ECONOMY

As Goes Wal-Mart, So Goes the Nation

For a better understanding of our budget consciousness, check out the world's largest retailer.

By Jennifer Barrett | Newsweek Web Exclusive

May 7, 2008 | Updated: 4:32 p.m. ET May 7, 2008

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Posted By: ChristianAmerican @ 05/10/2008 3:13:53 PM

Comment: Comment: Wal-Mart is what is wrong with this country they are creating a monopoly and it is choking out middle class America.They pay their new employees crap.They offer them no health benifits while the corporate elites get richer.Save America and do not buy the led based crap they bring here from China.No Wal-Mart is good for America.Sell outs.......

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The problem with America is that we have too many idiots with programmable mind like the author above. We need to bring back research on Eugenics and let evolutiontakes its course unmolested.
Posted By: sharkman @ 05/08/2008 10:05:11 PM

Comment: Wal-Mart is what is wrong with this country they are creating a monopoly and it is choking out middle class America.They pay their new employees crap.They offer them no health benifits while the corporate elites get richer.Save America and do not buy the led based crap they bring here from China.No Wal-Mart is good for America.Sell outs.......
Posted By: missmacy @ 05/08/2008 1:35:07 PM

Comment: I've never been a fan of Wal-Mart of even a regular customer, but I have to admit: grocery prices at Wal-Mart Supercenters are incredibly low. I'm actually saving as much as 50% on many of my favorite products compared to the favorite full-service supermarket I used for years. I'm hooked. I shop at my local Wal-Mart Supercenter at least twice a week.
Posted By: missmacy @ 05/08/2008 1:32:32 PM

Comment: I was never been a big fan of Wal-Mart or even a frequent shopper, but I have to admit that grocery prices at their Supercenter stores are astonishingly low. On most of my favorite products I'm saving up to 50% compared to the supermarket I used for years. Now I'm shopping at my local Wal-Mart Supercenter at least twice a week.
Posted By: gibby @ 05/08/2008 10:40:08 AM

Comment: you have to sell it to make money, I ran a concession stand one summer for a little league progam and I did not raise pop prices because that was the biggest seller in the summer months and it still gave a profit, and I had a couple of candy items that I put real cheap but still gave a profit, now the money made the year before after costs was a $4000 profit for the program, the next year that I ran it I made a $6000 profit for the program which shocked everyone in the program, it is because you can not make a profit if it doesn't sell, the pop sold big and cheap candy items sold big but while they were at it so did everything else, you can not make money if you don't sell it, big business you need to lower prices to sell big and make a decent or good profit.
- Posted By: summer4077 @ 05/08/2008 11:34:30
  
  Comment: Exactly. WalMart has dirt-cheap prices. They may not make a big profit on many items, but their volume of items sold more than makes up for it. Plus, their low prices encourage people to buy more items that they otherwise wouldn't have. That's the driving force behind their sales strategy. And for those that complain about the mom and pop stores...remember...WalMart was once a mom and pop store, too. You can't fault Sam Walton and his children for seeing an opportunity and acting on it.
  - Posted By: vince.stewart @ 05/09/2008 11:38:32
    
    Comment: But the Wal-Mart today and Sam's Wal-Mart of olde are two entirely different entities. When Sam died, thats when it started sliding downhill.
Posted By: gibby @ 05/08/2008 10:31:11 AM

Comment: you can not make a profit if you don't sell it, you must lower the price so the more you sell the more you have a profit, big business will fall and go broke if they don't sell it, if it don't sell you don't make any money, simple as that. you must lower the price of items people really want/need, in hard times people will go without and you don't make any money and you suffer too
Posted By: nicole0384 @ 05/08/2008 9:05:11 AM

Comment: There are alot of things that I don't like about Wal-Mart mainly it's the quality of the household products. I've purchased two major items in my home recently and thought that by going to Wal-Mart I would get more "bang for my buck" , and both items had to be returned and when I went to other stores I found very similar items with better quality at the same prices. Consumers still need to shop around Wal-Mart does not have all the answers!
Posted By: purplecounters @ 05/08/2008 7:04:43 AM

