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The TGIF Movie Review: Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price

September 3rd, 2010 by Matt Zambito

Editor’s Note: To read even more about Wal-Mart and what you can do about this giant monster unregulated capitalism has created, check out our recent Wednesday on ways to downsize Wal-Mart. Just click this sentence to read a five-part to-do list you can act on right from your computer.

- – - – -

Wal-Mart destroys. That’s the message at the heart of the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. It’s rather simple. Wal-Mart destroys. That’s what it’s designed to do, and boy, it does it well. Wal-Mart is our Golem. Wal-Mart is the Godzilla of our market-driven creation, eating Tokyo after Tokyo after Tokyo. Only Wal-Mart ain’t no myth, and it ain’t no movie.

But this flick about Wal-Mart makes a new and well-defended argument against the behemoth. What is this larger claim? Wal-Mart is a form of what could be described as, in the film’s words, contemporary “plantation capitalism.” How so? Wal-Mart is all about profit at the expense of all parts of every kind of individual—shoppers, employees, widget-makers alike. Profit at the expense of small, long-lasting, family businesses. Profit at the expense of safety from crime (trust me: it’s in the movie, and it’s peel-your-eyelids-back messed up). Profit at the expense of the environment. Profit at the expense of drinking water. Profit at the expense of public education. For crying out loud, profit at the expense of fire departments. Profit at the expense of health and healthcare. Profit at the expense of various cultures. Profit at the expense of workers’ rights. Profit at the expense of the world economy. Profit at the expense of public funds.

Using data, shocking firsthand accounts by current and former employees, news reports, and absolutely heartbreaking interviews with private business owners, this film deftly argues that everything is expendable to Wal-Mart except for the exchange of money from your wallet to their registers, and it will do just about anything to make that exchange keep happening. Everything else, in the minds of everyone from the lower management (who are taught to spy on and scare potential union leaders, and who are taught to fudge hours so that people who’ve earned overtime don’t receive overtime) to the board members, everything else can, almost literally, go to hell.

At this point the movie takes a turn, and it shows how the people of Inglewood, California, when told by Wal-Mart that they could go to hell said, “Wait. No. You go to hell.” And then a list of city after city scrolls over the screen, each one a place that told Wal-Mart to do the same and won.

This is a movie about activism. This is a movie with a ray of hope. Since many local governments kowtow to Wal-Mart, we can’t trust elected officials to fight for us. We have to do it ourselves. We have almost no other choice. But that choice? It is simple and it is ours: we can choose to shop at Wal-Mart or we can choose not to shop at Wal-Mart. If we can start hacking away at the only thing that Wal-Mart cares about, then we can win. Only then. But then.

We can choose to put a scary parable to rest. We can choose to click off the monster picture before it ends badly for all the characters. Please take a look and choose for yourself:

TGIF,Wal-Mart,movies,video,watch   Add a comment

This Wednesday: Downsizing Wal-Mart

September 1st, 2010 by Progressive Wednesday

Problem:

Back in December of 2006, after we opened our P.O. Box in Model City, New York, we received our first piece of junk mail, the kind of junk mail that makes us believe in a god of irony (okay, we don’t actually believe in a god of irony, but, well, sometimes we find it difficult to rule it out): a circular from Wal-Mart. Not just any flyer, mind you. This one promised, amongst other things, “instant savings,” “the season’s best savings,” and “brilliant holiday savings.”

At Progressive Wednesday, we’re all about saving and even savings, but we’re also about taking action to protect our tax dollars, our families, our environment, our safety, and our small businesses. And we could use your help. It’s time to stop the Walton family from harming our country far, far, far more than it helps (since, you know, it essentially doesn’t help us at all). It’s time to downsize Wal-Mart.

*

Make Progress:

.

Watch:

To witness an even-handed and wonderfully heartbreaking documentary, check out the PBS Frontline flick Is Wal-Mart Good for America? by clicking here. It’s conveniently broken into five segments, so you don’t even need to watch the whole thing straight through. You can watch ten minutes, then fix a sandwich (we dig Monte Cristos, by the way). You can watch another ten minutes worth, and then buzz your grandma (she misses you and you never call). You get the picture.

