Letters to the Editor
-
Faded glory indeed
We can thank WalMart for accelerating the process by insisting that its suppliers cut costs to the point where they had to move production overseas to meet WalMart's targets.
-
DUH!
People who shop at Walmart deserve to get ripped off.
Most are not smart enough to realize when they have been ripped off.
-
the Wal-Mart Spiral
Wal-Mart's goal for this country has been to create a permanent underclass dependent upon their low prices. They achieved it by setting their target manufacturer's costs low, so that items had to be made overseas. American's lost their jobs, forcing them to shop at Wal-Mart, allowing them more market muscle to send more american jobs overseas. Forcing more and more people to shop at Wal-Mart, and continuing the Wal-Mart Circle of Despair.
Until we get some leadership in washington that's willing to establish "Import ratio quotas" (it basically says for x number of units you want to sell in the US, y percentage of those units must be made here in the US using American Labor), Wal-Mart will still reign supreme. It will still continue to feed itself by impoverishing middle America communities, and as they now offer "services" like tax preparation, hair care, medical care, pharmacy, banking, optometry, we can be assured that they'll continue to "diversify" operations until they have housing (remember the Pullman company?), hospitals and clinics (cheap surgery at Wal-Mart) and government, security, and social services. Eventually they'll run small towns, forcing the inhabitants to live, work in, eat at, shop at, socialize in, and get services from Wal-Mart. And that ain't no way to live in the US.
-
@jedimaster
And that ain't no way to live in the US.
Really? Ask the Judds. I'm sure they'd tell you all about it. We're basically cycling back to the way things were here circa 1930 or so, albeit in a glossy, high-tech style. Things will continue to get worse and worse, until the point of ultimate suckage. Then the folks will get mad enough to vote in an administration that actually WILL change things. (I have no hope that Obama, for all his high-minded ideals will be able to do so.) As in tell the rich folks to go fuck themselves, raise their taxes to a fair level, re-invigorate the regulatory and government service departments, get us the fuck OUT of all these stupid wars, and use our money to start national projects that will put people back to work.
Maybe, MAYBE, if we're unbelievably lucky, we might get some of our domestic and global traction back. We'll never be America the Golden again, but with a little luck, we might find a way to make our people reasonably comfortable (that's reasonably, as in don't expect a four-bedroom house and all the toys you can eat anymore). I have my doubts that our karma will bring it about, but I have my hopes also. But it definitely involves us hitting bottom (which we haven't even neared yet), and then having the willpower and the backbone to do what will be required to pull this country out of the sinkhole.
Keep your fingers crossed.
-
Er... You get what you pay for?
Wal-Mart customer's buy into the idea that "cheaper is always better", but how long can this last? Is there a point where people will actually wake up and realize that sometimes things can be TOO cheap? My mother buys a certain type of stuffing at wal-mart. She tried to buy it bulk dierct from the manufacturer, but they say that they can't match wal-mart's price. She saves about $2/month, but she is obsessed with saving money, so it's worth it to her even though I lecture her about how she is putting people out of work. So... why can't the manufacturer sell it as cheaply as Wal-Mart? Probably because Wal-Mart buys a cheaper version of their product and in order to sell it at a profit, while the company sells the better quality product to people who aren't obsessed with buying things as cheaply as possible. But you can't keep dropping the quality forever. At some point people are going to notice that the batting is getting ruined with the first wash - or that clothing is wearing out even before their child outgrows it.
-
Perfectly logical.
It's disposable clothes for a disposable demographic.
(And yes, the first time I saw that brand name some years ago, all that registered in my brain was WTF???)
-
Not Made in the U.S.A.
I remember when Wal-Mart opened in my small, rural, midwestern hometown in the mid-1980’s. The whole store looked like an American flag with signs that read, “Made in the U.S.A” all over the place. I’ve always found it interesting that a store that took over the rural areas of the country and pushed out local businesses by waving the flag and American images – now hardly sells anything (if at all) made here.
-
Faded Glory
I probably have a few Faded Glory shirts in my wardrobe, as I rarely pay more than $5 for a shirt, and yes, they don't last for ever and they get coffee stains, and they get paint splashed on them, and then I throw them away.
But guess what? I could pay $30 for a pretty much identical shirt in Dillard's or Macy's and I really doubt if it would be any better or last any longer. Not 6 times better anyway. And saving money on shirts means I have money available for other things, like gifts for my wife.
So what?
-
Wal-Mart sucks, but so do several of the opinions expressed here
It's funny that the "correspondent" failed to notice the Faded Glory brand until recently -- it smacks of somebody with the financial wherewithal to be able to avoid shopping at Wal-Mart. I remember being embarrassed to wear Faded Glory clothes in high school while my friends wore their more durable, more stylish name brands.
I hear a lot of big talk about some "Wal-Mart demographic", or people who are too stupid to shop somewhere else, but wake up! The structure of our nation's economy is changing. People of all ages, races, and income brackets fill the parking lot at Supercenters across the country. The majority of the nation shops at Wal-Mart, and will continue to shop at Wal-Mart. Boycotts will fail: a few thousand liberal elites shopping at farmers markets will be a tiny blip on their spreadsheets. The only ways to nail them are to force their hand with tariffs and anti-trust legislation, and to continually shine the media spotlight on their manufacturing practices and the vacuuming of funds out of local economies and into Bentonville. In that respect, bravo to the author and to Salon.