[No recipe today. Click away if you don't want to read about where our food comes from.]
Small business owners and residents of small towns know how Walmart has wiped out thousands of family-owned businesses. Main Street closes up when they can’t compete with the constant discounts, and eventually there’s only one store in town. What they do to their suppliers hasn’t been any prettier.
But Walmart does listen to their customers, and what they’ve been hearing lately is that people want locally-grown food. So they have started carrying it. The March issue of the Atlantic tells how this “experimental” heritage produce program accounts for about 4 to 6 percent of Walmart’s produce sales. This is already more than other grocery store chains spend on produce, but Walmart won’t even consider it a “viable” program until it reaches 20 percent.
This is a good thing, right? Walmart can singlehandedly drive a change that has thwarted activists, farmers, politicians and regulatory agencies. Local food is better for our health, better for the environment, better for the country. It’s a good thing. Except … Walmart is doing it because it’s better for business.
When the only source for locally-grown food is Walmart, you might want to shop there to support the local farmers. But the reason why there are no other local sources is because industry has spent decades systematically eliminating the local food supply and distribution network. Is supporting the third-largest corporation in the world (behind Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil) really the best way to support diversity?
I can’t decide how I feel about this one. I want to support the return of local farming, but Walmart has been destroying local retail. How can I support the one without supporting the other?
What do you think?
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38 Comments
I can support my local farmers by buying directly from them at a Farmer’s Market or directly from the farm. I’m sure they get more money from me that way then if they sell to the devil, sorry Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is less than a 1/4 mile from my house. I have to drive past it to get to anywhere else. This store in particular isn’t crowded or run down. I still won’t shop there.
I have not been in a walmart in 3 years and have no plans to change that. I will continue to buy directly from my local farmers and they will get 100% of the profit. My pocketbook has not suffered in the least since avoiding walmart. I still shop for sales and very rarely pay full price for anything. People have gotten lazy…they want to go to one store for everything…food, clothes,eyeglasses, medical needs, haircut, photography, auto, sports, haircuts…….on and on….. I got so tired of returning purchases because of crappy ‘made in China’ workmenship. Even the big name brands are ‘dumbed down’ for sale at walmart. I have never met a more disgruntled bunch of employees…more than once they have badmouthed the company to me while shopping there. I don’t miss it at all!
I think Wal-Mart should be commended for buying local food. However, I consider it purely a ploy on their part to increase profits and convince other demographics to shop there I also don’t think it excuses their horrible business and employment practices and frankly, it’s too little too late.
I agree with Janet that people have gotten lazy with “one stop shopping.” I like going to a variety of stores—they all specialize in something. Big stores don’t specialize in anything but being big. I’m lucky in that there are 3 farmer’s markets I’ll be attending this season, all fantastic in their own way. I also participate in a farm CSA, shop at a local co-op and support a couple of independent ethnic grocery stores in my city. I know a lot of people don’t have access to that kind of wealth of choice and I think it’s a shame. Hopefully more Americans will start “decentralizing” their shopping and more communities will have more local options.
I shop at walmart, I resent that they undercut the local fabric stores, they closed down, and now walmart no longer sells fabrics.
In a farming community, we usually buy from the farmstands and farmers markets. The meats at walmart are from places far away. The prices are pretty low. With all the factory closings, jobs at walmart are needed.
The training program instills a non union policy. I don’t see them buying from local farmers here.
I’m a big supporter of Walmart – not because my husband is a manager there but because I’ve seen what they do for smaller towns and how they help the local farmers. When Walmart started being built in our small town of 7,000 people (with many smaller towns within 15 miles) we saw several large regional grocery stores close before the Walmart foundation was poured – and still over a year away from opening their doors. I saw the prices at these grocery stores double and then triple when two of the five local grocery stores closed. More than 80% of the folks in the town and surrounding areas COULD NOT afford those prices for basic food items. Once Walmart opened it helped provide the more affordable food items – like a reasonable priced bag of rice that is a pantry staple. They also brought in a huge number of jobs to the area with health benefits. You don’t want to get me started on health benefits for Walmart associates – they have better benefits than I do as a state employee! Also, we have not seen any local small businesses close as a result of Walmart being open and their doors have been open for nearly 4 years. Walmart also has many ‘green’ initiatives and is pushing more oganics even in their smaller supercenters.
