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Archive 1 | ← | Archive 3 | Archive 4 | Archive 5 | Archive 6 | Archive 7 | → | Archive 10 |
Wal-Mart sells all stores in Germany to the german Metro-Group, the competition on the german market with strong local discounters was too hard, the Wal-Mart concept didnt work.
It's clear that the Wal-Mart page is starving for a little tag-nourishment. I think I should add a verifiability tag, an unencyclopedic tag, a controversial tag, an accuracy tag, and what the hell, why not throw in a stub tag at the bottom.
No sure what to do about all this so I'll point to it in discussion. The union info link was 404'd (currently labeled as reference 17). http://www.walmartfacts.com/keytopics/unions.aspx Messatsu 00:28, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
See Removed text from →Reaction to criticism section above to see what may have happened to the site. (I can't find the article on the site.) In other words, this looks like a clear-cut case of primary source removal by you-know-who. However, the Internet archive may have an archived copy of the text. -- DavidHOzAu 00:49, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
There's still a copy in Google Cache. http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.walmartfacts.com/keytopics/unions.aspx Can this be used? -- Bpage 15:16, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
Can I request some one add a section about Wal Mart Stance on Labour Unions and What happens to stores that Unionize Dr sean chronic RSX 06:27, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
I have added a "Business practices" section to this article, made of content from Wal-Mart product controversy that I believed was inappropriate for a criticism article, in an attempt to spur cleanup. This is an article about a company, there needs to be a single section outlying its "Business model". However, in its current state, all content detailing Wal-Mart's business model is scattered elsewhere here and needs to be grouped appropriately. Tuxide 00:40, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
The section Wal-Mart#Financial results is missing relevant information about its competition. For example, it says Wal-Mart does "20 percent of the retail toy business" and "It holds an 8.9 percent retail store market share" (in the United States), but it doesn't say how much market share Target Corporation or Sears Holdings Corporation has.
After going over it some more, I've realized that this section is just lazily written, using two sentence paragraphs and bullet format instead of proper, decent-sized paragraphs. I am considering just taking the contents in this section and moving it elsewhere. Portions of it would be more appropriate in "History" while others in "Business practices". Tuxide 18:24, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
I have moved part of this section and moved it towards the top of the article, above where Wal-Mart#Business used to be. This should probably be copyedited and renamed "History" too. Also, I have removed a good deal of the section because I believed it was either biased or common enough in the retailing industry that it didn't need to be mentioned. Some of this section could go into "Business practices" though. Tuxide 00:34, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Why does the above content have an entire main section in the article dedicated to it? Is it really that notable? While the part about, "130 million customers per month," and being the, "fifth largest network in the U.S.," is referenced, this info comes from the ad agency that is hired by Wal-Mart to sell ads. I would also doubt that their so-called statistics are really valid, as this seems to be something coming from the mouth of wal-mart themselves to make money (by selling more ads). Comparing their in-store tv network to the major networks (CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox) is somewhat laughable anyway. I think this whole section can be summed up into a simple sentence or two dealing with wal-mart's business and description of stores, and should not be in it's own section. Dr. Cash 17:59, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
{{unencyclopedic}}
for the reason above...although this is probably not a good template to use for a section.
Tuxide 01:38, 24 July 2006 (UTC)Except for its customers (and some of its employees), Walmart has suffered tremendous unpopularity. My guess is that any successful business that delivers goods or services at low prices and competes well in the marketplace would be a target for criticism from socialists - who oppose competition and profit as inherently evil. I've seen claims that because of Walmart (and its ilk), " the rich get richer and the poor get poorer", which is one of Marxism's three central claims. (And the most easily debunked one, as in free market democratic countries, the standard of living for "the poor" has been steadily rising since 1848, making the Marxist hypothesis the best-deproved economic theory ever.) -- Uncle Ed 19:40, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
-Maybe you should research Marxism a little better as you do not have a clear understanding of it. —Preceding
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The article says "There has been much criticism of Wal-Mart, particularly by socialists who see the corporation as a typifying the evils Capitalism [sic], such as using economies of scale to cut costs and provide consumer goods at competitive prices."
Uhh, would "using economies of scale to cut costs and provide consumer goods at competitive prices" be considered an "evil of Capitalism"? I think even the most hardened socialist would say there's nothing wrong with economies of scale and lower consumer prices; socialists would be more likely to complain about Wal-Mart's support of foreign sweatshop labor and strong anti-union tendencies, as well as the effect on local businesses unable to produce at Wal-Mart's scale (which is only a side effect of the lower consumer prices; which might in this case be called "anti-competetive" rather than "competetive").
I agree. Hillsboro 20:46, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
I've added the tag for this:
There has been much criticism of Wal-Mart, particularly by socialists who see the corporation as typifying the evils of Capitalism, such as using economies of scale to cut costs and provide consumer goods at competitive prices. Other critics include union organizers and environmentalists.
