and the beat goes on.... - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Aug 3, 2005

RE: and the beat goes on....

Date: Aug 3, 2005

Doubting Thomas wrote:

If you're looking to Target for a better alternative, you may find that it's not much better than Wal-Mart. Target sells foreign-made products. Target employs a lot of part-timers (no benefits). Target does not have the poor public record of treatment of employees, but it does have a poor record of supporting community and charitable organizations (e.g., The Salvation Army wasn't allowed to even place kettles outside of Target stores last year, much less have bell ringers.). Plus, Target is a foreign-owned company.

The best solution is to find a locally-owned business and determine where it stands on the SFT/faculty issue.

Doubting Thomas, you do make a good point. And so succinctly! I also patronize Corner Market and would love to find other such places to patronize.

Date: Aug 3, 2005

Son of Sam wrote:

Every time I go to Wal-Mart it's packed with shoppers,including USM profs.I hope you'll spread the word on their dastardly plan. We can't let the marketplace rule.Let's defeat that ugly capitalism.If we let merit and performance rule they'll soon be asking us to up our workload.

Son of Sam,

Maybe a business professor will back me up here, but what we are talking about IS capitalism at work, and it's called "Voting With Your Feet." If a company does something you don't like, just don't patronize that company. In investing, that means selling the stock of the company that offends you. In consumer terms, it means not buying products from the offending firm. I don't like Wal-Mart or Target, and I spend as little money in those stores as is humanly possible. I prefer Corner Market, the Lil' Butcher Shoppe, or DiFatta's Fresh Market. I like to support hometown people who don't think I'm a piece of trash.

DT

Date: Aug 4, 2005

sorry, you've been misinformed....

Date: Aug 4, 2005

RE: and the beat goes on....

Date: Aug 4, 2005

Yep, that's what we would all settle for: stable and "pleasant." That's what the IHL hoped for in getting rid of Fleming. He wasn't for stable and "pleasant." He ran their a$$e$ to the wall, and they didn't like it. We can be stable and pleasant, and the Scott Rosses and Thomas Colberts would love for Mississippi Southern to do just that. Pity.

Date: Aug 4, 2005

wrong, wrong, wrong wrote:

Target Corp. is ranked as one of the most philanthopic companies in the country. Target donates around five percent of their pre-tax operating profit; it gives over $2 million a week in the communities it operates. It also gives a percentage of charges from its Target Visa to schools designated by the cardholders. To date, Target has given over $150 million to schools across the United States through this program.

Target has a standard no-solicitation rule at its properties, as it wishes to provide a "distraction-free shopping experience for its guests". Exemptions to this policy were previously made for the Salvation Army to station its traditional red kettles and bell-ringers outside Target stores during the Christmas season. However, the company decided that it would no longer allow the Salvation Army to solicit on Target Stores' properties in 2004 because they felt it was a "guest distraction". Many religious organizations objected to this decision, and called for boycotts of Target; however, this has failed as Target's financials over the last year have been setting company records and Target's same-store sales have been outperforming Wal-Mart.

Target Corporation was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.

and lastly, TARGET IS OWNED BY AMERICANS! It is NOT owned by a foreign corporation. Dayton Hudson, its corp, changed its name in 2000 to "Target Corporation" because those stores were generating the most $$ and most branding for them. Target was founded - and still headquartered and run - in Minneapolis, Minn.

To paraphrase donald, you don't appear to know much about business. The owners of the company are not those nice folks in Minneapolis but the stockholders. In one recent report I have seen (you can start at yahoo.com's finance page and work your way to it), the largest single holder of Target stocks over the past 4 or 5 years is AXA, a French-born and European-based financial institution that has been holding the stock NOT for clients but for its own portfolio. So, all those fat profits you talk about have been going into foreign pockets.

Now, I HATE WAL-MART, but READ ABOUT IT HERE. Or, if you want a more positive spin, READ THIS.

Now, as I said, I hate Wal-Mart, but I could type out several nice things about Wal-Mart's philanthropy, etc., to match yours about Target. Here's the point: They're the same! They just serve different groups of people.

Date: Aug 5, 2005

I kind of hate to tell this...

I was being a good citizen and supporting my local family-owned grocery. I bought some antifreeze and I noticed that there was a price sticker under the price sticker I had paid. I wondered whether the price had risen or fallen, so I peeled it back, and there was a WalMart sticker.

After that I cut out the middleman.