New Canadian Film: "Wal-Mart World's Most Hated Company."

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




Al Norman
New Canadian Film: "Wal-Mart World's Most Hated Company."
Posted April 9, 2008 | 06:56 AM (EST)



Wal-Mart bashing is no longer an exclusively American sport.

By Al Norman

Since 1994, when Wal-Mart swallowed 122 Woolco stores, the Canadians have greeted Wal-Mart with a Big Chill. Today the giant retailer controls 305 stores in Canada, and is in the early stages of a superstore rollout across the provinces. But Wal-Mart's history north of the border has been marked by bitter union battles, and increasingly fractious encounters with local residents. It was in Canada, after all, where Wal-Mart shut down a newly-minted store---rather than see it unionized.

In the middle of his new film, Wal-Mart Nation, Toronto-based Andrew Munger quotes a member of an Arkansas group called "Against the Wal" saying, "We'd all be a lot better off if Wal-Mart was less greedy." That pretty much epitomizes Munger's film, which has been shown thus far only to Canadian audiences--but opens this coming week in a couple of American film festivals. Munger borrows a few iconic American symbols---like Miss America, and Presidential candidate John Edwards---to reveal the underside of Wal-Mart Canada.

Munger spent several years compiling this documentary, filming in 3 Ontario communities, 7 U.S. cities and towns, and 3 countries. "There's never been a company like Wal-Mart," Munger explains in the opening narration. "It's the world's most hated company." Munger's camera travels throughout America and Canada to profile what he calls "the growing army of activists" that comes "from the deep south to the chilly north." Munger says he wanted to find out, "Who are these people, and why were they so obsessed with a big box store?" He also wanted to answer the primary question, "If Wal-Mart is so bad, why do so many people shop there?"

That question is answered in the film by Diana Reid, the owner of Clubhouse Donuts, a small bakery in the town of Guelph, Ontario. She tells Munger that when she heard Wal-Mart was coming, "We were all thrilled---until all this opposition came. All of us are in a familiar position where we have to be very careful with our money." But her comments stand in contrast to the Wal-Mart worker in the Wake Up Wal-Mart TV spot shown in the film, who is told that it would take her 1,000 years to earn as much as Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott makes in a year. "A thousand years?" repeats the astonished Wal-Mart employee, Charmaine Givens. "I'm getting upset." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-norman/new-canadian-film-wal-mar_b_95758.html

[SteinbachMB]

1. Bullshit

From a Canadian.

[Canuckistanian]

2. What, exactly, is bullshit?

That Walmart is not greedy? Or that it's the most hated?

[SteinbachMB]

3. I don't know anyone

who hates , or dislikes Wal-mart, as the article, and movie seems to imply.

[BlueJazz]

4. Give um' Time...Give um' Time...They'll all learn to "Respect" Wally World...

...with the same feelings as we do....

[SteinbachMB]

6. Canadians like low prices

even more than they like "free medicare." What can I say? We're cheap.

[BigDaddy44]

5. It seems to me...

That if they've gone from 122 to 305 stores in 14 years, the hate can't be that bad.

[SteinbachMB]

8. Exactly

Not that I'm a big Wal-mart shopper: I'm not. But this story is very one-sided, and incorrect. I suspect the people behind it don't like Wal-mart.

[Vinnie From Indy]

10. Your just a regular fucking Sherlock Holmes aren't ya?

Also, how would you know jack shit about whether the film is incorrect? Have you seen it?

[SteinbachMB]

11. I know that the story as written

is one-sided jack-in-the-box bullshit.

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. For a company that so many people hate, there sure are a lot of people who shop there

[madmom]

9. In the town in which I live and also the neighboring town, we have Wal-mart, K-mart,

and Meijer all within walking distance of each other, why then is Wal-mart the one ALWAYS the busiest when people have the choice? As far as the employee taking 1000 years to make what the ceo makes in a year, my SO works for GM and he said it would be about the same for him. So why are people not so outraged about GM when they are tossing so many good union jobs to the way side just to make more profit.GM is forcing "legacy" employees out so they can hire new employees at 1/2 the wage and less benefits, in some cases farming out jobs to other non-union companies, at $9 an hour or less.Where's the fucking outrage here?