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WalMart Suppliers Brace For The Coming Storm: "Now We Know Why They Have Been Pushing So Hard"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

When Wal-Mart moved to hike wages for its lowest paid employees earlier this year, we were quick to note that the fallout would end up rippling through the supply chain. Here’s what we said in April: 

The irony is that while WMT (or MCD or GAP or Target) boosts the living standards of its employees by the smallest of fractions, it cripples the cost and wage structure of the entire ecosystem of vendors that feed into it, and what takes place is a veritable avalanche effect where a few cent increase for the lowest paid megacorp employees results in a tidal wave of layoffs for said megacorp's vendors.

Subsequently, the retailer embarked on a series of efforts to extract every last penny of savings from suppliers including i) an effort to compel vendors to forgo marketing expenditures, ii) adding storage fees and manipulating payment schedules, and iii) demanding that suppliers pass along any savings from China’s yuan devaluation. 

As we’ve been at pains to explain, this was absolutely inevitable.

When “everyday low prices” is the corporate religion, you can’t pass along rising labor costs to consumers. Add it the fact that WalMart’s customers largely belong to the same tax bracket as the company’s meagerly compensated hourly employees and raising prices simply is not an option. 

That means either suppliers suffer, hours are cut, people get laid off, or all of the above. 

At Wal-Mart, it’s been all of the above, as workers at some stores report reductions in hours and the Bentonville office looks to cut hundreds of management level positions.

Meanwhile, some of the retailer’s higher paid workers have become disgruntled at the company’s failure to preserve the wage hierarchy (i.e. when you summarily hike wages for one group of employees and not others, you have distorted the pay ladder).

Now, after last week’s dramatic guidance cut and subsequent stock price plunge, suppliers are bracing for the worst. Here’s Reuters:

Suppliers of everything from groceries to sports equipment are already being squeezed for price cuts and cost sharing by Wal-Mart Stores. Now they are bracing for the pressure to ratchet up even more after a shock earnings warning from the retailer last week.

 

The discount store behemoth has always had a reputation for demanding lower prices from vendors but Reuters has learned from interviews with suppliers and consultants, as well as reviewing some contracts, that even by its standards Wal-Mart has been turning up the heat on them this year.

 

"The ground is shaking here," said Cameron Smith, head of Cameron Smith & Associates, a major recruiting firm for suppliers located close to Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. "Suppliers are going to have to help Wal-Mart get back on track."

 

For the vendors, dealing with Wal-Mart has always been tough because of its size – despite recent troubles it still generates more than $340 billion of annual sales in the U.S. That accounts for more than 10 percent of the American retail market, excluding auto and restaurant sales, and the company increasingly sells a lot overseas too. To risk having brands kicked off Wal-Mart’s shelves because of a dispute over pricing can badly hurt a supplier.

 

On Wednesday, Wal-Mart stunned Wall Street by forecasting that its earnings would decline by as much as 12 percent in its next fiscal year to January 2017 as it struggles to offset rising costs from increases in the wages of its hourly-paid staff, improvements in its stores, and investments to grow online sales. This at a time when it faces relentless price competition from Amazon.com Inc dollar stores and regional supermarket chains. Keeping the prices it pays suppliers as low as it can is essential if it is to start to claw back some of this cost hit to its margins.

Speaking of Amazon, recall the following which we posted in the aftermath of the guidance cut:

Back to Reuters:

The squeeze on suppliers was clear to those selling to Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club warehouse clubs around April this year. Sam’s Club’s buyers summoned major vendors to meetings and told them a "cost gap analysis" showed they should be delivering at a lower price, and demanded millions of dollars in discounts on future purchases, according to emails reviewed by Reuters and interviews with suppliers and consultants involved in the talks.


Unlike in prior talks, which featured give and take, vendors were told they could not ask questions at the meetings, with queries to be handled later via email, according to suppliers and consultants involved in or briefed on the meetings.

Yes, no questions allowed, and as we've pointed out before, WalMart can sadly get away with this type of approach to dealing with vendors because after all, if you're a supplier, you're not going to cut your nose off to spite your face by rebelling against your largest revenue stream. Or, as Leon Nicholas, a senior vice president at Kantar Retail, which advises Wal-Mart suppliers put it last month, "you can push and push, but at the end of the day you know where the power lies."

And after last week's carnage, the supply chain is finally beginning to understand why WalMart has become even stingier than normal.

Wednesday's announcement sent ripples through the supplier community in the Bentonville area, where more than 1,000 have offices to stay close to Wal-Mart. 

 

"Now we know why they have been pushing so hard," said an executive at a major consumer goods supplier to both Walmart and Sam's Club, adding that his team was shocked by the projected decline in profits. "Maybe they were banking on more suppliers rolling over on the terms." 

 

Wal-Mart's success in boosting profits could hinge in large part on the willingness of suppliers to sign on to its new terms and agree to its price demands. Despite signs of resistance, one consumer goods supplier reckons most will eventually give in to Wal-Mart’s market power, though not without a fight. 

 

He pushed back after the retailer asked him for new terms that cut 2 percent off his annual sales. They settled on 1 percent, but he fears further demands down the road.

 

 

“I just worry that this is a slippery slope of them going in this direction," he said.

A slippery slope indeed, much like the slippery downward slope the company's earnings seem to be on, and between the above mentioned pressure from online retailers and fierce competition from no frills dollar stores, one is left to wonder if perhaps WalMart's move to hike wages may have set the legendary discounter on a path to becoming the next K-Mart.


 

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Mon, 10/19/2015 - 09:51 | 6684676 kliguy38
kliguy38's picture

If they are supplying Wal Mart then they deserve what they get......Predatory fochin' scumbag......you're an idiot if you deal with Wally world

Wed, 12/23/2015 - 01:30 | 6955490 Hope Copy
Hope Copy's picture

when oil goes up, amazon will go down

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 09:56 | 6684691 coinhead
coinhead's picture

Teh we boycotts Walmart and any other company engaging in "political correctness"!  Join we in boycott too!

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 09:58 | 6684696 clooney_art
clooney_art's picture

DEFLATION !!

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:09 | 6684729 Momauguin Joe
Momauguin Joe's picture

Channel stuffing plastic pumpkins. 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:16 | 6684761 jeff montanye
jeff montanye's picture

clooney's got it.

this was inevitable once interest rates peaked in 1981.  the oven timer was set in 2007 when the credit cycle actually ended -- the last seven or eight years are fed tubes in and out of a breathing dead man on life support.  watch for the flat line in 3, 2, . . . .

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:22 | 6684788 Ghost of PartysOver
Ghost of PartysOver's picture

Seems that those on the outside looking in get it while those in the inside are more concerned with the Kardashain Arse Dimple.  https://www.rt.com/op-edge/318986-america-bomb-society-crisis/

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:27 | 6684803 CrazyCooter
CrazyCooter's picture

Why don't the suppliers just unionize?

Morans.

Regards,

Cooter

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:55 | 6684933 11b40
11b40's picture

For the same reason you can't herd cats.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:14 | 6685002 Leopold B. Scotch
Leopold B. Scotch's picture

Wal-Mart just a symptom of the deeper dysfunction of the business environment brought to you by 100 years of full-retard in Congress.

Haters should redirect the hate to the real job and wage Killers in D.C.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:24 | 6685046 McCormick No. 9
McCormick No. 9's picture

Walmart. McDonalds. All behemoths that will go extinct. Watch it happen in real time.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:14 | 6685588 Stroke
Stroke's picture

They won't go extinct.....They'll have a tighter margin.....Please don't pretend a slight raise above slave wages will sink the company

 

Don't buy into the propaganda

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:25 | 6685640 sheikurbootie
sheikurbootie's picture

You obviously aren't a supplier to Wally World.  I have a friend that WAS a supplier.  He refuses to take any orders from them now.  They're great for buying in huge volume, but then make 100X the work for the same profit as on 10 orders.  Imagine tracking 100 truck shipments for the same profit as managing 10 trucks.  The Wal Mart business model is failing.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:36 | 6685707 Homerpalooza2
Homerpalooza2's picture

100% agreed.  The Terms and Conditions to be signed to do business with WalMart that they demand are onerous at best, with everything from outrageous liquidated damages, capital penalites on non-shipment of products. nutso indeminity requirements, Net-120 payment terms, etc.  Demands for automatic price increases rated to commodity pricing, etc.  

There has never been a time that WalMart thought for a second on making their vendors profitable.  The legal group are henchmen, looking to slaughter every vendor they can.  To put that on "rising wages" as why they are asking for your first born and blood in Terms and Conditions is naive at best.

 

 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 14:42 | 6686021 Macchendra
Macchendra's picture

They represent the collective buying power of all of their customers, and given that their customer base is nearly everyone, they have absolute power.  I predict that it is still not as powerful as the coming consumers unions will be.  Business will be wistful for the days of government regulation.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 18:08 | 6686987 mkkby
mkkby's picture

Yep, unless you have a proprietary product, you cannot sell to walmart and expect to make money.  They turn their vendors into slaves.

