Wal-Mart accused of consumer fraud

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

I haven't read through the whole thread but you all know how feel: Wuck Fal-Mart!

that's cause you own k-mart stock

has anyone else ever been to wal-mart store #1 or sam walton's original five and dime?

[GaryC 7]

Vegetables from a home grown plot did and always will taste better than anything you can buy in a shop and of course, will be better for you, nutritionally.

First rate produce? If you mean by that there is little spoilage, sure, that's true. How does that happen? Erm, iradiation, picking unripe fruit...the list is endless.

There is far less choice. There are only one or two varietes of potato, tomato, apple, orange etc grown commercially and they are chosen for? Not taste, they are chosen because they have long shelf life or because they have good colour and few blemishes. ####### is that about? It's about profit, not good health or consumer satisfaction, but profit. So, because most food produced is bland what is done with it to make it acceptable? Added value! Add salt, suger and fat and what do we have, something the modern consumer can't do without.

Nostalgic for a bygone age? Not in the way you think, but I do care enough about my family's health to want the best for them, and that does not include filling them large quantities of mass produced garbage.

Wow! I can't believe you really think this way! I have no idea how old you are or your background but we used to have a good old fashioned veggy stand next to our house when I was a kid long ago. Walmart has 10X the variety and the quality is light-years better. I have no idea where you get it isn't good for you. All these BS stories about the safety about our food is propaganda. We have the best food of any place in the world. I really think you would be shocked if you were suddenly taken back 40 years and you see what you are pinning for.

[Thingee 0]

Vegetables from a home grown plot did and always will taste better than anything you can buy in a shop and of course, will be better for you, nutritionally.

First rate produce? If you mean by that there is little spoilage, sure, that's true. How does that happen? Erm, iradiation, picking unripe fruit...the list is endless.

There is far less choice. There are only one or two varietes of potato, tomato, apple, orange etc grown commercially and they are chosen for? Not taste, they are chosen because they have long shelf life or because they have good colour and few blemishes. ####### is that about? It's about profit, not good health or consumer satisfaction, but profit. So, because most food produced is bland what is done with it to make it acceptable? Added value! Add salt, suger and fat and what do we have, something the modern consumer can't do without.

Nostalgic for a bygone age? Not in the way you think, but I do care enough about my family's health to want the best for them, and that does not include filling them large quantities of mass produced garbage.

Home grown veggies are also a great way to get that finicky kid to eat "green stuff"! I won't do fruit trees as the bugs and birds eat them, leaving behind more mess than produce, but vegetables and herbs oh yeah!

[Peikko 1,575]

Yes, I do believe this. Quality is not how somehting looks, but how something tastes. Quality is not how long something stays on the shelf for without going mouldy. Quality isn't having the choice of 30 different loaves that are all full of too much sugar and taste like bad cake.

Food that is over processed isn't good for you. I think that's pretty much a done deal these days. It's not propaganda and the jury is out regarding some of the modern techniques (iradiation/genetic modificaiton), we just have no idea.

Do you remember when DDT was launched and how this would be the greatest thing ever for the crop farmer?

[GaryC 7]

Yes, I do believe this. Quality is not how somehting looks, but how something tastes. Quality is not how long something stays on the shelf for without going mouldy. Quality isn't having the choice of 30 different loaves that are all full of too much sugar and taste like bad cake.

Food that is over processed isn't good for you. I think that's pretty much a done deal these days. It's not propaganda and the jury is out regarding some of the modern techniques (iradiation/genetic modificaiton), we just have no idea.

Do you remember when DDT was launched and how this would be the greatest thing ever for the crop farmer?

I am 48 and grew up on a farm. I remember DDT. We used it all the time. Other than the supposed damage to Eagle eggs it was safe. The banning of DDT has killed more people than letting it stay on the market. How many have died from malaria because they could no longer use an effective pesticide? How many have starved because crops were destroyed by insects because DDT was gone? The point is that we are able to feed ourselfs and a good portion of the world because of the modern farming practices. And despite what you say I am stating without reservation that veggies bought in a supermarket tastes just as good as home grown. That organic foods is a huge scam that only plays off of fear and we have it better now than in any time in human history.

The processed food is another story all together. That has nothing to do with the organic/natural argument. I am speaking of meat/dairy/veggy's. Just remember, the ma and pa stores sold the very same canned and processed foods. That has nothing to do with Walmart.

Edited January 23, 2007 by Iniibig ko si Luz forever

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

We have the best food of any place in the world.

You need to get out more. There are tons of foods in the US that simply suck: Coffee, beer, bread and cheese for example. Produce? I take the ugly homegrown apples and tomatoes over the polished ####### in any grocery chain any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

We have the best food of any place in the world.