While this film filled us with pit-bull rage, it also left us feeling empowered. We realized that we could change things in our own small ways, because, despite what Wal-Mart would like you to think, we aren’t actually a bunch of wishy-washy wimps when we come face-to-face with even the largest, richest, and arguably most despicable, American company.

After watching the film, maybe take the time to send an email from the Frontline page to three friends (the email link is on the far left margin of the page). You might indicate which section you thought was the most interesting, so that folks could just take a few minutes to educate themselves about Wal-Mart and the ways it harms America’s hard-working families.

You can always click the Share button at the bottom left-hand corner of this post and email from there.

There are even more videos you could tell your pals about from the folks at Wakeup Wal-Mart.

Why do you want you to watch these films? Why do we want you to get your friends to watch these films? Because, quite frankly, we want everyone to stop shopping there until Wal-Mart radically changes its ways.

.

Stop:

We ain’t never claimed to be perfect, people (read all about it in our FAQ), and we’ll never do so. And we’ll admit it: we’ve shopped at Wal-Mart; we’ve shopped at Sam’s Club.

There are few powers our general citizenry possess to fight major conglomerations, at least not many that don’t involve our arrests. But there’s always the b-word, and we don’t mean bulldogs or bananas or bills or baklava; we mean boycott, baby, boy-cott.

So we’ll also promise this: barring a fluke of nature or tequila-induced drunkenness, we’ll never shop at any Wal-Mart owned company again. If you haven’t already, please consider joining us. There will be very few times where we beg at Progressive Wednesday. But we do beg of you: stop going there. Wal-Mart isn’t saving you money, both in the short term or the long term.

So quit cold turkey, because shopping in bulk does seem like some kind of addiction. And how many three-gallon tubs of mayo do we really need?

But here’s the deal–today, this Wednesday or whenever you’re reading this–try to convince one other person to stop. A little ways down this page, we’ll provide you with additional resources to educate yourself or educate this other person. Explain to them gently what you’ve learned and how disgusted you are with the company.

Or click the Share button at the bottom of this post, and email them this Wednesday’s info.

And now we’ve arrived at the big question: where should we shop instead? Well, we don’t exactly have the answer to that because we don’t know where you live. But here are three suggestions:

  1. Whenever possible, buy American products.
  2. Shop locally at privately owned businesses that care about the planet. You can always try the Yellow Pages online. (Remember: to cancel getting the hard copy just click this sentence.)
  3. Only buy items of significance or necessity; stuff doesn’t make us happy. (If you’ve got to read it to believe it, check out this University of Colorado study or this CNN article.) Of course, Progressive Wednesday stuff will bring ebullient joy to your life whether you’re 9 or 99.

.

Write:

We believe that one of the most powerful ways to make progress is to be the voice of progress and to state your case publicly. One of the most effective means of doing this is writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. (For advice on writing letters to the editor, check out our brief tool or our full tool.) We’d like to encourage you to write one of two different letters.

1. If there’s a Wal-Mart in your area, we’d like you to consider writing a letter that tackles one of the following topics:

We think these frames are strong as well, so feel free to use our language. You might ask readers why Wal-Mart is so morally irresponsible. You can find other talking points and info here and here and here and here. The thing is, you’re going to want to localize the problem of Wal-Mart in your area so you can better reach the audience. You might express concern that one of the problems you read about in the above links might happen in your area.

As we mention in our letters to the editor how-to tool, we recommend offering a solution. This solution might be urging folks to support local businesses and to stop shopping at Wal-Mart. You can probably come up with solutions of your own.

2. If there’s not a Wal-Mart in your area–after you thank your luckiest of stars–we’d like to suggest writing a letter expressing how grateful you are, and how much you’re hoping it will stay that way. You might want to pick one of the aforementioned topics to explain why you feel this way.

If you’re swamped and still want to yawp a bit to your community, there’s a simpler approach to writing a letter to your local newspaper’s editors. Wakeup Wal-Mart has a section of their webpage dedicated to just such writing. You choose the topic you’d like to address, select your state, click on your newspaper or newspapers, and then tweak your letter.

We applaud the ease of this, but find that more personalized letters have a better shot of getting published (though you could easily add some personal narrative to the form letter they’ve created). We also think it’s good to get into practice writing letters, as they play an integral role in making progress.

