Tuesday, March 11, 2008

I'm Changing My Ways

One day my neighborhood bank was bought out by a larger bank. The paintings that hung behind the tellers and in the little offices were replaced with advertising posters, and the little common touches that I so enjoyed disappeared. Since then, the bank that bought my bank was bought by another bank which was then bought by another bank, and so the story goes.

You can look at the insurance industry, your local pharmacy, the flower shops, the Mom and Pop variety store--and see that small and independent is being replaced by big and corporate. More and more I don't think this is good. Perhaps because I'm an entrepreneur myself, I believe in small town principles and locally grown businesses. So much of what I purchase--no matter what it may be--is made and imported from China. I don't think this is good either.

Wal-Mart has been at the epicenter of large versus small. While it's true their prices can't be beat, the displacement of independent businesses, American made products, and down town Main Streets is a fact. I don't think this is good either.

I'm not pointing this out to point fingers. In fact, to quote an economist,"Wal-Mart probably doesn't set out with the purpose of destroying lives and wrecking the American economy. The company is trying, in a bigger way than has ever been tried before, to achieve three contradictory goals: pay its workers enough, make its merchandise affordable to almost everyone, and increase value for stockholders. In doing so, it has been both a wild success and an utter failure. In its ultimate inability to satisfy all three goals simultaneously, Wal-Mart mirrors the economy at large."

The following information dates back five years, but it still illustrates how Wal-Mart deals with trade offs among the interests of workers, customers, and shareholders--and how those trade offs domino off each other:

$23,000,000: Average annual compensation for Wal-Mart CEO, 2000-2003
.
$9.68: Average hourly living wage as defined by 22 of the U.S. cities and towns that passed living wage ordinances between 2000 and 2004
.
$8.00: Approximate nationwide average hourly wage for Wal-Mart employees .

$6.25: Starting wage for a cashier at the Wal-Mart Super Center in Salina, Kansas, 2003

$12,192: Income earned by a newly hired cashier working 40-hour weeks (more than the 32-hour company-wide average) for a year, with no weekdays off, at the Salina Super Center

$13,994: Minimum annual expenses for bare existence faced by a single cashier with children 4 and 12 who lives in Salina, Kansas

$0.23: Average hourly wage at 15 Chinese factories making clothing, shoes, and handbags to be sold at U.S. Wal-Mart stores, 2001

$420,750: Annual cost to U.S. taxpayers of a single 200-employee Wal-Mart store, because of support required for underpaid workers -- including subsidized school lunches, food stamps, housing credits, tax credits, energy assistance, and health care

45%: Decrease in annual sales of Levi-Strauss clothing from 1996 through the first half of 2003, largely because of competition from less expensive jeans sold at Wal-Mart

6%: Sales increase in the third quarter of 2003, just after Levi-Strauss began supplying jeans to Wal-Mart

60: Number of U.S. clothing factories operated by Levi-Strauss in 1981

2004: The year in which Levi-Strauss planned to close its last two U.S. plants and stop manufacturing jeans, importing them from overseas instead.

Do what you may with this information. Myself--I've decided to make a pledge to support independent artisans and companies and buy handmade, whenever possible, for the rest of the year. I'm looking to Etsy and other resources for the presents I buy and the goods I need.

It's not much, but it's something I can do. And I feel good about it.



33 comments:

  1. i shudder to think of the potential controversy this post may generate! but, hey, that's okay, right?

    :)

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  2. Aww, KJ, this post makes me so proud! I swore off wal-mart a few years ago when I was working with developmentally disabled adults. It just *killed* me that they all loved to shop at wal-mart so much because the prices were so low, and wal-mart turned around and hired them because they don't have to pay them minimum wage. Totally exploiting them, and then they turn around and support the store because they are on fixed income and it's all they can afford.

    You know how much I love Etsy and supporting hand made is something I get a lot of pleasure out of these days. :)

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  3. Have you seen the documentary? It's chilling. I try hard ot stay away from it, and rarely go in anymore, but in th elittle towns that it's wreaked havic on, sometimes there are few options. Still, I save up my list and try to shop in the closest big town when I can.

