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Walmart to Boost Sourcing of U.S. Products by $50 Billion Over the Next 10 Years

JackFrost

JackFrost

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Good news? Walmart going H.A.M. on it's competitors? Low blow? Government conspiracy?

U.S. Manufacturing
On domestic sourcing, Walmart and Sam’s Club will buy an additional $50 billion in U.S. products over the next 10 years. The company will grow U.S. manufacturing on two fronts: by increasing what it already buys here – in categories like sporting goods, apparel basics, storage products, games, and paper products, and by helping to onshore U.S. production in high potential areas like textiles, furniture and higher-end appliances.

Veterans
Beginning Memorial Day, Walmart will offer a job to any honorably discharged veteran in his or her first 12 months off active duty. Most of these jobs will be in Walmart stores and clubs, and some will be in distribution centers and the Home Office.

Walmart’s pledge is not the end of this effort; it’s the beginning. The company projects it will hire more than 100,000 veterans during the next five years.

Walmart Corporate - Walmart to Boost Sourcing of U.S. Products by $50 Billion Over the Next 10 Years

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/opinion/wal-mart-offers-jobs-to-veterans.html?_r=0

Wal-Mart pledges to hire any returning veteran who wants a job - latimes.com
 
I just love those "10 year" plans, they assure us that all will be better "later" but that whatever is going on now is cool too!. ;)
 
Political posturing pure and simple.. just like Apple announcing they were going to make a Mac pc in the US again...not exactly true ..
 
hawke812 said:
Good news? Walmart going H.A.M. on it's competitors? Low blow? Government conspiracy?

U.S. Manufacturing
On domestic sourcing, Walmart and Sam’s Club will buy an additional $50 billion in U.S. products over the next 10 years. The company will grow U.S. manufacturing on two fronts: by increasing what it already buys here – in categories like sporting goods, apparel basics, storage products, games, and paper products, and by helping to onshore U.S. production in high potential areas like textiles, furniture and higher-end appliances.

Veterans
Beginning Memorial Day, Walmart will offer a job to any honorably discharged veteran in his or her first 12 months off active duty. Most of these jobs will be in Walmart stores and clubs, and some will be in distribution centers and the Home Office.

Walmart’s pledge is not the end of this effort; it’s the beginning. The company projects it will hire more than 100,000 veterans during the next five years.

Walmart Corporate - Walmart to Boost Sourcing of U.S. Products by $50 Billion Over the Next 10 Years

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/opinion/wal-mart-offers-jobs-to-veterans.html?_r=0

Wal-Mart pledges to hire any returning veteran who wants a job - latimes.com
Click to expand...

This is a great plan...most especially that part that effects veterans. That can be a real life-line, there's no doubt about it.
 
I think it may be good Business positioning.
They see the tide turning, and are looking for a better place to stand.
I think better technology always has a chance to win out over cheaper labor.
History is full of examples, The Tull seed drill , the spinning jenny, the cotton gin, ect.
If Walmart can encourage businesses to compete with low overseas labor and win,
it will be better for the USA.
If it does the job, I am not sure I care what their motives are.
 
longview said:
I think it may be good Business positioning.
They see the tide turning, and are looking for a better place to stand.
I think better technology always has a chance to win out over cheaper labor.
History is full of examples, The Tull seed drill , the spinning jenny, the cotton gin, ect.
If Walmart can encourage businesses to compete with low overseas labor and win,
it will be better for the USA.
If it does the job, I am not sure I care what their motives are.
Click to expand...

Post of the day.
 
longview said:
I think it may be good Business positioning.
They see the tide turning, and are looking for a better place to stand.
I think better technology always has a chance to win out over cheaper labor.
History is full of examples, The Tull seed drill , the spinning jenny, the cotton gin, ect.
If Walmart can encourage businesses to compete with low overseas labor and win,
it will be better for the USA.
If it does the job, I am not sure I care what their motives are.
Click to expand...

I think your right in that they see the tide turning on manufacturing. China and India have grown so fast that their pollution rate is through the roof. I had a friend recently come back from a trip to China and he said their cities are so dirty that the gov will probably start to dial back industrial growth. The US is still relatively untapped in comparison to the larger populations of Asia.
 
hawke812 said:
So what would be a better "plan"? 5 year plan? 20 year plan? 1 year plan?
Click to expand...

Yep. Simply do it, then brag about it. I am sick and tired of hearing these long range plans yet seeing no current changes, it is too "Obama" for me. If a private company wants to hire recently returning vets, then fine, just do it and then brag about it. If they want to replace foreign made prodicts with US made products then just do it and then brag about that too, but spare me the hype of "$50 billion 10 year plans" when they yet to do anything like that at all.
 
