bowl of rice. Remember do not complain that you have no main street in niagara falls.You have wal mart.It's the new main street.Be happy you are now owned by china.You will not even have to worry about who runs our gov.We are run by china.Big Yellow Smiley face!

If Wal-Mart can manage to buy a bank like they have tried in the past, you might see them sell cars, but I doubt this will happen in our lifetime. If people don't like their wage at Wal-Mart go work elsewhere. If there is nowhere else too work then they should be thankful they can work at Wal-Mart. How much do you think K-mart & sears (now the same company) pay their employees? What about Wegman’s? What about any department store anywhere? I don't hear people up in arms about them. Does Wal-Mart eliminate that many high paying jobs when it knocks out its competition? Not really. K-mart wasn’t paying $10 /hr before Wal-Mart came to Lockport. Why? Because it doesn’t take a college degree to stock shelves or run a register.

The greatest denomination of people complaining about Wal-Mart are union people & it is just killing them see that a company so large doesn’t have a union. All that un-tapped union dues potential & they can’t have it.

I can’t remember the last time I was even in Niagara Falls. I have no desire to go there. I have no reason to go there. If it fell off the face of the earth I wouldn’t miss it.

So you can skip the sermon that elludes to how evil Wal-Mart will bring about the economic decline of Niagara Falls.

Date: Thu Nov 17 11:48 AM, 2005

The point is not there pay,it is how they do biz!Go watch the movie.

See what they did to the rubber maid company.

See why they tell their other vendors,like hanes,to open up in china.

See spot run to china ,See us have no jobs,because china has them all.

China turns out 390,000 engineer's a year.How many do we?

Where am I going with this ,got me

Nitrogen_Widget · Senior Member

I don’t want to watch the movie.

I didn’t want to watch the Bush movie either.

Why? Because they both look like one-sided smear campaigns designed to incite anger in people & insult a person’s intelligence. Their like war-time propaganda films as far as I’m concerned.

Take a close look at China's economy. Until recently they purposefully kept their exchange rate low to entice manufacturers to build factories in their countries. That changed in July. With average wages rising at 7% per yr & possibly more Wal-mart will soon find itself in a situation where it won't be so cheap to be in China. It may not happen in our lifetime, but I’m sure they won’t be able to destroy our society before it happens.

Date: Thu Nov 17 5:49 PM, 2005

I am going to Walmart right now and spend my usual $100-$150 a week..I love it there and I don't give a hoot where the goods came from or who got run out of business, I only care about the money I spend,it's my money and the more that stays in my pocket the better.

Date: Thu Nov 17 6:08 PM, 2005

Anonymous wrote:

I am going to Walmart right now and spend my usual $100-$150 a week..I love it there and I don't give a hoot where the goods came from or who got run out of business, I only care about the money I spend,it's my money and the more that stays in my pocket the better.

Maybe you can join the china army then,cause you pay for it.hope you work for delpi,or ibm,or maybe you are a cashier who can be replaced by a scanner.have fun.

Mindcrime · Guru

Well what is the alternative? Whether you leave Lockport to shop at one of the few remaining comepetitors, like Target or K-Mart, or you go to the "bustling Main Street Business District" and do your shopping there. Either way, you will pay a lot more, either in higher prices, more gasoline, or both. For many, Wal-Mart is the most logical choice. And that's what sucks. If you've ever eaten at a Chinese restauarant, then you're as much to blame.

Bob Confer · Member

As a manufacturer and amateur economist, I used to strongly despise Wal-Mart but now am starting to somewhat appreciate it’s impact. There are good points and bad points with the whole system created by big box stores and the good (as you’ll see in my last paragraph) outweighs the bad.

All in all this is a changing global economy. People resent it because it does not fit what we’ve become accustomed to about the American money machine since it hit the big time in the late 1880’s. Rather than “our little nation” as it has been, it’s now every nation as one gigantic market. The US economy is still growing at nearly a 4% annualized clip. China’s middle class is growing as well. Soon, they will be making products for themselves more so than the global market. Remember the fear over Japan’s manufacturing movement decades ago? It’s an afterthought now…Japan became a peer and not our killer. China will fall into the same category someday soon.

Sure Wal-Mart has shut down some manufacturers and gone outsourcing to China, but American ingenuity will persevere and has (locally and at a greater extent out of NY’s borders). Any businessman will adjust if he’s entrepreneurial. If you look at manufacturing firms outside of NY, high-tech manufacturing reigns supreme. China is great for trinkets, but they will never match us in high-tech and large part manufacturing. And, looking into the crystal ball, China will be unable to meet its own demand for low-cost items, so they will be unable to feed us such goods in the future and we will manufacture said goods once again. Even then, our labor pool will not be big enough to support that (a good problem to have, eh?).

