Since I mentioned Wal-mart in the last post, I dug out the letter I sent them a couple of years ago. Of course if I'm going to 'cross-off' Wal-mart, where do I draw the line? K-mart? Amazon? Home Depot?
It's not easy and probably an impossible prospect. But we all draw the line somewhere. For me, Wal-mart seemed a good place to start. I had been uneasy and increasingly dubious about them for a long time but like most people I just went along with it.
Finally in 2011 we drew the line and quit going. We're not the kind of people that just go sometimes. No, we absolutely don't go, ever. I won't even walk through the door. And that's difficult in a rural area. They've put almost everything out of business.
Despite that, we feel it's been a good decision. Once you break free from it a whole new world is opened up. There are many things we can do without, and other things we can wait for. Sometimes we have to be a little patient.
I ditched television in 1995 and now whenever I have access to it I am only confirmed in my decision. After three years with no Wal-mart I feel the same way and have no desire to ever give them a dime of my money.
They are harmful to our society and to every society they come into contact with. I don't want to aid them in any way.
15 March 2012
Walmart Home Office
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, Arkansas
72716-8611
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, Arkansas
72716-8611
Hello,
We bought into the Wal-mart cult back in the 1990’s. We were excited about the inexpensive goods and the vast selection in Wal-mart stores. As the Supercenters came in we switched to buying all of our groceries there and it reached a point where between groceries and other goods, we were spending $150-200 a week at our local store.
Like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water we were slowly deceived. After years of shopping at Wal-mart we started to notice our food was overpriced, of the poorest quality, and most of the produce and meat products were either rotten or spoiled, often by the time we got home, or at least by the time we attempted to use them a couple of days later.
Increasingly we noticed that almost everything we bought didn’t last long, sometimes after only one use. Time after time we experienced episodes of crying children as everything from toys to fishing poles broke or failed to work after just one or two attempts. Simple things like plastic totes and tools were not lined up right or showed evidence or poor manufacture. Shoes would fall apart after two weeks, socks would tear apart after two washes.
So then about a year ago (in 2011) we said….why do we shop at Wal-mart? Let’s try somewhere else. We began to purchase our groceries at other stores and found that not only did we often pay about the same price, the food was infinitely better in quality, longevity and freshness. We started buying things like clothes, toys and other goods elsewhere and found that yes, socks can last more than a week. Not all t-shirts are made of gauze, and not everything breaks after two uses. Sure we pay a little more, but we started to realize with Wal-mart not only were we not saving anything, we were spending more….because we had to keep re-purchasing things over and over again.
Apparently this is the Wal-mart business model…a trap. Keep buying the same thing over and over again all the while you think you’re saving. Well now that others are waking up to this, Wal-mart’s numbers are down and rather than learn the lesson, quality has reached an all time low and their prices aren’t really that good anymore. We’ve been awakened and these factors coupled with Wal-mart’s dubious in-house and international ethics has led us to abandon this company in every way.
Admittedly our $8-10K a year won’t hurt Wal-mart, but we’re talking to a lot of people who feel the same way. Our communities have already been surrendered to franchises and rather than true local community stores we’re marketed by nameless global entities. Maybe this will change someday when people realize what companies like Wal-mart are and what they do. In the meantime, we’re done with extra car trips to return things, crying kids, and broken junk.
If I produced a product that broke on the first or second use and yet continued to produce it and charge people for it I would be called a criminal or at the very least shady and unethical. This does not change even if I were to become a massive multi-billion dollar, multi-national institution. I would still be a dishonest thief. Good-bye Wal-mart. You won’t see us again. There’s no point. Everything we buy here is cheap junk and not worth the bother. Even your customer service website is a miserable experience.
Thanks for contributing to the demise of American society.
Based on the content of what I've said in the past this may come as a bit of a shock.
ReplyDeleteTo begin, I agree that Wal-Mart has expanded its hegemony over the world of retail using less-than-honorable tactics such as predatory pricing and paying their rank-and-file employees "competitive rates", or starvation wages. Most people who work there do so because they have no choice and they aren't enthusiastic about their jobs in the least.
