Big Box Mart

For all their comical relief, JibJab goes right to the heart of issues.  Their 2004 Presidential banter was quite on target and bashed both sides quite well, and was quite accurate.  They are right on the mark here as well.  I already emailed this link to nearly a dozen people.

walmart watch has blew it again.  Jibjab was interviewed on the Cavuto show on Fox News.  They said it had nothing to do with Walmart.  It was about our sending jobs overseas.  They indicated that they liked Walmart.

David,
As you know, I am not a brainless (what other kind is there?) WalMart basher.

However, looking at the lyrics, it is clear that JibJab is primarily bashing Wal-Mart. Consider these facts:

1) WM is the biggest such chain. Anything bashing such chains in general ends up hitting WM most. It is like if someone did a song bashing big petroleum equipment companies, you’d know that Halliburton was the target.

2) Specifically pertaining to WM, the last lyrics mention “everyday low prices”. That is one of Wal-Mart’s own heavily used slogans.

3) Also specifically pertaining to Wal-Mart, the name “Big Box Mart” even contains half of Wal-Mart’s name. Yes, you can say “but there is also K-Mart!”. To which I respond about this legacy chain, “oh, is that thing still around?”

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It is not all WM, of course. Look at those obvious Target shopping carts everyone has in the video. I’m not defending JibJab: just pointing out that their main target of WM is very obvious.

They showed the video on Cavuto.  They did not mention Walmart.  In addition, Jibjab said they were not targeting Walmart.  They run the Cavuto report several times between now and tomorrow morning on Fox News.  As I remember it, it was in the last fifteen minutes of the hour long broadcast.

Walmart was asked about it and they said it was funny.

If you watch the video, the price signs throughout the store are made to look like Wal-Mart’s.

The front of the store (grey cinderblock) is made to look like Wal-Mart.

The use the “everday low prices” phrase in it, which is used by Wal-Mart almost as much as “Always Low Prices. Always.”

Yes, their main topic was about sending jobs overseas. However, it doesn’t take an idiot to see that over and over again things are made to look at or point at Wal-Mart.

I guess we can come to one of two conclusions.  One is that Jibjab was not targeting Walmart.  That is what they said.

Two is that they were targeting Walmart and they were lying in the interview.  If they are lying in the interview, then I have lost all respect for them as comedians.  They are too cowardly to stand behind their work.

Ok.  I watched the video and it made some good points.

But it didn’t offer any solutions.  So here’s the question of the day:

Re: the big-box stores: (Target, Wal-Mart, Costco, Sears, K-Mart, BJs, etc.)

How much (%) would they have to raise prices in order to source 100% from the United States?

David: Of your two choices, perhaps they are lying. Read the lyrics and see the use of Wal-Mart’s slogan in it.

There is another explanation and it makes more sense.  They are criticizing the US companies for buying overseas, of which Walmart is one of many.

Walmart is the most recognizable of the bunch, so they modeled after Walmart.  They did say they were not targeting Walmart.

Therefore, if you look at the percentage of their goods bought overseas, it applies equally to retailers such as Sears, Target, True Value.........Walmart is only the main buyer of overseas because they are the biggest buyer period.  Unless, of course, you include GM (big Union) and a few other companies (also big Unions) which buy a large percentage of parts overseas and assemble in the US.

I think all of you are missing the point. The real target of this cartoon is everyone who shops at these big box stores and therefore supports their practices. Wal-Mart and Target are just doing business. They don’t force people to shop there.

I blame the Swiss!

If you own a tv set, have a automobile and wear clothing--and of course own a computer, check and see where all those items and parts were made.
Even the gas in your car came from overseas oil.

I remember a sign, it was in flint michigan i think---back when GM was shuting down a factory and everyone was so upset.

The sign read something like this---- if you drive a toyota or dotsun, shut up about loosing your job--- or something like that----THINK ABOUT IT!

David in Zack, Ar. wants to argue the point about whether or not the satire “ Big Box Mart’’ is about Wal-Mart.  It is about how there is a loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and how it happened.  Idiotic trade policies by the government of the United States are the end result with corporations like Wal-Mart taking advantage of it and making billions of dollars.  Years ago, with Sam Walton at the helm Wal-Mart had a program to buy American.  Now Wal-Mart is pushing the opposite and making many friends in China.  In the race for retail supremecy it’s new slash and destroy attitude will undermine community stability.  If Wal-Mart were a country, it would be the 5th largest trading partner with China.  To the workers at Wal-Mart, it is not about you.  It is about a corporate driven culture of greed at Wal-Mart that will lend itself to undermining all retail in the U.S.  Lee Scott can put lipstick on a “ corporate pig”, but it’s still a pig.

So what you have done is say that it is not about Walmart, but about the US government.

Then somehow you jump to the conclusion that Walmart is causing it.

