Originally posted by: Modelworks
Originally posted by: Amused
Show me a Walmart that raised its prices (beyond the rate of inflation) after the competition failed to compete and closed.
Hasn't happened.
They do it by lowering the quality of the brand. You cannot sell quality year after year and not raise prices.
Walmart sells the SAME brands of household goods as any other store. The percentage of products made in China at a Walmart is no more than any other discount store. What an absurd reason to pay more for the same damn stuff.
Walmart is the biggest retailer of goods made outside the USA. So I choose to support USA companies as much as I can. And yes that may mean paying more. The attitude of "an absurd reason to pay more for the same damn stuff" is the reason why many USA companies went under. People putting price over loyalty.
Fact: Walmart's business plan has enabled it to sell THE SAME GOODS to people at much lower prices. This brings a HIGHER QUALITY OF LIFE to the poorest among us. Capitalism is about competition. FREE trade, not fair trade. You do not cut the legs off all the football players so that the legless player can compete. Just as you do not limit Walmart's growth and perfectly LEGAL business practices just so small business owners with 100 year old business models can compete.
Some goods it does sell lower, and that does help some people. The problem is it is not fair trade when walmart uses its weight to push out the competition among manufacturers. Which it has done since Sam Walton died.
Would you rather cut your shopping bill by a third and have sh!tty service, or pay a third more and have personalized service? If you choose the later, you have the LUXURY of doing so. But what of the single mother of 4 who scrubs toilets for a living? I guess she's just supposed to do without because you think she deserves better service over a higher standard of living, right?
What makes you think it cost a third more for personalized service ? That single mother of four, does just fine here without walmart. You are talking like walmart is a public service to the poor. They are not. They take away far more jobs than they create and lower the quality of the merchandise available. What good is a product at walmart if I buy it then have to buy it again within a month because it broke ? If you are living paycheck to paycheck that works out to making monthly payments to walmart.
1. Huh? They sell SOME lower quality goods at LOWER prices and that helps lower income people.
I see you cannot provide an example of Walmart moving into an area and raising prices after some or all of the competition close. Good try at clouding your original bullsh!t with all new bullsh!t, though.
2. "Biggest retailer of goods made outside the USA." Now THERE is a stat just MADE to inflame the hearts and minds of the non-thinking knee-jerkers. Of COURSE they are the "Biggest retailer of goods made outside the USA" For the VERY SIMPLE fact that they are the BIGGEST RETAILER PERIOD.
Now pay close attention here and try not to hurt yourself: The TRUE stat that will tell us if Walmart is really the evil traitor everyone makes it out to be is this: What percentage of the over all goods they sell is foreign made? Then compare that to the same stats from other discount big box stores AND the smaller stores. OOPS!!! Wait!! You mean other stores sell roughly the same percentage of imported goods as Walmart??? OMG!!!
3. "Fair trade" is a myth. I see that now you're not even reading before you respond. Fair trade simply means disabling the successful so the unsuccessful can compete. How is that "fair" to the successful? FREE trade is the key to a healthy economy and giving the consumer what they really want. "Fair trade" is just jargon for the liberal elitists to micro manage the market and punish the most competitive and thus most successful.
Life isn't fair and neither should trade be fair. It should be free. It cannot be free if you cripple the most successful to give the uncompetitive a leg up and call it "fair."
4. Wait... first you whine that Walmart drives the competition out by offering lower prices, then you deny that the other stores have higher prices. Make up your fscking mind already.
That single mother of four does BETTER when she can not only save considerable money on the very same household goods and foods she bought for considerably more at the uncompetitive mom-and pop stores... but can also buy items she could never afford before that may be lower quality, but are finally affordable to her for the first time. Also, give me valid proof that the lower quality products last only a "month." Or even a short enough time that they are not economically viable choices for those with lower income.
That $119 mower (the cheapest powered mower Walmart sells now) will give her a higher quality of life and she will not be forced to go beg or buy your damn leavings at a yard sale. It also comes with a 2 year warranty. So give me proof that Walmart's low priced lawn mowers break down with such frequency that they need to be replaced in a "month" or even in half the time a mower priced twice as much.
At least now she can HAVE A MOWER. She can buy that TV. She can have a microwave. Why? Because Walmart sells cheaper made and thus cheaper priced quality of life products that she can afford.
People used to think like you when manufacturers started making appliances cheaper with a shorter lifespan so the middle and lower classes could afford them. You see, they USED to make ALL refrigerators, washers and vacuums like tanks that would last decades until they realized that they were pricing the products so high, the cost was far too much of the average person's income to afford. People like you back then bitched and moaned that they were selling "cheap crap" and didn't care that these products were FINALLY available to the masses. Your exact attitude back in the 50s and 60s when the change happened and hard goods became cheaper built and easier to afford: The masses were doing just fine without refrigeration, washing machines, vacuums and mowers, dammit!!! Just change "masses" to poor and we have you.
You STILL have access to higher end goods. Why the fsck do you care if Walmart makes cheaper built and easier to afford quality of life goods available to the poorest among us???
Now, I know elitists like yourself say "she's doing just fine without saving money and getting items she never could afford before." But when you really think about it, just who the fsck are you to judge how she's doing? Who the fsck are you to dictate what store she may shop at simply by zoning them out??? And who the fsck are you to give her a LOWER quality of life by forcing her to spend more for the same damn goods simply because you hate Walmart for it's successful business model?
Finally, why do I say a third? Recently, an everyday item I buy at County Market grocery store, Walgreens and CVS was $3 and change at all these places. It was a full dollar cheaper when I saw it at Walmart. This was no sale, it was the everyday price. It's the same with many everyday items that are EXACTLY the same products. The latest happened to be Glade oil candle refills.
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