I challenge all you Walmart haters to poke your head into a store lately and see what they have done to help many families make it through these tough times with selling the basics at reasonable low prices – and not with using ‘special sales’ that you can’t depend on when you need a bag of rice.
Ali, how do you factor in the fact that Americans HAVE less to spend, in part, because Walmart’s low-prices-above-all policy has not only wrecked our traditional Main Street shopping districts, but also helped drive our manufacturing jobs right out of the country?
The rest of you, consider this: what if Walmart’s business model eventually falters? No matter how much “local” produce each store may offer, the bulk of their other products will continue to come from China and other distant lands, and will have to be shipped and trucked great distances before they can be offered at those low prices. Walmart has its own fleet of 18-wheelers perpetually on the road (a “warehouse on wheels”) to accomplish this distribution. But what if diesel isn’t so cheap?
The traditional forms of regional production and commerce that Walmart subverted took many years to build. Think of them as analogous to the variegated quilt of a traditional farming countryside, with many small, independent but complementary operations nestled together.
Now we have a kind of retail monoculture, which, like our crop monocultures of corn and soybeans, gives the illusion of great abundance. But if part of the equation that makes Walmart work should fail, will they keep all those stores going just so we have a place to buy and sell our local food? Or will they close the “underperforming” locations, and pull out of many communities entirely? What then?
Under any circumstances, Main Street will be harder to rebuild than it was to throw away. But we don’t help ourselves and our children by deferring this work. If we “vote for” Walmart with our shopping dollars, that is “voting against” the alternatives that would serve us better.
What I found interesting with Wal-Mart is that while they are doing this whole “local food” (yes I can find the local sausage at Wal-Mart) I found something that totally floored me. I was walking by the deli area and saw a display for my family’s cheese. I’m not talking some long lost relative that happens to share my last name, but honest to good farmstead cheese (where the process is controlled from the feed to the packaging) made by my mom’s cousin. While I was ecstatic to find that my family’s product had been placed in the “World’s Biggest Retailer”, I couldn’t help but wonder about the journey it had made. I live near Liberty, Texas (go to Houston, then go 40 miles further to the northeast) and my family’s ranch & cheese making facility is in Modesto, California (about halfway between Sacramento & Fresno). That’s an almost 1600 mile trip for that bit of cheese. I love that cheese and I love my family, but I think I might just purchase a cheese that was made a bit closer so I could support the local economy.
I’ve tried to live my life by the idea that it doesn’t matter where wisdom (or good ideas in general) come from. You must recognize them anyway (even if your nemesis points it out!). You must also point it out. “Yes, Bob has a good point!” (He’s still an idiot and a dirt-bag but he does have a good point!).
So, in this case, Wal-Mart is a less-than-stellar company. Yes. use whatever language you like to describe them. However, using local goods in any store is exactly what N. America needs to get back on track! Relying on mono-cultures to provide our food just leaves us ALL open to collapse with one out of control issue (climate, pests, etc.). Local food reduces our dependence and enhances both our food supply and our economies resilience to ‘out of left field’ impact that can create a collapse.
Even if Wal-Mart buys into it.
Any way to get local suppliers of anything to use American made, grown, produced, etc. is better than the alternative no matter what the underlying reason.
I’m sick of everything being made in China, grown in Mexico, Argentina, wherever.
Walmart has always run family owned businesses out of business. That’s what they do and now they sell food too so if they get local farmers back in the business that’s a good start.
I only buy one thing at Walmart and it’s 90 cents cheaper per bar than anywhere else otherwise I have no use for them.
I am good with Walmart taking on local food stuffs….as long as they don’t shortchange the local producers like they do with their regular suppliers. I don’t shop there often since it is a drive for me…but I don’t hate them either.
And to Ali….is everyone able to carry walmarts health insurance or is it only for people who work full time and managers? I am just asking to be more informed…not accusing. It wasn’t to long ago that only the full time employees could have access to the health insurance and they kept that to a minimum.
I think that *why* Wal-Mart is doing it is not an issue for me.
I don’t require merchants to lose money to sell me something out of the goodness of their hearts. For goodness sake, if the market *wants* local food, that’s great news that Wal-Mart has altered their supply chains to sell it.
Suggesting that grocers should offer products because it’s the right thing to do smacks of central planning and coercion.
