How big is Wal Mart?

[Sherman A1]

Interesting piece on the size of this behemoth.......


According to Fortune, Walmart sold $421,849,000,000 worth of stuff last year.

That $421.8 billion is also about $9 billion less than Taiwan's 2010 gross domestic product -- the total value of the country's goods and services in a single year -- and $7 billion more than Norway's 2010 GDP

See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/ixDxfA

[baldguy]

1. Too big.

[Mz Pip]

2. I wonder how much of that stuff

comes from China. Probably a pretty high percentage.

[FreakinDJ]

3. above 90%

excluding food - you could spend hours looking for some thing made in America

[Lucian]

4. I like how the article had to point out that the number is $421.8 billion.

And this is just not right. One corporation shouldn't be selling as much stuff as one country's GDP.

Way. Too. Big.

[RKP5637]

6. Next, they'll just buy their own country. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

11. they already have.

[RKP5637]

15. Yeah, I guess they have, haven't they. n/t

[Sherman A1]

16. I liked the comparison between that number & Medicare

spending. Yet one must consider the lack of health insurance that Wal Mart provides (or rather doesn't) for it's employees. A company that does more in sales than the the GDP of Norway and it fails to provide adequate wages or benefits for it's staff.

[demmiblue]

5. Watch the Growth of Walmart and Sam's Club (animation):

Walmart (blue) started slow in 1962 and then spread like wildfire in the southeast, starting in 1970, and then made its way towards the west coast. Sam's Club starts to sprout up in the 1980s with bursts up to present.

http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/

[baldguy]

7. Like the spread of an infectious disease.

[underpants]

21. I was going to say - like a cancer

same thing

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. It always struck me that their growth in the Southeast coincided almost exactly with ....

the crash of the farming industry back in those days. Remember "Farm Aid"? While I've never read anything to support this, I have always thought that one of the reasons Wal-Mart so easily and rapidly expanded was because they were able to buy land at depressed prices, buying from desperate farmers wanting out. They would buy 100 - 200 acres in the middle of the countryside, equidistant of 3 or 4 towns, thus killing all the downtown businesses in those towns at once. I remember hearing an owner of one of the once ubiquitous "Western Auto" stores saying he couldn't buy bicycles for what Wal-Mart was selling them for.

[Aerows]

9. That's exactly why

They make humongous stores, built on land bought dirt cheap.

[Hannah Bell]

12. interesting.

[Sherman A1]

18. Thanks for Posting

very interesting link.

[Hannah Bell]

10. kr

[ThatsMyBarack]

13. OMG Walmart turns 50 next year!

I wonder what kind of celebration(s) they have in mind....

[Sonoman]

14. Not here, no way.

There are none in either Sonoma or Marin Counties.

Mere talk of a Staples opening in Sonoma caused the biggest commotion since the Bear Flag Revolt.

Sonoman

[Webster Green]

17. They are in Sonoma County.

There are two that I know of. One in Windsor, and one in Rohnert Park. Not sure about Marin, but you may be correct. Marin is the only county I know of that has totally outlawed billboards.

[Sonoman]

20. Well, RP isn't really 'Sonoma'.

My new favorite joke...

Three guys walk into Hopmonk Tavern in Sonoma - one from Napa, one from Marin and one from Sonoma.

The guy from Napa pulls out a super-magnum of Mumm's best sparkly and loudly proclaims, "This is Napa's best and it's on me!".

The dude from Marin pulls out a quart Ziploc packed full of coke, pours it out on the bar and says, "This is the best shit in Mill Valley and I'm buying".

The Sonoman snorts the coke and downs the bubbly.

The Napan and the Marinite stand there slack-jawed and the Sonoman says, "Dudes, we're in SONOMA!".

Sonoman

[Urban Prairie]

19. I absolutely loathe and despise that company with every fiber of my being.

How long will it be before mergers and acquisitions, causes the monopolization of products and services to be narrowed down to a handful or less for obtaining any?

One pharmaceutical, one cellphone, one cable, one hospital, one satellite provider, one gasoline, one chiropractic, one grocer, one vehicle mfg, one hardware, ect...

I know that the Rethugs want to eventually become the sole or single "major" US political party, primarily through pressuring DC to eliminate "entitlements" through using tax-cuts, debt reduction, and increased military/defense spending, and by creating and passing legislation, making it difficult, if not impossible for the poor, disabled and elderly to survive, much less vote such as having to be a income taxpayer to register, own real estate: property/land, and/or have a verifiable permanent mailing address, and not just a P.O. box.

[underpants]

22. every 8 miles - that is the goal

my stepfather, who thought this was a selling point for Walmart, said that the goal of Walmart is to have a store every 8 miles. Basically they will be the one and only store for everything.