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| Wednesday, December 01, 2004 |
| Wal-Mart: I'd short the stock if I could |
As recently as two weeks ago, I was in a business school class that studied Wal-Mart's business model, lauding it as revolutionary (with their just-in-time inventory, resistance of unions, etc.). Lately, it seems, if you dig deeper, the wheels are starting to come off.
First, after fiercely fighting unionization for years, the company has now agreed to allow employees in China to unionize. Think Americans won't be pissed off at that (in a communist country) and want to follow? Low prices might not be so low once they have to pay workers a decent living wage, and stop using illegal alien janitors.
Second, the company is now receiving scrutiny over its trading policies. Benjamin Edwards randomly surveyed 8 stores to see if they were sticking to their "We Buy American Whenever We Can" motto. Turns out 46% of their products are made in China, with only 19% in the U.S. If Wal-Mart were a country, it would be China's 8th largest trading partner!
One woman at Wharton, after about 30 minutes of listening to colleagues discuss what brilliant decisions Wal-Mart made that led to its overwhelming success, stuck up her hand and made a great point: "Would we be talking so highly of Wal-Mart if they had fair labor practices?". A very good point.
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posted by CB @ 9:20 AM   |
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| 2 Comments: |
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Once it was written in a school publication that the author would short a stock on my career if he could. And look at me now: an anonymous blog comment writer. How short-sighted was that guy?
I can't remember if it was the NYT or someone at my Thanksgiving table that brought up Wal-Mart's relatively recent domination of budget retail. And that's interesting and everything, but how about a little back and forth on the recent domination of fast food by Subway.
They've got to be doing something messed up. All this success just because a Jared dropped some weight, give me a break. I mean, maybe Henry Clay Henry, a fire man and a subway fan. But Jared, the guy doesn't even look skinny. It can't just be marketing. There's got to be some ridiculousness behind this. Maybe it's because they only put one piece of turkey on each sub. I don't know.
So set the bloodhounds on the sandwich makers, Ralph Nader, and let me know.
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At my local Subway, it's clearly an efficiency/productivity issue. They operate like a machine. Maybe they ARE machines...!
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Once it was written in a school publication that the author would short a stock on my career if he could. And look at me now: an anonymous blog comment writer. How short-sighted was that guy?
I can't remember if it was the NYT or someone at my Thanksgiving table that brought up Wal-Mart's relatively recent domination of budget retail. And that's interesting and everything, but how about a little back and forth on the recent domination of fast food by Subway.
They've got to be doing something messed up. All this success just because a Jared dropped some weight, give me a break. I mean, maybe Henry Clay Henry, a fire man and a subway fan. But Jared, the guy doesn't even look skinny. It can't just be marketing. There's got to be some ridiculousness behind this. Maybe it's because they only put one piece of turkey on each sub. I don't know.
So set the bloodhounds on the sandwich makers, Ralph Nader, and let me know.