As I mentioned before, Walmart had good buy American intentions.  The problem was that it became impossible, because the US was no longer competitive in those labor markets.  The unions contributed to that lack of competitiveness.

Folks,
It’s about ‘all’ the big box retailers and a wake up to American consumers about the price we do indeed pay for cost savings at the register. Big Kmart, Wal-Mart and Target are amongst the more clearly indentifiable chains.
Not an indictment of outsourceing per se, just a tongue in cheek wake up call.

The Webdude (I also appear in the cartoon as a Factory Worker and Front Row in the Unemployment Line)

The best way to combat the loss of the middle class in the USA is to do what Europe did in the EU.  Raise tarriffs on goods arriving from outside the trading bloc to encourage them to build branch plants inside the trading bloc.  In this case it means not outsourcing to plants in China and India and instead manufacturing inside NAFTA.  The standard of living will rise here, the middle class will be bolstered, the tax base will be wider and larger for things like roads, schools, hospitals, police services, etc. etc. 
Will it mean you can’t buy crap at such a low price as before?  Yes.  Will it mean you will be more likely to find a job that will allow you to buy a home, buy a car, send your kids to college?  Yes.

I blame the French!

Geez, wake up. It’s not about Wal-mart, it’s not about the government, it isn’t even about the Swiss. It’s about us, the consumers who are too cheap and too stupid to know the difference and don’t care where all our crap comes from as long as it is as cheap as possible.  Wal-mart makes up 3% of the Gross Domestic Product!  They HAVE to get goods cheaper offshore because WE DEMANDED IT!

*and stop watching Fox news, it’ll rot your brain.

I cannot seem to get this video to play on any website. HELP?

Reading through the comments here and noticed one point missed about the hilarious little video; that the ‘consumer’ buy’s there in the first place (he did say “buy all my crap") when they don’t need to (I havn’t shopped there in years and Target’ once this spring). The fellow also showed finacial erresponsiblity by shopping on credit (a pocket full of credit cards). I feel the main target of this little ditty of a tune is the people who shop there even when they know that to do so is putting their own jobs at risk.

It is usually the people who can well afford to shop somewhere else that bash Walmart.When you are on a fixed income or low income every buck saved counts.
I see the double income no children couples that wouldn,t dream of stepping in a Walmart and can well afford not to.
Do you think paying another store $1.50 more per gallon of milk will save my job.
I am so tired of the liberal elite spouting off about something they nothing about.
By the way I am Republican,union member and NRA Lifer.

David in Zack, AR appears to be an anti-union shill for WM, thus his comments can safely be discounted. So the heck what if jibjab is slamming Wal-Mart?  It’s well deserved slamming!

Someone above pointed out that US government trade policies & practices have grossly stimulated, if not created, the corporate rush to “outsource” manufacturing to low-wage Asian countries, like China, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc., and continue to promote US dependence on Middle Eastern sources for energy (oil, natural gas).  The main objective of the current crime family running the US government is to break the backs of the US middle class, including labor unions—who, incidentally, made the middle class possible—so the resources of the nation, then the world, can be controlled and utilized for the benefit of a small class of corporatist elite.  These folks wholeheartedly endorse the philosophy of Benito Mussolini and the German Nazi Party from the 1930s, and are moving as swiftly as possible to implement that philosophy, but refuse to call it what it is: fascism.  Anyone who wishes to verify this needs only to view and digest the various documents setting forth these goals at the Web site of the Project for the New American Century.  Read in the context of Western European and US history, from about 1700 forward makes the case unmistakeably. 

People everywhere need to wake up, but especially in the US, while we still have some ability to affect the composition of our government.  Unfortunately, the moves are afoot and moving rapidly to pre-empt any fair and honest counting of votes so as to insure continuation of the corporate drive for total control.  Bush is now also floating a proposal to modify or eliminate the Posse Comitatus Act, so as to make it easier for him to declare martial law, if that ‘s what he has to do for his group to stay in power.  This is MUCH bigger than Wal-Mart, although WM is definitely a part of the picture.

Its all been edited and ready for your viewing pleasure at www.bigboxmarts.com.

Hey I liked the thing no matter who it is...it makes a good point!!

And by the way, maybe i did make a difference standing up to them...i saw a door greeter in an electric type scooter chair working for them when i entered this week. Maybe my pain, my grief and my suffering helped him get a job there. But i still cant afford to even buy there more than one trip a month for only things we have to eat with or use for our cats. I avoid them if I can get it elsewhere, as much as possible because i hate them for not letting me come back to work, and making me fight them, and still could not get the one thing I needed worse than anything my chance to EARN a living with an accomodation.

For that I do hope they will pay and pay dearly one day. How can I not, they ruined what i had planned to do for a future. And dont go and tell me that there is hope out there...i keep trying to hold onto it. But I keep having to take care of others that need help, and that ties me up as well. Just one of those things when your brother is ten years older and mentally handicapped sometimes people have to come first, then looking for that next door. I hope that i will indeed find a way up and out of my present circumstances. If it was just me..and my problems..i most likely could. But there seems to be others always that hold me back, and down. And believe me....using me to take care of him is much cheaper on the family than any other way.

