Ok, enough of this.
Firstly, disagreeing with you saying "everyone hates Walmart" does not mean I'm saying "nobody hates Walmart". I'm well aware that there are people out there who hate Walmart. However, saying that "everyone hates Walmart" is a massive exaggeration and has no place in a serious discussion.
The fact is, some people love Walmart, and a large amount of people aren't bothered by Walmart's negative aspects enough to give up shopping there. Some people certainly are, and Walmart have lost them as customers. It's not like there aren't any competitors around for people to go to; all the times I've gone to America there have been Walmarts, but also Targets, Kroger, etc. that provide the same sorts of services.
Note that my original argument was: "If enough of their customer base care about their conduct, it hurts their business." None of your attempts at refutation succeed purely because they do not represent a large enough percentage of their customer base. If 50% of Walmart customers suddenly decided to stop buying things at Walmart, Walmart would see a 50% reduction in income. That's a significant amount. That's an amount that they may decide to do something about.
Look what happened to Blockbuster if you want a good example of consumer action. With the advent of the internet and streaming services, people rejected the high prices of renting DVDs in favour of services like Netflix, which could offer the same services for a fraction of the price. As more and more people moved away from Blockbuster, they lost revenue, and in this instance did not act fast enough to change their business model. In another reality, if Blockbuster had seized on the digital streaming market earlier, they may have retained at least some of their customer base to make a decent profit. Granted, this consumer action had nothing to do with ethics, but the point is, it demonstrates how much power consumers do have, if they choose to use it.
Firstly, disagreeing with you saying "everyone hates Walmart" does not mean I'm saying "nobody hates Walmart". I'm well aware that there are people out there who hate Walmart. However, saying that "everyone hates Walmart" is a massive exaggeration and has no place in a serious discussion.
The fact is, some people love Walmart, and a large amount of people aren't bothered by Walmart's negative aspects enough to give up shopping there. Some people certainly are, and Walmart have lost them as customers. It's not like there aren't any competitors around for people to go to; all the times I've gone to America there have been Walmarts, but also Targets, Kroger, etc. that provide the same sorts of services.
Note that my original argument was: "If enough of their customer base care about their conduct, it hurts their business." None of your attempts at refutation succeed purely because they do not represent a large enough percentage of their customer base. If 50% of Walmart customers suddenly decided to stop buying things at Walmart, Walmart would see a 50% reduction in income. That's a significant amount. That's an amount that they may decide to do something about.
Look what happened to Blockbuster if you want a good example of consumer action. With the advent of the internet and streaming services, people rejected the high prices of renting DVDs in favour of services like Netflix, which could offer the same services for a fraction of the price. As more and more people moved away from Blockbuster, they lost revenue, and in this instance did not act fast enough to change their business model. In another reality, if Blockbuster had seized on the digital streaming market earlier, they may have retained at least some of their customer base to make a decent profit. Granted, this consumer action had nothing to do with ethics, but the point is, it demonstrates how much power consumers do have, if they choose to use it.
