True. I shop where I can and many times that means Walmart. I remember last summer my dear friend had trouble with her 17 year old son who hates THE MAN. Anyway, one night he and his friends went to the building site of an almost finished Walmart and did some vandalism (sp?). Then, one of the kids fell through a skylight and broke his head. My friend made her son turn himself in and offer to pay for any damages, which he did. He wanted to trash Walmart because of reasons we are talking about here, to which my friend said, people who cannot afford to go elsewhere will suffer, so you are not helping anyone by trashing Walmart.
I am far more concerned by the FCC and Clear Channels purchasing just about every radio station and Rupbert Murdock buying every television station and newspaper so we are now being limited to the level of news sources we hear in America. What next, Al Gazera television? I am not sure that that station is called, but it's not much different than having only one station when one person or philosophy buys all the radio freedom.
I shop the expensive stores when everything is out of season. Like now is a great time to go buy left over summer clothes. A linen duster which would normally cost 100, I bought for 15 on major clearance. One button was off. Otherwise, I buy wherever the closest place is. In my case, I can walk to Walmart. I don't walk, but it's that close.
You guys have been paying about 2 USD per litre for petrol for decades and decades. Our entire economy is based around cheap gas prices. We could still have cheap gas and actually do, in the scheme of things. However, Exxon reported a margin of profit which was 186% over what it was last year. So, why is gas so expensive? Hmmm.
You should look for Cloth shops, any cloth shop , i use cloth that is meant for curtains for summer skirts, for example,,, But we are very lucky to have `real cloth` shops, and here they seem to open more and more of them. Just bought myself a womnderful piece of English woven pure wool , to make my next winter skirt,,,, But i have also a skirt made of Thick Camel, and another made of a cute extraordinair Upholstery made of silk with linen ,,, I have a Vest that used to be a coat ,, etc,,,,, mirjam
Probably because they *don't* operate the same way Wal*Mart does. Yes, all of them have poor business practices, but Wal*Mart is the only one I know of that purposely targets its competitors one by one to put them out of business (I read this in a business magazine rather than on a website).
I'm not defending any of the larger firms. I've said several times that I prefer to buy locally. It just seems that Wal*Mart is the most egregious of many offenders.
It is always Good to buy first what is manufactured in your own country. But globalization changes all this ,,, I am reading a lot of this statements
every time i am faced with buying something i need, and i know it is manufactured in a cheap labour place or country. I am faced with this dillemma, but i also remember that in some places the poverty is so high that it is either cheap working or die of hunger, thus maybe you should buy it , and Complain about what this companies are doing. Boycotting won`t help you, nore anybody in the chain of working hands.
Here is an example for you, i bough a wonderful knitting wool , the label says Pure Australian wool , Made in Turkey, imported by Hwa Lim Industries,
So which country should i be angry with ?? none ,, since all of these people get part of the payments , The Australian wool growers , the Turkish spinners and dyers and The one moving it around ,,,,,, You Know , that the Word Capital , originated from England??? and is related to wool trade ???? Think how the USA government gives `aid` part of it is the possibility to `buy` , Made in Usa merchendise, which eventually makes those countries close some of their factories. Thus for a time we got American towels , and i was sure some Americans got sallaries , but somebody fell asleep , and didn`t notice that now the USA industry, moved ther manufacturing to a cheaper salaries country ..... Thus on the one hand you might say , it Helps more than one country, on the real scale it moves `unemployment` around the Globe !!! It is a pity , but gone are the days that you or many other could have a Self sustaining economy. But you can try and use less, make more use out of every bit and morsel you have.
you would be better and cheaper off buying reasonable cotton and sew yourself some `sample` dresses, which you can than use as nighties. Also if you have a medium sized doll , you could try some clothes for her ... also Take upart some of your oldest clothes which you like, but don`t wear anymore, and use them as patterns and as learning bits... mirjam
There are several books about "Sewing without a pattern " that are wonderful since they show you how to make a pattern based on YOUR sizes .... You can easily recycle at least half your chidren`s clothes, into neat trendy clothes. Also when shopping always have a list with your Family Sizes in your bag, Some of my best buys for family members were spotted by me while i shoped for something else, and saw this bargains.... having the sizes list and a tape measure in my bag ,,,, helps a lot . mirjam
Lucille I buy an imported cotton which says it` s machine washable [ and i tried it !!!] ,,,, i will later look up the label, if i still got it i will print the details here. mirjam
I have made cotton Raglan shirts , a skirt etc,, all held beautifully , after washing, and lying it to dry [ i have no drayer] i give it a good shake and lightly iron ,, mirjam
Someone has targeted WalMart and made sure that we understand that they are worse than other retailers when, in fact, they aren't.
Yesterday, WalMart was fined for violating a state law that requires
30-minute lunch breaks. You want to know how many times, as a legal secretary, I worked through lunch? But if I had gone to a lawyer and said "I was not allowed to take my lunch break", they wouldn't have taken the case, because they've worked their staff through lunch, too.
A while back, WalMart was fined for people working "off the clock". Going back 20 years or so, I handled an auto accident case where the guy was a fast food manager. In a discussion on how much his bonus was and how he got it, he testified that if you were really close to the bonus, you'd ask the employees to work "off the clock" to boost your profit-versus-cost that little extra so you'd get the bonus. With four lawyers in the room, not one of them came out foaming at the mouth, screaming "I'm gonna sue that fast food place!"
