Save Our Community was founded in the movement to resist Wal-Mart's development in Rosemead, California. Now, it has become a general site for news, information, gossip, talk, and blogging about Rosemead. We also have stories about South San Gabriel, San Gabriel, Montebello, and occasionally about Pico Rivera, El Monte, South El Monte, Alhambra, Temple City, and other nearby communities. Your host is Todd. If you want a blog just sign up, get approved, and start writing. Good posts will be moved onto the home page.
It's a story that bears repeating
The linked article is a few years old, but it presents the same dilemma presented in the editorial a bit further down on this page, and in "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices."
Wal-Mart really is a new kind of beast. Economist might call it a monopsony. They're so big that they can dictate terms to their vendors. The vendors are enticed by the promise of big sales, but then become trapped in a downward spiral of cost-cutting, which inevitably means cutting pay and benefits for workers.
A corporation the size of Wal-Mart has the power to shape the very marketplace they operate in. They can use their power to boost wages, raise our expectations about health care benefits, and improve the standard of living the world over. Or they can exploit cutthroat competition and create a world where nothing is sacred but the almighty dollar.