One last thing to keep in mind: the opinion section of a newspaper is actually the most read section of the newspaper. You read that right.

.

Donate & Replace:

This act of progress is really pretty straight-forward. We’d like to suggest you donate just one thing (though a dozen would be even better) which you don’t need or don’t want or dig but want to update somehow, and, if you have to, replace it with something else used or something new.

This will achieve several aims. By helping others in poverty, you very well might help reduce the odds someone else will to go to Wal-Mart. And you’ll help another person in need. And you’ll help the economy by making a purchase. And you’ll help small businesses or blue-collar American workers or both when you replace the item or items with something not sold at Wal-Mart. And you can even get a tax break for your donation. It’s one of the gifts that keeps giving and giving and giving and….

Here’s how donations help Salvation Army. Here’s how to find a Salvation Army near you.

And what to buy? And where? You’ll find a few links and ideas in the Stop section of this Wednesday topic, but below you’ll find even more of our favorite progressive venders:

Editor’s Note: Think Target’s better? Maybe so. But we read that they recently donated over $150,000 to help support a candidate running for governor in Minnesota who has taken a strong stance against gay rights. (As an aside, Best Buy recently donated $100,000 to support the same regressive candidate.) What is Target doing to rectify this? Like cowards, they’re just shutting up.

Want to help make marriage equality for all a reality in a country who supposed ethos is to offer equal rights to all? Consider making even the smallest of donations to the Human Rights Campaign.

.

Sign:

Talk about an easy way to make some progress: ask Wal-Mart to hold itself to moral responsibility. How? Sign this message to Wal-Mart, then print, sign, and send the letter to the C.E.O. of Wal-Mart.

You can also sign up for more information about Wal-Mart here.

You might also consider printing this letter, signing your Jane or John Hancock at the bottom, and sending it off to your local and state legislators. If they use the resources at Wal-Mart Watch, they’ll be better at waging a strong fight against this unethical company.

Your voice matters in a very real way. The goal is to reach a tipping point so that we can have more progress made.

PBS,PW,Wal-Mart,Wednesday,boycott,corporations,documentary,donate,human rights,labor rights,stop,watch   Add a comment

Downsizing Wal-Mart Some More

December 5th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

Problem:

A scant few weeks after we opened our P.O. Box in Model City, New York, we received our first piece of junk mail, the kind of junk mail that makes us believe in a god of irony (okay, we don't actually believe in a god of irony, but, well, sometimes we find it difficult to rule it out): a circular from Wal-Mart. Not just any flyer, mind you. This one promised, amongst other things, “instant savings,– “the season's best savings,– and “brilliant holiday savings.–

At Progressive Wednesday, we're all about saving and even savings, but we're also about taking action to protect our tax dollars, our families, our environment, and our small businesses. And we could use your help. It's time to stop the Walton family from harming our country more than it helps. It's time to downsize Wal-Mart.

*

Make Progress:

.

Watch:

To witness an even-handed and wonderfully heartbreaking documentary, check out the PBS Frontline flick Is WAL-MART Good for America? by clicking here. It's conveniently broken into five segments, so you don't even need to watch the whole thing straight through. You can watch ten minutes, then fix a sandwich (we dig Monte Cristos, by the way). You can watch another diez minutos, and buzz your grandma–she misses you and you never call. You get the picture.

While this film does fill us with pit-bull rage, it also leaves us feeling empowered. We realized that we could change things in our own small ways, because, despite what Wal-Mart would like you to think, we aren't actually a bunch of wishy-washy wimps when we come face-to-face with even the largest, richest, and arguably most despicable, American company.

After watching the film, maybe take the time to send an email from the Frontline page to three friends (the email link is on the far left margin of the page). You might indicate which section you thought was the most interesting, so that folks could just take a few minutes to educate themselves about Wal-Mart and the ways they harm America's hard-working families. You can always click the Share This button at the bottom left-hand corner of this post and email from there.

