Walmart, what else needs to be said!

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contender6030

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Wal-Mart, gay group form alliance

By MARILYN GEEWAX
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 08/24/06

Washington — Wal-Mart, the retail giant that grew up in the rural South, is moving to attract gay shoppers as it expands its presence in urban centers.

By entering into a partnership with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce this week, the company "is making a very sincere effort to reach out to people who are a significant part of our customer base," Wal-Mart spokesman Bob McAdam said Wednesday.

• Wal-Mart defender Cain calls critics 'Hezbocrats'




But Wal-Mart did not issue a news release about the alliance, leaving the chamber to announce it. And as news of the partnership trickles out, a backlash is taking shape among some conservatives.

"I don't think this is something that will sell on Main Street America, where most Wal-Mart stores are located," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative public policy group in Washington. "I don't think cheap prices on goods from China will be enough to stop a rollback in their customer base if they choose to go down this aisle."

By partnering with a gay business group, Wal-Mart is "validating the idea that homosexual activists have the right to shake down corporations out of fear of being called bigots," said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America, a Washington-based public policy group:rolleyes:
 
"By partnering with a gay business group, Wal-Mart is "validating the idea that homosexual activists have the right to shake down corporations out of fear of being called bigots," said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America, a Washington-based public policy group"

Heck, it worked for Jessy and the "Rainbow Coalition":)

badbob
 
A private business can (and will) form whatever alliances they feel will bring them the most profit, regardless of your personal feelings regarding those alliances.
 
I don't think this will impact their bottom line at all - people shop at Walmart because they often have the lowest prices, not because of some political agenda. Did you see this story about their China operations?

Wal-Mart in China Gets Communist Branch

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Wal-Mart, capitalist retailer for the masses, now has its own Communist Party branch. Earlier this month, Communist Party and Communist Youth League branches and a trade union were set up at a Wal-Mart outlet in the northeastern industrial city of Shenyang, a staffer in the store's communications department said Thursday, confirming Chinese media reports.

As is typical of many media-shy Chinese, she gave only her surname, Liu. She would not discuss further details.

A bastion of private business, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has fought efforts to form unions elsewhere in its worldwide operations. But in recent weeks it said it agreed to work with the state-sanctioned labor federation to allow unions in its outlets in China, where it has 30,000 employees.

It is not clear exactly how the party branch would operate or whether it had an office in the Shenyang store.


At Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., international division spokeswoman Beth Keck said the party branch opening was a routine matter.

"It our understanding that party members and the party have routinely organized branches in enterprises in China and we respect their right to do so," Keck said.

Keck declined to comment when asked if the party branch opening was related to the recent spread of official Chinese trade unions at Wal-Mart stores there or what the branch in Shenyang would actually be doing.

Repeated phone calls to the public relations department of Wal-Mart's China headquarters in the southern city of Shenzhen went unanswered Thursday afternoon.


The All-China Federation of Trade Unions, reportedly at the behest of President Hu Jintao, has been campaigning for several years to set up party-controlled unions in Wal-Mart branches as well as other foreign-invested companies.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has 60 stores in 30 Chinese cities, resisted for two years before employees in the southeastern city of Quanzhou successfully voted to set up a union in late July.

Shenyang Wal-Mart has only two party members and 16 Communist Youth League members out of its 389 employees, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

But the Xinhua report stressed that the branch's function would be to promote better business.

The party and youth league branches "will encourage members to play an exemplary role in doing a good job and that will be helpful to business development," it quoted Chen Lie, a Communist Party district leader in Shenyang, as saying.

Chen said the groups would not interfere with management or operations of the retailer, which is based in Bentonville, Ark.

Since July, employees of at least 16 other Wal-Marts in China also have formed unions, according to the ACFTU, the umbrella group for unions permitted by the communist government. Overall, China aims to unionize employees at 60 percent of its foreign companies by the end of this year.

China does not allow independent labor organizations. Unions usually represent the work force of a single company or outlet, rather than an industry, and they traditionally have been allied with management.

The communist leadership has sought to preserve the party's influence in the business sector amid sweeping capitalist reforms and a huge influx of foreign capital and management.

Once a thriving industrial hub of China's planned economy, where factory workers enjoyed elite status and cradle-to-grave benefits, Shenyang has seen massive layoffs in recent years.


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Only thing that irks me about Wally-world is that there's almost never anybody at the sporting goods counter.
Beyond that, I'm curious to see what kind of gay merchandise they might sell...
 
Looks like K-Mart may become profitable after all.:rolleyes: With the rural south hating Target for being French and Wal-Mart for trying to reach out to a group of people southerners typicaly don't like, K-marts neutral stance could help them.

I for one have friends and acquaintances that are homosexual/bi-sexual so it realy does not bother me any.
 
Truth or fiction???

Summary of the eRumor

There are different messages urging you to avoid buying anything at Target stores because the company turned down a request for funds for a Vietnam veterans memorial wall, is owned by the French, won't allow collections for Toys For Tots at Christmas, and won't give reservists call for active military duty continued health insurance coverage.

Regarding Target's ownership, the company is on record as a U.S. firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and always has been.
There is no foreign ownership in its past or present that we've been able to find or been presented with evidence about.:eek:
 
The originating post was (barely) political in nature. The rest of the posts have nothing legal or political about them.

Closed for being off topic.
 
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