China's traditions and culture is somewhat put in danger by advancing technology and exposure to global ideas. However, there is also a huge oppurtunity to grow.
Wal-Mart is the godzilla of large, discounted-everything stores. According to Wikipedia (THE most relaible source, i'm sure), it is the world's largest public corporation by revenue and the fourth largest commercial employer. It has stores in Mexico, the UK, Japan, Argentina, and now has opened 3 more in these rural chinese communities. Of course, some local vendors may find the change detrimental, but how could the majority of the members of these communities not benefit?
Wal-mart's not looking for rocket scientists to point out which aisle paper towels are on-just hard-working people with friendly smiles. With the employment oppurtunity that the company offers, the average (insert typical Chinese name here) is exposed to a global corporation with expanding ideas. Sure, most will be looking to simply feed their families, but others could find themselves climbing the Wal-Mart ranks to become international businesspeople.
Don't get me wrong- i understand that the company is not all about making dreams come true (after all, that's Disney's job :)) and giving everyone a chance. If wal-mart truly wanted to benefit these communities, it would support local farmers like Nathan suggested. Unfortunately, it will most likely use the cheapest and most convenient goods. I guess we'll just have to see how it plays out...
So, like everyone said, there's a good and bad side to the company's arrival in these "small" Chinese communities. All I know is, it's gonna make for a killer presentation. Go team!

Wal-Mart moving into these rural areas will be good in some aspects such as consistent product quality and cheaper prices, but I'm worried that it might eradicate local customs and specialty items. We have seen Wal-Mart do this already here in the US, where local business people with markets and speciality foods or traditional products are forced out of business because they simply cannot compete on such a large scale. China has been in a sense sprinting towards modernization and new technologies, fashions, and lifestyles, while this is a good thing, it would be a huge shame if they completely lost their rich cultural heritage. I'm not saying Wal-Mart, by itself, is going to force this to happen, but it would be a huge contributing factor. 

I think that it would be extremely successful for both the locals and Wal-Mart if somehow a system could be worked out where Wal-Mart bought a majority of its products from local farmers etc. putting money into the local market and helping it to expand. In return people could do all of their shopping at Wal-Mart. Maybe they could help each other to both be more successful. Also, Wal-Mart will be able to expose the rural chinese population to a wide variety of consumer goods, which could potentially make there lives easier. 

The Benefits of Walmart

As everyone has said the small business owners will be effected, but I think this is a minor detail that in the long run will be worked out. What i am trying to say is that walmart could potentially hire these small business owners and many more, therefore, creating more job opportunities than before. I think this is definitely a good thing for these small Chinese cities. The benefits are endless: cheaper goods, availability, and hopefully an economy booster. Also, walmart will adapt to the people of the areas special needs (speciality foods, etc). And though at first it may be difficult and profits may be slow, walmart can afford a slight decrease in profits when its sure to increase in the next few years. For example walmart said its China sales rose 32.2 percent in the second quarter, while international sales overall were up 16.9 percent. This is a sign for success. But no matter the arguments on whether it is the right thing to do, we must all eventually get ready for this change because walmart is becoming the one and only competitor in its field. They have successfully taken over the industry but have also made it easier on all of us. We must think...What if we could not make that midnight walmart run? or tackle both food and clothes in the same store? Now with this new change more and more people will have the answers to these questions.

I think that establishing Wal Marts in China would be bad as far as for the people that sell goods on the street in markets because most will go out of business and could possibly slide further into poverty if they already are poor. I also think that it could be beneficial because it may instill within the people a better sense of understanding of how big businesses can help the country/cities economically. By building Wal Marts it creates a need for employees, better quality items as well as education by learning about economic matters.

As far as a desire to be a monopoly being Wal Mart's main motivation, I think they accomplished monopolization a few years ago, haha! But seriously, I'm not sure what motivates Wal Mart to invade these rural areas, however, regardless of their motivation, they always seem to be able to figure out what they need to sell in order to properly turn a profit in those areas. Sure, they will be taking some small business owner's jobs, that's inevitable when a multinational sets up shop in your backyard. However, it is not all bad. I know we've already talked about this but I'm just going to say again that I know I for one am glad that I can go to Wal Mart and pick up virtually anything that I would ever need, at a cheap price. The Chinese people will feel the same way. Really, it only hurst the small business owners. Adaptation is key, and for their sake I hope that they can adapt and keep some of their loyal customers.