If this is the lead, I can't imagine what the rest is like. - FrancisTyers · 16:27, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
This article is by far the most biased on Wikipedia, I have ever read
The Whitedust article [1] detailed in Wal-Mart#Reaction to criticism strikes me as extremely weak. The author states: "My first reaction was to think that Wal-mart.. has lobbyists progressing the Wikipedia page into propaganda. Trying to be wary, I took some time to gather information and discuss the theory with others, and found nothing contrary to my original impression, and only evidence supporting it." Whatever you might think of Wal-Mart, a line of reasoning that assumes a conspiracy unless finding evidence to the contrary is extremely weak. I tried to edit the statements to be NPOV, but frankly I think the commentary is an embaraassing line of reasoning to have present in an encyclopedia. I suppose my only path is to find an author willing to comment on the weaknesses of this argument.. Jvandyke 20:59, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
This article shrinks by the day. I saw the Criticism and Benefits sections had been either removed or changed beyond recognition. Is this official policy by the admin's, or one cowboy's crusade? Abe Froman 23:11, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
{{content}}
template to the top of the article for the reasons mentioned on this talk page.
Tuxide 06:41, 28 July 2006 (UTC)I felt the following was too vague: "availability of prescription contraceptives at Wal-Mart pharmacy counters". I think this intends to reference Wal-Mart's decision (now reversed) to not carry emergency pharmaceuticals as detailed at Wal-Mart product controversy. But perhaps it is a reference to Wal-Mart's conscientious objection policy? I couldn't tell, so I moved the sentence fragment here. Jvandyke 23:23, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
I removed "(decried as " corporate welfare")" from the summary paragraph on criticism in the opening section of the article. It struck me as being POV - especially for a summary. Jvandyke 23:52, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
Public subsidies used for operating costs is the definition of corporate welfare. The passage should be replaced because it fits. Abe Froman 00:08, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
I moved the Benefits section text to Criticism. I did this for several reasons: 1) It was previously in an odd spot: a peer to "Employee and labor relations" and a child of "Business Model". 2) It is clearly a criticism. I can think of several alternatives, but this seemed the least objectionable. Jvandyke 02:11, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
It is listed that way in Wal-Mart's SEC filings and on http://www.samsclub.com/ under about us. Jvandyke 03:15, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
Please provide some citations that religious organization are *major* critics of Wal-Mart on par with the other groups listed. I've read a large chunk of the criticisms in this and associated articles and I've yet to see any religous organization quoted. Jvandyke 03:15, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
The criticism paragraph in the intro paragraph has been attacked reliably by two editors of this page, recently. Anchored alone by spurious claims of WP:RS, I believe there may be a PR effort underway to clean this page, again. Look at how it has shrunk in the past 2 weeks. The separate criticism articles have been decimated as well. Editors should be aware of this whitewashing threat to the page, and act accordingly. Abe Froman 19:44, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
Speaking as someone who considers the company Evil, I still think the criticism paragraph in the opening section is POV in that location as well as redundant. Ribonucleic 01:35, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
I am interested in making a list of things that need to be done in order for this article to be considered a featured article. In my opinion, this article is about Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. as a company, not neccessarily about the individual stores (although they are a major part of the company's business). My first thoughts are that this article does not include anything on the corporate governance (current or past), nor does it mention any philantropic efforts or major sports or events that Wal-Mart sponsors (see User:Tuxide/Wikiproject Retailing#Company page structure for more ideas too). There is plenty more, I just wanted to get a better opinion from those more familiar with this article.
I am adding the boilerplate to my proposed WikiProject Retailing to the top of this talk page, which includes the collapsable todo list for the entire WikiProject. This is to centralize rationale on this topic, and to encourage enough people to express interest in my WikiProject so I can launch it. Feel free to expand the todo list as this discussion progresses. Tuxide 20:06, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
{{essay-entry}}
because in its current form it has serious tone problems (for example Wal-Mart grew rapidly during the 1980s and 1990s). This section should be marking major milestones within the company, such as revenue reaches $5 billion on this day, IPO day was such and such, Wal-Mart International was founded on this day, etc. Also, the history of its business model should go in
Wal-Mart#Business model, not in
Wal-Mart#History.
Tuxide 20:49, 31 July 2006 (UTC)This aritcle now has a 'Corporate governance section. Don't know when it was typed, but thanks. Tuxide 20:23, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
Several well-documented and referenced parts of the 'business model' section keeps getting reverted and replaced with text, which is poorly referenced, largely POV, and even a wiki-link is replaced with a red wiki-link.
I also don't appreciate the accusations I seem to be getting that I appear to 'whitewashing' the article. This is just plain horsecrap, pure and simple. I don't work for wal-mart, don't own stock in them. I am trying to improve the article by cleaning it up a bit (and by this, I mean improving the language and prose, not removing the negative stuff). If I was on a PR whitewashing campaign for wal-mart, I'd probably just delete the whole Criticism of Wal-Mart article, and other sections dealing with the criticisms, but you don't see me doing that now, do you? Dr. Cash 19:52, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Cash I am a walmart assocate and I do feel there is a link between Walmart managment and servant leadership, and here is why. The managers are not in charge of the store, the hourly associates are, they take orders directly from the customers. The customers are consitered under walmarts policies to be the boss, the hourly assocates are next in that order and so on. This is a backwards model that was set fourth by Sam Walton himself and is maintained by the current board. Grassroots survays are conducted every 3mos to a year, this survey is a rating of each manager, and is then reviewed by the district and Regional VP, then changes are made. Each level of management must answer to the hourly assocates, and so it is kinda a push/pull managment system. Take my own situation for an example. heres what happend, one night I am short of assocates in the deli(which is where I work) Temp logs did not get done, of course this is a major mistake, I was "written up" for this. However I did not feel this was fair, so I wrote an email to our district manager explaining the situation, he then forwarded the matter to our regional VP. Our VP came to our store, flew in from bentonville mind you. To deal with the situation, he met with me for about an hour and also met with some other deli assocates. After a week he calls me and tells me that he can not get rid of the Written warning, however that all of the managers that had been informed that we where short, would be on probation for the next six months. I was satisfied with the outcome Because, While I was not fault free in the situation, management however was informed that I did not have enough people to help customers and deal with the food safty logs, and they failed to act accordingly and I was not happy with it, so in the end I punished them for their poor perfomance. So you can kinda see why they consiter it a servant leadership.
