Spinaroonie
LOOK WHAT I FOUND!
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2000
- Posts
- 17,721
From the Epitaph newsletter, Last week and today:
THE PUNK ROCK EDITORIAL
Now, this is a new slant on this thing...kind of. It's a socioeconomic commentary on "big businesses" that is written by a person with a first-hand account. We (Epitaph) and I (Mike Oxsmall, Epitaph Web Monkey) have no particular contempt, hatred, dislike and/or scorn for the said companies in this particular editorial. This is his opinion and we are just providing a forum for discussion. I say this because I don't want people getting all pissed and saying we are "Walmart" haters and bullshit like that. Okay, now on with it!
I'm sick of the "what's punk" editorials. Here's something new.
There I was, just down the road from the Super Walmart, across the street from Home Deopt and Petsmart, next to Shopko and Staples, staring at asign. Its red, white and blue letters brought tears to my eyes, and as I read I fell to my knees and praised
God for finding us humble Loganites worthy of such a sacred message: "COMING SOON SAM'S CLUB." That's right folks, the Jesus of discount stores is coming to Logan. And make no mistake, "It's a Big Deal!" Cheap prices and plenty of parking, must be the American dream! Not to mention all those deals on disposable plastic crap you don't really need. But before you start polishing up those credit cards, before you succumb to the temptations of the biggest of big box stores, take another look at the Wallyworld empire.
According to the standards of capitalism, Walmart (who owns Sam's Club, duh) is the ultimate example of a good thing. It has almost a million employees, making it the largest private employer in the country. The company owns 3,500 stores on 4 continents, and a new one opens every 2 days. It netted profits last year of 4 billion dollars, and is well on the way to becoming the first company to gross 400 billion in a single year.
Big profits, but at what cost? The pattern is well established: Wally builds a gigantic cinder block warehouse at the edge of town and sells most everything imaginable at a discount. Soon the masses are driving in from miles around, taking advantage of the convenient one-stop shopping and avoiding the downtown businesses completely. The locally owned shops just con't compete with Wally's low prices, especially when business has dropped so much. One by one they go out of business, and Main Street U.S.A. becomes a ghetto of empty store fronts and "for rent" signs.
A study in Iowa revealed that after 5 years of Walmart, the state lost 25 percent of its local businesses. 10 years after Wally entered the state, over 7,000 businesses had closed, mostly specialty shops like optometrists and photo studios, but also grocery stores and pharmacies. Fact is, 87 percent of the average Walmart's profits are captured from other merchants, especially small business owners. A Dartmouth University study suggests that while the typical Walmart creates 140 mostly minimum wage jobs, it destroys 230 higher paying jobs in the process. Sure, Wally pays the most in sales tax, but overall tax revenues actually decline after Walmart moves into town. Local businesses tend to "recycle" profits in their own community, spending their hard earned dollars at other locally owned stores and generally sharing the wealth. Compare this to Walmart, which funnels its billions in profits to a distant corporate headquarters where no one cares what happens to the folks in Cache County.
Even worse, many local governments (like Logan's) offer big tax breaks to Wally as an incentive for him to build in their town. Five years later, when the downtown business district is ruined, the same local government will use our tax dollars to embark on "downtown revitalization" schemes to try and fix what Walmart has destroyed.
Wally likes to tout the rags to riches story of Sam Walton. It likes to hide behind those smiling yellow happy faces and patriotic flags, even going so far as to come up with a "Buy American" campaign. (They also have "Buy Mexican" and "Buy Canadian" campaigns in those countries). Ironically, Walmart is the largest seller of Chinese goods on earth, and over 80 percent of its garments are made outside of America, usually in places where 75 hour work weeks and wages of 50 cents per day aren't uncommon. No wonder those bras are so cheap!
In short, Walmart sucks. They bleed a town dry, then use the profits to do the same thing somewhere else. Do you really want to support this? Sure, you might get a cheap hairdryer, but in the long run you're harming the community in which you live. My suggestion: Spend your money elsewhere. Not at another big box store either, but at one of the many small businesses here in Logan. Prices may seem higher, but this will be offset by the reduction in impulse purchases of Wally's garbage. This isn't a boycott of Walmart, it's an investment in the future of your community.
Now this weeks
THE PUNK ROCK EDITORIAL
Okay, okay...you really liked last week's editorial about the whole "big business" thing; well, here is another person with a similar perspective on the situation-
Here's an interesting continuation to your Wal-mart editorial.
