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Wal-Mart Music Download Service Launches
nns6561 writes "Wal-Mart launched their music download service today. They are providing wma files for 88 cents. I was able to download and play the test file with MPlayer and Linux. Finally, a music service for us geeks." While it may be only another online music seller, I'd hazard a guess that Wal-Mart has the name recognition to be the most prevalent music download service, especially among the tech-unsavvy.
sorry move along.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Because this is how walmart works. They undercut the competition until there *is* no more competition. It remains to be seen, however, what will truly happen when walmart is the world's only megacorp...
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Top 5 Reasons Not To Shop At Wal-Mart
1. American Wal-Mart Employees Are Exploited.
2. Wal-Mart's Low Prices Are The Result Of Human Misery.
3. Wal-Mart Forces Its Unethical Practices On Its 65,000 Suppliers.
4. Wal-Mart Destroys Local Communities.
5. Wal-Mart Is Not Accountable.
1. AMERICAN WAL-MART EMPLOYEES ARE EXPLOITED:
* "Full-Time" (actually 28 hours/week) employees only gross $11,000 a year,
on average.
* Health benefits are available only after two years, but premiums are so
high only 38% of employees can afford it.
* Even discussing working conditions or unionization will result in
retaliation and firing.
* There is "a harsh, anti-woman culture in which complaints go unanswered
and the women who make them are targeted for retaliation." (Quote taken
from a national class-action suit against Wal-Mart.)
2. WAL-MART'S LOW PRICES ARE THE RESULT OF HUMAN MISERY:
* 13-16 hour days molding, assembling, and painting toys, 7 days a week; 20
hour days in the peak season.
* Workers are paid 13 cents/hour wages in China: the minimum wage is
31 cents.
* There is no health or safety enforcement: constant headaches and nausea
from chemical fumes, indoor temperatures above 100 degrees F, rampant
repetitive stress disorder, no protective clothing available.
* Most employees are young women or teenage girls.
3. WAL-MART FORCES ITS UNETHICAL PRACTICES ON ITS 65,000 SUPPLIERS:
* Suppliers have to open their accounting books to Wal-Mart executives so
they can cut "unnecessary expenses" like unionized workers, health
benefits, and American-made products.
* Suppliers are forced to move facilities to China and other low production
cost nations to meet Wal-Mart's demands.
* Competitors are also forced to abandon customer service while slashing
employee wages and moving production to foreign sweat shops to remain
competitive.
4. WAL-MART DESTROYS LOCAL COMMUNITIES:
* Wal-Mart stores average 200,000 feet in size: more than 4 football fields
and destroying any sense of community or character where they are located.
* By pricing items below cost they crush local retailers. Once they hold a
monopoly in the market they raise prices.
* Three good jobs are destroyed for every two Wal-Mart jobs created.
* Instead of business profits being reinvested in the community they are
shipped to Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.
5. WAL-MART IS NOT ACCOUNTABLE:
* The media won't report negatively about Wal-Mart because Wal-Mart would
pull its huge advertising budget.
* The 535 members of Congress have no power compared to Wal-Mart's
global reach: Wal-Mart does not have to answer to American voters, just
it's stockholders who are seeking unethical profit.
* Wal-Mart is radically remaking our labor standards and local economies
by stifling debate, suppressing knowledge, and not asking our consent.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
You mean lower prices?
That's the definition of competition.