Also Cash I hate the way you term 'vast left-wing conspiracy' I am myself a liberal and we liberals are not part of that conspiracy ideal, that would be your union leaders and right-wing large business owners, that are anti-walmart, As much as you would like to identify us liberals with the unions we are in no way assocated with them, infact most of us liberals dislike the unions just as much if not more then you right-wingers. Because the general public tends to identify unions with the democratic party and this is because most union voters, vote on the liberal side, this does not mean that they are liberals, just that they play the politics game. True liberals hate the unions and feel that they are just as bad or worse then a currupt big business. With a currupt big business atleast you know what they are and they make no bones about it, with a union they want to be your friend and then screw you. lol.
On the part about this entry being POV it is very much so POV however I have given up tring to balance it out myself the Anti-Walmart people always revert your edit and then threaten to get you banned for the three revert rule when you attempt to make any edits, its a freaking joke the way they act. However I have just taken on the Idea that they will destroy the entry to the point where people look at it and just shake their heads and how full of BS it is. The Ace! 02:40, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
This image keeps getting added to the article, and I fail to see what is significant about it. First, it is very poor quality. Second, it does not add anything to the 'business model' section, and does not go with any of the text mentioned. Dr. Cash 22:48, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Come to think of it, The Hometown Advantage: How to Defend Your Main Street Against Chain Stores and Why It Matters states that Wal-Mart had 400 abandoned big-box stores in the United States alone back when it was written. Tuxide 07:44, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
I find this kind of hard to believe - where does it say this in the source? Ouuplas 23:19, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Wal-Mart's business model is based on selling groceries and low-end merchandise at high volume while cutting product and payroll costs to a degree unmatched by most competitors.
I reverted the above text that was recently added to the article by Eross8, as it is clearly POV. Referring to Wal-Mart's merchandise as 'low-end', is the POV of some people, and there are others (and not wal-mart propogandists) that would refer to their merchandise in other ways (still not 'high-end', but I'd probably put it as decent). The part about 'cutting product and payroll costs to a degree unmatched by most competitors' is also merely POV cruft that sounds like it was clearly written by some labor union supporter as well. I reverted, then replaced this with, "Wal-Mart's business model is based on providing a wide variety of general merchandise at low prices," which IMHO, is NPOV, which neither slams wal-mart's product quality nor promotes their products to something above reality, and doesn't bring the labor issues into play either (which is discussed elsewhere in the article and need not be mentioned here. Dr. Cash 17:08, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
Apparently no one in northwest Arkansas has a digital camera and contributes to Wikipedia. It seems funny to me that for such a well-known retailer, we don't have a photo of their headquarters. Note that we already have photos of the headquarters of the second and third largest supermarket chains, Kroger and Safeway. I took the Safeway picture. Can someone in Arkansas take a picture for WP the next time they're in Bentonville?-- Coolcaesar 02:13, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
Yes, we should.-- SeanQuixote | talk | my contribs 08:19, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
Also do not forget Wal-Mart Aviation. Located at the Rogers, AR Airport (KROG). According to a FlightSafety international article Wal-Mart Aviation flies the largest corporate fleet of Learjets in the world. They also own the local fixed-base operation. Interestingly I am told that they do not cater to their passengers with food or other luxuries. In fact, most of their airplanes are not even equipped with lavatories. They are almost all pre-owned aircraft, and are used as workhorse "buses" bringing Wal-Mart managers to stores and distribution centers worldwide. They have a recruiting video for pilots, mechanics, etc. on the Walmartstores.com website.
Moved:Polling Data reported by John Zogby suggests there is a correlation between how often consumers shop at Walmart and how conservative they are. In the 2004 US Presidential election 76% of voters who shopped at Walmart once a week voted for George W. Bush while only 23% voted for John Kerry. By contrast 80% of voters who never shopped there voted for Kerry with 18% voting for Bush. African American and Hispanic voters who shop there are described as "significantly more conservative" than their non Walmart shopping peers. When measured against other similar retailers Walmart frequent shoppers were rated the most conservative. [2] I moved the prior as I don't see how this is particularly relevant and encyclopediac. My possible suggestions 1) move this to criticisms of Wal-Mart where therer is a discussion about Wal-Mart's ideology as it relates to products and/or the contributions 2) Expand the prior by going into *much* more detail about the demographics of the Wal-Mart customer base. Jvandyke 19:32, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
The correlation likely is meaningless. Wal-Mart dominates in the South, Midwest, small towns and suburbs. It is weak in more progressive localities. Unless proven otherwise, we should assume the political slant simply follows politcal geography. Eross8 20:05, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
I may be a late comer in this discussion but, when I read this part of the article, I found it interesting but, irrevelant. The real reason why Wal-Mart holds this dominance is because most of their stores are not in urban areas, where those who lean mostly to the right live. A prime example is the city of Washington, DC (which is where I live). The city itself is one that is dominated by over 90% of it's registered voters being democrats, with it's first big box general merchandise retailer being Target, being placed in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. The closest Wal Mart as of today (10/30/06) is located in Alexandria, VA, located roughly 11 miles from the center of the city. 20:09, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone know of any other Wal-Marts that aren't big-blue boxes? And I have a roommate that's an employee 6 years with Wal-Mart: she refuses to step foot in the pink one. Cwolfsheep 13:33, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
The market share figure in the lead really needs a citation, if nobody can find one, then it should say:
If someone can find a source, then it doesn't have to be changed. I had a quick look around the Internet and could only find articles about Wal-Mart's hopes to get 30% in grocery market share. — Wackymacs 18:08, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
Can someone tell me what the revenue figure represents? over 285 trillion dollars? is it a cumulative figure? -- timdew ( Talk) 08:10, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
As someone who's not familiar with the subject of the article (Wal-Mart doesn't operate in Australia), I think the majority of it is fairly well structured, but the criticism section (and the various subpages) are pretty awful. Not only is there the main criticism of Wal-Mart page, a child of this article, but there are a host of other pages which are children of that article. Most of it seems fairly well sourced, but the organisation lets it down.