So you see, if they had let me keep my job, i could still have showed up there and worked PT, and still helped myself and him...but they WERE NOT interested in letting me ever work for them again, and its states that in the papers. BECAUSE I sued them...being the reason...not said in the papers. IF EEOC had taken it to the courts for me.. I would have had my job...the Government is so much in BED with this company its not even funny!!

Hey, I just found this all over the web. Other websites are giving this JibJab Clip a great promotional lift if it needed it after being all over the tube. I thought that the Dude on CNN that does a real good Anti outsourcing, ilegals point, Lou Dobbs thats his name. He gave this a great push and it was “if made for Lou Dobbs show. I have found links to this BigBox-Mart at sites like http://www.zoodoodle.com and even a Domain company that has a link right on there home page www.godummy.com, I think is the site name. Blogs have had this with Walmart going and now its time to Drive it to DC...Can you SEE DC?

Robert wrote this:
“It is usually the people who can well afford to shop somewhere else that bash Walmart.When you are on a fixed income or low income every buck saved counts.”

I hardly qualify in that regard. I’m pretty low income and I won’t go in.

“Do you think paying another store $1.50 more per gallon of milk will save my job.”

How long do you think the dairy farmer can afford to keep losing $1.50 a gallon?

“I am so tired of the liberal elite spouting off about something they nothing about.”

Well, now that is just bullshit, Bob, and you know it. Not every liberal is an elitist, you know. There are people who you would pigeonhole as “liberal” who don’t have a lot of money and still care about the welfare of the people of this country. And there is such a thing as a conservative elite, too. I think we saw the results of that group in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, didn’t we?

Don’t be so quick to judge things that you know nothing about.

... and by the way, when you say “liberal elite” I think you mean to say educated.

Nick’s Disciple wrote: “As you know, I am not a brainless (what other kind is there?) WalMart basher.”

Well, ND, I AM a Wal-Mart basher and the funny thing is I don’t recall seeing you at the Mensa Picnic.

Those who are unable to understand the “race to the bottom” currently gripping the U.S. (as well as many other countries) economy and the pivotal role played in this race by the Beast of Bentonville are the brainless ones.  Perhaps your grey matter has been “washed” one too many times.

I have worked for WalMart for 19 years. It is the people who don’t know the facts that are bashing it. I have a very well paying job, have had the oppertunity to move up to management, have great benefits. I get 4 weeks vacation, personal time, and I can accumulate up to 192 hours of sick time which after I have accumulated that much half of that rolls into personal time that I can use as I choose. The benefits are great. Yes, WalMart does not do everything right but that is why we have grass roots, the open door policy, and correction of errors. We try to rectify the problems with correct action taken. You tell me what company no matter how big it is that does not have problems. Unless you don’t have a worry about money than I would say shop there for the low prices. Even if you find a low price somewhere else, walmart will match it. Walmart is there to help out the middle class to lower class consumers. I am not brainwashed on Walmart but you have to look at the facts instead of what people that don’t know the facts are saying. Talk to people you know that work at Walmart. I would bet that 99% of the people that work there are happy with their jobs, have an opportunity to move up if they want, no matter if you come from the wrong side of the tracks, are a miniority, or whatever it is. Thanks for hearing me out. It is time people hear the real truth about my company in which I am proud to work for.

i dont know about 99% of people at walmart loving thier jobs.  and let’s face it, “some” have it easy to move up, but in most (if not all) stores have management that will pick and chose to move up.  I love my job, but at the same time I hate my job.  I love what I do, I love helping people, but it’s these same people that make me hate my job sometimes.  I’m sure if I wore a red shirt and tan khakis I’d go thru the same thing, but it’s just easier to bash walmart i guess.  if the other company was the one on top, they’d have all the bashers, negative press and picketers stopping new stores being built in thier neighbhorhoods, admit it!! 

I was a walmart fan long before I became an employee, and if I ever leave the company i will continue to give them my money, because I’m not above shopping cheap.  There ARE some good people working at walmart!!

I’m sure there are lots of good people working at Wal-Mart, and I’m sure they “love” their jobs in the sense that they love not starving and living on the street. I have a feeling that anyone who fails to express enthusiasm for working there gets a pink slip in half of no time.

I used to shop there occasionally, but no more...especially since the time I was there and heard one of their employee “pep rallies” over the loudspeaker--that creeped me out to no end.  It’s bad enough to have to work for minimum wage but to be forced to cheer about it is, to me, disgusting and un-American.

I thought the best part about the video was highlighting the American approach to consumption--buying tons of crap instead of just getting what you need (and getting better quality). THAT is our problem in a nutshell.

