Lou is right, like Lou I have deep roots in Arkansas, and was long a great admirer of Wal-Mart. They have certainly brought a wider choice of goods at lower prices to small town consumers. That is very good. But in the process, they killed small local businesses. That was not so good. On balance, I long felt they we're a very positive force. But since Sam Walton's death, the company has come to be increasingly run by arrogant elitists, like Enron, or WorldCom, or so many others, and short term profit has become the paramount goal. They have become the very model of the marketer gaining supreme power and squeezing manufacturering margins to nothing. And it is no longer the small family drugstore they are killing, it is every American manufacturer of consumer goods. And the huge power and arrogance of today's Wal-Mart is being reported not only in the somewhat left-leaning Frontline, but in the Wall Street Journal, not exactly a Socialism publication.
I have to agree with Bruce, to say we are going to give away all our manufacturing and live on "marketing skills" is foolish and naieve. We are simply not all going to get to rich selling each other other insurance. I've taught software classes to two dozen Chinese engineers at a time, and I can tell you they are neither stupid nor gullible. They will not long be content with low-wage manufacturing jobs. They want the design, engineering, finance and marketing jobs too, and they are going to get them if the US remains complacent.
Yes, as consumers we like low prices, but I think we are paying a price for them beyond what we realize. And yes, I shop a lot at Wal-Mart, but in Big Spring, TX, there is nowhere else to shop for most items. As I said, my own record of buying new KOF frames direct from the builders is not very good. Maybe I should do better while there is still a chance to do so. At least you can still buy an American-made bike, unlike televisions, DVD Players, and microwaves.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
LouDeeter@aol.com wrote: jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net writes: Frontline on PBS had a show a few weeks ago about Wal-Mart, now the world's largest company, which epitomizes the triumph of Marketers over Manufacturers and how Wal-Mart forces their suppliers to relocate to China to drive production cost ever lower and Wal-Mart's margins ever higher. Bruce's description of the bike business is exactly what is being done to all US businesses by companies like Wal-Mart. It isn't WalMart that is doing that. It is us, the consumers! We demand the lowest price. When was the last time any of us tried to get someone to discount their product--including custom frames? I see it all the time when selling used stuff to listmembers. Greed, avarice, it causes people to do things like creating a spot for someone with vision like Sam Walton, the founder of WalMart to fill the vacuum by giving the consumer what they want. And, read Sam's book. He didn't exactly start off as a millionaire. Jerry knows about WalMart better than most because he was raised in Arkansas where it started. The second store was in my wife's hometown. The people were thrilled when a WalMart opened and the consumer still is. It is the small businessman who gets killed, just like what Bruce was talking about with the ever cheaper bikes from Taiwan and China (note, there is a difference). Lou Deeter, Orlando FL
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