Note: If you haven't noticed, there is even a difference in prices at
Wal-Marts from community to community. Once Wal-Mart has driven the competition out of business, (some after generations of local service) they inch prices up into their "regular" range. Locally for instance, the Hanover, Pa. Wal-Mart, which has quite a bit of competition from K-Mart, Giant, Weis Markets, Kohl's and some other larger "chain" retailers, offers lower prices on many items, than the Gettysburg, Pa. Wal-Mart, which is only 15- 20 minutes away. The difference; there is far less competition in
Gettysburg. When Wal-Mart came to town around 10 years ago, Gettysburg's
"downtown" merchants were slowly but surely, "wiped out" for the most part.
Luckily, for Gettysburg, with the tourist trade, the "conventional" stores that were forced out of business, (Zerfing's hardware, Wogan's drugstore, clothing stores, shoe stores) were at least eventually replaced by more "unconventional" stores (art galleries, antique shops and "touristy" gift shops) so the downtown wasn't reduced to just streets full of abandoned buildings.
Then, there is the issue of Wal-Mart's censorship of music. Go to Wal-Mart and try to buy any cd with a "parental advisory" sticker on it. You can't!
Wal-Mart will not sell it. While many record stores have a policy of not selling p.a. cd's to anyone under 16, (this varies depending on the store)
Wal-Mart refuses to sell anything with a p.a. sticker. So by not editing their albums, artists must accept that Wal-Mart won't sell their music. Try to find Marilyn Manson, or Slayer, or hell almost any punk band...you can't because they won't dillute their music, so Wal-Mart won't sell it.
Don't forget the issue of customer service. Their floor service SUCKS! Wal-Mart can run all the commercials they want showing all their friendly, happy, smiling "associates" dancing through the aisles kissing babies, sending every "white-bread" kid in America to college, curing the sick and raising the dead. But, if you've ever walked around Wal-Mart for 45 minutes looking for something, and been ignored or worse, avoided, by all their shiny, happy, lazy salespeople, you know what I mean. If I had a dollar for
everytime I've heard "sorry, this isn't my department." and then had the sales associate walk away, I could put a down-payment on a house somewhere where they don't have a Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is the EVIL EMPIRE!
THE PUNK ROCK EDITORIAL
Now, this is a new slant on this thing...kind of. It's a socioeconomic commentary on "big businesses" that is written by a person with a first-hand account. We (Epitaph) and I (Mike Oxsmall, Epitaph Web Monkey) have no particular contempt, hatred, dislike and/or scorn for the said companies in this particular editorial. This is his opinion and we are just providing a forum for discussion. I say this because I don't want people getting all pissed and saying we are "Walmart" haters and bullshit like that. Okay, now on with it!
I'm sick of the "what's punk" editorials. Here's something new.
There I was, just down the road from the Super Walmart, across the street from Home Deopt and Petsmart, next to Shopko and Staples, staring at asign. Its red, white and blue letters brought tears to my eyes, and as I read I fell to my knees and praised
God for finding us humble Loganites worthy of such a sacred message: "COMING SOON SAM'S CLUB." That's right folks, the Jesus of discount stores is coming to Logan. And make no mistake, "It's a Big Deal!" Cheap prices and plenty of parking, must be the American dream! Not to mention all those deals on disposable plastic crap you don't really need. But before you start polishing up those credit cards, before you succumb to the temptations of the biggest of big box stores, take another look at the Wallyworld empire.
According to the standards of capitalism, Walmart (who owns Sam's Club, duh) is the ultimate example of a good thing. It has almost a million employees, making it the largest private employer in the country. The company owns 3,500 stores on 4 continents, and a new one opens every 2 days. It netted profits last year of 4 billion dollars, and is well on the way to becoming the first company to gross 400 billion in a single year.
Big profits, but at what cost? The pattern is well established: Wally builds a gigantic cinder block warehouse at the edge of town and sells most everything imaginable at a discount. Soon the masses are driving in from miles around, taking advantage of the convenient one-stop shopping and avoiding the downtown businesses completely. The locally owned shops just con't compete with Wally's low prices, especially when business has dropped so much. One by one they go out of business, and Main Street U.S.A. becomes a ghetto of empty store fronts and "for rent" signs.
