After reading todays article I only could think of one company that I recently saw a film on that reminded of the Nike corporation. There is one in Boone and it is a store that many college students use called Walmart. The documentry that I saw talked about the sweat shops in Asia that produce goods for Walmart stores. Low wages and poor working conditions for many of the workers. Even after watching the film and thinking that I will never shop at Walmart again I find myself still going to that store and buying goods. Why do I do this? Because I know it has everything I need and at the cheapest price. I want to say that I shop locally, but as a poor college student I feel that I have to find the cheapest place to buy the product and it usually ends up being Walmart.

Steve,
I am right there with you. Every college student knows about Walmart yet most of them still shop there. It is really hard for a college student to pay more for the same products; especially since these products are cheapest at the same location. I have tried to avoid shopping at Walmart in the past, but some things I just could not find elsewhere. I hate it, but it happens.

Its true that not shopping at Wal-Mart is difficult. Another thing to keep in mind is that, while Appalachian tries to avoid buying chicken and other foods that are processed at plants with sweatshop-type environments, all of the clothing in the bookstore is made in sweatshops. There is an organization on campus called Students Against Sweatshops who is trying to get the university to change who they get their clothing from. Just something else to remember.

I'm glad you posted this thread Steve. I actually had to make the decision whether to shop at WalMart after class today. The assigned article really made me think about where all the products I take for granted actually come from, but like you said, I ended up going to WalMart because of their low prices and great selection. I definitely do not want to support sweat shops but shopping at Wal Mart really is almost unavoidable, ecspecially when you are a college student.

I agree with you all. Shopping at WalMart is such a convenience for a lot of people. It is tough to find the same products for the same price elsewhere. It's difficult when a lot of the major companys that we purchase our goods from are using these sweatshops. I thought an interesting quote from the article was when Bigelow mentioned that Nike commented they could not afford to pay those workers enough for sustainable living conditions. I find it so hard to believe that Nike would have been shorted if they paid their workers enough to live on. I just thought that was interesting.

I hate when i walk through the doors of wal-mart but like everyone else has stated where else can we go for cheap goods? I mean the city of Boone does give many options to shop at and therefore we have to shop at Wal-Mart. I sometimes go to K-Mart but that does have a lot of things I really looking for. I do not know but i bet Big Lot has sweatshops too because they have low prices. I could be very wrong i just do not know. Anyways, it does stink that we have to support sweatshops by shopping in Wal-Mart.

walmart is really interesting to me because not only do they exploit people from other countries in sweatshops, but they also exploit workers in their stores. walmart isn't exactly known for their good pay and benefits. But it's a really vicious cycle because people who don't have much money have to shop there because of their low prices and so they'll never go out of business and also since they regularly exploit their workers they're making a large profit from it. Also, since they lack competition in Boone their prices aren't as low as the prices in other cities. It's amazing that one store that is a mainstay in so many people's lives is so not good. Yet I get pulled into it every time in boone, at home I shop at target, but who knows if they are any better. something to think about I suppose

I agree with you too. I hate to see the world move away from small, local businesses to huge multi-million dollar corporations, but in the end, I cannot afford to by more expensive products when cheaper ones are available. Hopefully, after I have graduated and gotten a real job, I will be able to afford to consider other aspects of the products than just the price. To be honest, though, I cannot see myself ever being able to completely boycott large corporations like Wal-Mart.

Just reading this thread is FRUSTRATING to me. During my freshman year, my RA posted an article outside her door that addressed the Wal-Mart situation... both that third world countries and the workers in the US stores are exploited. This is when I began to do my best to not shop at Wal-Mart, however it is very likely that the makers of the products I am buying at other places are also being exploited.

What can we do? I don't think a few of us not shopping at Wal-Mart is actually going to help. I just get so frustrated because I feel like I am being held in a box, unable to escape and save the workers in the third world countries that are being held in an even smaller box.

So keep an eye open for what we can do.

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Audrey Fowler

One thing to think about is that although wal mart DOES exploit people in sweatshops AND in the US, so do other major stores like KMart and Target. The products that are sold in Wal Mart are also sold in other stores, and so even though it sucks to shop at Wal Mart, I sometimes think that it's the PRODUCTS sold in these stores that is so terrible rather than the store itself.

Don't get me wrong though...I am not a big Wal Mart fan....I shop there out of necessity.

This all is totally true and it is a horrible situation but I do not believe that there is any possible way to get away from buying goods that are made in a sweatshop or by workers that are paid extremely low wages. Whether the actual item is made in the US or other countries the materials used to make the items probably came from another country. Its is a very frustrating situation because no matter how we feel about the issue we can not escape the fact that we support it every day.

Laura I found your comment about the hangers interseting. I did not know that happened, but from now on I will be sure to take the hangers if they offered to me. But although it sucks I do not think we can get around buying things from sweatshops. So much stuff comes from there now its just impossible.

It is so wasteful that they do not keep the hangers and reuse them! I wonder what their "reason" for doing this is. Does anyone know?

They probably don't reuse the hangers because then they would have to hire someone to sort through them. I don't know. That's the most ridicules thing I have ever heard. I went to target over break and bought a sweater and they asked if I wanted the hanger and I said no! oops. These kinds of corporations don't care about the environment because they are making money. I'm on the same boat as all of you, and I feel that almost everone in our culture is. Everywhere we go we can't get away from buying products which were made in other countries. Look at the tags of your clothes. Most of them probably say made in China. Your backpacks, your socks...everything. Its crazy. What do we do?