wistahpatsfan

Boycotting Walmart on Black Firday is fine if you want. Just know that your protest will not be heard or felt by anyone but you. I never go there but they seem to do just fine. Walmart is the ultimate religious symbol of our culture of consumer-driven, throw-away pigs who will willingly support the seemingly unstoppable trend of a transition from a democracy to a corporate hegemony. Box stores have replaced smaller, independent stores that used to respond to the local needs and were more directly connected to the community. I don't like it. Others think it's "natural".

There's no use fighting about whether Walmart in a "good vs. evil" framework. We are all to blame. Anyone who bought a 2X4 or door lock at Home Depot instead of their local lumber yard or hardware stoer (which are now largely gone) are to blame. We lost this fight- if there ever even was one- a long time ago and that bell can't be unrung.

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1960Pats

I just switched over from CVS to Walgreens for my meds. I hope that's okay with the enlightened ones.

I'm sorry that I wasted my time reading it.

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The Pats may have a defense to go along with their offense.

DarrylS

Not only did you waste time on reading it, but you felt compelled to respond..

CVS gives a 30% discount on prescriptions if you have AAA...

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

PatsFanInVa

Nah Icy, I just couldn't see where he called you a bigot, but that was because you removed it, so now I understand what you were mad about.

I thought you might be saying that the quoted/remaining part of his post was "the same thing as" calling you a bigot, and I started thinking Mr. Kurtz, he dead... now whatever happened to that guy we sent up the Congo to find him?

But I stand corrected... don't get prickly please, I'm not.

PFnV

Wolfpack

I'm proud to say I go to Wal-Mart all the time because that is where I do my grocery shopping and I save quite a bit of cash compared to the local supermarket. If you don't like saving money, feel free to waste it as much as you want, but to paint those of us who like saving money as nefarious servants of the devil is quite disingenuous.

IcyPatriot

I won't spend a dime in a Walmart because of their negative impact on the communities where they set up shop. Everywhere they go they decrease that communities economic output and it hurts the community in the long term due to lost wages.

To each his own practices and opinions ... but no store out there has the same negative impact where they locate as a Walmart.

IcyPatriot

Wolfpack

Do you have any sort of source to back that statement up?

PatsFanInVa

What will kill Walmart, ironically, will be China's eventual realization that real wages (buying power) must eventually rise for a growing/rising middle class. They've basically got a European- or U.S. - size first-world country towing around eight or nine Nigerias (perhaps w/better natural resources, excepting oil). As lovely as their balance of trade looks to us ("OMG OMG China is so in control!") it also means to them "OMG OMG America can impoverish us with one good round of inflation!"

Just as we want less interdependence because we don't want that chunk of debt owned by any foreign country, really, China's got huge potential markets at home that can provide demand out the wazoo, with one proviso: They have to somehow earn enough to afford the goods they produce. The old Henry Ford corollary.

So, stop deflating the buying power of the Yuan, and you may lose some balance of trade "advantage," but you'll also bring online a powerhouse of (from their POV) domestic demand.

Mitt with his big threat of "Labeling" China on his first day reminded me of that Flo character in the insurance commercials, where everybody's having a "shootout" with label makers and she yells "EVERYBODY JUST... BE COOL." It's inherently funny to think a label machine is a deadly weapon.

However, China eventually will turn to developing higher demand within China, and allowing the value of the Yuan to increase, particularly as Europe struggles through its problems.

When that happens, your Wal-Mart goods will rise in price, their competitive advantage will comparatively decline, etc. etc. etc.

But as Bruce put it, "Foreman said these jobs are going boys/and they ain't comin' back." It's not like Walmart lose but Sears will bounce back. They're getting their goods from the same place. All the big boxes will take the same hit -- which will be good for your local craft-maker types, as their "luxury" prices seem a little more in line... but mostly, will manifest in an "ouch. Clothes and toys cost more" kind of way.

We win in this scenario to the extent that we have already begun to reinvigorate domestic manufacturing. We lose to the extent that we continue our reliance on cheap walmart style goods.

And through it all, actual stores will continue to go away as e-tailing flaunts its advantage over retailing.

Interesting times....

Harry Boy

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Harry Boy (Genius)

In The Absence Of Law And Order Society Will Surely Destroy Itself