That said, what allowed them to grow as large as they are now may have as much to do with realizing a certain thing at the right time: that it's more efficient to offer as many goods and/or services under one roof as opposed to having them scattered over many small stores. It also has to do with improvements in technology. Their method of inventory management was and is far more sophisticated than the mom and pop corner store could ever be. It's not unlike the medieval burgher who realized that a collectivity of men doing different tasks under the same roof could produce more horseshoes than the solitary blacksmith.
In other words, if Wal-Mart didn't become the major retailer it is today, some other enterprise would have.
While I don't disagree with the content of your letter, I'm somewhat surprised that you even took the time to write it. I'm sure you realize as much as I do that whoever receives it probably won't read past the first few sentences and even if he does, the message will fall on blind eyes and deaf ears.
Cheers,
Jim
I would add resource exploitation, but you're right for Wal-Mart it was all about a Logistics Revolution. They are the masters of it.
DeleteBut they're greedy scoundrels and it went from being clever innovation to wanton covetousness and power acquisition. The whole model is immoral. The logistics are just one component in the means, the 'how' they do what they do.
Your statement reminds me of what someone said about the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If we didn't have it, someone would have had to create it.
Probably true with Wal-Mart, the Habsburgs and a lot of other things. But that doesn't make them right. It doesn't mean that once my eyes are opened that it's okay to just keep being part of it.
I never got a response and I'm sure it quickly went into the round file. But we used to spend a lot of money there and if more people would start waking up... it will hurt them. Of course now they're just as big overseas as they are in North America.
But I hope someday we can drive by the empty hulks of their stores and like so many other stores today, we'll say.... Hey, remember when that was a Wal-Mart?
Wal-Mart going extinct? Meh, that's one way for it to go...or they (the stores) could be transformed into co-operatives run by the people who work in them. They could also come under some form of state ownership and be run by and for the people according to rule of law. Under different circumstances it is theoretically possible for an institution like Wal-Mart to be run for the benefit of the community, as fantastic as that sounds.
DeleteOf course, the chances of this actually happening are slim to none given the dogmatism in American culture concerning private ownership.
Jim
In the almost three years since you wrote this, it looks like Amazon is poised to surpass Wal-Mart in market share of the retail sector.
DeleteBy taking the logistical revolution one step further and developing online retailing with promises of delivery within 24 hours, they've attracted a growing number of clientele who enjoy the ease and convenience the company offers in shopping for durable goods via the internet. As a result, once profitable, multi-million dollar shopping mall complexes lie in ruin awaiting destruction. While outlets such as Wal-Mart continue to survive, others like Sears and The Bay are on the verge of bankruptcy. Nevertheless, Wal-Mart is feeling the pinch and has had to adapt to the world of online retailing.
Of course, the benefits of patronizing a business such as Amazon is not without its costs. One shudders at the stories of the mistreatment and degredation its employees routinely endure. While not necessarily Third-World sweatshop conditions, it's nevertheless a dehumanizing, soul-crushing experience and what's scary is that it's increasingly becoming the norm with little resistance even among the working classes. Everything you do is meticulously monitored, even bathroom breaks. Supervisors breathe down your necks to make sure you're doing your job even if you're completely focused on doing just that. What frightens me the most are those I can only call "useful idiots" who either work for the company or in a similar environment who trod out the same tired apologetic clichés in defense of these practices: if you don't like it, don't work there; at least you have a job; you're soft and lazy; get an education, etc.
Needless to say, I have little patience with this kind of self-righteous, pharisaical attitude. Such people have no idea just how little control they actually have over their own lives and would be the first to beg for empathy for others if their fortunes changed for the worse.
It's a quandary. On the one hand, people need to work to survive, but on the other, they have to endure these conditions and have little choice in doing so. It would not surprise me in the least if not a few of these people would, if queried, respond with complete frankness that they'd rather be dead.
For these reasons, I try as much as I can to avoid using it. But for many, its just the way it is, or whatever other platitude we tell ourselves to make us feel better. I almost think the "a job's a job" justification is more self-justification than trying to put any worker down. It's sick. It makes me think about how many, even in Abolitionist England, consoled themselves to the reality of slave-made sugar, coffee, cotton etc. It's just the way it is, or, as the favorite aphorism goes, it is what it is.