If anybody noticed, apple products are NOT DISCOUNTED at walmart or anywhere else.  But if you sell anything that can be sourced elsewhere or copied, find another way to sell your product.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 05:36 | 6688555 Motasaurus
Motasaurus's picture

The entire mass-produced/mass-consumption model is dead. This fact simply hasn't overcome the social inertia yet. 

Why buy a mass produced knife and fork from wallmart, which has been shipped from China, where it was made from material dug out of the ground in Brazil and Australia, when you can pay a fraction of a cent to download a knife and fork schematic online and print it out of resin. 

Sure the manufacturing plants will still be needed for the chipsets and panels of high end consumer electronics. But nothing will be assembled over seas. You will go down to your local artisan and they will design, print and assemble your new, unique T.V., at the same cost as a generic one from Wallmart.

And it will last more than a year. 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 06:58 | 6688608 VinceFostersGhost
VinceFostersGhost's picture

 

 

First we lost Mom and Pop.

 

Then we lost the malls.

 

Then we lost McDonald's and Walmart.

 

Turn out the lights America....and remember....yes we can.

 

Worship at the feat of Boehner, Pelosi, McConnell, Reid, and Obama....you just didn't them enough time. They were going to do something to fix all of this....but I can't remember what.

 

Move East young man...help us build the monstrosity that is the federal government. You can check out anytime you'd like...but you can never leave.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 06:58 | 6688622 Never One Roach
Never One Roach's picture

When WalMart replaced those Confederate nick-nacks with Al Sharpton action figures I thought their sales would go uo.

 

I guess not.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 07:07 | 6688638 VinceFostersGhost
VinceFostersGhost's picture

 

 

 

Quoting Al Sharpton....this we much.

 

Inspiring words to be sure.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 07:17 | 6688646 messymerry
messymerry's picture

You all miss the bigger point:  WalMart (WMT) is de facto a TLA.

;-D     

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 07:50 | 6688700 VinceFostersGhost
VinceFostersGhost's picture

 

 

You miss the biggest point of all.

 

Walmart is America.......America is Walmart.

 

Here comes the revolution.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 19:11 | 6691685 Majestic12
Majestic12's picture

"This at a time when it faces relentless price competition"

Why TF are we supposed to feel sorry for this "monopolist" (as in no competition), one-size-fits-all, family of silver-spoon x-geners who milk the govt to offset their slave wages?

Walmart is the antithesis of a "free market" entity.

They are the perfect example of the "Friendly Fascism" (Bertram Gross) state that Amerikkka has become.
If they are in danger of "failing", then they should fail!

I pity the fucking Waltons, who never "worked" a day in their silver-spoon life...all they had to do was be born and look at what fell into their laps!

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 14:44 | 6686029 Icelandicsaga.....
Icelandicsaga...............................................'s picture

The business culture changed for the worse i  the 80s. My dad was an executive with large food giant, family owned company. At one point in his career his job was to make vendors profitable...he saved many a smaller company..although absent for long stretches, I remember meeting up with him at some conferehce convention ...men would come up and say your dad saved our ass...I think he had a 90 % success rate. At one point he also dealt with SF longshoremens union, and brought about an agreement, he knew about human nature, respected others, and his company was about growing and taking the vendors along. He did early retirement ..he said when the Phds took over the direction of the business ..it went into the crapper. Selling off lucrative parts of the business, driving the rest into the ground through bad careless management, not caring if vendors survived..the era of profit through destruction of the business, selling off parts, then selling the name to the competitor...it end badly .....in monopolies, in the end that system collapses from its own ""just too clever"" business model and culture. BIG MONOPLIES ..sooner or later implode.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 15:14 | 6686162 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

You've done a great job describing the difference between Business and Finance.  Your father was a businessman.  He was shoved out by financiers.  Businessmen build things.  Financiers tear them apart for scrap.  Finance has its place, as a tool for business.  Once business becomes a tool for finance, it's all already over.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 01:33 | 6688357 Peak Bull
Peak Bull's picture

Book knowledge without street smarts. It can ruin a business, and if you elect them, a country.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 03:45 | 6688471 jcdenton
jcdenton's picture

At one time, CEOs were salesmen and engineers. These days, CEO are accountants. Nothing wrong with accountants. We need them. Just that they need to be at CFO. They don't deserve to be any higher than that, unless they prove competence in sales and engineering. Now I know finance experts with MBAs that are also competent engineers. There is just way too little of them.

Watch "The Secret of my Success" with M.J. Fox. Illustrative of why an accounting and finance major need not be at top executive decision making levels. All they know how to do is cut here, and save. At times we need to cut and save. But this is no formula for growth. For new business. They have little of no acumen for expansion and growth. Taking real and healthy risks. Vision is not in their DNA ..

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 23:08 | 6692721 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

I argue that all companies go through three phases. The last phase is when the finance people take over. Finance people should not even fun finance companies. They generally do not understand the product/s, have no passion or expertise in it and live by the basic theory, "If we fire everyone we can save a ton of money!". They have no passion for a better cup or coffee or a better car. They generally preside over the final phase of a company as it is carved up, sold off or merged away.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 16:05 | 6686425 RichardParker
RichardParker's picture

Ice:

That's really sad.  We need guys like your dad even more now.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:36 | 6685709 Homerpalooza2
Homerpalooza2's picture

100% agreed.  The Terms and Conditions to be signed to do business with WalMart that they demand are onerous at best, with everything from outrageous liquidated damages, capital penalites on non-shipment of products. nutso indeminity requirements, Net-120 payment terms, etc.  Demands for automatic price increases rated to commodity pricing, etc.  

There has never been a time that WalMart thought for a second on making their vendors profitable.  The legal group are henchmen, looking to slaughter every vendor they can.  To put that on "rising wages" as why they are asking for your first born and blood in Terms and Conditions is naive at best.

 

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 08:38 | 6688863 jmack
jmack's picture

used to work for a retail display mfg.   all big corps are a bear to do business with, but wal-mart takes the cake.

 

 here is their bid process for a roll-around shelf unit to display jeans:  all bidders meet in a room and present their designs in front of each other, the wal mart rep choses the one or two he is most impressed with and instructs all bidders to take that proposal and re-quote it, stealing the IP of the bidder, which he of course has to allow, for a chance at a multi-million dollar order, they then meet again in a month or two and everyone presents their bids in front of each other, at which time the rep parcels out the orders, not to the low bidder, but a percentage to the lowest 3-5 bidders, so if you cut your prices based on a faulty volume projection, well, thats on you.

    Then after you deliver the product on net 90 terms....you get to wait an extra 90-180 days interest free, to recieve payment of millions of dollars.

 

 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 17:23 | 6686771 IAmStrider
IAmStrider's picture

A race to the bottom, in the same vein as Chinese manufacturing.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 03:33 | 6688461 jcdenton
jcdenton's picture

It is called NAFTA, GATT, FREE TRADE. What we had before all that, when I was actually making a decent living, able to loan $5000 to a family member or friend, not needing it back for at least a year, without interest, at the same time purchasing a spot of land for $30k; was called fair trade ..

And it worked pretty good. I even remember Wally World was decent back then. In fair competition with everyone else. At least 50% of their products, American made. There was Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, even Frys. But there was also at least a dozen locals, keeping the big guys honest, and actually providing quality.

Amazon was hardly on the map back then. I went to a bookstore to buy books. Barns n Noble. I went to Gamestop to buy games. Tower Records to buy records and discs. Foley's to buy Italian suits. Mervyns to buy quality Levis. I think McDonalds and Taco Bell were even tasty back then ..

WTF happened?

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 19:10 | 6691707 Majestic12
Majestic12's picture

"This at a time when it faces relentless price competition"

Why TF are we supposed to feel sorry for this "monopolist" (as in no competition), one-size-fits-all, family of silver-spoon x-geners who milk the govt to offset their slave wages?

Walmart is the antithesis of a "free market" entity.

They are the perfect example of the "Friendly Fascism" (Bertram Gross) state that Amerikkka has become.
If they are in danger of "failing", then they should fail!

I pity the fucking Waltons, who never "worked" a day in their silver-spoon life...all they had to do was be born and look at what fell into their laps!

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 17:12 | 6686723 11b40
11b40's picture

I stand corrected  ;>)

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:43 | 6685132 sheikurbootie
sheikurbootie's picture

I hope you're attempting humor.   Unions are opposite of the answer.  Look at the Weimar Republic.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:44 | 6685431 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

If the choice is for WalMart, and their suppliers to cover the costs of their employee structure rather than the US Taxpayer, I am all for having WalMart and their suppliers decide who works and who doesn't.  That is their job.

 

This is the outgrowth of the US government not have the ability or guts to restrict costs by supplimenting WalMart wages with welfare.  At least now, we move these issues out into the open.

