Maybe there is hope for Walmart.

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Did you hear Walmart will hire military vets with an honorable discharge within 1 year of leaving the military.

I don't know if that was just a publicity stunt to get some free attention.


WM is "always hiring". If they get a plethora of people they'll cut those already on the floor from ~30 hours to ~20 hours to make room for the new hires. They figure they'll have some attition or they can punish their bottom tier with fewer and fewer hours.

But if I ran a big box store where I trained newbies to do my bidding, I'd hire veterans too... solid work history, used to following orders, etc.

 

[tig1]

M1 is made in the USA and sold at WM. So are MC filters.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Sterlite plastic products are made in Townsend, Massachusetts!

 

[javacontour]

You left out the word ADDITIONAL. So whatever percentage is US now, according to your analysis, they are adding and ADDITIONAL 2% US sourced products.

Given the size of Wal*Mart, that may make a pretty big impact.

Sure, we would like to see closer to 100% US sourced content, but it won't happen. There are some things that other nations have a competitive advantage in making.

Originally Posted By: Donald
It says buying $50B over 10 years, so $5B a year. Since it says "buy" one can assume its wholesale price. The numbers I have seen say Walmart takes in about $10K/second in sales (or $864M/day).

Thats a worldwide sales number, US only would be less. One might assume they would local source in some other countries also.

So basically 1/50 of their sales would be USA sourced.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: ottotheclown
Please when you find any product that is made in USA at Walmart take a picture. Even if it takes 8 months to find one.


Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Sterlite plastic products are made in Townsend, Massachusetts!


Almost everything I buy at Walmart is made in the United States. That's motor oil, oil filters, hard items like Rubbermaid and Sterilite, occasional milk/food items (though we've switched to Harris Teeter for our grocery shopping), etc. In truth, I'm not sure I buy anything at Walmart that's made overseas...or if I do, it's an item that would be no different in any other store (like electronics, etc).

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Did you hear Walmart will hire military vets with an honorable discharge within 1 year of leaving the military.

I don't know if that was just a publicity stunt to get some free attention.





Anyone would hire military veteran with honorable discharge, it is whether they are full time job and how much is the pay that matters.

 

[Mr Nice]

The way the economy is going, not all vets can find a decent job. Walmart will offer them part-time with no benefits.

 

[mechanicx]

These companies don't hire veterans or people on welfare just out of the goodness of their hearts though. They get tax credits maybe 40% of the wages and up to $9600. After they get the tax credits and within a year or so often they get rid of the employees and hire new ones. So the real credit for the hiring of veterans goes to the taxpayers if anyone. And I don't have anything against that, except for businesses trying to take credit for it.

 

[PSS]

Let's not forget it was Walmart that compelled many companies to move to China in the first place to meet Walmarts low price requirements.

Search Walmart Rubbermaid for one example.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: PSS
Let's not forget it was Walmart that compelled many companies to move to China in the first place to meet Walmarts low price requirements.

Search Walmart Rubbermaid for one example.

 

[Tempest]

Originally Posted By: PSS
Let's not forget it was Walmart that compelled many companies to move to China in the first place to meet Walmarts low price requirements.

Search Walmart Rubbermaid for one example.


Like how they carry made in USA Sterilite?

And you want them to raise their prices?

 

[DBMaster]

I am going to go off on a slight tangent. It is related to minimum wage and all that garbage that has been in the news again. I believe (I said "I.") that someone who is willing to put in good effort and be a reliable worker should be able to make a living at ANY job they perform. What does that mean? It means that "minimum wage" might need to be $20/hour. That's just a rather arbitrary number I am throwing out there. That way, everyone willing to work feels that it is worthwhile to do so. Yes, that makes everything more expensive for the rest of us. But, most of us working decently paying jobs can stand to do with less - a lot less. Walk through your home and look at every little thing you own. How much of that do you really need? How many of those things actually improve your life? How much of that food supports your body and how much of it just makes you fat?

Sorry, back on topic. I still think Wal Mart shoppers dictate what the stores offer by BUYING it. If the majority actually cared they could alter WM's offerings. They don't care. They want cheap goods and lots of them. Because, after all, isn't having a bunch of stuff the American Dream?

 

[javacontour]

I'm ok with me deciding how much I need or don't need. But I have a real issue when others think they have the right to decide how much I need or don't need.

That sort of thing tramples on the principles of freedom our nation was founded upon.

