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Walmart plans to cut food prices and damage the already teetering grocery industry. Is this healthy competition, allowing one company, by virtue of size alone, to dominate any market to such an extent that it can destroy all its competition? Is this a free market?
Is it any surprise then that Walmart, along with SEIU and The Center for American Progress, backs the health care bill? Walgreens has already announced in Washington state that it will no longer fill new Medicaide prescriptions because it can't afford the loss in profit.
Walgreens is a pharmacy that sells other goods. Walmart, on the other hand, is a general retailer that also has a pharmacy on the premises. Walmart is happy to take a small lose on drugs because it can spread the cost around to other items due to its size.
Walmart is happy to collude with the government because this collusion will increase it market share. So I have a question. Where are all the people on the left that are always screaming about how unfair Walmart is to its workers? People like SEIU. And where are all the activists that are always screaming about Walmart destroying local economies? WHERE ARE YOU??!!
The ends justify the means.
"Wal-Mart Stores Inc will cut food prices and mount a new ad campaign over the next six weeks, a threat to other U.S. grocers that sent an industry shares index down more than 2 percent on Friday.
A Morgan Stanley analyst first reported the world's largest retailer's plan, calling it a major setback for other U.S. grocers, and the company confirmed the promotions in an email.
"While this helps address Walmart's traffic woes, we view this as a major setback for the grocery stocks, which have been rallying on hopes of a return to more rational pricing," Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Wiltamuth wrote in a note on Friday.
The Standard & Poor's Food Retail Sub-Industry Index closed down 2.2 percent.
Walmart has used aggressive pricing in grocery and other units to bring shoppers into its stores. The grocery business is particularly pressured by such pricing, as its profit margins are already low."
Reuters
"As health care reform enters the next phase, we came together at this point in the debate to add our combined voices to the momentum building behind reform. We believe the time for comprehensive reform is now. The present system is not sustainable. The status quo is not an option.
"We applaud the bipartisan efforts in Congress to craft and pass legislation.
"We are pleased that Walmart, Service Employees International Union and Center for American Progress can support three essential elements that should be included in any health care reform legislation--an employer mandate, strong efficiency provisions and a 'trigger' mechanism to ensure cost reductions."
Walmart
"Walgreens has told state officials that as of April 16, it no longer will fill prescriptions for new Medicaid patients at its 121 Washington pharmacies because it isn't being reimbursed enough by the state.
In a news release, the Deerfield, Ill.-based drugstore chain said it will continue to serve its existing Medicaid patients, but it can't take on additional losses due to reductions in the state's payments.
Walgreens had planned to stop filling Medicaid prescriptions in February at 64 of its stores in Washington, but held off while negotiations with the state Department of Social and Health Services continued.
The chain said the state reimburses it at less than its cost to break even on nearly 95 percent of brand name medications it dispenses to Medicaid patients.
"Obviously, we're disappointed that the alternatives we've suggested have failed to achieve a compromise," said Kermit Crawford, Walgreens executive vice president of pharmacy. "We intend to continue our commitment to serving our existing patients, but we simply cannot take on additional losses."
Bellingham Herald
"The Missouri Senate has given first-round approval to a wide-ranging bill affecting county and local governments.
The measure includes numerous provisions on issues that have arisen only in some parts of Missouri. One section, proposed by a senator from Columbia, would allow surrounding Boone County to establish a curfew for people younger than 17. Another section would let counties build jails outside the county seat.
The bill also gives some communities permission to levy or increase taxes on hotel and motel guests.
Senators endorsed the bill Wednesday after considering roughly two dozen amendments. Final approval in the Senate would move the measure to the House."
KOAM TV
This is almost a man bites dog story. In an age when government, in particular Washington, seems intent on moving power away from the people it warms my heart to see Missouri doing just the opposite. The closer government is to the people the more likely it is that it will govern well. It's actually surprising that the issues mentioned above couldn't be addressed at the local level without having to change a state law. None of these issues should have ever risen beyond a city or county level. (I would guess that these laws are vestiges of the War Between the States when the Federal Government invaded my state and needed to control local resistance. Boone County was right in the middle of this.)
This allows for competition between cities and counties. Let the people decide what amount of government they want in their lives. If local laws become too onerous people will leave for other less restrictive places. But, if the amount of government is "just right" people will flock to a city or county for the perceived benefits.
This is the way our country was designed to function. That's why the states are sovereign political entities. Competition between states and even between the counties within them create growth and innovation. The homogenized, one size fits all behemoth that Washington has been working to create since the wrong side lost in 1865 has had just the opposite effect.
When I was a kid Route 66 was the road we took when we went somewhere. It was the closest thing to a sideshow at the carnival you could find on four wheels. Every town and county was different. Quirky is the only way to describe it. Weird billboards, bizarre buildings, dancing chickens and people that were real characters were the mainstay. Every time we went somewhere I knew adventure lurked around each twist in the road. The entire highway, which was really nothing more than a ribbon of two lane county highways stitched together to form a path across the country, was a testimony to free market entrepreneurism. That's because the businesses along the way didn't have the whole panoply of alphabet soup agencies from a foreign government approving their every decision. To the extent there was any control at all it came from the town or county these businesses resided in; and it was in the best interest of these local governments to see that these businesses flourished.
Traveling by car lets you get a feel for the places you move through in a way that nothing else can. When I was a kid we traveled through a country of individuals working to achieve a dream. Now, when I travel, I drive down an interstate, efficient to be sure, but bland and gray. Each exit has the full complement of McDonalds and Cracker Barrels, one no different than the next. I'm not traveling through Missouri, Phelps County or Rolla anymore; just America, a one size fits all, everything boiled down to the lowest possible denominator kind of place. All is done in the name of corporate efficiency; every hamburger shaped the exact same way for shipping convenience and prepared in a factory environment by slack jawed automatons so that the taste and texture never varies. And not a dancing chicken to be found.
We've lost our soul here in the USA; and our will to live. As we changed from a Republic to an oligarchy the color drained from our faces as we took on the sorry countenance of sheep being led to the slaughter. We have been convinced that hope lies in a good job at a gray corporation and that the reward is a bigger TV and new car. We no longer believe that hope lies in God and our reward here on earth is freedom. No, we've happily traded our real reward for security; we've trade the carnival ride exuberance of risk for the placid congeniality of safety.
But this is a lie. When we rely on others for our safety we can never be safe. Life is not a safe undertaking and no one can make it so. Americans used to embrace the danger; and the adventure. And I used to see that passion along Route 66, when I was a kid and TV's were black and white but America still had color.
It doesn't take a Nobel Laureate to figure this out. If those of us that aren't making the kind of money we used to have to spend more on energy, what do you think is going to happen to all of our other spending?
This could be the final nail in the coffin if they can keep the prices up. With low demand on the transportation side it would seem that a free market would cause prices to fall. Makes you wonder just how "free" the market is.
Peak Oil in action. We don't have to run out of energy; pricing us out of the market has the same effect.
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