Amazon is loving this too.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 03:14 | 6688444 CrazyCooter
CrazyCooter's picture

ZH rarely respects original sarcasm these days, particularly when it requires thinking. I even threw in the "morans" bit to help with the cognatively challenged. The only thing that passes are posters which do nothing but post the same, and even then they still get half down/half up as if that matters.

My comment was fucking funny!

I grew up in Northwest Arkansas in my early/late teens and have multiple personal stories about how bad ass (and patriotic) Sam Walton was. Like any family business, it was taken over by entitled shitbags and it has been a downhill ride ever since.

Let them eat cake, aye?

Regards,

Cooter

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:33 | 6685691 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

They shouldn't unionize, they should associationize, just like the NRA.

Unions bad, associations good.

 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 14:07 | 6685849 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

If suppliers even attempted to talk about fixing the wholesale prices to Wally World you can bet that they will be prosecuted by the US Government for conspiracy.

 

Violation of the Sherman AntiTrust Laws...a FEDERAL OFFENSE.

 

So just what good is a union or an association? Do tell me...

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 03:16 | 6688448 CrazyCooter
CrazyCooter's picture

They should sell themselves to a pharma holding company!

Problem solved!

Regards,

Cooter

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 03:17 | 6688449 CrazyCooter
CrazyCooter's picture

Dupe.

Regards,

Cooter

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:17 | 6685282 Antifaschistische
Antifaschistische's picture

what wal-mart needs to do is force their suppliers to make cheaper products. LOL. LOOOOOOOOL. That's going to go over real well. Wal-Mart already has the reputation of bullying the shit our of their suppliers.

You know...even though I hate wal-mart, they've had a successful model...we all get that....but once you become the biggest, you have a big target on your head and with the Parasite in Chief running the White House...you pretty much better start taking those loss reserves because they're coming.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 07:40 | 6688686 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

Big business suffers from hubris and arrogance like everyone else. Their success allows stupidity that eventually kills themselves. This has been the cleansing method of free capitalism. The problem becomes one of scale...as we see with everything else now. The TBTF mentality ensures that inefficiencies and stupidities can grow to truly large scale destroyers, not just of themselves but the whole system.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:20 | 6684783 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

When everybody sells the same crap from the same chinese cheapest supplier at the lowest price, there's nothing that makes you different from anybody else.

And Amazons is a very good example as they operate with a 0,2% profit margin and with slave labor.

There's no cream on that pie left anymore.

And that's what's left of our economy.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:37 | 6684833 rejected
rejected's picture

Absolutely on the mark!

Another thing is they don't want to carry inventory. Can't tell you the number of times I have drove around trying to find something local and it is simply not there... have to buy it online.

Best Buys a good example,,, they have dropped their inventory at least by half with the exception of those useless i-thingy's and TV's. When they don't have it they tell you to go online or even if the do they'll tell you it's "cheaper" online. Then they complain their profits are down.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:53 | 6684923 Titus
Titus's picture

Meanwhile the Walton children occupy 4 of the top 10 richest people in America slots. How's this going to affect them?

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:21 | 6685028 CheapBastard
CheapBastard's picture

The best part about Walmart is it may be the cheapest location to get mugged or shot in the parking lot. It's kinda fancy begin beaten to death between a brand new purple Escalade and a double-wide scooter.

 

Their security stinks relative to the thug crowds they get imho.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:04 | 6685220 ToSoft4Truth
ToSoft4Truth's picture

Empirical data shows community colleges are more dangerous than any Wal-Mart.

O/T - If you don't have a sidearm, shame on you. 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:13 | 6685267 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Guess what?  Whereever niggers congregate, there is danger.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 14:09 | 6685858 RafterManFMJ
RafterManFMJ's picture
  • Community college is like a disco with books: "Here's ten dollars; let me get my learn on!" - Chris Rock

If you don't have a sidearm, shame on you. ----> And the practice to deploy it effectively and quickly.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:57 | 6685505 Antifaschistische
Antifaschistische's picture

If I could make one more comment to really piss you guys off... I someone who likes to buy the best of things.  I'm not rich, but I do like quality, and I'm old enough to remember that the clothes sold in KMart were a higher quality than what you get today at Macy's.

I like towels...I own the best towels you can get from Bed Bath and Beyond.....but tonight, I'm at the Sofitel in Xi'an China...and I will be damned if the towels at this hotel aren't like the towels we had in the 70's.   Heavy as shit...and they are actually absorbent...sort of like towels are suppose to be.  I've searched every square inch of the thing to see if I could find a brand so I can go freaking towel shopping in CHINA...

...Seriously, I thought they just didn't make good towels anymore at all.  I was wrong.  But I sure as hell didn't think I'd find the superior products in China.  Now...what does that tell you about Wal-Mart.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:24 | 6685631 HungryPorkChop
HungryPorkChop's picture

It tells you they are trying to hide inflation.  I visited Brazil a few times in the 1990's when they were having 200% type of yearly inflation.  One thing that struck me as odd, given all their trees and paper plants, is you couldn't find quality paper.  Napkins at restaurants was like trying to wipe your hands off with copier paper.  Towels were the same way, thin and cheap!  Looks like that comparison is sneaking its way into a lot of economies.   

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:32 | 6685679 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

The Chinese cut off the Cannon-Made in USA lables on their hotel towels.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 14:16 | 6685891 RafterManFMJ
RafterManFMJ's picture

Googling about for Cannon Towels and got this site. Bookmarked it.

http://www.towelsbygus.com/collections/absorbency-600

 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:58 | 6685809 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

You're in Xi'an?  I loved that city, the three days I was able to spend there.  A cabbie asked me how I liked it, and I said I liked it a lot better than Beijing or Shanghai.  He said, "Beijing and Shanghai are very large.  Xi'an is very small.  Only 8 millions."  Yeah, Xi'an is just like Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

I had a great time walking by myself through the Muslim Quarter there, eating something off of every vendor's cart.  I drew a crowd of people, pointing and laughing at the stupid fat white guy eating everything, whether or not he knew what it was (I didn't) and being willing to play the fool for the locals.

I hope you have a nice time there.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 15:32 | 6686246 all-priced-in
all-priced-in's picture

" Now...what does that tell you about Wal-Mart."

 

It tells me they know their customer.

 

If they have two bath towels on display one is super nice and is priced at $30 - the other is not very nice but it is priced 2 for $5 - the people shopping at Walmart will buy all of the $5 towles and the $30 towels will not sell.

 

Retailing is about having what your customers want at the price point they will pay - not at all about having the highest quality stuff money can buy.

 

This is so obvious -

 

The reason WM sells cheap Chinese junk is because that is what people want to buy (most of them anyway)

 

If you want to blame someone blame the consumer.

 

 

 

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 07:45 | 6688693 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

We choose poorly and then blame those who make the poor choices available.

We demand accountability from everyone but ourselves.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 17:39 | 6686566 californiagirl
californiagirl's picture

You are so right!  Everything has gone so downhill in quality. The Nordstrom these as is more like an old Mervyn or some of the better ones are like old Macys. Can't even find women's shoes that are good quality leather anymore. They all contain micro-this, synthetic-that. And you wear then a couple of times the micro thin surface of any leather on the she scuffs and looks like hell. And why in the hell would anyone pay $100 for a teeshirt that some desogner stuch his label of and that has four seams to hold the sides and shoulders together will raw, rolled edges, and after you wash it the first time, it shrinks like heck and warps because the fabric was badly cut off the bias.  It looks like a 10 year old me it in his first sewing class. 

BTW, if you want absorbant cotton towels, look for Made in Turkey. They have banned GMO cotton, which is much less absorbant. Forget Egyptian cotton. Egypt has been invaded by Monsanto.  The way that the cotton is woven also makes a difference.  And avoid fabric softners, or detergents containing them, as they coat the cotton and reduce absorbancy.  http://www.home-ec101.com/how-to-choose-absorbent-towels/  Restoration Hardware is having a sale right now on their 820GSM turkish cotton towels. 

 


Mon, 10/19/2015 - 17:47 | 6686885 11b40
11b40's picture

Speaking of Nordstroms, I went to a trade show in Chicago earlier this year, and forgot to pack socks and underwear for a 5 day trip.

I had a tight schedule, and the first store I found downtown was Nordstroms, so I bought what I needed.....and paid more for them than any socks or underwear I had ever bought before.

The freaking underwear never fit right, and soon the elastic around the leg was loose and gapping.  I threw them away.

The socks were total crap, too.  They wore out in the toe after about 3 times wearing them, so I tossed them, too.  That was my first and last buying experience with Nordstroms.  Way overpriced junk...style over substance.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 18:05 | 6686972 Antifaschistische
Antifaschistische's picture

I buy the most expensive RL socks I can get at Dillards / Memorial City Mall / Houston. The toes are good for about 6 months...and my foot is on the small end of their "range".   I don't know where you can find a decent sock today.  The Nike foot/socks that come in Right/Left have served me pretty well for running...I wish they made a sock I could use as a dress sock.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 19:42 | 6687373 StychoKiller
Mon, 10/19/2015 - 22:07 | 6687952 californiagirl
californiagirl's picture

I like some of the sports socks from REI for sport/exercise socks

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 00:51 | 6688310 Never One Roach
Never One Roach's picture

You guys use towels to dry off....and wear socks...

