will people finally listen?
I was watching ABC Nightly News last night and they ran a story about the possibility that FAO Schwarz, THE New York City toy story, may have to shut it's doors before or shortly after Christmas because they just aren't making money. This is sad. I've never been to New York City, but I know the store from a lifetime of movies and shows where kids in New York either went to FAO Schwarz or some made-up store modeled on it and entered a sort of children's Nirvana. Floor upon floor of every toy imaginable, displays on top of displays, and so much to put one's hands on...like the scene in Tom Hanks' movie Big where he plays chopsticks on the foot keyboard...at FAO Schwarz.
But they just can't compete. They don't sell enough. It lead to their declaration of bankruptcy a year or two ago, and this year it may very well lead to the doors being locked for good. It was nothing that they did that caused this either, that's what has me upset. They haven't taken to huge mark-ups in the price of their toys. The business-usual single-digit percentages are what they make their profits off of. There's no shame in that, nothing evil about it, it is capitalism at it's most fair.
No, the problem is in other stores dropping prices. Stores that can sell toys at or below wholesale cost -- thereby breaking even or even losing money on the sale of each toy -- knowing that people will come in and buy the cheap toys and then buy other stuff on which the store can make up it's loss. The toys fly off the shelf, no problem. People go to FAO Schwarz to gape in awe at the majesty of the place, get ideas for what they want, then go off to the suburbs to buy the toy somewhere cheaper. Somewhere like WalMart.
And that's what I'm getting at here, WalMart. In the past, WalMart has been convicted of predatory pricing (the act of selling products below wholesale cost as to put competition out of business) in courts of law and forced to pay fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In Washington State a few years back, it was their pharmacy and beauty aids that they priced below cost in an effort to put area mom and pop pharmacies out of business...and it worked. All WalMart had to do was pay a fine in the quarter-million dollar range and they were free from competition in the area. I'm sure by now the fine has paid itself off through the monopoly that it resulted from.
They have done the same with small communities throughout the last couple of decades. Their practices of moving into small towns, driving down costs, thereby putting local stores (and, in some cases, the entire downtown business districts of those towns) out of business is well documented by groups such as WalMart Watch, PBS (this is a really good documentary if you ever get a chance to view it -- unfortunately, it costs $85 to rent), and others. This practice isn't just an accident of their gargantuan size, it is in large part their corporate policy.
But now it's toys that they seem to be trying to corner the market on. At least at Christmas time. And they're changing the landscape of toy shopping in the process. Toys R Us is being forced by WalMart to reduce it's prices to sliver-margins over wholesale in order to "compete". Instead of making a healthy one or two dollar profit off of every doll sold, let's say, it must make due with a nickel or dime. Toys R Us can manage, barely, because they have an empire of toys -- stores throughout this country and 27 others...A nickel or dime on every purchase adding up when multiplied by it's 1600 stores. FAO Schwarz is much smaller, a couple dozen in the United States alone. They just can't nickel and dime enough to stay afloat. And so they're very likely closing their doors.
I hear friends tell me all the time "Oh I went to WalMart and bought..." or "I need to go to WalMart and get..." and I always tell them how wrong it is for them to do so. I guess they don't care that WalMart puts moms and pops out of business in some small town in nowhere America...it's nothing tangible to them. It's sad. Maybe with a store like FAO Schwarz going under it will start to click in their heads. Probably not.
WalMart is, in one four letter word, EVIL and it's destroying so much about what is America. They are destroying the entrepreneurial spirit of capitalism and therefore capitalism itself by making it impossible for starter companies to compete and likely that establish niche companies will fail. They are rewriting the economy on their own without concern to anyone but their investors. They are ruining traditionalism by paving it over and putting up yet another supercenter.
...And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I could write a book on WalMart's wickedness. Just exploring their treatment of their employees (paying them just enough to still qualify for government-funded Medicaid instead of offering insurance itself, paying low enough so that many workers still qualify for food-stamps, and of course their infamous union-busting practices for starters) itself I could write a hundred pages. The effects of their demands on suppliers, thereby putting them under or running them out of the country, another hundred or so. And then of course there are their phony "Buy American" ads and "Wal-Mart Good. Works." campaign... But that is neither here nor there. Besides, much has been written and I will post a few links at the end of this post. I just wish people would listen and realize that whenever they buy anything from WalMart, they are partaking in a sham that is slowly unraveling the American Dream and all that is fair and good in the capitalist system (and yes, there are some things fair and good in the capitalist system). *sigh*
Anyway, a few things to check out:
The Wal-Mart You Don't know -- a nice long article exploring the global economic impacts of Wal-Mart's insistence of ever-lower prices on the products it sells. Suppliers, in order to sell their products through the largest retailer in the world must ever-reduce their costs of supplying...often leading to lay-offs and expatriation.
Sprawl Busters -- I actually worked with this group for a short time because CVS Pharmacy was ranging on their promises for a store they put up locally, surprising everyone involved by "preserving" an historical building as was required, but only by gutting it and leaving the facade. Anyway, they played a large role in the Store Wars movie linked to above and are one of the large players in the anti-Wal-Mart movement.
Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich -- Ms. Ehrenreich explores the world of the working poor and in so doing, finds herself working for Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, MN. There she finds a corporation that imposes itself into its employee's downtime, disciplining "time-theft" (have to go to the bathroom? Don't you dare not wait until your break), and the extraordinary efforts of the company to keep unions out of it's business plans.
