More Proof That Wal-Mart Has Lost Its Way?
Note: This is from Reuters, so I’m skeptical that this is the whole story, hence the question mark on the post title.
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Would Sam Walton have allowed this?
Wal-Mart welcomes Chinese communists
No. 1 retailer allows Communist Party to set up branch in China storeBEIJING (Reuters) — The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, is now host to the world’s largest communist party, state media said on Thursday, after establishing the first party branch in one of the U.S. company’s China stores.
A Chinese Communist Party official in the northeast city Shenyang said a Wal-Mart store there had set up a party branch on Aug. 12 - the first branch of the ruling Communist Party in the U.S. icon of global capitalism, Xinhua news agency reported.
Employees at the Wal-Mart store will now have access to CPC membership,” Xinhua said, referring to the Communist Party of China.
It did not say how many of the 700 Wal-Mart employees at the Shenyang store had applied to join the 70-million strong party.
A Wal-Mart spokesman was not immediately available for comment on the report.
The announcement comes soon after Wal-Mart bowed to a Chinese government campaign to establish state-controlled trade unions in its outlets across the country.
Well, it was China that had Google jumping through hoops wasn’t it? If it’s true, it’s a “you’ll do it our way or you’re out of the country” thing.
Comment by Anna — August 24, 2006 @ 11:22 am
#1, true enough, but I wonder, if Sam Walton were still alive, whether the Chinese would have even had the nerve to make the demand for space.
If WM was a tech company and Reuters isn’t shading the story, they’d be added to the Wall of Shame.
Comment by TBlumer — August 24, 2006 @ 11:40 am
Since Wal-Mart sells so much from China, it would seem to me that the company would have tremendous leverage. Or am I wrong and the Chinese hold the cards because they could ban their products and hurt Wal-Mart?
Comment by Steven J. Kelso Sr. — August 24, 2006 @ 6:02 pm
#3, if you believe as I do that China is essentially one big company, then I believe China has more leverage over WM than vice-versa.
I may have read that 70% of the stuff in a WM store is from China. That is probably an exaggeration (UPDATE–actually it may not be, based on a Friday post I did), but may be true in certain categories. If the customer who supplies you 70% of your stuff in a lot of categories say *jump*, you would tend to ask *how high?*
I sincerely doubt that Sam Walton would have allowed himself to get into such a dependent relationship.
Comment by TBlumer — August 24, 2006 @ 6:29 pm
You are probably right. But Wal-Mart would be no where nere as successful without the cheap merchandise from China (American unions priced the American worker out of a job with extravagant pay and bennies).
I sincerely hope that those who believe that trading with China will bring about freedom are right; I hate to benefit from the oppression of others. ):
Comment by Steven J. Kelso Sr. — August 25, 2006 @ 5:41 pm