 

Stop Bragging .... where do you get that kind of money?!

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 03:28 | 6688455 CrazyCooter
CrazyCooter's picture

Buy wool socks and wash on delicate with SOAP (plant based) and not detergent (petro based).

Regards,

Cooter

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 06:03 | 6688567 beijing expat
beijing expat's picture

You're right about wool socks Cooter. You can wear them all week.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 22:05 | 6687945 californiagirl
californiagirl's picture

When Nordstrom first opened it had quality and offerings that you could not get in other stores unless you were in a major city. It was the go to store for young professionals in Silicon Valley. Now it is full of overpriced polyester, acrylics, and other awful synthetics, which are all poorly made junk. The last sweater I bought at Nordtrom started to unravel at the collar after i hand washed ot only twice and pants were unraveling at the hem. Not to mention it is almost impossible to find nicely hemmed and lined pants and skirts.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 10:02 | 6689206 Killdo
Killdo's picture

same goes for Rolex watch and bang and Oluffson headphones - I had to replace them 4 times

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:55 | 6685796 MarkGoldman
MarkGoldman's picture

I have identical 120V electrical timers in size, shape, right down to the ridging and etching along its side, they are they exact same...except the logo stickers of the different middlemen claiming these as 'their' brand...the entire economy is nothing but arb'ing the spread until you can cash out a 100 bagger, and of course the next quarterly results. 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:22 | 6684787 NihilistZero
NihilistZero's picture

"DEFLATION !!"

Even better.  It's called Creative Mother Fucking Destruction!  Walmart built it's model on tax payers subsidizing their slave wages and squeezing their suppliers at every turn.  May they suffer the same fate McDonald's is now!  They WILL have to raise their prices.  Local and smaller regional players WILL be able to compete while offering their employers better wages and adding to their LOCAL economies.

Fuck Walmart.  Fuck McDonald's.  And fuck everyone who wants to shit on lower skilled working people.  Pay them a decent wage and we ALL benefit!  Everyone who complains about the working poor and their attitude should try working for peanuts and spending 60% of your income on housing!

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:39 | 6684850 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

I think I broke the green arrow upvoting you.

I read a lot of shit written by people who have obviously never experienced working their nuts off at multiple jobs for over 60 hours per week, only to barely have enough money to pay the rent.  And people who have obviously never had the pleasure of dealing with the welfare state apparatus to get their barely-life-sustaining portion of gruel.

Poor people can always be expoloited, and then blamed for their own victimization, because poverty forces one to make short-term decisions that are always self-defeating in the long run.  For instance, if you can't afford to hire a professional to do something, you sure as hell can't afford to pay the true costs of hiring an amateur.  Or if you can't afford to buy a well-made product, you sure as hell can't afford to buy a cheap piece of shit three times to match the performance you'd get out of the well-made product that only costs twice as much.  Having an unreliable car is worse than not having a car at all.

And when the poor people have been reduced to no more societal function than as a debt-sink, they don't buy enough at Wal-Mart to support a family of billionaires, and their legion of executives, and the armies of hangers-on that those executives require, even in a small town in Arkansas.

The big problem is that from about 1945-1975, lower-skilled working people in America had it better than they have anywhere else in the world, at anytime in history.  Our social structures  and expectations developed to expect this to continue forever.  It couldn't, and it didn't.  Now, unfortunately, the rest of our society has eliminated all the avenues that used to exist to make life tolerable at the lower margins.  E-souplines that keep the poor in their shoddy dwellings servicing debt mean the poor never get to see how many of them there are in the same circumstances, which has so far prevented the kinds of social unrest that scared the Elites in the 1930s to the point of enacting some basic safety nets.

There's a sizable contingent of our society that wouldn't mind using the poor, the sick and the old as Soylent Green.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:10 | 6684987 Turin Turambar
Turin Turambar's picture

Quit blaming employers. The problem is government, but most people are too ignorant and brain-dead both logically and economically speaking. 12 years of mandatory public indoctrination FTW. SMH

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:07 | 6685242 _ConanTheLibert...
_ConanTheLibertarian_'s picture

It's both government and employers.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:32 | 6685364 slammin_dude
slammin_dude's picture

No shit eh? In Fascism the two entities are basically one....like we have now...

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:53 | 6685788 g speed
g speed's picture

Yep-----big gov't-     -----big labor -------big business  ---

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:18 | 6685020 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

I don't hate on poor people, but walmart is a symptom, not the problem. The problem is we left the gold standard, which saw the biggest rise in incomes for the working class in history, and we offshored all our manufacturing. As for walmart not paying their people enough, sorry. Simply being able to restock shelves in a retail store isn't high skill, and isn't worth 15/hour. A 16 year old can do that, and most any job at walmart. I did something similar for my first job when I was 16, requires very little thought. If you are 40 years old and haven't developed yourself as an employee beyond doing menial tasks like that, you can expect to be slaving away at walmart for 9/hour.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:51 | 6685475 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

I agree, and have lived my life accordingly.   But let's not conflate micro and macro.  When the jobs to support a family and an economy aren't there, neither will be the family or the economy.  As we see all around us.  Sure, it's a chicken or egg conundrum, but one has to start somewhere.

A healthy socio-economic system wouldn't have provided the opportunity Wal-Mart took and ran with.  And now that that opportunity is closing up, Wal-Mart cries poverty?  Sorry, they already got all the money there was to be extracted.  You can't eat all the cake, and then have a cake left over.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 19:50 | 6687417 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

Bricklaying is a skill that others will pay for!

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:07 | 6685224 To Hell In A Ha...
To Hell In A Handbasket's picture

There's an old English axiom and it goes "A poor man pays twice"    Translated: A poor man will buy a cheap product, or hire a cheap tradesman, only for the product to be poorly made requiring the need for a replacement, or the tradesman did a hatchet job, requiring the person to employ a competent tradesman to do a proper job. I wholeheartedly agree, to many shits on ZH piss on the poor and the down trodden. Despite years of trying, I cannot get rid of the COCKNEY in my grammar. It's ingrained.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:57 | 6685506 Toronto Kid
Toronto Kid's picture

Drivel. This isn't about the rich expoiting the poor. It's about the Western world being forced to compete with cheap labour from elsewhere. Wealth is moving from first world countries to third world countries. The trials that poor first-worlders are going through are not going to stop, and artificially raising wages is a band-aid solution. It does not address the issue of what the hell does the Average Joe do when he can't compete with some guy working in a factory overseas because the guy overseas gets paid 10% of what Joe does.

Add into the mix the automation of duties with robots becoming more and more affordable, and the stress on the first world system will become unbearable.

We need to become competitive, but the first thing that will get tossed out the window is the high living standard the majority of first-world citizens enjoy. Because for most of the third world getting free food and hot and cold running water in their abode is living very very well.

If even Walmart can't cope with the wealth shift that's going on, then we are all screwed.

And yeah, I've been there and got the t-shirt on struggling to pay bills while working full time. I got lucky and got an education, but I'm currently fighting to compete with staff outsourced from elsewhere.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 14:00 | 6685817 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

Well, it's really about what happens when you have a system that uses debt at interest as money.   It has to always expand forever, or it will collapse.  If you don't let it collapse, you have to engage in systemic fraud.

That's what's going on here.  A system based on infinite growth in a finite world.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 03:38 | 6688466 Toronto Kid
Toronto Kid's picture

It's the Roman Empire, all over again.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:02 | 6685527 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

You and Nihilist are both full of leftist shit. You don't understand economics and you have no respect for how markets work and you cannot do the shit you say others should do for you. I've done virtually all that low wage crap, too. Then my son trying to get enough hours and income had to do the same thing. Why? Because the government mandates too many things so that if you got over 39 hours (now 29, morons!) the employer expenses skyrocket and there is no business.

I do not have time to give you a kindergarten lesson in price-demand curves and why costs cannot be passed along but suffice it to say that your leftist ideas always result in economic famine over time. They never work because they cannot work and you stupidly, idiotically appeal to the same goverment which causes the malaise. The solution for you twits is always more government intervention.

I am sitting here working on ungodly government regulations calculating all the extra nonproductive hours I have to work on it as well as how much economic activity it is killing, destroying that used to be there. Then I will go out and work with customers who have an entire new government system called ACA which doubled the price of the same medical insurance that was there two years ago...for NO extra healthcare, assholes. It is also full of mandates that I believe will end up causing complex sick patients to get discharged from practices in order to facilitate government payments. You know who else used to do this? The Soviet Union has a similar concept that lead to well patients being kept in hospitals and sick patients were refused in order to get better ratings and more government money.