Mrs. B –
Walmart has offered insurance to all their employees in the 10 plus years my husband worked there. He was able to have insurance even as a part time associate while going to school. I think the rest of the story that is taken out of how many associates don’t have insurance is how many opt out because of being carried under other family member’s plans.
My significant other and I have been debating this topic a lot lately; the simple truth we have come to is that ALL businesses, big and small, have their good and bad sides, just like people. Walmart is simply easier to demonize because of their size and the the unavoidable media microscope that comes with that. As a small business advocate, does it bother me that they potentially cause closures? Yes. But they also create jobs in some areas where there were none, especially in a poor economy (see Penn & Teller’s film on the subject). They also can be a force for change, as you indicated above, bringing more of our OWN choices to the mainstream. This is the Food, Inc. ideology at work here: every purchase you make is a vote. That they make these kinds of choices for profit – isn’t that what capitalism is all about??
I don’t support Walmart for a variety of reasons. While it’s good that their stores have gone green and that they now have local produce where possible… they still have some horrible business practices in actually letting people have health benefits. While Ali claims they have excellent benefits, that might be true- but I’ve known far too many people who were intentionally schedule just below what they’d need to qualify for benefits.
Yes, their prices are cheap. Know why? Most of their products are made in China and shipped here, and they strong arm companies into manufacturing their store brand products in exchange for shelf space. They aren’t about employing locals and bringing them quality goods- it’s about dominating a city to maximize their own profits.
Sorry. Not setting foot in a Walmart.
They think that micro managing is the way to go but in fact it is not. They really do make it hard for an assoiate to have benefits due to very low hours they just plain can’t afford benefits. As far as the produce, our store does not get all local except potatoes.(of course it’s Idaho)The only thing that may be a good thing that our store has started, what they call compost cans but everyone that knows it gets hot in the summers just guess what the assoiates have to smell when they dump into those buckets. Just plain gross.
We also have a food bank that we donate food to but the family that runs our food bank would rather give the food that we donate to there own family before giving it out to the people that really need it. (I happen to know the family) I also have let Wal Mart know but they continue to give it to them. Why don’t Wal Mart ask for a print out as to where all that food goes to? That would not be hard to do just have the families sign and date a print out as to what they recieved….
To Ali- if Walmart has indeed changed their policy on health insurance, then good for them. But as of recently here, that wasn’t the case with a friend of mine.
I don’t want to go point-by-point with everything people have said. I’ll just say this. Suzanne points out: “With all the factory closings, jobs at walmart are needed.” And why do you think all the factories are closing?
walmart has made it harder to buy local, but not impossible. I think the answer is simple – cut out the middle mana nd buy local. if that’s your conviction – do it. no need for walmart. local places still exist just about everywhere. if nothing else get a CSA from a semi-local place.
or grow your own.
it shouldn’t be too complicated to realize walmart was only able to get away with it in the first palce because we allowed it.
I’m a new reader and like this question. I honestly think it would vary from location to location. If there isn’t a farmer’s market in the area, or one convenient enough to drive to during a normal grocery day, then I think Walmart selling local produce is pretty win/win/win (win for farmers, win for consumer who wants to support farmer and have really fresh produce, and win for Walmart who wants a good rep)
At the end of the day, if you have a farmer’s market then use it. If you don’t and Walmart gives you the option to still support your local farmer, use Walmart.
I’m just not willing to invest the energy it takes to “hate” a business employing so many Americans – particularly in rural areas where there are so few jobs available. They offer goods people can afford. They wouldn’t be successful if they didn’t fill a real need. I have family members who work there (part time) just to qualify for the health benefits (i.e. a cancer survivor who can’t purchase individual coverage). They also employ the elderly as greeters – most businesses choose younger workers. In my work with a local non-profit (food bank) I can verify that they are generous to the local community by encouraging volunteerism, donating food (and other merchandise) and giving several financial donations and grants at the local and national level. I won’t be mind-washed into hating them to be politically correct. I have always been able to think for myself. I am blessed to have many local outlets for fresh produce, so I rarely buy it at Walmart. I so rarely buy it there that I hadn’t picked up on the new “local produce” program, but I applaud the effort. I also watch the origination point of meat and choose American. I choose American goods for everything where possible choosing to vote with my dollars. I am blessed to be able to be choosy. Not all people can afford to be choosy. They need an organization like Walmart who caters to those needing help affording the basics of life. Providing affordabe necessities and jobs. I don’t find much there to “hate” – even if it would make me one of the enlightened ones who hate whomever they are told to hate by the powers that be.
