Walmart is CLOSING MORE STORES! Warmed my heart to hear they are having MORE problems, MORE stagnation. They are closing 10% of Sam's Clubs (63 stores) - this could open up room for some smaller businesses near the closed Sam's Clubs, and maybe a couple of cooperatives (worker-owned businesses), or perhaps it will just mean more growth for Costco and some grocery chains that treat their workers better than Walmart's disgraceful record on wages, treatment, cheating workers of overtime, keeping hours low, etc.
Just 2 years ago (January 2016) Walmart had to close 154 stores here in the US, but those were mostly their experiment with smaller 'Walmart Express' stores. They had already had some closings of super-centers, and had stopped 24-hour operations in over 60 super-centers in July 2015 (closing at midnight, reopening at 6 am); I DO love to see them reaping the rewards of the horrible, pathologically greedy, cheapskate way they have run their business for decades. I regret not being more aware much sooner, like many who were informed enough to fully understand how Walmart caused local businesses to close and took money OUT of communities through its practices and business model, and who knew how disgracefully they treated and paid the workers who helped them get rich beyond belief. I learned more about this just 5-6 years ago, and have boycotted them ever since. I watched the documentary about them: Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices (from 2005, directed by Robert Greenwald) and read the excellent 2012 article by Stacey Mitchell, Walmart: 50 Years of Gutting America's Middle Class. It was EASY and very satisfying to NOT give them one more dollar for anything after learning from just these two sources, but there are many more available.
Poor Walton family - who knew that paying workers poverty wages for decades would eventually cause your sales to decrease as you helped erase the middle class that was responsible for your rise to success?
Who knew that being abusive and scummy and cheap with your workers might cause more people to BOYCOTT your stores?
Who knew that people would find out that Costco is MUCH BETTER to their employees, and decide to spend their money at Costco, or Publix, or almost ANYWHERE except Walmart (or Amazon, the other monolith we must slay).
Yes, Costco has paid better wages for quite some time, AND they provide benefits for workers who work just 30 hours a week. Meanwhile, our establishment propaganda media was crowing about Walmart raising their minimum pay to $11 an hour; oh, whipdeedooooo. Costco was paying $11.50 back in 2013, they raised that to $13-13.50 in 2016, and I think I read that they were raising it again, but since I cannot find an article on that, perhaps the next hike will be in 2019, since I read that they review wages every 3 years. And Costco provides benefits, as I mentioned above. Of course, these wages are STILL not enough, but I commend Costco for doing more than most.
Walmart is not raising wages out of the goodness of its heart, of course. No, they are finding it hard to get and keep workers as OTHER employers have been raising wages, so Walmart is doing fake PR, saying they are raising wages 'because of the tax cut' (LMAO) while now putting thousands of workers out of a job. Lies and propaganda so they do not have to face that they are the source of their own ruin (at least, I HOPE that we will see their eventual ruin). They already knew that their sales were not doing as well - that is why their research led them to open the Neighborhood Grocery stores, which apparently get $1 out of every $4 spend on groceries in this country! Right - even the people THEY HELPED TO IMPOVERISH would need to buy food, was probably their thinking.
So let's make sure we hasten their demise. Do NOT buy from Walmart, or their Neighborhood Grocery stores, or from Jet.com (which they bought, so now I cannot buy from Jet). And let's do the same with Amazon (and Whole Foods, which Amazon bought), who Walmart blames as being responsible for their lower profits and store closings. If that is in any way true, then I enjoy that one greedy, inhumane, unethical monolith is getting pushed back by another greedy, inhumane unethical monolith - and I would like to improve our economy and our lives by shrinking or killing BOTH of them. However, I actually do not think Amazon is the only source of Walmart's decline, and this Business Insider article mentions some other aspects. I myself buy from Costco, Publix and Target, but get all produce at my local produce store, so that a small local business family and their workers can benefit from the local business that they have. Yes, the bigger stores have produce, but I want that local market to survive and thrive.
So - let's kill Walmart AND Amazon; let us increase the number of people who will NOT give these two monoliths any money. Not one dollar. These vultures, cheats and money addicts MUST be shown clearly that the American public will NOT give them money with which to continue their treachery.
It was actually easy and fun for me to bypass Amazon - I looked up 'online bookstores' for great lists of other sellers; I looked up alternative sellers right from a search and sometimes from Amazon's own site, and often the prices were BETTER. That surprised me, as I expected to pay a bit more, but often I do not. However, a few dollars more going to a smaller seller still gives me terrific satisfaction, knowing that the greedy monoliths are not getting my money. And I found Wonderbook and BetterWorldBooks and many others for books, and am thrilled to give them my business, however little that may be. Also, I found many SPECIALTY online bookstores, which would be of use to many people.
This refusal to give our money to disgusting employers is something most of us can easily do without taking much time from other activism we are doing. Let's share, spread the word, and motivate others about how easy and satisfying it is knowing our money is NOT going to these greedy sociopaths, and remind them of how much better off we are without monolithic corporate overlords.