What you see in this Walmart article is the direct result of the lemming leftist interventions in things they do not understand. Bernie Sanders will double down. Corbyn in England will undoubtedly do the same.

And because you are economic morons with little instinct for liberty you will stupidly blame the last vestiges of free markets which is to say free people. You will applaud your own destruction.

Talk about how great it was back in the 1940's and 50's. What was the size and scope of government compared to now? Any possibility there is cause-and-effect?

Lemmings.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 15:36 | 6685733 NihilistZero
NihilistZero's picture

Apparently fuckhead you fail to realize WE HAVE NO FUNCTIONING MARKETS NOR A REAL ECONOMY.

Since you apparently only slathered out of your mother's cunt recently, you might not have noticed that were going into our fourth or fifth decade of AMERICAN FASCISM. 

When the currency is devalued the populace is ROBBED of wealth and value there are NO MARKETS LEFT AS ALL IS MANIPULATED.

Since you seem like an especially ignorant fuck, stuck on the false left/right paradigm, I'll assume you think that if we just get enough Koch sponsored faux-libertarians in office the problem will fix itself.  Feel free to eat a dick.  If .gov can intervene TRILLIONS just so the yacht set can stay comfortable, I'm okay with them exercising powers I may disagree with in principle to make sure the lowest among us can have some standard of living.

Now.  By all means.  Please.  Die in a fire.


Mon, 10/19/2015 - 22:38 | 6688020 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

Yeah, idiots like you usually cannot recognize themselves. You have whiney complaints and no solutions except more power and getting even with someone and something that did you no harm. You are fodder for totalitarian futures.

I recognize the fascism and its roots and you do not.

I do not use the old left-right with the idiotic notion that National Socialists are the far right and Soviet Sociailists/Communists are the far left. What an idiotic meme. However, I can give you the history of how those terms and the terms conservative and liberal essentially got reversed, which you cannot. The reason is you are stuck in conspiracy-fantasy land which tends to incapacitate it's adherents.

It's not all about currency. That is a symptom, not a cause.

You know nothing about libertarians and you feed the beast with your patently stupid remarks. You don't even understand libertarianism, twit. What you propose is impossible.

You cannot inherently do for people what they will or cannot do for themselves. You cannot simply "give" things in perpetuity. You cannot "give" a minimum standard of living. People must produce a minimum standard of living, idiot. Imagine an Indian tribe with everyone sitting around demanding a minimum standard of living. You hunt or die. Real simple. The fact we can have any welfare state whatsoever is a tribute to the productive capacity of those who produce things.

The Koch brothers do more good with all their industries helping people PRODUCE a living that an army of leftist-parasites. If you think they buy influence then you need to think of who the sellars are and why they even have the power to give favors.

Do some reading and ditch the stupid nihilism. You are a sucker for what you claim to oppose and all your schoolyard insults will not change that.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 23:25 | 6688132 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

"The Koch brothers do more good with all their industries..."

so the larger you are.... the more good you produce no matter how you.... treat people, bribe officials, or destrory democracies and capitalism

 

weird that logic is 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 23:20 | 6692757 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

So, in your vast studies of the Koch brothers, because I know you are not a mere empty-headed parrot, exactly what bribery have they been convicted of? Exactly what policy or policies have they advocated that is destroying democracy and captialism. I watched an interview by a typical leftist network and all I could see was that they actually supported free markets. They had a great message on the wall from their father about the dangers of inheriting great wealth.

What have they done that has treated people "poorly" and can you show us that leftist billionaires do better? Maybe Soros has done better when he is not crashing currencies.

If the Kochs "bribe officials" then are the officials not the problem? Do the officials have some power that the Koch's or others want and the official can deliver? Would not the problem be the government and it's power, then?

You should not handle words you do not understand like "logic".

 

Capitalism through the Koch brothers and a million others around the world has done more good than stupid simpleton leftist policies times a hundred. Let's look at how all the people including the least of the Koch employees are doing and then let's look at how all the people under full government care are doing and then project their possible futures. Who has more control of their future and more choices, a Koch employee or a government dependent?

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 00:54 | 6688315 Richard Head
Richard Head's picture

Great post man! Right over the heads of most people. Which is another reason we are fucked as a country.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:39 | 6685735 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

You're responding to your own image of what I said and meant, rather than what I actually said and meant.

I've never expected anything from government, because it's always been nakedly apparent that Government is the other arm of the corporate finance system.

The problem is the system of debt at interest underlying our entire socio-economic system.  That's bigger than government, or corporate interests.  Free markets, you say?  I sit in high-level meetings of Fortune 500 companies, and the last damn thing any of them wants is a free market.  No, they want their thumb on the scale, and they pay top dollar for the government to let them do that.

We don't live in an infinite world.  Until recently, we got away with pretending we did.  That's not working anymore.  That's what's causing all the problems.  Your focus on government's contributions to the problems misses the origin, confusing symptoms for causes.  Why does the government interfere with the system?  Because they are directed to do so.  Why are they directed to do so?  Because the system itself doesn't work anymore, and those currently at the top of the heap don't want to risk losing their advantages in a crash, which is the only way this system can renew itself and work again.   It used to crash about once a generation, and though it was terribly inefficient and a lot of people got hurt in the process, it limped along better than most other systems ever have.

It's the urge to perfect a fundamentally imperfect system that has driven us to this pass.  Wal-Mart can't sell more shit to people who don't have the money to buy it, can they.  Some of those people work for Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart says they can't pay them more.  Well, then, sucks to be Wal-Mart.  I guess it really is hopeless, huh?  It's all peaches and cream on the way up, but it's not much fun on the way down.  Getting the Government out of Wal-Mart's way would kill them.  Nobody would be paying their employees enough to survive, then.  And nobody who would shop at Wal-Mart would be able to.  Wal-Mart is truly Soviet Retail Outlet #1.  Take away the government money going to their shoppers and employees, and what do they have left?

Talk about Lemmings.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 23:01 | 6688077 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

I do not think my original comments were aimed at you, more at nihiilist and the whiney leftist who talk about everyone being "owed" something and the essential belief that we are always getting screwed over because someone else is free.

All the Fortune 500 started through the powers of free/er markets. Once you get to the top of the food chain you want protection, not free markets. Why? The free markets produce the people who are going to put you out of business once you become the comfortable non-sisk taking market leader. You might note that the Fortune 500, Dow are any list of biggest and best does not stay the same, does it? No. Check every 50 years and see how dramatically it changes. 50 years ago GM was the biggest corporatiion the world, Sears was the top predator in retail and catalogue sales and a dollar an hour was a common wage. Now, GM has had a government bailout (not a free market proposal) and Sears will soon be filing for bankruptcy. The wage thing is worse with $8/hr minimum.

We do live in an infinite world. There are infinite possibilities and infinited solutions to problems and infinite potential. Don't believe me? Okay, tell me what the world will look like in a hundred years from the finite possibilites. My grandmother turns 100 next year. When she was born most people still road horses, the first basic canvas planes were in the air and radio was just invented. There was no pharmaceutical industry as we know it, no such thing as "electronics", just electricity and it was scarce. You know how it goes from there. This is one lifetime.

The reason the system keeps crashing is...yes, government. Governent meaning central planners, favors, direction of society, etc. The Fed was created to manage the economy and 16 years later the biggest crash in history. FDR prolonged it by trying to "fix" it. Government is like a physician coming at you to cure you with leeches and bloodletting.

Walmart displaced Sears and half dozen others through freedom. I have seen up close and personal how they operate. They use government to advantage if they can, and they usually can. They get tax abatements and even more everywhere they can. The problem is not Walmart. The problem is that they can actually get favors. They are not Soviet. Have you ever seen stores in the old Soviet Union? No similariites. Look at Venezuela even today. Some lessons never get learned.

People who get government money without producing anything are leeches. Others are poorer and buying far less so they can buy more. It is no net gain. It is a loss. It distorts the actual value of labor (lowers it).

In the end we must produce our wealth. It cannot be given or taken for long. That was the USSR, Maoist China and a dozen other economic failures. It will be us, too if we follow the same path.

Lemming are the ones who keep saying "Government will fix it. The strong man will save us." It is a lie and it is impossible.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 15:24 | 6686207 bbq on whitehou...
bbq on whitehouse lawn's picture

The problem with government is that it was never ment to have access to TAX money or later the out right printing of money/credit. That would mean those in DC would be forced to fight each other over the few coins the government could get threw coinning and service fees.
With no limitation on the growth of government it grew without limit and we have the world we have today.
Limit the means of government growth and the rest of the problems heal themselves.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:21 | 6685623 NihilistZero
NihilistZero's picture

The big problem is that from about 1945-1975, lower-skilled working people in America had it better than they have anywhere else in the world, at anytime in history.  Our social structures  and expectations developed to expect this to continue forever.  It couldn't, and it didn't.