“Providing affordable necessities and jobs.”
Really?
I still generally hate WalMart, but I’m not married to my hate. But i am glad they started carrying locally grown food.
It sounds like a bit of a double edged sword for Walmart. They offer jobs, in some areas, but others lose them. They have low prices, but this forces out other jobs even as it saves people money. They do good things, they do bad things. They do things in the pursuit of profit. If what they did was ultimately unprofitable, I wager they would not do it. I have no problem with them supporting local food and am glad they are going to do so, even if I wouldn’t shop at Walmart for non-PC reasons.
Don’t go spitting out the water because you don’t like the color of the cup. Accept it as a move in a better direction. Just me, I guess.
Walmart is pure evil.
Their predatory practices have contributed to loss of 42,400 factories since 2001; 90,000 more are at risk. State Tax Revenues Plummet By $87 Billion; the biggest year over year decline in history. And we have record numbers of people on food stamps (Food-stamp recipients up to record 39 million).
I could go on, but the Walmart “model” works right up to the point where it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t, good luck to us all. Watch what is coming in terms of dollar devaluation and inflation.
Disclosure: gold/silver accumulator–for good reason
Tyrone, we need dollar devaluation, at least against the Yuan. That’s the only way to fix the trade deficit. Dollar goes down, American products cost less abroad, people buy more of them. Chinese products cost more in the U.S., people buy less of them.
The high dollar is bankrupting us.
How do I hate Wal Mart? Let me count the ways. Well, I’ll spare you that. It’s my least favorite place to shop, though I do go there occasionally (2-3 times yearly). And while this isn’t a fault of Wal Mart, the crime in their parking lot during daylight hours — including a murder recently — is another reason for me to stay away.
I have to chuckle at their “save money” claim. I was there for some reason and decided to pick up a few of the groceries I needed — I’d get the rest at the store where I usually shop. Everything I bought was cheaper at my usual store, and it’s the most expensive in the area. The local store also sells local produce.
I had prescriptions filled there for a while, then switched to Target. Target was 25% cheaper than Wal Mart and much quicker.
Drew, a dollar devaluation alone will probably not heal this problem, which was a massive credit expansion. Tariffs may be in the cards to bring the jobs back. And they will print to pay off the debt, but can they contain it?
I always return to this quote from FOFOA:
As debt defaults, fiat is destroyed. This is where all these deflationists get their direction. Not seeing that hyperinflation is the process of saving debt at all costs, even buying it outright for cash. Deflation is impossible in today’s dollar terms because policy will allow the printing of cash, if necessary, to cover every last bit of debt and dumping it on your front lawn! Worthless dollars, of course, but no deflation in dollar terms!”
Sincerely,
FOFOA
A very long time ago, I was in a Walmart, and for reasons then unknown, I sensed something was not right. I left vowing to never set foot in one again. My instincts were right on the mark.
Tariffs raise import prices without making our exports any more attractive. How can that help create jobs more than a lower dollar would help?
There are two separate problems at play here. The financial problem, commonly referred to as a “credit crisis”, is actually a housing price bubble. The majority of that credit boom was directly based on housing speculation. Prices are still 15% above their historical average, so we’ve still got some more devaluation to go before the bubble is completely deflated.
The jobs problem is entirely due to it being so much cheaper to manufacture overseas. The most direct way to reverse that problem is for the dollar to raise — primarily against the Yuan, which the Chinese government has been resisting through buying up huge amounts of T-bills.
There is no reason to suppose there will be any more incentive to pay off the debt if the dollar should fall. And even if we tried to pay it off, it’s dollar-denominated — remember all those T-bills the Chinese hold? — so a weakened dollar would have no impact on our ability to pay.
The Chinese wouldn’t be terribly happy if their Treasury holdings were suddenly worth much less (once converted to the Yuan) but that’s their problem to solve.
