No First Amendment In Bentonville: Wal-Mart Watch Billboard Comes Down

WMW folks lie to further their agenda.  That’s why you got whitewashed - how appropriate!

Looks like everyone is afraid of big Wally Mart.

Walmart just sucks, plain and simple! My husband and his crew of 30 guys did contract work at Walmart home offices and Walmart chose to fire the company today with no reason and no notice. They don’t care about any families that can’t feed their family until they get a new job and a paycheck. So pat yourself on the back walmart you guys just lost 30+ customers! My husband spent 2,000 a month there ourselves no we will shop at what is left of the ma and pa stores. Attn walmart workers: you have no job stability whatsoever no matter how great you think you are! You are all replaceable!

Wal Mart has steered so far off left base from Sam Waltons principles.  Greed has overtaken the basic philosphy of Sam.

With that said, Bentonville is owned by WalMart, it truly is a cult that is run by money, not by religion.  From an Environmental prespective, they have walked into the frying pan...hiring inexperience environmental engineers, promising big wages and bonuses, what a joke!  I wish they would spend as much money on the welfare on their employees than do on the “so called” legal staff and CFO’s.

I DON"T GET ALL THIS “HANDSHAKE” STUFF!

Why in the world would I ever want to shake hands with anyone at Wal-Mart?  You never know where those hands may have been!

Seriously...I don’t understand all this hoopla over Walmart Watch’s latest initiative, “A Handshake With Sam.” Most of the 7 principles are things that Walmart Watch has been saying for a long time...I don’t really see anything new.

It’s all very reminiscent of Jimmy Stewart’s handshake with Mr. Potter in the film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” As you recall, Mr. Potter wanted to “shake on it” after he offered George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) the job of his life.  After the handshake, do you remember George Bailey’s reaction?  He felt like washing his hands!

Speaking of first amendment, why do posts get deleted here if you belive in it.  Double standards I guess.

WalmartWatch.com reserves the right, in its sole discretion, TO REMOVE or refuse to post blog comments. Sounds like there is no first ammendment at WalMartWatch.

Double standards indeed.  Liberals tend to be intolerant.

Double standards?
What about the story of this post about the company that is whitewashing the agreed and paid for billboard?
Think Wal-Mart had any influence in this situation?
I think so.

Hey JM.  I bet that the contract which was signed included an statement that the bill board could be removed.  I would also bet that WMW got their money back.

If I was Walmart, I certainly would use my enfluence just like the unions would use their enfluence under similar circumstances.

Well.....tell Harold in Dallas to stop his crying then.
Same deal here then. It says they have the right to remove a post.
Tell your friends also when they start crying.

Better tell sickofspin.  He is crying about double standards also.

Oh come on Sick.....
If your hurting so much, then why do you come here?
Do yourself a favor and take up crafts or something.

Why don’t all of you take up crafts?! Don’t you people have lives?

I think Walmart is all about trickery. They advertise always low prices . I have experienced many times while shopping at Walmart, they advertise one price and when you get to the checkout , the price is different and when you question the price, they tell you that someone “not an employee” put a different price tag under the product. They will give you the lower price if you decide to persue the situation any further. Taht is dishonest !!

I went to Walmart to have my used tires installed on my car, they say that they will do it , but after you’ve waited there for 30 or 45 minutes in the store, ( hopefully shopping), they call you and tell you that they can’t install the tires because they all have a different tread pattern, or that one only has 3/32 tread depth and that is considered a bald tire in Ohio. Ohio says minimum tread depth is 1/16”.
Again “trickery “

Tom,

The other day I bought some software at Wal-Mart. The advertized price for the product was $49.95. When I got to the register, it rang up as $28.95. Pretty cool eh?

With a store of that magnitude, there’ll always be room for error. This is clearly an area where Wal-Mart needs to improve, for their own good (see my example).

As always, you are free to get your used and worn out tires installed somewhere else. Be glad that the mechanic at Wal-Mart showed enough concern about your safety before he installed the old tires on your car.

So, Edgar, did you offer to pay the advertised software for your software?  You didn’t?  Well, then, you’re either a thief or a hypocrite.  If you did NOT offer to pay the advertised price, then you just proved the point of having a double standard that others were making above:  that if an error is made that works against you, you shouldn’t complain about it, but if an error works in your favor, you don’t take advantage of it.

And SickofSpin, yeah, that’s such a “twisted agenda” that people on this site push...it’s so “twisted” to think that people should honor their agreements, or treat their employees fairly, or stand up for themselves and not let themselves be pushed around by bullies.

I’ll dumb it down for you so you can understand it.  Suppose you hired someone to paint your house just the color you want it.  They then come back after the fact, whitewash your house, and then say that couldn’t do the work and that they would give you your money back.  You’d be happy with that?  I’m sorry, from the logic displayed on your previous posts, you’d probably be happy about.  Because only hypocrites complain when THEY are wronged!

Something for other regions to consider.  In Ontario, the provincial government was threatening to write a law that would control pricing discrepencies. That forced the Ontario Retailers to adopt a system that would encourage pricing integrity. If you purchase an item, and the price does not match the shelf label or the display sign, then you get the item for free. The limit is up to $10.00. If the item is over $10.00 in value, then the first $10.00 is deducted from the retail price. One detail though is the item must match the shelf label or the display sign’s description, because of course people take things out of their shopping carts when they change their minds about purchasing, and will put the item anywhere.  It’s a good system. You should suggest it to your government and retailers associations.

