I remember some years ago, The NE Patriots who were called the Boston Patriots were trying to get the taxpayers to pick up the bill for building a new stadium.  They needed some serious up-front money, like several million, which was a lot of money then.  They went begging for a while with no takers.  Then after a few weeks, some executive from Goodwill said they’d put up the money.  Everyone’s nose is to the grindstone, then they hear this and say, “Whaaaaaa?”  The offer was withdrawn shortly after.
I don’t give to Sal’s Army for the same reason.  It’s a sucker’s racket.

Back before I lost my primary source of income, I did shop mom and pop. In fact I have been mom and pop, well mom anyway. My comments are directed to those who think, now that their incomes have shrunk, they have to shop at Wal-Mart!

Goodwill provides gainful employment for folks who could not find training or employment anywhere else. Even if I really don’t need anything, I’ll make a trip to Goodwill when I go shopping to pick up some little thing or other. Same goes for the Salvation Army, St Paul and Deseret Industries’ stores. Supporting them is supporting some of the most successful “help to self-help” programs in this country! And in times of crisis, an excellent choice for shoppers with little money to spend.

However, if those choices did not exist, I would rather dumpster dive than shop at Wal-Mart!

Nothing would please me more than to be able to join a cause that will bring Wal-Mart to finally provide a decent income and benefits to their employees. But I think they’ve passed the tipping point. No doubt in part by taking advantage of the greed that feeds Wall Street, the stupidity that led congress to de-regulate everything and the non-producers who collect their dividends. So until the day when fair once again means fair, I will continue advising anyone who cares to listen, how to survive without Wal-Mart!

“Assuming the full-time week is 34 hours, a full-time Wal-Mart “associate” averages $19,200 a year. That’s about $2,000 below the 2008 federal poverty level for a family of four.