Remember this: Consumerism and Materialism define American culture. Wal-Mart is only catering to the needs of the market. By offering anything and everything at low prices, they are doing our economy, OUR SOCIETY, a favor and allowing lower-middle-class and poorer people to participate in the economy and gain a higher standard of living by having things they previously could not before.

Dammit, it feels good to see those families and blue-collar breadwinners live well!

Scott Leffler · Guru

My biggest problem with the "anti-Walmart" politicrats (not the workaday folk) is that they could help by reducing taxes and regulations, but it's easier for them to whine about WalMart's "unfair" practices. WalMart has the power they have because AMERICAN companies gave it to them. Don't forget, those CHINESE goods they are buying ... most of them are from American companies. It's the stockholders greed and need for increasingly high profit margins that forces those companies overseas ... not WalMart. WalMart cannot dictate terms. If a company doesn't like WalMart's terms, they don't have to do business with them. But their greed pushes them to cut their costs. It's greed. Plain and simple.

RattyJenn · Senior Member

I am at sort of an impasse as to how I feel about WalMart...I mean, yes, I shop there, (often) but I really do believe if there was an alternative here, I would gladly support it over WalMart, just because, well, frankly, I am sick of Walmart goods. I have also noticed that yes, Walmart is cheaper on many "center aisle" merchandise, but when it comes to sort of more obscure stuff, Target and even Tops (!) often has the same or comparable products for cheaper. A case in point would be allergy medication, ie Benadryl, Claritin, etc...Target is alot cheaper on stuff like that.

I think I may be suffering some sort of Walmart fatigue, because I used to like shopping there and now I am just like, get in, get out, go home...the thrill is just gone for me. I wonder if eventually the bottom will fall out, and the general public will get sick of the same old stuff and become exhausted of Walmart.

However, one thing about Walmart that truly IS head and shoulders above any other retailer is their pharmacy. It is WAAAAY cheaper. I don't have health insurance, so have to pay out of pocket for perscriptions, which are insanely expensive. I bet I save twenty bucks a month using their pharmacy!

So, I would like to just go to the movie with an open mind, and try to be objective.

Date: Fri Nov 18 3:07 PM, 2005

Go it is worth the wisdom!

jspeer · Guru

When Lockport gives me some choices then I won't go to Walmart...as much. You goto the smaller shops in the city and most all of their clothing and toys are from other countries too.

Date: Fri Nov 18 3:40 PM, 2005

Police: Wal-Mart site raided
About 125 arrested on immigration violations at Pennsylvania construction location.
November 18, 2005: 1:37 PM EST

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - A raid by federal, state and local authorities at a Wal-Mart Stores construction site in Pennsylvania netted about 125 arrests for alleged immigration violations.

Schuylkill County Capt. Dennis Kane confirmed the raid to CNN. USA Today reported that the workers were working on a million-square-foot distribution center in eastern Pennsylvania.

Kane said immigrants who were arrested were taken to nearby Philadelphia. The county police worked in conjunction with Pennsylvania state police and federal immigration agents, he said.

Wal-Mart (Research) officials told the newspaper those arrested were employees of a subcontractor and that the nation's largest retailer has contracts with subcontractors requiring that they follow all federal, state and local laws.

"It is our understanding that the individuals taken into custody at the Pottsville distribution center construction site were employees of subcontractors and not Wal-Mart associates," Wal-Mart said in a statement emailed to CNNMoney.com.

"Consistent with our corporate practice, we have written contracts with these subcontractors requiring that they follow all applicable local, state and federal employment laws. We will cooperate fully with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. attorney's office in this matter," the statement said.

But this is not the first time that Wal-Mart has been tarnished by a raid that found illegal immigrants working for its contractors. Two years ago raids at 61 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states resulted in the arrests of about 250 illegal immigrants working on cleaning crews.

USA Today reported Friday that a federal agency affidavit unsealed this month says two Wal-Mart executives knew about the practice of hiring illegal immigrants by the cleaning contractor. Wal-Mart has denied that executives knew about the workers, the newspaper said.

A critic of Wal-Mart said that this latest raid will be another blow to the bad public relations the company has been suffering from lately.

"They're trying to improve their public image ... but they're undermining their own attempts," Paul Blank, campaign director of Washington, D.C.-based WakeUpWalMart.com, told the paper. "There's clearly a pattern where they're violating the law."

The group is a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which would like to represent workers at non-union Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private sector employer.

The company is the target of "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," a new documentary film that is harshly critical of its employment practices and its impact on the U.S. economy.

Wal-Mart stock edged lower in afternoon New York Stock Exchange trading.

For more details on the 2003 raids that arrested illegal immigrants at Wal-Mart stores

Date: Fri Nov 18 10:00 PM, 2005

JB, Can you learn to just cut and paste a link???

