WILLisms.com: Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 234 -- Wal-Mart.

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Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 234 -- Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart-

I am not exactly a fan of Wal-Mart for a variety of reasons I won't go into now, but it's clear that Wal-Mart, a true success story of capitalism, has has been beneficial to the American economy.

Wal-Mart has helped to keep inflation in check through its lower prices; if Wal-Mart carries a product, that product probably costs less today in inflation-adjusted dollars than it did a decade ago. Wal-Mart has revolutionized transportation/distribution networks, boosting U.S. productivity along the way.

Still, Wal-Mart has plenty of critics, some reasonable, but many more (like these people, these people, these people, these people, and these people, many of whom overlap quite a bit) driven by less-than-pure or tenuous motives.

It's becoming more and more obvious that the "campaign" against Wal-Mart is mostly disingenuous left-wing mumbo-jumbo.

Indeed, Wal-Mart has been successful for a reason:

Wal-Mart employs about 1.3 million people, about 1% of the American work force. Its sales, at around $300 billion a year, are equal to 2.5% of U.S. gross domestic product. It is not, however, an especially profitable company. Its net profit margins, at about 3.5% of revenue, are broadly in line with the rest of the retail industry. In fiscal 2004, Microsoft made more money than Wal-Mart on just one-eighth of the sales....
...Wal-Mart's average starting wage is already nearly double the national minimum of $5.15 an hour....

...70% of Wal-Mart's executives have worked their way up from the company's front lines.

A good read on Wal-Mart.

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Previous Trivia Tidbit: America's Booming Economy.

Posted by Will Franklin · 3 December 2005 07:52 PM

Comments

When we buy baby formula and save $5 per can twice a week that adds up. Diapers too. Damned near everything is cheaper at WalMart. I know some folks hate Walmart, but at the end of the day, Walmart still has to recruit shoppers and still has to recruit employees and they always seem to have a steady stream of both.

Posted by: Justin B at December 4, 2005 01:29 AM

Two observations that are often overlooked:

1. It's not so much a question of "disingenuous left-wing mumbo-jumbo" but rather quite genuine pandering to labor unions. To the left, any non-executive worker who is not in a union is, by definition, being "exploited."

2. The worst lie about Wal-Mart is that it drives small firms out of business. It may drive small retailers out of business, but that's not the same thing. Something like 20% of Wal-Mart's revenues come from small businesses (e.g., restaurants), especially through its "Sam's Club" unit. Wal-Mart has been a tremendous positive for small business, which is the backbone of the American economy.

Posted by: KipEsquire at December 4, 2005 07:46 AM

screwed up my HTML, sorry.

Posted by: KipEsquire at December 4, 2005 07:47 AM

Wal-Mart is not as good as it use to be. I went in the other day to buy some vitamins and Flaxseed oil for my puppy who has cancer. The expiration dates were out dated by several years! I was very disappointed! Also when I tried to check out after finding some other items I needed. There were few checkout lines open and several people waiting in line. So I left and went somewhere else.

Posted by: Zsa Zsa at December 4, 2005 10:29 AM