Let's start with the meat. Wal Mart won the right to wrap their meat in a nitrogen atmosphere - so it stays red and healthy-looking even after it has spoiled! They are so anti-union that after a union won the right to represent butchers in one store the closed the entire store! Not only did it prevent those butchers from being represented, it seems that the chilling effect effectively ended organizing nationwide. In China workers are represented because of the law. Ironic, huh?

I have done a lot of comparison shopping and have stopped in several WMs to compare food prices. They ain't cheap! You are not gonna save a nickel buying food at WM.

"Everyday Low Prices" is one of the biggest false marketing scams ever foisted on the public. That's why WM is so profitable. I don't deny that there are some cheap (in terms of quality and price) items at WM.

But they are masters of the "Bait and switch scam."

The illegal version of the scam is advertising low prices for nonexistent items and switching the disappointed customer to a more expensive item. I am not accusing them of that. (Wouldn't be surprised, I just have no evidence or experience in that regard.)

What they do instead is employ the "value aisle."

Works like this. You are looking for a TV. You spot one on the aisle at an incredible price. WOW! Then you start to check it out. You didn't know it was possible to strip down a TV that much! Besides, it isn't the size you wanted, or it will go dark when HDTV is the only format - something. I have checked out a lot of items on that aisle. All crap.

So you think, "Well, I know they have cheap TVs at least. I'll just go find the one I want and pay a little more." Gotcha!

When you find that TV you actually want, I guarantee I can get it cheaper elsewhere. The same is true all over the store. So I don't shop at Wal-Mart.

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don't shop at Wal-Mart.

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Hillary Clinton and Wal-Mart: A Love Story

She served on Wal-Mart's Board for six years. Her husband signed free-trade deals that benefited Wal-Mart's outsourcing of manufacturing to China.

See also Clinton and Wal-Mart, the Village Voice.

"So what the hell was she doing on the Wal-Mart board? According to press accounts at the time, she was a show horse at the company's annual meetings when founder Sam Walton bused in cheering throngs to celebrate his non-union empire, which is headquartered in Arkansas, one of the country's poorest states. According to published reports, she was placed in charge of the company's "green" program to protect the environment.

But nobody got greener than Sam Walton and his family. For several years in the '80s, he was judged the richest man in America by Forbes magazine; his fortune zoomed into the billions until he split it up among relatives. It's no surprise that Hillary is a strong supporter of free trade with China. Wal-Mart, despite its "Buy American" advertising campaign, is the single largest U.S. importer, and half of its imports come from China."

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I stopped shopping at WalMart several years ago because they cheated me, but that's beside the point.

Most of us don't have time to go on a "quest" for food. Most of us don't live in an area where "going local" is an option. I live in rural western PA, surrounded by farms. Try buying local anything here: you can't do it because Giant Eagle, County Market, Aldi or whatever supply what the shoppers want-- products that are uniform from week to week. Shoppers don't want small, fuzzy peaches from down the road at the height of peach season, even if they are succulent and ten times better than the bland California peaches that are there every day of the year. Talking about going local is all well and good. Try it some time.

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here is an example of how much WM blows.

The town I used to live in had a Wal-Mart, and WM decided to close it down and built a Super-Wal-Mart literally RIGHT NEXT DOOR to it. It took a year to build this gigantic building right next door to the old one which is now an empty, neglected gigantic box. What a fucking waste of money and space. But hey, it's not like you need to be fiscally conservative when you are getting a couple billion a year in subsidies and tax breaks and paying shit to your workers.

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KEEP UP THE EXCELLENT WORK! YA BRO! YA BRA!

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The comments of the theme, "Somebody should tell this story" are great, but that task is harder than it sounds. There are so many stories out there, that to get people to understand the effects of corporate mega-stores on local economies and on the US balance of payments, is difficult.

Here's an example of what it takes: Use your favorite Web search engine (Google, Yahoo, Dogpile, etc.) and search for the term, "RCTV." In addition to a few local community TV notices, you'll see a huge number of articles that mention how Hugo Chavez shut down the most popular TV station in Caracas last May. Many journalists worldwide are concerned about this clear example of government repression of media, so every time Venezuelan politics is in a story, the example of shutting down RCTV is included. It's a constant drumbeat. That's what it takes. And even that constant mention won't get through to everybody.

Are you up to the task?

I.

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living in the northeast, it is only possible 5-6 months a year. There is no local produce in December, but I still don't shop at Walmart. I LOVE Costco, which treats their help fairly.

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I enjoyed the video, but I thought exaggerating to make the case hurt its credibility. The most blatant example was stating that employees of local stores - like that thrift store - have health insurance. Many employees of small local stores are actually paid under the table and not only have no health insurance their employers also are not paying into social security and workers' compensation funds for them. Many are making less than the $8.50 an hour paid at Walmart, too - in fact, often the owners of creative small stores themselves make less than minimum wage. So, yes, it's good to support them but please be clear and accurate about the reasons.

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Thanks for this great video! In addition to channeling our financial support to local and fair trade initiatives and supporting alternatives, we should simultaneously be pressuring those big box companies and multinational corporations to stop their exploitation of our communities.

If you are interested in fighting the global labor rights abuses of big box retailers and corporations, check out the International Labor Rights Forum at www.LaborRights.org.

If you are looking for sweatshop-free shopping ideas, check out the 2008 Shop With A Conscience Guide from SweatFree Communities, Sweatshop Watch and the International Labor Rights Forum. Plus, take action against the companies in the Sweatshop Hall of Shame.

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