Wal-Mart to close 269 stores as it retools fleet

in our small little board meetings it is profit over revenue, almost any time.

I would bet thats what this is

 

The same people who are attacking Wal-Mart and proclaim they are the devil of the economy if they lived back in the late 1800's and early 1900' would have been attacking Sears and Roebuck.

Just hilarious. Sears and Roebuck were HUGE, I mean HUGE centered in Chicago and sending their catatlogs out and shipping to small towns where YES there were mom and pop stores who could not compete. The were the Amazon of their time.

This was just the Chicago headquarters

 

I never claimed that Walmart hurt the local economy or that other non-competing companies didn't open in a town after a Walmart was opened. What I stated is that many small business are driven out of business when a Walmart comes into town and that's exactly what the above states.

 

The statement you quoted says 'may go out of business' with zero metrics to support the comment.

When a convenience store opens 'maybe' another store within 1-2 miles goes out of business...so what? Walmart poses no more threat to local business than any other competitor! In fact, IMO, the biggest threat Walmart poses is if people demand they increase their wage scales which will force all other local businesses to compete for labor...these higher labor costs for unskilled labor will drive many of them out of business...

 

Across the nation, WalMart has decimated main street businesses in small towns …

Anyone who is "not aware" of this hasn't *been*there* ...

 

Any large retail outlet replaces the same volume in dollars of other stores in the area. The gross dollars spent don't change so that money is either going to the large retailer or to several smallers retailers.

The minimum wage doesn't create any competitive advantage or disadvantage to enterprise because it applies equally to all enterprises. By way of analogy the minimum wage can be compared to the ocean. The tides can rise or fall but it doesn't effect the boats floating on the ocean.

 

Last post I saw on here was about them laying off people in office locations (people who are salaried). That was supposedly blamed on their minimum wage raise too.

 

How about providing an ounce of data to support your opinion?

 

A new Home Depot does many times the gross sales as local hardware/lumber stores combined because a HD covers many square miles in area and also creates more consumption than local stores might. It is not a negative to have big-box stores...the entire community benefits. Even mom/pop stores benefit because a big-box store indicates area growth.

I didn't mention 'minimum wage'?? I said if people continue to demand that Walmart increase their wages, then ALL other local businesses must do the same to compete for labor. I'm guessing many local businesses cannot afford higher labor costs...

 

I'm just curious

you were in full support of govt stimulus spending weren't you?

Were you one of the many liberals here who told us, just like Nancy did that for each $1 of govt spending that it results in $678.22 of economic activity (or whatever BS number they spewed)

bear in mind, govt stimulus is money taken from a consumer so they can no longer spend it. In the DPS (dreaded private sector) it is called RISK when WalMart builds a store and invests all of that money. Jobs for the build are created but it's up to the consumers to decide if that store will succeed or not.

 

I'm not arguing against the large retailers and haven't argued against the large retailers but I have seen smaller retailers driven out of business when the large retailer moved in.

In addressing the minimum wage an increase (or decrease) in the minimum wage doesn't provide any competitive advantage or disadvantage to any enterprise so long as it's imposed across the board on all enterprises.

When addressing simply a wage increase at Walmart where other enterprises are not also required to match the compensation it imposes no necessity for other enterprises to increase compensation because Walmart turns away more applicants than they hire. There will always be a "labor pool" to fill these low-paying jobs because almost anyone can do the tasks being assigned by the employer. Even a nuclear physicist can stock shelves at a retail store. There's never a shortage of people qualified to perform the tasks required for low-paying jobs. That's why they're low-paying jobs and it has absolutely nothing to do with the actual skills the person brings to the job because most skills just aren't required for these low-paying jobs.

 

In the example I gave you many posts ago, the closest Walmart to me built along a freeway corridor, in an area that had no commercial business, just bare land, built their store on I'm guessing about 20-30 acres of land. In parallel to Walmart construction, another 15-20 smaller businesses opened in the same parking lot, of which almost all of them are direct competitors of Walmart. 10 years later, except for a couple of independent fast food places, all of the stores remain and coexist with Walmart. Direct competitors to Walmart yet there they are in the same parking lot...how can this be? If these smaller businesses can exist a few feet from Walmart then what's the real excuse for a small business located five miles away if they can't keep their doors open? The bottom line is Walmart, or a convenience store, or drug store, etc. are going to come and go over time depending how they react to reality...this is a common evolution of businesses.

Regarding the minimum wage, for any company who desires to export, to compete in the global marketplace, any increases in costs can be detrimental. And remember as you force large increases in the minimum wage like you and others suggest, like to $15/hour and higher, this forces all other wages to increase as well. How can you rationalize the inflationary effect that higher and higher business costs will have?

You know, Walmart has about 10% of the employees in the US, so if Walmart felt compelled to increase their average wages by $4-5/hour, generally speaking, Walmart will employ about 1.5 million of the best and brightest workers from that segment of US workers. If a mom/pop store wishes to compete for any of that labor then they will be forced to increase their wages as well. Interesting also that you mention a nuclear physicist being able to stock shelves because as you increase the wages, Walmart can actually attract overqualified workers that will displace the lower qualified workers now in place. A man and woman working at Walmart, 40 hours each, might be earning $62K annually plus health insurance and 401K, so I'm thinking forced higher wages will just displace even more lower level workers into poverty.