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Posted By: purplecounters @ 05/08/2008 7:04:28 AM

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Posted By: Frodis @ 05/07/2008 9:35:09 PM

Comment: People jump on the bash Wal-Mart band wagon and sing songs about "the little man" but the fact is that everyone wants to save money where they can and no one wants to pay the prices that the 'little man' used to charge. Wal-Mart provides services in many areas that might otherwise go without. I remember the days of the 'little man' shop owner. They fought the development of shopping malls and larger retailers. They felt it was their due to charge far too much for their goods when there was no competition. They didn't want to open on Sundays or after 6 p.m. They wanted to charge for what few parking spaces were available along the old main street. I'm sorry to see the character of many small towns and their main drag changing or dying off but I can't afford to support a fantasizing about the good ol' days. I'm glad there are large discount retailers that give me the best value for my money. In fact, I depend on it.
- Posted By: Giddy @ 05/08/2008 14:05:51
  
  Comment: If you're willing to sacrifice quality and durability, then WalMart may be the place to shop for hardgoods. Their groceries, are however, good quality and reasonably priced.
Posted By: Susie in NY @ 05/07/2008 9:30:23 PM

Comment: If we would stop buying gas for a week, the prices would drop. What ever happened to a national protest, we did it in the 60's when we saw young men die at war on our TV's at dinner time. That's when family's worked to together for one goal, share a life together. Parents were involved with the children. They did not push them off onto a game or computer, because they felt the kids should not stop them from their personal fun. We have become like sheep, doing what the big corporations tell us what we need and what makes us a person who had made it big. That's great if your born with a golden spoon in your mouth.. We are becoming a much poorer nation. Our goals in life seem to be tied to what is the latest item they are trying to push on us.
Where did our independent thinking go, where are our young political leaders gone? When was OK to Lie and Cheat and think it was business as usual. It must have happened when I took a power nap, because I always though having pride in your work meant something, or just doing a good job. Where are our Hero's gone? I liked looking up to one. I wish Superman can fix this world, or maybe run for the White house.
There are days I feel like going back to the start, We should build our homes in the woods, and live off the land. but I wonder if the land, air and water are safe. After all Alaska is melting and not to many people seem concerned, maybe cause their lives will end before the oceans rise and wipe out our cities. Anyone want to take a ride to a another planet, guess we can't do that because our space program has been cut so much. so does anyone have the answer? Things are not looking to well here. Just venting, well back to work, cause I can't make ends meet. Thanks Susie
- Posted By: mike1964 @ 05/08/2008 06:58:03
  
  Comment: Realistically speaking, can an entire country stop buying gas for a week? Of course, if we could, the price would drop, but demand would just increase again the following week when we all return to the real world. And in turn, prices would rise accordingly-supply and demand. Unfortunately, it is what it is.
  - Posted By: summer4077 @ 05/08/2008 11:31:23
    
    Comment: This is true. There is not short-term fix. Boycotting for a day or a week isn't going to change anything. We need to focus on maximizing our use of fuel--car pooling, consolidating trips instead of taking many to run errands, buying more fuel-efficient cars. Real changes will only be made by a long process. Unfortunately, for all the American public whines about gas prices, I just don't seem them at that point yet.
Posted By: LAGuy @ 05/07/2008 9:24:26 PM

Comment: What the heck is an "oil bubble"? Oil is a commodity which rises and falls depending on supply and demand. Right now demand is exceeding supply, namely because the emerging economies of China and India, the two most populous countries, are consuming ever larger quantities of oil. That isn't a bubble it's just Economics 101. A bubble is when there is no reason for the prices of a commodity to be so high, which is not the case with oil. Also the prices Americans are paying for gas keeps going up even more because the dollar is worth less on the international markets and it takes more dollars to buy oil. Oil is only part of our economic woes and there are a number of other factors.
- Posted By: tc125231 @ 05/07/2008 21:30:31
  
  Comment: Actually --all your statements are merely hypothesis on your part. Nobody is quite sure what the demand --or the supply --actually is. Best estimates of both by the most knowledgeable parties do NOT explain the current price.
  
