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98 Comments
- Muyoso, on 10/12/2007, -10/+33Yea, cause the last thing we all want is a cheaper Apple product. Long live monopolies. Long live high prices. YAY!
- exobyte, on 10/12/2007, -4/+28Let digg users make up their own minds. Stop telling us what to think in titles and summaries (but keep it up in the comments).
- Wisgary, on 10/12/2007, -10/+22wal-mart was the best thing that ever happened to DVDs and music CDs.
- geraldb28, on 10/12/2007, -11/+23Apple's job to me as an AAPL shareholder is to secure deals when and where they make sense. Pairing up with the #1 retailer in the world may or may not make good business sense. Depends on the terms now doesn't it? I know Wal-Mart having been one of their supplier vendors. They are an aggressive lot (as THEY should be). I'm sure not worried about the "monopolistic" aspects of this. Anyone who thinks iPod will remain numero uno forever is bonkers. If Apple doesn't trump it someone else will. But, they sure have a responsibility to keep that monster lead on everyone else as long as they can.
Both parties ought to do what's right for them. Deal. No Deal. Whatever.
I also know Apple tends to be an equally shrewd negotiator. Unlike the Wal-Mart Watch crew I have a lot more faith in Mr. Jobs to do what's right for Infinite Loop. - NSResponder, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13"I think the internet has had a far larger effect on MSRP than stupid walmart. "
Guess again. Wal-mart's been selling below MSRP for as long as they've existed.
-jcr - jalefkowit, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14No, more like the horror stories about them locking their workers in the store at night (a blatant fire hazard): http://www.chicagolegalnet.com/workers_assail_night_lock.htm
Or them happily hiring illegal immigrants: http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/23/news/companies/walmart_worker_arrests/
Or them breaking child labor laws: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6958916/
... to name a few. - Muyoso, on 10/12/2007, -11/+19They are an evil company the on average reduces the price of food 25 percent for low income families, thus giving them an effective income boost of nearly 6.5 percent. Pure EVIL.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Damn straight. I love paying lower prices.
- bpapa, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8"Let digg users make up their own minds. Stop telling us what to think in titles and summaries (but keep it up in the comments)."
Exactly. Personally, I just mark all propaganda-laden news posts as spam. Luckily, since I've blocked the political section, I've been able to avoid most of it, but sometimes stuff like this comes up in other places.
It's funny because people who think wal-mart is "evil" do evil themselves by not simply presenting the facts of a situation and letting a reader decide for themselves. two wrongs, etc. - anonym41414, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9"Wal-Mart Watch, an independent organization"
Founded by and funded almost exclusively by the Service Employees International Union, a union that's been trying hard for years to unionize Wal-Mart.
Independent my ass.
http://paidcritics.com/walmart_watch_the_truth.html - Muyoso, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12The availability of walmart is like an instant 6.5 percent boost for the income of the lowest classes in America. http://www.slate.com/id/2144517/entry/2144521
"[T]ogether with a few sister "big box" stores (Target, Best Buy, and Home Depot), Wal-Mart accounts for roughly 50% of America's much vaunted productivity growth edge over Europe during the last decade. Fifty percent! Similar advances in wholesaling supply chains account for another 25%!" - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5God that would be wonderful for apple's elitist image. They could put the apple kiosk next to the Wrasslin' and Nascar DVDs.
- wholewheat, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10Dugg down. Wal-Mart Watch is a biased Wal-Mart-hating organization out to slander and destroy one of America's best business assets.
- Muyoso, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5They only employ 1.3 million Americans, at an average rate of $10.11 an hour, offer health care plans for as low as $11 dollars a month, save the AVERAGE American family over $2300 a year and have a measly 127 million shoppers a week. Evil, Evil company.
- KevinWhite, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4And how is the company that owns the rights to the music taking 70% a bad thing?
That sounds right to me...
Now the way they distribute those funds once they get them is a whole different matter.....definitely most of that 70% should go to the artist - rynTAU, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Steve, don't partner with Walmart.
There, my good deed for the day is done. - theduck71, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4SBJDALLAS** This is in regards to your comment.
"I hate walmart's reign as much as the next guy but I do still shop there on occassion."
Doesn't that make you a hypocrite????
That aside, go Wal-Mart!! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Stop it!
You're only allowed to hate Bush and The War here!
Didn't you get the memo? - superkendall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@etnu:
Have you ever even bought food at a Super Wal-Mart? They have the same food every other grocery store on the planet does - yes they have chips, but they also have plenty of fresh vegetables and a good deli section.
