Haven’t shopped at the local Mall*Wart in 10 years or more. Of course, the places we do shop probably aren’t much better — it’s damn near impossible to escape doing business with sociopaths.
brettsays
That’s probably looking at their net worth, which is mostly stocks that can’t be sold en masse without triggering a run on the stocks that would damage the value of the rest of them.
Oddly enough, while this will save the Walmart owners money, it will also get the employees cheaper access to healthcare. The Federal government will pick up the difference.
(As I understand it, so long as the employees were being offered healthcare through their employer, they weren’t eligible for discounted ‘Obamacare’. Now that they can’t get insurance through their employer, they can sign up for cheaper plans through the insurance exchanges.)
It’s just another way the funding of the US health care system is sub-optimal..
Deckersays
Walmart is crony capitalism at its finest.
I’d even say that some of their practices and strategies are downright criminal.
They’ll open a huge store in a town and sell many of the products at reduced prices that produce no profit. This loss leader store is subsidized by the profits of stores located in surrounding towns. Eventually the price undercutting puts most of the local competition out of business. Afterwards, the prices at that store float back up to normal and the local population is now almost hostage to a single huge retailer.
The whole retail sector has become flattened, and with each passing year there are fewer independent merchants and thus reduced variety and choice.
35 years ago Rue Ste Catherine in Montréal was a feast for the eyes. The entire street was dominated by independent merchants selling an endless variety of goods. Entering the more off-beat boutiques was an intriguing adventure, and you never knew what sort of quirky goods you’d stumble across. The staff, as well, were eccentric and interesting and a part of the overall experience
Now, though, the street has been eviscerated and is currently dominated by big box retailers. It’s merely an open air suburban mall staffed by monotone drones wearing identical clothing and offering the same tired greetings.
If it gets any greyer it’ll be downright soviet in tone.
We can just throw in the towel and shop at THE ‘Gumm’ department store.
It must be terrible to have all that worth and not be able to use it. Truly a burden on the rich. All they have to do to get some disposable cash is deny health coverage to some poor people. Seems fair to me.
Brett, they’re worth 140 billion dollars. (Correction: they have a net worth of 140 billion; they aren’t worth spit). Even if they had it all in stock and dumped it all at once (tell me, please, that you aren’t so stupid as to think this is what rich people do when they sell stock) and took a massive drubbing, they’d have a huge fortune. Even if they lost 90% they’d have 14 billion.
lornsays
The capitalist system is based on profit. But to compete for investment dollars you need to show not just a profit, but an increasing profit. In the end the choices are to either screw someone over (which is allowed) , or cheat (which is also allowed). Given this fact it is always amazing to me that people are shocked when corporations screw people over and/or cheat.
In this case it makes the Seattle workers eligible for Medicaid so they go from a piss-poor plan to a slightly better one. If done in Florida, where the governor rejected the expansion of medicaid, it would be a major screwing over of the workers as they would be going from piss-poor to nothing.
This vile company deserves to be boycotted into oblivion.
Won’t happen, though. All those great bargains…
Haven’t shopped at the local Mall*Wart in 10 years or more. Of course, the places we do shop probably aren’t much better — it’s damn near impossible to escape doing business with sociopaths.
That’s probably looking at their net worth, which is mostly stocks that can’t be sold en masse without triggering a run on the stocks that would damage the value of the rest of them.
Oddly enough, while this will save the Walmart owners money, it will also get the employees cheaper access to healthcare. The Federal government will pick up the difference.
(As I understand it, so long as the employees were being offered healthcare through their employer, they weren’t eligible for discounted ‘Obamacare’. Now that they can’t get insurance through their employer, they can sign up for cheaper plans through the insurance exchanges.)
It’s just another way the funding of the US health care system is sub-optimal..
Walmart is crony capitalism at its finest.
I’d even say that some of their practices and strategies are downright criminal.
They’ll open a huge store in a town and sell many of the products at reduced prices that produce no profit. This loss leader store is subsidized by the profits of stores located in surrounding towns. Eventually the price undercutting puts most of the local competition out of business. Afterwards, the prices at that store float back up to normal and the local population is now almost hostage to a single huge retailer.
The whole retail sector has become flattened, and with each passing year there are fewer independent merchants and thus reduced variety and choice.
35 years ago Rue Ste Catherine in Montréal was a feast for the eyes. The entire street was dominated by independent merchants selling an endless variety of goods. Entering the more off-beat boutiques was an intriguing adventure, and you never knew what sort of quirky goods you’d stumble across. The staff, as well, were eccentric and interesting and a part of the overall experience
Now, though, the street has been eviscerated and is currently dominated by big box retailers. It’s merely an open air suburban mall staffed by monotone drones wearing identical clothing and offering the same tired greetings.
If it gets any greyer it’ll be downright soviet in tone.
We can just throw in the towel and shop at THE ‘Gumm’ department store.
The Dirty Fucking Hippies Were Right (original version) – joeyess
(Walmart reference at 04:15) http://youtu.be/iKEZoY-TMG4
Brett @3
It must be terrible to have all that worth and not be able to use it. Truly a burden on the rich. All they have to do to get some disposable cash is deny health coverage to some poor people. Seems fair to me.
P.S. Eat the rich.
Brett, they’re worth 140 billion dollars. (Correction: they have a net worth of 140 billion; they aren’t worth spit). Even if they had it all in stock and dumped it all at once (tell me, please, that you aren’t so stupid as to think this is what rich people do when they sell stock) and took a massive drubbing, they’d have a huge fortune. Even if they lost 90% they’d have 14 billion.
The capitalist system is based on profit. But to compete for investment dollars you need to show not just a profit, but an increasing profit. In the end the choices are to either screw someone over (which is allowed) , or cheat (which is also allowed). Given this fact it is always amazing to me that people are shocked when corporations screw people over and/or cheat.
In this case it makes the Seattle workers eligible for Medicaid so they go from a piss-poor plan to a slightly better one. If done in Florida, where the governor rejected the expansion of medicaid, it would be a major screwing over of the workers as they would be going from piss-poor to nothing.