I think the various criticism pages ought to be consolidated into a handful of child articles:
The criticism section in the main article would then summarise each of these children, and perhaps deal with any miscellaneous criticisms which don't fit into one of the children articles. -- bainer ( talk) 07:02, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
According to CNN Fortune 500 year 2006, the revenue of Wal-Mart is $315.654 billion. Also listed the same amount in the article " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_world's_largest_companies." So the revenue amount in the Wal-Mart article must be changed to $315.654 Billion.
This article needs some rewording, I think. Especially in the criticism area. -- 70.149.170.166 04:38, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
Ive read Sam Walton didnt believe in charity, if so that is beyond selfish. Also can anyone show how much money the walton brand gives away each year, somthing like a pathetic 100 million when they earn about 100 times that a year.
This article doesn't mention that Wal-Mart is one of the leading supporters of the gay pride movement. 12% of the Wal-Mart employees have admitted having a homosexual nature. Wal-Mart helps by donating money to the gay pride marches. I'd like to see this incorporated into the article.
I for one do not think it's fair comparing Wal-Mart, a monstrous company of 1.3M US employees, against Brown & Cole Stores, a small grocery chain of 2K employees when it comes to employee benefits. While some may argue that since both stores are similar and it's comparing US employees, it would be better to compare Wal-Mart against a larger, similar store. Meijer serves the Midwest with 75K employees. Still not close, but probably a better scale comparison. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mazin07 ( talk • contribs)
Where would be a good spot to include inforamtion about Walmart's new low-cost prescription plan? [4]
Should there be something about layaway ending? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Natjo1986 ( talk • contribs)
Does Wikipedia support unicode article names? It shold be changed to Wal★Mart, shouldn't it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jdorwin ( talk • contribs)
Yeah, that was a pretty daffy move. Common usage VASTLY favors the dash. - A Man In Bl♟ck ( conspire | past ops) 02:11, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
Whoever deleted my information about the Wal-Mart which moved and became a Ben Franklin Crafts needs to put it back! It's notable and interesting!—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.255.60.46 ( talk • contribs)
We should put it back (dee dee dee!) because Sam Walton's retailing career began with Ben Franklin Stores, and this store, coincidentally, was a Wal-Mart before becoming a Ben Franklin.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.255.60.46 ( talk • contribs)
I think we should keep the hyphen (not dash) in the article's title, but we should include both Wal-Mart logos. The font is the same in the two, but the old logo had the hyphen while the current logo has the star.
I heard Wal-Mart replaced its "Always low prices" advertising slogan with "Save more, smile more." I thought about it, but Wal-Mart reverts its ad slogan to "Always low prices"?! To quote Darth Vader: "How is it possible?" Don-Don 00:14, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
-Well, it may be a seasonal thing. I know since I work there that right now we've got the "Save more, smile more" banners in the store, but our main slogan is always the "Always low prices". On that note, I've removed some minor vandalism under the Five and Dime store picture which seems to have gone unnoticed. It referred to Sam Walton "as Satan or the Devil in Biblical text". Yeah..pretty sure it was vandalism. Filter1987 20:21, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
An anon just removed South Korea from the list of countries. Does anyone know if this is correct or not? JoshuaZ 07:07, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
Okay I am a wal-mart employee (associate my ass) and I may work in teh garden dept. This is the area where they put alot of the seasonal stuff: Christmas, new years ( I think), Haloween, Easter, and Thanksgiving (sort of). Anyway I have yet to see a manura or any other Chanukka related item (or kuanza for that matter but who cares). Also they pay an extra dollar an hour to wage employees on Sundays (if they work that day of course), but not on Saturdays (seems a bit offensive, since more religions worship on saturday). Eno-Etile 06:33, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
I think the recent move to use the term "Christmas" over "holiday" should be referenced somewhere in the article or at least perhaps in the Criticism of Walmart article? Any comments?— OL P 1999 06:43, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
"Wal-Mart has been the subject of public sodomy. grassroots organizations, trade unions,[10] and environmental groups often complain about this public display of homosexual practice. "
Someone needs to put more detail into this phrase because it hardly makes sense without being read 5 times over.
