[Vision2020] The Walmart Clash

[Phil Nisbet]

As is often my risk in discussions on this medium, I find that debate 
regarding Walmart here to be a false dichotomy and largely due to lack of 
understanding on the part of some who debate the issue.

Jeff, as one example, is an ardent supporter of Free Enterprise and Free 
Trade.  But is Walmart a Free Trade company?  Is Walmart competitive and 
playing from a business level field or are they similar to the monopoly 
trust structures of the Robber Barons that the GOP bought to heel over a 
hundred years ago?

Standard Oil during its early years was quite cost competitive, largely due 
to its practice of destroying competitive enterprises and consolidating 
their bankrupt hulks into JD Rockefeller’s trust.  At what point do 
Walmart’s practices deserve scrutiny under the Sherman Act?  And I am not 
saying that they have indeed reached that point, but read their literature 
and you see their constant suggestion that they can treat suppliers like 
chattels because of their size.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Sl3RZcn5f0YJ:www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm%3FprogramID%3D05-P13-00043%26segmentID%3D1+Walmart+Environmental+contributions&hl=en

IN this you will note that Walmart tells the press that they have a new 
Environmental emphasis and have decided that they will tell their growers 
that they must now grow organic cotton at extremely low prices or not sell 
to Walmart.  What I really loved was the suggestion that the farmers could 
allow this to go on based not on real economics, but upon the basis that 
they let their lands lie fallow for the season after they have the cotton in 
the ground and could plant a second alternative crop to survive selling 
cheap organic cotton to Walmart.  The CEO suggests to the reporter that 
Walmart can do this because they are so big that they can force suppliers to 
do what they want them to do.  That is an indication of monopoly power.

You see the same sorts of statements in this one from Walmart,

http://walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=217

Then of course there is a lot of Greenmail going on at Walmart.  World 
Wildlife Federation gets a million and a half dollars a year from Wally 
World.  Other heads of certain environmental organizations get seats on 
their green advisory board.  Walmart is in essence paying off groups to go 
away and setting up funds to keep those groups chasing their competition 
from the scene.  This sort of thing is highly anti-competitive and really 
makes for a very uneven playing field.

Take for an example the Walmart policy of buying in 1 acre of land for 
conservancy for every acre they disturb in building their stores.  These 
sorts of activities are not good land use policy, since they restore no 
disturbed lands and instead take lands from productive use, while what 
Walmart does not tell you is that such land conservancy is a giant loophole 
in tax policy.  Smaller stores simply do not have the clout to play this 
game or get the tax benefit that results from it.

On the other hand, I find it interesting that those on the left are so 
absolutely angered by Walmart.  For years now I have seen most of the 
practices that Walmart actually does being touted by the left as “Corporate 
Responsibility”.  Wally World gives till it hurts to every cause of the left 
and they are not exactly friendly to any libertarian or right causes.  They 
are shoveling over a hundred million bucks a year into left leaning groups, 
far more than any other corporate entity.

IN general, from what I can determine, Walmart is not something a true Free 
Enterpriser can support.  At some point soon it makes sense to see greater 
scrutiny of them from an Anti-Trust standpoint.  Their use of regulation to 
drive others from the field, their use of Greenmail pay offs, their giving 
to the left and a raft of other attempts to keep the playing field of Free 
Markets from operating will not mean low prices in the long run.

That said, fighting Walmart does not make a lot of sense to me.  A battle 
royal against Wally World is not going to bring jobs to Moscow and its jobs 
that we lack that are driving our small retailers and small businesses into 
receivership.  If half the efforts heading into attacks on Walmart were 
directed to getting real jobs here, we would be booming and downtown would 
be rolling in the purchasing power that could be ours.

Just as an example, Bill London is going hog wild setting up an anti-Walmart 
group with publicists and the rest.  What if that same sort of group was set 
up to do volunteer work to get support for and sales possibilities for the 
area’s organic farmers?  How about if the same effort was put into work to 
attract desirable businesses to the area?  Because that is the sort of 
effort required to save downtown and all the rallies and all the attack on 
Wally World will not change the fact that real industry is what we need to 
make Moscow viable.

Phil Nisbet

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