Thursday, August 04, 2005

Thinking About Wal-Mart, Pt. 2

A professional "consultant" visited this site promoting her book on Wal-Mart culture and defending Wal-Mart as a paragon of family values and an asset to community in America. Her excuse for the current problems faced by Wal-Mart is that its just a few bad executives who have distorted tha Wal-Mart vision of Sam Walton.

So I revisited my posts that mentioned Wal-Mart in an attempt to understand why she would bother leaving her blurb here... lots of reasons it seems.

On Feminism

Rebecca Solnit: The Silence of Lambswool Cardigan

Robert Greenwald: The High Cost of Low Price

The Trouble with Wal-Mart: Interview with Liza Featherstone

Naomi Klein: The Tyranny of Brands

Wal Mart Brings Inequality and Low Prices to the World

Colorado Wal-Mart Makes Effort to Unionize

Josh Harkinson: Profits of Place

Think About Where Your Money Goes

Eric Schlosser: The Fine Art of Muckraking

After Searching, Reading, Laughing, Crying and Pissing Themselves, Wal-Mart Executives Finally Find a Reason to Ban Jon Stewarts New Book

Wal-Mart Promotes Parking Lot Living

Wal-Mart Faces Class Action Suit in Gender Discrimination Case

Wal-Mart Vs. Organized Labor, Church Groups, and Community Organizations

It Makes You Wonder How Much is Enough

Walmart: Paragon of Freedom and Justice

Why the California Grocery Strike is Important

3 comments:

Susannity said...

lots of good stuff

My family was driving by a Walmart a few weeks ago and we saw signs on the edge of the parking lot talking about camping rules. Had no idea what it was about but now I do thanks to one of your posts.

Costco is taking a lot of heat up here (I live right by its corp HQ) for paying its employees so well and giving them good bennies, and that it is not treating their shareholders as good as it could be (aka slash pay so they can make more money). I wonder if Walmart isn't putting some indirect pressure on that so their poor pay, etc doesn't look so obviously sucky. I'm glad Costco is currently sticking to their pay structure. To the gripers, is a few more cents in dividends or stock value really worth plunging 100,000 people/families into poverty?
btw I am an avid Costco shopper and haven't set foot in a Walmart in years. I'd hate to boycott Costco, but would do it if they started shafting their employees too.

The Continental Op said...

Funny how Wal*Mart can't afford to pay living wages, but they have plenty of money to hire "consultants" to poke around the internet looking for critical comments about the company! I guess I should feel insulted that I've not heard from this shill. Perhaps I need to ramp up my own anti-W*M postings!

The Continental Op said...

P.S. I'm another Costco fan. The first time I went in there, it was sort of freightening. But now I see it as a sort of adventure -- you never know what you'll find!