Walmart for Federal Government

Posted Thursday, February 5, 2009, at 2:00 PM

There's the old saying, "You get what you pay for," but I have to argue that sometimes what you pay for is enough for what you need. Kraft Foods Inc. has reported that its fourth-quarter profit fell 72 percent. Yikes! Kraft attributes some of this loss to costs related to a restructuring program, but I heard someone on Fox News attribute this to the fact that as people cut their spending, more people are buying knock-off brands of foods. Isn't that amazing? While the federal government is trying to figure out a way to justify getting our country in more and more debt to rescue us from this recession, the rest of us are just cutting our spending. Speaking for my own family, I can't even say that cutting our spending has been a difficult transition.

My kids love chocolate chip cookies, and the Walmart brand of cookie dough is only $1.94 per 18 ounce tube. Factor in the cost of buying chocolate chips, flour, brown sugar, butter, and eggs, and it's hard for me to even make them from scratch that cheap. Yesterday, however, I had a coupon for a name brand cookie dough for $1.00 off. The name brand was normally fifty cents more for only a 16 ounce tube. I did the math, and figured with the coupon, the name brand was still a penny and a half cheaper per ounce (Yes, I take my grocery budget that seriously).

I thought my kids would "ooh and ahh" over the luxurious name brand cookies, but my oldest said he liked the Walmart brand better. I told my husband I had to agree. Having just heard the news from Kraft, though, he cheekily reminded me that my store brand preference was destroying the economy. I said, "You know, maybe Walmart should take over the federal government, since they seem to be the only ones making money these days, and they know how to keep costs down."

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What we call poor in the USA, is usually stinkin' rich to the rest of the world.

You notice that Walmart is a frequent target of the left, mainly because they have held off unions from taking over and destroying Walmart.

-- Posted by sameldridge on Thu, Feb 5, 2009, at 4:36 PM
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Try to go into Wal-Mart and buy things not made in China, it's difficult. And we all know how "careful" the Chinese are about toxic chemicals, waste, and pollution. Just try. It's kind of fun to challenge yourself. We all know they have the lowest prices, is it worth it? Of course they have made good deals with American companies too, but really, I mean REALLY?? As the country falls into the depths of despair, so thrives Sam and his company.

-- Posted by fred2 on Thu, Feb 5, 2009, at 10:35 PM
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I see both points, but where do you think the Federal Government is going to get all that money for this "economic stimulus" package? If this goes through, our entire country is going to be borrowing money (which is what got us into this mess in the first place) from foreign banks--including China. When that happens, we won't just be buying products from China, we'll be dangerously close to being owned by China.

-- Posted by shoma74 on Fri, Feb 6, 2009, at 8:11 AM
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We have given away our once mighty manufacturing/industrial base, we used to be a nation that manufactured just about everything. When I used to stock shelves 95% of everything put on those shelves was made/grown in America! Not anymore. The red commies will take us over without firing a shot, they'll just forclose on our debt. Of course what we need to get out of this mess is more trickle down ecomonics from the likes of W and dick. Heaven forbid we pay the worker a decent wage so he/she can afford some of the luxuries of life. Walmart can do a much better job of taking care of their people. It's a vicious circle but we have to get the laid off workers working again, so they in turn can buy items that will get more people back to work supplying the goods(more than likely not manufacturing them, just delivering the stuff made in China,) in turn the people that are now working will not be on the government unemployment rolls but will be paying taxes. Taxes that will hopefully be paying down the debt, not increasing it.

-- Posted by goarmy67 on Sat, Feb 7, 2009, at 12:11 AM
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P.S. More than likely the Walmart brand cookies were made by some outfit like Kraft or Pillsbury.

Many of the private labels are made right along with the "name" brands. Compare packages, and codes, the name brands will not change their production procedures to produce a private label, usually just change the package. The formulas might also be slightly different but they try to keep production costs down,by just changing the package.

-- Posted by goarmy67 on Sat, Feb 7, 2009, at 5:21 PM
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