Sat
Mar 28 2009
09:12 am
Wal-Mart or Mall-Wart
By: farmer leaf

Bill Moyers Journal (PBS) had an informative segment on a community organizer in South Chicago last night, that was attempting to get Wal-Mart to pay a living wage to employees. Wal-Mart threatened to close its' stores there if the Chicago City Council passed the living wage bill. Unfortunately, back room politics (bribes and threats) ultimately defeated the bill. Wal-Mart's attitude-"Poor people are lucky to have a job at all." I think this is the attitude that leads to economic, if not actual, slavery.

Also this related post from KnoxViews

Wall-E vs. Wal-Mart
Submitted by WakeUpWalmart on Tue, 2009/02/10 - 5:05pm.

I watched the great movie Wall-E last night. If you haven't seen it yet, fire up your Netflix or jot down a note to hit Blockbuster after work.

If you have seen it, you probably recognized the corporate behemoth of Buy-N-Large. We have a similar, sinister company down here on Earth called Wal-Mart.

In the movie, Buy-N-Large has gotten so gargantuan and out-of-control that it has taken on every aspect of society: It peddles every possible product at its Supercenters, it sells gas, it controls the banks -- and it has even taken on the role of a quasi-government.

Wal-Mart would love to be Buy-N-Large if it could. Indeed, the Bentonville behemoth has recently attempted to grow beyond its traditional Supercenter model. It has introduced gas stations and has even tried to create a bank!

But perhaps most ominously, Wal-Mart is even getting involved in elections. During the 2008 election, management pulled employees into meetings to urge them not to vote for Obama because -- gasp! -- he would fight for worker's rights.

The similarity between the Bentonville behemoth and the Buy-N-Large behemoth is funny, but it's scary, too. It's why I'm doing work with Wake Up Wal-Mart.

Consider Wake Up Wal-Mart as Wall-E. I know that analogy doesn't really work -- but both WUWM and Wall-E fight/are fighting the behemoth to restore environmental vitality and quality of life back to America. I urge you to join the fight!

Topics:

Mall-Wart

Submitted by macmurchadh on March 28, 2009 - 9:37am.

It is no accident that they have targeted small towns. After helping to put a lot of the industries that once employed the workers out of business or moved, they can then hire these same skilled workers for substantially less that what they were making before. Once they become entrenched in the community, the towns truly become company towns, nearly dependent and beholden to the company store.
Of course they have had a lot of help from our Federal Government's love affair with "free trade" and the multinational companies that benefit, but we have all enjoyed the cheap, disposable consumerism lifestyle that Walmart provides.

And NOW--

Submitted by farmer leaf on March 28, 2009 - 11:15am.

a special Wal-Mart aimed directly at the U.S. Hispanic population and to be called Supermercado de Wal-Mart. These new ethnic oriented stores have planned openings for this summer in Phoenix, Arizona and Houston, Texas. According to the Financial Times, the Supermercado de Wal-Mart will feature a bilingual staff and merchandise geared toward Hispanic tastes.

Living and teaching Earth friendly sustainable agricultural practices.

Environmental flap

Submitted by farmer leaf on March 29, 2009 - 9:44am.

In early 2008, Wal-Mart hired a public relations firm to deal with its latest environmental transgression. The Environmental Investigation Agency has charged the retail giant with selling wood products made from timber harvested from protected Russian forests.
Allegedly, Chinese suppliers are using that less expensive wood to meet the company's stringent pricing code. Wal-Mart promises it will achieve full transparency regarding its wood suppliers by 2010 according to its own guideline program--which however is unavailable to the public.

Source-Acres USA magazine April 2008 pg-9

Living and teaching Earth friendly sustainable agricultural practices.

One of the obvious

Submitted by farmer leaf on March 29, 2009 - 11:15pm.

flaws in the concept of "Buy-More-of-Everything" box stores is that the same building that sells food, also has a whole aisle full of every imaginable agricultural poison for around-the-home use. Not the smartest idea we've seen recently. Just being in the vicinity of the garden section is enough to make the lungs panic.

Unfortunately, as stated above by Mac, Rockwood is one of those small towns that has become dependent on the tax revenues of this bad corporate neighbor.

Living and teaching Earth friendly sustainable agricultural practices.

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