Went to Walmart the other night...

[rgG]

Guess who's husband is quoted in that FastCompany story that John Dough linked. Here is the excerpt, just so you might understand my personal hatred toward WalMart.


As Mariotti says, Wal-Mart is tough as nails. But not every supplier agrees that the toughness is always accompanied by fairness. The Lovable Company was founded in 1926 by the grandfather of Frank Garson II, who was Lovable's last president. It did business with Wal-Mart, Garson says, from the earliest days of founder Sam Walton's first store in Bentonville, Arkansas. Lovable made bras and lingerie, supplying retailers that also included Sears and Victoria's Secret. At one point, it was the sixth-largest maker of intimate apparel in the United States, with 700 employees in this country and another 2,000 at eight factories in Central America.

Eventually Wal-Mart became Lovable's biggest customer. "Wal-Mart has a big pencil," says Garson. "They have such awesome purchasing power that they write their own ticket. If they don't like your prices, they'll go vertical and do it themselves--or they'll find someone that will meet their terms."

In the summer of 1995, Garson asserts, Wal-Mart did just that. "They had awarded us a contract, and in their wisdom, they changed the terms so dramatically that they really reneged." Garson, still worried about litigation, won't provide details. "But when you lose a customer that size, they are irreplaceable."

Lovable was already feeling intense cost pressure. Less than three years after Wal-Mart pulled its business, in its 72nd year, Lovable closed. "They leave a lot to be desired in the way they treat people," says Garson. "Their actions to pulverize people are unnecessary. Wal-Mart chewed us up and spit us out."

Edit: let me add that Lovable was a great company to work for. They treated their employees like family, provided great benefits, and had more people than you can imagine who had worked there for decades, some 50 years, or more. It was heartbreaking to see them close. They had done so much, for so many, and they were brought down by greed and unfair business practices.

And, as it says in the article, there were hundreds of people employed here in the states, and even more than that in Central America, so this was more than just a mom and pop brought down, and they are not the only company of this size, or larger, that has been damaged or destroyed.