WalMart - spreading like a virus

Similar to this old clip:
http://www.videosift.com/video/The-growth-of-cancer-nope-its-just-Walmart
This has nicer graphics and a nice touch to it with the Agent Smith voiceover.

Original at: http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/
bluecliffsays...

whats really miraculous is that people have stronger stomachs than one would expect. MY personal bodily reaction to the ocular experience of such edifices is a prolonged movement of the bowels and then the tendency of breakfast and lunch to try to escape from the restraints I put them in.

spoco2says...

Things like this kinda shit me actually.

Look, I'm sure Walmart uses its buying power to do things that aren't nice indeed, I'm sure there are issues in various other parts of their organization etc.

BUT, this is capitalism. If you don't like them, don't shop in them. If they don't close down then it means that enough other people DO like them to continue using them.

If they start doing things that enough people don't like then some other store(s) can open to take that business, and then they can become super popular also.

You lot go ape over Walmart in the US as if it holds some all powerful hold over your lives... look into the Coles Group and Woolworth's holds in Australia... now THERE is a monopoly. (Sorry, I can't find the figures, they were in a show I was watching a few months back, but the percentage of retail sales controlled by these two groups in Australia is many times more than Walmart's in the US)

thinker247says...

If you're wondering why certain places are devoid of Wal-Mart stores, it's probably because those areas are the Rocky Mountains, the Nevada desert, the corn fields of South Dakota, and nearly all of Montana.

These places are devoid of humans, and thus, they are not suitable for the virus.

Edit: Fuck Wal-Mart.

rychansays...

>> ^Xax:
Pretty impressive, but downvote for implying that Walmart is a virus and a plague, which is inane and tired.


Indeed. You could plot the growth of children's hospitals or research centers in the same way. Would that make them a plague upon our country? There's nothing intrinsically evil about growth, and "nature in equilibrium" is generally as much a myth as the noble savage.

radxsays...

>> ^Sagemind:
I'd like to see this include more than just the "US of A"

But then it would have to include the miserable failures in South Korea and Germany, amongst others.

I've been inside a Walmart only once. The bloke greeting me at the entrace was already too much to bear for me and the fake smiles everywhere were bloody creepy. Forced friendliness is incompatible with my natural cynicism.

schmawysays...

Wal*Mart: Shop yourself out of a Job!TM

Walmart has done more to undermine than help the "poor" by outsourcing jobs. And the Consumer has hung themselves with the rope they bought there.

>> ^quantumushroom:
Wal-Mart has done more for poor people than any ten liberals, at least nine of whom are almost guaranteed to hate Wal-Mart.

southblvdsays...

There is only one Wal-Mart that is within 10 minutes of me, but there are three Safeways and four Blockbusters within 10 minutes of me. And heck, the Wal-Mart isn't even a Supercenter! It's a regular ol' Wal-Mart! Sheesh!

10715says...

Walmart has destroyed countless small businesses and replaced them with low paying warehouses selling cheap ass plastic crap. And of course, much of it was made possible by Clinton making China trading partner #1...enabling the Chinese to sell pure crap here at low prices, putting US industry/suppliers out of business and hurting the average worker,... but satisfying the consumer demand for more shit that we don't need and exponentially increasing the profit margins of big import companies and banks...and in effect, widening the gap between rich and poor all the while utilizing PR to convince us that we are oh so happy with our latest purchase.
QM, you are a serious idiot, but at least your pathetic drivel is funny.

thinker247says...

I worked for Wal-Mart for nearly a year, and I couldn't stand the fact that it was all about the money. I understand that capitalism needs gold diggers to survive, but you can care about the money and your workers at the same time.

Wal-Mart doesn't give a fuck about its workers.

FUCK WAL-MART.

quantumushroomsays...

Walmart has destroyed countless small businesses and replaced them with low paying warehouses selling cheap ass plastic crap.

Leftists always use this line about how the "poor small businesses" are ruined by Walmart, yet they're the same ones that want to tax the f**k out of small businesses so they can barely function. And how many employees can small businesses hire, even if they wanted to?

And of course, much of it was made possible by Clinton making China trading partner #1...enabling the Chinese to sell pure crap here at low prices, putting US industry/suppliers out of business and hurting the average worker

I ask all of you: of all the stuff you own, what percentage is stuff you keep for five years or more? I bet it's sentimental stuff, handmade stuff, stuff you made yourself or got as gifts, or larger investments like your car, big appliances, furniture. A lot of what you call "crap" are necessary items that are cheaper to replace. Walmart is obviously fulfilling a need, that ISN'T being fulfilled by crocodile tears from "poverty activists".

And for those so arrogant as to assume they know what even one other person "needs"---provided they're willing to humor you--you've got a long night of latte-sipping and convincing ahead of you, at the end of which you will only discover how much you have to learn.

QM, you are a serious idiot, but at least your pathetic drivel is funny.

Wish I could say the same about your green party soundbites, but they've been cut-n-pasted from Daily Kos too many times to count.

What I wish I could do with all of you who "hate" Walmart is make you run your own brick-and-mortar business for a year. See how 'easy' it is to make a profit.

Sagemindsays...

>> ^quantumushroom:
I ask all of you: of all the stuff you own, what percentage is stuff you keep for five years or more? I bet it's sentimental stuff, handmade stuff, stuff you made yourself or got as gifts, or larger investments like your car, big appliances, furniture. A lot of what you call "crap" are necessary items that are cheaper to replace.


OK, I'm sorry but I have to speak up here.
If we could own anything longer than 5 years, we would. The problem is everything is made so cheaply, it breaks! I got my first microwave oven in 1989 (20 years - $200) and I still have it. It is dark brown and my wife hates the colour, (she want's white), the problem is, my original (steel parts and all) still works!

I went to Wal-mart and looked at what they had, everything was made of cheap plastic. I refuse to buy a new crappy one to replace my old good one. Once I do, I know I'll be replacing it every five years.($89x4=$356 plus tax)

This goes the same with everything we buy at Wal-Mart. I have bought and replaced so much stuff over and over because it doesn't last. Buy it twice, and you might as well have bought the more expensive one in the first place.
I bought a new rake at Wal-Mart for $14, It lasted 2 weeks before It was bent out of shape and useless. I had to go back to Canadian Tire and buy a $30 rake to replace it and have had it ever since... (total cost = $44 plus tax).

My point is... Wal-Mart wants you to re-buy everything over and over, that's why they sell you the cheep one. They make a higher profit by flooding the world with disposable crap. It is their marketing strategy.

Don't buy in to Wal-Mart marketing! (do some marketing research on this stuff).

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