On Tue, 28 Dec 2004, Globe Trotter wrote: > Walmart sells their employees, too! For under $5 an hour (when > averaged over the time they have to spend unpaid and locked in) and > no benefits. So, they show up in your city's ER and your local taxes > go up.... i didn't want to wander into the political arena here, but there is one extra piece of information i wanted to add. (and, yes, this has relevance to laptops.) a while back, a friend told me that one of the ways wal-mart can keep prices so low (and also even keep *lowering* them year after year) is that, when they sign a contract with a supplier, that contract typically states that what wal-mart will pay the supplier per unit will *drop* each year. so, you the supplier, will get $1.50 per unit the first year, but only $1.35 the second year, and $1.25 the third year. how you choose to cut costs year after year to remain profitable is *your* problem. if you don't accept such onerous terms, wal-mart just moves on to another supplier. i wasn't sure whether or not to believe this but, apparently, it's true. see http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html and the excerpt: "Wal-Mart wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices to its customers. At Wal-Mart, that goal is never reached. The retailer has a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after year." this suggests that, whoever is selling low-end laptops to wal-mart is going to have to shave costs every year -- quality is virtually guaranteed to decline as time goes on as cheaper and cheaper parts are used in the construction. eventually, of course, the supplier simply isn't making a profit anymore, they go bankrupt, and wal-mart moves on to another suck... er, supplier. and regarding linspire and their bundled OS, i'd be interested in seeing what kind of contract *they* had to agree to. in any event, yes, this is wandering off-topic, but you'll find a lot of people who have pretty strong feelings about doing business with wal-mart. rday
