WalMart Documentary

[4X4]

This kind of thing is interesting to me. Maybe to you too. Its on CNBC right now (just started at 9:00 Calgary time). Thats channel 34 to those of you without digital.

[Eastern Girl]

Normally those kinds of programs are kind of interesting to me, but I used to work at Walmart so I think I might not watch this one.... but thanks for the heads up... for anyone out East, it's channel 57.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I've seen this documentary before, and it's outstanding. For those that really want to see how a market leader ticks, take a look at this. Wal-Mart may represent evil to many, but it's really amazing how they domininate the retail scene in the US, and how in particularly they do this. The expansion to China is especially interesting.

EDIT: It's on now until 11:00 Calgary time, channel 34

[Agamemnon]

I think it's called 'The Age of Wal-Mart', for some reason channel 34 plays it a lot. It's definitely good at summarizing Wal-Mart's role in the shifting of labour away from North America to SE Asia.

[4X4]

Well... Not too bad. I am impressed by their system of distribution. Simply amazing. But the real reason I watched was to get more information on their business practises. It was covered pretty extensively, but it was mostly covered by an objective reporter, then countered by the CEO of walmart, and not followed by someone on the other side of the fence. Well, maybe thats not entirely true. There was definite opposition in there, but the CEO got more airtime than I needed to see. Boy that guy has it all justified, doesn't he? I guess thats his job.
Then theres the pep rallies, er, shareholder meetings. Its like a fricken moonie convention.
That is one creepy company. And I say this as a staunch capitalist.

[Incogneto]

Well, First off, I have to say that I work closely with Wal-Mart, so I am a little biased....I think Wal-Mart is an AMAZING corperation.

I think with ANY company that large, you are going to have issues like Wal-Mart's....the Lawsuits, the Unions, the Local fights to keep them out. This would happen with any company...especially when they're underground motto is 'World Domination!'.

I think the Documentary did a good job at looking at the whole thing objectivly. For me, it was very cool to see a look at the inside dealings with things that I deal with everyday. Very cool!

[Crazy Flamer]

I've seen this show before and while Walmart made some amazing business moves, they seemed pretty damn shrewd at times.

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally posted by InCoGnEtO@Aug 9 2005, 06:48 AM
I think with ANY company that large, you are going to have issues like Wal-Mart's....the Lawsuits, the Unions, the Local fights to keep them out. This would happen with any company...especially when they're underground motto is 'World Domination!'.

Well, how many companies are as large as Wal-Mart?

But look at Costco as an example of a corporation that is a corporate good citizen. They don't have problems with unions and their CEO makes a miniscule salary compared to other CEO's.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Yes but low salaries are merely optics. Costco's CEO is sitting on $22 million in options. So he could pull a Ford or Steve Jobs and pay himself a $1 and still really be sitting comfy.

Costco and WalMart have different business models that result in WalMart having to hire more people. Ever tried to get help at a Costco? Distinctly no frills, add in the no advertising, and the fact they're selling to a wealthier demographic with high margins and you can see why Costco has more lattitude with employee salaries.

Having said that, I like the corporate approach at Costco, which is a real collaborative approach between employees and "management". Employees share in the success of a company and take a hit too when times are bad. It shouldn't be an us or them mentality, and ideally unions would butt out.

Wal Mart might seem to be unbeatable now but Sears Roebuck seemed that way not that long ago either.

[Mike F]

Anyone interested in this should also check out Frontline's excellent documentary called "Is WalMart Good for America?"

As with all Frontine documentaries, it is available online in its entirety