It could have, but the Oligarchy and their sychophants in finance, politics and the MIC din't like that idea.  Kill Kennedy, Vietnam, End the Gold Standard, destroy labor power during the Regan Administration.  Mission Accomplished for TPTB.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 07:57 | 6688714 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

I can agree with to a point. But society ALWAYS REFLECTS THE VALUES OF ITS PEOPLE.

Further, you are ignoring what people lived through in the thirties....absolute poverty and only one way out, austerity, which was the ONLY way a person could dig their way out. My father always told me...its not what you make its what you spend that matters most. I look around at these poor people you describe and see what they are spending their meager earnings on. ITS NOT AUSTERITY, its CRAP! Junk they do not need. They will live in shit holes while driving a Lexus or BMW. They will eat absolute crap but spend hundreds on phones with fat data plans so they can download all their favorite shit.

IT'S OUR VALUES THAT DEFINE US.

WE ARE FUCKED.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:09 | 6684978 ejmoosa
ejmoosa's picture

Wal-mart did not build their model on taxpayers. Neither did McDonald's.

But like every business that tried to make it over the last 100 years, they have realized that government and central bank manipulations in the business world have forced them to adapt to the manipulation or fold.  You are forced to play their game.  It's the law.

The result is what we see today.

Corporate Fascism.  If you do not play along you get crushed quickly.  If you do play along, you get crushed just a bit slower than your competitors.

In the end, you will be crushed.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:11 | 6685571 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

Nailed it, EJ. For anyone interested in being rational you have to look at any system and ask "Why does it work that way?". This immediately excludes all leftists who only complain about results.

Don't like the price of fighter planes? Analyze why they are so expensive. Do not like prices of branded pharmaceuticals? Ask how and why they do it. Do it for things you like, as well.

The bottom line is we have an economic fascist state, meaning the state is all powerful and has no actual limits on economic interventions but does allow some semblance of freedom. The price is cooperation with the State. If you think of the American Congress as a mafia protection racket that has favors for sale and occasionally makes an example of someone almost everything you see economically (and complain about) makes sense. All of it.

All statist regimes over time will crush their own economies and the USA may go last but it will go, too.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:44 | 6685747 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

To take you up on your analogies, I don't care about the price of fighter planes.  I question why we need or desire them at all; particular when it's the cost of the war machine over the past 50 years that has had the largest role in the destruction of America's economy.  I don't complain about branded pharmaceuticals.  I'm far more concerned about why the most-prescribed medication in America today is Abilify, which is an anti-psychotic for fuck's sake.  More people in America need an anti-psychotic than anything else?  Holy shitballs, Batman, that's kinda scary.

Yes, we have an economic fascist state.  You got that right.  At whose bequest, I'd ask?  Wasn't me.  Cui Bono?  It ain't the people who work or shop at Wal-Mart.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 17:00 | 6686670 RichardParker
RichardParker's picture

we have an economic fascist state, meaning the state is all powerful and has no actual limits on economic intervention.

I can't remember the last time gold and silver prices WEREN"T set (read: fixed) by government or its proxies. 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 23:08 | 6688096 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

I am not sure it is fixed but certainly manipulated. I thoroughly believe in gold and silver as a hedge or insurance against government but I am not religous about it.

It is a symptom or marker of other things though including loss of confidence in a currency which is to say loss of confidence in the government that issues it. Ask any S. American citizen.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 17:59 | 6686942 11b40
11b40's picture

You ignore the fact that Walmart and other giant multi-nationals get the rules written for their benefit.  Why do you think they spend so much on Lobbying?  It was Walmart who pushed hard to eliminate fair trade laws in the 70's, and you can find them at every major junction along the way to laws protecting American factories and workers from predatory countries where Walmart wants to set up shop.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:33 | 6685082 moneybots
moneybots's picture

"Pay them a decent wage and we ALL benefit!"

 

Nothing happens in a vacuum.  How do you benefit from paying higher prices?  How do the management workers at Bentonville benefit from being laid off?  How do Walmart store workers benefit from having their hours cut?  How do the Walmart shareholders benefit from the stock price dropping, including those whose retirement funds invested in Walmart, which could include you?


Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:56 | 6685503 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

Our system isn't really open-ended.  We were just able to act is if it were for a long time.  Now we've bumped into the limits enough that we have to acknowledge it's a very big system indeed, but actually a closed system.

We have to stop using a system based on debt at interest.  Simple as that, and as incredibly difficult.  Before the invention of finance capitalism, prices stayed about the same for what most people could consider "forever."  So did wages.  With interest at the root of everything we do, prices and wages have to increase to stay in the same relationship.  This has not happened.  That's why paying Wal-Mart workers and decent wage has to happen before we can even think of the system's recovering.  That will mean higher prices.  As long as I make more money than I spend, that's OK.  

The real solution begins with writing off all the debt that won't ever be repaid, but that will remove so much notional "money" from the system that the Elites will lose their advantage.  They're not going to be OK with that, which is why we're going to have to survive a collapse, rather than work to create a new economic system that doesn't have the inherent fatal flaw of assuming the world is infinite.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 23:20 | 6688128 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

Most of this comes from Keynes' General Theory and it is consumption based. So, debt is considered fuel for consumption and in theory consumption must be infinite for expansion.

I have seen analyses that show growth actually correlates more with savings than consumption. It is also a huge buffer against market retreats and rebalancing.

The only way we prosper over time is through increased productivity which is roughly 1-3% per year. If you do not play with currency that is about what you get. Industrialization sent productivity through the roof. Computers have done much the same thing. It is why we suffer from being obese now as opposed to in constant danger of hunger and starvation for 95% of human history.

There is a concept of a "real economy" I heard over a decade ago at an economics lecture. The idea is that there is a real economy of real goods and services that are there to be traded. It is the actual basis of prosperity. There is another economy called the "financial economy" which is best described as a paper economy. In an ideal world the two match and if left to their own they will always match and rebalance.

If you insert the power of government they begin to separate. It is not free people and markets that create hyperinflation or even deflation. In fact, if one put a fixed amount of any currency into a free system, whether gold, paper or shells, deflation would be the norm. The reason is rising productivity. Each dollar, ounce or shell will buy progressively more stuff over time. The fact that a dollar buys only about 3% of what it bought at the inception of the Fed tells you that the problem is the issuer of currency, not the people who actually produce stuff.

You can use paper to sort of trick the real economy and get more than you should. This is the stuff of governments and Wall Street traders who trade notionals but end up buying Ferrari's and yatch's, real stuff. BTW, I do not think all those notionals are bad or fake, but they are a game and govefrnment is at the very center and a partner in it as it skews risk and value.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:19 | 6685612 NihilistZero
NihilistZero's picture

If I pay slightly higher prices, but that money is going to the wages of propel in my LOCAL community instead of the Walmart corporate structure, then they have more money to spend at MY local business.  Henry Ford thought it was a pretty good idea to pay his employees enough that they could actually afford a Ford Car and it worked well for a long time.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 15:37 | 6686271 all-priced-in
all-priced-in's picture

The Henry Ford thing is a myth - go do some research and discover why Henry really paid people more -

 

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 01:06 | 6688331 Richard Head
Richard Head's picture

He had to pay above-market because working on an assembly line was soul crushing for the craftsmen of the day. Or something like that.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 07:04 | 6688635 robertocarlos
robertocarlos's picture

Stocking shelfs is soul crushing too.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 23:35 | 6692798 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

Did Henry pay them more than he paid himself? Did he pay them more than their management or the next three layers of supervisors? Did he pay them so much that the business was unprofitable? Did he pay enough to attract the best in a competitive market? Was he free to pay what he liked or did government tell him the price of labor?

You make an assertion about where the money is best used. If, as an NFL owner would the team and owner be better off paying the locker room guys three times their wages or spending the extra on a better quarterback? Is is fair that the quarterback often makes more than the coach? Is the money in every NFL team spent the exact same way or do some have a lineman (Miami) that is paid more than a quarterback? Cannot everyone who is in that company decide where and how they should spend their revenues? What if all the Walmart employees in a state got a nice raise but then Walmart did not have the capital to open three new stores with new people who are currently unemployed?

Is the solution to any inequities you perceive the heavy hand of government, new laws and more policing agencies?

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:51 | 6685163 markpower49
markpower49's picture

Lower skilled and poor people are useless eaters who should be turned into fertilizer. Society doesn't need or want them.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:57 | 6685507 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

Fertilizer?  Why not skip that step and just turn them into food?  More efficient.  And don't markets crave efficiency?

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 14:24 | 6685879 1033eruth
1033eruth's picture

AND FUCK YOU NIHILISM!  ABSOLUTELY NOBODY IS FORCED TO WORK AT WALMART - You socialist prick and the 74 morons that upvoted you.  It looks like Bernie Sanders is going to be our new president according to the up/down vote you got.  

I can't believe you got a preponderance of up votes on that.  Walmart is NOT responsible for providing "living wages" to anyone.  That's a relative term and most people are breeding themselves into poverty.  Walmart has nothing to do with that.  Want a living wage?  You've got options - EXERCISE THEM!!!! 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 15:22 | 6686199 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

Expand your view a little bit.  Don't focus on Wal-Mart and what is and is not their responsibility.  Look at the result.