If you dug this documentary (though “dug– might be too generous a word), you might want to check out The Wal-Mart Movie, a flick by Robert Greenwald, who's produced several other charged and progressive movies. This one takes a more sharply critical eye to the company than does the PBS program. You can buy the sucker here or check out the trailer first:

There are even more videos you could tell your pals about from the folks at Wakeup Wal-Mart.

Why do you want you to watch these films? Why do we want you to get your peeps (that's right, we said “peeps– ) to watch these films? Because, quite frankly, we want everyone to stop shopping there until they change their ways.

.

Stop:

We ain't never claimed to be perfect, people (read all about it in our FAQ), and we'll never do so. And we'll admit it: we've shopped at Wal-Mart; we've shopped at Sam's Club.

There are few powers our general citizenry possess to fight major conglomerations, at least not many that don't involve our arrests. But there's always the b-word, and we don't mean bulldogs or bananas or bills; we mean boycott, baby, boy-cott.

So we'll also admit this: barring a fluke of nature or tequila-induced drunkenness, we'll never shop at any Wal-Mart owned company again. If you haven't already, join us. There will be very few times where we beg at Progressive Wednesday. But we do beg of you: stop going there. Wal-Mart isn't saving you money, both in the short term or the long term.

So quit cold turkey, yo, because shopping in bulk does seem like some kind of addiction. And how many three-gallon tubs of mayo do we really need? (The answer rhymes with “hero.– )

But here's the deal–today, this Wednesday or whenever you're reading this, try to convince one other person to stop. We'll provide you with additional resources to educate yourself or the educate this other person. Explain to them gently what you've learned and how disgusted you are with the company. Or click the “Share This– button at the bottom of any of these posts, and email the sucker.

And now comes the big question: where should we shop instead? Well, we don't exactly have the answer to that because we don't know where you live. But here are three suggestions:

 

  1. Whenever possible, buy American products.
  2. Shop locally at privately owned businesses. You can always try the Yellow Pages online.
  3. Only buy items of significance or necessity; stuff doesn't make us happy. (If you’ve got to read it to believe it, check out this University of Colorado study or this CNN article.) Of course, Progressive Wednesday swag will bring ebullient joy to your life whether you're 9 or 90.

.

Write:

We believe that one of the most powerful ways to make progress is to be the voice of progress and to state your case publicly. One of the most effective means of doing this is writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. (For advice on writing letters to the editor, check out our brief tool or our full tool.) We'd like to encourage you to write one of two different letters.

1. If there's a Wal-Mart in your area, we'd like you to consider writing a letter that tackles one of the following topics:

We think these frames are strong as well, so feel free to use our language. You might ask readers why Wal-Mart is so morally irresponsible. You can find other talking points and info here and here and here and here and here. The thing is, you're going to want to localize the problem of Wal-Mart in your area so you can better reach the audience. You might express concern that one of the problems you read about in the above links might happen in your area.

As we mention in our letters to the editor how-to tool, we recommend offering a solution. This solution might be urging folks to support local businesses and to stop shopping at Wal-Mart. You can probably come up with solutions of your own.

2. If there's not a Wal-Mart in your area–after you thank your luckiest of stars–we'd like to suggest writing a letter expressing how grateful you are, and how much you're hoping it will stay that way. You might want to pick one of the aforementioned topics to explain why you feel this way.

*

If you're swamped and still want to yawp a bit to your community, there's a simpler approach to writing a letter to your local newspaper's editors. Wakeup Wal-Mart has a section of their webpage dedicated to just such writing. You choose the topic you'd like to address, select your state, click on your newspaper or newspapers, then tweak your letter.

We applaud the ease of this, but find that more personalized letters have a better shot of getting published (though you could easily add some personal narrative to the form letter they've created). We also think it's good to get into practice writing letters, as they play an integral role in making progress.

.

Donate & Replace:

This act of progress is really pretty straight-forward. We'd like to suggest you donate just one thing (though a dozen would be even better) which you don't need or don't want or dig but want to update somehow, and replace it with something else or something new.

This will achieve several aims. By helping others in poverty, you very well might help reduce the odds someone will to go to Wal-Mart. And you'll help another person in need. And you'll help the economy by making a purchase. And you'll help small businesses or blue-collar American workers or both. And you can even get a tax break for your donation. It's one of the gifts that, much like the Energizer Bunny, keeps giving and giving and giving and– ¦.