How Wal-Mart is Destroying America and The World and What You Can Do About It by Bill Quinn -- I haven't read the book personally, but want to. As Amazon writes: "An updated and expanded continuation of detailed accounts of Wal-Mart's questionable business practices, their not-so-ethical tactics, and their expansion into the global market. Shows concerned citizens how to fight to keep Wal-Mart from invading their towns."
But they just can't compete. They don't sell enough. It lead to their declaration of bankruptcy a year or two ago, and this year it may very well lead to the doors being locked for good. It was nothing that they did that caused this either, that's what has me upset. They haven't taken to huge mark-ups in the price of their toys. The business-usual single-digit percentages are what they make their profits off of. There's no shame in that, nothing evil about it, it is capitalism at it's most fair.
No, the problem is in other stores dropping prices. Stores that can sell toys at or below wholesale cost -- thereby breaking even or even losing money on the sale of each toy -- knowing that people will come in and buy the cheap toys and then buy other stuff on which the store can make up it's loss. The toys fly off the shelf, no problem. People go to FAO Schwarz to gape in awe at the majesty of the place, get ideas for what they want, then go off to the suburbs to buy the toy somewhere cheaper. Somewhere like WalMart.
And that's what I'm getting at here, WalMart. In the past, WalMart has been convicted of predatory pricing (the act of selling products below wholesale cost as to put competition out of business) in courts of law and forced to pay fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In Washington State a few years back, it was their pharmacy and beauty aids that they priced below cost in an effort to put area mom and pop pharmacies out of business...and it worked. All WalMart had to do was pay a fine in the quarter-million dollar range and they were free from competition in the area. I'm sure by now the fine has paid itself off through the monopoly that it resulted from.
They have done the same with small communities throughout the last couple of decades. Their practices of moving into small towns, driving down costs, thereby putting local stores (and, in some cases, the entire downtown business districts of those towns) out of business is well documented by groups such as WalMart Watch, PBS (this is a really good documentary if you ever get a chance to view it -- unfortunately, it costs $85 to rent), and others. This practice isn't just an accident of their gargantuan size, it is in large part their corporate policy.
But now it's toys that they seem to be trying to corner the market on. At least at Christmas time. And they're changing the landscape of toy shopping in the process. Toys R Us is being forced by WalMart to reduce it's prices to sliver-margins over wholesale in order to "compete". Instead of making a healthy one or two dollar profit off of every doll sold, let's say, it must make due with a nickel or dime. Toys R Us can manage, barely, because they have an empire of toys -- stores throughout this country and 27 others...A nickel or dime on every purchase adding up when multiplied by it's 1600 stores. FAO Schwarz is much smaller, a couple dozen in the United States alone. They just can't nickel and dime enough to stay afloat. And so they're very likely closing their doors.
I hear friends tell me all the time "Oh I went to WalMart and bought..." or "I need to go to WalMart and get..." and I always tell them how wrong it is for them to do so. I guess they don't care that WalMart puts moms and pops out of business in some small town in nowhere America...it's nothing tangible to them. It's sad. Maybe with a store like FAO Schwarz going under it will start to click in their heads. Probably not.
WalMart is, in one four letter word, EVIL and it's destroying so much about what is America. They are destroying the entrepreneurial spirit of capitalism and therefore capitalism itself by making it impossible for starter companies to compete and likely that establish niche companies will fail. They are rewriting the economy on their own without concern to anyone but their investors. They are ruining traditionalism by paving it over and putting up yet another supercenter.
...And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I could write a book on WalMart's wickedness. Just exploring their treatment of their employees (paying them just enough to still qualify for government-funded Medicaid instead of offering insurance itself, paying low enough so that many workers still qualify for food-stamps, and of course their infamous union-busting practices for starters) itself I could write a hundred pages. The effects of their demands on suppliers, thereby putting them under or running them out of the country, another hundred or so. And then of course there are their phony "Buy American" ads and "Wal-Mart Good. Works." campaign... But that is neither here nor there. Besides, much has been written and I will post a few links at the end of this post. I just wish people would listen and realize that whenever they buy anything from WalMart, they are partaking in a sham that is slowly unraveling the American Dream and all that is fair and good in the capitalist system (and yes, there are some things fair and good in the capitalist system). *sigh*
Anyway, a few things to check out:
The Wal-Mart You Don't know -- a nice long article exploring the global economic impacts of Wal-Mart's insistence of ever-lower prices on the products it sells. Suppliers, in order to sell their products through the largest retailer in the world must ever-reduce their costs of supplying...often leading to lay-offs and expatriation.
Sprawl Busters -- I actually worked with this group for a short time because CVS Pharmacy was ranging on their promises for a store they put up locally, surprising everyone involved by "preserving" an historical building as was required, but only by gutting it and leaving the facade. Anyway, they played a large role in the Store Wars movie linked to above and are one of the large players in the anti-Wal-Mart movement.
Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich -- Ms. Ehrenreich explores the world of the working poor and in so doing, finds herself working for Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, MN. There she finds a corporation that imposes itself into its employee's downtime, disciplining "time-theft" (have to go to the bathroom? Don't you dare not wait until your break), and the extraordinary efforts of the company to keep unions out of it's business plans.
How Wal-Mart is Destroying America and The World and What You Can Do About It by Bill Quinn -- I haven't read the book personally, but want to. As Amazon writes: "An updated and expanded continuation of detailed accounts of Wal-Mart's questionable business practices, their not-so-ethical tactics, and their expansion into the global market. Shows concerned citizens how to fight to keep Wal-Mart from invading their towns."
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home