    (I reviewed the documentary some time ago: http://alittleoffkilter.blogspot.com/2006/11/for-love-of-money-is-root-of-all-evil.html )

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  4. Woohoo! Good for you, KJ! And I'm on board as much as I can be. I'm with N on the Etsy thing. I love to buy things from the sellers on that site and support the artists and craftspeople who made all that's available. I've decided that this year, as much as I can, I'll buy the gifts I buy for friends and loved ones from Etsy. You know how much I support and advocate locally grown/produced foods! :)

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  5. I just don't buy *sigh* Make my own gifts from recycled garbage and did grow all our own food until the drought *sigh*. Actually, I did live like that for four years once and only had to buy toiletries which didn't even include shampoo because the creek was clean then - just sanitary girlie stuff and toilet paper which I could have used leaves for... ;) Bushcraft unless it burns ...

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  6. I have always preferred independent restaurants, bookstores, etc. and love to support local artists and farms. I do it whenever I can.
    I like putting money back into the community I live in, and I happen to live in one where that's fairly easily done.

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  7. I want to know more about Anon's natural way.

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  8. Don't think I am ignoring your post.

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  9. I am thinking about what to say.

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  10. I am spamming your blog, just like the Chinese do. Most spam come from China. Spam is made in the US. Do you like Spam?

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  11. Talking to myself is no fun.

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  12. Where is the administrator of this blog?

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  13. I REFUSE to undress for Ces!

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  14. And why not? I think we would like to see that even though you would look like you are covered with gooseflesh once the feathers come off. Haha!

    By the way, I cannot think of anyone who thinks watching American Idol is more fun that blogging.

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  15. That's 'parrotflesh' Ces! HUMPH!

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  16. Sorry Anon, I mean parrotflesh. I am thinking of responding to KJ's controversial post.

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  17. it is too late and i am too tired to respond to all these comments tonight, but tomorrow is another story. meanwhile, i'll be thinking about how excited i would be to get a gift from anon--ooooh, recycled garbage--and i'll be shuddering thinking about what's next from ces.

    goodnight until tomorrow....

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  18. I think you are right Kj.

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  19. Mr Ryan is very cute.

    As far as the businesses go, it is the same over here.

    The butcher round my corner went bankrupt when a small supermarket started selling meat. Another butcher located a few streets further moved. Two small grocery stores went out of business as the same small supermarket expended its groceries department.

    A larger supermarket has started up business just 5 minutes away from me.

    I would not want to have to run a small business.

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  20. ohmygod, anon! fantastic!! who knew!!!!!!

    sidney, i wish i weren't right. nice to hear from you.

    peter, i like to hear about your life and neighborhood.

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  21. ces, take a deep breath before you respond to this post.

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  22. ces, did you get a life?

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  23. ces, anon gave me a very cool present, WITH LOVE. please don't let one of the cardinal sins maladysa listed overtake you because of it.

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  24. ces, what did anon do for clothes if she only bought toiletries?

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  25. I forget what this post was about because I've had such fun reading all the comments!! :)

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  26. here, here! i totally agree with your desire to shop small and buy handmade--for many reasons.

    and on a side-note...look at that photo of mr ryan!! :) holy cawroly he's gotten big! he makes me smile. YOU make me smile! :)

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  27. They are over here too :[

    We have no butchers in the village I live - can you believe that? It recently closed down. All our local shops are closing.

    The only businesses which seem to be increasing in this country are supermarkets and off licences selling 'cheap booze' to under age children! :[

    The majority of towns looks they same now, MacDonalds everywhere!

    *sob*

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  28. I've been encouraging the neigbhors to buy local and grow their own food, etc. Even a small household garden can make a big difference.

    I don't know how to say this in PC way, but the very people who should be buying local/supporting their neighbors are the ones that want the mass produced crapola. It's our advertising driven consumer keep up with the jones society. Those fat little kids I see at my local elementry school ought to be out hoeing weeds instead of watching cartoons.

    And I am seeing a shift, more girls out walking their babies in strollers, etc. It was culture shock to the max to move back into a blue collar Okie neighborhood from the pretty (not) suburbs of Dallas.

    One of the smart things I've done is to keep my mouth SHUT until I figure out how to help and show people without alienating them. That's rare for me.

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  29. Great post, and I totally agree. We try to patronize local, independently-owned shops when possible. Sadly, there are fewer and fewer of them.

    Another good idea for gift-giving: donations in the name of your friend or loved one.

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  30. *sigh* Clothes can last a long time if you have a needle and thread, or two Sisters that grow bigger than you :)

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  31. I am so with you on this. I have never shopped at a Walmart before, no offense to anyone that does I totally understand that families have to do what what they can to save money but what ever happened to "Look for the Union label"? I feel obsolete in my thinking until I read your post and see that many peeps feel this way! You make me proud, Hooray for handmade!!!

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