“I’ll dumb it down for you so you can understand it.  Suppose you hired someone to paint your house just the color you want it.  They then come back after the fact, whitewash your house, and then say that couldn’t do the work and that they would give you your money back.  You’d be happy with that?  I’m sorry, from the logic displayed on your previous posts, you’d probably be happy about.  Because only hypocrites complain when THEY are wronged!”

The error in this analogy is that unlike your house
(which presumably you own) WMW does not own the billboard. They only rent the space for an agreed length of time for an established price. Since we do not know exactly the terms of the contract we cannot determine if the company was within their legal rights. Most likely the company does have some clause or provision in which it reserves the right to remove any content at it’s discretion. For example to remove anti semetic or racially discriminatory content, or to remove and /or forbid pornographic content. Also we don’t know if WMW completely disclosed the intent of their billboard. Perhaps they mislead the company into believeing that the billboard was a positive message in favor of Wal-mart. Did WMW disclose their involvement with SEIU? Perhaps he agreed to the contract without such disclosure. Without knowing the terms of the contract nor the negotiations that took place we may only speculate.

Everyone misses the point...they approved the billboard, they saw it, read it, thought it was OK, then went back and said no.  Why would they do such a thing?  The implication seems to be that they probably received some pressure from WalMart in some way.  We can guess the contract included some clause where they can remove at their own discretion, but after they approve the design, you would think any potential problems they might have had with its content would have been addressed in that process.  This isnt about the cost of the billboard, or even the broken contract, it is about WalMart wielding tremendous power, via the clout they have built across the nation and world, to pressure seemingly unrelated businesses into doing their bidding.  If any of you are truely sick of the spin being put on things in todays world, beware of WalMart, because the spin they force upon their own employess and the American public is an impressive piece of work…

Why doesn’t Walmartwatch build their own billboard in bentonville and put up whatever they want.

Thanks, Mike...at least SOMEBODY got the point of the argument!

Truely Wal-Mart is “The Bully of Bentonville”

Book by the same title is writen by Anthony Bianco.

NO FIRST AMENDMENT IN BENTONVILLE:
Provacative headline no doubt, however inaccurate.

The issue has absolutely nothing to do with the first amendment.
Here is the text of that amendment below:

Bill of Rights
Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Whistler Outdoor Advertising is not a government entity. The first admendment does not require that any business must promote the free excercise of freedom of speech. It only states that the government may not interfere with the excercise thereof. A for profit business is not required to facilitate freedom of speech unless the specific contract permits such expression.  Therefore I found the headline misleading. Whistler Advertising does not in any way prohibit WMW from purchasing and mainitaining their own billboard and thereby facilitating the expression of free speech. Nice try folks.

LIVE BY YOUR OWN WORDS, WONDERSNEVERCEASE!

“The first admendment does not require that any business must promote the free excercise of freedom of speech.”

Be sure you remember this when you and all your little Wal-mart buddies whine about your posts being removed from this website. 

Walmartwatch like Whistler Outdoor Advertising IS NOT a “government entity.”

Nice try, Wonders!

Yes you are correct in stating that WMW may refuse to allow posts at whim. However in so doing, WMW would at best present a severely one sided argument and I for one would question the integrity of any site which would adamantly purport to publish only the truth and yet seek to suppress that portion of it which might refute the sites claims. By the way I never mention the first admedment when posts are removed.  It’s fairly obvious why posts get removed. Because if those posts remain they shoot more holes through the union argument than a seive. I’ve noticed that many times posts with actual content get removed while other posts that are little more than a series of one shots and insults remain. Go figure. ;-)

Ah, yes.  The posts by the Defenders of Walmart are always so persuasive that they need to be removed as quickly as possible, lest their rational thoughts persuade the zombie public.  You conspiracy theorists are a laugh a minute, its almost the same as taking down billboards that express opposing views ....

Quit your crying Wonder
My posts have been taken down too.
I do not shop at Wal-Mart either.
It is a low life company.

Shucks by golly and glory be!!!
WMW must really like me for I have never had a post
removed—perhaps I am telling the truth, even when
that truth might not be in accordance with the Unions
-- or even with Wal-Mart

Perhaps I am wrong but I have found thru the years that
--if a person expresses himself in a fair, unbiased, honest
manner that the opposite party will accept it in that vein.
Not sayin they will agree with it.

Working for Wal-Mart is just like working for a union, right down to the stupid pay scales and job codes.  You can even be terminated for not taking a lunch and all the other things union’s say workers “don’t have to do”.  Well, some of us like to work and don’t want to wait 3 hours for someone to bring a screwdriver to tighten a screw just because “it’s not my job”.

If you don’t work there, it’s really none of your business.  What the whining is really about is ... they have money that you can’t get to. 

Its familiar of the Native Americans in Arizona, they were ignored and left alone until they opened casinos and started making money - now the government and everyone else want’s a piece of the action to take everything they can get from them.

But then, you probably have a website promoting that too.

I’m not for or against Wal-Mart, but I am against stupidity.  Go spill some coffee and sue someone; tell the world you’re a moron.