A study in Iowa revealed that after 5 years of Walmart, the state lost 25 percent of its local businesses. 10 years after Wally entered the state, over 7,000 businesses had closed, mostly specialty shops like optometrists and photo studios, but also grocery stores and pharmacies. Fact is, 87 percent of the average Walmart's profits are captured from other merchants, especially small business owners. A Dartmouth University study suggests that while the typical Walmart creates 140 mostly minimum wage jobs, it destroys 230 higher paying jobs in the process. Sure, Wally pays the most in sales tax, but overall tax revenues actually decline after Walmart moves into town. Local businesses tend to "recycle" profits in their own community, spending their hard earned dollars at other locally owned stores and generally sharing the wealth. Compare this to Walmart, which funnels its billions in profits to a distant corporate headquarters where no one cares what happens to the folks in Cache County.
Even worse, many local governments (like Logan's) offer big tax breaks to Wally as an incentive for him to build in their town. Five years later, when the downtown business district is ruined, the same local government will use our tax dollars to embark on "downtown revitalization" schemes to try and fix what Walmart has destroyed.
Wally likes to tout the rags to riches story of Sam Walton. It likes to hide behind those smiling yellow happy faces and patriotic flags, even going so far as to come up with a "Buy American" campaign. (They also have "Buy Mexican" and "Buy Canadian" campaigns in those countries). Ironically, Walmart is the largest seller of Chinese goods on earth, and over 80 percent of its garments are made outside of America, usually in places where 75 hour work weeks and wages of 50 cents per day aren't uncommon. No wonder those bras are so cheap!
In short, Walmart sucks. They bleed a town dry, then use the profits to do the same thing somewhere else. Do you really want to support this? Sure, you might get a cheap hairdryer, but in the long run you're harming the community in which you live. My suggestion: Spend your money elsewhere. Not at another big box store either, but at one of the many small businesses here in Logan. Prices may seem higher, but this will be offset by the reduction in impulse purchases of Wally's garbage. This isn't a boycott of Walmart, it's an investment in the future of your community.
Now this weeks
THE PUNK ROCK EDITORIAL
Okay, okay...you really liked last week's editorial about the whole "big business" thing; well, here is another person with a similar perspective on the situation-
Here's an interesting continuation to your Wal-mart editorial.
Note: If you haven't noticed, there is even a difference in prices at
Wal-Marts from community to community. Once Wal-Mart has driven the competition out of business, (some after generations of local service) they inch prices up into their "regular" range. Locally for instance, the Hanover, Pa. Wal-Mart, which has quite a bit of competition from K-Mart, Giant, Weis Markets, Kohl's and some other larger "chain" retailers, offers lower prices on many items, than the Gettysburg, Pa. Wal-Mart, which is only 15- 20 minutes away. The difference; there is far less competition in
Gettysburg. When Wal-Mart came to town around 10 years ago, Gettysburg's
"downtown" merchants were slowly but surely, "wiped out" for the most part.
Luckily, for Gettysburg, with the tourist trade, the "conventional" stores that were forced out of business, (Zerfing's hardware, Wogan's drugstore, clothing stores, shoe stores) were at least eventually replaced by more "unconventional" stores (art galleries, antique shops and "touristy" gift shops) so the downtown wasn't reduced to just streets full of abandoned buildings.
Then, there is the issue of Wal-Mart's censorship of music. Go to Wal-Mart and try to buy any cd with a "parental advisory" sticker on it. You can't!
Wal-Mart will not sell it. While many record stores have a policy of not selling p.a. cd's to anyone under 16, (this varies depending on the store)
Wal-Mart refuses to sell anything with a p.a. sticker. So by not editing their albums, artists must accept that Wal-Mart won't sell their music. Try to find Marilyn Manson, or Slayer, or hell almost any punk band...you can't because they won't dillute their music, so Wal-Mart won't sell it.
Don't forget the issue of customer service. Their floor service SUCKS! Wal-Mart can run all the commercials they want showing all their friendly, happy, smiling "associates" dancing through the aisles kissing babies, sending every "white-bread" kid in America to college, curing the sick and raising the dead. But, if you've ever walked around Wal-Mart for 45 minutes looking for something, and been ignored or worse, avoided, by all their shiny, happy, lazy salespeople, you know what I mean. If I had a dollar for
everytime I've heard "sorry, this isn't my department." and then had the sales associate walk away, I could put a down-payment on a house somewhere where they don't have a Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is the EVIL EMPIRE!