PGT.Endurance 03:12, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 | ← | Archive 3 | Archive 4 | Archive 5 | Archive 6 | Archive 7 | → | Archive 10 |
Wal-Mart sells all stores in Germany to the german Metro-Group, the competition on the german market with strong local discounters was too hard, the Wal-Mart concept didnt work.
It's clear that the Wal-Mart page is starving for a little tag-nourishment. I think I should add a verifiability tag, an unencyclopedic tag, a controversial tag, an accuracy tag, and what the hell, why not throw in a stub tag at the bottom.
No sure what to do about all this so I'll point to it in discussion. The union info link was 404'd (currently labeled as reference 17). http://www.walmartfacts.com/keytopics/unions.aspx Messatsu 00:28, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
See Removed text from →Reaction to criticism section above to see what may have happened to the site. (I can't find the article on the site.) In other words, this looks like a clear-cut case of primary source removal by you-know-who. However, the Internet archive may have an archived copy of the text. -- DavidHOzAu 00:49, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
There's still a copy in Google Cache. http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.walmartfacts.com/keytopics/unions.aspx Can this be used? -- Bpage 15:16, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
Can I request some one add a section about Wal Mart Stance on Labour Unions and What happens to stores that Unionize Dr sean chronic RSX 06:27, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
I have added a "Business practices" section to this article, made of content from Wal-Mart product controversy that I believed was inappropriate for a criticism article, in an attempt to spur cleanup. This is an article about a company, there needs to be a single section outlying its "Business model". However, in its current state, all content detailing Wal-Mart's business model is scattered elsewhere here and needs to be grouped appropriately. Tuxide 00:40, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
The section Wal-Mart#Financial results is missing relevant information about its competition. For example, it says Wal-Mart does "20 percent of the retail toy business" and "It holds an 8.9 percent retail store market share" (in the United States), but it doesn't say how much market share Target Corporation or Sears Holdings Corporation has.
After going over it some more, I've realized that this section is just lazily written, using two sentence paragraphs and bullet format instead of proper, decent-sized paragraphs. I am considering just taking the contents in this section and moving it elsewhere. Portions of it would be more appropriate in "History" while others in "Business practices". Tuxide 18:24, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
I have moved part of this section and moved it towards the top of the article, above where Wal-Mart#Business used to be. This should probably be copyedited and renamed "History" too. Also, I have removed a good deal of the section because I believed it was either biased or common enough in the retailing industry that it didn't need to be mentioned. Some of this section could go into "Business practices" though. Tuxide 00:34, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Why does the above content have an entire main section in the article dedicated to it? Is it really that notable? While the part about, "130 million customers per month," and being the, "fifth largest network in the U.S.," is referenced, this info comes from the ad agency that is hired by Wal-Mart to sell ads. I would also doubt that their so-called statistics are really valid, as this seems to be something coming from the mouth of wal-mart themselves to make money (by selling more ads). Comparing their in-store tv network to the major networks (CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox) is somewhat laughable anyway. I think this whole section can be summed up into a simple sentence or two dealing with wal-mart's business and description of stores, and should not be in it's own section. Dr. Cash 17:59, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
{{unencyclopedic}}
for the reason above...although this is probably not a good template to use for a section.
Tuxide 01:38, 24 July 2006 (UTC)Except for its customers (and some of its employees), Walmart has suffered tremendous unpopularity. My guess is that any successful business that delivers goods or services at low prices and competes well in the marketplace would be a target for criticism from socialists - who oppose competition and profit as inherently evil. I've seen claims that because of Walmart (and its ilk), " the rich get richer and the poor get poorer", which is one of Marxism's three central claims. (And the most easily debunked one, as in free market democratic countries, the standard of living for "the poor" has been steadily rising since 1848, making the Marxist hypothesis the best-deproved economic theory ever.) -- Uncle Ed 19:40, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
-Maybe you should research Marxism a little better as you do not have a clear understanding of it. —Preceding
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134.153.96.166 (
talk •
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The article says "There has been much criticism of Wal-Mart, particularly by socialists who see the corporation as a typifying the evils Capitalism [sic], such as using economies of scale to cut costs and provide consumer goods at competitive prices."
Uhh, would "using economies of scale to cut costs and provide consumer goods at competitive prices" be considered an "evil of Capitalism"? I think even the most hardened socialist would say there's nothing wrong with economies of scale and lower consumer prices; socialists would be more likely to complain about Wal-Mart's support of foreign sweatshop labor and strong anti-union tendencies, as well as the effect on local businesses unable to produce at Wal-Mart's scale (which is only a side effect of the lower consumer prices; which might in this case be called "anti-competetive" rather than "competetive").
I agree. Hillsboro 20:46, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
I've added the tag for this:
There has been much criticism of Wal-Mart, particularly by socialists who see the corporation as typifying the evils of Capitalism, such as using economies of scale to cut costs and provide consumer goods at competitive prices. Other critics include union organizers and environmentalists.
