Political Quotes

“a drama is taking place about the future, not just of America's economy, but the global marketplace. A metaphor for this drama is the role that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, plays. Since its founding by Sam Walton in 1962, it has grown to be larger than the economies of 170 nations. By rigorous cost containment and careful attention to detail, it has forced suppliers to be competitive and more effective. It has given Americans lower prices, and some experts even say has held down inflation. What could be wrong with this picture? Well, plenty. First of all, there are the costs to communities. It appears that communities lose far more jobs with Wal-Mart than they gain. Depending upon that community and whether or not those jobs lost are unionized, the jobs that they do get are $2 to $10 an hour less than those destroyed. Much of the opposition is to the impact that Wal-Mart has on the fabric of the communities it operates in, often at the outskirts of town, drawing away from the vitality of the main street where businesses, slowly, are strangled. The impact can even be devastating for its suppliers, as detailed in a cover story in this month's Fast Company magazine, discussing the impact on Huffy Bikes and Vlasic Pickles, where companies end up being squeezed and often cannibalizing themselves. Finally, there are grave questions about the treatment of workers in the factories around the world that supply Wal-Mart.”