In fact, dare I say it, I prefer Walmarts food section to that of SuperTarget. No generic brand on earth is quite so disgusting in every product incaration as Archer Farms. Even the AF bottled water tastes like hell, I kid you not. I have yet to try an Archer Farms product that was not so horrid I had to throw away the whole thing after the first bite.
I still generally go to real grocery stores though (instead of WalMart), mostly because they are closer. I guess that is why they build Super Walmarts closer and closer together. - etnu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5We also have wal-mart to thank for the serious drop in the quality of merchandise being produced. Their drive to sell products as cheaply as humanly possible has created a situation where the majority of manufactured goods are extremely low quality.
Apple + Wal-Mart = cheap macs. Cheap macs = crappy hardware that's no better than what you can get anywhere else.
If you want a cheap computer that you'll just toss away in 2 years, buy a Dell. - diggless, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5carapi
look at ohio, there was a thompson plant that went out of business there and walmart came in.... well you know what. You think whatever you want. I have spent a great deal of time studying the issues that affect the workers and the corporation and I can confidently say that Walmart has a very negative impact on low wage workers.
Watch the frontline, get the "the high cost of low price" dvd, look at the lawsuits walmart has paid to its workers total payouts in the high 100s of millions. Read some articles and interviews and then come back and tell me you think this company is helping us all live better. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6yeah...diggless...because if they didn't have ANY job, they would get all this cheap healthcare too, right?
I am missing the part where Walmart comes into a community and rounds up people and forces them to quit their other GREAT jobs with full healthcare benefits and forces them to come work for them.
Most of these employees mentioned that don't have healthcare are the lowest of unskilled laaborers. People who are working for Walmart for a reason. Because NO other company would hire them. (And the ones that do ALSO don't give them good health insurance.)
Bottom line. You want good health insurance? MAke yourself USEFUL to an employer. Go to college. At LEAST a community college. And don't give me any bitchfests about not being able to afford it. Millions of kids go to colleges they can't afford every year and come out with big students loans. It is called an investment.
But if you are going to blame Walmart becuase some 17 year old mother who dropped out of high school is working there and not getting good benefits, you are going to lose any debate. - unnamedjoe, on 10/12/2007, -31/+33I agree with this, but just remember one thing about Wal-mart if it were not for Wal-mart we would still be paying MSRP for everything.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Waaahhhhh waaaahhhhh waaaahhhh! Walmart is bad! All those kids of workers on public healthcare!
Yewh...because we all know that without Walmart, all those employees with ZERO actual unique job skills, would get these great professional jobs offering full heatlth care. - FHKE, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It looks like Wal-Mart Watch knows that Apple fanboy-lism is powerful.
- Epsilon26, on 10/12/2007, -8/+10I've worked at Wal-Mart, and it's not pleasant, but walmartwatch.com exists purely for unions to spin everything against Wal-Mart. It's one big publicity stunt that misrepresents the truth. I've been inside the organization, and I respect what they do. Sure, they don't pay well and don't offer great health care for their part-time associates, but we live in a capitalist society, not a socialist paradise.
Nobody is forcing Wal-Mart employees to stay. In fact, when they qualify for better jobs, they tend to leave. Compensation decisions are best left to HR departments, not unions. Just check out all of the shining examples of union labor pricing itself out of the market (GM? Delta?).
Unions had their time and place, but labor markets are more liquid than ever before and unionization no longer makes sense for the vast majority of industries. - vvaduva, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3because we are all stupid....and we are stuck in Iraq. We need the smart people on digg to tell everyone else to call "Steve" and give him advice on who he can do business with.
- Epsilon26, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Unions have definitely increased wages, but they do that by creating barriers to entry--tying up the labor market. Unions had their day in the sun, but the fact is that our economy is quickly moving toward more capital intensive production--both physical and human capital. Unskilled labor is old and busted in the U.S., and the faster people realize that the better.
The premise of a union is that workers aren't being paid the marginal product of their labor, so they need to strengthen their bargaining position. Liquid labor markets tend to push wages to an equilibrium. This equilibrium is artificially low in monopsony labor markets (think monopoly from the employer's perspective, a.k.a. company towns); however, monopsonies are not that common, especially not in retail or air travel or auto manufacturing.
I suspect that blue collar unions are fighting a losing battle to maintain their wages in the face of foreign competition. Fighting globalization is a losing battle, and unionized labor would be better served through retraining programs to move the blue collar workforce into service industries. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You got a source for those numbers? Preferrably a source where the sun does shine?
- vvaduva, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Tell Steve not to partner with Walmart"
Yes sir...anything you want sir. I am useless without your advice and commands....heck, I can barely finish this comme.....a;saf[a.n;vnvs;[0rbs s - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4This might actually get me to buy more products from Apple.
For all of the complaining about Wal*Mart, I find that my local store has pleasant staff members, good service, and low prices.
