Are Walmarts Good Or Bad For Canadian Economy?
- Thread starter Wagner
- Start date
Good point! I'm guessing that our labour costs not being able to compete might have something to do with it. Every they kick up the minimum wage it just gets a little worse! As Mr. Mulehair will quickly find out if elected!
I live in Saskatchewan and our minimum wage went up to $10.50/hour today. I don't know what would happen if Mulcair got in, we would out price all of our manufacturing exports.
I don't know if Walmart if good for the economy overall in Canada but there are places where they are a benefit. Small towns with little in the way of shopping benefitted by having more selection and some new jobs.
Other places suffered as their downtowns turned to crap. Various long time domestic businesses died as a result of Walmart moving in.
It's incredibly hard to compete with a company the size of Walmart that can purchase its goods in the volume it's capable of. When Walmart can sell widgets for less than it costs small business to stock them, small business can't possibly win. Even something as large as HBC has reason to worry.
At capitalism's most brutal form though, Walmart's business model differs very little from the old West Virginia mining towns owned by the coal companies. You pay people the barest minimum you can get away with, and then make sure they're basically giving you back a major portion of their paycheque by having to buy their products and services from your company.
Once Walmart comes out with its own brand of mortgages it'll be game over.
Other places suffered as their downtowns turned to crap. Various long time domestic businesses died as a result of Walmart moving in.
It's incredibly hard to compete with a company the size of Walmart that can purchase its goods in the volume it's capable of. When Walmart can sell widgets for less than it costs small business to stock them, small business can't possibly win. Even something as large as HBC has reason to worry.
At capitalism's most brutal form though, Walmart's business model differs very little from the old West Virginia mining towns owned by the coal companies. You pay people the barest minimum you can get away with, and then make sure they're basically giving you back a major portion of their paycheque by having to buy their products and services from your company.
Once Walmart comes out with its own brand of mortgages it'll be game over.
How is Walmart worse than Eatons or Woolworths or Kresges?
I would say what with all the criminal bank profits we hear about that could soon happen! Ooops hold on a minute, I'm on the receiving end of some of those profits, I have a couple of mutual funds invested in money.
I would say what with all the criminal bank profits we hear about that could soon happen! Ooops hold on a minute, I'm on the receiving end of some of those profits, I have a couple of mutual funds invested in money.
It's probably globalization that's made them worse, I don't know. And places like Woolworths and Kresges started out as five and dime stores more or less. That's were you went for cheap crap and maybe some pie and coffee. Eatons doesn't really compare because of the sheer size difference between it and Walmart.
There is another difference and it is because of globalization, quality. If you wanted cheap crap, you went to K-Mart or Zellers. If you wanted better quality merchandise or just liked spending more for the same things, you could go to The Bay or Eatons. Today it's all cheap crap made in Asia (Japan not included) so smaller businesses find it even harder to compete using quality over price.
Quick personal question. Do you currently hold a mortgage?
'Fraid so, about $98 grand more than I'd like & it could be bigger next year. At 2.49% a guy is crazy not to. There was a time in the near past when I used to shop a lot at Zellers. I'm still wearing a pair of "cheap crappy" shoes I bought there 6 years ago and they could out last me. They were about $45.
Do yourself a favour. If it's an open ended mortgage dump the mutual funds and put the money on your mortgage. Your home is likely going to be your single largest investment so your best bet is to pay it off asap. Not only that but it's pointless having other investments if you're carrying a $100K debt, especially when it's on something that's also essentially an investment.
Just something to think about.
Last pair of shoes I bought at Zellers cost $40 and lasted me 6 months. The only pair of shoes I ever had that lasted me any length of time was a pair of leather Converse high tops I paid $85 for. I had them for about 6-7 years.
When the interest goes up to 4 or 5% I'll probably pay down half of it. My RRIFs alone are pretty well equal to my mortgage payments.
P.S. anything I do in a hurry is in very small amounts.
you must be a man with such a conservative shoe budget.
i am becoming more and more attractive to the mom and pop stores.I only see this practice increasing as time goes by,i am also attractive to small grocery stores,as i am attracted to small venues .
i am not anti walmart,i have shopped there,but as time passes it is less and less.they have veggies,etc i can not purchase anywhere within 60 miles.this where you can get classic jeans like lee.
keep it simple and small for me,and oh yes made in china is turning me off,as plastics.
walmart has many made in china products,actually they should try to switch up a little bit,they seem behind in this area of marketing.
i guess they would not need a marketing plan for their target clientale,but......................
this is a good thing,as this allows your partner more spending money for their clothing wish list.
this is how it works in my household.
One reason people shop at wal-mart...you can't beat the price.
Second reason is they will refund your money on anything, even if it's open, with a receipt.
Third reason is that they are a one stop shop for everything, if your looking for good prices (and don't care about the quality).
Now that's it Christmas time... try and not shop at a Walmart.. :lol:
Second reason is they will refund your money on anything, even if it's open, with a receipt.
Third reason is that they are a one stop shop for everything, if your looking for good prices (and don't care about the quality).
Now that's it Christmas time... try and not shop at a Walmart.. :lol:
I would say that the superstore puts many small businesses under. That's good and bad though because small business prices cannot compete with Walmart because of Walmarts buying power. That's good for the buyer, but bad for small business. After Walmart dominates the market in a place, rest assured the prices will go up. That's just the way it is.
Okay, why not join a co-opertive with other small businesses, as they do in some Texas communities, to buy in bulk and keep their prices competitive..