Here’s your second “Final Four” matchup: #3 Wal-Mart VS #15 Countrywide Home Loans.
Time to get serious, folks. In this round we’ll take a look at the 5 most popular Consumerist stories for each company*:
Countrywide
Countrywide Invents Evidence In Foreclosure Hearing 38,583 views
Countrywide CEO Accidentally Emails Homeowner, Calls His Plea For Help “Disgusting” 19,631 views
Congress To Subprime CEOs: How Come You Got Paid Millions To Wreck The Economy? Hm? 9,306 views
Countrywide Home Loans Has Over 15,000 Repossessed Properties For Sale 8,895 views
Countrywide Is About To Foreclose On Ed McMahon 7,542 views
Wal-Mart:
Walmart “Junior” Panties Suggest That Your Genitals Are Better Than Credit Cards134,786 views
Walmart Nazi Tshirt Watch: Week 62 111,664 views
Detained And Harassed At Walmart For Not Showing A Receipt101,075 views
Walmart Tries To Steal Shopper’s Baby 91,364 views
Woman Receives Severe Chemical Burns From Flip Flops, Walmart Tells Her To Complain To Manufacturer 80,547 views
This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america.
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Both of these companies have done their part to destroy the economy. The difference is, Wally World has taken much longer and done more deep damage than Cuntrywide. Fact of the matter is, Cuntrywide took advantage of people who should have been smart enough to know they were getting a mortgage that was completely unaffordable. Their victims chose to do business with an obviously unscrupulous company. Wally World’s victims on the other hand, made no choice. They were harmed through no fault of their own. Wal-mart drives down wages and drives smaller businesses out.
@dallasmay:
Actually there are designs for sail assisted cargo ships.
I believe they are building some now.
@Manok: I agree…. we’re in a recession partly because of CW, but WalMart has forced much of our manufacturing out of the country, putting people out of work, sets standards for low pay, and is an all around evil entity… hard call here, but I’m going with WM…
Countrywide FTW.
If the winner gets a golden poop award, can the runner’s up get silver and bronze, like the olympics???
just asking…..
Yup, tough choice. Seeing as I choose not to shop at Walmart (I have plenty of other shopping choices), and I also choose not to do business with Countrywide, I have to default to the fact that Countrywides lack of discresion and morals while giving away home loans has led to a nasty turn in the economy that is affecting me directly in many different ways.
we’re not bailing out Walmart with my tax dollars to pay there executives. Yea I know my taxes pay walmarts benefits to help make their stuff cheap but…I just think Countrywide still doesnt think it did anythign wrong.
@Myrddraal: Yawn.
@JustaConsumer:
Barack Obama or John Mc Cain or the producer of that video cannot call the CEO of Proctor & Gamble or Tyson chicken and tell them to reduce their price to consumers. The CEO of Wal Mart can. I want you ignorant fools that just mindlessly parrot this nonsense to tell me how that is a bad thing.Wal Mart is one store in a universe of thousands, no, millions. If you don’t like their way of doing things,shop at KMart. Or better yet,wake your beloved “mom and pop” store owner up at 3:30 in the morning and tell them you need some robitussin,diapers or pedialyte.They should be happy to come down and meet you at the store.
Go on back and watch “American Idol” now…
Countrywide. I sold a home in 2005, my loan was with Countrywide. My buyers new mortgage was also with Countrywide. Countrywide tried to charge me 10 additional days interest after closing “until the new loan funded”. I threatened to call the state AG about their “double dipping” on the interest. I had a check from them within 5 days. Bastards.
I had a hard time with this one. They both are companies rooted in disreputable business practices, out to basically get theirs and disinterested in whether they’re making life better for anyone else out there, especially their workers.
But as much as it pains me to say, Wal-Mart largely just took advantage of the rules that existed and made the U.S. economy that much worse for it.
Countrywide flouted the rules that existed, outright lied and cheated and made the U.S. economy that much worse for it.
So shame on us for letting Wal-Mart exist, but shame on Countrywide for continuing to take breath. I voted Countrywide.
@techstar25: But Countrywide also was responsible for the increase in the bubble before the prices dropped. The price drop is the correction, it’s that bubble that was the problem.
Add a ton of unqualified buyers to the pool and demand goes up artificially. That way, the people saving up for a house couldn’t afford it unless they too took a BS loan. The victims are the ones who couldn’t afford the house they saved for AND ACTUALLY CHOSE TO EITHER NOT BUY OR BUY ONE THEY COULD AFFORD.
On the other hand, when the market over-corrects and houses are worth less than they would have been without a bubble, you can blame Countrywide for DECLINING prices.
Either way, they get my vote.
“The price drop is the correction, it’s that bubble that was the problem.”
