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At Our Lady of Refuge Roman Catholic Church in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx, where for decades parishioners have rallied to denounce neighborhood drug dealers, people gathered last summer to demonstrate against an enemy that deals in digital cameras, toasters, shower curtains and thousands of other products.
Where's Reverend Billy? That quote is from today's NY Times article about people trying to stop a Wal-Mart from coming to the Bronx. Nevermind that Wal-Mart hasn't officially said that they'd like to bring one of its store to the borough - activists are just making sure it never ever happens. This is in spite of the majority of Bronx residents saying they would welcome a Wal-Mart.
Activists explain that even though the store would bring cheap items and more jobs, the jobs won't be quality jobs and smaller businesses are hurt. But there is some good news:
Activists are emboldened by two behind-the-scenes victories in the Bronx. Earlier this year, the developer turning the old Bronx Terminal Market into a shopping mall specifically agreed not to lease space to Wal-Mart.Many local Bronx politicians are split - some are vehemently opposed to Wal-Mart coming, while others, including Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion and City Councilman Joel Rivera, are more cautious.And the request for proposals for the redevelopment of the giant Kingsbridge Armory, issued in September by the city’s Economic Development Corporation, discourages suburban-style big-box stores.
The most interesting factoid from the article: "Wal-Mart officials say a new store would create about 300 jobs and generate about $5 million in tax revenue for the city. Last year, New York City residents spent about $128 million at Wal-Mart stores in New Jersey and Connecticut, and in Westchester County and on Long Island in New York, the company said."
Here's the Wal-Mart Free NYC website - have you seen the Wal-Mart No Way ad on NY1?
Photograph of an Art Parade group's take on Wal Mart by Urban Shore Girl on Flickr
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The only difference between Wal-Mart and Target is the number of stores they own. And people probably like to pick on Wal-Mart because it is from Arkansas. They pay the same wages. Stop being hypocrits. If you want to ban one, you can't shop at the other.
I'm thinking about what happened last week, when several thousand people showed up in Midtown to apply for a couple hundred mostly part-time jobs at the the M&M store. Jobs that paid less than Wal-Mart's average wage. New York, especially the Bronx, urgently needs more jobs for people who aren't highly educated and don't have advanced job skills. These anti-Wal-Mart activists just don't get the point.
There is a difference in how the market works because of Wal-Mart and that is where the conflict comes into play on Wal-Mart. Target, while using similarly nasty methods, hasn't targeted areas like Wal-Mart and doesn't have quite the same history. Wal-Mart engages in predatory practices when they enter an area and often place their stores in areas that would drive out competitive businesses then drive up prices while not being held accountable by local jurisdictions. Wal-Mart also has a history of very poor labor relations from numerous discrimination suits throughout the country to placing their wages so low as to force their employees to go on public support since Wal-Mart will not live up to it's responsibilities. It is a fact that the very business model of Wal-Mart holds back product innovation and ensures that the consumer is nearly perpetually misinformed about the product. Wal-Mart even lets uninformed people dictate products to go into their product line. Target is not a great place either but when you consider the economic weight wielded by Wal-Mart versus Target, I'd rather have Target around than Wal-Mart. and I would shop at neither. If you like Wal-Mart so much, why don't you talk to the Chinese employees that make most of the products in their stores how much they like Wal-Mart. Try to learn a little about the company before defending it.
why is everyone protesting white? oh, because walmart would hire poor minorities. And they don't want that kind in their neighborhood. the real reason.
actually jj, Bedford Park is very racially diverse.
I believe whites are the minority, and i should know because im a 5 minute walk away from there.
you might want to think before you pull the race card.
otherobject,
Being a typical internet moron you have made some wild assumptions about my beliefs. Please point to the passage that leads you to believe I "love Wal-Mart". If would be obvious to a 10 year old that my post was to mock the hypocrisy of most New Yorkers (most of whom are Democrats) for their blindness to Target's identical wages and FYI worse health insurance coverage. I guess when Oprah calls it Tar-jay you guys ignore the truth. I think they should both pay more. The only difference is that Wal-mart is larger than Target. But do you think Target doesn't have ambitions to keep opening new stores. Eventually, Wal-Mart will saturate the US market and Target will close the gap. If you protest one and shop at the other, you're a hypocrit. It's that simple.