Actually, the credit crisis goes far beyond housing. It truly was extended to every aspect of the economy. For example, I often tell people, college is a bubble, fueled by government loans, which has driven college expenses to unreasonable levels. Then there is credit card debt–the delinquency rates are rising and losses are in the billions and growing. The country was drunk on leverage. But the hidden leverage elephant in the room is the derivatives; you call the number–$50T, $500T, $1Quadrillion? Nobody really knows, but it’s probably at least $50T. Coupled with the $12T in debt, $50T in unfunded liabilities, and near-term governement deficits in excess of $1T, things definitely do not look good for the dollar. Savers will suffer. Who knows where gold ends up?
Here’s a link to nice little summary of the dollar trend: US Dollar Trend
I agree with you on the college prices, and on the leverage. My point was that with the recent credit issue it was primarily mortgages and mortgage-backed securities that were being leveraged.
I still disagree with the idea that it’s “bad for the dollar”. People use the term “strong dollar” as though it’s an unquestionable good. But if we want people to have jobs, it’s better to have a relatively weaker dollar.
I have one of those mom & pop businesses that has been struggling to stay alive despite not being able to compete with Walmart and their ‘low low prices’. I could debate for hours the unfair advantages they have over small stores – people just say it’s sour grapes because I can’t compete. Probably true, but we’ll never be able to compete. They sell stuff for less than we can buy it direct from the manufacturer. Our profit has to be so tight, it’s barely worth selling new items. Better to wait until they are off the shelves at WM and sell them when folks can’t find them anywhere else – then they come to us.
I have been working on building up our small farm as a backup to our business, and I would like to hear from a local farmer who has sold his produce to Walmart. Are we talking about local family farms, or factory farms? Because I think you almost have to be a factory farm to do the kind of volume and sell for kind of prices Walmart wants to sell at – and the farmer only gets a portion of that.
If it’s Walmart, there’s something slimy about it. I won’t set foot in one, haven’t for years. The first time I saw one they came into our little college town and wiped out what had been a perfectly charming Main Street full of businesses, with their promises of one-stop shopping and cheap American Made products. Later I worked for a company that produced hardware and heard from other factory reps how hard it was to deal with WM and how they forced their prices so low that to keep their contracts they had to cut back on their workforce and tighten their belts until they could barely make a profit, but hoped to make it up in volume – since they were selling to almighty Walmart. Then what happens? WM decides to go buy their hardware overseas, leaving these companies that had bent over backwards to supply them high and dry, and they close up because who else will they sell to – there aren’t any independent hardware stores anymore, there used to be one in every town. And their poor unemployed workers can’t afford to shop anywhere other than WM, maybe even end up working there. What’s good for Walmart isn’t good for America.
I dislike Walmart, for many of the reasons already stated plus the fact that something in some cleaning or air-freshening solution they use gives both me and my wife splitting headaches, every time we set foot in one. However, I can’t help but think that, given that there will always be people who, for some reason or another, choose to shop there, it’s better that they do support (or at least buy from) local and regional producers than not…
I worry about Walmart’s motives. It is OBVIOUS a company of Walmart’s size and strength would not bring in local produce for the good of the community; it makes no sense when considering their business plan. They are trying to break into the market of individuals who have sworn they will never set foot into Walmart. They have realized by supporting local farmers people, myself included, will take notice. I agree with most of you that I will never go to WalMart for all the reasons stated and because the florescent lights, gaudy displays, and smell gives me a horrible headache. Walmart, like all mega-companies, is always looking to improve their market share. They realized there is a sizable group of Whole Foods, Co-Op, and farmer’s market shoppers (myself included) who refuse to consider their facilities. The problem is, if they are able to offer the locally grown foods at a cheeper price and achieve their market share goals the farmers markets, Co-Ops, and Whole Foods will go out-of-business. The leaves the local farmers with a single buyer who can set the market price where ever it chooses essentially controlling them.
With that said, if by improving the taste, quality, and availability of fresh produce more shoppers will begin eating a healthy diet, then it is a good thing for all of us. In my opinion, the real reason Walmart is a vicious villain is their ability to make high calorie, high sugar, low nutrition foods available at such low prices. They are a huge contributor to the obesity epidemic sweeping the nation. This will continue to take a toll on the American taxpayer who, one way or another , subsidizes the healthcare costs of the obese. Now, if Walmart stopped offering such unhealthy options or at least raised the prices on them and lowered the cost of healthy foods, then I would really take notice. But again, there is no business incentive associated with a move like that. Government tax breaks to offer healthy food cheeper? Taxes on high calorie, high fat, or low nutrition foods to subsidize the tax breaks? Now your talking.