DeleteAgreed. It would be hypocritical of me to criticize that which companies like Amazon represent without acknowledging the benefits it brings to those who need it. All the more reason for me to be critical of whatever abuses do exist. That's where one begins to eliminate them where possible.
DeleteAlso, I realize that some will perceive what I'm saying as smug and condescending, which is completely and totally not my intention. I am fully aware that there are many who have no choice but to work at a company like Amazon and are thankful for whatever remuneration they receive. They also perform their assigned tasks to the best of their abilities and keep their complaining to a minimum.
On the contrary, my wish is to see their working conditions improve (it's called empathy), and my scorn and contempt is for those who exploit the circumstances under which these people live in order to defend the status quo and bully the naysayers into submissive silence.
It was not until I lived in the small-town communities of Rust Belt Appalachia that I came to understand the mindset of people who endure working for abusive companies.
ReplyDeleteAs a Westerner I did not grow up with 'roots' and I must say my parents decried such 'attachments' as archaic. Indeed I've known some to make a Christian case for breaking with such attitudes.
A case can indeed be made but nevertheless the restlessness and destructive chasing after opportunity that is deeply rooted in the pioneer spirit, more commonly found among those who have migrated West and to some degree South in recent years, is also destructive.
In many cases these companies invested themselves in the community and the community did likewise. Their closure resulting from greed and destructive competition is nothing less than devastating. As I've also written about elsewhere it's easy to take risks when you have financial resources. But it's more than that. It's a network of people to fall back on. For many to leave their town or area is to abandon all that.
The Risk-Reward ethic of our modern society despises this mindset and views those who would retain such employment as almost lesser and unworthy beings. An understandable view for the Social Darwinist mindset of market capitalism it is nevertheless sub-Christian.
I have managed to continue avoiding Wal-Mart and have not patronised them since 2011. And yet, this action is largely symbolic. What are my alternatives? For the most part I am compelled to turn to organisations like Amazon, K-Mart and the like. I must say living in a rural area, you really feel the weight of this. Over the past twenty years, local business has been largely obliterated. There just aren't a lot of options. Consequently we rely on the internet and make semi-frequent trips to the nearest small city about 100mins away. I must say though that even in a city that size there are still a host of options. One can avoid the Brand-dominated Big-box sprawl on the edge of the city. If you venture into the older parts of the city, the run-down areas (which I actually prefer) one can still find a host of retail options that defy the Middle Class default attitude. Yet.... a big part of this off-line (as it were) economy is comprised of cast-offs. Many of the goods originate from the same poisoned globalist fount and thus while I can avoid the retail outlets I cannot avoid the system which sustains them.
ReplyDeleteProbably some form of minimalism is the best we can hope to accomplish at least in terms of the ethical questions.
That said, someone could counter me and say... then fine I'll shop at Wal-Mart but just on a lesser degree.
DeleteThat's why I'm careful to say that companies like Amazon and Costco have their benefits. They've provided you access to goods and service that would otherwise be practically unattainable. That, and the computerized perpetual inventory system that exists, where millions of different products as well as records of purchases, purchase returns and purchase discounts are organized within a single database accessible anywhere in the world wherein one can access it is something that appeals to a mind like my own. It's far more efficient than older systems where physical inventory counts were far more necessarily frequent and cumbersome.
DeleteThat's why the abuse of employees that occurs in places like this is, for me, a tragedy more than anything else. It's the kind of job that could actually be quite interesting but is unnecessarily rendered toxic by management. That said, if the ownership structure were organized differently - such as, for example, a co-operative - then some of the abuses that currently exist could be rooted out. It wouldn't solve all the problems, and it certainly would create a utopia, but it's a constructive step in the right direction.
A co-op! That's Socialism, real socialism, not the pseudo-Left Wall Street 'socialism' of the Leftist members within the DNC.
DeleteIt's like Gorbachev said when he visited an Israeli Kibbutz.... this is what it was supposed to be like.
My paraphrase. I don't have the exact quote in front of me.