Yes, I know all of their crap comes from China, and I also buy coffee that isn't grown by the Fair Wage people.
Lets add this up:
Compete with Wal*Mart, Good (Apple succeeded well at this)
Defeat Wal*Mart, Good (See above)
Partner with Wal*Mart, gain access to middle America, small towns and folks who don't have a religious obsession with Apple........yet. I bet it's a good move.
Oh wait, sorry, I forgot, Big Corporations are Evil (tm). My bad.
I am Borg. - RonnieSan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think Target has a style more suitable to the Apple style.
- vvaduva, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Cool...thanks for exposing that. Another digg "fact appearing on the main page that is discovered to be lies. I guess the democratic aspects of Web 2.0 and truth are not very compatible uh?!
- Muyoso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Of course, why would Apple want to expose their products to 127 million shoppers a week, go for the stuck up store who thinks their products are better so charges a lot more for them.
- foxhoundadmin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5so, i guess the general consensus at digg is walmart=good?
- ahhell, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Maybe they can use the same Chinese sweatshops!
Think of the cost savings!!! - fallenone05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I just called uncle Steve Jobs to tell him not to partner with Wallmart...
Me: Hey uncle!
Steve: Hello
Me: Please don't partner with Walmart!
Steve:Why not? Listen I don't have time for this...
Me:But...
Steve:One more thing...
Me:What?
Steve:***** you!
Me:But on digg...
Steve:One more thing...
Me:what?
Steve:***** you again
Me:*Crying*
Steve:One more thing..
Me:I get it! - superkendall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For those diging down the other guy read the greenpeace thing - the claim Apple has toxic materials in the laptop case but have NEVER ACTUALLY TESTED this. They are just guessing! Is tat fair in any way to Apple?
Apple is the company that has sent me two email coupons now to send an old computer to them via FedEx, free of charge, for recycling - I box it up and print out a copy of the email and drop it by a FedEx office. Goodbye P450 Dell... - osbjmg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1carapi - you are just making things up now. There are many products that have more than 30% markup. I have seen it, and there's no guideline, it's all about the market. Wal-Mart has historically low markup, that's their model, but don't say everyone follows a similar rule. I have seen markup that is multiple 100's of a percent, it just depends on what the market will support.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Elitist piece of *****. It's typical of the anti-Wal-Mart crowd to eventually get around to mocking the people that shop at Wal-Mart. Not everyone makes $100k a year and to a family on a budget Wal-Mart can be a blessing. I haven't decided yet if you're a hopeless bigot or a 12 year old playing on Daddy's computer again.
- Epsilon26, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So Wal-Mart shoppers are white trash? Personally, I hate anyone who makes less money than I do. I don't like to associate with those people. I stick to my own wealthy circles, because poor people give me allergies. I only shop at Target, because Target shoppers aren't as poor.
- macmichael01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1To Wisgary from the top "wal-mart was the best thing that ever happened to DVDs and music CDs." No! P2P was the biggest thing that happened to DVD's and CD's
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why? Isn`t Walmart Kosher ?
- modifiedbears, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.jibjab.com/jokebox/jokebox/jibjab/id/42819/jokeid/30964
- phantom_mullet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Apple is rated highly on their treatment of the environment and their changing of policies?
http://www.greenpeace.org/apple - vvaduva, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Sams Club sells all kinds of iPods and they've been doing so for about a year. Inform yourself first before making ignorant comments.
- jfair, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2What's wrong with petitioning a public figure not to do business with a company, whose practices you disagree with? You seem like an informed individual with strong beliefs in a certain ideology. Have you never contacted a public official or figure to do or not do something?
- ColtraneOfMars, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ wholewheat
I don't think you mean "bias" because that would mean that the WalMartWatch is against WalMart based on a preconceived notion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Just perusing their website, it seems like WalMartWatch has spent a lot of time and resources researching WalMart. They cite court cases, official U.S. government publications, and news articles.
Do you perhaps mean that the evidence is insufficient or their reasoning is flawed? If you really do mean bias, I don't think you have a very strong case. - ColtraneOfMars, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ Herkimer56
Your statement that working at WalMart for 20 or 30 years == employees like WalMart, while on the surface sounding reasonable, is not logical. A person could work at WalMart that long because they don't see any opportunity elsewhere. Or a person have to provide for a family and can't afford to leave his/her job.
We really can't know why people work that long at WalMart without asking them. There might be a multitude of responses that we wouldn't anticipate.
Basically, without providing evidence to support your claims, your statement is just an assumption.
I'm sorry nobody replied to you earlier. I hope this gives you something to respond to. - lordfoul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They should ***** off.
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