If this is the lead, I can't imagine what the rest is like. - FrancisTyers · 16:27, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
This article is by far the most biased on Wikipedia, I have ever read
The Whitedust article [1] detailed in Wal-Mart#Reaction to criticism strikes me as extremely weak. The author states: "My first reaction was to think that Wal-mart.. has lobbyists progressing the Wikipedia page into propaganda. Trying to be wary, I took some time to gather information and discuss the theory with others, and found nothing contrary to my original impression, and only evidence supporting it." Whatever you might think of Wal-Mart, a line of reasoning that assumes a conspiracy unless finding evidence to the contrary is extremely weak. I tried to edit the statements to be NPOV, but frankly I think the commentary is an embaraassing line of reasoning to have present in an encyclopedia. I suppose my only path is to find an author willing to comment on the weaknesses of this argument.. Jvandyke 20:59, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
This article shrinks by the day. I saw the Criticism and Benefits sections had been either removed or changed beyond recognition. Is this official policy by the admin's, or one cowboy's crusade? Abe Froman 23:11, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
{{content}}
template to the top of the article for the reasons mentioned on this talk page.
Tuxide 06:41, 28 July 2006 (UTC)I felt the following was too vague: "availability of prescription contraceptives at Wal-Mart pharmacy counters". I think this intends to reference Wal-Mart's decision (now reversed) to not carry emergency pharmaceuticals as detailed at Wal-Mart product controversy. But perhaps it is a reference to Wal-Mart's conscientious objection policy? I couldn't tell, so I moved the sentence fragment here. Jvandyke 23:23, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
I removed "(decried as " corporate welfare")" from the summary paragraph on criticism in the opening section of the article. It struck me as being POV - especially for a summary. Jvandyke 23:52, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
Public subsidies used for operating costs is the definition of corporate welfare. The passage should be replaced because it fits. Abe Froman 00:08, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
I moved the Benefits section text to Criticism. I did this for several reasons: 1) It was previously in an odd spot: a peer to "Employee and labor relations" and a child of "Business Model". 2) It is clearly a criticism. I can think of several alternatives, but this seemed the least objectionable. Jvandyke 02:11, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
It is listed that way in Wal-Mart's SEC filings and on http://www.samsclub.com/ under about us. Jvandyke 03:15, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
Please provide some citations that religious organization are *major* critics of Wal-Mart on par with the other groups listed. I've read a large chunk of the criticisms in this and associated articles and I've yet to see any religous organization quoted. Jvandyke 03:15, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
The criticism paragraph in the intro paragraph has been attacked reliably by two editors of this page, recently. Anchored alone by spurious claims of WP:RS, I believe there may be a PR effort underway to clean this page, again. Look at how it has shrunk in the past 2 weeks. The separate criticism articles have been decimated as well. Editors should be aware of this whitewashing threat to the page, and act accordingly. Abe Froman 19:44, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
Speaking as someone who considers the company Evil, I still think the criticism paragraph in the opening section is POV in that location as well as redundant. Ribonucleic 01:35, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
I am interested in making a list of things that need to be done in order for this article to be considered a featured article. In my opinion, this article is about Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. as a company, not neccessarily about the individual stores (although they are a major part of the company's business). My first thoughts are that this article does not include anything on the corporate governance (current or past), nor does it mention any philantropic efforts or major sports or events that Wal-Mart sponsors (see User:Tuxide/Wikiproject Retailing#Company page structure for more ideas too). There is plenty more, I just wanted to get a better opinion from those more familiar with this article.
I am adding the boilerplate to my proposed WikiProject Retailing to the top of this talk page, which includes the collapsable todo list for the entire WikiProject. This is to centralize rationale on this topic, and to encourage enough people to express interest in my WikiProject so I can launch it. Feel free to expand the todo list as this discussion progresses. Tuxide 20:06, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
{{essay-entry}}
because in its current form it has serious tone problems (for example Wal-Mart grew rapidly during the 1980s and 1990s). This section should be marking major milestones within the company, such as revenue reaches $5 billion on this day, IPO day was such and such, Wal-Mart International was founded on this day, etc. Also, the history of its business model should go in
Wal-Mart#Business model, not in
Wal-Mart#History.
Tuxide 20:49, 31 July 2006 (UTC)This aritcle now has a 'Corporate governance section. Don't know when it was typed, but thanks. Tuxide 20:23, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
Several well-documented and referenced parts of the 'business model' section keeps getting reverted and replaced with text, which is poorly referenced, largely POV, and even a wiki-link is replaced with a red wiki-link.
I also don't appreciate the accusations I seem to be getting that I appear to 'whitewashing' the article. This is just plain horsecrap, pure and simple. I don't work for wal-mart, don't own stock in them. I am trying to improve the article by cleaning it up a bit (and by this, I mean improving the language and prose, not removing the negative stuff). If I was on a PR whitewashing campaign for wal-mart, I'd probably just delete the whole Criticism of Wal-Mart article, and other sections dealing with the criticisms, but you don't see me doing that now, do you? Dr. Cash 19:52, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Cash I am a walmart assocate and I do feel there is a link between Walmart managment and servant leadership, and here is why. The managers are not in charge of the store, the hourly associates are, they take orders directly from the customers. The customers are consitered under walmarts policies to be the boss, the hourly assocates are next in that order and so on. This is a backwards model that was set fourth by Sam Walton himself and is maintained by the current board. Grassroots survays are conducted every 3mos to a year, this survey is a rating of each manager, and is then reviewed by the district and Regional VP, then changes are made. Each level of management must answer to the hourly assocates, and so it is kinda a push/pull managment system. Take my own situation for an example. heres what happend, one night I am short of assocates in the deli(which is where I work) Temp logs did not get done, of course this is a major mistake, I was "written up" for this. However I did not feel this was fair, so I wrote an email to our district manager explaining the situation, he then forwarded the matter to our regional VP. Our VP came to our store, flew in from bentonville mind you. To deal with the situation, he met with me for about an hour and also met with some other deli assocates. After a week he calls me and tells me that he can not get rid of the Written warning, however that all of the managers that had been informed that we where short, would be on probation for the next six months. I was satisfied with the outcome Because, While I was not fault free in the situation, management however was informed that I did not have enough people to help customers and deal with the food safty logs, and they failed to act accordingly and I was not happy with it, so in the end I punished them for their poor perfomance. So you can kinda see why they consiter it a servant leadership.
