Wal-Mart is increasingly under attack in communities that have invited Wal-Mart to locate there, by outsiders, mostly representing labor unions, legal advocy groups such as ACORN, and trial lawyers.
This article describes some of the innovations that Wal-Mart has brought to retailing. Their philosophy has been to lower prices by lowering costs and lowering their own profit margin. They have lowered costs through technological innovation and good management.
Wal-Mart’s pricing strategy has forced competitors to lower prices as well, whidc results in jobs being created elsewhere:
- But the Left’s case ignores the greater benefit that an efficient operator like Wal-Mart brings to shoppers and an entire economy by driving down prices and forcing other stores to perform better. A Wal-Mart-sponsored study, undertaken by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, estimates that Wal-Mart’s entry into the local market would save county shoppers about $1.78 billion annually and southern California shoppers $3.76 billion annually, or nearly $600 per household. Shoppers would redirect those savings, the LAEDC says, into other uses that could create up to 36,000 new jobs, more than offsetting the estimated loss of 3,000 to 5,000 jobs resulting from a drop in the grocery-industry wage pool.
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On April 1st, the employees of a Wal-Mart in Quebec voted against unionization. Labor unions are very strong in Quebec, where 40% of the workforce is unionized, but it seems that Wal-Mart employees are perfectly happy with their working conditions and do not want unions coming in and promoting class warfare.
Who doesn’t like shopping WalMart? The people
are the ones who ultimately decide aren’t they?
People from all walks of life shop there and
who in this day and age doesn’t need to save
money. Considering the cost of gas,housing,
college education, health care, utilities. The
list goes on and on and the cost is climbing and
Wages are not climbing at the same rate. The
days of the friendly neigborhood store are gone.
I like the small businessman, but it’s a sign
of the times that WalMart is the future.
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