Longmont will begin working to widen the intersection of CO Hwy 119 and County Line Rd (Also known as Weld Co Rd 1) in anticipation of a development application for a new WalMart/Sam's Club. Read more in the Daily Times-Call story by Trevor Hughes.
WalMart does not deserve anyone's business, as I've railed against the corporate giant's business practices before when Lafayette approved the Super WalMart about to start construction on Hwy 287. Read my rationale in an article I wrote for the Yellow Scene.
Their low prices come with a larger national and global price; once you understand the variables involved in their smiley-faced price reductions, you can't in good conscience shop there. Ulimately, it costs money to be principled.
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"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." Isn't that the sentiment here? Sure, WalMart is now in the pilot's chair on the cutting edge of consumerism, but someone always will be, and WalMart's business practices are not extraordinary. In fact, they may soon be the norm. For example, squeezing the supplier is nothing new. Ask farmers in Wisconsin, who got tired of industry pressures for ever increasing prductivity, just to make the same profit at the end of the day. Some of those farmers refused to give in to the pressure and succeed in building a whole new market for hormone-free milk. The point is this: WalMart employees are not conscripted, and vendors have also chosen to enter into a business relationship where it is known that little matters beyond the bottom line.
You either believe in the market or you don't. But, for anyone who has doubts, limiting one's condemnation to WalMart is a simple and easy conceit, one especially favored by those who have the economic wherewithal to be so haughty about others' choices. Unfortunately, there are plenty of economic injustices, bad business ethics, and diry money to go around. Maybe a few vegan, off-the-grid, Chomsky-quoting anarchosyndicalists, if they actually exist and live these values, can sleep at night in the wake of such monumental hypocrisy at large. But if WalMart is really as bad as suggested, we should all be waking up in a cold sweat until a lot more changes in the world than WalMart opening up to unions.
I agree with the previous post. It's fashionable to hate Wal-Mart. Especially in yuppie circles. But Wal-Mart pilots programs like the recently rolled out lower cost prescription drug program that are an immense help to lower wage earners and fixed income retired folks. And when the competition has to keep pace with an aggressive low cost supplier like Wal-Mart we all benefit financially.
Wal-Mart's business practices, are cut-throat, but they are what they are. If the company stood by them, then fair enough. But when combined with Bentonville's absolute secrecy, they prevent any economic analysis about the impact of such a massive economic engine. I have more of a problem with the cities handing over tax breaks without any understanding of how a Super W-M will affect their community.
A search on "walMart lawsuit", WalMart labor", "Walmart Insurance" will provide an overwhelming amount of info and resources to establish their business model is one of the most ruthlessly profit-driven in the world. It is their corporate culture, reflected in the number of examples that are not in dispute, that have led me to my conclusions.
There are other stores that are options, and if price and price alone is your motivation for making choices, then WalMart's your place. Fair enough, the market has spoken. But enough with the "fashionable" talk re: Walmart bashing. They've earned it.
Thank you for jumping back in, Dan. You will now be doing your best to get "ruthless," profit-driven defense contractors out of Boulder County? Some of them aren't even contributing to the growth of John Doe's mutual funds, unlike the profiteering WalMart that turns out to be little more than ourselves in a mirror...
Maybe WalMart has earned an appropriate level of ill-repute, but for someone so involved in politics and economic development, are you so sure that WalMart is really the most vile company around? I seriously doubt it.
The scale of their labor abuses in particular cause them to rise to the top for me.
By no means does WalMart have a unique standing re: business practices worth condemning. But just because other companies may have their own issues and illegalities, why in some people's mind is that an excuse to avoid making a staunch opinion of WalMart? Other businesses doing things wrong (please, point me in the direction of any local ones, I'll write about them too) doesn't make WalMart any less egregious.
But, ultimately the power to stop/influence such practices is through voting with dollars. If most people thought like I did, WalMart would have no customers and their model would be proven to not be viable economically. I do not expect that will happen, yet I stand by my condemnation of the company.
I would prefer to be proven wrong about them, and know they were one of Lafayette's greatest corporate citizens. They have that power. However it doesn't appear to come from within the company, but rather in grudging response to lawsuits and bad publicity.