I worked for Walmart for many years and i have to say, at least at the store that i worked at, that about 97% of the people who worked there hated it.  We worked shorthanded most of the time and yet the same amount of work still had to be done.  I was making a little over $8 when i quit and this is after nearly 10 years.  The benefits are so-so.  I still go in my old store regularly because it is the only place in town where i can get everything I need in one place.  My former co-workers tell me it just gets worse all of the time.  I’m not saying that Walmart is a bad place, but if they made some changes and actually listened to the associates it might be better

Thee is a way to compete with BigBoxMart and also a choice in where to shop and or work with you own business. It is the “LittleBoxMart”..its sitting right in front of your eyes as you read this.

If you shop or work at an online store you do not have to deal with bixboxers. http://www.bigboxmarts.com is a place you can get your Store name (Domain) setup your Email (you@yourname.com) and build a Shopping Cart (store) youself and start a business for BIGBOX prices, and put you LITLLE BOX MART to work for yourself.

I hate walmart.  I won’t even go into that store. It’s dirty and full of poor people.  The last time I was in a walmart there were boxes all over the floor and mice (I’m not kidding).  The walmart near me has a grocery store.  Would you buy food in a store that has mice?  With all the boxes all over the floor it’s like a rat maze trying to get to what you want with your cart.  Garbage!!!!!  Dirty Garbage is what I think about when I think of walmart.  The only thing that is good about walmart is the exit doors.

There is a principle of economics known as comparative advantage where society benefits from the cheapest producer; However, If goods are being produced in China or Bangladesh at one fifth the cost, why are Wal-Mart prices only 20% less.  It seems that the lion share of the benefits of cheaper prices is going to the Wal-Mart stockholders not society.

Kim,

Make sure you have the latest Window’s Media program (media 7 or 8?).  Also if you have a blockup stopper, you may be blocking it.

Good luck =)

“walmart watch has blew it again.  Jibjab was interviewed on the Cavuto show on Fox News.  They said it had nothing to do with Walmart.  It was about our sending jobs overseas.  They indicated that they liked Walmart.”

ofcource they didn’t say it was all about wal-mart, they didn’t want to get sued…

GUYS JIB JAB is on to something.

A lot of Americans did not notice that 24,000 small stores have closed as Walmart Moves in. KMart and Sears, heard anything about them lately? Tommy Hilfinger WalMart, just the beginning of whats to follow.

Website names like www.BigBox-Mart.com and www.LittleBoxMart are being offered for sale for thousands because this IS JUST BEGINNING! I like the Idea of the “Little Box Mart name for a Business or Website, hope someone gets it and does it good.

I feel shame sometimes when I think that I came from where some of you people live.  Wal-Mart, the ringleader of outsourcing corporations, is doing one thing, making profit off your greed.  Most Americans have absolutely no desire to do any good for the man next to him.  They think only of them self.  Are you really that stupid to think that out sourcing is good?  Take a class of your local community college on economics.  The money you borrowed to buy that SUV is not from America, because you sent that money to china when you bought from wall mart.  Its Chinese money, in the form of US bonds.  Every dollar we wire there is sent back to buy savings bonds.  They approach a trillion dollars and counting.  It seems to me that when I’m in my fifties ill be putting on my uniform again to fight the Chinese because we cant honor a multi trillion bond withdraw.
And on a side note, If you don’t get at least 22 MPG then don’t put a support the troops sticker on your car, because you are the A$$ Hole who put me in Iraq in the first place.
cks.

The Chinese have done very good for themselves, purchasing mounds of our debt.  But most consumers are unaware that we’ll be a state for China as soon as they call those notes due.

BEWARE....Walmarts has a No Tolerance Policy when it comes to SHOPLIFTING or HUMAN ERROR.  This from the mouth of our own store manager.

A few weeks ago a family member failed to put a small bottle of laxative/fiber pills (cost UNDER $5.00) on the belt for the cashier to scan along with the other grocery items.  Walmart’s WELL TRAINED security guards knew exactly what to do in this type of circumstance.  They saw it happen...they lurked and waited as they must not approach the customer until he leaves store...they move in for the KILL...Another one under their belt...they caught a shoplifter.  FROM THAT POINT ON IT IS NO MERCY POLICY.

IF you are a Walmart shopper...pay attention to what you do in their store and to what you don’t do!

Walmart is a well oiled GIANT with its own Giant Legal Department.  Any type of human error as described above will be treated as Shoplifing...you will be arrested...you will go to criminal court. 

In court you will receive two options...hire a lawyer to defend yourself or plead guilty, pay the $400 penalty and agree to house arrest and after all this...a shoplifting charge WON’T go on your record.  Option #1 seemed unaffordable and so they got the $400.

