Wal-Mart is no longer selling several pg-13 men's magazines: Maxim, Stuff and FHM. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/06/business/media/06MAG.html?8hpib This wouldn't be much of an issue except that Wal-Mart controls 15% of the magazine retail market. As a practical matter, this is like 8 states banning the sales of the magazine.
Wal-mart also refuses to buy my company's products. Their buyer won't even see me or return my calls. So it is like eight states are banning the sales of my products. Maybe I should sue them.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030506/media_nm/media_magazines_walmart_dc_2 Wal-Mart will tell us what to read. But fear not you can still purchase guns and bullets to off people you don't like.
I don't know why you're jumping to conclusions. I simply reported the facts. Wal-Mart doesn't buy your products (most likely) because they can't make any money off of them. However, in this case and others, they are doing it based on moral values. Of course, you can argue that they are thinking about their overall financial situation, and you may agree with their choices, but you can or should not ignore the immense power they wield.
Precisely but many don't go out specifically to buy these products. Many would be 'spur of the moment' purchases. That's the appreciable market that would be lost. Significant enough in my book.
That's true about anything and is totally besides the point. Thousands will never see the magazine to begin with. I'm not necessarily criticizing Wal-Mart. Part of me likes that there's a place where one can (sort of) escape the excessive sex and violence in the culture. I admit to despising the corporation for their horrific (truly evil) treatment of foreign workers, but here I'm just raising an important point. One corporation, Wal-Mart, has influence that is unprecedented in American history.
To be honest, only about 3% of Maxim's sales come from Wal-Mart. I subscribe. (Monica Bellucci... drool) But that doesn't change the fact that that Wal-Mart has a ridiculous level of cultural influence in America. Me, I refuse to shop at the Wal-Mart just a 1/4 of a mile away. It's downright scary in there, which is odd because there is a fairly classy upscale suburban mall right across the street.
I believe the 15% figure is of magazine retail sales, which does not count subscriptions. Small sales %s can make all the difference is whether a business can survive. There are quite a few magazines that would die if they lost 3% of sales. I doubt Maxim is one of them, but still.
I don't know if you guys have noticed, but the competition between these men's magazines has gotten so stiff (no pun intended), that they have consistently become more and more risque in their pictorials. As an anecdote to support my story, I recently picked up a Maxim magazine to read on a flight, it was the first issue I had bought in about a year. I used to read them on flights without being self-conscious. This time, however, as I started reading, the pictures were so racy that I had to put it away, especially when I had a woman sit down next to me. It looked like I was reading a nudie mag. Don't get me wrong, I like porn as much as the next guy, but I prefer to keep that private. The men's magazines in the article are getting to a point where they are not exactly porn, but they are not really comfortable to view in public, either.
I always bring a copy of Penthouse with me when I fly. I prefer to sit in the middle seat so everyone gets a look. Once the captain turns of the no seat belt sign, I begin reading loudly from the letters section.
walmart won't carried stickered albums either as far as i know. i guess its their perrogative to pick what they carry. personally i think it's censorship to an extent, but again i think it is ultimately their right to decide.
Most of the stuff they ban from their stores wouldn't be something I'd go to Wal-Mart to buy anyway. I go to WalMart for Household Supplies, Sporting Goods, etc..
It's not censorship. Wal-Mart is a private company. If they want to only sell products made by white people, that's their right. Now if the government said you can't sell Maxim or FHM, that'd be censorship, but the government isn't saying that. If people don't like what Wal-Mart is selling, they will start going to other stores instead, and Wal-Mart will do poorly financially.
no i do agree with their right not to carry said things, but in markets where they might be the only game in town, you may not be able to get the product. censorship may have not been the right word choice, but i feel that they are limiting the distribution, which again is their right, but if there is not another place to get cd's in say, east jablomie, georgia then you're kinda screwed.
Walmart's stance on moral issues is laughable and hypocritical at the same time. I can't buy Maxim or a music album with cussing, but I can buy GTA Vice City, guns, knives, and movies like South Park Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. I can't buy an album that says fvck on it once, but I can buy a movie that says it hundreds of times. Anyway, it doesn't matter to me, since I have a subscription to Maxim and the only reason I go to Wal-Mart is to buy food. I just get a good laugh every time I read that Wal-Mart is banning the sale of another item.
Yeah, there is a Super Wal-Mart in my hometown. It has all the normal Wal-Mart items with essentially a full-service supermarket on one end of the store. Their prices are quite a bit cheaper then Dillons (Kroger subsid.). By shopping there and dealing with crowd of people, I save more money for beer.
Walmart does make money on their wholesome image, which in the American mind excludes sex, embraces patriotism and good old middle American values. So what if they don't carry Maxim and their ilk? Maxim's core audience (18-35 males) probably don't do the majority (if any) of their shopping at WalMart anyhow. I'd be surprised if this affected Maxim et. al. very much.
This isn't a particularly important distinction as a practical matter. Maxim would much prefer their magazine banned in Wyoming than in Wal-Mart. As for the market correcting things, that's far from certain. In fact, it is unlikely.
So this is a moral issue for Walmart? I bet they sell lottery tickets and smokes. I have never been to one. I don't know why, thus I don't really know what is so great about their stores. The only thing I know about their stores is from that stupid SNL skit. Actually, this is what scares most of (if not liberal, at least more open-minded folks) liberalized folks in the USA. They fear that the USA's largest corporation is from Backwater, Arkansas and they can and do want to use their market position to dictate morality on a rather selective basis. While I am the first to say that corps should have some "moral" corporate culture and all that, but what when they go against what I believe to be the line? This is what we argue here. The moral code is visible in the Middle East and this helped the Taliban take power to an extent, right? Is not Walmart a Taliban of a corporate generation where the Bible Belt is the new economic boom region? If they stop selling plastic Buddha lawn ornaments, then we will really know for sure. [edit] I have been to a Sam's Club...once.