Wal-Mart's Totalitarian Ambitions

[marmar]

Wal-Mart Asks Suppliers to Cede Control of Deliveries (Update2)
By Chris Burritt, Carol Wolf and Matthew Boyle


May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, is seeking to take over U.S. transportation services from suppliers in an effort to reduce the cost of hauling goods.

The company is contacting all manufacturers that provide products to its more than 4,000 U.S. stores and Sam’s Club membership warehouse clubs, said Kelly Abney, Wal-Mart’s vice president of corporate transportation in charge of the project. The goal is to take over deliveries in instances where Wal-Mart can do the same job for less and use those savings to reduce prices in stores, he said.

“It has allowed our suppliers to focus on what they do best, manufacturing products for us,” Abney said in a telephone interview yesterday from Bentonville, Arkansas, where Wal-Mart is based. “With lower costs usually comes increased sales.”

Under the program, Wal-Mart is increasing the use of contractors, as well as its own private fleet of trucks, to pick up products directly from manufacturers and transport the goods to its distribution centers and stores. The retailer currently moves most goods only from its distribution centers to stores.

The plan allows Wal-Mart’s fleet of 6,500 trucks and 55,000 trailers to carry more per truck and improve on-time delivery rates, said Leon Nicholas, a director at consulting firm Kantar Retail. Wal-Mart would also have more sway in negotiating fuel prices, he said. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aiL3Mymd_y_g&pos=12

[glowing]

1. Which probably boils down to Union jobs being thrown under the bus.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. +1000

You can be damn sure that is what it is about. There is nothing Wally World does that is not designed to lower wages for working men and women. They are a cancer on the American middle class and they are a major reason that many, many millions of jobs have left our shores.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. WalMart vs the Teamsters

Should be interesting.

[rurallib]

4. Bet Walmart owns more politicians or at least they can purchase them

just like another supplier for Walmart - purchasing congresscritters.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Definitely

[DBoon]

5. probably?? Is there any doubt? (nt)

[glowing]

10. Actually, no. There is no doubt. Its to slash the cost of the pay for the drivers.

When you hear cut costs on fuel, its exactly what that means. Also, they have major shipping routes that port in Mexico from China. They will hire cheaper, less regulated Mexican truck drivers to drive the products from store to store. Many of these companies they purchase from produce their items in China (or Asian countries)and/or Central/ South America. They can literally make these companies ship to a Port in Mexico and "ware" their products for a nominal fee in the Walmart storage compound, and then directly ship to the stores from the compound. Then, its really cheap and more Americans are out of a job.

[glinda]

11. Sears has done that and when something breaks they send you to deal with the Hispanic delivery

service so that you get no where on fixing your item. They also threaten their delivery people by saying that "if the item does not work when delivered or shortly thereafter", the trucking company does not get paid at all. Nice, huh?
The goal here is also not just to break up Unions but I believe to take over eventually all the delivery companies.
Walfart stops at nothing.
They want total domination. Just like the bad text-books that will come out.
They work hand in hand with loyal Republican Mayors also in keeping out their competiton in any sector while throwing the small local businesses under the bus.
Their goal is Religious in the end as well as having total profits from the so-called free enterprise they tout. They are F&%^$%#$ assholes and should be broken up. No amount of fines are going to bring them down. They need to be halted.

[Vexatious Ape]

18. You're right

I'm a freight Teamster, and we ship a lot of Walmart. Maybe not for long.

[jmowreader]

20. What union jobs?

Most trucking companies are non-union. I've seen Walmart trailers being pulled by US Express tractors; US Express is a non-union company.

You can pretty much bet they partnered with companies that pay 34 cents per mile rather than ones paying 49 cents, though.

[DAMANgoldberg]

23. What's worse...

That is true that most people who haul product to W-M are Non-union network carriers (US Express, Covenant {I drove for, horrible trucking company}, Schneider National, JB Hunt, Swift, Western Express, Interstate Distribution {I drove for}, et cetera). I can see Wal-Mart sending most of their business to J B Hunt or USA Truck (both NW Arkansas based)or ultimately buying them. About the only time they use union companies is to deliver to Long Island and Westchester Counties, they have no NYC stores out of NE Penna. The loads for those stores are delivered to Jersey City and them repowered with day cabs and 48' trucks because, after all, it's NYC and the infrastructure is not built for 53' w/sleepers.

[Brickbat]

7. "Using those savings to reduce prices in stores" -- LMAO.

No, it's all about the profit. Just fucking say it.

[blondeatlast]

8. Tell me again why Target and K-Mart are just as bad? I know neither one

passes the progressive company purity test, but I don't think either one plans to take over the entire commerce of the country, either.

So I think I'll buy my toilet paper and shampoo at CostCo, and check out Target for a new bathing suit.

[glinda]

12. I will shop Target and Cosco but NOT Walfart. It is obvious that Walfart is far more

dangerous.

[Hannah Bell]

14. whether or not they're 'just as bad,' walmart = magnitudes bigger than either of those =

magnitudes more clout.

reason enough not to give wm money.