You need to get out more. There are tons of foods in the US that simply suck: Coffee, beer, bread and cheese for example. Produce? I take the ugly homegrown apples and tomatoes over the polished ####### in any grocery chain any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Let's see:

• on coffee, no argument (as US cannot grow coffee, but it can misprocess it)
  
• on cheese, slightly more complex. It makes good chili-infused cheese ("pepper jack"), but in others (cheddar, colby, mozarella), Canada tops it easily
  
• bread--no argument, European breads are vastly superior
  
• beer--not qualified on that one, as I can't stand beer smell at all
  

[GaryC 7]

We have the best food of any place in the world.

You need to get out more. There are tons of foods in the US that simply suck: Coffee, beer, bread and cheese for example. Produce? I take the ugly homegrown apples and tomatoes over the polished ####### in any grocery chain any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Thats your choice. I prefer our stuff. I have been around quite a bit and I say we have the world beat as far as food quality goes. I am not talking about national preferences but quality/quantity.

If you want to eat over priced, malformed, worm eaten, inconsistent organic food then I say have at it.

Edited January 23, 2007 by Iniibig ko si Luz forever

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

We have the best food of any place in the world.

You need to get out more. There are tons of foods in the US that simply suck: Coffee, beer, bread and cheese for example. Produce? I take the ugly homegrown apples and tomatoes over the polished ####### in any grocery chain any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Thats your choice. I prefer our stuff. I have been around quite a bit and I say we have the world beat as far as food quality goes. I am not talking about national preferences but quality/quantity.

If you want to eat over priced, malformed, worm eaten, inconsistent organic food then I say have at it.

Malformed and worm-eaten? There is naturally grown produce that is free of worms. Malformed is more like the way mother nature made it. Usually, it is tastier which is why I prefer it. I don't go for organic stuff but for that which is grown on the small farms and in the local groves around here. It's better and usually a hell of a lot cheaper. Not even Wal-Mart offers 15lbs of fresh, juicy Oranges for less than 3 bucks.

[Robor007 0]

Meh, I was going to continue this debate but it's pointless to argue with the WalMart shoppers who put low prices and convenience above values and morality. I'll leave with a few paragraphs from an article on Wal-Mart's business practices. Enjoy your low prices and convenience WalMart shoppers...

...Wal-Mart controls a large and increasing share of the business done by almost every major consumer-products company: 28.3% of Dial's (soap products); 24% of Del Monte Foods'; 23% of Clorox's (bleaches and cleaners); and 23% of Revlon's (cosmetics). It controls one-fifth or more of the business done by Proctor & Gamble (household products and soaps); Levi Strauss (jeans and clothing); and Newell Rubbermaid (household consumer rubber products). That is, Wal-Mart is all of these firms' biggest outlet, by a wide margin.

This gives Wal-Mart tremendous leverage over all its producers/suppliers, even though many of them are in the Fortune 500. Twenty years ago, the supplier of products went to Wal-Mart, and told Wal-Mart the price to charge for each product. Today, Wal-Mart "co-determines" the price; it tells the supplier what type of product it wants, how to arrange its inventory, what sort of product line to develop. Because Wal-Mart determines how much shelf space each supplier receives, it has life-and-death control over that supplier. If Wal-Mart says that it wants a product's price to be lowered by 20-25%, that supplier will be forced to outsource an increasing share of its production.

Likewise, Wal-Mart has become a conveyor belt, either directly or through its suppliers, for imported goods, mostly from cheap-labor countries. Wal-Mart imports 10% of all America's total imports from China. According to the Sept. 26, 2003 Irish Independent, "If Wal-Mart were a country, it would rank ahead of Great Britain and Russia in total imports."

Mass Unemployment

There are hundreds of American manufacturing plants which have shut down, and shipped production overseas, either partially or entirely due to Wal-Mart. In addition, many other retail outlets have been forced to adopt Wal-Mart's methods. We look at a few of the hundreds of cases in which Wal-Mart was directly involved:

Newell Rubbermaid is the largest producer of consumer rubber products in the United States, and Wal-Mart sells by far the largest volume of Rubbermaid products of any retail store. In January 2001, Joseph Galli was appointed the new chief executive officer of Rubbermaid, and he and his staff had an intensive series of meetings with Wal-Mart management on what products Rubbermaid should bring on line, including Wal-Mart's not-so-subtle suggestions about the price of the products. Since January 2001, Rubbermaid has shut down 69 out of its 400 facilities, and fired 11,000 workers. The equity research director at Associated Trust & Co., C. Mark Heaseldon, bluntly stated the reason, "To be able to meet the demands from key customers, like Wal-Mart ... [Rubbermaid has] to become competitive in price." He added that Galli would have to "shift about 50% of production to low-cost countries." This could force the closure of an additional 131 Rubbermaid facilities, and the firing of an additional 20,000 workers.