Yeah, Walmart and the billionaire trustfund baby Walton siblings are going to save America!

I guess the billionaires hope Americans don't remember this:


Wal-Mart’s “Buy American” program proved to be “a public relations coup historic in its dimensions,” rued Discount Store News, reflecting the chagrin of the Bentonville retailer’s competitors. By 1986, Wal-Mart stores were festooned with red-white-and-blue “Buy American” banners and counter signs proclaiming: THIS ITEM, FORMERLY IMPORTED, IS NOW BEING PURCHASED BY WAL-MART IN THE U.S.A. AND IS CREATING OR RETAINING-JOBS FOR AMERICANS! Even today, long after the company’s formal abandonment of this campaign, Wal-Mart is thought of as a more “American” firm than some of its competitors, even though they actually import fewer goods. Wal-Mart never released firm figures on the proportion of its product costs coming from overseas, but Asian procurement rose steadily during the heyday of the “Buy American” program, as the corporate buying staff in East Asia more than doubled in size.

The real import of the “Buy American” campaign lies elsewhere. Wal-Mart would increase domestic purchasing, but the company used the prospect of such procurement as a hammer to drive down supplier costs, including wages and profits, and to transform these vendors into Bentonville pawns. “One of our big objectives” in the “Buy American” program, a Wal-Mart board member told Walton biographer Bob Ortega, “was to put the heat on American manufacturers to lower their prices.” Wal-Mart recognized that labor costs were much higher in the United States than in Central America or East Asia, but it sought to make up the difference by freezing wages and forcing logistic and production efficiencies on its suppliers. “Our American suppliers,” said Sam Walton, “must commit to improving their facilities and machinery, remain financially conservative and work to fill our requirements, and most importantly, strive to improve employee productivity.”

Thus an embittered spokesman for the National Knitwear and Sportswear Association complained that Wal-Mart used its “flag-waving” “Buy American” campaign “as a negotiating club that forces domestic manufacturers to compete, often unrealistically, with foreign suppliers who pay their help pennies an hour. As a result vendors see their gross sales skyrocket and their net profits plunge.”
Click to expand...


The Writing On The Wal » Blog Archive » Remember Wal-Mart’s “Buy American” program?
 
If Americans fall for another Walmart scam, they deserve it.

Sam-Walton.bmp
 
hawke812 said:
Good news? Walmart going H.A.M. on it's competitors? Low blow? Government conspiracy?

U.S. Manufacturing
On domestic sourcing, Walmart and Sam’s Club will buy an additional $50 billion in U.S. products over the next 10 years. The company will grow U.S. manufacturing on two fronts: by increasing what it already buys here – in categories like sporting goods, apparel basics, storage products, games, and paper products, and by helping to onshore U.S. production in high potential areas like textiles, furniture and higher-end appliances.

Veterans
Beginning Memorial Day, Walmart will offer a job to any honorably discharged veteran in his or her first 12 months off active duty. Most of these jobs will be in Walmart stores and clubs, and some will be in distribution centers and the Home Office.

Walmart’s pledge is not the end of this effort; it’s the beginning. The company projects it will hire more than 100,000 veterans during the next five years.

Walmart Corporate - Walmart to Boost Sourcing of U.S. Products by $50 Billion Over the Next 10 Years

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/opinion/wal-mart-offers-jobs-to-veterans.html?_r=0

Wal-Mart pledges to hire any returning veteran who wants a job - latimes.com
Click to expand...

I worked at Sam's club for 6 years starting just 2 weeks after Sam Walton died. Sam was a very big proponent of his stores buying American and buying local. After he was 6 feet under when the warmth of his body had barely left, they abolished that as fast as they could and moved their HQ's of purchasing to China. I'm not buying into this bull**** propaganda. If they wanted to do it they'd just do it. The fact that they are telegraphing this move to me screams phony. At best they'd noisily boost spending on american products then quietly shrink it even faster.
 
hawke812 said:
So damned if they do, damned if they don't, huh?
Click to expand...

Nope, it is PR. Apples "US made Mac" is 99% made in China, with the final assembly being in the US and creating a handful of jobs. In fact they are already selling "made in the US" Macs in New York, where it is 99.9% made in China but they add one bit and then claim it is made in the US.. it is not even assembled here.

Same thing for Walmart.. repackage their goods and wupti "Made in the US"!
 
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