Wal-Mart has the perfect right to cut their own throats, as do we all.  They aren't paying their employees enough to  survive without government handouts.  So are most other low-wage employers.  That is their right, I think we can all agree, if we accept that government should be subsidizing corporations by supplementing their employee's pay up to the point of bare subsistence.

It doesn't take a lot of extrapolation to see that the outcome is that eventually the people who would shop at Wal-Mart, or who work there, won't be able to afford to shop there.  In fact, that's what Wal-Mart has been obliquely saying for some time now.

Wal-Mart has a right to be in business.  They don't have a right to succeed.  Their model worked until they drained all the water out of the pond to get the fish.  Now they're out of fish?  Whose fault is that?  No doubt their solution is to extract what water is left in the mud at the lake bottom.

Might have been a bit wiser to not have drained it the pond in the first place.  But then they'd have had to be satisfied with fishing, rather than just scooping up the exposed fish from the drained lake-bottom.

Nobody is forced to work at Wal-mart.  And by the time Wal-Mart gets through persisting with their obviously flawed business model, nobody will have the option, either.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 17:20 | 6686753 1033eruth
1033eruth's picture

Yes, their model is SOOOOOOOO flawed that they became the #1 retailer in the world.  I'm not a Walmart fan because they have trained their employees to be robots and to follow mega amounts of corporate "policy".  However, how is WALMART different than any other retailer?   Therefore ALL RETAILERS owe their employees a living wage, so on and so forth.  ZH seems to be the bastion of socialism by redistributing of wealth via any idiot can get $15 an hour.

Your ENTIRE THESIS, that I need to expand my view is FLAWED.  My comment was based on the huge and growing number of morons that believe Walmart OWES their employees whatever amount of money that is required to live comfortably.  Sorry, supply and demand on labor for retail jobs.  There is no shortage of unskilled labor for Walmart or any other retail box.  Keep in mind that "retailers" have been going belly up, left and right since the credit and housing implosion.  That means there is an abundance of unskilled labor.  

If all that unskilled labor wants a "living wage", then they can go work for government and hardly work at all and get the full array of benefits.   Or, they can offer $15 an hour and go belly up, just like so many restaurants and others businesses have in Seattle and I guess now LA? because the municipalities passed an ordnance.  

You've seen the articles right here on ZH.  So have the rest of the ZH stooges that gave nihilism mega upvotes.  So, apparently, ZH readers have an extremely difficult time, putting 2 and 2 together or they want their children to be making $15 an hour at McDonalds to help with the bills at home. 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 19:36 | 6687348 Bobbyrib
Bobbyrib's picture

You should support Walmart. Curse higher taxes, curse welfare, then go to Walmart and bless their lower prices.

If you and I didn't support Walmart workers with welfare, they would fucking starve and/or live in a box.

 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 23:33 | 6688153 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

Actually, 1033 has it right and you both have it wrong. Your models and assumptions are off.

First, I can set the welfare benefits at anyone making less than $100k/year and then claim 90% of all businesses, virtually everyone outside of professional sports and tort lawerys would die without government assistance. Do government that have univerals healthcare therefore subsidize their businesses with "free" stuff? No, because it is not free. In fact, they usually have high costs and more, not less trouble maintaining businesses.

Second, your wage thing is one dimensional. Ever travel to a country where they earn just a couple bucks a day on average? How come they do not all die? It is because all their prices and the exchange of real goods and services is based on their own lower costs. You cannot beat or lose that game over time. In essence, you cannot price everything so high that no one can buy it. It is an impossible economic model. Only one entity in the entire world can actually cause that. Yes, you know who, government. Government is able to improse costs, conditions and constraints that have no bearing in reality to the costs of producing a product. Do you think anyone actually tried to price Obamacare and who could afford or not afford it? No. They just went on hunches. Government can fix wages so that no one can work. It can demand $50/hr, twelve weeks vacation, control prices and set the terms of trade without any connection to reality.

In essence, free people never starve themselves to death. Only governments do that. It is happening as we speak in Venezuela a country that previously was fairly wealthy. What form of economics do they have, by the way?

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:22 | 6685018 Takeaction2
Takeaction2's picture

Clooney....You are soo sooo soooo right.  We are in a monster deflationary spiral.  If you can't see that, you are blind.  The deflation is all around us...as well as Inflation on "Real" goods like food.  Let's get this straight.  

.

Food is going up like crazy...

Oil, and other commodities are crashing..

House prices are through the roof...

Stocks...nobody knows what the fuck they are doing...IMO should be crashing from all data.

People are financing the fuck out of there lives...

93,000,000 out of work..

Christmas is upon us...

Costco lines are huge now since they allow the dindos in with the EBT card...

....

When does all of this come to a head?

NOTE....I am part of the problem too.....I was looking for some great deals to get people in our car audio store for Black Friday.  My suppliers just offered me a Bluetooth Car Stereo with USB input for $19 dollars  delivered.  Are you fucking kidding me?  I used to sell pull out cassette decks for $1000 in the 90's.  Do you see the problem here?  How the hell do you make a car stereo with Bluetooth Audio streaming...package it, ship it, and deliver it to me with all of the middlemen involved for $19 bucks.  Fuck it.  I ordered hundreds of them.

 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:32 | 6685079 Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs's picture

$19? That's insane. I spent more on pizza last night.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:40 | 6685122 Takeaction2
Takeaction2's picture

I know....that is what I was thinking.  And are you ready for this?  The dindos that come into my store will still cry that it is too much.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:02 | 6685214 Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs's picture

No, I am dismayed, disgusted and pissed off a lot these days. Sadly, the optimism and happiness I used to have all the time isn't there much anymore.

I take long walks to keep my sanity...

 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:35 | 6685378 Lost in translation
Lost in translation's picture

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 19:39 | 6687358 Bobbyrib
Bobbyrib's picture

$19 electronics? Expect a lot of returns. I'm sure quality assurance is fantastic.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:55 | 6685498 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

The real point is that even at 19 Fucking dollars, I would not/will not and will take an active part in convincing others not to buy.

We all have too much fucking shit.

Take that and put it in your Fucking economic Models Greenspam/Bernanke/Yellen...

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:05 | 6684717 ZeroPoint
ZeroPoint's picture

I do wonder who will go down first, Sears/K-Mart or Wallies.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:15 | 6684751 plane jain
plane jain's picture

If you have to wonder about that then you haven't visited many of those stores.

K-Mart for certain. 

K-Mart actually has some decent product, but they haven't updated the store fixtures since the 70's, prices are generally higher than Wal-mart or Target, and the state of the store gives the impression that employees and managers just don't give a fuck.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:19 | 6684773 jeff montanye
jeff montanye's picture

or one could look at the balance sheets and income statements.

let's see, is it assets on the left . . . ?

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:34 | 6684826 CrazyCooter
CrazyCooter's picture

Debits on the left!

Regards,

Cooter

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:28 | 6684806 BandGap
BandGap's picture

It is surreal to shop at the KMart in our area. Never more than 10 people in the store and the merchandise is thin on the shelves. Don't get the impression much moves. The lighting sucks, too.

WalMart is essentially subsidized by US tax dollars as well over half of their "shoppers" are on government assistance.

Good riddance.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:03 | 6685528 TheFineKid
TheFineKid's picture

Ran over to Sears the other day to buy a cheap fridge for the Garage, I thought I was in a a pony do episode. Not a soul to be found. I yelled heeeellloooooooo 5x and then left.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:27 | 6684807 rejected
rejected's picture

Yep,,, stores have to be pretty these days to sell their foreign junk. It's funny to see them put new fascias on the front of old buildings to snare el cheapo shopper. 

Montgomery Wards had a major pretty up at the end,,,  then figured out they couldn't have a 1st rate store with fourth rate product.OOB within six months.

Now if your talking clean, that's a different story. K Marts are for the most part dirty. Some Walmarts are worse although we have stopped frequenting them except for food products which some are still American.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:34 | 6685088 Twaddlefree
Twaddlefree's picture

Sears and KMart are the same, and they're already down to the bottom of the retail barrel. WalMart will survive because it reacts quickly. Love it that the WM haters lost their voices when WM increased wages. Who will they blame for this? Consumers just don't have money to consume. It's all going to health insurance, now. Which means to the corporations who REALLY joined with the government to eat taxpayers alive.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 19:45 | 6687391 Bobbyrib
Bobbyrib's picture

"Sears and KMart are the same, and they're already down to the bottom of the retail barrel. WalMart will survive because it reacts quickly. Love it that the WM haters lost their voices when WM increased wages. Who will they blame for this? Consumers just don't have money to consume. It's all going to health insurance, now. Which means to the corporations who REALLY joined with the government to eat taxpayers alive."

