Post #121632 by lanikai on Mon, Oct 25, 2004 3:15 PM

In respnse to:
"4,400 hawaiian residents are gainfully employed and thousands shop there. Isnt that good for the State of Hawaii's economy and employment rates? "

and

"I dont see anyone being forced to shop or forced to work for the evil Walmart. They filled 800 some jobs and had crowds surging in to shop. From reading everything though it appears the majority of the people are in favor of it being there and shopping there. "

May I submit:

They over run ancient civilizations. They destroy local cultural sites and they desecrate graves sites;

http://www.counterpunch.org/carlsen10152004.html

It is a depressing prospect to think we live in the day and age where something like this: "Proponents of pyramid Wal-Mart argue that it will create jobs and serve consumers cheaply-the hallmark of the store's reputation." justifies the destruction of and lack of any respect for ancient cultures.

they create thru advertising and their stores being everywhere fulla junk at low prices, a mass lemming mindset of the proletariat that, when Walmart makes excuses and justifications of these culturally insensitive actions, the masses respond with absolute acceptance and belief.

For each and every Walmart that opens in a town, 2 grocery stores close down.
The rationale that welcoming WM into a community will create more jobs is fallacious...all it does is move customers around and close down other businesses, so the net result is 0 or next to 0 gains in employment opportunities.

For each job they 'create" two jobs are lost.
Do any kind of google search on Walmart's effect on local businesses. See how they decimate the local business economy

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. discriminates against blacks seeking truck-driving jobs, resulting in federal lawsuits

many large and small companies struggle even more, after getting in bed with Walmart.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html
http://www.forbes.com/home_asia/global/2004/1018/026.html

WM forces overtime for which the complainants say they were not paid.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002058257_walmart09.html

And, on PBS Hawaii channel 10 show, a few nights ago;

based from Jefferson Wisconsin wherein they review the debacle of walmart coming into that town and they cover some evidence;
each sprawlmart that enters a town on average causes TWO grocery stores in that town to close.

many wage earners working for walmart are required to supplement their income with foodstamps (to even afford groceries at the very place they are employed!) as well as require other govnmt assisstance.

With all the concessions, tax breaks etc. handed to walmart by each state city and county they enter, along with the assistance local state and federal governments hand their low wage earning employees, it is estimated approx. 2.5 million a year is the cost to the government to have each walmart in the town.
Old longstanding beautiful historic buidildings are torn down, replaced with parking lots.
Many old established businesses shut down; customers flock to walmart to buy the same thing cheaper but that's just part of it; To stay in business manufacturers alter their sales and distibution format and are forced by walmart to implement parameters on their business to the extent this is a standard example; a Jefferson Wisconsin shoe store was told by Converse their buyer must now purchase $3000.00 of shoes per month or they will no longer sell to that retailer. This breaks the retailers back and along with many other factors, effected by the introduction of walmart to town, they go under.
Just as in Honolulu; many want the convenience and low prices of the Big Box stores, but when we invite this behemoth to town to satisfy our addiction to consumerism, we lose something else that is far more important; a quality of life and a character of the community.

So we saw on the show the other nite; a beautiful old town with fabulous architecture, slowly die. Crumble to dust. Old buildings previously the backbone and center of activity of a town, piece by piece get bulldozed and the remaining storefronts shuttered up, with all the small businesses gone. It's a sad shallow hollow empty shell of a ghost town devoid of life and sipirit just as is the heart of the giant walmart.

Now, it's not so much as a simplistic "we hate walmart" that is the view as much as the widespread easy mental and economic control they have effected on the populace. monster companies like walmart have created other tiny minimonsters, zombies... plodding to the stores on a religious basis regardless of any other evidence or information there is out there to enlighten these minions and show them there it a "better way".
Picture the Eloi silently, mindlessly ,obediently walking toward the huge structure as the sound of the wailing siren beckons them in the Rod Taylor movie; "Time Machine".
They (walmart) have taught (brainwashed) the proletariat with the funny cute family style ads on the telly, that walmart is everyone's friend. So, the masses flock to walmart with blinders on. It becomes an internal conviction as strong as a religious choice or a political affiliation.

more:
http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/talkback.html

http://www.honoluluweekly.com/cover/detail.php?id=21

funny stuff here!
http://www.phonelosers.org/wal-mart/