A while back, WalMart was fined for having contracted out their cleaning to a company that used illegal immigrants. Trust me, you walk into any farm field or any cleaning company or any restaurant in California and yell "Migra!", at least half the staff is going to disappear. Why was it WalMart who was fined when it was the cleaning service that hired the illegals?
Ordinarily, there's not enough money in a case where minimum wage workers had to work an extra half-hour (and, in fact, the plaintiffs in this case are getting a whopping $1500 each). A lawyer wouldn't normally waste his time on a $1500 case; he'd advise you to take it to Small Claims. Even if all 10 support staff of a law firm came in and wanted to file a joint lawsuit, that's only $15,000, and not enough to interest most lawyers.
So why, with all these other employers committing the exact same violations, do they get away with it, and only WalMart gets sued? Because someone with money and power is targeting WalMart and hiring lawyers who would ordinarily shrug off these cases as "so what?" It wouldn't be the first time that someone with a vendetta went out looking for someone with a complaint to justify a lawsuit against the person or entity they're targeting. It wouldn't be the first time that a lawyer who sees $$$ went out looking for a plaintiff to allow him to sue a major corporation "on their behalf", not because the lawyer has great compassion for the downtrodden, but because he can make a lot of money if he only had a plaintiff.
Who gets rich off class action suits like these? Only the lawyers. Time and again, some lawyer has filed a class action suit for things like the price of CDs, or unwarranted late fees on his credit card, and a letter is sent to the entire customer database telling them they're eligible for a refund. In the most recent such class action suit, I got a check for less than the bus fare to go to the bank to deposit the check. The lawyer who initiated the suit got millions.
The article in today's paper describes WalMart Watch as a "union-supported group". I wouldn't be surprised if that union has its eyes on 1.3 million US WalMart employees and the hundreds of millions of dollars of potential union dues they represent, and the union is the one who's hiring the lawyers to sue WalMart.
If the employees of Fred's Five and Dime had the same complaints, they'd never get a lawyer. No one has a vendetta against Fred's and a dozen employees is not of major interest to any union who might hire a lawyer for them.
think anyone can question the fact that large corporations are much more profitable and often pay outrageous dividends to stock holders while upping their rates tremendously. Florida Power & Light has just increased our electric bills by nearly 30% and upped the dividend almost that much. Need I say that I think maybe it would have been better if they lowered the dividend just a little and/or gave the employees something to reward them for their loyalty and efficiency. I know that small companies couldn't possibly keep up, but hopefully they try to at least make their employees comfortable with that and are good to them in whatever way they can. Lucille
But to pass the hurricane costs on to the public to the tune of 30% and still give the stockholders a very large dividend seems to me to be a bit much. I'm all for making money, but on the backs of the public is not quite the way I think it should be. They said flat out that they expect the public to pay for all the work needed after the hurricanes. If their lines were underground, or at least sturdier, maybe there wouldn't have been so much trouble and so many people without service for such a long time, and they didn't give back a dime for the days we were inconvenienced. While the stockholders get rich, poor people have their service turned off. There's something rotten about the whole thing.
Lucille
p.s. This is a company that just merged with one in Boston. Here's a little information about that: "The transaction will create a company with a market capitalization of approximately $28 billion (based on current market values), combined annual revenues of $27 billion, and $57 billion in total assets. The combined company will be named Constellation Energy.
Plus, many people, myself included, have worked for small companies for other considerations. I worked for a photographer for several years and most of the time, my time was mine to call. He knew I would be present when needed but that if everything was slow, I would not appear. With younger children at that point it was worth more to me to have flexibility than cash.
' I am not 'going to' stop shopping at Wartmart, I have never shopped there. I very rarely shop at the others either. I try very hard to patronize any local stores left, which is not many due the Big Box syndrome.
Here in Halifax the end of Eatons came when Wartmart did.
I find it interesting in this long thread that there's an assumption that we *need* to shop as much as we do. Of course, there's a regular need for food shopping - but clothes shopping, etc., is so often done for entertainment and not out of real need. If more of us were "need-based" shoppers, there might not be such a problem. Having such abundant goods, so cheap, wouldn't be such an issue!
One of my pet peeves - I'm sure I've voiced it here before - is all the megamalls in my area calling themselves "XXX Towne Centre" or some variation thereof. It isn't the center of *my* world!
And Happy Holidays to everyone! I finished my last ornament last night, so I'm finally READY!!
I think you underestimate some of us. Personally I lived through times when I had to shop only when I "needed" something and didn't have money to buy frivolous items. At that time I had a family to care for, a house to keep up with, one car that my husband needed to get to work and lots of expenses that had to be paid whether there was enough money or not.
Life changes and now I can entertain myself by shopping for the extras. I'm quite sure lots of us are in this same place. My house stays pretty neat and there aren't lots of people or feet to mess it up, my family is gone and I'm retired. Shopping is fun, even when I come home with nothing. Looking for bargains is as good a way to waste time as any.
I think you're right and lots of young people have been raised to think they have to have it all no matter what. Perhaps they should be taught that it doesn't come easy for everyone, and you have to work hard to get to that position in life, but that's a whole other subject.
Ontario. Anything I've ordered that comes over roughly $40.00 CDN has been hit. And that's value, not cost. I won a dozen cross-stitch books one time at a US show. It cost about $30.00 cdn to receive as they had been valued at retail cost.
This has indeed been a very long thread. As I read through them I was often reminded of the words impressed upon my brothers and I as we were growing up.
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