Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby

As to wages, I don't know the profit situation and if Walmart can
> afford to pay better than it does. Frankly, I don't think the old > time big department stores paid their people that much; a sales clerk > was certainly not a rich person.

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Links to an interview:

Host Frank Stasio talks with Charles Fishman, former editor at The News & Observer, about his new book, The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works and How It's Transforming the= American Economy (Penguin/2006). Listener Call-In. (59:00)

Very interesting. He's not a fan of Wal Mart but argues that big businesses are here to stay so we should look out how we change the landscape as they WILL be a part of it.

One very interesting point he made. Wal-Mart isn't greedy. Their profits are about $6,000 per employee when averaged. So making them add heath benefits or other costs means that prices will go up. Tell that to the voters in an area. :)

I'm not a big fan or enemy of Wal Mart. They are.

Things change. My uncle died about a year ago. He was the last link to the family farm. When I was very young about 1960 it still had an operating saw mill, slaughter house, grew crops, etc... The slaughter house was the last operating piece and it was sold off about 10 years ago. I stopped by last year and the owner was candid that he couldn't stay open except for the work he did for deer hunters.

We no longer go to school in white T shirts, jeans, and black Keds.

We expect the drug store and doctor to be open on Thursday.

We expect stores to be open Wednesday afternoon in particular and after 5 in general. Mom isn't home all day to run to the stores during the day.

We like having more than two choices for canned green beans. Large and small. :)

We no longer need to have towns every 10 to 20 miles so we can get there and back in one day on a horse.

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You may recall reading here things I > have mentioned about our local Walmart Supercenter versus the rest of > the merchants downtown. Now we also have a Walgreen's store which is > right downtown, and the other merchants do not like that very well > either. Personally, I have a wee bit more sympathy for Walgreens than > Walmart because of my personal friendship _many_ years ago with > Myrtle Walgreen, widow of Charles the founder of the chain and mother > of Charles II, the current president and CEO of the firm. Myrtle was > a first class lady. But just like Walmart, the new Walgreens store > right downtown does not offer any charge accounts, nor do they accept > Main Street Gift Certificates (like the other stores here.) As soon as > the other drug stores in town found out that Walgreens was not > offering any sort of charge accounts, nor much in the way of customer > service, the local merchants circled the wagons and started specificically > advertising that _they_ offered charge accounts, _they_ offered > delivery service to your home, _they_ worked closely with Medicare > on the new Part D thing, _they_ would work closely with your physician > to fill your scripts, etc. Buy anything you want here in downtown > Independence is their new chant, forget about the Walgreens and the > Walmarts; all you need are us, your long time merchants. But you > know, Lisa, I can begin to see the handwriting on the wall; more and > more vacant store fronts downtown, etc. PAT]

Now that makes sense. Come up with a REASON for folks to visit a small store and pay a bit more. But most folks still look at purchase price and then complain later about the results of their decision.

One of the most ironic comments I've ever seen was a fellow talking about how WalMart was evil, didn't pay people enough, provide benefits, etc ... This was on a forum dedicated to finding the absolutely cheapest prices on technology. ;)