Friday, October 31, 2008
All Hail Costco
The Motley Fool has an interesting article, All Hail CostCo that details some of the sharp differences between Wal-Mart and CostCo.
I shop at CostCo because the prices are good, the stores are well cared for, the employees are well cared for and it is a company I can feel good about supporting. How many of you shopping at Wallyworld can say the same thing?
Monday, October 06, 2008
Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Lawsuits
# CEO Jim Sinegal earns a mere $350,000 per year, with a bonus of as much as $200,000 (and possibly some stock). He aims to earn no more than three or four times what his highest-paid store managers earn. "Having an individual who is making 100 or 200 or 300 times more than the average person working on the floor is wrong," Sinegal has said.How much did the Wal-Mart CEO take home last year? How many hundreds of times was that above the floor level grunt?
# Costco pays its employees relatively lavishly. Workers reportedly start at $10 or more per hour, considerably more than elsewhere, where minimum wage is the usual starting point. According to a 2008 SmartMoney article, average pay topped $18 an hour, fully 68% more than employees earned at Wal-Mart's (NYSE: WMT) Sam's Club, and more than BJ's Wholesale (NYSE: BJ) employees earn, too. Roughly 85% of Costco's employees had health insurance last year (at fairly cheap rates), versus only about half at Wal-Mart and Target (NYSE: TGT). All this leads to low turnover, saving the company money on recruiting and training new employees, and helping Sinegal argue that it's simply a rational business practice.
I shop at CostCo because the prices are good, the stores are well cared for, the employees are well cared for and it is a company I can feel good about supporting. How many of you shopping at Wallyworld can say the same thing?
Labels: comparison, costco, wal-mart
Monday, October 06, 2008
Del.icio.us It
Digg It!Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Lawsuits
Wal-Mart Threatens Sites Over Black Friday Ad Deals before those sites have even posted any ads.
That's right, folks. Wally world is now pre-emptively lashing out with its cadre of lawyers and paralegals who gleefully send off threatening letters without a shred of legal merit to them. Why? Because they know ordinary folks, you know, ones without a billion dollars in the bank, can't afford to fight legal actions.
But nevermind the fact that Wal-Mart has been told that they can't do it, they do it anyway. Nevermind the fact that Wal-Mart doesn't own pricing data nor is it copyrightable. Wal-Mart does not care. They only care about getting their slimy hands on every last dime they can.
Don't worry, Wally, your Black Friday ad secrets are safe with me. I wouldn't look at them, let alone publish them online to help drive shoppers to your stores.
Residents battling Wal-Mart win round
That's right, folks. Wally world is now pre-emptively lashing out with its cadre of lawyers and paralegals who gleefully send off threatening letters without a shred of legal merit to them. Why? Because they know ordinary folks, you know, ones without a billion dollars in the bank, can't afford to fight legal actions.
But nevermind the fact that Wal-Mart has been told that they can't do it, they do it anyway. Nevermind the fact that Wal-Mart doesn't own pricing data nor is it copyrightable. Wal-Mart does not care. They only care about getting their slimy hands on every last dime they can.
Don't worry, Wally, your Black Friday ad secrets are safe with me. I wouldn't look at them, let alone publish them online to help drive shoppers to your stores.
Residents battling Wal-Mart win round
Residents battling Wal-Mart win round by collecting petition signatures and packing the public meetings. The citizens wanted the evaluations of the area's needs to be performed by people selected by city hall rather than the developers.
The issue isn't whether they want a Wal-Mart but whether they want any big box retailers. And they are taking the controls to decide for themselves rather than hoping Wal-Mart will be merciful when they decide to inflict themselves on the town.
Wal-Mart and the Capricious Return Policy
The issue isn't whether they want a Wal-Mart but whether they want any big box retailers. And they are taking the controls to decide for themselves rather than hoping Wal-Mart will be merciful when they decide to inflict themselves on the town.
"We got exactly what we wanted," resident Peter Meisenheimer said. "This will set a precedent on how the city will deal with (land that can be developed)."And that's just fine by me. I'm all for towns taking back control over development and just saying no to huge box stores that take money out of the local economy and send it to China forever.
Smart Centres [which builds big-box malls often anchored by Wal-Mart] says other developers won't invest in London if city hall takes over the process midstream.
"It puts many developers in a not-very-happy position," said Peter Nikolakakos of Smart Centres.
Wal-Mart and the Capricious Return Policy
Walmart: Walmart Refuses To Take Back Air Mattress, Makes Up New Return Policy On The Spot and blames the federal government for a 15 day air mattress return policy based on bed bug infestation. Which was made up on the spot.
The company doesn't care about being fair or honorable, they care about making every last red cent they can, about bleeding people dry and then they'd probably even accept post-dated checks to get your future money too.
You can learn alot about a company by how they treat their employees, how they treat returns and how they treat the localities in which they exist. Wal-Mart fails everytime because Wal-Mart doesn't give a damn about anything but themselves.
Wal-Mart Sells Knockoffs
The company doesn't care about being fair or honorable, they care about making every last red cent they can, about bleeding people dry and then they'd probably even accept post-dated checks to get your future money too.
You can learn alot about a company by how they treat their employees, how they treat returns and how they treat the localities in which they exist. Wal-Mart fails everytime because Wal-Mart doesn't give a damn about anything but themselves.
Wal-Mart Sells Knockoffs
Walmart Unwittingly Sells iPod Nano Knockoff as Actual iPod and didn't seem to give a damn when a concerned customer explained to them the differences between an Apple branded iPod Nano and the piece of shit knockoff (I can say this because I have actually tried to help a kid who had one of these things and it was utter crap, I felt bad for the kid).
Wal-Mart doesn't care what they sell just so long as they get their greedy little hands on every last dollar in your wallet or available credit on your account. They'll even sell you a fake iPod Nano and call it real (and probably charge you the full Apple price for the faker while they're at it).
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Billionaire Walton Gives Whopping $75k to Anti-Lottery Campaign
Wal-Mart doesn't care what they sell just so long as they get their greedy little hands on every last dollar in your wallet or available credit on your account. They'll even sell you a fake iPod Nano and call it real (and probably charge you the full Apple price for the faker while they're at it).
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Billionaire Walton Gives Whopping $75k to Anti-Lottery Campaign
Arkansas News Bureau - Billionaire Jim Walton gives $75,000 to anti-lottery campaign which is to say, he reached into his pocket, pulled out some change and tossed it into the bowl.
Let's be clear, to you and me $75k is alot of money. Okay, to me its a lot of money.
To a billionaire, its almost nothing. Look at it this way. If I make $50k a year and I were to donate the same percentage of my income as Jim Walton gave (for the sake of argument let's consider his fortune at an even billion dollars) then I would be donating an amazingly unimpressive $3.75.
The numbers get much worse if his true wealth is used and not just the handy (and round) 1,000,000,000 number (that's an awful lot of zeroes).
So yeah, what an open and giving guy.
Let's be clear, to you and me $75k is alot of money. Okay, to me its a lot of money.
To a billionaire, its almost nothing. Look at it this way. If I make $50k a year and I were to donate the same percentage of my income as Jim Walton gave (for the sake of argument let's consider his fortune at an even billion dollars) then I would be donating an amazingly unimpressive $3.75.
The numbers get much worse if his true wealth is used and not just the handy (and round) 1,000,000,000 number (that's an awful lot of zeroes).
So yeah, what an open and giving guy.