General Electric is one of the five biggest companies in America and the biggest producer of appliances, such as dishwashers, refrigerators, stoves, and TVs. The biggest outlet for GE goods is Wal-Mart. During the last few years, GE has conducted a large amount of outsourcing. The IUE union, which represents GE workers, has estimated that during the last five to seven years, GE has fired more than 100,000 workers, one of the nation's biggest outsourcing massacres. Most of this work was outsourced to Mexico, China, and Asia in general.

At Masterlock, 250 union workers lost their jobs in 2000 when Wal-Mart suddenly dropped the company's products and switched to an offshore, low-wage competitor.

Levi Strauss is one of the biggest manufacturers of jeans and denim products, including the line of Docker slacks. Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer of Levi Strauss products. During the past 18 months, after meetings with Wal-Mart, Levi Strauss announced it will shut down its four remaining production plants in North America and shift the work to Ibero-America and Asia. Several hundred jobs will be lost.

Dial Soap sells 28.3% of its production to Wal-Mart. Under Wal-Mart pressure, Dial is shutting down its Compton, California plant and shifting work to Argentina.

There are hundreds of similar stories. As a result of the Wal-Mart model, combined with the depression, more than 1 million manufacturing production jobs producing consumer goods have been lost since July 2000 alone.

Overseas Slave-Labor

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is operating slave-labor camps overseas. It does this through its suppliers and, increasingly, in its own name. One of the most infamous slave-labor camps is that in American Somoa—the Daewoosa Factory, where 230 workers, mostly young women from Vietnam and China, worked under conditions of indentured servitude. According to records, they were cheated of their meager wages, beaten, starved, sexually harassed, and threatened with deportation if they complained. On Feb. 21, 2003, in a court in Hawaii, the proprietor of the factory, Kil Soo Lee, was found guilty of 14 of 18 counts brought against him for indentured servitude. This factory sewed clothing for Wal-Mart, under Wal-Mart's "Beach Cabana" label (as well as producing for other retailers).

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

Meh, I was going to continue this debate but it's pointless to argue with the WalMart shoppers who put low prices and convenience above values and morality. I'll leave with a few paragraphs from an article on Wal-Mart's business practices. Enjoy your low prices and convenience WalMart shoppers...

you're kidding, right? something from lyndon larouche? mr nut job himself has a website it seems.

[Sinergy 3]

Meh, I was going to continue this debate but it's pointless to argue with the WalMart shoppers who put low prices and convenience above values and morality. I'll leave with a few paragraphs from an article on Wal-Mart's business practices. Enjoy your low prices and convenience WalMart shoppers...

...Wal-Mart controls a large and increasing share of the business done by almost every major consumer-products company: 28.3% of Dial's (soap products); 24% of Del Monte Foods'; 23% of Clorox's (bleaches and cleaners); and 23% of Revlon's (cosmetics). It controls one-fifth or more of the business done by Proctor & Gamble (household products and soaps); Levi Strauss (jeans and clothing); and Newell Rubbermaid (household consumer rubber products). That is, Wal-Mart is all of these firms' biggest outlet, by a wide margin.

This gives Wal-Mart tremendous leverage over all its producers/suppliers, even though many of them are in the Fortune 500. Twenty years ago, the supplier of products went to Wal-Mart, and told Wal-Mart the price to charge for each product. Today, Wal-Mart "co-determines" the price; it tells the supplier what type of product it wants, how to arrange its inventory, what sort of product line to develop. Because Wal-Mart determines how much shelf space each supplier receives, it has life-and-death control over that supplier. If Wal-Mart says that it wants a product's price to be lowered by 20-25%, that supplier will be forced to outsource an increasing share of its production.

Likewise, Wal-Mart has become a conveyor belt, either directly or through its suppliers, for imported goods, mostly from cheap-labor countries. Wal-Mart imports 10% of all America's total imports from China. According to the Sept. 26, 2003 Irish Independent, "If Wal-Mart were a country, it would rank ahead of Great Britain and Russia in total imports."

Mass Unemployment

There are hundreds of American manufacturing plants which have shut down, and shipped production overseas, either partially or entirely due to Wal-Mart. In addition, many other retail outlets have been forced to adopt Wal-Mart's methods. We look at a few of the hundreds of cases in which Wal-Mart was directly involved:

Newell Rubbermaid is the largest producer of consumer rubber products in the United States, and Wal-Mart sells by far the largest volume of Rubbermaid products of any retail store. In January 2001, Joseph Galli was appointed the new chief executive officer of Rubbermaid, and he and his staff had an intensive series of meetings with Wal-Mart management on what products Rubbermaid should bring on line, including Wal-Mart's not-so-subtle suggestions about the price of the products. Since January 2001, Rubbermaid has shut down 69 out of its 400 facilities, and fired 11,000 workers. The equity research director at Associated Trust & Co., C. Mark Heaseldon, bluntly stated the reason, "To be able to meet the demands from key customers, like Wal-Mart ... [Rubbermaid has] to become competitive in price." He added that Galli would have to "shift about 50% of production to low-cost countries." This could force the closure of an additional 131 Rubbermaid facilities, and the firing of an additional 20,000 workers.