Here's how donations help Salvation Army. Here's how to find a Salvation Army near you.

And what to buy? And where? You'll find a few links and ideas in the Stop section of this Wednesday topic, but below you'll find even more of our favorite progressive venders:

Shop Union Made
Pangea
CD Baby
Powells
The Book Corner
One Good Bumblebee
The Progressive Wednesday Store

.

Sign:

Talk about an easy way to make some progress: ask Wal-Mart to hold itself to moral responsibility. How? Sign this message to Wal-Mart, then print, sign, and send the letter to the C.E.O. of Wal-Mart.

You can also sign up for more information about Wal-Mart here.

You might also consider printing this letter, signing your John Hancock at the bottom, and sending it off to your local and state legislators. If they use the resources at Wal-Mart Watch, they'll be better at waging a strong fight against this unethical company.

Your voice matters in a very real way. The goal is to reach a tipping point so that we can have more progress made.

Wal-Mart,Wednesday,business,donate,sign,stop,watch,write 1 Comment

Downsizing Wal-Mart: Stop

June 27th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

Editor’s Note: This Wednesday topic first appeared on February 7, 2007. To read the introduction to “Downsizing Wal-Mart,” just click here:

- – - – -

Stop:

We ain't never claimed to be perfect, people (read all about it in our FAQ), and we'll never do so. And we'll admit it: we've shopped at Wal-Mart; we've shopped at Sam's Club.

There are few powers our general citizenry possess to fight major conglomerations, at least not many that don't involve our arrests. But there's always the b-word, and we don't mean bulldogs or bananas or bills; we mean boycott, baby, boy-cott.

So we'll also admit this: barring a fluke of nature or tequila-induced drunkenness, we'll never shop at any Wal-Mart owned company again. If you haven't already, join us. There will be very few times where we beg at Progressive Wednesday. But we do beg of you: stop going there. Wal-Mart isn't saving you money, both in the short term or the long term.

So quit cold turkey, yo, because shopping in bulk does seem like some kind of addiction. And how many three-gallon tubs of mayo do we really need? (The answer rhymes with “hero.– )

But here's the deal–today, this Wednesday or whenever you're reading this, try to convince one other person to stop. We'll provide you with additional resources to educate yourself or the educate this other person. Explain to them gently what you've learned and how disgusted you are with the company. Or click the “Share This– button at the bottom of any of these posts, and email the sucker.

And now comes the big question: where should we shop instead? Well, we don't exactly have the answer to that because we don't know where you live. But here are three suggestions:

  1. Whenever possible, buy American products.
  2. Shop locally at privately owned businesses. You can always try the Yellow Pages online.
  3. Only buy items of significance or necessity; stuff doesn't make us happy. (If you’ve got to read it to believe it, check out this University of Colorado study or this CNN article.) Of course, Progressive Wednesday swag will bring ebullient joy to your life whether you're 9 or 90.

Wal-Mart,Wednesday,boycott,stop Closed

Wal-Mart Sucks (the system dry)

June 9th, 2007 by Eric

Since day one in the life of the phenomenon that is Progressive Wednesday, we have chosen to provide you with a running count in our sidebar of just how much money Wal-Mart costs the taxpayers each year. As of this post on June 6, Wal-Mart's total United States taxpayer burden is almost $4 billion and will average roughly $8 billion over the year. That could fund the occupation of Iraq for two months, though I can think of a few better ways to spend that moolah. The problems with Wal-Mart go a lot further than this though. In fact, our very first Wednesday topic ever was dedicated to the negative social and economic impact Wal-Mart's business practices have on our great nation. You can and should check it out here.

This hasn't gotten nearly as much press as it should. I can only assume that this is because the news stations don't want to seem too “lefty,– too anti-Wal-Mart. It seems to me that not reporting about this would give them a “righty– bias. But, setting that bit of irony aside for the moment, I'm happy to report, the Buffalo News has broken the silence.

This is bit of a hot topic in Western New York; Wal-Mart is trying to open a Super Center in the city of North Tonawanda. Fortunately, they have faced a lot of resistance. Here's why. According to the Buffalo News:

Next time you shop at Wal-Mart– ¦ chances are good – ” about 1 in 10 – ” you will run into a man or woman on Medicaid or some other public health care program.