For true local produce, few things bring me more pleasure than visiting my local CSA farmer every Friday during the growing season and getting my $15.00 worth of the produce he JUST picked…organic and grown with love.
BTW haven’t stepped foot in a Walmart in over 5 years and even my bank account is better for it! What is cheap isn’t always a bargain. And appreciation trumps so called lower prices…even on a budget!
I think I’ll keep supporting local farmer’s markets, roadside stands, and old guys selling tomatoes out of the backs of their trucks any time I can. And stay out of Wal Mart if at all possible. But hey, I don’t judge, and I know that, having grown up living food stamp to food stamp, many people have no other choice but to shop at Wal Mart. I just hope some of them can afford some of the local food that they stock. And I hope they keep it up. Really, locally grown produce is so much better in so many ways than what we ship in from South America and Mexico that I’d rather see Wal Mart carrying locally grown food than….not.
read slowly…
on Wal*Mart’s China web page!
“Wal-Mart China persists in local procurement which provides more job opportunities, supports local manufacture industry and promotes local economy. So far, 95% of merchandising sold at Wal-Mart China store are local products by which Wal-Mart has established business relations with nearly 20,000 suppliers. At Wal-Mart, we treat suppliers as partners and would like to develop with them. In 2008 Wal-Mart won the Supplier Satisfaction published by Business Information of Shanghai for five consecutive years.”
That doesn’t support American exports and American jobs.
Remember what Lance Winslow wrote in that article “The Flow of Trade in a Global Economy”….dang! better yet…jus take the time and read this ….”Now let us look at Wal-Mart again; you buy a product there, 6% goes to the employees, 10-18% is profit to the company, 25% goes to other costs and 50% goes to re-stock or the cost of goods sold. Of the 50% about 20-25% goes to China, a guess, but you get the point. Now then, how long will it take at 433 Billion dollars at year for China to have all of our money, leaving no money flow for us to circulate? At a 17 Trillion dollar economy less than 40-years minus the 1/6 they buy from us. Some say that if we keep putting money into our economy, it would take forever, but if we do not then eventually all the money flow will go. If China buys our debt then eventually they own us, no need to worry about a war, they are buying America, due in part to our own mismanaged trade, so whose fault is that? Not necessarily China, as they are doing what’s in the best interests, and we should make sure that trade is not only free, but fair too.”
Also, think for a moment about George Washington….yes the man that is on the US dollar bill…. “Washington had been reelected unanimously in 1792. His decision not to seek a third term established a tradition that is now embedded in the 22d Amendment of the Constitution.”
Take the time to read his farewell address after only eight years of serving his country and than ask yourself this….How do you think George feels being sent overseas in return for all that foreign so-call cheap items and being left in a foreign bank because the American worker doesn’t make anything for the foreigners to buy. Cheap items didn’t make this great union of 57…oops! 50 states the greatest place on the face of this Earth…..the American worker (union and non-union) did.
You can’t have a strong country without having a strong currency and you can’t have a strong currency unless you keep it floating around within your 50 states. This is why the store with the star in the name puts 95% China made items in their stores in China….to keep their “yuan” in their country helping the nice people there. And with only 5% left for all the other 182 country’s that make stuff including the United States of America….that doesn’t produce very many jobs outside of China.
Being an old person myself and knowing how it was back in the 40′s, 50′s and 60′s in this union of 50 states….I look at George each time I pull him out of my billfold and make a promise to send him out for items made in America so after floating around helping each hand he touches just maybe one day he will shake mine again.
Just one point I’d like to comment on. You said, “You can’t have a strong country without having a strong currency and you can’t have a strong currency unless you keep it floating around within your 50 states.” The strong currency is one of the main causes of our trade imbalance. China has been artificially holding down the Yuan against the dollar to make Chinese-made goods cheaper in the U.S.
The most direct thing that could happen to reverse the trade imbalance is to lower the dollar against the Yuan. I’m specifically not using the term “weaken” because “strong dollar” sounds good and “weak dollar” sounds bad. The fact is the over-valued dollar (with respect to the Yuan) is why WalMart buys so much from China, and why Americans buy so much from WalMart.