Ok, I may get crucified by my Union bretheren, but I don’t see the huge threat of Wal*Mart. Sure, they are nasty to their employees, they fire anyone who tries to organize, and all that. I guess that ’cause they’re the big boys on the block, everyone goes after ‘em. But is Wal*Mart any different than K-Mart, Target, Sears, Pennys, CostCo, Safeway, Toys-r-Us, etc? They all “killed the small guy” and now some on this list are the next level small guy. Few are friendly to employees (speak to the SoCal Safeway employees, after their mixed results in the last contract negotiations.)
Now I must say, however, that I cannot stand shopping at Wal*Mart. I don’t know, I guess I’m too much of a snob…But their merchandise is low quality, their selection surprisingly limited, their staff often useless, their lines all too long and slow.
Something tells me that Wal*Mart will go the way of K-Mart and the other big stores before ‘em. Chain stores have fad consumers flock to ‘em, then they retain the diehards but the next big thing comes along and everyone moves on. Ok, Wal*Mart may not end up as bad off as K-Mart, but if I were playing the stock market, I wouldn’t be buying their stock. Matter of time, I say.
Lastly, I do feel that Wal*Mart is doing a great deed to society in the Katrina disaster. Their logistics expertise really came in handy and they had trucks full of supplies ready to deliver to the region. ‘course, if they paid their employees more, maybe they’d be able to afford cars and could have gotten out of the region on their own. But let’s not blame all of the poverty and the disaster on one company.
