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We just finished watching the Frontline report. After seeing it all, I think that Walmart is definitely bad for America. Also bad is the trading deficit with China. America is just a consumer nation, and we are all so materialistic - but we don't actually produce anything of value that other countries would want. Walmart has taken advantage of unequal trade with China at the cost of many American jobs. The show barely even mentioned how poor the wages are at Walmart and the shoddy benefits. Yup, the next time you are at Walmart - don't buy anything!

Actually, I mean that America can produce things of value - except that they give workers certain wages and standard of life that causes for uncompetitive prices on the global market. China on the other hand pays workers very little and due to their Communist controls - it is a rigged system like the show said. Since Chinese workers have such low wages (plus undervalued currency) they can't afford to buy goods that would come from America. The result is that America exports only raw goods to China like cotton and then China imports back in clothing. The show compared this to America being like a third world country that is exploited only for its resources.

Did the show say what we should do about this?

Just don't shop at Walmart?

Is Target ok?

Good to see you taking an interest in PBS!

As regards to your question, the show did not say what if anything we should do about Walmart. It did make clear that the notion of 'lowest prices' is a bit of an illusion with Walmart. They put out a 'target' object for each section of the store that is marked down to draw customers in, but the other items in that section will not be the lowest prices you can get.

But also other stores do much business with China - such as Target. I am not sure if it is ok to shop there, but I think it is at least better than Walmart. I would say that Costco is a very good American company - since their CEO believes in very high wages and benefits to retain employees, and it is a much better retailer in terms of how it treats its own customers. But you have to buy a lot of everything there.

I will let you know if I hear more. But you can't go wrong shoping at Gund!