RattyJenn · Senior Member

I went, I saw, and I don't know if I will ever go to WalMart again...People (mostly women) in sweatshops in China and Thailand are making 18 cents an hour, and if that doesn't make you upset, (it costs these workers 42 cents to produce a finished product, and it sells in our stores for $14.96)you have been desensitized. I have, I admit it. But it is easy to instantly develop an immense sense of empathy towards the vitims of WM's route after seeing this film. I am not a fan of the NRA or George Bush, or hunting, but when I saw how WalMart basically ran a family hardware store out of a small town, even though I did not agree with these particular values, it brought tears to my eyes. They hunted, they were republicans, and they were generally very "American Values" ie, go to church, Lee Greenwood, Toby Keith, buy American types. ANd guess what? They were put out of business by Wal Mart, and Walmart alone. And this was certainly not an isolated incident. There are hundreds of examples. Not only that, but Walmart is so anti union, that if ther is even an inkling of unrest, which may propel pro-union discussion, executive Union busters are brought in from Fayetteville. People have been murdered in the parking lots of Walmarts, and the only surveilliance they had was inside the store to monitor any possible unionization talks among employees, and theft of merchandise. As one employee stated in the film, as soon as they have your money, they don't really care what happens to you.

I have more, like actual statistics, which I will post here tomorrow. But it is late. This was just my little synopsis in a nutshell. It was worth seeing. I took it with a grain of salt, went there objectively,and it convinced me. Does taht make me a giant hypocrite?

Goodnight.

Scott Leffler · Guru

RattyJenn wrote:

I took it with a grain of salt, went there objectively,and it convinced me. Does taht make me a giant hypocrite?

Changing positions based on new information makes you neither a hypocrite nor a flip flopper. It makes a real live human being.

Now you need to go see a pro-Walmart movie to balance it out, though.

Thanks for the synopsis, RJ. I do appreciate it.

Date: Sat Nov 19 8:05 AM, 2005

Scott is right you need to see the pro wal mart movie,But also the first movie made about wal mart.That one tells how they dictate to their vendors the price they will sell to wal mart for.Old world was the vendors gave their price.Now wal mart makes the price.Or you are out.

The great thing is they are showing these movies at all schools!Maybe the young will change us all.

Mindcrime · Guru

I've seen a lot of pro-walmart short films. They show them on those little monitors all over the store...

I'm really indifferent to wal-mart, I shop there, but not exclusively. I now live near a SuperWalmart, and the prices are not that different from a grocery store. Some things I buy there. Others I won't, it's that simple. Of course, we still have other stores in our town.

Scott Leffler · Guru

I was actually being facetious about the pro-walmart movie bit.

as for the comment about walmart dictating prices - it takes two to tango. you try going to walmart and telling them what you'll pay for an item. unless they're willing to sell it for that, you're not getting it. SO those companies that were "told" what the price was ... they DECIDED to sell it for that cause they were GREEDY. Just like Walmart. It's capitalism, people. Its run on greed. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you will understand the world.

RattyJenn · Senior Member

Oops, I said Fayetteville, I meant Bentonville. I don't know what I was thinking of. Anyways, I have already had my first ProWalMart anti Walmart debate with someone, my own mother! She said "Well Walmart was the first prescence in the Gulf Coast after the hurricane..." I heard that the Canadains were the first to respond, but I guess WalMart stole all the glory. Anyways, I know that we as Capitalists operate primarily the greedy principals, but, (and maybe I am being idealistic) is that the knid of country we want? I mean do we really want vacant downtowns and city centers? I mean I used to love to shop at Jubilee because I didn't have to fight with hoardes of cars on Transit Road. I just think that the small town feeling is more or less sucked out of a lot of communities when WalMart comes to town, and then they sell themselves as "Community Oriented." So, really, they are selling a bill of goods, and we are buying, so, eventually, when their is no Walmart alternative, we will be to blame as much as they are.

One point that the film made was that when Walmart wants to come into a town, they are courted with all sorts of incentives, and tax breaks, and when the small business man, who has paid his taxes to the town, created his life there, comes to the town to present his case, he is usually told that they have no help for him. That really didn't seem fair to me.

So, I don't really think WalMart is pure evil as the film presented it as, but I do think they tend to be rather parasitic.

!

Date: Sat Nov 19 11:36 AM, 2005

Scott Leffler wrote:

I was actually being facetious about the pro-walmart movie bit. as for the comment about walmart dictating prices - it takes two to tango. you try going to walmart and telling them what you'll pay for an item. unless they're willing to sell it for that, you're not getting it. SO those companies that were "told" what the price was ... they DECIDED to sell it for that cause they were GREEDY. Just like Walmart. It's capitalism, people. Its run on greed. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you will understand the world.

Did you see both movies?If you did you saw what happened to rubbermaid when they to go

higher on the prices.