Also, the group Wal-mart Watch's ultimate goal is not to get Wal-mart to expand health coverage. They want Wal-mart to use their massive market power to force the government to enact universal health care.
I have to agree that Target is just as bad as Walmart and there is certainly a lot of merchandise in Target that is made in China.
However, I have to take exception with the post containing "Wal-Mart holds back product innovation and ensures that the consumer is nearly perpetually misinformed ".
OK, they have enormous buying clout so they can dictate to manufacturers the products they will sell, but nobody is forced to sell to Walmart. They do so out of a desire to increase market share and volume but if it's really so horrible (yeah, yeah that whole gallon jar of pickle example and the cheap kid's bikes, I read that article a while back too) don't sell to them.
Furthermore, Walmart has introduced incredible logistical innovation to the market.
Anyway, is someone supposed to make a career out of working at Walmart? Sure, there's the management track for a select few, but ultimately it's just an entry level job. I watched a documentary about the union movement at Walmart and one of guys complaining stocks food in freezer. He's done it for several years now and he is pissed that he's not getting paid more. That's the thing about being an unskilled laboror - you can be replaced by cheaper unskilled labor at any time.
Otherobject, have fun sitting at home knitting your own socks and shopping at bodegas. I hear that if you move to Florida you can just wear a loin cloth and wash in the stream all year 'round. Let me know how that works out for you.
"I'd rather have Target around than Wal-Mart. and I would shop at neither. "
OTHEROBJECT: SHUT UP!!! Go live your doom and gloom existance somewhere else.
Free enterprise has always been the way to go in the USA.
Next you are going to tell wealthy people to stop all investments because their bank accounts are too big. They keep little people from being able to by several hundred stocks, minimum purchase, at $200 a pop.
Your argument stinks like ranky sox in a mens locker room.
When a Wal-Mart comes into a neighborhood, the economy of that neighborhood is drastically changed. Smaller businesses are wiped out eventually, and people who need jobs are forced to work at places like Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is creating the economy that keeps people from moving ahead. Did you know that Wal-Mart has locked employees inside their stores (citing "security") and that one particular employee could not get out because the manager was away and he was the only one with a key to get out? AND, Wal-Mart has surveillance cameras on their store, but apparently not in their parking lots, as a woman was raped in a Wal-Mart parking lot and there was no surveillance to stop it and catch the guy.
"These anti-Wal-Mart activists just don't get the point."
Oh, yes, they do. The people seeking these jobs need them. Period. There's nothing to debate about that. It's been proven time and again, however, that Wal-Mart and its ilk do not pay a living wage and, furthermore, design their businesses to pay full benefits to as little of their labor force as possible.
That people flock to these jobs because they need them does not make such business/labor practices acceptable. Anti-Wal-Mart people recognize this exploitation and speak out about it. I don't understand the vitriol directed at these protestors.
Where's the Outrage - I agree with you. I think there's a high-brow/low-brow thing going on with Wal-Mart and Target.
That said, Wal-Mart's tentacles reach a lot farther.
I watched the documentary High Price for Low Cost and it seems that Wal-Mart gets a lot of hate because it's a superstore that carries virtually everything from food to auto repair to home electronics and that tends to drive smaller Main Street businesses out more than a KMart or Bradlees would in the past. Plus they have the rep for making people work off the clock. If anyone works fulltime they should have health insurance, and the store should make someone work 34 hours a week just to keep them under fulltime status. It's about Wal-Mart making 300 Billion a year instead of 500 Billion (I made those figures up). Can they make a little less profit and take care of their people?
As far as Made in China goes, almost EVERYONE sells things made in China. Wal-Mart didn't start it, and they are not stocking things made in China ONLY for Wal-Mart; it's the toy companies and the clothing companies that choose to have their stuff made there. Again, can these companies make less profit and have stuff made in the USA where people have to get paid a minimum wage and have benefits? Nah, they would rather make bank.