OH Wait it doesn’t stop there...A few weeks later comes a Civil Penalty Demand Letter from the SuperGiant.  $400 is not enough!  They want an additional $200 mailed to them inorder that they don’t NOW prosecute my relative in Civil Court...and believe me...the letter is intimidating.  They threaten a lawsuit that includes WALMART"S attorney fees and court costs.  Once again...we cannot afford to risk that either.  THEY know how to walk over the little man in society.

IN summary, It cost our family $600 for a bottle of laxative/fiber pills that retailed for less that $5.00. 

The only consolation we have is that is the last penny our family will ever have to spend in Walmart.

I think we need to keep in mind that there are thousands of people who will walk the length of the Wal-Mart parking lot and upa nd down the aisles, then back to their car, who won’t walk around the corner to patronize their neighbor. THere is a report by a California congressman from 2004at the following websight.  edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/WALMARTREPORT.pdf
This report really sheds light on the company and it is not for those who can’t stand the truth.  Those people who shop WalMart should remember the 10% they save today will probably cost their grandkids ajob, because they are shopping their grandkids out of a job unless their grandkids move to China. Well I am sure this will get me some hate mail from the uninformed, it won’t be the first or last. Uncle Dan

I use to work for Wal-Mart and I dispise it.  I use to bring my problems home that occured from work.  There is no open policy because if you use it --- management will go against you ---until you quit or they get you fired.  I talked about a union to a freind that would not discuss it because of fear that they would get fired.  A guy with no experience at my field got payed more than me and worked less years than me (he told me how much he got payed).  A girl got into a position without any experience (?) while others were there longer with more experience.  I was once repremended in front of other employees - I felt ashamed.  A girl in my department I used to work for has a serious brain/skull disease - her boss didnt believe and went to the doctor to tell him that he didnt believe that she is sick at all.  She went through surgery thereafter.  Her doctor told her what her employer did.  I could go on and on and on --- I could write a book.  Wal-Mart is not for the employee its out for inself .  It is the worse company I’ve ever worked for.

Everyone should read the book $8,500,000 Judgment Day.  It’s about Wal-Mart"s bad reputation and is comical to read.  It does speak on the truth about Wal-Mart’s bad employee treatment and business practices.  It can be found at www.trafford.com

$8,500,000 Judgment Day is a true story about a former employee taking on the corporate giant and a jury awarded him a judgement of $8,500,000 .  The book rips Wal-Mart a new one.

The web site www.trafford.com can be used.  Go to the Search Desk tab and type in $8,500,000 Judgment Day or by the author name Lamon Griggs.  Or you can order by telephone at toll free 1-888-232-4444 and tell the desk clerk the title.  The catalog number is 04-2697.  Talk about a great gift for someone.  By the way, the web site shows excerpts of the book.  It is great.

WalMart’s low prices are GREAT for the lower class.  Absolutely no doubt about it.  It will come in handy as the middle class turns low class because of the lack of social responsibility Wal-Mart displays.  I worked for a manufacturer that was a vendor of Wal-Mart.  We had to comply to a ridiculously low price to get our product on their shelves.  Unfortunately, the company could not meet it’s goals at that level.  Our jobs were outsourced overseas for cheaper labor and we were let go.  At that point Wal-Mart was all we could afford.

Now, I am proud to work for a company that decided against selling to Wal-Mart for the same reason.  We have to decided to sell less for a smarter price.

Bryan,

I really have to congratulate your company for holding themselves up to a higher standard.  Having your margins, is critical to operations.  Having someone else dictate to you isn’t the way a business relationship works.  There’s no give and take with Wal-Mart; it’s all take.

Grats, I hope your company does well. (Hell, even if I don’t know what you do. LOL)

I thought the cartoon was hilarious as well as right on target (no pun intended).  At the rate that American companies, and I use the term “American” loosely, are shipping jobs out of the country and enriching our future combatants in China, I’d say we are maybe 10 to 20 years from WWIII.  We are in a race to the bottom that I believe is now totally out of our control, thanks to entities like Wal-Mart, and which is shifting wealth and power to the one nation on Earth with the potential power and the will to try to destroy us.  Lenin once said that he would sell the capitalists the shovels he would use to bury them.  He and his ilk are out of business now, but the Chinese learned that lesson and are positioning to use it, especially at a time when we seem to be willing to be fooled into committing our people and resources in hopeless causes like Iraq.  The Big One is coming, and I believe it will be at least in part yet another cost of everyday low prices.

As for me, I am done with Wal-Mart.

I can’t say it any better than Scott from Wakefield, RI
“It’s not about Wal-mart, it’s not about the government.  It’s about us, the consumers who are too cheap and too stupid to know the difference, we don’t care where all our crap comes from as long as it is as cheap as possible.  Wal-mart makes up 3% of the Gross Domestic Product!  They HAVE to get goods cheaper offshore because WE DEMAND IT!”
Thanks Scott,

I have not seen the movie. It won’t open in either Mozilla or IE.

I DO think Walmart ought to pay fair wages AND medical and all the rest.