How come Price increases are “Rally’s” and price drops are “Corrections”?
it’s because of wal-mart and their kind that the quality of products is falling – affecting the entire world
thus they get my vote
This one is easy. Countrywide hands down.
Countrywide has only been ruining our economy for two years, Walmart has been for twenty. Countrywide made people lose their homes through bad loans. Walmart made many many people lose their homes due to forced outsourcing of manufacturing jobs and intimidation of local businesses.
I’ve gotten a letter pretty much every week since I bought my current house from Countrywide stating that I need to set up an appointment with them to talk about refinancing to get out of debt.
I could understand sending this out to people who have had houses for several years and have loans that may have variable rates that are about to adjust… but my rate isn’t going to adjust in less than a month from getting the loan. I’ve probably received at least 30 of these letters (I rip them up as soon as I get them anymore) and I haven’t had my house for a year yet.
@johnva: Well, Wal-Mart is good for something. It’s the whole Yin-Yang thing, you know. I remember having to go rescue my wife who was stranded with a dead battery, only to find out my jumper cables were FUBAR. Went to Wal-Mart, and yes, they were open at midnight and were happy to sell me a new set of jumper cables so I could get the old lady’s car started. It was friggin’ cold out, too. Given that, I can’t bring myself to give them the golden shit, as much Yang as exists within that organization.
@dallasmay: Dude, you really don’t have any confidence or foresight at all. Don’t be such a reactionary.
I vote Countrywide. Really, who thought it was a good idea to give loans to anyone who asked for them.
Well, just to annoy the Wal-Mart haters here, I went to Wally’s on my lunch hour and spent $42. HA HA HA.
Kidding. Actually I went to buy the new Los Lonely Boys CD, which has two extra tracks on the WM version… but they didn’t have it. Damn. So I bought some garden stuff and groceries instead.
Nice. Two companies that have probably harmed the American economy more than all others. I’ll go with Countrywide because they are a sharper strike while Walmart slowly leaches.
Walmart is definitely soulless and sterile, but to be able to go somewhere for just about anything, 24 hours a day, 363 days a year? That’s some pretty serious consumer empowerment. My Japanese friends posited that their entire culture would benefit from something like that (ie, not having to rely on narrow store hours, high prices, and professional services for everything on the house/car). I had to explain what “mixed blessing” meant.
I think the problem stems from our demands as consumers. Walmart is doing the same thing any successful entrepreneur would do…if their idea grew and grew and got so out of control, nobody was really running it cohesively anymore.
Countrywide provided a commodity-level service, but did so very poorly and did not help anyone out along the way.
ugh
WalMart’s practices are beyond immoral, they’re evil. Evil however is perfectly legal in capitalistic societies. WalMart just perfected the understanding of global capitalism before others.
Countrywide’s overall practices seem more sinister, and as we may come to see through court cases, were even illegal in some instances.
It’s rather silly to try to grade evil…but as messed up as WalMart is, the prize goes to Country on this one.
I dont think wal*mart is that bad, countrywide i dont think is so terrible either but i voted countrywide.
As evil as Wal-Mart is, and how much they’ve damaged our country, there’ll always be next year. Countrywide owns this year, by a mile.
OMG, a company more evil than Walmart. The world is coming to an end!
Can’t vote for Walmart because it’s a league on its own. Start write-ins for lifetime achievement award to them.
I know Countrywide’s loan policies have really dented the economy recently, but voting for them over Wal-Mart is like saying that a dent in the door is worse than your car being totaled by falling 5000 feet over the rim of Grand Canyon.
Wal-Mart’s impact on the economy is far greater – they opened the door for everything (POSSIBLY EVEN THAT AMERICAN FLAG YOU FLY ON FRIDAY) to be made in China, which by the way will surpass the US in CO2 emissions sometime this year (they are already far larger polluters than the US).
Ultimately, Wal-Mart is contributing the destruction of humankind at a minimum and the at worst the planet as a whole!
Wal-Mart takes it hands-down. Countrywide is only guilty of excessive greed never before seen and possibly responsible for a not so distant global meltdown of the financial system. But thats it. Their actions pale against WalMart’s everyday facist operations.
Here’s a store that harrasses you about using a credit card by demanding ID in defiance of their merchant agreement, THEN demands to see the receipt for the paid for goods that they harrassed you for over the payment, and usually the individual who demands the receipt witnessess you having to fork over your ID for payment.
WalMart has no regard for civil rights, laws or any rules that they don’t agree with. On the micro level, they ripoff customers with their industry high incorrectly rung items.
They build bleak, depressing boxes using illegal labor and employ those that life passed by a long time ago. The crap they sell is low in price because its their own private label crap. As far as brand names go, there prices aren’t that low.
I think next, they’ll be instituting a strip search and body cavity probe in order to keep the prce of potato chips and tampons cheap.
WalMart wins WCIA 2008!
