a factoid on wal-mart

[CableChick]

Approximately 70 percent of the merchandise sold in traditional Wal-Mart stores (not their Supercenters, which also sell food) is from China.<SUP>1</SUP>

Wal-Mart now accounts for almost 10 percent of all Chinese imports.<SUP>2</SUP>

In 2004, Wal-Mart purchased some $18 billion worth of Chinese goods from some 5,000 suppliers.

A Chinese trade spokesman said, "If Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it would rank as China’s eighth biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada."<SUP>3</SUP>

<SUP>1 Paul Craig Roberts, "Private Accounts: Right Idea, Wrong Time," Business Week (March 7, 2005), p. 39.

2 Michael Arndt, "Danger: Falling Prices," Business Week (Jan. 30, 2006), p. 118.

3 Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005), p. 137-138.

</SUP>

 

[teverheart2002]

wow!

 

[dustin]

thats why i dont go to wal-mart unless i have to

 

[nitwhit3286]

I like my target better....

 

[rack'm]

I like my target better....

I wonder how much they import.......

 

[FromTexas]

If you want cheaper goods, then you have to suck it up where those goods come from. They don't come from here because all our people need to make enough to buy all those cheaper goods they can't live without.

 

[dustin]

Wal-mart is the foundation of the NEW WORLD ORDER

 

[buddy999]

Wal-mart is the foundation of the NEW WORLD ORDER

My wife and I have gone to calling Wal-Mart our national industry because I believe there are more Wal-Mart trucks on the road per capita than any other company in the US.

I don't have any specific data, just the knowledge that when we travel, 1 out of every 10 trucks we see on the road are hauling merchandise for Wal-Mart.

 

[willie]

One out of ten?

 

[dustin]

My wife and I have gone to calling Wal-Mart our national industry because I believe there are more Wal-Mart trucks on the road per capita than any other company in the US.

I don't have any specific data, just the knowledge that when we travel, 1 out of every 10 trucks we see on the road are hauling merchandise for Wal-Mart.

It would be interesting to find out the officials numbers on that...

 

[BadGirl]

Cheap labor produces cheap goods.

 

[CableChick]

It would be interesting to find out the officials numbers on that...

I'm working on it!!! My dad used to be the Chief of Staff for the United Surface Transportation Board.

 

[CableChick]

Cheap labor produces cheap goods.

Not always. :shrug:

 

[willie]

It would be interesting to find out the officials numbers on that...

I saw ONE on the beltway Friday and he was being harassed by a couple of Giant Food trucks that were being followed by a dozen UPS trucks that were running from the Fed Ex double trailer trucks.

 

[StrwberryKisses]

I have heard before that if wal-mart does not like a product they won’t sell it which in turn can put a company out of business. It was done with Tide. The Chinese do more hand washing so wal-mart was not selling washing machine detergent. They told Tide that if they wanted to remain on Wal-mart shelves that they would come up with a detergent that was for hand washing. Tide complied and now it is the number one selling product in China.

 

[willie]

I have heard before that if wal-mart does not like a product they won’t sell it which in turn can put a company out of business. It was done with Tide. The Chinese do more hand washing so wal-mart was not selling washing machine detergent. They told Tide that if they wanted to remain on Wal-mart shelves that they would come up with a detergent that was for hand washing. Tide complied and now it is the number one selling product in China.

This guy is one of very few that said "NO".
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html
America wants to buy cheap. Even Sears has trashed the good name of Troy Built.

 

[dustin]

This guy is one of very few that said "NO".
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html
America wants to buy cheap. Even Sears has trashed the good name of Troy Built.

Ten years ago, at about the time Sumners came on board, Snapper had 52 regional distributors. It uses no distributors now--the company runs four regional warehouses of its own and sells directly to 10,000 independent dealerships. Ten years ago, in part because of the complexity of the middleman distribution system, Snapper carried a huge quantity of inventory. It paid to manufacture and ship thousands of lawn mowers--worth tens of millions of dollars--without quite knowing when they would be sold. Now planners come up with an ideal level of inventory for every model, for every region of the country, based on things like historic demand and the weather. The goal is to make sure every customer can get the mower he wants--while making absolutely the smallest number of lawn mowers.

Production at the Snapper factory is rescheduled every week, according to the pace at which mowers sell. A computer juggles work assignments and balances the various parts of the assembly line. The main manufacturing line for Snapper's entry-level walk-behind mowers--with 28 people--was recently charged with producing 265 lawn mowers in an eight-hour shift. The group hit the mark exactly. That's a new lawn mower, from loose parts to sealed box, every 109 seconds. "It's all a matter of seconds," says Sumners.

This is EXACTLY the same process Naval Aviation Supply and Maintenance is striving to change to at the moment. Nothing new as Toyota was doing it right after WWII.

It's good to see someone say No....