Excerpt:
LOCUST GROVE, Va. — Wal-Mart wants to build a Supercenter within a cannonshot of where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first fought, a proposal that has preservationists rallying to protect the key Civil War site.
AT & T's First Act With Video Competition? Hike Prices.
Before the Wisconsin legislature was paid off to approve the Video Competition Act, TV4US claimed consumers should see a reduction in prices ranging anywhere from 15% to as much as 40% for video services. What they really meant to say was the extra competition will bring higher prices, but the higher prices will prove the competition is undoubtedly "holding prices lower than they otherwise would be."
Motorists' habits spur call for tax increases, OR Why consumer-based income-blind taxes are wrong.
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — Motorists are driving less and buying less gasoline, which means fuel taxes aren't raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.
Retailers face Mass bankruptcies
Excerpt:Thousands of stores to disappear in '09.
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. retailers face a wave of store closings, bankruptcies and takeovers starting next month as holiday sales are shaping up to be the worst in 40 years.
Excerpt:Less junk from China to buy and stack up in the garage. Less junk means fewer purchases - fewer purchases means less sales tax collected. Less sales tax collected means....... DOH! Here we go again.
"There's going to be a massive sea change in the retail landscape," said Nina Kampler, executive vice president with Hilco Real Estate, which advises retailers on their property management.
Grocery Assistance Up 22% State Wide
Considering grocery prices seemed to go up 30% over the past year, the 22% climb almost looks like a cut.
4 comments:
You have to be carefull when labeling a specific store as dominated by Chinese products since they all are. I don't buy a lot of cards but went out last week to buy a birthday card for my wife. Being a cheapskate, my first stop was Factory Card Outlet. To my surprise almost every card was printed in China. Next stop Target - same thing. Third stop - Walmart. Nicely located A few steps from the registers is a large Hallmark card department. Every card was printed in the USA. Needless to say, I bought American and bought at Walmart.
Point well taken.
But if we view some of these giant retailers under the same lenses as everything else under globalization, from food to the automobile - labels of origin become very forgiving. Such as if 51% is of American origin.....it's American. Granted, Wal-Mart buys from many countries so a simple majority may be impossible to achieve. I don't have the figure of the exact percentage of sales in dollars or goods sold at Wal-Mart originate from which countries, but if the majority of durable goods sold at Wal-Mart are from some other country other than China, I would welcome the information.
Your statement is no doubt accurate for all retailers. Walmart is no exception. I always try to buy American though it is difficult and sometimes impossible. If the only new things are foreign I often try a consignment store for old things. In fairness I believe Walmart was later than some others in going foreign. Ten years ago I could find some American clothes at Walmart and Farm & Fleet while more upscale stores like Boston Store were already foreign. Unfortunately even those days are past. Take Care and Happy New Year. Keep up the good work even if I do disagree with you a good portion of the time. We have no disagreement on "Buy American".
But the statement "Giant Chinese-Goods Retailer Wants To Build Store On Civil War Grounds" is not indicative of all retailers. In this case only - it's Wal-Mart.
Calling Wal-Mart a giant Chinese-goods retailer does not come with automatic qualifiers or exclusions. It happens to be a well accepted fact that many people ignore. 70% of the commodities sold in Wal-Mart are made in China. [China Business Weekly, November 29, 2004]
Lou is writing guerilla journalism here. I happen to enjoy the style because it's refreshingly blunt and personal without the smoke and mirrors. What blogging was meant to be.
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