Something Fishy at Walmart?

So last night was the lsat night I get to stay up as late as I want and sleep in. I was channel flipping and saw a show about how Walmart has become the big sucess that it is and how some people think its actually ruining our country's small buisnesses. It was actually pretty interesting. It started off by showing how Sam Walton got the idea to create a one stope shopiing store, and how it grew into the biggest retailer in America. I tuned in about the time that they were discussing its foreign assembly plants. The vast majority of its products come from China. They were focasing on how toys were made. Namely: The Bratz doll. The company owner told the reporters that the doll could be made in China and sold in the U.S. for anywhere between 15-20$ depending on the doll. He said that if the doll was made in the U.S. it would sell for about 60$. The show changed to a bunch of poeple outside a Walmart demonstrating with signs telling people to not support Walmart because it doesn't support American made products.

After a commercial the show met up with poeple in the Walmart headquaters who were trying to get Walmart to pick up thier product. These people were going crazy over it. One family they interveiwed had an invention called Wallpockets (some kinda wall hanging device you can put random objects in.) They were so scared Walmart wasn't going to pick them up. This made me wonder how many poeple Walmart actually turns away on a daily basis and how dissapointed these people must feel. Walmart actually picked them up. However after the happiness of getting picked up wore off they felt a strain from Walmarts end. According to the show Walmart kept pushing them to cut the cost of the product. They pulled the down to half of the price andwanted them to go down more. The lady said it put a strain on the people that make the product because it was hard to actually make the product cheaper and still make a decent profit. The lady also said that it took a while for Walmart to get the product on the shelves. She said if it didn't get better they were goning to lose a lot of money. They took out a huge chunk of her husbands retirement fund just to get it going. I didn't get to see he end of the show. But I really hope the Wallpocket people did well.

After yet another commercial a reporter was interveiwing an ex supplier of Walmart. The show said that they contacted several current suppliers and none wanted to be interviewed. The one they met with said that the store encouraged the company to ship its manufacturing overseas. They didn't and the company eventually went bankrupt. Another point the show made was Walmart's anvanced computer systems. Theres a giant room somewhere (the location wasn't mentioned) that controls all of the stock of eachh individual store. When the cashier scans the item its sent to this place and kept record of for 2 years. This system also helps keep track of what needs to be shipped to where. Walmart also keeps track of weather. A spokesperson said that during hurricane weather people seem to buy more Poptarts. Strawberry is the most bought. So if the weather system says : Hurricane on the way this machine will tell the stores in that area to get a bigger stock of Poptarts. I wondered as I watched this what would happen if one tiny error was made. Would it screw up the whole system? Would Tampa not get extra strawberry Poptarts? Who knows?

After watching this show I thought about the big question" Is Walmart really ruining our smaller buisnesses?" I'm not sure. I like Walmart in the fact that you can get almost everything under one roof. But I also enjoy the local grocery stores. I like the hometowny feel of it. You know what I'm saying? Maybe not.... I'm still not sure how to feel about Walmart. Yes its very conveinent but it does have some flaws. Most its products are made in China and we've all heard about those lead paint scares. When you rely on one country to make your goods, if something goes wrong all your products are at risk of being tainted with whatevers going around. I know my family does most of our shopping there, but we also shop at the local grocery store a couple of times a month. I guess Walmarts not too bad. But niether is the local Food Giant.