USMCFLYR

And neither do you when you shop around for the cheapest......fill in the blank. It is called consumerism and you know you do the same thing on a daily basis probably and don't give a second thought to any consequences for any other industry/service/etc... that isn't YOUR industry. It isn't the passengers fault the ticket prices aren't high enough. Last I checked - airlines were racking up some profits are they not?
Plane Travel: Airline Profits To Hit Record High | TIME.com

Yeah...it is the passengers fault

dogpilot

I always think about my purchases and try to know a little about where I shop and support. Walmart nation is a problem mentality and we eat it up. Walmart sucks.

USMCFLYR

That is a good attitude - but rarely used I'd wager.
I recently got an email with a link to a YouTube video that was along the same lines about buying American made products basically.
If there are 3 gas stations on the corner and they all have three different prices - who would most chose - especially if you are this starving regional pilot we hear about who is living in their parent's basement and eating Raman?
How about the same two pizza places where the same $10 pizza is over a $1 more expensive due to different city taxes and both are on the way home from work?
Consumers shop. It isn't up to the consumer to fix pricing. If you're going to be mad at pricing - look inward at your own companies/industry.

Sum Ting Wong

If you understand global trade you would know that what's good for Wal-Mart is also good for the US. Wal-Mart is a retailer, not a manufacturer. It provides hundreds of thousands jobs for otherwise low- or no-income households, and sells good quality products at prices people can afford. The fact that they come from China means nothing more than if they had come from Mississippi.

If you expect to create more jobs in America, you'd better focus your attention on manufacturers, making them competitive with Chinese. In the meantime, thanks to Wal-Mart we have a lot more jobs here at home.

Why is that so difficult to understand?

Nantonaku

Costco and Trader Joe's provide good quality retail jobs, Walmart not so much. So if there wasn't a Walmart you think people wouldn't shop? And these part time/no benefit jobs would just disappear? That makes no sense at all. Someone would still sell the goods and there is a chance it would be a quality retailer who provides better jobs than Walmart.

Sum Ting Wong

Except those who enjoy employer contributed health insurance, weekends, the 40 hour work week, a living wage, etc.
But keep trying ..

WalMart is the best friend the poor and unskilled person in this country has. Why do you think its parking lots are so crowded all the time?

JamesNoBrakes

Wow, this is over-the-top naive.

Walmart IS capitalism, but consider a few things:

I'm not sure if you've ever shopped at walmart, but most of what they have is *4 letter word*. They do crazy things like have the manufacturers make the plastic rubbermaid waste baskets thinner than you'd get at home depot. They strong-arm their suppliers to cut the cost to the point where it is not a "quality" product as you claim, it's nowhere near that. Plenty of american manufacturers hold out and refuse to make something they know is going to just fail in a week, but the entire purpose of walmart is to find someone that will, and sell the product. Then there's the issue of selection, which blows my mind. Due to work, I have to go back to the midwest where sometimes there's no alternative but to get some groceries in walmart (they drove out the other supermarkets or they never existed ). With a store that big, you'd think you'd find all kinds of stuff, from cheap to expensive, with selection that's "off the wall", but it's the opposite, they don't carry anywhere near the selection of a normal supermarket, they just put more of the same crap on the shelves in bigger boxes. It's been frustrating trying to find a certain sauce, spice, or whatever due to this.

You can pretend that walmart puts out "good quality stuff", but that's about as naive as it gets. Sure, "more jobs", but these jobs are subsidized partly by the government by requiring people to go on food stamps (walmart helps their employees do this). Is "more jobs" better than "good jobs"? Luckily we got plenty of regional airline jobs out there that provide "jobs"....except it seems those pilots are starting to get fed up with "just having a job" of indentured servitude.

Nantonaku

I'm not sure what you are implying -- that Walmart has low prices? And that is good for the poor? Prices at Costco are lower per unit, the grocery store next door to my Walmart always beats Walmart's prices and their employees are treated much better. People think they are getting a good deal at Walmart, most of the time they aren't. How is that being the best friend of the poor? Trying to argue that Walmart is good for America is ridiculous.

warhawk

He never said they put out good quality stuff. He only made the absolutely correct observation that Walmart provides the cheap China junk on the shelf that the majority of cost obsessive, short sighted American consumers clamor for.

Sum Ting Wong

It depends on the product. I was looking for sleeping bags the other day and noticed that the name brand, Coleman, was made in China while the “cheap”, and certainly less expensive, Ozark Trail (the Wal-Mart store brand) was made in the USA.
WalMart makes a variety of goods available to people of modest means that would not otherwise be available to them. That is a tangible and indisputable benefit.

Nobody at Wal-Mart makes minimum wage, its always higher then minimum (ok, sometimes not by much).

People shop there (just like they do with the airlines in purchasing tickets) because they have made the value judgement that a great price on a flat screen or a package of tube socks is worth it. You cannot blame Walmart for this. You blame the shoppers.