Wal*Mart

My MSN home page today had an article that covered the good and the bad side of Wal*Mart. I shop at Wal*Mart so I skipped the article on the good side and read the article on why I should hate them. Unfortunately, the hate article was riddled with opinion and diatribe against the way retailers in the US are headed. I love a good rant now and then but give me a bone to chew on not soft opinion.

If you try to remember a few years back when the criticism was that all the manufacturing jobs were headed to places where lower wages prevailed. The effect also allowed us to have cheaper consumer goods at a lower price. Target, Wal*Mart and a lot of grocery stores are headed to give us cheaper (Less Expensive) goods. They sell everything at a very low profit margin but they sell a whole bunch of it. Wal*Mart is the 14th largest company in the World and they have the power to wag the tail of their dogs (Suppliers). If those suppliers don't want to find the lowest price staring them in the face, don't do business with Wal*Mart. If they want to sell a lot of their products, come on down to Bentonville and take a seat at the table.

By the way, I was in Bentonville a couple of weeks ago and from the traffic, I would say that they aren't participating in any form of recession. They had an LA style traffic jam when the shifts changed. The expansion of Bentonville is remarkable. When the Walton Family finishes their American Art History Museum in a couple of years, we will all put that on our list of places to go and things to see. Mark that one down in your little black book. I loved the small Walton family museum there on the square of Bentonville.

Here is my advice to all of you out there that love to hate Wal*Mart. If you hate saving money and feel you must pay more for what you buy, don't shop there. Put them out of business and add 2 million people more to the unemployment list. That would add to the cost of the things we all need. Not me.

In this world, more and more families have to have both parents working to get by. It is not Wal*Mart's problem, but one we have created over the years. They are not the cause, but the reaction by Sam Walton to the trend he observed. With 2 million employees, they haven't added to the number of people without health insurance, they employed them and half now have access to the company insurance. I'm sure that a significant number of their employees have a family member working that has a family medical policy.

I have everything I need, most of what I want and a Wal*Mart along the way. I am an old Retired, fixed income guy that shops at Wal*Mart. And, Bonus - As we travel along the highways and by-ways of the USA, we stop at Wal*Mart stores because they have clean restrooms and about anything you could want while traveling. It is a wonderful place to get out and walk around in to stretch tired legs. They always welcome us to their home with a cheerful, Welcome to Wal*Mart.

MUD