No thesaurus necessary, thanks. But some bad usage, I'd agree, lazy blogger I am...
Seriously, vegan, off-the-grid, Chomsky quoting anarchosyndicalists are probably the only people in the U.S. who can live up to the standard of not participating in the culture of consumerism and completely turning one's back on the even uglier sources of profits out there making billions and trillions for us to ultimately uphold the standard of living.
I don't disagree with the observation that WalMart could be a far more responsible corporate citizen, but do you think that WalMart changing its profit and wage structure will allow the company to maintain its leading status in the retail industry? Whether it is WalMart or the next chain in line, the big box phenomenon is here to stay until enough people take Dan's invitation to vote otherwise with their pocketbook.
People who are really concerned that every place is starting to look the same (it's true) can either let their concerns be addressed by a few superficial difference on the architecure of each store, or they can refuse to let their lives be defined by proximity to an institution they find so distasteful. There are other things that define a community, and Boulder County will still be my choice whether or not WalMart builds a SuperCenter in Longmont.
Bringing this back to the local picture, the incentive package (as in, taxes refunded at the expense of the City) offered by the City of Lafayette to WalMart was roughly half of the incentive package offered to Target. Does this make Target twice as good or twice as bad, or is the only thing that matters whether a company has been sued by its employees?
Do you really think Target has never been involved in labor dispute?
Glomming onto the discussion of incentive packages, Target's incentive offered by Lafayette is almost three times as large as the one Wal-Mart received. And Lowe's is not asking for anything. So Lowe's can claim the moral high ground and Target sinks to the bottom of the barrel?
I want to know more about the defense contractors Anonymous referenced earlier. Enlighten us Chomskyites-in-training!
First of all, what defense contractor isn't in Boulder County? Many big names are present (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Ball Aerospace), and a contractor that isn't in the county is bound to be in Colorado somewhere (Raytheon, General Dynamics).
These are not only profitable firms, but great employers, with great benefits. Most cities would love to have high-paying primary employers like these. And - ahem - Louisville, Lafayette, Boulder all do play host to one or more defense conglomerates. Maybe we should be proud of this, especially if labor relations are the sole means of judging a firm's morality quotient.
"But, what means money in the bank for Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and other defense corporations, often means misery where the weapons are shipped. Despite having some of the world's strongest laws regulating the arms trade, almost half of U.S. weapons end up in countries plagued with ongoing conflict and governed by undemocratic regimes with poor human rights records." That is a quote from one of the links below. The way the arms industry profits by enabling all sorts of bloodshed is not well covered, and the American public seems curiously content with that.
Instead, a firm that employs and serves the middle class and poor is the global villain. There may be no moral high ground, just the need for a reality check.
WalMart is the popular villain because it is such an obvious target. For example, those ex-employees who sued WalMart had everything to gain, to build up their case and personally benefit, by creating a public spectacle of their dispute. Does this make other profiteering companies less morally culpable just because they've managed to remain largely out of the crosshairs of public scrutiny?
Don't answer that, no one ever does.
Not what I said at all, Cyclorado. What I've been saying all along is that other corporations are probably far worse.
And what's lame is the popular pasttime of passing judgment instead of taking personal responsibility. Perhaps, on this day, you can thankful that you don't have to make the decision to shop at WalMart or work for a defense contractor. Not everyone has such a clear path to the high moral ground. Excuse me for being so lame as to point this out.
You could have at least quoted Chomsky for us.
It's late notice, but since there have been various references to socialist/capitalist themes in this post, some may be interested to see Howard Zinn speak on CU campus for free Thursday (November 30) at 7:00 PM. http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2006/393.html
Well there you have it, if you're going to be an idealist, you might as well go all the way.
I love Chomsky as a vital intellect in a sea of apathy, but are you really going to blame your local elected officials for accommodating WalMart because it is "an elite force acting in the name of the proletariat"? That may be true, but I haven't seen too many direct options for appropriating their capital lately.
Dan, I want to see a post like this every time a big box comes to town. We might eventually get Chomsky to speak at a rally or something...
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