Because enough is NEVER enough and Wal-Mart just has to find additional ways to squeeze suppliers and retailers, they have announced that they are looking to enter the transportation business.
With its over $408 billion in sales for last year, they have plenty of clout and seem to be using it to tell their suppliers that they want to chauffer their own goods from the suppliers to their stores. Needless to say, if the suppliers were making a small margin in shipping and logistics, that will be gone. And think of all those unemployed truck drivers and closed trucking companies. BUT, it gets even better…
With Wal-Mart doing their own deliveries, they will have their own fleet of trucks and drivers (think about minimum wage workers!) and because one good Wal-Mart turn deserves another, they are also telling suppliers that they will now need to REDUCE costs of goods by as much as 6%, even though suppliers feel the real number should have been half of that!
So, the giant who has swallowed up many of our small businesses in communities, strangled suppliers with penny-pinching pricing, is now going after the transportation industry. It’s all about reducing their expenses so they can keep rolling back their pricing, while thousands of truckers around the country may stop rolling completely or, my guess is that they will be forced to work for the Wal-Mart wage… which from what I understand is not a living one!
So, consumers, go save a nickel and dime at these greedy mega-stores while your neighbors lose their jobs, independent retailers struggle and wholesalers get pinned to the wall. All so that you can save a nickel and Wal-Mart can make$408 billion!
