So Looks like I'll be picking up my pictures at Walgreens on wens-day not going back out in that cold, great. I'm pictured out currently so this will not be the sabres post it is about why wal-mart is good.

1st. Full disclosure where I work we sell product to Wal-Mart, Target, CVS,Walgreen's, Rite Aid, and a bunch of other places and I have no how the money end of things work, I just pick the orders

2. I love target you can get any thing there really, well mostly.

3. I have gone to wal-mart near where I work and they aren't bad.


Yes Often times Wal-Mart get a lot of bad press and some of it they deserve. But there is often another side to that debate that people don't talk about. I'm talking about wages and how they are good that people are paid low rates.

So if you believe that Wal-mart is cheaper then say K-mart or someplace like that the first question is why. Since they are a big box store I'm sure we can assume that they pay the same price for a TV from Sony as anyone else does. Maybe they do have some ways to get it cheaper then target. But I suspect that they pay the same but that their mark up is less then Target. Yes there are some items that aren't name brand that they get for cheaper then SaY Target. But if this is the case that is because they buy things that cost less then target does. Yes in some cases maybe the workers who make it, make really low wages but for the country they work in that is the standard set there. In some places those are still good jobs, by comparison but that isn't what I'm really talking about.

Any store there goal is to make money. Yes it should be provide goods and Services people need, but it isn't. Since it is for profit that means that there is a certain profit margin on everything they sell. If a store spends x amount of dollars to run and that amount goes up, then their amount of profit drops. So that leads to an increase in price to make up for the less profit. Again though this is a tough balance if you raise prices to much people will stop buying stuff or shopping someplace else and you will lose even more money.

What keeps Wal-mart, Aldi, Price Rite and other places cheap is keeping there costs low. By doing this they can keep around the same amount of profit as other places. I have heard people say they won't go to wegman's because it costs to much. Well back about 10 years ago you could work at Wilson Farms for 3 years and walk into wegmans and on your first day as a Cashier you would be paid a higher wage. Yes they are a great company to work for, but those great things cost money so food costs more. The reverse is true also.

In other words what keeps prices low at wal-mart is that they don't pay very much. Most people think of that as bad. But what about people who want to buy stuff and don't have the money to go to
target. Some might say those are extras who cares. Well think about all the people who go to Price Rite or Save A Lot because Wegmans is to much. That is thought of as good but a retailer does it and they are evil, that is a double standard.

Generally speaking the Higher Paying Job, the tougher it is to get, and the more knowledge you need. Not to pick on anyone but I think there are a lot of people at Wal-Mart who that is the only Job they can get. If there was no Wal-Mart where would they work. What could they buy. Now working there they can at least buy stuff there.

Yes Wal-Mart is very powerful and when they abuse that power and push around workers and not pay them for overtime, that is bad. But that doesn't mean everything they do is bad. I also think protesting Wal-Mart is silly. Lets just say that it worked and no one went there. They would close and all those people would lose their Jobs. A job is hard to find where are those people going to go. What about the people who only can buy things at Wal-Mart how are they going to buy stuff. What about the places that Wal-Mart buys stuff from in other countries or even here, they could lose there jobs now that wal-mart isn't buying.

I think the entire wal-mart thing is another example of something that is very complex that people like to try and make simple and turn into a Political issue. You could make the point that it is a social issue but that is a different thing all together.

Oh one last point. I know that Wal-marts some times move into small towns and then all the local places close, or at least that is what I have heard. Then the guy who ran the local Hardware store has to get a Job there. That isn't wal-mart's fault. That is the town peoples lack of Loyality. They will go buy something at Wal-mart that is a little bit cheaper instead of buying from the person they know and trust, or atleast know. How about a little bit of loyality.

I admit I have posted a lot of comments today so I don't feel much like writing. Yes I'm glad that Obama won. That being said him winning dosn't mean much yet. Often people are judged in their first 100 days in office. It is what he does and what he tries to do. Hey most people who don't like what Bush wound up doing or some of the stuff he did wouldn't be saying he was a bad President when he started. We shall see what happens. What we do know is that we are at a point in history. I also think that with states banning gay Marriage we are at another point in history. Hey maybe when we look back at this time it will be the pivotal point that went on to get people who are for gay marriage to get together and strengthen the fight and that is what is looked at as what got a case to the supreme court. Maybe it takes one case or 12 cases to make Gay Marriage protected legally by the constiution or maybe it will go the other way. I'm hoping that at some point it will be legal in every state. I don't know what will happen but I do think that there is a good chance that this years election in the future could be a big history point.

Yes I voted. But there are some things I find strange. In some parts of the country they have or have had lines (4 years ago) that took hours. But in my hood I know of 3 or 4 voting places, where I vote at Grover then at Richmond and Summer, then on Elmwood there is a polling place between Summer and Bryant and then if you go down to Dyouvile I think there is one down there. The other thing that I find strange is that there are all kinds of voting machines. I think Buffalo has the good kind with the lever and things you flick. Those touch screens are bad and as nice as those scan tron sheets are some people don't know how to use pencils anymore. When I went in to vote I didn't look to see who was running in my district I should have though. The thing that surprised me is that with all the Chris Lee and Joe Mesi adds they weren't on my Machine and I don't think who they where running against was on it either. I did read the proposition going into the voting booth and all most missed it on the machine. If I understood it correctly my yes vote means that since disabled veterans get extra points on the civil service exams they have to be collecting benefits to get that credit and now they won't have to be collecting those benifits to get the extra points.