Great Gifts! Save More! Don't Wait! Special Buys! 1,800 Dead! Evil Scumsuckers Go Home!

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2013/11/26



Great Gifts! Save More! Don't Wait! Special Buys! 1,800 Dead! Evil Scumsuckers Go Home!
by Abby Zimet
11.26.13 - 8:55 AM

Okay, all done. After months of impassively, unthinkingly trashing each morning's florid email from the black hole of greed and profiteering that is Walmart - "Map Out Your Black Friday Shopping Trip! New Value of the Hour! Save More With Home Value Bundles! - we just had one of those Network-inspired "I'm mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore" moments. It's not just 'cause they sell something called "hamburger helper cheeseburgr macaroni" - though WTF? - and call it food, or even because they famously asked their own grossly underpaid workers to donate food to other grossly underpaid workers for a Thanksgiving dinner nobody will have time to eat anyway because they'll all be working to feed the endless greed of the multi-billionaire Waltons, yet another reason for the welcome and overdue wave of strikes hitting them this week. It's because of this: Many months after over 1,200 workers in Bangladesh were killed in the dual disasters of the Tazreen factory fire and Rana Plaza garment factory collapse, Walmart has refused to contribute a penny to international compensation funds to assist the families of the dead and the over 1,800 workers injured because it was "financially unfeasible" to do so; has blown off a meeting in Geneva where companies came to discuss such compensation; has offered to create its own safety scheme that critics say is so flawed, vague and unenforceable it's virtually meaningless, despite the fact that one in five Walmart factories still fails safety tests, a figure that leads advocates to charge that Walmart did and still does have "blood on its hands"; and reportedly and with great fanfare offered $50 million in low-cost loans to Bangladesh garment factories to improve conditions - loan offers which Walmart claimed were met with several "no thanks," but which labor advocates in Bangladesh say were, in fact, never made, leaving them still waiting for any substantive change. So. A plea: If you're indulging in shopping this season, please forego the drek and evil of Walmart and other big box atrocities - where, it seems, some have already camped out almost two weeks before the fact for whatever it is they, evidently lacking a life or any sense thereof, so very desperately want to buy there. But we digress. Buy local, buy modest, buy where it helps someone else who needs it. The Waltons don't. And please, one day, let them eat hamburger helper cheeseburgr macaroni.

[another_liberal]

1. Great poster art!

I want one of those!

[monmouth3]

2. When one shops locally the money stays in the community. You build a relationship with the

local store, if there is something wrong with your purchase most likely they will correct the issue. Why anyone would shop at the Big Box store is beyond me. I love the smaller shops, they are unique and really go out of their way to please you. Shop local, it's good for you!

[glowing]

3. Because you aren't likely to buy a dishwasher, oven,

washer, dryer, or TV's at a small local shop. And good luck even finding one of these items that are even built in the USA anymore.

[RoccoR5955]

5. There's actually FIVE local appliance shops here.

But then again, I live in an area where I guess more people think about their local economy.
In New Paltz there is an appliance store that has been around for longer than the 30+ years that I have lived here. There's another TWO that have been around for a long time in nearby Walden, NY. There are at least one each in Kingston, and Saugerties as well.
You just have to know the local area around here to know who, and where they are.
I am sure that in nearby Poughkeepsie, Middletown, and Newburgh, there are local appliance stores too.
Granted, this isn't Montana, or North Dakota, or some other out of the way place, but local stores are coming back here, as people are essentially fed up with the lack of service in the big box stores. When we want good service, knowledgeable sales staff, and a reasonable price, we go to the local store, NOT the big box.

For instance, around the corner from where I work, in Poughkeepsie, there is a hardware store that has been in business for over 100 years! EVERYONE goes there. You can ask any of the sales staff where something is, and they will either know where it is, or know that they don't have it, and will order it for you and have it within a couple of days. I can go there on my lunch time, and get something I need and be in and out of the place in a very short time. None of this, "It's not my department, go ask so-and-so," Business, like in Home Despot, or Blowes.

Like I stated, people around here are getting fed up with the lack of helpfulness, and service from the sales people at the big box stores. This will eventually be their downfall.

[glowing]

7. I live in FL... Not much care around this state for the small guy.

It's unfortunate, but the way it seems to work. And the same appliances seem to be more heavily discounted at the big box store than at any smaller scale operation. The best thing about a few of these smaller places is that they have repair people. I think most of their money is generated thru repair. But it's also been a long, long time since ice bought any appliance or TV. I need a new dishwasher... But my hands and sink are cheaper by far, so I haven't bothered with replacing the unit for the past 5 yrs it's needed replacing.

I also have a bit of a busted washing matchine. It does the wash and all, but the lid/ latch is broken. I have rigged it so it's always active. If the lid is up, the machine won't automatically stop. I'm smart enough to pull the knob if I need it to stop and not so dumb as to put my hands into the machine if it's spinning. Bought then washer and dryer 5mo's used for $300.00 when I was 19. I'm now 34, and I don't plan in buying new until something breaks and repairing doesn't make any sense!

[marble falls]

6. And WalMart played a big part in those facts and customers buying price over all other .....

considerations sent their own jobs elsewhere.

[glowing]

4. Sadly, hamburger helper, the food of the poor, is too expensive for many these days.

Plus it tastes like crap. My roommate loved this concoction. First time I tasted it, I was queasy. I understood why my mom chose to put less meat on a plate and fill up with sides during poorer times, rather than this out a box of this crap.

And with the cost of hamburger these days, I wouldn't waste a pound of it flavoring it with dehydrated cheese and stale macaroni. And these days, the chemicals, dyes, extra crap added to it, I'm not so sure it can be called food.

[TBF]

9. You know you grew up without much money

when it tastes good to you! I love it and have been feeding it to my kids sometimes (my husband normally works late and eats downtown so we have simple meals during the week). I am much higher income now but if I see the 2/$1.00 box sale I am all over that!

But, no, it's not the best food out there and it irritates the hell out of me that billionaires are allowed to even exist in this country while others are homeless/hungry. Taxation can solve this very easily. If we made 2 simple changes: double the capital gains tax (it has been cut in half since Reagan took office and this is how they make so much money on investments) and double the minimum wage we could do much better I feel.

[TBF]

8. Dozens of emails this morning -

I tend to on-line shop more than mall hopping or big box. I saved one to look at next Monday and deleted the rest. Fuck them.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

10. Huge GIANT KICK!! and REC!!!!

I didn't know about those despicable actions Malwart execs did. Wow. Unbelievable.

[durablend]

11. I'm sorry but this is pathetic...

(from USA Today)

Some people started camping out in front of stores last week. Carmen Thompson, 37, of Louisville, Ky., has been sleeping in a tent outside Best Buy.

"We would not have the Christmases we have if I did not sleep outside," she says. Thompson, who has seven children ages 2-19, camped out last year too.

"OH NOES MOM...NO 80 INCH TEEVEE UNDER THE TREE?!? WHY DO YOU HATE US?!?!?"

[Sanity Claws]

12. You don't have the Thanksgivings you have if you didn't sleep outside either

Can you imagine ruining the Thanksgiving holiday for your family like that, just to get stuff?