Wal-Mart

[Nick Arnett]

We talked a while ago about Wal-Mart's virtues and lack thereof.  I recently
became acquainted with the father of one of the LA Times reports who wrote a
four-part series about Wal-Mart a few years ago, which won a Pulitzer Prize.

Part one is here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-fi-walmart23nov23,1,1712351.story?ctrack=3&cset=true

I was surprised when my new friend told me that apparently Wal-Mart liked
the series.  This, despite that fact that I think the stories essentially
say that if all you care about is low prices, then Wal-mart is great.  If
they liked the story, they apparently truly believe that nothing is more
important than having the lowest prices.  To me, that's just plain greed,
amoral greed.  Some things really are more important than driving prices as
low as possible.  Otherwise, we'd still have legalized slavery in the modern
world, to offer the extreme example.

It seems to me that when an organization becomes that big, it becomes easy
for top management to abuse people at the far end of the supply chain, if
only because they are so easy to ignore.  Perhaps our systems need to take
into account the fact that the personal experience of people isn't
transmitted nearly as easily as their economic value.

And no to those who may demand I come up with a better system before
criticizing this one, I don't have something better to offer, other than
encouraging more of this kind of reporting, which helps show the real cost
of those low, low prices.

Confession:  I take our daughter to Wal-Mart (her choice, not mine) and pay
for her insulin.  She can't get insurance and they do have the lowest
price.  But at least insulin isn't being produced in sweat shops, as far as
I know.  And I'm tempted by all the cheap stuff they sell, but I resist.

Nick

-- 
Nick Arnett
narnett at mccmedia.com
Messages: 408-904-7198