Why the World Hates Wal-Mart
Bloomberg has an excellent article explaining why Wal-Mart has sold off its stores in South Korea:
Kim Jung Hyun stopped shopping at the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. oulet near her Seoul home last year when Shinsegae Co. opened a discount competitor 4 miles away. She prefers to drive there twice a week, she said.
“I just don’t like to shop in a place that looks like a warehouse,” said Kim, 38, a housewife. “I can get everything I need, from fresh produce to televisions, at a cheap price while being treated like a customer in a department store.”
Here are some other smart South Korean shoppers:
Wal-Mart’s Seoul store looks like a “cheap marketplace,” said Kim Se Hee, 31, a housewife who shops at E-Mart in Seoul.
For Min Jung Ah, Wal-Mart’s warehouse-style layouts are inconvenient for comparing prices and products.
“Besides, I never liked shopping in those dark stores where they sell frozen imported food in bulk, not fresh products sold in smaller bundles,” said Min, 35, a Seoul housewife.
They’re not very popular in some other countries too. The Bloomberg piece mentions that they’re closing stores in Germany. And here’s a comment from a British shopper over at Asdawatch [Asda is the name of Wal-Mart’s British subsidiary.]:
“When I go to Asda I am always shocked by how much fruit and veg seems to be from countries half way around the world. Why can’t supermarkets buy from local suppliers and cut down the harm they do to the environment?”
Other quotations on the site suggest that British shoppers are concerned over Asda labor practices. You can read a list of abuses that I would find shocking if I didn’t already know about Wal-Mart here. Nevertheless, this one stands out:
Just after the London bombings in July, a manager at an Asda depot in Lutterworth, Leicestershire read out “foreign-sounding” names over the public address system ordering them to report immediately to the manager’s office. The workers, who were all Muslims, were ordered to produce evidence that they were not illegal immigrants. At least one was threatened with the sack unless he produced his passport the next day. Some of those questioned had been working for Asda for 18 years. A tribunal found Asda guilty of racial discrimination and ordered them to pay £750 to each of the 37 workers. The company was also ordered to make a public apology. The compensation was paid in January 2006 but the public apology has yet to be made.
Granted, there are some countries besides the United States where Wal-Mart is doing well (Mexico comes immediately to mind), but this still raises an interesting question: Why does America put up with Wal-Mart while many other countries don’t?
WALMARTS GOAL IS TO WIPE OUT ALL OTHER STORES AND THEY DON’T HIDE IT. THEY HAVE ENOUGH MONEY UP FRONT TO DO THIS & AS SOON AS THEY ARE FINISH YOUR PRICES WILL GO UP. WE ARE NOT GOING TO HAVE THE CHOICE TO GO TO OTHER LOCAL PHARMACIES, CLOTHING OR GROCERY STORES. NO ONE IS GOING TO OPEN A BUSINESS WHEN THERE IS A WALMART RIGHT THERE AND ACTUALLY SUCCEED. AND SINCE THEY STARTING TO TAKE OVER PHONE & CABLE I GUESS NEXT THEY’LL BE DOING MY RENT OR CAR PAYMENT. DON’T LAUGH BECAUSE YOU SEE THIS ALSO. WALMART IS GOING TO TAKE FROM US IN THE LONG RUN I SUGGEST YOU START SHOPPING ELSE WHERE ONCE IN A WHILE DON’T LET WALMART CREATE YOUR FASHION FOR YOUR KIDS JUST BECAUSE ITS CHEAP AND THE OTHER STORES WOULD BE CHEAP FOR FOOD ALSO BUT CAN’T SINCE THEY DON’T GET MUCH BUSINESS SO SPREAD YOUR SELF EVEN IF ITS ONCE A WEEK FOR A SHIRT OR APPLE OR PRESCRIPTION ALL THE PHARMACIES HAVE THE DISCOUNTED PRESCRIPTIONS YOU JUST CAN’T HEAR IT WITH WALMARTS LOUD MOUTH