However, we Americans, that want everything cheaper, have only ourselves to blame for the outsourcing. When was the last time YOU wanted to do so much for so little?
When was the last time you took a cut in pay, benefits or whatever?
We all want what we want at a less price, then we have to pay for it in someway.

Hey, it’s just a cartoon!! Stop arguing about who-what-where-when and just enjoy. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. I think it’s funny, I shop at Wal-mart and I don’t care what store it’s about. Laugh a little, stop being so darn serious about it.

Forget the threats you get from the Wal Mart attys. They tried the same shit with one of my clients who accidentally put a paperback in his coat pocket. Yes, they take you to criminal court, misdemeanor, can be negotiated down to disturbing the peace which can be expunged here.

The Wal Mart attys apparently don’t even know the civil shoplifitng law, at least I know that to be so in SC. They sent lots of threatening letters with the same demand to my client. They had nothing to prove the elements of their case and didn’t even have legal grounds for the damages they claimed. I could have counterclaimed for filing a suit without merit, but they never brought the suit they constantly threatened. I told my client to ignore them and the threatening letters continued until the statute of limitations expired. If they send another threatening letter, it’ll cost them a lot more than the amount they demanded to deal with all the regulatory agencies I plan to notify, not to mention the bar association complaint that will be filed against the law firm. Get a lawyer to look at the civil statute they are trying to use against you.

Cinderella, Your right, “it’s just a cartoon”, and it would be much funnier if it weren’t true.  I find everything about the downfall of America’s “economic prosperity” very serious!  You say you “don’t care”, I know better, if you didn’t care you wouldn’t take the time to blog something.  I believe if you viewed this cartoon for what cartoons have been used for years, a lighthearted way of looking at “the painful truth”, you’d care much more.  No… it’s much more than “just a cartoon.”

People so often watch events without drawing conclusions. Basicly we as a nation of workers and consumers are moving towards a State of service employees and huge headquarter complexes employing highly paid white collar workers. That leaves a very poor segment asking “would you like fries with that” and the other class taking cruises. Before long we should resemble the chinese in every way aka the haves and have nots. Buying strictly american is just not feasible today because the standard of living here far exceeds that of any other part of the world. A screwdriver made here may cost a dollar to make and cost a penny in China. See we are expected to open our borders for commerce yet we do not enjoy the same consideration in foreign markets. This is where voting instead of complaining comes in. Check out who you are voting for. Find out what their stance is on imports and trade equity. Don’t just assume we are doomed economically. We give away technology every single day to developing nations and upgrade foreign countries economys without a price tag. Do you recall approving such measures?

Arc in Arkansas worked at WalMart for 10 years and was only making $8 an hour?  Good grief.  Perhaps Arc should have studied harder in school.  Perhaps better writing and math skills would have helped.  How and why did Americans become so uneducated that the only job they can get is for $8 an hour after 10 years of service?  What were Arc’s parents doing?  Where were they?  If more parents expected their children to read every night their grades would go up.  Self confidence would improve.  Dreams would be bigger.  Solutions to the big box outsourcing problems are difficult. 
I believe it begins at home.  Parents must make their children read.  Its so simple.  Turn off the television so that your children will be educated properly.  Make your children learn.  Your television is not a babysitter.  Buy some books.  If you don’t have any money then go to the library.  Play Scrabble with your children.  They will learn to spell.  Play Yahtzee with your children.  They will learn to add.  I am as guilty as everyone else of watching too much television but neither one of my children do because they usually have their faces in a book.  It is your responsibility to educate your children so they will dream beyond $8 an hour after 10 years of service.  READ READ READ.............

Well the markets are changing right here in our country. The High Point NC Furniture Market is the Biggie and it looks like Las Vegas is going to get it. The biggest reason is the Furniture is coming from China etc...and Vegas is just as close as NC and who wouldn’t go to Vegas before NC.

JimBob

http://www.highpointmart.com

A couple points: The past tense of “blow” is “blown.”

Walmartwatch.com didn’t blow it; anyone can clearly see this video is about the proliferation of big-box stores and the price we ultimately pay for our own willingness. ... “paper or plastic?” This is one of several lines that should make the underlying meaning obvious.

As to the insensitive comment about how reading and playing yahtzee will cure employment woes ... ah, forget it.

Thank you everyone.  I’ve learned a lot from your comments.  I am poor and don’t have a car.  I buy all my clothes (except lingerie) from thrift stores as well as household items.  No WalMarts are close enough to reach on public transportation.  The two closest ones are in white outer suburban locations.  From their location I get the idea that Walmart doesn’t want minorities and poor people as customers, yet these are the people they claim to be helping the most.

Lcpl Huff in Iraq expressed him/herself well by saying we should care more about our neighbors.  If we did, there would be less wars.  Kudos to you! 
Some people may have little choice than to shop at Walmart, but the majority of us do, and majorities have the power to change things. 
I’m also concerned about our growing debt to China aided by out-sourcing.  People forget they are the second most powerful country in the world - they have atom bombs and other weapons of mass destruction (much more than Iraq).
China also persecutes Christians, Tibetans, baby girls, ectc.