As for living wage, they should pay above minimum since minumum is an insult to anyone doing anything. But ever since retail stores existed, they have never paid a cashier or stockperson enough to have a house, car and family. It's not that kind of job, unless you move up into management, which you can at Sears, JCPenney, Kohl's, and back in the day Caldor and Jamesway... the retail chains have always paid minimum or slightly above. Always.
Another thing that pushes companies to manufacture in China is WALL STREET. Companies are pressured to make their quarterly projections. If they don't, the stock price falls and they become a target for acquisition, possibly by a private equity firm that will make the cuts and move operations overseas, without the scrutiny of a public company. Funny how New Yorkers brag about how much tax money they send to DC (more than we get back) but we don't question where all that income comes from. If Wal-Mart is evil, then so is the entire financial industry. How many of you work in finance, law, "consulting", accounting, etc. and are just feeding the machine?
is that a spliff in his mouth?
Wal-Mart engages in predatory practices when they enter an area and often place their stores in areas that would drive out competitive businesses then drive up prices while not being held accountable by local jurisdictions.
You know, I hear this argument all the time. But can you come up with one recorded instance where Wal-Mart has the stones to charge $6.50 for a box of Cheerios like, say, Gristede's?
Wal-Mart is generally predatory with suppliers, not consumers. From everything I've read, if you stick with Wal-Mart long enough to get full-time, they pay pretty well. I always have the same question for anyone who brings up this point. If you ran a retail store: what, exactly, would YOU pay a 20-hour per week cashier?
AND, Wal-Mart has surveillance cameras on their store, but apparently not in their parking lots, as a woman was raped in a Wal-Mart parking lot and there was no surveillance to stop it and catch the guy.
I don't even get what this has to do with anything. Yeah, it sucks, but you're blaming Wal-Mart for a woman getting raped. It's also possible that Wal-Mart didn't own their parking lot, that they leased it from a management company (they do that in at least one instance I know of upstate) at which point it's the management company's responsibility to monitor their land.
For me, Wal-Mart, in addition to the myriad stories regarding its evil business practices, just doesn't pass the sniff test.
Does anyone ever feel good going into (or leaving) a Wal-Mart?
Does anyone honestly believe that this company is responsible? Toward its neighborhood constituents, toward its employees, toward its suppliers/business partners?
I won't begrudge the corporation its right to maximize profits in whatever legal way it sees fit, but I wouldn't encourage those business practices by patronizing this store and would hope that others would understand the detrimental effects this company is having in the American (not to mention global) marketplace.
The only reason I go to Target instead of Wal-Mart is because they have more than one register open on a Saturday.
I won't begrudge the corporation its right to maximize profits in whatever legal way it sees fit, but I wouldn't encourage those business practices by patronizing this store and would hope that others would understand the detrimental effects this company is having in the American (not to mention global) marketplace.
I suggest you sell any questionable stocks in your 401k or IRA (including mutual funds that hold such stocks) and demand your pension fund (should you be in one) do the same.
I do understand the anger towards WalMart,Target, and others . What I don't understand is the arguement these folks are trying to push . Here you have an area ravaged by unemployment, Which leads to Crime, and others . A company decides to invest some money into the area and now these people want to bitch about being short-changed !!! Your not making any sense, A job is a job and you should all remember this . What these people should be rallying against are the drug dealers in there midst . Yes I grew-up in the hood so I know what it's like to deal with it . All that bullshit they talk about is just that , BULLSHIT! I had plenty of low end jobs and worked each one like it was my only job . I managed to make a little dough and saved as much as I could . It's all about willpower, and Believing in ones self .
hahah white people are silly.
"A job is a job and you should all remember this . What these people should be rallying against are the drug dealers in there midst"
If you read the article, you'd see that the protestors have been active about the drug dealers in the n'hood, as well. A job is not just a job - we have lots of laws and regulations governing what a boss can do and what an employee can do. Questioning that kind of authority is just as much a part of this country's history as the sacrosanct pursuit of maximum profits (which, by the way, is also highly regulated).
Anonymass - you make an excellent point. There's been just a little too much sketchy press about Wal-Mart and it's just a little too powerful an entity to ignore. Doesn't pass my smell test, either.
I don't own Wal-Mart stock either directly or indirectly. My IRAs are a mix of self-directed investments and funds that are targeted at certain industry sectors.
Pension - what's that?