Anyone care to defend civil rights leader Andrew Young?

Same tax breaks are available to African-Americans, too, to set up shop in those neighborhoods.

 

Nice try at baiting us, but no, I'm not going to defend him. A racist comment is a racist comment regardless of who says it.

You might try remembering that the next time someone starts a thread criticizing a racist GOP big-wig.

 

Wal-mart's products suck. I'd rather buy from the local guy. At least he doesn't run to me and demand to see my receipt because the toothless cashier forgot to deactivate the theft device attached to my $12 polo shirt that was produced by a blind 8-year-old boy in Bangladesh. This is an ethics issue. If you can't make money, then close down. But don't try charging someone twice the going rate for a gallon of milk and claim that you're doing them a service.

 

There is some truth to what he's saying. Because of another job I used to have, I spent a great deal of time in party stores located in low-income neighborhoods. Now, this statement obviously doesn't reflect the entire party store owning nation, but the way the black people were gouged and treated was astounding. Often, I felt ashamed to be standing behind the glass waiting to get paid while the cashier was ripping someone off. Many times, the customer would complain and the cashier would just yell at them and turn to me and say "fucking niggers." Of course, because I'm white, I feel the same way. Right?  :

 

While some seem quick to accuse the "mom and pop shop" of ripping people off, they fail to realize that the price is driven by economic forces not the owner's greed.

Wal-Mart can sell the products for less because they force the suppliers to pay the shipping, despite the fact that the trucks are Wal-Mart trucks. Mom and Pop may not have that luxury.

Wal-Mart has larger shelf space to place more products and thus they can purchase more at a lower rate. Mom and Pop can only fit 5-gallons of milk on the shelf. If they aren't sold, the milk goes bad and they lose the money. Thus, they need to charge enough to make some money after they have paid for the five gallons as well as the cost of shipping only five-gallons.

Wal-Mart often receives the land they build their stores on for free. They negotiate with towns, they have great loggyists that are able to convince whatever municipality it is to hand over an unused plot of land for them to build their Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. Since the land value is assessed at a price before they build, Wal-Mart just pays the taxes on the initial price and not the value after the building. Meanwhile, Mom and Pop are probably paying rent to whomever actually owns the store's property.

Mom and Pop, using their small shop, are trying to earn a living wage. This often requires little to no vacation time and it requires long hours. If they would like more time off and shorter hours, they would need to increase their overhead by hiring someone. Wal-Mart doesn't exactly pay a full living wage to any of its employees and their thin margins are spread out over all of the products, and through other stores, that they can cut costs until their competition is gone before raising prices enough to earn a profit at that location.

 

I do not shop at Wal-Mart. Nor do they do much advertising with my newspaper. And frankly, I'm not sure their prices are that much cheaper.

However, since Wal-Mart opened here in the late 1980s, there hasn't been any evidence that it's hurt the local economy. In fact, since the Wal-Mart supercenter was built, two local grocery stores built bigger stores and another chain moved in. If anything, the competition is better.

 

In many cases it's perception. Throw some crap up front and price it at cost--perhaps 40% below the competition and people get the impression that EVERYTHING in the store must be less expensive.

 

Wal-Mart's pricing is odd, but it appears to be consistent.

Pet food, soda, popcorn, cereal and many other things definitely cheaper.

Milk and bread, not cheaper at all. Ever.

Can't figure out why.

 

Probably because profit margins on milk and bread are already razor-thin if non-existent.

Gross margins on things like pet food, cereal and popcorn are much more substantial, allowing a lot more flexibility in pricing.

 

Yeah, but Wal-Mart has an effect beyond the local, too. They demand certain deals from their suppliers who will agree and ramp up production to meet the Wal-Mart deal. Then Wal-Mart will come back and say to cut a nickel off that price. The manufacturer can't do it. Can't meet the loan for his new equipment and goes out of business and people lose jobs.

Buncha heartless bastards if you ask me.

 

Often times, if the manufacturer can actually meet Wal-Mart's new price cut demands, the manufacturer will pass off the price cut onto the other locations, Mom and Pop's, as price increases.

 

Wal-Mart has kinda turned the relationship between the manufacturer and retailer on its head.

Instead of negotiating prices, Wal-Mart goes to suppliers and says, "I want to buy 2 million units of this widget. I want the following features and I won't pay more than  37 cents per unit."

This widget normally costs the manufacturer 48 cents just to produce. So, they do one of two things: outsource the manufacturing or redesign the widget and produce what appears to be the same product but essentially it's inferior.

So, that BBQ that they're selling for $99.00 and looks like the same as the one Home Depot is selling for $149.00--it ain't.