Is Walmart an Empire of such collosus evil that Darth Vader himself cowers in its presence?

Question

Seriously, the epitome of human exploitation, consumer culture has come to make Walmart your new God. Do you think they are a nasty, vile, creature of capitalism, ruining any and all small business, the kind of creature that likes to train a culture of people to bow down and buy its goods, or do they have a legitimate place in society?

Answer 1

something like that

Answer 2

Human exploitation?While I don't agree with the working conditions that some people are subjected to in some places they are simply going through what we went through with the industrial revolution.Countries that are not developed cannot expect to pick up where others left off.You cannot go from an agrarian /natural resource based economy to one that is info/service driven overnight .At least they have jobs. If it wasn't for Wal-Mart would they find work?Maybe not.If it wasn't for the low prices that Wal-Mart and other similar stores offer would our economy be doing as well?Many people here are simply trying to make ends meet.Low prices on clothing etc.helps them do so.Yes a lot of small businesses have been wiped out by big box retailers and that's too bad.But that's just a normal adjustment that people have to make in order to have a vibrant growing economy.Key word here is "growing".The economy can't grow without changing.It is up to small business owners to become more resourceful .Those who can't will be pushed aside that's how it's always been and how it always will be.It comes with the territory.Your not a real entrepreneur if you can't be inventive enough to save your @ss when the need arises.Wal-Mart has not forced me out of business nor will they ever.As for Darth Vader he might say "Nothing can compare to the power of the Force!"

Answer 3

I don't know if any retail outlet can hold a place in society...but there obviously is a need for Wal-Mart, or they wouldn't be as successful as they are.

What amazes me is that people are so eager to make them out to be the "bad" guy or "evil" when they are the first and sometimes only business that donates all the time to local and national programs on a daily basis! Wal-Mart lost many stores to Katrina..and millions of dollars of products to looting and storm damage, and yet they were the first to send cash and more products and associates to help out. They helped the associates affected by the storm as well as the communities. And only got a 2-second blurb on the news! But let one person get mad and file a law suit and they are the evil beyond!! You can't have your cake and eat it too. You want the jobs, the low prices, the revenue for your communities...but yet you hate them...

Answer 4

I am your father.

Now that I got that out, I can freely answer your question.

I doubt Darth Vader shops at Wal Mart.

There are inherently evil things about Wal Mart.
Then again there are evil things about the government.
That doesn't mean that I want to overthrow it.

Wal Mart preys on the consumerism of their customers.

Go there once and watch the people.

One stop convenience shopping.

Just another part of the whole brainwashing scheme going on here in America.

Wal Mart is evil.

I choose to not shop there.

Peace.

Answer 5

I dunno that a Star Wars anaology is appropriate. But if your going to use one to convey "great evil" you might want to try using the Emperor instead of Darth Vader (after all Darth had some good left in him and actually killed the Emperor, saving the Galaxy in the process).

Wal Mart has actually launched a co-operative initiative with small businesses inculding several innovative approaches: For example, Wal-Mart will work with store managers to identify up to five local businesses per quarter as "Small Business Spotlights." Also:

• The company will feature these small businesses in local newspaper advertising and will also offer to produce free radio ads and broadcast them on its in-store radio network.

• Wal-Mart will establish a Wal-Mart Business Development Team, which will hold seminars for small businesses on best practices for how to thrive with a Wal-Mart in their community.

• The company will also produce an annual "Wal-Mart Trends Report" that it will share exclusively with the small business community.

The simple answer is: if you don't like Wal Mart don't shop there then. But, that will place you in the minority of consumers.

Answer 6

Wal-Mart sells a wide variety of goods at a reasonable price. They are conveniently located, they employ as many people as the US military, they helped the poor in America save somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 billion dollars on goods last year, and they attract other businesses to their location.....yup, must be evil. How could they be anything but evil, God, imagine the gall of those people!! Doing all that stuff..

Answer 7

As Darth Vader once said, "the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."

With this in mind, even if you decide that Wal-Mart is single-handedly responsible for destroying our planet (and I'd likely agree), even then, Vader probably wouldn't be too impressed by it.

Answer 8

Don't be crazy! Walmart is real, Darth Vader is fictional. I do hear, however, that Dick Cheney has been scared into two near episodes of myocardial infarction just by driving by a Walmart. You would think that he would love their hyper-capitalistic methodologies but it seems they are too over the top even for him.

Answer 9

It's preety bad, they are such a big and strong corporation, politically, economically, and in terms of access to powerful people that they continue to maintain wage at a still price whether inflation takes place or not, and keep labour unions from acting. It's probably not as bad as Tommy, Ralph and other designer factories in third world countries that exploit cheap labour but this is a G8 nation and one shouldn't be comporing it's largest business with exploiting acts committed in the developing nations.

Answer 10

I'm sorry, but I go to Wal-mart to buy the things that I CAN'T get at small businesses, like DVDs and video games. It's a fact of life - a store will attract customers if it has low prices.

Answer 11

Why should I as the consumer choose to prefer smaller businesses over Walmart? Let's see now, with my paycheck I can either pay more to subsidize the inefficiency of the smaller business or buy more for less at walmart. The choice is clear.

It's no surprise that small businesses ***** about it and folks who are dumb buy into the whole idea.