Forces of production

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Fast Company Issue 77 | December 2003
The Wal-Mart You Don't Know

The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's
relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force
them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the
unemployment line?

By: Charles Fishman

A gallon-sized jar of whole pickles is something to behold. The jar is the
size of a small aquarium. The fat green pickles, floating in swampy juice,
look reptilian, their shapes exaggerated by the glass. It weighs 12 pounds,
too big to carry with one hand. The gallon jar of pickles is a display of
abundance and excess; it is entrancing, and also vaguely unsettling. This
is the product that Wal-Mart fell in love with: Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles.

Wal-Mart priced it at $2.97--a year's supply of pickles for less than $3!
"They were using it as a 'statement' item," says Pat Hunn, who calls
himself the "mad scientist" of Vlasic's gallon jar. "Wal-Mart was putting
it before consumers, saying, This represents what Wal-Mart's about. You can
buy a stinkin' gallon of pickles for $2.97. And it's the nation's
number-one brand."

Therein lies the basic conundrum of doing business with the world's largest
retailer. By selling a gallon of kosher dills for less than most grocers
sell a quart, Wal-Mart may have provided a service for its customers. But
what did it do for Vlasic? The pickle maker had spent decades convincing
customers that they should pay a premium for its brand. Now Wal-Mart was
practically giving them away. And the fevered buying spree that resulted
distorted every aspect of Vlasic's operations, from farm field to factory
to financial statement.

full: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

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NY Times, November 23, 2003
Tech Workers' Losing Fight to Match Overseas Wages
By DAVID KOEPPEL

STOCKING shelves and hauling boxes on the graveyard shift at Target was
something Ed Marx never imagined he would be doing. After 27 years as a
computer programmer, Mr. Marx said, he thought his technology skills
ensured he would be employed in that field for many years.

It has not turned out that way. In August 2002, Mr. Marx, 49, lost his job
at the Computer Sciences Corporation, a technology contractor and services
company in Moorestown, N.J. Mr. Marx and his company say he was a victim of
offshore outsourcing, known as offshoring. Unable, so far, to find a
full-time job in his field, he has been working at Target since September.

Seeing examples like Mr. Marx, many technology workers have become
increasingly concerned and angry about offshore contracts, which can cause
certain jobs or whole departments to be moved to countries like India and
China, where technology workers are paid lower wages.

Information technology industries have "led the initial overseas exodus,"
according to a study by Forrester Research, published in November 2002. In
a survey of 400 hiring managers in May, the Information Technology
Association found that 12 percent of the information technology companies
in the survey had moved jobs offshore, compared with 6 percent of the
nontechnology companies.

"I feel to some extent the train has already left, and I'm not sure how it
can be reversed," Mr. Marx said. "The layoff has had a profound effect on
me. It's difficult walking away from something you've been doing for 27
years. There used to be two pages of tech jobs in the classified section.
Now there's maybe one column."

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/jobs/23jmar.html


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