To Clint from Montana---Its not insensitive to tell people to read more and educate themselves. 
Its insensitive to leave your children in front of a TV so that you can get your own television shows watched in the other room.
Both of my children have played many games of Yahtzee as well as Scrabble.  The TV was turned off.  My oldest is on his way to Law School.  He has two college degrees already that he got in just 4 years.  All of those children who were watching television while we were playing Scrabble are probably not as educated right now.  That’s just a guess.  It’s not insensitive.  Why do so many parents think its okay to watch 8 hours of TV a night?  Wake up America!!!!

It seems like a lot of people have a very narrow view on the current situation.  Let’s point out a few facts:

Elimination of outsourcing would eliminate the $20 DVD player - labor is cheap overseas.
TV can be a drag on children, but it is the overall lack of desire and sense of entitlement that is more of a threat.  I would have loved an $8 per hour job when I was working through college - not as a career, but simply for income.
US GDP for 2005 will approach $11.5 trillion - debt to China is less than 10% of that figure.  Granted we’re comparing a solid debt figure to a ‘revenue’ figure, but remember that most of the debt is corporate and revenues indicate the ability to cover outstanding debt.  Also, China has been purchasing US debt as a way to stabilize its currency (the Yuan), which will be de-linked to the US dollar in early 2006, which will have many other consequences.  Oh, and I highly doubt that every dollar of bonds issued to China is callable on demand. 
Corporations cannot exist for long when they continually overpay their employees and undercharge for their product.  Check out Delphi sometime.

If everyone has so much trouble with Wal-Mart, create your own chain of stores, lay your own money on the line, take the risk yourself, THEN pay your workers whatever wage you wish.

Clearly most respondents miss seeing the “forrest for the trees”.  First, if one perceives that Wal-Mart has low prices, one should seriously look at the quality of the item he or she is buying.  Example:  MTD is a manufacturer of lawn mowers.  This year MTD made Wal-Mart a “Yard Man” 17.5 HP 42” cut machine which they retailed for $999.00.  Normally this would be a very high quality machine which would cost $1599.00.  It would employ a Kokler or Briggs Industrial Commercial engine with monitors for Oil Pressure, an Oil Filter at least a 10 Guage deck with guage wheels Wally’s had none of these features.

Secondly, the real culprit i the US Government NAFTA and other WTF that allow US exposure to the cheap labor sweat shops of both third world countries and China.  Our jobs and our factories have been lost as a result of our own government policies I am a Republican Conservative, but I am going to watch candidates carefully to determine their positions on these issues in the future.

That is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time, unfortunatley there is a lot of truth in it.  We are going to pay dearly for this “low prices everyday” crap.  The criminals down on Wall Street may like it, but main street America is going to find out that nothing is free.

Sadly, there will be no understanding, much less any consideration from the gang of whores running the country now.  They are about as oblivious to it as one can get.

If we think 9-11 terrorized America, wait untill the Chinese wake up and decide they don’t want to work for .10 a day.  Then we are really going to be terrorized.

I find it humorous that the Walmart proponents keep reusing the same old tired arguments to defend this evil behomoth, they save people money, they help the lower class - yadda yadda.

We are about to become the city with the largest number of walmarts per capita as the 5th and 6th are soon to be built, for a city of 200,000.  Its funny how the proposed one on the north side - public opinion was running 4 and 5 to one against and there was an angry mob at the city council zoning meeting that the council refused to acknowledge and rubber stamped the approval, clearly walmart has them in their pockets.  They have pretty much killed off the local groceries and have their eyes set on running out the national grocery chain and put the hurts on their other competition.

What they will end up doing is closing some of their older stores when the newer ones are finished and let them sit vacant to keep a competitor out - thereby blighting the strip mall and the local area.

Another nearby small town tried to fight the walmart coming in, but walmrts attorneys fought back, one very smuggly in not so many words pretty much said their strategy was make it too expensive for the small town to fight them.  Well there they are, and the boards went up on the local businesses one by one.

I thought small business was the American way, and that small business was supposed to be the backbone of the economy - walmart’s predatory practices are clearly anti small business and anti healthy competiton.

I refuse to buy anything from walmart, and support their competitors in any way I can, i am am not some “elitist snob”, just an average working joe - part of the ever shrinking middle class.  One local competitor out of Michigan is Meijer - and they are a “big box” too, but at least they offer products from local sources, pay higher wages and the stores are generally cleaner and products of a higher quality with competitive prices, and their owner gives a ton to local charities - something walmart only pays lip service to.
In fact not all of Walmarts prices are the cheapest - milk for example at Walmart runs around 3.50 a gallon, whereas Meijer has it for $2.50 regularly and often on sale under 2 bucks.

