Posted by hawat.thufir@gmail.com on 11/15/89 11:25

BucketButt wrote:
....
> Wal-Mart is good for China, but not entirely bad for the U.S. Yeah,
> it's murder on the mom-and-pop retailers that used to monopolize small
> towns, but those stores didn't carry anywhere near the selection of
> products in their category of merchandise that Wal-Mart does. And
> Wal-Mart has "everyday low prices" in all of its stores whether they're
> in small towns or major cities; the mom-and-pop stores in small towns
> generally charge/charged considerably more for the same items.

Exactly, Wal-Mart/K-Mart/etc will always price Mom and Pop out of
business. I concur, I shop for convenience and low price. I can't
afford to be "patriotic," I need to take care of myself first.

When I say that Wal-Mart is bad for the USA, I mean that it's bad for
Mom and Pop, not the consumer. Wal-Mart and its ilk are good for the
US consumer for all the reasons detailed. Perhaps it's a bit
contentious, but the "bad" outweighs the "good".

The, for instance, Chinese manufacturer sells their goods in bulk to
Wal-Mart and the consumer benefits, which is good. What's bad is that
China keeps its currency artificially low, and probably plays other
anti-competitive tricks to keep exports high. While China did recently
adjust their currency, they seem to be taking the long view that it's
better to have their populace employed and have a light manufacturing
infrastructure, which is their perogative. However, that's bad for the
US, and Europe, down the road.

I'm all for developing countries putting their cheap labor to work for
their own good, but the trade has to be fair. It's ironic, but Bush
sr., and Reagan, were on to something years ago about this. However,
it always comes out as "protectionism" when the Republicans talk about
trade (for instance, Canadian softwood and NAFTA).

Also, it's not like McDonalds and Burger king where they can exist side
by side, or even Starbucks which will "compete" with itself. It ends
up with one survivor, either Wal-Mart or a competitor, which will just
hurt the consumer in the long run.

Another aspect is the social, in that Wal-Mart employees are a sort of
underclass. Some are illegal, some are just over worked and underpaid.
Not that it's Wal-Marts responsability to pay high wages, but it does
create a crummy situation.

On the other hand, there's nothing magical about Apple that makes them
so fantastic, they're just in a different business. Steve Jobs isn't a
paragon of virtue, and Apple is just a company like any other.

....
> I'd be a lot happier if I could find more made-in-the-USA items in my
> local Wal-Mart -- but I can say the same thing for just about every
> other store from Macy's to Radio Shack. I buy American-made when I
> can; my second choice is to buy from an American-owned company even if
> the product is made in another country. But if a product made in
> China, Indonesia or Bangladesh should turn out to be head-and-shoulders
> better than anything else available, I'll opt for quality more often
> than not.

Of course, and you should! This is why choosing Apple over Wal-Mart
for downloading songs, while a personal decision, should be based on
what you're buying. Instead, some seem to see it as a moral imperative
to boycott a company which is just, for the most part, conducting
business. Of course, people are people and will make decisions like
that. But it's not like Wal-Mart is doing anything particularly
nefarious which merits a boycott.

> What I *don't* like is being locked into anything proprietary. My MP3
> player doesn't handle the AAC format, but it does play both WAV and MP3
> formats; whether AAC or WMA, proprietary formats rankle me. (My
> portable MP3 player also doesn't work with DRM, which is fine with me;
> everything I download gets burned onto CD anyway, and then it rips just
> as easily as any of the CDs I've bought over the years.)

They really need to work that out, it's VHS vs Betamax. Now there's
even several new (blue laser) DVD formats. Hopefully someone will find
a technical solution which pleases record companies *and* consumers. I
use Open Source Software whenever possible, even if it's a hassle, for
those exact reasons.


-Thufir

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