What else is funny is that Countrywide lent me 7750K on an undocumented, no income, no asset loan, while WalMart demanded an ID for a credit card purchase of $13.71, then wanted the receipt on the way out.
@geekfather: “If this poll were being run by Diebold, I could have voted for both.”
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I tip my hat to you, sir.
Wal-Ma…excuse me, Walmart* is doing more long term damage, as several people have pointed out. But I still felt compelled to vote for Countrywide.
Knowing how CW and other lenders intentionally sold bad loans to both deadbeats AND honest buyers, I couldn’t equate that with Walmart*’s relentless obsession with a low bottom line in every expense. Countrywide gets my vote, as it continues the ugly trend of financial organizations trying to have it both ways (giving credit to any living being, then lobbying against consumer protections on personal debt).
I followed the link to one of the Countrywide back stories about the CEO thinking that form letters asking for assistance were ‘disgusting’.
Some commenters seemed to empathize with the CEO and liken a form-letter (as opposed to more ‘original’ ones?) to spam. But I see a major difference. Spam is written the same way because they don’t care who you are. A person needing help from a company, however, might not know how to approach it and is likely using a form letter for help in communicating with the company.
This is a tough one for me…
I’ll stick my neck out here and admit I work for BofA, have for many years. I spent the first few months of the year hearing how WONDERFUL the Countrywide merger was going to be. Now, in recent months, not so much. The completion of the sale came and went without one word, unusual for BofA internal “press”.
Now, on the other hand, when I think of Walmart, I wonder…how many of the shady, fraud laden loans approved by Countrywide were made to Walmart employees? Probably a good number. Why? Because Walmart keeps its employees poor. They seem to prey on those that can be easily preyed upon. I recall reading a figure once that 75% of Walmart’s employee base cannot afford the partial company funded health insurance. For one of the largest employers in the US, this is outrageous.
I have gone back and forth on this one, and I just can’t decide.
Countrywide by a light year.
Countrywide is 100x worse than Wal Mart. Wal Mart isn’t a saint but it’s another a-typical retailer that has too many arms and no control over most of them.
Countrywide has helped screw over the lives of what could be a million people. Losing a job isn’t the end of the world but the financial ruin of drained 401Ks and credit destruction takes many many years to unwind.
Wal-Mart indirectly could be blamed but the reality of it is that despite “outsourcing” unemployment today still sits well below historical averages. We used to consider 6% “full employment” and we’ve only reached that a handful of times on a month-to-month basis since the early 90s.
Being in the banking business for 20 years, I see Countrywide as one of the biggest players, in a mortgage world that has gone sour. They did some bad things, but really are getting slammed for being the biggest in the banking world. Of course they ll have the most foreclosures.. they have sold the most loans by far of any bank out there.
Personal dealings with C WIDE were about a 7 on a 1-10 scale. They did have some innovative programs and were pretty agressive. Also had a good software system.
I think people forget the responsibility of the consumer in all the foreclosures( Ed Mcmahon is a prime example).
Yes there is a small percentage of people that were pushed into a house they couldnt afford. However I d bet 80-90% of the peopel that are in default are in default because of poor management skills of their income and expenses. People love to blame others. Take responsibility for your issues.
Walmart on the other hand… I ll steal a line I saw from someone else
Walmart is China’s TROJAN HORSE to America
If people REALY RESEARCHED all the damage that WALMART is doing to America .. they would PUKE!
Most know the basics
Crappy treatment to employees
Greedy
Wiping out small town America
Taking advantage of American taxpayers
Beating down suppliers
ENCOURAGING suppliers to move to overseas
They STOP at nothing to get a lower price FOR THEM..Some they pass on to the consumer, and MOST goes to the boys in Arkansas.
In essence…they are a MONOPOLY who is out of control and is forcing people to buy Non-American products( and other stores who try to compete, copy this non american products)
They are forcing all sorts of American people out of a job.
All to save a few pennies per product. Short term gain, long term WE ARE SCREWED in AMERICA.
IN the end though its the consumer who has the final say on where they spend their buck!!
I encourage ALL to read the book.. How Walmart is DESTROYING AMERICA….
My vote is easliy WALMART….
We only have one country.
They(WALMART) will just move to other countries after they suck America dry( and they already are by the way!)
TA Smith
Creator, http://www.smile-therapy.com
@orsham: Do you really need to shamelessly pitch your website here? In an incoherent way no less.
@orsham: you could just, ya know, not shop there. I worked there a while ago and they seemed to treat me just fine, got 3 breaks a day and an hour lunch.
Is it a coincidence that the top four stories today are about Wal Mart?
Countrywide doesn’t even exists anymore. Voting for them seems like voting for a dead guy!
@ogman: I don’t understand your statement that they don’t exist. They are actively involved in a number of lawsuits and are actually still making loans.