• http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/29/content_395728.htm

They are playing the game to the ultimate extreme. Reminds me of the cartoon "Pinky and the Brain," where at the end of the show Pinky asks the Brain, "Hey Brain, what are we goin' do tonight?" The Brain replies, "Same thing we do every night; try and take over the world.".........Colin

One of my closest friends knows some people who have been involved with Wal Mart at rather high levels (we live in western Arkansas). They claim that as the company got bigger and more powerful, they began to screw a lot of U.S. companies out of business, or else force them to move their plants to foreign soild.

Wal Mart would approach a domestic company and strike a deal with them for a million widgets a year at $10 each. Not being stupid, Company X didn't look a gift horse in the mouth and would always jump at the opportunity of a free meal ticket. But since Company X didn't have the capability to produce a million widgets a year, they knew they'd have to expand.

After a few years in their huge new facility, Wal Mart would approach them at yearly contract time and say, "Ya know, we're just paying too much for these widgets. We're going to give you $6 each, take it or leave it." Well, now they have Company X bent over a barrel. They have a huge plant with enormous overhead, and Wal Mart is 70% of their business. At this point, if they lose them, they've lost the whole shootin' match. It's O-V-E-R.

The numbers on paper say they can't sell their widgets for $6, so what to do? Their choices are to either lose their bread and butter customer and go back to the small time; not really an option. OR........ shut down that facility and move all their equipment to Mexico or China, and all those American jobs with it. Not only are American jobs lost, but U.S. government revenue from income tax, those workers' insurance and investment plans, and their hopes and dreams. Plus, all that dough is now going into the Chinese economy, not ours. Guess what the commie government is spending it on? Why, building the largest military force in the history of the world, with a few thousand nukes pointed at every free capitalist nation on Earth!

Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Wal Mart........

Of course, the other side of that story is that we cheapskate Americans have also had our hand in creating the situation, too. People are no longer interested in quality, just as long as it's cheap.

Thermionic

I know two owners of companies that have had dealings with WalMart, and they both turned out for the best. The first case is RusCo, based out of Jonesboro, AR. I went to ASU with the two founding brothers. While in high school, they started to make windchimes for the neighbors. Long story short, the business grew and they are now the supplier of windchimes to WalMart and still based out of J'boro.

The second instance happened while I was in grad school working for a furnite store making and setting up waterbeds (oh, the stories I could tell ;)) Anyway, the guy I worked for was approached by WalMart to sell speciality waterbeds, kids waterbeds that look like old cars. Even though the volume was going to be huge, WalMart would only buy on consignment; so, if the bed did not seel, the owner was out the cost. He did not do business and is still around.

Again, I really don't know what to think. WalMart has played the game well, but at what cost? Good for WalMart and its share holders. A kid I grew up with in the early '80s did all sorts of odd jobs around the neighborhood and for his father. The only thing he ever bought were WalMart stocks. Mind you this kid was 10-11 at the time. Well, by the time he got to college he was able to pay for it and law school without taking out a loan.

Nice to see a fellow Arkansan around here. I grew up in the NE corner - Paragould to be exact. I attended UofA for a couple of years - that time of my life is real fuzzy due to mass alcohol intoxication.....Colin

What I found was that there were several competing groups within the company that did projects. Winning projects would get placed in the stores, and other projects would die. That was not really any different than other corporate enterprises. I cultivated a relationship with some of the people in various groups, and I think they considered me to be a reliable vendor.

Parham Data was only asked to warranty maybe 10 devices out of tens of thousands that were put into the stores, and I built prototypes quickly for them. I would usually make the design and first proof-of-concept prototype at cost and if the project was successful, then I would have a few thousand built for use in the stores. All production was done in Tulsa, Oklahoma, so our products were 100% American made. I don't think that matters anymore but back then it was a badge of honor for Wal-Mart. That relationship was a pretty good deal but I really worked hard and, in the end, other things became more lucrative for me.

I never had a problem with Wal-Mart invoices getting paid, but I heard a lot of horror stories. I always sent in the paperwork just as they asked, and would be paid in 45-60 days. Several people told me that was quicker than normal and that 90 and 120 days was not unusual from Wal-Mart. I was pretty dilligent at making sure the paperwork had dotted I's and crossed T's because I didn't want problems, so all my large orders went pretty smoothly. It's always a hassle to orchestrate a few thousand products with hundreds of parts inside, so dealing with a few extra forms to expedite receivables wasn't a big deal.

Back in the 80s, there was one day a week called "vendor day" that all Wal-Mart's buyers would greet new vendors. That was really something, because there were thousands of people from all over the world in Bentonville on that day. After you got "connected," you really didn't want to be there on vendor day because the place was a zoo. But it was interesting to see. I don't know if they still do it that way or not.