Walmart Kills More Businesses

The 'Wal-Mart effect' strikes again
By slashing prices on flat-panel TVs, the retail giant has clobbered another sector -- this time, consumer-electronics stores.
By BusinessWeek

Last "Black Friday," for its annual post-Thanksgiving sales blitz, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, news, msgs) decided to slash the price of one of the hottest electronics items for the holidays, the 42-inch flat-panel TV, to $988. The world's largest retailer had staked similarly audacious positions before, in numerous product categories, as part of its quest to remain U.S. retailing's "low-price leader."

In turn, Wal-Mart's move caused a free fall in prices of flat-panel televisions at hundreds of retailers -- to the glee of many people who were able to afford their first big-screen plasma or liquid-crystal-display (LCD) model.

Now, it is becoming apparent that Wal-Mart's calculated decision to break the $1,000 barrier for flat-panel TVs triggered a disastrous financial meltdown among some consumer-electronics retailers over the past four months.
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When is the madness going to end!?!!?? :jawdrop:

:jason:

 

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Than Cho did?

 

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People shouldn't buy TVs.

 

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When people decide their integrity is worth more than the few dollars they will save on the latest gadget.


Maybe never.

 

You formulated the scary part quite nicely. Every day I wonder when people will wake up and see the obvious. That they don't need that crap. That they don't need to waste their lives consuming, going from home to work to home to the mall to home.

And then they buy a big ass TV and complain that nothing is on it.

personally I can't stand TV anymore. I haven't had a TV for so long that every time I actually see some TV I am completely annoyed by it. So much advertisements. So much crap. So much mindless emptiness.

It would in theory be nice to have a big screen TV to watch some david attenborough documentaries. But in reality it is not worth the money or the effort.

 

The americans are the ones who started all this madness that is destroying the planet and our civilization.


...
Damn americans...:grumble:

 

I agree, Americans are consumer oriented. The problem is this... if the society is consumer in nature can it ever be stopped?

 

If you consume sustainably... then yes.

 

Competition is the keystone of free enterprise. If other stores can't compete with Wal-Mart, then .....what, you want to prop up those other stores with government money or something? You want to eliminate free enterprise?

Baron Max

 

Eliminate monopoly.

 

Who does it? And if they can do it, doesn't that make them a "monopoly"? Or worse, a group much too powerful to be called a nation of freedom.

Baron Max

 

True. But I suppose a democratic government could do it, right? Isn't that one of the powers of the government? One that is never used? (That is, dissolving a corporation.)

 

I personally think (I know most will disagree with me) that the only corporations that should be allowed are ones that provide a product or service that could not reasonably be done with small privately owned companies (such as nationwide communication services) and those limited few that are allowed should be closely-controlled (including stringent salary requirements) and possibly state-run.

When it is proven that the service or product the corporation is offering san be done my small, privately owned comapnies, the corporation should be dissolved.

Furniture would be made by skilled carpenters, not machines.
You would go to a shoemaker for quality shoes, not a corporation that hires the biggest basketball star.
Your pharmacist will know your name, your history and your family.
Food will come from local farms run by farmers.

The money being spent in your community will benefit and support your community - not some corporate dick paying members of your community poverty wages.

 

No corporate-owned retail stores, farms, banks, restaraunts, accountants, clothing manufacturers, movie theaters...
Nothing that can be done by local merchants and businesses.

And all public service facilities would be state run.

 

You're convienently forgetting something, Raven .....what about when the community grows so large that the small, family-run stores can't provide for all them?

How many craftsman would it take to provide the furniture for the people of New York City? And, once they'd done so, what else would they make?

That's a damned large farm to grow all the fruits and vegatables for the people of NYC, ain't it? And what about in the winter when nothing grows up in that part of the country?

And who hauls all of the produce to NYC? The farmer does that, too? Or does he hire truckers to do it?
And does the trucker sell the stuff or just haul it to NYC while someone else sells it all?
Or do the people drive out to this huge fuckin' farm to buy what they need?
Who builds and maintains the farming equipment? What do they build when the farmer has what he needs?

Raven, you should think about what you've proposed ...before people begin to laugh at you.

Baron Max

 

The only idiocy I have seen is in your reply.

Sustainable economy combined with a livable society can only be accomplished on a local scale.

Globalization will kill our society in the long run.

 

What about growth? How can any "sustainable economy" work for a place like New York City or Los Angeles? Those places have outgrown anything that would resemble "local" supplies.

Baron Max

 

The answer to that is obvious.
More stores open.
This is the way it was done for many years and it worked damned well.
Better than it does now.
I know quite a few large communities that have almost all locally owned business - and they are consistently better communities on every level.

Quite a few!
Now you're getting the picture.

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That's a ridiculous question.
Couldn't the same be said for corporations?
It makes no sense.

No it's not, actually.
It's a lot of small farms.

Produce gets shipped in (I would prefer that be done by a state owned railway system).

See above.

It depends.
If small companies can, they will.
If not, a larger corporation will be allowed to do it.
It's a pretty simple idea - I think you are clever enough to understand the concept.

Abother meaningless question, like the furniture one.
What does John Deere do?
Things have a life cycle.

I have given this a GREAT DEAL of thought.
I'm planning on putting it into a book.
How much thought are you willing to give it? Or are you afraid people will laugh at you?

 

Careful planning?

 

Corporations are fine as long as they are sustainable and benefit the whole community and the planet. Unfortunately, such issues are not considered by corporations. They just want a profit. Externalities are just their excrement.