 

The money goes toward healthcare, food prices, rising rents, and rising prices of almost everything (whether through direct inflation or shadow inflation [product shrinkage]). Gasoline and heating prices may be down now, but wait till the speculators run it up with the help of the Federal Reserve.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:07 | 6684723 BarkingCat
BarkingCat's picture

China Mart ... fuck offf and die....

 

Their corporate motto should be:

Betraying America One Sale at a Time

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:08 | 6684728 ZeroPoint
ZeroPoint's picture

It's only a symptom of a larger probem - the trade imbalance. Labor arbitrage will be exploited as long as its allowed to be.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:30 | 6684815 El Viejo
El Viejo's picture

Right on!  You are looking at the end result of the trade imbalance.  I don't have much sympathy because they all thought they were taking America for a ride.  Ha!

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:41 | 6684858 sharkbait
sharkbait's picture

It is labor arbitrage and regulatory arbitrage.  why do people think we see all these amazing pictures of smog in Beijing and Xinhua?  they have no environmental regs compared to the western world.

So go ahead and buy the chinese stuff and save some money, but you are saving it on the backs of slave wages and environmental damage.  unfortunately, in some products that is all that is left, chinese stuff.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 01:04 | 6688320 Never One Roach
Never One Roach's picture

Stores are all desperate at this point...already packing the shelves with Christmas stuff.

I buy all my stuff online anway and stay away from most of these B&M stores esp after WalMart removed all Confederate thingies off their shelves. Not that I'm a big fan of those things  but it's the principle behind it and why they removed it..so some people might not be offended. Well, pink tricycles offend ME so remove them too...and oh yeah, I hate all those hippie organic veggies so stop carrying them in produce.

 

WalMart's exec decision on this matter really irlked me. I doubt I'll ever step into another WalMart in my life esp since Amazon and other onliners carry everything and cheaper for the most part and a much wider variety.

 

Plus, with Amazon Prime you get it super fast and even without Prime most of their 3rd party sellers are very fast.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 01:08 | 6688333 BarkingCat
BarkingCat's picture

Amazon also pulled all the Rebel merchandise from their "store"

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:20 | 6684779 all-priced-in
all-priced-in's picture

"If they are supplying Wal Mart then they deserve what they get......Predatory fochin' scumbag......you're an idiot if you deal with Wally world"

 

I sold stuff to Walmart for 15 years - you clearly don't have a fucking clue - have you ever even sold WM $1 worth of anything?

 

They are actually a really good customer - one of the best I ever dealt with -

They tell you exactly what they want & when they want it - they back a truck up to your plant and you fill it up - they pay you on the due date.

 

They want low prices - but NEWS FLASH - every fucking customer wants lower prices and anyone that thinks WM is the only place that asks for lower prices doesn't understand how business works.

 

WM was always one of my top 5 customers in sales -- plus they were almost alwsys #1 in profit - both dollars & %.

 

If a company can't do business with WM then they don't deserve to even be in business.

 

 

 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 12:19 | 6685293 Whoa Dammit
Whoa Dammit's picture

WM was always one of my top 5 customers in sales

Emphasis on was.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 14:03 | 6685825 all-priced-in
all-priced-in's picture

By "was" I am refering to my sales to WM - I left the company a few years ago - and no longer sell anything.

 

The bonus I got from WM business helped me retire early - it also paid off my house, bought me a bunch of new cars, college for my kids and  too much other stuff to name. 

 

I will admit - it is hard for me to criticize a company that made it possible for me to be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

But how many of the folks that think WM treats their suppliers badly have ever even been suppliers at all? At least I was actually a supplier to them.

 

It is also beyond stupid to think all customers don't demand lower prioces - every purchasing guy I ever talked with wanted a lower price and better terms - to single out WM for this shows a high level of ignorance about business.

 

You think the guys over at Amazon just accept whatever price the supplier wants to charge? 

 

 

 

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 01:15 | 6688341 BarkingCat
BarkingCat's picture

and let me guess.... the stuff that you sold to them was made in China..

 

Personally I hated that company long before they turned to China-Mart... There assholes were big on censorship.

When you bought a movie from them there was a very good chance that it was a special Wall-Mart edit with some good stuff missing.

Music wise they would force record companies to change the album covers. 

Yes, I still go into one of their store once in a great while but only when I am away from home and desperate for something.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 13:30 | 6685670 cornflakesdisease
cornflakesdisease's picture

I manufactuer pet products.  I will not do business with Walmart.

Once you are abou 40% of there business, they will demand you sell your business to them or they will stop buying, especially if you have borrowed money to expand and provide them with more product.

They squeeze you to death on price cuts.  They are manipulative, abusive, and thugish.  I've dealt with them since 1993.  You have obviously never been to one of their good ol boys parties.  Here's a great Walmart joke:  Q: What do you call a Walmart manager?  A: Divorced.

Suppliers are leaving Walmart in droves, especially regional and US based folks (salas makers, favorite spices, nitch items, special tools or gadgets, etc still made in the usa).

 

Our company went to a web based sales platform, though we do sell in our region of the US directly.  We cut our costs dramatically and increased our profitability dramatically.  Sales are up 30% over last year alone.  Sell direct and cut out the retailer.

Too bad gold miners don't do this.

We micro manufactuer.  We keep nothing in stock.  You need it, we make it, then we go into hiatus.  Employees?  We fired 90% of them in 2008 and run the company on a crew of 4.  Everything is automated.  We will be buying a robotic machine soon, that will further increase productivity in our plant.  It used to cost $26,000 for this machine, now it costs about $3,700.  It can do in seconds what used to take hours.  We never borrow money to improve anything.  We do not go into debt for our business unless it can be paid off in 12 months or less.

You can learn alot from Nucor Steel's buiness model.

 

 

 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 14:33 | 6685966 quartshort
quartshort's picture

^ This is what should be taught in an MBA program. Instead it's how to use leverage to buy up the competition and produce so cheaply that up-and-comers never have a chance. "Scan the periphery" was the meme of my education. Well, guess what I see? A bunch of overpaid CEO's attempting to butt fuck labor sans lube. It's no wonder why most skilled labor splits within 2 years... it's the only way to move up the ladder. No one gives a shit about the end user of products at a lerge company anymore. One foot on a banana peel and the other out the door. The next hired bloke will fix my mess- but at least this quarter will look good!

Now it's time to split!

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 23:48 | 6688185 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

I am not a fan of the modern CEO and I have a model of why they all will fail over time, and they do. Look at the S&P every 50 years and the turnover is enormous. You have to ask yourself how that is possible with so many smart MBA, Ivy League types in the ranks and at the helm. The answer is that they are not nearly as good as they tell you. They get eaten alive by the competition. Sears was the number one retaler for a century. Now they will soon fail. GM was the largest and probably most arrogant company in the world. It is a welfare queen, now. How many people with advanced degrees and spotless, flawless, errorless resume's went through those companies? How much did CEO's and their inner cirlces make on the way down? Lots and lots.

CEO's just do what everyone else would do if they could. They pay themselves very well.

Entrepreneurs and corporate CEO's are actually two very different breeds with little in common.

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 01:23 | 6688347 BarkingCat
BarkingCat's picture

......and if you do not know the difference between "CEO's" and "CEOs", I would venture to say that whatever hight school you graduated from the taxpayers deserve a refund.

 

Ironically, I agree with everything you wrote, which just proves that common sense is worth more than education.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 23:49 | 6692825 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

Actually, Cat, if you look at several of my posts you will see they are sprinkled with spelling errors, too. It is because I am in a hurry, often working on something else simultaneously and suffer a bad lag on my laptop as I post.

Your point is trite, even petty.

However, if you got the main point of my writing then there is some success and my communications were sufficient to the task.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 10:29 | 6684814 Casey Jones
Casey Jones's picture

the last time I entered a Walmart looking for batteries on a road trip I was shocked at the state of the clientele. Between the fats on their wheel chairs, the gimped and the lame, the tweakers and parolees, and catatonic octogenarian employees taking their breaks eating at the in-store McDonald's, the place was a little shop of horrors. Even as I muttered prayers for all these cast-offs, I wondered what will become of them once the house of cards comes a tumbling down. I want a reset of our economic mess as much as anyone, but damn the human cost is going to be appalling.

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:00 | 6684947 Boondocker
Boondocker's picture

Amen. ..I had to parents of foster kids who worked at Walmart. ...helped them go back to school and learn a trade....they realized they w er e stuck forever if they didn't. ..

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 11:01 | 6684949 Zadig
Zadig's picture

Entering a Walmart feels like going on a safari.  All these exotic creatures that I just don't encounter anywhere else. 

Mon, 10/19/2015 - 14:33 | 6685956 L Bean
L Bean's picture

Those people you see lurching around Wal-Mart will die quickly. It's the healthy and prepared who will suffer.

Everyone thinks it's that other guy who's The Walking Dead, but really it's all of us. There will be no heroic reset to pre-industrial times complete with butter churns and weaving looms.

 

 

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