How Big is Wal-Mart
HOW BIG IS WAL-MART?
This should boggle your mind!! - Granted
And scare you as well! - Scare me? I should be frightened by Wal-Mart?
1. At Wal-Mart, Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day.
This is Wal-Mart's fault? What - are the Wal-Mart greeters running out into the streets, dragging unsuspecting consumers into the store, loading up their shopping carts with merchandise, and forcing them through the check-out lines?
2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!
Uh, yeah...profit for the stockholders. Have you checked your 401K or other retirement investment portfolio lately? Chances are your retirement account feeds on the profits of Wal-Mart - along with the profits of Exxon, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Pfizer, and many other retail, energy, financial, and defense giants.
3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.
For this they should be ashamed? See item #1.
4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.
For this Wal-Mart should be ashamed? See item #1.
5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer. And most can't speak English.
It's now 1.9 million. What is bad about being the largest private employer? "Most can't speak English" - not in my experience. Although I must say that there are plenty (PLENTY!) of customers who can't speak English.
6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World.
Explain to me why we don't want a US company to be the largest in the world? We were proud of Ford, proud of Edison, proud of U.S. Steel, proud of F. W. Woolworth. Why can't we be proud of Wal-Mart?
7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this In only 15 years.
Remarkable! (Not scary.) I wonder how they do that...send their greeters out into the street...? (See item #1.)
8. During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie).
This is Wal-Mart's fault? If Wal-Mart could sell for less, why couldn't Winn-Dixie?
9. Wal-Mart now sells m ore food than any other store in the world.
This is dangerous? Should Wal-Mart quit selling food so Winn-Dixie can thrive? Would you rather pay more at Winn-Dixie? If so, why didn't you? Then they wouldn't have gone bankrupt.
10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the
This involves a very simple concept called growth. It is based on success, which is in the hands of the consumer. When more shoppers shop at Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart's business grows.
11. This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.)
What is the connection there? Maybe the 6.5 billion people on Earth shopped at Wal-Mart 1.0001 times per year?
12. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart.
That's because Wal-Mart is smart enough to locate their stores within 15 miles of their customers. Not exactly rocket science. Too bad our government is not smart enough to locate schools with 15 miles of the students they serve. Then maybe our 8 year olds would not be standing in the pre-dawn darkness waiting for the school bus.
Let Wal-Mart bail out Wall Street!
Be careful what you wish for. The bailout will be paid for with your children's taxes, and your grandchildren's taxes, and your great-grandchildren's taxes - money out of their pockets, money they won't have to spend at Wal-Mart buying food, clothing, housewares, cleaning supplies, toiletries, Mother's Day cards, Christmas decorations, cough syrup, bedding, dog food, camping equipment, and shoe strings.
posted by Kathy at 1/27/2009 06:28:00 PM
3 Comments:
I think you may be missing the point of this list Kathy. Also, whether the list evolved recently or you simply chose which points to comment on, there are other points in the email to discuss:
14. Of the 1.6 million employees, only 1.2% make a living above the poverty level.
Wal-mart reaps huge profits and yet pays most (almost all) of it's workers at or below the poverty line. This is a good way to ensure that most employees HAVE to spend most of their money at wal-mart, because they are the cheapest place in town. Why is everything so cheap?
17. 92% of everything Wal-Mart sells, comes from China. Another 4% comes from Chinese owned companies.
It seems weird to brag about this "American company" when it sells VERY little (anything?) that was actually made in America. There are very relevant reasons why 'sane' people worry about mega-companies like wal-mart. It is easy to say, "Wow, how grand and (inexpensive)! I'm glad they're American!" But we must look at the larger picture. Why are the goods so cheap? Because they buy everything from China (often HEAVILY exploited labor and shoddy environmental practices) and pay their employees next to nothing. Community businesses close down when wal-mart moves in. Money then leaves the community at a rapid pace and is funneled to billionaires and to China. It's really about exploitation and the move towards Monopoly (which we have laws to protect against, but these are hard to enforce).
So why do people shop at wal-mart? Well, we live in an addiction based consumer culture where nine-year-olds feel the NEED for cell phones and people want that flat screen TV at any cost (as long as it's $cheap$). But really many people feel the need to shop at wal-mart because they live in poverty, a position wal-mart obviously tries to encourage. Many people in poverty (have to) focus their energy on "getting by", not on issues of consumer conscience. It's really a vicious cycle. Wal-mart is not going to change anything, so we the consumers have to...hence, the circulating email. Raise awareness, act from your conscience, and don't shop somewhere that promotes poverty in your community and across the world. See how just a little critical thinking shed light on this "confusing" issue. I hope your questions are all cleared up.
Live in Peace,
Good points, Charles! Kathy, Kathy, Kathy...when will you wake up and smell the exploitation? Here's a science project for you: google "dead peasant life insurance policy". Some interesting reading about a policy loved by your favorite store!
P.S. - if you don't cringe after those articles, check your pulse...
Dear Charles,
I would ask you why Wal-Mart is selling Chinese goods? Could it be because America no longer produces goods for Wal-Mart to sell at prices Americans are willing to pay? Could it be that American labor unions demand wages and benefits that make it impossible for American-made products to compete with foreign-made products in a free market?
Could it be that those same labor unions infiltrate American industries for the sole purpose of confiscating union dues to support the politicians they collude with?
Wal-Mart is an American company, regardless of the products they sell. Community businesses close down because their government makes it impossible for them to compete. Not because of Wal-Mart.
Money spent at Wal-Mart does not "leave" the community. It pays the wages of the Wal-Mart employees. It pays the property taxes on the real estate Wal-Mart occupies.
I am dumbfounded that you would suggest that Wal-Mart promotes poverty. They provide goods at lower prices, goods that people are eager to buy. How is that a bad thing?
Perhaps you should direct your diatribe toward Wal-Mart shoppers, rather than the Wal-Mart corporation. If Wal-Mart had no customers, they would soon disappear.
I suspect, however, that you simply want to trash Wal-Mart, rather than address cultural issues, such as consumer greed class envy, and the condescending attitude some have about people who shop at Wal-Mart.
No one is forced to work or shop at Wal-Mart. The fact is many people do work there; many more people shop there.
You would do well to study the precepts of liberty, as they apply to workers, and also as they apply to consumers.
In my mind, liberty trumps equality. Liberty allows you to shop/work elsewhere. That's how the free market works.
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