That was then, this is now.
"The Buy America Program" is both a committment and a partnership" (Wal-Mart, Inc. promotional material, 1994)
Just how much does Wal-Mart, Inc. value its committments and partnerships?
Download and share a copy of our full page ad in Monday's USA Today.
At least 70 percent of items sold in Wal-Mart stores have a Chinese component.
According to Ted Fishman, author of the newly published China, Inc., “…there’s a Chinese component in virtually every aisle you walk there in Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart is the conduit for all of the output of the Chinese economy directly into American lives.” Fishman also notes, “…70 percent of the things sold in Wal-Mart stores have a Chinese component to them.” And a stock analyst for Gladstone Capital notes that figure is even higher, saying, “They have about 70 percent of their products coming from China, not including the food products.” The “Buy American” program has virtually vanished, as “its shelves bear little trace of the ‘Buy American’ philosophy of its founder,” notes the Washington Post. [CNN, 2/16/05; NPR, 2/12/05; Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 3/27/05; Gladstone Capital Quarterly Shareholders Call, 2/10/05; Washington Post, 10/29/03]
Wal-Mart is China’s Eighth Largest Trading Partner. One company, ahead of Russia and Germany!
Figures vary about how much Wal-Mart purchases from China, and Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott has evaded fully answering that question, but is it widely estimated by scholars and journalists that Wal-Mart is China’s eighth largest trading partner. [Scott Interview, ABC “Good Morning America,” 1/13/05; PBS Frontline, 2004; CBS, 12/14/03; New York Times, 4/17/04; US News & World Report, 9/15/03]
$20 billion saved, billions more lost
Wal-Mart's relentless drive to deliver low prices now directly saves American consumers $20 billion a year by one estimate -- and probably several times that sum once the indirect effect on competitors is factored in. To win Wal-Mart's business, suppliers have been forced to close U.S. factories and source overseas, with millions of American jobs lost in the process. Wal-Mart alone accounts for 10 percent of all imports from China.
Economist Suggests Over A Million Jobs Lost To China Since 1990s.
Larry Mishel, President of the Economic Policy Institute, said, “When you look at the growth of the trade deficit with China, you could say that a very conservative estimate is that we have lost more than a million jobs to China since the early 1990s.” [Scott Interview, ABC “Good Morning America,” 1/13/05; PBS Frontline, 2004; CBS, 12/14/03; Washington Post, 10/29/0; New York Times, 4/17/04; US News & World Report, 9/15/03]
WalmartWatch.com is exposing the truth.
Following up on our successful launch last week, a new conversation began on Monday morning with over 2.6 million readers of USA Today. We will continue to expose the impact of Wal-Mart's appetite for Chinese goods over the coming days with a targeted media campaign in communities hardest hit by Wal-Mart's abandonment of the "Buy America Program".