Walmart's Fiasco

I believe that Walmart will probably be the downfall of those communities. It's a point-blank thought. The desire to be a monopoly is what's driving Walmart to try and survive in a community where many people don't even make minimum wage. Regardless of the fact that it's population is almost as large as Mississippi's, the GDP isn't sufficient enough to support it through the next decade. Plus, I'm pretty sure the global "recession'' definitely will jab a hole in the plan. But, alas, nothing can be done because Walmart is too internationally powerful and America is too hungry for more money.
Also, while we were talking about this in the meeting, I was trying to see if comparative advantage fit into all of this. There must be some point for Walmart increasing its monolithic hold on cheap consumption of goods. I couldn't see the tie. Nonetheless, I fear this is just the start of something that will probably hurt the economy and employement both here and in China instead of helping.

And thanks Brad, :-). I guess you posting the questions here is good enough.

Order of Operations

The following is the order in which our presentation on Wednesday will take place:

1.) Lee Barkley - Summary of Article
2.) Brad Young - History of Wal-Mart, Introduction
3.) Amanda Anderson & Nathan Wofford - Article Specifics and Effects of Wal-Mart on local markets.
4.) Melanie Smith - Q & A
5.) Kelsey Norris & Mary Alice Howard - Tech Support

If you need any help with your part of the project...Don't ask me, haha kidding, call or txt me or Lee. See you Wednesday!

Walmart...is taking over.

Hey guys, I think we have selected a knock-out topic for our presentation on Wednesday. I think it'd be crazy to walk up in a Wal-Mart to see "just-killed" animals hanging from the ceiling in order to draw in consumers that are into that kind of stuff...Okay maybe that was a little over-dramatic, but catering to the local population is what Wal-Mart is best at and I believe that the local markets in these particular Chinese cities are going to suffer greatly; definitely more than a local market would in the United States. I could be completely wrong in my assumption, but I just don't see the local food markets in these rural Chinese places competing with the quality of goods at the cheapest availabe price offered by Wal-Mart. I believe that the standard of living will rise substantially among the Chinese consumers of Wal-Mart, but the local vendors will bear the brunt of this "invasion."

By the way...Melanie, these are the questions we discussed for the presentation.

1.) What will the effects on the consumers be?
A) Availability and low cost of goods
B) Employment
C) Benefits of local society

2.) How is the standard of living of the local society affected?...Are consumers able to afford a better life?

3.) Do these new Wal-Marts affect the local markets, and if so, how severely?

4.) How is competition measured due to these new establishments? Is it a good thing or bad? Is there even any competition period? (A substantial amount of inside information hopefully provided by Nathan and Amanda will be needed here).

5.) Overall cocluding effect of Wal-Mart introducing franchises into these specific areas of China.

required reading for Monday

ok so we have to read the first two chapters of the online WTO thing and do what else?

This ridiculous recession

It seems as though this economic recession in our society as well as others from Asia is in a downward tailspin. Although bailout plans from other countries and our own government were put into affect to pull us out and increase our stock percentages, at the moment our economy is at a state of confusion and a beginning panic. Government officials are searching for the answer...trying to find the solution to this problem before a second "great depression" takes affect. We need another direction...a new leader to carry us out of this and stop our spending to prepare a future for ourselves. Our government needs to use the failed policies of the first depression. History repeats itself and something has to be done before we get to the level of poverty from the greatest recession in our country.

Ok new topic

Feel free to continue discussing the previous topic that we were settling on, I just wanted to inject something new into this debate. As of this morning, October 9, the U.S. government was strongly considering injecting so much money directly into some of the nation's largest failling banks that they would actually have a controlling share in these banks. Basically, the government would be in control of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. That doesn't really seem like an international business issue until you consider two things: first, that we are considering this because the British government just did something very similar with moderate success, and secondly, this would mean that , in a legal sense at least, the government would obtain even more vast control of the economy. Is this a good idea? Personally, I believe that it will take something drastic like this to get our economy off the floor and jumpstart our frozen bank lending situation. I've been watching Bloomberg today and some of their "experts" are going crazy over the idea, projecting real doomsday scenarios if the government does indded obtain majority shares in these banks. What do you think group?