Palladin8

The reason mom and pop stores are more money for the same item as a big box store is because of volume. Walmart is the largest retailer in the world plain and simple. They tell the manufacturer what they are willing to pay for an item and the manufacturer can either agree to sell their product at the price Walmart is willing to pay or they can say no and miss out. Mom and Pop stores can not compete with this. Walmart might spend say $5,000,000 on inventory in a day while a mom and pop would spend that in a year or two years.
There is one large problem with the loss of other retailers. Once there is only one place you can shop and there is no one left to compete with the store can then raise their prices to whatever they want to and there is little anyone can do about it since there is no where else to shop. Wlamart's business practices are dirty and yes they may employ many 1000s of people, those people are paid a low wage, are often not given enough hours to maintain their benefits, and are often treated poorly. My younger brother worked for them while attending college and told me first hand how poorly the employees are treated.
Another example about how we take it in the shorts from large corporations. Look at the oil industry. The large corporations are buying up all the smaller companies. Now that there are very few small companies out there the larger companies can now set their price as high as they want. They can say the reason for the price hike was because of having to shut down a plant for maintaince or because the middle east or what have you but the facts are there are surplus' in place for these very reasons.

When you have many companies out there competing against one another they have to keep the price low. When you have one or two companies out there they can do what they want.

DeerandbearhoG

Walmart has plenty of competition , target, kohls, big lots etc. all the local grocers not to mention all those dollar stores, plus theres plenty of "mom and pop" stores around my area for convenience too. I also dont believe when people say walmart treats it employees bad, Im sure some dont like working there, but at the one near me Ive see the same people working there for years how bad can it be?

zrexpilot

as a door greeter what do think one should make for a zero skill job ?
My buddy works for wal mart. he makes 21.00 an hr , has awsome benifits, no hes not a door greeter or a cashier.
wal mart pays if you have skills.
A cashier or associate is an entry level job and pays accordingly, wanna make more get some skills, its that simple

Bible_Man

X2! Society today, in the era of rampant welfare and unemployment, is generally given to entitlement. People think they should have things given to them. This doesn't end with those folks, however. Too many with jobs think it is ridiculous that they have lower wages. Most of these, as zrex pointed out, are working jobs that do not require skill. Sure, the guy next door may take my money to bandage up a gaping wound, but I'd rather spend more money and go to someone that has acquired the necessary skills to perform such acts. Most folks, at least around me, simply cannot get it through their heads that jobs that require little to no skill will never bring in big $. That ain't gonna change anytime soon, either.

jerry d

I read in todays paper{ NY Daily News } that for every 2 jobs that Walmart creates 3 jobs are lost at mom & pop operations.

Pawildman

..... I agree totally. What you have to thank for that kind of thinking is the Union mentality. It's no wonder that the automotive industry in this country went belly-up or close to it. I t just makes absolutely zero sense that you pay a low-level skill job worker $75K/yr. to sell a car to the guy out on the street who's making less than $50K. Same thing just happened in the housing market... remember? Unions were good to get the miner out of the mud and the wet and gas. They have FAR succeeded their worthfulness. A blight on our economy.

country1

Another huge economic threat are the vertical monopolies. A vertical monopoly is the market condition where a person or entity controls everything from raw material to selling. There are large corporations that own a lot of farm land. These same corporations own the companies that sell the seed for planting, the elevators/terminals for buying the crops, the distribution system to the food processor and finally the food processor. These vertical monopolies are working on increasing the scope of their monopoly. An example is a vertical monopoly of agricultural food commodities (grains, corn, beans, etc.) taking control of livestock markets (meats). Basically, the food system in this country is turning into a cartel like OPEC. The same is happening to the ferrous and non-ferrous businesses. Those who have put their safety net in paper gold (certificates) will likely be very disappointed. Many analysts believe that gold is way oversold (more gold sold than exists). This is why you see some large corporations hedging the markets by taking delivery of their gold.

Palladin8

When I talk about Walmart treating their people badly I speak from my brothers experience with them. He told me many things that were done by management. One example is that if they did not at least match the sales of the previous year on that given day then they were to cut employees hours to compensate for the loss in revenue. They don't take into count other contributing factors as to why sales were off that day. I fully understand that Walmart is a business and as such they are there to make a profit first and foremost. I am just not a fan of some of their pratices. The benefit package that my brother had was nothing that impressed me. He was in the management program and was offered a little better package than standard employees. I guess for the type of work it is the benefits are ok.
There are many problems in our country right now that has contributed to the poor state of our economy. Walmart just happens to be one piece of that puzzle.

Terasec

I agree,
people always make the complaint that walmart pays low salaries,
these are mostly stock boy and cashier postions,
those have always been min wage jobs no matter where,
if someone is trying to support a family on a min wage stock/cashier job they should have thought about why they only qualify for such jobs,
mom and pop stores are no different, they pay min wage for min wage jobs,
i enjoy both, local mom and pop stores, and large stores like walmart,
the convenience of getting just about anything at anytime, is what makes walmart what it is,
want to be fishing/hunting by 6am,
good luck picking up supplies anywhere else at 5am,

also for quality of merchandise,
walmart stocks the same crap mom and pop stores stock, very little difference in merchandise

zrexpilot

nah he works at one of the distribution centers here in Texas.
He basically moves trailers around with a bobtail truck for others to load and unload.
He works 3 days a week and gets 40 to 50 hrs in that time has 2 weeks vacation 1 day a month sick leave 2 days per 6 months un excused. One infraction is called a step, 4 steps in 6 months your fired. Its almost impossible to get fired from there, youd have to be one lazy person .
so roughly about a 130 days a year is all he works with benifts and 44 k plus a year.
Gravy job.