[AnArmyVeteran]

9. WE NEED A WAR ON CORPORATE CORRUPTION & GREED!

The 9/11 terrorists, at the orders from Osama Bin Laden, killed less than 3,000 people. They also caused great amounts of damage to the Pentagon and destroyed the Twin Towers. BP, Halliburton and the corporate made up drilling company caused the worst oil spill in the history of the world. Their irresponsible and premeditated acts to allow the oil rig to blow up led to the loss of billions of dollars worth of property damage, a massive environmental catastrophe and the lives of 11 people working on their rig of death. With no end in sight to the massive amounts of oil being spewed into the Gulf of Mexico it could kill every organism in those waters, triggering further catastrophes never before imagined. And BP and its cohorts did it all for money, greed, selfishness.

Osama Bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attacks. British Petroleum's CEO Tony Hayward was behind the Gulf of Mexico 'attack'. Both are sociopaths. But there is a difference. Osama Bin Laden acted out of an evil, perverted sense of conviction, while the BP CEO acted purely out of evil greed. Ironically, that makes Osama Bin Laden a better person than Tony Hayward, but both are evil.

I know if I was president I would send the military after them. I would have them all arrested and thrown in prison, especially after their disgraceful spectacle testifying before congress. I would have had them arrested as they left following their dishonest testimony. It's obvious they are all sociopaths. You have to be a sociopath to advance that high in an oil company. Look at Halliburton. They had Cheney as their leader for five years. It's obvious Cheney is a sociopath.

We need to declare war on corrupt corporations. And we need to seize all of their assets and the assets of all their leaders, stripping them and their families of every dime they own. Make them complete paupers and never allow them to amass more than $10,000 a year for the rest of their lives. Any ANY foreign corporation that wants to do business in the US must first agree to have all of his personal assets seized if his corporation kills people or destroys the environment.

But of course, I could never be president and such actions mentioned above would probably prove to be illegal. But the previous president started a war based entirely on lies and spent hundreds of billions to kill, maim and destroy. Bush was allowed to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings. So I guess my plan isn't too far fetched after all.

If we keep allowing corporations to buy our government, own our politicians, write laws that harm us and do untold damage to human beings and the environment then we have no future. We are doomed. And greed will be our destroyer.

You can insert Walmart in all the appropriate places above because their corporate leaders are as soulless as those at BP.

Oh yeah, lastly, all of the heirs to Sam Walton's estate are worth about 20 billion apiece. That's a lot of money just for squirming out of their mommas womb. But they think they deserve that and they even have a lust to get more and more. Greed is a disease. When someone has 20 billion and wants more that should be a crime. It is a crime if you use the Seven Deadly Sins as 'law'.

[Swamp Rat]

13. There is a war already, but we are losing

All of us, including the ignorant teabaggers who have no idea what is really going on.

[AnArmyVeteran]

15. Beautiful artwork Swamp Rat, as usual!

Tea baggers are completely clueless. They don't even realize they are being used as weapons against themselves. They believe the nonsense they hear on right wing radio and actually think corporations should control everything. What they don't realize is corporations have no boundaries, making them even more powerful than government. But I know I'm preaching to the choir.

Keep the masterpieces coming! It's amazing how much more effective a picture or a cartoon is than a thousand pages of words.

BTW: What programs do you use? (if you care to share)

[Swamp Rat]

16. Thanks

I use a very old pared-down version of Photoshop 3.0 (Elements) on an old iMac. Since I do not have many filters, I actually have to airbrush many layers to get the same effects that some plug-ins achieve. This limitation forces me to think more like a painter than simply, like a graphics user, employing the plug-and-play capabilities of advanced programs.

Nevertheless, I suggest using GIMP because it is free (I have it on my LINUX Ubuntu PC). I have never used it for my work (maybe I will someday soon when I build my hackintosh computer), but it can do most of what Photoshop can do.... for FREE! :)

Here's a new one from last night:

[AnArmyVeteran]

17. Wow, thanks for the tips! And the Harpocrite drawing.

I love your work and you come up with some of the most ingenious things. Hat's off to you!

I designed my own video production facility for an aerospace company and produced hundreds of programs. I was a one man show so I performed all the functions in the video production process. I had some rudimentary graphics programs but I also had photoshop and some other programs. I liked to create title pages with still frames with text on them. I've also made films and tons of photography of all kinds. I always appreciate the talents of people like you who are true artists.

Have a great weekend and thanks again for the great tips.

BTW, I like your tagline, but we could substitute 'corporations' where government is in that quote and would still be true, since corporations and the rich virtually own every member of congress. "Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry." – Thomas Jefferson

I wrote a post a week ago about how I would be persecuted if I dumped my used oil after an oil change in the city sewer, but BP can destroy the entire Gulf of Mexico and its leaders will face zero personal liability, and they probably will still get their million dollar yearly bonuses. As Jim Trafficant (ex D-Ohio) used to say, "Beam me up Scottie!". (BTW, I liked Jim and met him at the Reform Party inaugural convention in Kansas City. He gave a speech that had everyone on their feet. He was a democrat, but he spoke at our convention. He also regularly called other members of congress whores and prostitutes, Jim was quickly disposed of by congress, probably because of his attacks on the criminals in congress.

[AnArmyVeteran]

24. We're not just losing, we can't even compete...

[musette_sf]

19. "use those savings to reduce prices in stores"

Translation:

"There's one for you, nineteen for me"

[Omaha Steve]

21. The US Government broke up Ma Bell

When will they go after Wal-Mart?

[Odin2005]

22. WalMart needs to be broken up.