Also Cash I hate the way you term 'vast left-wing conspiracy' I am myself a liberal and we liberals are not part of that conspiracy ideal, that would be your union leaders and right-wing large business owners, that are anti-walmart, As much as you would like to identify us liberals with the unions we are in no way assocated with them, infact most of us liberals dislike the unions just as much if not more then you right-wingers. Because the general public tends to identify unions with the democratic party and this is because most union voters, vote on the liberal side, this does not mean that they are liberals, just that they play the politics game. True liberals hate the unions and feel that they are just as bad or worse then a currupt big business. With a currupt big business atleast you know what they are and they make no bones about it, with a union they want to be your friend and then screw you. lol.
On the part about this entry being POV it is very much so POV however I have given up tring to balance it out myself the Anti-Walmart people always revert your edit and then threaten to get you banned for the three revert rule when you attempt to make any edits, its a freaking joke the way they act. However I have just taken on the Idea that they will destroy the entry to the point where people look at it and just shake their heads and how full of BS it is. The Ace! 02:40, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
This image keeps getting added to the article, and I fail to see what is significant about it. First, it is very poor quality. Second, it does not add anything to the 'business model' section, and does not go with any of the text mentioned. Dr. Cash 22:48, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Come to think of it, The Hometown Advantage: How to Defend Your Main Street Against Chain Stores and Why It Matters states that Wal-Mart had 400 abandoned big-box stores in the United States alone back when it was written. Tuxide 07:44, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
I find this kind of hard to believe - where does it say this in the source? Ouuplas 23:19, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Wal-Mart's business model is based on selling groceries and low-end merchandise at high volume while cutting product and payroll costs to a degree unmatched by most competitors.
I reverted the above text that was recently added to the article by Eross8, as it is clearly POV. Referring to Wal-Mart's merchandise as 'low-end', is the POV of some people, and there are others (and not wal-mart propogandists) that would refer to their merchandise in other ways (still not 'high-end', but I'd probably put it as decent). The part about 'cutting product and payroll costs to a degree unmatched by most competitors' is also merely POV cruft that sounds like it was clearly written by some labor union supporter as well. I reverted, then replaced this with, "Wal-Mart's business model is based on providing a wide variety of general merchandise at low prices," which IMHO, is NPOV, which neither slams wal-mart's product quality nor promotes their products to something above reality, and doesn't bring the labor issues into play either (which is discussed elsewhere in the article and need not be mentioned here. Dr. Cash 17:08, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
Apparently no one in northwest Arkansas has a digital camera and contributes to Wikipedia. It seems funny to me that for such a well-known retailer, we don't have a photo of their headquarters. Note that we already have photos of the headquarters of the second and third largest supermarket chains, Kroger and Safeway. I took the Safeway picture. Can someone in Arkansas take a picture for WP the next time they're in Bentonville?-- Coolcaesar 02:13, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
Yes, we should.-- SeanQuixote | talk | my contribs 08:19, 17 September 2006 (UTC)
Also do not forget Wal-Mart Aviation. Located at the Rogers, AR Airport (KROG). According to a FlightSafety international article Wal-Mart Aviation flies the largest corporate fleet of Learjets in the world. They also own the local fixed-base operation. Interestingly I am told that they do not cater to their passengers with food or other luxuries. In fact, most of their airplanes are not even equipped with lavatories. They are almost all pre-owned aircraft, and are used as workhorse "buses" bringing Wal-Mart managers to stores and distribution centers worldwide. They have a recruiting video for pilots, mechanics, etc. on the Walmartstores.com website.
Moved:Polling Data reported by John Zogby suggests there is a correlation between how often consumers shop at Walmart and how conservative they are. In the 2004 US Presidential election 76% of voters who shopped at Walmart once a week voted for George W. Bush while only 23% voted for John Kerry. By contrast 80% of voters who never shopped there voted for Kerry with 18% voting for Bush. African American and Hispanic voters who shop there are described as "significantly more conservative" than their non Walmart shopping peers. When measured against other similar retailers Walmart frequent shoppers were rated the most conservative. [2] I moved the prior as I don't see how this is particularly relevant and encyclopediac. My possible suggestions 1) move this to criticisms of Wal-Mart where therer is a discussion about Wal-Mart's ideology as it relates to products and/or the contributions 2) Expand the prior by going into *much* more detail about the demographics of the Wal-Mart customer base. Jvandyke 19:32, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
The correlation likely is meaningless. Wal-Mart dominates in the South, Midwest, small towns and suburbs. It is weak in more progressive localities. Unless proven otherwise, we should assume the political slant simply follows politcal geography. Eross8 20:05, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
I may be a late comer in this discussion but, when I read this part of the article, I found it interesting but, irrevelant. The real reason why Wal-Mart holds this dominance is because most of their stores are not in urban areas, where those who lean mostly to the right live. A prime example is the city of Washington, DC (which is where I live). The city itself is one that is dominated by over 90% of it's registered voters being democrats, with it's first big box general merchandise retailer being Target, being placed in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. The closest Wal Mart as of today (10/30/06) is located in Alexandria, VA, located roughly 11 miles from the center of the city. 20:09, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone know of any other Wal-Marts that aren't big-blue boxes? And I have a roommate that's an employee 6 years with Wal-Mart: she refuses to step foot in the pink one. Cwolfsheep 13:33, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
The market share figure in the lead really needs a citation, if nobody can find one, then it should say:
If someone can find a source, then it doesn't have to be changed. I had a quick look around the Internet and could only find articles about Wal-Mart's hopes to get 30% in grocery market share. — Wackymacs 18:08, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
Can someone tell me what the revenue figure represents? over 285 trillion dollars? is it a cumulative figure? -- timdew ( Talk) 08:10, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
As someone who's not familiar with the subject of the article (Wal-Mart doesn't operate in Australia), I think the majority of it is fairly well structured, but the criticism section (and the various subpages) are pretty awful. Not only is there the main criticism of Wal-Mart page, a child of this article, but there are a host of other pages which are children of that article. Most of it seems fairly well sourced, but the organisation lets it down.
