Huntsville is where I grew up, and nearly every business in town went belly up when walmart moved in.
Its called free market capitalism. The wal-mart video is a left wing propaganda piece that attempts to depict them as evil. Lots of companies are sending business over to China. You can thank Bill Clinton for that when he opened up the trade agreement with them. I don't think there is much of a problem with wal-mart. if you don't like them don't shop there. I do some shopping there but only if I feel the quality and price suite my needs. they also employ a lot of people with jobs around the country.
Yup, its kind of funny actually. Modern Walmart actually started in Houston. If anyone remembers Auchan, they'll notice the similarities. For those who don't know, Auchan is a french company that tried to start up in America. Well they stunk and only one store stuck. That would be the one in Houston. However, it was a unique place because they employed the concept of the supercenter (Auchan called it the hypermarket), a vast store that sold practically everything. (although they're best known for making people put a quarter in their shopping cart to prevent theft) No other store in America was like it. I remember going there all the time with my parents to buy stuff even though it was far away. You could do everything in one single shopping visit. Anyway, Sam Walton actually toured the place one day and videotaped the store, its operations, etc.. And low and behold, he started the supercenter concept couple of years later and modern Walmart was born. I think Auchan closed down but the concept was revolutionary and made Walmart into the giant that it is.
There is not a single 'mom and pop' store that wouldn't do the exact same thing that Wal-Mart is doing if they had the ability and opportunity. For some reason there are a lot of people in the United States who are opposed to successful businesses. Whether it is Wal-Mart, or ExxonMobil, or Microsoft, or any other large company, there are always people trying to bring it down. It is unfortunate that Wal-Mart's superior distribution and efficiency is causing smaller stores to go out of business, but is that be something that Wal-Mart should even have to consider? Why should Wal-Mart have to curb its growth plan out of fairness to local stores?
man i remember when wal mart did that $4 prescription drug deal....wow that was some bad sh.t man. how dare those capitalist pigs!!! how dare they gain market share by maintaining lowering prices!!! MONOPOLISTS!!
I remember that place. It's now an Asian market. But I thought they just did some changes to their Sam's Club to create the Megalomart. Interesting...
While you may be right- No retailer in the modern era has had the economic power of Wal mart. Wal Mart innovations in business create precedent. The "peasant life insurance policies" caused new law to be written. Wal Mart is larger than Exxon Mobil right?
In employees and and sometimes in revenue. It's not close in profit. In fact, quite a few companies make more profit than Wal-Mart. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/performers/companies/profits/
Thank you Weslinder- Wal Mart is unique IMHO in that they are so big in scale and social impact that they can create huge social costs as part of doing business. WalMart -using innovation can cause federal regulators to write new law. I really do not care- I will buy detergent and toilet paper there
Auchan Auchan only Auchan, pay the least get the most only Auchan There are actually a lot of auchan's still in France and the rest of Europe, also htey are expanding heavily into Asia now along with even bigger chains like Carrefour.
Yeah they're still everywhere, but ironically Walmart is really hurting them. (along with other competitors like Carrefour) Auchan is pretty much non-existant in the western hemisphere because walmart basically commandeered the market. Auchan used to have stores in the US, Canada, Mexico, and some places in Latin America. Now its all Walmart territory. And now that Walmart is moving into Asia, it could really hurt although it looks like Walmart won't be getting into Europe anytime soon.
When I was a kid I remember going around the parking lot looking for carts that hadn't been returned to pick up a few quarters. Good times.
From a pure economic view, monopolistic pricing is creating large barriers to entry in a market, and then charging well above a normal profit for your product. If they are selling at a loss, that is pricing in a competitive environment, not monopolistic pricing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_Act If you made it through even a basic US History class in High School, I don't see why you would ask this question.
From my perspective, creating an environment which requires you to loose money qualifies as 'creating a large barrier to entry'.
As per the website, the Clayton act prohibits 4 things: * price discrimination between different purchasers if such discrimination substantially lessens competition or tends to create a monopoly in any line of commerce * sales on the condition that (A) the buyer or lessee not deal with the competitors of the seller or lessor ("exclusive dealings"), or that the buyer also purchase another different product * mergers and acquisitions where the effect may substantially lessen competition * any person from being a director of two or more competing corporations Which of these affects Walmart?
By using their their size as leverage, Walmart has a well documented history of demanding from suppliers prices available only to WalMart. This disparity of costs creates an advantage exclusively because of their size. It prevents competition when walmart retails an item for less than it would cost any other distributor to buy.
But unless I misunderstand, the act refers to price discrimination between purchasers - not sellers/suppliers. There's nothing illegal about discount pricing for large volume purchases. I guess you could argue the suppliers are in violation, but that would be on them for agreeing to sell to Walmart. You'd also have to show that if mom-and-pop shop was willing to buy 8 billion toothbrushes, they wouldn't be able to get the same price Walmart does.