More than half of (Wal-Mart's) workers either go without health insurance or get it through another source. And of those, about 1 in 5 receives benefits from Medicaid, Medicare, the military or other state programs funded by taxpayers.

How much does this cost John Q. and Suzie Taxpayer? Try a cool $61 mil. The best thing (and by “best,– I mean worst) is that they don't even try to polish this terd; these are Wal-Mart's own numbers. And those numbers have proven to be, yep, you guessed it, conservative. Actual numbers show that more than 13% of employees are on publicly funded programs, not the ten percent that they are admitting to.

But it don't stop there, Daddy-O. This is the one that really frosts my American-made cookies:

A leaked internal memo in 2005 revealed that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.3 million employees remain uninsured or on Medicaid.

Again, that's from the horse's mouth. We can squabble over how important that extra one penny savings is, or how many local businesses go under when Wally Word rolls into town like the Halliburton float in the Iraq Liberation Day parade, but let's all hold hands and agree that this is unacceptable.

So boycott, boycott, and boycott some more. Boycott every day. Maybe twice a day. Besides, those made-in-the-USA socks are not only more comfortable physically, it's more comfortable mentally knowing that kids in China didn't put more sweat into them than your feet are, all for a measly 10 cents a day.

Wal-Mart,corporations Closed

Wal-Mart Class Action

February 13th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

Okay, so we're not big fans of Wal-Mart. No secret there. They're big, they put small businesses under, they pay rock-bottom wages, they cost taxpayer billions, they violate hundreds of labor laws every day, they rent their own buildings to themselves to cheat having to pay as much in taxes, and they are developing a giant robot to travel around the country demolishing all of their competitors (that last one is unconfirmed). They also discriminate based on gender, and now they're being called on it with the largest class action lawsuit in history.

On June 22nd, 2004 a judge certified a national class action lawsuit and now, according to the official website’s press release:

U.S. District Court Judge Martin Jenkins ruled that six current and former Wal-Mart employees from California may represent all female employees of Wal-Mart who worked at its U.S. stores anytime since December 26, 1998

The suit charges that Wal-Mart discriminates against its female retail employees in pay and promotions. The class in this case includes more than 1.6 million current and former female employees of Wal-Mart retail stores in America, including Wal-Mart discount stores, super centers, neighborhood stores, and Sam's Clubs.

While we don't support frivolous lawsuits, this is hardly the case here. Wal-Mart is a corporation and corporations will only do what is best for their bottom line. If there is no threat of profit loss, women will continue to be overlooked, tax loopholes exploited, the environment destroyed, and that robot– ¦

To learn more about Progressive Wednesday, just click here, here, or here.

Wal-Mart Closed

Wal-Mart sucks up our taxes like a greedy $hop-Vac

February 8th, 2007 by Eric

By now you know the evils of Wal-Mart, how they lie, cheat and steal in order to get you to believe that they're saving you money. You've read about how they put small businesses under, make employees work overtime off-the-clock, and fire anyone who even says the word “union.” But here's an angle you might not be aware of.

In North Tonawanda, New York, a suburb of Buffalo with a population of just over 33,000 people, there is an attempt underway to put in a Wal-Mart Supercenter. In addition to the normal complaints and debate as to the impact the new building would have on small businesses in the area, Wal-Mart has lied about how much building the store would cost the taxpayers. They forget to include the cost of widening the street of the proposed site as well as the cost of fixing the sewer system so that it can accommodate the superstore.

Frank Budway, owner of Budway's Market, plans to bring up these issues in front of the Common Council. He knows how this store will effect his business, but his biggest beef is with the increased taxes that will come with making these changes as well as an increase in government services.

How can you help? If you know of any similar stories concerning the negative impact Wal-Mart has had on an area, write a letter to the editor of the Buffalo News. You can get tips on how to write an effective letter here. The more attention that is brought to the problem, the greater the chance that the proposal will be stopped. Oh, and there is already a Wal-Mart ten miles away. How many small businesses need to go under?

To learn more about Progressive Wednesday, just click here, here, or here.

Wal-Mart Closed
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