The New York Times says that the two most enthusiastic anti-Walmart groups, Wal-MartWatch and WakeUpWal-Mart are starting to take a more subtle approach when it comes to protesting the big blue box.
“It’s fair to say we have been less in-your-face,” said David Nassar, the executive director of Wal-Mart Watch, which had hammered the company in stinging newspaper advertisements and provocative reports with titles like “Shameless: How Wal-Mart Bullies Its Way Into Communities Across America.”
The mellowing of the anti-Wal-Mart movement is an unexpected development for the retailer, whose public image and share price were bruised by the well-financed union campaigns. On Friday, when the chain holds its shareholder meeting in Arkansas, investors are likely to applaud Wal-Mart for fending off these detractors.
“It definitely has helped the company,” a retail analyst at Deutsche Bank, Bill Dreher, said. “Those attacks hurt Wal-Mart.”
Apparently, the groups think they can catch more flies with honey — and have started to draw up proposals for heath plans and are offering other free advice to Walmart. The NYT says Andrew L. Stern, the head of the Service Employees International Union, which provides the majority of financing to Wal-Mart Watch, has been meeting with CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. to talk “heath care crisis” since 2006.
Weirder still, Walmart itself has been cooling down the counter attacks…
Over the last several months, the company has shut down a campaign-style war room set up in 2005 to do battle with Wal-Mart Watch and another group, WakeUpWalMart.com, which is financed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
And Wal-Mart has disbanded an advocacy group, called Working Families for Wal-Mart, intended to rally support for the company (and serve as a counterbalance to the anti-Wal-Mart groups). A company spokesman would not comment for this article.
Is this peace in our time?
Wal-Mart’s Detractors Come In From the Cold [NYT]
(Photo: yarnzombie )
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you can’t pay off a union.
when you give them some money, they’ll just demand more.
the union leaders need to make money somehow, without holding real jobs
Wal-Mart did a great job in reducing the prices of consumer goods at the expense of outsourcing to other countries where slave wages, deplorable working conditions, and 16 hour workdays are the norm. Wal-Mart says they inspect the factories but the factories know when the inspectors are coming and put on a great big production for them in which hazards are swept away and workers are told what to say. Many jobs were lost in the North American manufacturing industry and many local businesses were shut down. These jobs were replaced by Wal-Mart jobs that pay $8.00/hour and avoid full-time workers whenever possible (to keep running costs down). Did you think the shareholders of vendors take a hit when Wal-Mart demands lower prices? The shit flows downhill.
Economist point of view: Yay for Wal-Mart!
Sociologist point of view: Fucking disaster!
@CPC24: @
href=”#c6048260″>morganlh85: Companies make money so it makes sense to show them how going green will be beneficial to business.
WakeupWalmart and the like come off as emotional basket cases who have way too much time on their hands. It might be good for them to be less in your face and hysterical. Then maybe those who cherish reason and facts might actually take them seriously.
CPC24, I meant to say that I agree with you. It is hilarious watching rich people (especially new rich who are typically also white trash), walk around Walmart with a look of disgust on their faces. Alot of anti-Walmart people don’t have a grasp on reality. There are alot of individuals in this world who can’t afford to shop at the “local corner market”. And what they don’t realize is that their “local corner market” also pays their employees minimum wage and doesn’t offer them many, if any, benefits. I think this beckoning for a “local downtown where everyone knows your name” is incredibly naive.
courtneywoah: I’m with you on this one. Peace by backroom negotiation, more like it.
@courtneywoah: Yes, this means that Walmart DEFINITELY paid off these groups. We know this because everything Walmart does is inherently evil. And I totally agree that it’s a huge win for Walmart to have gotten these groups to work for them – in fact, I bet Walmart created them in the first place so they could create a scenario where they could all of a sudden listen to interest groups and look like good guys! Then they’re going to use the dollars that pour in to start a war in Iran, just so their executives can laugh about it at board meetings! And after they finish laughing so hard, they’ll go out on the town and club baby seals! Of course, to do this they’ll have to pay off animal rights and environmental groups so that they can own them too!
You may want to stop smoking the hippie lettuce so you stop thinking everything is a damn conspiracy.
@thelushie: Thanks. I love seeing the people who’ve never been anywhere but Whole Foods, Costco, or Publix step into Wal-mart. It’s like they’re from another planet. They’d probably faint if they ever went into Aldi or Dollar General.
I don’t shop at Wal-mart anymore. I used to, but I decided I would rather shop at a local grocery than get my groceries at Wal-mart. The local grocery doesn’t even cost much more and I know that they do pay their employees better wages. I worked at Wal-mart for a brief period when I was out of work. I would go back to workign at the McD’s I worked at in college than at Wal-mart. They paid the same but treated their employees better. Less discrimination against women at McD’s, too.
I realize not everyone can afford to go to local places. However, I would ask how a company like Aldi’s can do things so that their prices are cheaper (and so their quality is better than Wal-mart on some things) but afford to pay their people good wages and give them benefits such as paid holidays, vacation and insurance. Why aren’t more companies looking to that model than to Wal-mart? Aldi’s is much cheaper than Wal-mart.
low cost stores often sell products near or at their expiration dates… at least that’s how the low cost store near my college did it, i noticed.
what kind of benefits exactly should a bag boy “deserve”?
in all my years of menial labor i wasn’t getting paid holidays, vacation, and insurance. i wasn’t even working regular hours. but it was money and i had no sense of entitlement so i was happy…
@darksunfox: Exactly.
@AlteredBeast: Having made four quick trips into local Wal-Marts across four states I noticed the exact same thing.
@giggitygoo: I agree. I don’t like Wal Mart but, they sell what I need and want. After working 10 to 12 hours a day, I am not about to drive all over the DFW metroplex to find what I want. I challenge the Wal Mart bashers to come up with a cheaper place to buy what the average, everyday working person needs to survive.
As for the “local” market situation, let’s have a reality check. This is 2008, not 1908. Things have changed. The old, moldy corner market is a rapidly becoming a thing of the past and I thank God that they are. I grew up in a small southern town and that is all that we had and they were awful.
@LINIS- Hey you don’t have to agree with me, but don’t be a jerk about it
also, companies actually do start fake grassroots groups in order to trick consumers into believing they are concerned about important issues such as water, health, etc, an example of which is the National Smokers Alliance (created for Phillip Morris by a PR company) which trumps smoking as a right, Vets for Freedom (a well funded pro war group) works on behalf of George W. Bush, and Farmers for Clean Air and Water (funded by the major agricultural companies that is working to be exempt from the Superfund law and other as well as other atrocities). These are just a few of the front groups or astroturf companies that are funded by big corporations pretending to act on behalf of the people. What is most disturbing to me is the fake language they use to trick people into thinking they are something they aren’t.
Anyways, I have to get back to my hippie-lettuce! Good night!
I’d just like to say that the store that fixes my weedeater is a quaint local shop.
And it’s full of complete wankers and has some of the worst customer service I’ve ever seen.
So to some of us out here in the sticks Walmart was a Godsend.
Wal-mart is turning the world into slaves. Their workers, their communities, their customers. It’s already happened and you can’t even see it.
How do you think it’s possible that you’re wearing a .23 cent sweater? Chinese slavery, that’s how. Wal-mart employees on welfare, that’s how. 24 hour propaganda and union busting…. that’s how.
Time to wake up people. This company OWNS you.