shopping ourselves out of house and home
The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know: this article is probably the best one i’ve read yet about the unseen evils of Wal-Mart – the world’s largest company – and companies like it (via strangechord). it’s well written and provides multiple detailed examples of how Wal-Mart’s buying policies have effected companies ranging from Vlasic to Levi, proving it’s main point: Wal-Mart is slowly but surely single-handedly forcing manufacturing jobs overseas while at the same time convincing consumers that their low prices are a good thing – and not just a good thing, but that lower and lower prices should be expected, year after year.
it’s a long article, but well worth reading. here are some excerpts (emphasis added):
“… But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000 suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices … To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas…Of course, U.S. companies have been moving jobs offshore for decades, long before Wal-Mart was a retailing power. But there is no question that the chain is helping accelerate the loss of American jobs to low-wage countries such as China. Wal-Mart, which in the late 1980s and early 1990s trumpeted its claim to “Buy American,” has doubled its imports from China in the past five years alone, buying some $12 billion in merchandise in 2002. That’s nearly 10% of all Chinese exports to the United States.
“People ask, ‘How can it be bad for things to come into the U.S. cheaply? How can it be bad to have a bargain at Wal-Mart?’ Sure, it’s held inflation down, and it’s great to have bargains,” says Dobbins. “But you can’t buy anything if you’re not employed. We are shopping ourselves out of jobs.”
“Levi … announce(ed)…it is closing its last two U.S. factories, both in San Antonio, and laying off more than 2,500 workers, or 21% of its workforce. A company that 22 years ago had 60 clothing plants in the United States–and that was known as one of the most socially reponsible corporations on the planet–will, by 2004, not make any clothes at all. It will just import them.”
“In the end, of course, it is we as shoppers who have the power, and who have given that power to Wal-Mart. Part of Wal-Mart’s dominance, part of its insight, and part of its arrogance, is that it presumes to speak for American shoppers….”
“Wal-Mart has also lulled shoppers into ignoring the difference between the price of something and the cost. Its unending focus on price underscores something that Americans are only starting to realize about globalization: Ever-cheaper prices have consequences. Says Steve Dobbins, president of thread maker Carolina Mills: “We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world–yet we aren’t willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions.”
my thoughts exactly. people keep insisting that they want all their goods for cheaper and faster and more more more and their cars bigger and faster and their homes bigger and cleaner while at the same time complaining about pollution and toxic waste and forests disappearing and all the other ills that come with consumer society. people seem to think they’re somehow downright entitled to having their cake and eating it too.
so here’s what you can do: don’t shop at Wal-Mart, and encourage your family and friends to shop elsewhere. The same goes for bulk stores like Costco. Find your local grocery and clothing stores, or even if it’s just smaller chain stores like Sears or something. It’s not going to hurt most Americans to pay a few cents more for their products somewhere else. In fact, most Americans are just out buying loads of toxic manufactured crap they don’t need anyway, like cases of Diet Coke and gallon jars of pickles. But whatever you do, please, don’t feed into this ridiculous machine.
remember: “Your vote may not always be counted, but your dollar always will.” your dollar speaks louder than either your voice or your vote.
Filed in things you can do | Tagged with wal-mart | Comments (8)8 Responses to “shopping ourselves out of house and home”
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Good post and good points. Alot of this is stuff I’ve thought but hadn’t quite formed into coherent sentences. This is excellent ammo against going for the lowest price at all costs because the end cost is the loss of American jobs.
Amy,
This really intrigued me, because as a Supply Chain Mgmt graduate, I was taught that Wal-Mart is the benchmark for the industry….and this article proves that: they have more buying power than anyone, period. It’s pretty crazy when they have the ability to undercharge on everything, even the posted price on greeting cards, magazines, chips, etc., that every other store charges.
So from a business perspetive, they’re almost godlike in the sense that they can nickle and dime any supplier due to the unbelievable potential sales volume the supplier would receive.
But we, of course, were never told how negative this business practice really is, and how it’s forcing companies to cut costs and force jobs overseas. On the other hand, though, anyone well versed in business will tell you that few businesses are running as cost-efficiently as they could be; I would recommend to cut costs in the ways I’ve learned before offshoring. There is so much money to be saved in clerical, overhead, inefficient strategies, etc etc etc it’s insane.
I’m not justifying wal-mart, nor am I saying Levi’s or the other companies didn’t exhaust all other alternatives before offshoring….I’m just saying that I hope companies don’t jump to the offshoring conslusion before looking at other ways to cut costs that are more feasible and inconsequential to Americans.
wacky! i was just about to go to walmart.. im not sure what all i think about this.. i don’t love or even like walmart all that much but when you only have so much cash , well, you tend to get what you can where you can.. i hate to say that. i try to run a very concious house and life but .. it’s hard in some areas .. what about places like target?
have you seen this
found it at phunkystew’s blog
walmart is today’s hot topic
that’s a good link, paisley – a bit more “to the point” but with no concrete examples, but same ideas.
Mike, that’s the problem, they look at the one side, that Walmart is a hugely powerful supply chain demander but the back end is that they are forcing companies to offshore production. And that will, eventually, kill off American production, smaller companies that can’t compete with the landfill plastic crap.
Not to mention the fact that Walmart homogenizes populances by squeezing out the little guys who make high quality and more expensive goods.
I’m in the buy it once and pay more for it camp. It saves way more money in the long run to get the best you can first instead of replacing crap with more crap.
I can appreciate Wal-Mart as the most advanced logistical entity in the world (imagine if the US military was run as efficiently as Wal-Mart!). By aggregating demand and building a single distribution pipeline, Wal-Mart has driven a lot of the structural changes in global manufacturing. It’s the difference between having a $1,000 contract to supply your local mom-and-pop and a $10 million contract to supply Wal-Mart. The scale and bidding are going to force efficiencies, you know?
I’m more interested in the social issues of “training” a market to expect ever-lower prices. That’s actually a very disruptive concept for most businesses given inflation. I’d hate to compete against Wal-Mart knowing their floor keeps getting lower and lower, especially if I’d like to raise prices 2-3% every year.
very interestng