November 26, 2006

Our Companies -WalMart

When I say Our I am thinking of US based companies. Companies that are publicly owned and can be owned by you.

Wal-Mart is up first. First off, I am biased against wal-mart. I hate the store layout, I hate the consumer experience. To me that is the most important part of my shopping experience. That is why I will not shop at Fry's (Rules to shop, no $%#ing way).

Wal-Mart Pro(s)
efficiency. Wal-Mart is credited with driving down consumer prices. According to Global Insight Wal-Mart drove down prices by 3% when compared to a world without wal-mart.

Jobs. Multiple sites state (including the above global insight) that Wal-Mart is a net gainer of jobs within an area. (Wal-Mart jobs - local jobs lost).

cons
Healthcare. Wal-mart health care, though comparable to companies like Target, isn't great. Employees wait a year for service and must undergo high deductibles. These health care costs are often passed on to local economies.

wages. Wal-Mart doesn't pay well, and drives down wages by 2% in a given area (per global insight study).

analysis

Wal-Mart's wages vs. the reduction in consumer prices balance each other out. Wal-Mart has allowed families to buy more with less. This is great for an economy and the real reason wal-mart has succeeded. The companies before it bled money and did no service to their consumers by doing so.

Healthcare. This is the biggest problem, but I feel not wal-marts fault. The US government needs to be involved (which they won't). Without changes I list below Wal-Mart can't offer healthcare and I think companies like COSTCO will have to give in and drop healthcare, due to price pressures.

The much ballyhood "destruction" of small town america doesn't look like it happened. Economic impact has been minimal and positive (mostly because of cost-cutting and wal-mart passing savings to consumer). Wal-Mart did change the name of the game - but according to NPR, the real businesses find a way to succeed.

How to fix healthcare and help all free markets


  • require all individuals to have health insurance. aka mass. law. 30% of people without healthcare do not buy it -until they need it. Therefore destroying the very nature of risk diversification and costing us all money.
  • incentive for companies to provide risk diversification based health care. i.e. all americans should have 100% free annual check ups and have a max out of pocket expense per year (such as 6% of their income).

    • Do your homework
    helpful links
    Wikipedia - WalMart
    http://www.npr.org/news/specials/walmart/


    Posted by graberc at 12:55 PM