I took time out from my quilting today to check the forum, and give my back a break!
When I saw this thread, it really perked my interest, because I have a problem with what Wal-mart is doing to this country. I decided to post, it is a subject that is near to my heart.
If you really want to know how W/M is hurting us, here are some very good books on the subject. When you get past all the advertising they do as being "family-friendly," you will be amazed at the damage they and their methods have done.
The first book I can recommend is this one, "Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega Retailers and the Fight for American's Independent Businesses" by Stacy Mitchell.
Here's a quote from the book.
"Between 1983, when Wal-Mart opened its first store in Iowa, and 1993, when the company had expanded to 45 superstores, Stone found that the state lost 555 grocery stores, 591 hardware and building-supply dealers, 161 variety stores, 88 department stores, 291 apparel stores, 153 shoe stores, 116 drugstores, 111 jewelry stores, and 94 lawn and garden stores."
-Mitchell, The Big Box Swindle
The second book I can recommend is "The Bully of Bentonville, How the High Cost of Wal-Mart's Everyday Low Prices is Hurting America" by Anthony Bianco.
If you think Wal-Mart has "sold out," the answer is no, they haven't. The children of Sam Walton have just put profit before principles. According to this second book, each one of the Walton children, individually, makes
$22,000 PER HOUR. Every hour, every day, every minute. One of the Walton children, Alice, lives near to where I live, on a big ranch.
In 1989, Alice struck and killed a pedestrian with her car, and she was convicted of drunk driving in 1998 after crashing her Toyota into a gas meter.
One of the sons, John Walton, was a hero, a former Green Beret who won the Silver Star in Vietnam, and he was the philanthropist. But he died in 2005 in a crash of an experimental aircraft, so his influence is no longer felt.
One more place to go to learn more about W/M is watching this video, for those of you who don't like to read, found here....
http://www.walmartmovie.com/
Or this website, where you can read tons of info....
http://walmartwatch.com/
I personally have not stepped foot in a W/M in over 2 years, and I will NEVER darken the door their again. And that includes Sam's Club. In your reading you will find that the Wal-Mart EMPLOYEES donate MILLIONS more in community money than THE ENTIRE CORPORATION. And these are the folks who work there who are paid a pittance.
My DH's nephew is the manager of one of the biggest W/M supercenters, and recently his store won some sort of prize for highest grocery sales. Who got the prize? Certainly not the workers there who made it all happen, but the nephew, who got a trip to DisneyWorld for a week for himself and his family.
I heartily believe that if we as a country do not take a stand against this bully, we are going to be reduced to minimum-wage jobs and no economy. And I think this is certainly what is happening to our economy now. According to this article....
http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?...rticle&id=1955 we are losing manufacturing jobs by the thousands every month, and have been since, oh, about the time W/M starting to really grow.
Now I am going to get off of my soapbox and shut up. Sorry to take up your time, but it is important.
I'm gonna go quilt now.....My blood pressure needs to go down.