If someone wants to study Art History, they are free to do so. However, they are not free to demand that they be paid what they deem as enough. That's just license for folks to say their job, regardless the real value, must be paid $X/hour.

We don't need many buggy whip makers. But under your rule-set, anyone who wanted to be a buggy whip maker could do so, and demand $20/hour for a skill that has value only to a very small slice of the population.

So I come down on the side of freedom. You are free to study what you want. You are free to follow your dreams. However, that freedom doesn't extend to telling me that I have "enough" and I have to pay more so you (or anyone else) can follow their dreams.

 

[PandaBear]

DBMaster,

Agree with you, but in reality our economy (or human civilization as a whole) found that it is more valuable to pay people a non living wage and hire people that do not put in a good effort or are reliable.

We've seen threads about "cashiers couldn't count without a calculator or a register", or "store clerks who don't know anything about the products", those are examples that technology eliminates the dependency on good employees to have organization functioning well. They replace the critical parts with computers and let the previously non qualifying person to do the jobs nowadays. It is a good use of our human resources that previously wouldn't cut it (and save money along the way), but it also means some quality reduction as well.

The major problems become: what do you do when you have too many over qualified people and they are all too expensive? That's the question that we have not found answers to, as we have many college grads doing unrelated manual labors, and we have PhDs that are unemployed doing formerly vocational school jobs that could've taken only 2 years of higher education instead of 10 years.

 

[DBMaster]

Excellent! I made a few polarizing statements to stimulate discussion. I believe what I say, but I know there are few absolutes in life. There ARE a few, but they are the ones we cannot control. I just enjoy a good, civil interchange of ideas. It gets old when everyone tries to assert opinions as the only correct ones. I am relatively new to this forum and I observe that a lot of energy is expended by posters attempting to either disparage others' ideas or otherwise "prove" that that individual's beliefs, theories, or experience are somehow uniquely correct. There are many valid ideas expressed here. Just try to separate fact from emotion.

 

[javacontour]

As long as you plan to live your beliefs without imposing them on others most folks would be willing to live and let live. However, when one starts talking about so and so has enough the should... then they are saying their opinion overides the opinion of others. That infringes upon the freedoms of those deemed to have enou have enough.

Ironically, I agree that it gets old when folks try to assert their opinions as the only correct ones. That is exactly what is being done when one tries to tell another they have enough or they should pay more.


Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Excellent! I made a few polarizing statements to stimulate discussion. I believe what I say, but I know there are few absolutes in life. There ARE a few, but they are the ones we cannot control. I just enjoy a good, civil interchange of ideas. It gets old when everyone tries to assert opinions as the only correct ones. I am relatively new to this forum and I observe that a lot of energy is expended by posters attempting to either disparage others' ideas or otherwise "prove" that that individual's beliefs, theories, or experience are somehow uniquely correct. There are many valid ideas expressed here. Just try to separate fact from emotion.

 

[DBMaster]

Follow your own beliefs. Do not let others form them for you. If history proves anything it is that the contrarians are often the ones who are right. If your opinion is not your own, hard won by experience, why express it forcefully as though it is gospel. Be open to listening. A closed mind is a ticking time bomb.

 

[jrustles]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Follow your own beliefs. Do not let others form them for you. If history proves anything it is that the contrarians are often the ones who are right. If your opinion is not your own, hard won by experience, why express it forcefully as though it is gospel. Be open to listening. A closed mind is a ticking time bomb.


Whoa. +2

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
DBMaster,

Agree with you, but in reality our economy (or human civilization as a whole) found that it is more valuable to pay people a non living wage and hire people that do not put in a good effort or are reliable.


Nope. Just capitalism.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
As long as you plan to live your beliefs without imposing them on others most folks would be willing to live and let live. However, when one starts talking about so and so has enough the should... then they are saying their opinion overides the opinion of others. That infringes upon the freedoms of those deemed to have enou have enough.

Ironically, I agree that it gets old when folks try to assert their opinions as the only correct ones. That is exactly what is being done when one tries to tell another they have enough or they should pay more.




But isn't Walmart or where ever else telling its employees how much they can have that $9/hr or so is enough? And aren't consumer to a lesser extent telling others what they can get if they demand the lowest price over everything else, literally picking a chinese version of a product to save only a few pennies?

Seems to me always someone is trying or is dictating what someone else can have, and the higher up on the economic totem pole the more they can and do it.