How do you feel about Wal-Mart?
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| Wed, 11-26-2008 - 6:23pm |
I read this op/ed (it's tied in with the automotive industry issues) http://www.indystar.com/article/20081119/OPINION12/811190304/1301/ARCHIVE the other day and it got me thinking. I've always heard about the lousy way they treat their employees but...it's their prices that keep me going back. Since I've moved to the South it's been even worse. They have Super Wal-Marts here where there is a grocery store in the Wal-Mart.
Now, there was an article the other day in my local newspaper with the mayor asking people to do their Christmas shopping downtown and buy local to support our mom & pop stores. Now, I'd love to do that but I have three kids and you know where I'm going.
Part of me really doesn't like what Wal-Mart stands for but the other part of me feels like "why should I pay more when I know I can get it cheaper there?"
Any thoughts?

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Well our country has had other occurences.
On December 28, 1991, a charity basketball game
involving rap celebrities was scheduled to occur at a college
in New York City. The basketball facility had an occupancy
rating for 2730 people. The event was widely publicized, and
approximately 5000 people came to the event. There was
limited official crowd control, with 66 police officers and 23
college security guards outside the gymnasium. At one point,
the inner admittance doors were locked, and a surge of
several hundred people tried to get down the single stairwell
that entered the gymnasium. The 4 steel doors at the bottom
of the stairs were closed, and the people in the stairwell were
trapped and compressed. Once the doors were opened, vic-
tims were carried into the gym.
A 67-page report by the Mayor’s Office of the City of
New York concluded that “almost all of the individuals
involved in the event demonstrated a lack of responsibility”
(A Failure of Responsibility, Report to the Mayor on the
Tragedy at City College, Milton Mollen, January 1992). The
report cited the lack of coordinated and adequate crowd
control, poor communication between the organizers and
security coordinators, failure of the college to follow its own
security policies, including a lack of control on ticket sales,
and the crowd’s lack of responsibility and control.
The described events indicated that people “were crushed
by the sheer pressure of bodies pressing against each other rather
then through the trampling that might have taken place in a
stampede.”
12
As one survivor related when he found there was
nowhere to turn and he was finding it hard to breathe:
“I thought to myself, ‘If I don’t hurry up and get
through the door, I am going to faint.’ My arm was pinned
against my body and I couldn’t move it, but I had one hand
free and I grabbed a hold of the door hinges and pulled myself
through. It was like you were underwater and you came
above and got air.”
I was in Manhattan that night .... I saw huge numbers of NYPD cars flying towards the college.
I don't know about Walmart around here....but certainly in a lot of stores, if there's a super great sale on they often restrict the numbers....E.G. Limit 2 items per visit....or something like that....Of course that doesn't stop people from coming with someone else....Taking the limit, and standing at separate lineups to pay (or coming back later). However, it does prevent some selfish SOB from coming in a buying up the entire stock (to do what?....Sell it on eBay or something?) Like who needs 20 T.Vs?
I think the purpose of these sales is to attract as many customers as you can to your store....Getting a great bargain is wonderful, but there's nothing wrong with expecting someone to have to go through a little effort to get it, like everything else that's worthwhile. Trampling someone else to death though, is going over the line just a tad dontcha think? Talk about going counter to the whole Christmas spirit huh?
I don't believe anyone was convicted in this one ...
The Epitome Chicago and its upstairs dance floor E2 were a popular nightclub in Chicago until on the night of Monday, February 17, 2003, a stampede occurred in which 21 people were killed and more than 50 injured.
The proximate cause of the stampede was reported to be the use of pepper spray to break up a fight. Both because of the noxious spray and also because of panic among those who were unsure what the chemical was, many patrons made a rush towards the exits. The cause of death was not fire, as in the case of many other famous nightclub disasters, but trampling and suffocation. Although at least one emergency exit was opened by a security guard, there were disputed reports of one chained shut. The only exit known to most patrons was the narrow, steep front stairwell, with narrow doors that opened inward, against fire code.
The doors at the top opened outward, and as the crowd pushed them open, people standing on the small upper landing were tossed down the stairs. The doors, normally open, were closed after security guards removed the participants in a fight. As more patrons tried to exit, they were forced on top of the bodies of those who had already fallen. Security guards attempted to remove bodies from below, but the pile of people grew faster than they could clear it.
Captured in shocking photographs and news footage, dozens of people crammed in narrow exits: they were stacked one on top of the other, unable to move and, in many cases, even breathe. More than 1,500 stampeded in an attempt to escape the spray and chaos inside. (Wilgoren: 2003a)
Blessings,
Gypsy
Dog fighting is cruelty, which is a human activity and a human illness.
It's not the dog's fault.
All dogs need to be evaluated as individuals."
--Tim Racer, one of BAD RAP's founders
http://www.badrap.org/rescue/
Mika Dog
"All things share the same breath;
the beast, the tree, the man.
The Air shares its spirit with
all the life it supports."
--Chief Seattle
"If there are no dogs in Heaven,
then when I die I want to go where they went."
~Will Rogers
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
~~Mahatma Gandhi
Blessings,
Gypsy
)O(
Mobs aren't pretty, regardless of what store they're stampeding through. Though nobody was injured, at a Dillards store on December 26 several years ago, I witnessed people nearly falling off an escalator in their rush to get to half-price Christmas merchandise.
I shop at Walmart because it's close to my house and gives me good value for money on a variety of goods--not limited to food alone. Moreover, the stores here in Albuquerque also carry a variety of local products.
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