Goal: Nut punch Goliath to death.

[Doktor Howl]

Thing is, this is all great and so on, but how many of us can actually afford to buy ANY stock?  And as far as controlling interest or even enough to form a proxy worth mentioning is roughly the same as saying we should all meet up and build a spaceship to fly to Saturn.

[I_Kicked_Kennedy]

Pixie, I was actually discussing your point with an executive friend (Fortune 500 company, but it's more a tech company)...

He pointed out that even if you have voting influence as a shareholder, the influence is limited to approving executive appointments, salary and compensation, and other board members. Just like "democracy", you can elect people who seem to be on the same page as you, but when they're put in those positions their decisions are influenced more by a) Primary stock holders (in this case, the Walton family), and b) being stockholders themselves, as much of their compensation is stock options. So, they'd want to keep the Waltons happy first, and foremost, and they'd want their stock/paycheck to be high in February/March (When they sell their stock after filing their taxes) and lower in October/November, when they slowly start buying back and extending their options so they can write it off.

Simply, shareholders don't get to directly decide how much to pay workers and, you could say, they don't have a lot of influence, even indirectly.

Another thing that was brought up is the perceived image of WalMart is to certain, conservative types. Though you and I know how much WalMart hurts the working man, and the small American communities, they don't see it that way. The comparison was made to Garth Brooks. Even if Garth charges $260 for his next concert, southerners and country fans will make sure every one sells out. Same with Toby Keith. Once you are perceived to be a "good ol' boy," the cognitive dissonance never registers. There could be a document posted on Fox News that says "Walton family likes punching unborn babies in the neck", and they'd shrug their shoulders and say "Well, it's the only place for 30 miles, and besides, Rick is the manager over their, so they can't be all bad."

However...

Remember Garth Brooks and Toby Keith? Once public figures hit a certain level of success (in the eyes of southerners/conservative minded folk), it's next to impossible to fall out of favor with them. BUT... the opposite holds true. Once you have done something that irks their "values", you might as well consider yourself blacklisted south of the Mason Dixon line. Example: Dixie Chicks. Once one of the band members said "George Bush isn't a real Texan and we're ashamed of him" or whatever it was... people lost their shit.

How could we paint WalMart to be liberal? What sort of campaign, outlining a company that breaks with "Amurrica" would get these people to turn on it as they did with the Dixie Chicks? Not actual examples of how Walmart truly fucks the small town communities in the ass (that evidence is out there for everyone to see), but what policies or practices would these people consider un-American if it were to be highlighted?

[AFK]

Palling around with Bill Ayers.


There is an ocean of difference between Wal-Mart and the Dixie Chicks.  The Dixies Chicks were just a band that a pretty small portion of the American populace were into.


Wal-Mart is fucking everywhere.  Also, Wal-Mart is frequented by people of certain socio-economic status with limited shopping options.  Where I live, if you aren't going to get your toilet paper, and your Cheetohs, and your plastic tubs at Wal-Mart you are going to get them.....oh yeah, nowhere. 


You could publish a photo of some Wal-Mart brass in a three way with Obama and Michael Moore and people are still going to flock to Wal-Mart to buy their shit.  Face it, Wal-Mart is pretty much inextricably entrenched in American society.