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Originally Posted by aceventura3
Walmart did not invent the national chain store. Why didn't people hate Sears back in the days when they did the same thing Walmart is doing today? Why don't they hate McDonald's, etc?
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Because this seems to be popping up all over the place in Ace's arguments I'd like to try to take a stab at it. As dc_dux (who seems to have done his homework on Wal-Mart's past) has been pointing out time and time again, Wal-Mart is the company picked on because it is the biggest, baddest, and all around douchebag company that can never seem to stay out of trouble. People are striven to pick out Wal-Mart apart from company's like Sears or McDonald's because of the practices that Wal-Mart uses to get its way into your town and get its products into its stores, etc.
As for stamping out the Mom and Pop® business sector of towns, I'm sure its been the case that Sears stores would have probably closed down local hardware stores, maybe even a clothing store or an appliance center, but undoubtedly it did so through having an overall better business practice that Wal-Mart. If by "doing it the same way" you mean setting up store, than by similiar logic, any store opened in the area that would compete with another business should be yelled at.
Its true that I find their new drug offerings fairly pleasing to the eye, I also noted that it could be a bad thing for their suppliers, other pharmeucetical companies, but never stated anything about its negative effects on the town, I figure those statements should be left elsewhere for a general argument about Wal-Mart. The reason I made up the previous points about negative impact on suppliers, etc, is because the reason it gets yelled at for having ridiculously low prices is for its general practices on how it forms alliances with suppliers, and how those suppliers get their products. Other companies hardly have the horrible track record Wal-Mart does in this and numerous other areas. Supply chain just seemed most obvious to critise for this particular discussion.
Also, this might just be pure conjecture, but I'm fairly certain that McDonald's never gets its finger wagged at for knocking down local business because I doubt any restaurant (M&P or chain) that has had to shut its doors down because a McDonalds or seven came into town. Large chain stores that are no longer in any sense Mom & Pop endeavours are generally not derided for their actions if they're done with generally positive ethical business practices. I'm sure many others here can toss out numerous case example of Wal-Mart's less than stellar performance.
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If Walmart is a poor corporate citizen, why are communities allowing new stores to be built?
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They're not.
I'm probably sure I didn't articulate this well, but in summary, I generally feel aceventura3's arguments for his apparent pro-Wal-Mart stance are, for lack of better wording, bad.