I think the various criticism pages ought to be consolidated into a handful of child articles:
The criticism section in the main article would then summarise each of these children, and perhaps deal with any miscellaneous criticisms which don't fit into one of the children articles. -- bainer ( talk) 07:02, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
According to CNN Fortune 500 year 2006, the revenue of Wal-Mart is $315.654 billion. Also listed the same amount in the article " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_world's_largest_companies." So the revenue amount in the Wal-Mart article must be changed to $315.654 Billion.
This article needs some rewording, I think. Especially in the criticism area. -- 70.149.170.166 04:38, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
Ive read Sam Walton didnt believe in charity, if so that is beyond selfish. Also can anyone show how much money the walton brand gives away each year, somthing like a pathetic 100 million when they earn about 100 times that a year.
This article doesn't mention that Wal-Mart is one of the leading supporters of the gay pride movement. 12% of the Wal-Mart employees have admitted having a homosexual nature. Wal-Mart helps by donating money to the gay pride marches. I'd like to see this incorporated into the article.
I for one do not think it's fair comparing Wal-Mart, a monstrous company of 1.3M US employees, against Brown & Cole Stores, a small grocery chain of 2K employees when it comes to employee benefits. While some may argue that since both stores are similar and it's comparing US employees, it would be better to compare Wal-Mart against a larger, similar store. Meijer serves the Midwest with 75K employees. Still not close, but probably a better scale comparison. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mazin07 ( talk • contribs)
Where would be a good spot to include inforamtion about Walmart's new low-cost prescription plan? [4]
Should there be something about layaway ending? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Natjo1986 ( talk • contribs)
Does Wikipedia support unicode article names? It shold be changed to Wal★Mart, shouldn't it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jdorwin ( talk • contribs)
Yeah, that was a pretty daffy move. Common usage VASTLY favors the dash. - A Man In Bl♟ck ( conspire | past ops) 02:11, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
Whoever deleted my information about the Wal-Mart which moved and became a Ben Franklin Crafts needs to put it back! It's notable and interesting!—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.255.60.46 ( talk • contribs)
We should put it back (dee dee dee!) because Sam Walton's retailing career began with Ben Franklin Stores, and this store, coincidentally, was a Wal-Mart before becoming a Ben Franklin.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.255.60.46 ( talk • contribs)
I think we should keep the hyphen (not dash) in the article's title, but we should include both Wal-Mart logos. The font is the same in the two, but the old logo had the hyphen while the current logo has the star.
I heard Wal-Mart replaced its "Always low prices" advertising slogan with "Save more, smile more." I thought about it, but Wal-Mart reverts its ad slogan to "Always low prices"?! To quote Darth Vader: "How is it possible?" Don-Don 00:14, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
-Well, it may be a seasonal thing. I know since I work there that right now we've got the "Save more, smile more" banners in the store, but our main slogan is always the "Always low prices". On that note, I've removed some minor vandalism under the Five and Dime store picture which seems to have gone unnoticed. It referred to Sam Walton "as Satan or the Devil in Biblical text". Yeah..pretty sure it was vandalism. Filter1987 20:21, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
An anon just removed South Korea from the list of countries. Does anyone know if this is correct or not? JoshuaZ 07:07, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
Okay I am a wal-mart employee (associate my ass) and I may work in teh garden dept. This is the area where they put alot of the seasonal stuff: Christmas, new years ( I think), Haloween, Easter, and Thanksgiving (sort of). Anyway I have yet to see a manura or any other Chanukka related item (or kuanza for that matter but who cares). Also they pay an extra dollar an hour to wage employees on Sundays (if they work that day of course), but not on Saturdays (seems a bit offensive, since more religions worship on saturday). Eno-Etile 06:33, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
I think the recent move to use the term "Christmas" over "holiday" should be referenced somewhere in the article or at least perhaps in the Criticism of Walmart article? Any comments?— OL P 1999 06:43, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
"Wal-Mart has been the subject of public sodomy. grassroots organizations, trade unions,[10] and environmental groups often complain about this public display of homosexual practice. "
Someone needs to put more detail into this phrase because it hardly makes sense without being read 5 times over.
PGT.Endurance 03:12, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
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