So, it is going to be a Wal-Mart Christmas. Because we have become a Wal-Mart country, and we are all laid low.”

~~~

Not in my house, because I understood years ago the “Wal-Mart model” was going to lead to the destruction of the “American model.” And here we are.

Wal-Mart is as responsible for the economic crisis we find ourselves in as any one of those greedy mortgage bankers you care to name.

Wal-Mart has over-seen the birth of a nation full of consumers reduced to a choice between them, or the small more expensive mom and pop store, if you’re lucky enough to still have one in your community.

Well I will watch for sales, and you know what? Freddy’s will have the same brand-name products at the same price in those weekly sales. And so will the few mom and pop stores still around. Just need to watch and wait.

And if that fails, I’ll shop at Goodwill, where you can find “gently used” name brand clothes, and just about anything else you want for a fraction of what even Wal-Mart offers.

Besides, Wal-Mart is fake. The “leader items” they offer, to sucker you into the store may be top name-brand, but everything else was manufactured in a foreign land, and often as not, is nothing but a cheap imitation.

And for those special gifts, like high-end electronics and toys, I’ll shop Amazon.com. They have great deals too!

Just need to watch and wait, just like I watch and wait for the big blue box to collapse under the weight of it’s own greed.

Sooner or later it will happen, because a work force living in poverty can not sustain a national economy!

should have seen it when Hillary let go all the long time White House staff, hired new & let them only work 39 hours; so they could NOT get health benefits.****www.freecycle.org; freely give, & receive; local recycle groups as well; local “cafe” groups; post while out & about & list good “grocery” deals;*****learn how to clean using vinegar & baking soda & hydrogen peroxide which vinegar & hydrogen peroxide used 1 after the other in spray bottles kills e coli, salmonella, & is stronger & more effective than clorine or any other toxin ever made. Buy cattle grade baking soda, in 50 lb bags, & split with others; $2.40 for 10 lbs should last you a year; 1 T in warm water, makes great shampoo & will not harm & kill you; same of vinegar is best conditioner on market; http://www.mizar5.com; I believe dental care; better than anything you can buy at Walmart. At thrift stores, like Salvation Army, find brand new items for pennies; many still with tags on them. GIVING for Christmas the way it is so commercially now was all set up by retailers to get your $. Best thing anyone can give & all love to get is home made cookies, breads, pies. Buy flour & put into food saver; seal a meal bags; generic bags cheap on ebay; will last for years; make own mixes & do the same; get dehydrator & dry foods, seal away; last indefinetly & NO CHEMICALS inside of them; can even dry meats folks; MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I saw this coming years ago and I was labeled a “conspiracy nut”, one day people will listen…not to me, but my sources…The plain-as-day “Writing on the Wall”. This company telegraphed its intentions, but people had their heads rammed up their consumer driven asses…I called this “Class War” 12-15 years ago.

WalMart, the biggest retailer, and MacDonald’s the biggest manufacturer. Remember when Josh Bolten was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, he tried to say that making hamburgers was a manufacturing job and defended it in front of the Senate.
I hear WalMart is not considered a good investment by the sharks on Wall Street - too many possible law suits.  There are no WalMarts near where I live so I am not even tempted to buy there.  Bit I did step into one reluctantly a few years ago.  They lure you in with a competitive price for a cheaply made item.  The brand names they carry, however, are at higher prices than the competition.

Once again Marie Cocco “keeps our eyes upon the scale.”

i don’t know about in the USofA but in Canada where I live, my experience as a seasoned shopper has shown that Walmart does NOT have the lowest price…I have shopped at Zeller’s on the same day as shopping and Walmart and found all the prices less than Walmart.  Yesterday I heard Paul Borgese promoting his book on CBC radio “Fear Selling: How You Can Sell Faster by Tapping Into Your Prospects Deep-Seated Emotional Needs”, at the same time as Benny Hinn was selling his televangelism by exploiting the flock’s fear of the unknown and retribution…but I digress…the point is that in my opinion advertising like Walmart’s also exploits people’s fear of not being able to “afford” to live…this advertising tendency to portray a “retail” outlet as some kind of salvation for the working class…or middle class as is the case, it seems to me, with an outfit like Costco, who purport to have lower prices but when one researches the claim and then compares with other business, the price is found to be the same or higher, especially if you take the fee you have to pay for the “privilege” of shopping…case in point, I priced out small refrigerators and found Costco’s fridge to be more expensive than the same one at other stores even with the discount coupon and at the other stores you don’t have to pay them so you can shop there.  Costco is perhaps the epitome of “Fear Advertising” in that it seems to invite the masses to their “gated” shopping experience where supposedly you are safe in their arms after you have paid them a fee for the protection of their warehouse and you can then stock up and be safe (hoarding…another allusion to the fear of economic collapse…you will have more stuff than you could ever use in a lifetime, and all those fools who failed to “join the club” will just have to starve in the dark…hmmm, perhaps the greed of the stock market could also be seen as a very high level form of hoarding?)

If the National Health Insurance Act is passed, Detroit would no longer have health care costs…neither would any other company.  That would surely increase their efficiency, and hopefully lead to more jobs.  I wonder if they’re pushing for it?

Rats are known to survive in conditions that kill most other species.

Buy your Christmas gifts from the locally owned and operated shops in your area.
Eat at the locally owned and operated restaurants .  WE THE PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER !!!  Use it and prosper. Lose it and its indentured servitude for your kids!

Wallmart is blood sucking scum.  They are the antithesis of a “healthy” corporate economic model.  But they are the corporatista model of the future.  Slavery is back with a slight modification of style.  Pay enough to survive (barely) but not enough for empowerment.  This next economic “adjustment” will ensure enslavement of the masses.  You’ve bought the farm and don’t even know it!
Wallmart is the future and “Blade Runner is the Model”.

Everytime the Big Brass suck the last drop out of the Big 3 they look to the Union to cover the costs- rarely middle & upper mgt ( How many Million did GM’s CEO take down last year…How many Rank & file could have been employed JUST on that?)
Do you think it was the Unions fighting tooth and nail to derail Healthcare coverage for All american citizens? Esp when every time contract bargining comes up they lose one more coverage?
Who are the Cronies of these Health provider and Insurance Corps CEO’s, certainly Not Mr Blue collar.These CEO’s don’t want to fuck their Golf Partners!
Do You think it was the guy on the line who said ‘Hell No we don’t want to build Fuel efficient Cars or research any alternatives to Oil’.
I am Outraged that the Big 3 DARE to blame the Unions for their Fiscal and Technological Irresponsibility. The Unions Built you MF’ers’!!!And they have given and given time and again to keep you solvent!
It is these Greedy Dumbasses Who REFUSED to change the way they did business SINCE the ‘70’s. Kept US addicted to Oil (Oil Royals ‘Pushers’) and Scraped every innovation you got your hands on….How long has the electric car been sitting on the Shelf Boys, 20 yrs, 30 yrs..More?
What proves just how Stupid they are…The Up surge in a middle class is WHY they are able to now be called a ‘Multinational Corp’, to be the worlds largest Auto makers…The Middle Class was born from the Auto Union workers to begin with…Fuck heads! When the Auto worker works, they not only provide jobs for ancillary industries, but BUY SHIT from their own industry and others not even associated with it (Textiles)!!!
What REAL Economist Does Not Understand this relationship within an economy…You have to have Consumers willing and ABLE to Buy!
Greenspan and his cohorts should be hung. Not Only for intentionally kneecapping American Workers and citizens with the ‘Trickle Down’ Scam, thus derailing our economy and nearly the rest of the Worlds…..But also because ‘Trickle Down’ is Innately UNAMERICAN. Why did we Revolt from the English Monarchy? Because ALL money was confiscatd and retained at the Top and was only released to the lower classes as needed in a TRICKLE!
Trickle Down is the Well known Economic Strategy of Monarchies and dictatorships! It’s Irrelevant if they Possess a ‘family Crest’ or a Logo, the means and ends are Exactly the Same! Trickle down has been the attempt to revert US back to a Caste System.What’s the Current disparity between the wealthy and the middle class income Now? The chasm has grown expotentially wider every Decade since Nixon.
WE have been watching the steady Reinstituition of the Feudal system,But to accomplish it they MUST destroy any collective power (aka Unionization). Thus they consistently fail to allow for cost of living increases (or relatively little next tot he White collars & Top brass). They vilify them as the root of all ‘evils’ and do nothing when the cost of necessary items goes up ( Oil/Gas/ Food/ Home heating).‘A lean and hungry’ worker is easier to shortchange and abuse.Supply & Demand- Cut jobs, increase unemployed labor force, decrease cost on wages & bennies, Increases in the Bottom line which increases Bonus’ at the top.
Ya Don’t need a PhD in economics to figure out the impending doom of ‘Trickle Down’, De Unionization and Unskilled Peanut paid labor on the Economy. Nor do you need a PhD in Logic to figure out this trend has been Man made and Intentional (Forethought & malice..TREASON)

In reference to the former middle class American way of life: “This was the way it was, before rock and roll, before television, previous, previous, previous… just a closer walk with thee”
Van Morrison

For more holiday cheer, check out:
http://thebeerdoctor.newscloud.com/

Wal-Mart is cancer to America.

It is obvious that whatever “bailout” the Detroit automakers get from Washington, there will be a concerted effort to break the unions.

In the history of the universe, there has never been a Republican whose motto was not:  Screw the workers!!

Dems have, because of campaign money, bought into this mantra.