Could someone start a non-profit megastore to compete with Walmart?

[skipos]

This might be a very dumb question, as I don't know anything about non-profit organizations...

Lets say I started a non-profit grocery store, everyone earns a living wage, everyone gets insurance, none of the executives are over paid, etc. As the business grows over years, more people are hired, stores get bigger and more stores open. This non-profit business gets so big that next thing you know, Walmarts start going out of business because they treat their employees and customers like shit, and only care about their stock holders.

I am not interested in whether this is a bad idea or not, it very well may be. What I am wondering is, given the laws of non-profits, is such a thing *technically* possible?

[Deja Q]

1. Why can't Target or the others emulate what Walmart does?

Surely Walmart does not have any restrictive license agreements with their vendors?

if the government won't do its job, then Walmart needs to be beaten at its own game.

Pity it's "just a game" to those folks.

[pnwmom]

2. Costco is not a non-profit, but they're known to treat their

employees very well.

There is a co-op called Puget Sound Consumers Co-op in our area. They seem to be doing pretty well, though they're not on the scale of Walmart.

[pnwmom]

5. Have you heard of "buyblue.org"? They compare Wal-Mart to Costco:

http://www.buyblue.org/node/29

SNIP

"On our Blue Christmas list (returning in less than a week) we had listed Walmart/Sam's as Red and Costco as Blue based strictly on political donations. For most people this didn't come as a real shock. However, this article further expands on that showing that Costco's business practices are very blue as well. Costco values the people that work for them and they value the customer.

"According to the article "Costco's average U.S. hourly wage of approximately $16 an hour is widely considered to be the best in the retail business. And its approach to health care, as noted in a report at the time by the financial research and investment firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., "has been to provide employees with the best plan at the least expense to the employee."

"There have literally been volumes written about how poorly employees that work for Wal-Mart are treated in regards to health care and their wages. A quick google search will turn up scores of articles by major news sources.

"These principles carry over to dealing with customers as well: "The financial guys noted another sin: Costco also treats its customers too well. Its bargain prices are legendary and, at the time analysts were tsk tsking, Costco was planning to add staff at checkouts in order to shorten lines."

SNIP

[Kutjara]

3. It might work for groceries...

...(although I'm not sure) but it would be very difficult to replicate Wal-Mart under a non-profit model across the product ranges they carry. Wal-Mart can charge the prices it does because of its support for explotative offshore manufacturing. The people who make much of what Wal-Mart sells receive wages that no American could survive on.

It would be very difficult to create an ethical business that can compete with Wal-Mart on choice and price. It's their very immorality that makes them such a success.

[Cleita]

4. I worked for Fred Segal in so. California, for a few months.

He had developed an idea of a department store, where the departments were individually owned but under one roof and one corporate logo. I liked what he was doing but I was too committed to others at the time to work for him any further.

I believe something like this could work in most commerical enterprises, however, it wouldn't fit under non-profit. Incidentally, the products he sold were extraordinarily expensive so he was targeting the rich to help the worker.

[originalpckelly]

6. Groceries people get paid living wage, for manufactured goods...

use automatic manufacturing plants. That way you don't have to force people to suffer in a factory all day. The only thing you have to pay is is a few maintenance bill and the price of electricity.

[blm]

7. Go to Costco - employees are treated well with full benefits and the

owner keeps his own salary around 300,000, I believe - no multi-million dollar salary for this guy.

Plus, they donate to the Dem party.

[Skittles]

8. my favorite local grocery store is closing because of a mega-walmart

I AM SICK OF WALMART

[Redstone]

9. It's a wonderful idea; but it's impossible. Here's why:

Americans are cheap. They don't care if it causes the local window-fan factory to go out of business, they want cheap window fans. Therefore, they'll buy the window fans at Wal-Mart, because they're cheap there.

They don't care that Wal-Mart gets to sell the fans for cheap prices because they bully their suppliers to the point where even fans made in Mexico aren't cheap enough, so the contracts go to Chinese factories.

So, you propose to start a store with a social conscience, when all the average American cares about is the stuff you sell being cheap?

Sorry, I know you mean well, but it wouldn't work, because of the above.

Redstone

[FlaGranny]

12. Many years ago, when it was still possible,

I never bought anything other than American, and I've never bought the cheapest item available. When manufacturing started to be outsourced, most everyone I knew complained about not having American-made items to buy. I like quality and always felt it was worth the extra money. I was devastated when they started making my favorite shoes (New Balance) in China.

[SheilaT]

10. Redstone nails it.

Too many people will simply buy the cheapest version of whatever it is they want (or the supposedly cheapest version: WalMart isn't always the biggest bargain in town, but that's a different thread altogether) without bothering to consider all that entails. The saying, "You get what you pay for" is always true, no matter where you shop or what you buy.

But more to the original poster's question. The reason WalMart is as successful as it is, is due very much to economies of scale. They can buy is such huge quantities that they are truly the 900 pound gorilla. Their buying decisions are the engine that drives many manufacturers/producers of goods. There are producers out there who refuse to deal with WalMart, or stop dealing with them once WalMart starts demanding lower prices from the producer, but those are few and far between.

It's a lot like the ordinary workers who (and you know who you are) tolerate working longer hours for the same pay, who forgo lunch breaks or don't take all their vacation time, or who in some way or another work off the clock because they're convinced that if they don't do those things they'll be replaced. I'm constantly telling people they should refuse to submit to such things, and over and over again I'm told that I just don't understand the modern workplace. Which is probably right, since I've only recently returned to the world of work after nearly 25 years spent raising children. But it frustrates me enormously that the individual fears of losing a job translate into the massive exploitation of the workforce.

And it's not really new. In the late 60's and early 70's I witnessed people in certain fields putting in lots of unpaid overtime simply because that was what was done in their industry at that time. In the past I've usually been an hourly worker, always paid overtime when I went over 40 hours in a week. Now I'm a part time paralegal -- and I love my job -- for an attorney who I see as one of the "good guys" with a lot of flexibility. I pay attention to the time I put in, and wind up making sure I'm paid for the hours I put in. And I know how incredibly lucky I am to be in this situation.

Anyway, this whole long-winded thing is to point out that the problem isn't simply WalMart the monolith, but a whole series of changes that have occurred over the past 50 years which have led to WalMart and its ilk.

When I was growing up in the 50's and early 60's, there was this assumption that in the future the working week and day would get shorter. The promise was that by the end of the 20th century most jobs would be about 20 hours a week, and there was this big debate about how people would fill their leisure time. I'm still angry that the promise of such leisure has been broken.

[Coyote_Bandit]

11. To be recognized as a non-profit for tax purposes

the organization must be organized for certain charitable purposes designated by statute.

An IRS document regarding exemption requirements can be found here:
http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=96099,00.html