  This is not to suggest that prices shouldn't be expected to go up, a la Economics 101. It IS to suggest that your statements overstate your knowledge --and --in fact, do not conform with best information.
  - Posted By: LAGuy @ 05/07/2008 21:45:47
    
    Comment: Whether they are "hypotheses" or not is irrelevant, although that is the opinion of most leading economists.. I was merely questioning the use of the term "bubble" which has no application in this case. There was a housing bubble -- there is no oil bubble. There are a million reasons oil has risen (world volatility, etc etc) that I did not add because I'm not posting an encyclopedia article. I gave a few reasons just to demonstrate my point. You response doesn't question the fact there is no "oil bubble." you seem to agree. So why the stupid attacks on my knowledge? Argue facts -- ad hominem attacks are immature and just plain sad.
    - Posted By: summer4077 @ 05/08/2008 11:29:08
      
      Comment: You also have to consider that OPEC highly regulates the supply. They restrict it to make profit, and the speculators DO drive the price up. The oil industry is very complex...it's not strictly tied to supply and demand, but incorporates many factors. Mere fears that supply will be interuppted can cause prices to spike. A terrorist attack in Spain (just an example) can cause oil prices to go up. The weak American economy has caused oil prices to go up. Any time there's a roadside bomb...oil prices go up. It's just an excuse for oil execs to get richer.
      Can you blame them? Sure, but oil is still a business. They are in it for profit. And for as much as Americans complain, I still see many many SUVs and trucks barreling down the road, and our fuel consumption hasn't dropped all that much. So if we're willing to buy it at that price, heck yeah, they'll sell it to us at that price. They'll keep going higher and higher until we reach a breaking point. That's pretty much *Business* 101.
Posted By: mark7779 @ 05/07/2008 9:01:57 PM

Comment: It's the oil bubble people. Just waiting waiting waiting for it to pop. The Fed's cut interest rates to boost the economy, but speculators and investors move their money to oil when interests rates are cut. Price of oil goes up and Americans stop spending money because it's going towards expensive gas. Higher gas prices means higher price of food and everything else for that matter. The Feds need to raise interest rates to pop the oil bubble, to get inflation in check, and to get people spending money on other things.
Posted By: mark7779 @ 05/07/2008 9:01:44 PM

Comment: It's the oil bubble people. Just waiting waiting waiting for it to pop. The Fed's cut interest rates to boost the economy, but speculators and investors move their money to oil when interests rates are cut. Price of oil goes up and Americans stop spending money because it's going towards expensive gas. Higher gas prices means higher price of food and everything else for that matter. The Feds need to raise interest rates to pop the oil bubble, to get inflation in check, and to get people spending money on other things.
Posted By: mark7779 @ 05/07/2008 9:01:22 PM

Comment: It's the oil bubble people. Just waiting waiting waiting for it to pop. The Fed's cut interest rates to boost the economy, but speculators and investors move their money to oil when interests rates are cut. Price of oil goes up and Americans stop spending money because it's going towards expensive gas. Higher gas prices means higher price of food and everything else for that matter. The Feds need to raise interest rates to pop the oil bubble, to get inflation in check, and to get people spending money on other things.
Posted By: goochy @ 05/07/2008 8:46:52 PM

Comment: This recession's getting pretty bad when people resort to buying cappuccino makers and frozen pizza.
Posted By: CEserman @ 05/07/2008 7:36:32 PM

Comment: Personally, the government has obtained by their own market a matter of lying about everything. I am not even sure I can trust these numbers when they will be just adjusted later. Why does the press, our watch dog, not question this president. Does the President have to get a "hummer" while doing the economic reports to have them question their creditbility? Or is that like the pot telling the kettle how black it is?