Working in manufacturing services - i have seen far too many companies get bullied either to go overseas or out of business by walmart.

There is an old adage that “wealth is made by hard work, and great wealth is made by crime”.  Everyday there is another story about some sleazy stunt that the nations largest retailer has been involved in. They are strictly no good....ethically, morally, or any other way....including all their Chinese crap.

If all this wasn’t enough, now they have taken to examing packages upon exiting the store.  The only other retail establishment I have seen do this is at some of the membership clubs.  Maybe these slobs at Big Box Mart think they are Macy’s, and you are going to steal some of their “upscale merchandise”.  The last time it happened to me (which was the last time I ever walked in one of their dumps), I promptly told the person to shove their crap up their ass and dropped it and left.  This outfit is strictly no good.  I would die before I would buy a coke in one of their stores.

I very much enjoyed the “Big Box Mart” clip although Im only 12 I have a pretty good idea that American based jobs are sufficently going down in size. Unlike some other opinions I think that the clip was thoroughly based on todays Wal-Mart company all over our country , I also think that there should be fewer wal-marts blocking out the sun with there huge size and great majority , however this is only my opinion

Congrats to Cinderella, that comment was funny trolling

i am a 13 year old who is currently debating this topic in my debate class and all i want to sat is that alot of you bring up walmart and how it is bad, but we are talking about big box companies universaly

and also the fact is that big box companies are good for the community because it is the consumers fault for shopping there and making them so powerful

the problem with big box, is our system is completely built around cheap outsourcing and underpaid people who are willing to sacrifice the most basic neceseties in order to afford some kind of life in the US.  This is also one of the problems that immigrants encounter, however that is a very different subject.  Although there are so many ‘anti-nib boxians’ we, as a nation, continue to shop at these stores because it is encouraged through propaganda and prices, which if it comes down to a $10 bottle of shampoo versus a $3 bottle of shampoo, I’m going to take the 3 dollar.  Especially if i only have 5 dollars to get me throught he week. It’s a very complicated topic, and although a song helps us talk about our outrage, we need to develop alternative affordable resources for those who can’t help buying more affordable things.

I simply dislike wal mart period… The cheap junk they generally carry, the poor customer service I have received there and the way they treat their vendors, customers and employees.  Wal Mart stands the tallest in representing everything I dislike about the evolution of Super Store USA.

I go out of my way and spend lots extra to not buy at wal mart.  I seek out small sole owner / operator businesses who work hard to take care of their customers AND employees…

I work hard for my money and will vote with my purchasing power to keep wal mart from growing any more!!!

Bet I got em scared now!!!

But it is all I can do.....

I’d say that even though people such as Allen do go out of their way to spend an extra few dollars for better quality stuff, Wal-Mart isn’t getting their money from all legal people in the US. I bet many Californians as well as Arizonans and Texans and many other states along the Southern US borders agree that the main reason Wal-Mart is grown is because of the LEGAL Americans becoming overrun with the ILLEGALS and so, because they have no “real” job, they don’t get paid much and all they can afford is the “crap” at Wal-Mart. Feel better now with that off my chest. Thanks for reading.

Another thing, Lots of walmarts appear dirty and something in the air at any of them affect my eyes.

If you don’t like it, don’t shop there!

God, life is way too short to spend complaining about people/places/things that bother you, and moreover, that you have absolutely no control over. For crying out loud (and most of you already have done that), take ten steps back and look at yourselves! Put your liberal or conservative bias on hold, take a deep breath and ask yourself what the hell you’re doing here. Have you been put on this planet for a short time to sit on some website and complain about Wal*Mart?!

I’ll tell you one thing, I stumbled across this website while looking for a phone number for Wal*Mart’s shareholder services department and I’m sorry I did. I would NEVER have known this site even existed were it not for Google’s screwed up results rankings. There’s something else you all can boycott and create googlewatch.com and complain about IT, too.

Seriously, people, turn off your CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, or whatever talking heads you’re listening to and go outside and mow your lawn. Go do some work. Go fly a kite. Do anything but sit on your lazy American elitist butts and complain how bad you have it because of Wal*Mart or someone else. It’s never your fault though, right? Maybe our jobs wouldn’t be outsourced if you actually Worked at work. I’ve got good money that 75% of the people that have posted or surfed this site have done so at work.

I’ll step down from my soapbox now. Have a nice life, if you can call yours that.

I think it’s obvious that David in Zach, AR is a Wal-Mart stooge.  I mean, can it be more obvious?  AR is Arkansas, people! Arkansas - the home of Wal-Mart!  You all have been baited.

I really have a beef with WalMart.  I am tired of being ignored by their district managers re: a negligence claim on my daughter’s behalf that incurred a lot of damage.  I am looking for the name and address of their resident agent for Michigan to file suit.  Please forward any info to the email above.  Thank you!