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Seeing Viral Spread of Target Stores Across U.S. Somehow Not as Terrifying as Wal-Mart
The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague

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strider_mt2k
02/02/09

In reply to Seeing Viral Spread of Target Stores Across U.S. Somehow Not as Terrifying as Wal-Mart
I like Target better, but they don't generate any magic for me either.
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soggy_cheerio
02/01/09

In reply to Seeing Viral Spread of Target Stores Across U.S. Somehow Not as Terrifying as Wal-Mart
I want to see this for K-mart as well.

And, overlay all three on the same map.
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Mrs. Stephen Fry
02/01/09

In reply to Seeing Viral Spread of Target Stores Across U.S. Somehow Not as Terrifying as Wal-Mart
Walmart and Target have nearly identical policies.

How cute that you think that Target is better! Aww.
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frigg
02/01/09

In reply to Seeing Viral Spread of Target Stores Across U.S. Somehow Not as Terrifying as Wal-Mart
I'm no doctor, but the map Targets Across America really does resemble the bleeding diathesis of viral hemorrhagic fever.
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shenanigans
02/01/09

In reply to Seeing Viral Spread of Target Stores Across U.S. Somehow Not as Terrifying as Wal-Mart
Why does everyone here hate Walmart so much? It's a decent store with affordable goods. Oh wait, I know, the whole non-union thing, kinda like Ford, GM, and Chrysler. Yeah, those unions sure are great, I wonder why Walmart doesn't pick it up?

Maybe, it's because paying a retired employee a yearly salary, when they haven't worked there for 5 plus years doesn't seem to fall into the realm of common sense. Makes you wonder why, a GM, Ford, Chrysler are in the situation they're in when their employees get $75 per hour with a Union and now they're in the shitter, but Toyota employees have no union and get $45 an hour and aren't looking at a complete collapse of the company they work for.

The fact of the matter is, back in the day, Unions were good, but now they just seem to destroy companies. Start back from 2000, count how many times since then(even the good times) you've heard Ford, Chrysler, and GM still for some reason losing money.
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92BuickLeSabre
02/01/09

@shenanigans: If you're really curious about the Gizmodo debate over Wal-Mart, feel free to follow the link in the post to the Wal-Mart story.

It involves a lot more than unionization. But in direct response, the auto industry and the UAW is not the only model for unionization. If anything, SEIU is probably the most powerful union in the country now.

My question is, how do you feel about Tar-jeh?
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Curves
01/07/09

In reply to The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague
A voice from the other side....the area I live in lost all its Mom and Pop local shops years ago (due to econoclimate, not unionization) so when Walmart came to the area, it gave people someplace to go that isnt the closest mall, 30 minutes away. The only business closed here recently are hardware stores and that due to Lowes and Home Depot, not Walmart. Its your money, spend it where you damn well please.
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Curves
01/07/09

In reply to The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague
Scary how Planned Parenthood made its way into a post on Walmart, but a reminder that PP provides a variety of health care services, as well as family planning. Without PP, some women would have no health care at all. PP is not just for abortions, in fact, they stress family planning and pregnancy prevention.

Choice: Keep it safe and legal but choose LIFE!
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chauncy that billups
01/07/09

In reply to The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague
Whatever. a 3M air filter at the local hardware store: $18. At walmart for the same filter: $8. Walmart is not as 'classy' as some stores, but the prices can't be beat. For that, I'll keep going back to it.
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Kaiser-Machead
01/07/09

@bilups: I just avoid WAL*MARTs of any sort around the holiday season. Seriously, big box stores may be great for deals, but they really are a PITA Clusterfuck when prime shopping season rolls around.
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scarbrtj
01/07/09

In reply to The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague
Wal-Mart just causes HUGE problems. I don't know what the problems are, but this company is indisputably evil. The details re: the depths of their evilness, I'm a little sketchy on, but I can tell, from the preceding comments, Wal-Mart is to be avoided. Which I now will endeavor to do. I have a Nike golf glove and 50' non-kink water hose I bought there last week that I am SERIOUSLY considering returning. You hear that, Wal-Mart?! This aggression will not stand!
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Kaiser-Machead
01/07/09

@scarbrtj: You do know that the execs of WAL*MART bbq kittens on their gas grills at night right?

Studies have shown that all neighborhoods within a few miles of WAL*MART are infested with cheap junk, Yugos on front lawns, cats and dogs living together, Dr. Laura getting laid and FM radio stations that play nothing but advertisements 24/7. The biggest issue with WAL*MART is the fact that their smiley face logo lacks a spot of blood on the top in homage to Alan Moore's graphic novel. I mean, c'mon. A smiley face isn't a smiley face unless it has blood on it.

