Why America's Economy Fell off The Cliff

[EpyonXero]

The economic boom of the '80s and '90s was based on the cheap, plentiful labor from those countries listed in the original post.

Also, the Wal-Mart effect is a great book that anyone interested in this subject should read. Wal-Mart definitely puts pressure on companies to move overseas but they only do it so they can give the people what they want. The lowest prices possible.

[shmike]

Originally Posted by EpyonXero

Wal-Mart definitely puts pressure on companies to move overseas but they only do it so they can give the people what they want. The lowest prices possible.

Wal-Mart always looks out for the customer.

It has nothing to do with profit margins or share prices.

[EpyonXero]

Originally Posted by shmike

Wal-Mart always looks out for the customer.

It has nothing to do with profit margins or share prices.

I used to think Wal-Mart was evil but now I think theyre like the robot in one of those sci-fi movies. Hes programmed to keep humans safe and decides the best way to do that is to never let them leave the house.

[Ducati Diva]

Now it's time for me to come clean. I did not write this post. It is a homework assignment. It was printed in a small town paper as a reply to a article about the death of small towns due to mills closing. My teacher wanted responses from a cross section of America to see how people would respond to the statements. I was afraid if I said this in the beginning the responses would not be the same. Thanks for the honest answers and I hope I didn't offend anyone to bad. Please continue the discussion, it makes for a good debate.

Pauldun thanks for calling me cupcake I about feel out of my chair laughing

[goof2]

Originally Posted by shmike

Wal-Mart always looks out for the customer.

It has nothing to do with profit margins or share prices.

Two companies I can think of off the top of my head that didn't seem to care about profit margins, share prices, or what the customers wanted are GM and Chrysler. How are they doing?

What makes you or breaks you in retail is same store sales over time. Wal-mart is able to keep those numbers increasing fairly consistently despite the fact that the ones I have been in are dirty and take about forever to get checked out of. People don't seem to care.

Target pretty much has the same crap as Wal-mart but it costs a few percent more. For that few percent more the stores seem to be cleaner and wait times are significantly reduced. Despite these improvements in shopping experience Target has around 15% of the revenues of Wal-mart.

In general people are willing to trade a good shopping experience, helpful and knowledgeable employees, and a desire to buy American products if it means keeping a bit more money in their pockets. Wal-mart has figured this out and capitalizes on it. They slavishly focus on the one thing that makes their customers happy, lower prices. That is what makes them profitable and what drives their share prices up.