General Electric is one of the five biggest companies in America and the biggest producer of appliances, such as dishwashers, refrigerators, stoves, and TVs. The biggest outlet for GE goods is Wal-Mart. During the last few years, GE has conducted a large amount of outsourcing. The IUE union, which represents GE workers, has estimated that during the last five to seven years, GE has fired more than 100,000 workers, one of the nation's biggest outsourcing massacres. Most of this work was outsourced to Mexico, China, and Asia in general.

At Masterlock, 250 union workers lost their jobs in 2000 when Wal-Mart suddenly dropped the company's products and switched to an offshore, low-wage competitor.

Levi Strauss is one of the biggest manufacturers of jeans and denim products, including the line of Docker slacks. Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer of Levi Strauss products. During the past 18 months, after meetings with Wal-Mart, Levi Strauss announced it will shut down its four remaining production plants in North America and shift the work to Ibero-America and Asia. Several hundred jobs will be lost.

Dial Soap sells 28.3% of its production to Wal-Mart. Under Wal-Mart pressure, Dial is shutting down its Compton, California plant and shifting work to Argentina.

There are hundreds of similar stories. As a result of the Wal-Mart model, combined with the depression, more than 1 million manufacturing production jobs producing consumer goods have been lost since July 2000 alone.

Overseas Slave-Labor

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is operating slave-labor camps overseas. It does this through its suppliers and, increasingly, in its own name. One of the most infamous slave-labor camps is that in American Somoa—the Daewoosa Factory, where 230 workers, mostly young women from Vietnam and China, worked under conditions of indentured servitude. According to records, they were cheated of their meager wages, beaten, starved, sexually harassed, and threatened with deportation if they complained. On Feb. 21, 2003, in a court in Hawaii, the proprietor of the factory, Kil Soo Lee, was found guilty of 14 of 18 counts brought against him for indentured servitude. This factory sewed clothing for Wal-Mart, under Wal-Mart's "Beach Cabana" label (as well as producing for other retailers).

it's pointless to argue with the WalMart shoppers who put low prices and convenience above values and morality.

HAHAH you tedious little man

[Robor007 0]

Meh, I was going to continue this debate but it's pointless to argue with the WalMart shoppers who put low prices and convenience above values and morality. I'll leave with a few paragraphs from an article on Wal-Mart's business practices. Enjoy your low prices and convenience WalMart shoppers...

you're kidding, right? something from lyndon larouche? mr nut job himself has a website it seems.

What difference does that make? Does it change the fact that WalMart's business practices forced companies out of business, forced jobs out of the US, and they (among unnamed others) purchased merchandise made by what amounts to slave labor? No, it doesn't. The same stories have been reported over and over and they're not difficult to find.

[Robor007 0]

HAHAH you tedious little man

You picked that quote out of my entire post? Why am I not surprised? (insert rolling eyes smiley here)

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

Meh, I was going to continue this debate but it's pointless to argue with the WalMart shoppers who put low prices and convenience above values and morality. I'll leave with a few paragraphs from an article on Wal-Mart's business practices. Enjoy your low prices and convenience WalMart shoppers...

you're kidding, right? something from lyndon larouche? mr nut job himself has a website it seems.

What difference does that make? Does it change the fact that WalMart's business practices forced companies out of business, forced jobs out of the US, and they (among unnamed others) purchased merchandise made by what amounts to slave labor? No, it doesn't. The same stories have been reported over and over and they're not difficult to find.

what difference indeed.......

-In 1978, he sued the ADL; however, a New York State Supreme Court judge ruled that it was "fair comment" to describe LaRouche as an anti-Semite.

-LaRouche has given speeches and written articles in opposition to gay rights that his critics consider homophobic

-In October 1986, the FBI and Virginia state authorities raided the LaRouche headquarters in Leesburg in search of evidence to support the persistent accusations of fraud and extortion. LaRouche and six associates were charged with conspiracy and mail fraud related to fundraising. LaRouche was also charged with conspiring to hide his personal income since 1979, the last year he had filed a federal tax return. In December 1988, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia convicted LaRouche and his associates, and LaRouche was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

-A significant change in the LaRouche organization since LaRouche was released from prison has been the development of the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) beginning in 1999. (sieg heil, anyone?)

and the list goes on and on......enjoy listening to that fruitcake.