Also, that Nike golf glove was weaved by orphan amputees fed nothing but onion soup, and that non kink water hose...well...let's just say you don't want to know how that hose came to be.
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scarbrtj
01/07/09

@Kaiser-Machead: I tried not to laugh. Really! Alas, I failed.
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frigg
01/07/09

In reply to The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague
Love it or hate it, it really does look like the pattern of disease spread. Does the CDC know about this?
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Kaiser-Machead
01/07/09

In reply to The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague
How's about a Duane Reade map for NYC?
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OMG! Ponies!
01/07/09

In reply to The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague
Face it people - we Americans don't like unions anymore.

Wal*Mart is an easy target. But how about Toyota and Honda - both of which are as staunchly anti-union as Wal*Mart.

Fair is fair - you can't bitch about Wal*Mart's union-busting practices from the comfort of a Japanese car.
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mikeness
01/07/09

In reply to The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague
Clearly designed to provoke fear and dread. You can apply this to any large nationwide company that you're politically and ideologically motivated against and achieve similar results, albeit not quite as many locations.

Let's see one for the planned parenthood clinics as they popped up across the country... each little dot that popped up on the map actually WOULD represent something sinister.
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Monty
01/07/09

@mikeness: I suspect the spread of Walmart stores and the spread of Planned Parenthood might look somewhat similar. And, yes, I do believe that completely unconnected events can be connected to strike fear into the population.

Let's get the troops ready to invade Walmart!
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GadgetPlayPissedSomebodyOff
01/07/09

@Monty: But not Planned Parenthood? Typical. You have a choice of fighting Infanticide or Capitalism, and YOU choose Capitalism. Nice.
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92BuickLeSabre
01/07/09

@mikeness: Don't worry, in most places community pressure has made it virtually impossible for clinics or doctors to actually provide abortions.

So you may have lost the legal battle, but you've managed to win the intimidation wars.
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ZombieRace
01/07/09

@GadgetPlayPissedSomebodyOff:

Nothing like injecting an abortion debate into a story about Wal-Mart!

Stay Classy, GadgetPlay, stay classy...
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GadgetPlayPissedSomebodyOff
01/07/09

@ZombieRace: I didn't inject it, I commented on someone else's injection. Nice reading comprehension, ZombieFace, nice reading comprehension...

P. S. Don't miss the school bus, you know how Mom hates having to come pick you up.
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ZombieRace
01/07/09

@GadgetPlayPissedSomebodyOff: Whoops guess I clicked on the wrong name. Pardon my mistake.

So what's this business about my mother? How is it relevant? Does it make you feel clever? Is that all you could come up with?
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92BuickLeSabre
01/07/09

@ZombieRace: If you would like to maintain what dignity you have left, walk away now. You're threatening to bring a cheese-cutter to a knife fight here kid.
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ZombieRace
01/07/09

@92BuickLeSabre: Also, I prefer to think of it as bringing a waffle iron to a george foreman grill fight.
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92BuickLeSabre
01/07/09

@ZombieRace: You mean bringing something leaden and less effective but succeeding nonetheless by simply hammering away with heavy blunt force again and again and again?

In that case, I guess you're in the right place after all.
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weatherman
01/07/09

In reply to The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague
There's a reason it looks like a plague; more stores open in areas of higher population density (just as disease spreads in those areas) and stores open around the distribution centers (vectors) that are so important to WalMart's business plan.

I'm sure if you did a map of nationwide chains they'd all spread like that. Look at Starbucks for instance; more than 10,000 stores (owned and franchised) in the US, though with only 1/10th the number of employees.
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king_of_fools
01/07/09

In reply to The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague
wow ... first of all what does this have to do with technology? Secondly, out of curiosity, exactly what political view sees the growth of a healthy business and sees it as a problem or "epidemic"; that is such backward thinking, especially in the financial climate we have today.
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Jesus Diaz
01/07/09

@king_of_fools: We often feature Walmart in Gizmodo. They are one of the biggest retailers of electronics and entertainment goods in the planet.
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nachobel
01/07/09

@king_of_fools: If you don't see what a black map of the US with green dots popping up all over it has to do with technology, then I'm afraid we can't help you.
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Monty
01/07/09

@nachobel: His handle is "king_of_fools", so I can see why he would be confused.
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The Terrifying Spread of the Walmart Plague

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