Buy American

To the Editor:

I just finished reading The Wal-Mart Effect, and I came away stunned. The author, Charles Fishman, did a good job showing the positive things Wal-Mart has done such as drastically bringing down prices for groceries and other things and for its innovations in packaging and shipping that other companies have copied. However, he also details the things that are less desirable about Wal-Mart. For example, when a new Wal-Mart opens, often within two years, three or four competing businesses go bankrupt or go out of business. And their employees are out of a job. Another example: many of the overseas suppliers of Wal-Mart run factories with terrible working conditions, poor salaries, long hours and bad sanitation. A third example: after a company has met the Wal-Mart price and has its goods sold by Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart then tells the company that they have to lower their cost to Wal-Mart. Finally, and the thing that got to me the most, was that Wal-Mart often tells its suppliers that in order to meet Wal-Mart’s low, low price they must get their supplies in China. Otherwise they can’t meet the expected low price.

When you think of the many, many factories that have closed and the people out of work because companies either went bankrupt or outsourced everything to China or other countries, it is a tragedy. So this Christmas and in 2010, I strongly urge you not only to buy locally, but try very hard to buy American produced goods. We really need to keep whatever manufacturing capacity we have left going and we need to keep our men and women working!

Sincerely,

Gordon M. Williams

32 Main Street, Newtown                                      December 15, 2009