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ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

I thought with all the arguing over Walmart a few weeks ago, this was a relevant post...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040911/bs_nm/mexico_walmart_dc

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

It is a very relevant post--but we had a flame war a few months back on this forum because there are dyed-in-the-wool WalMart supporters and shoppers who contribute regularly and who look down on the idea of shopping in the mercados--although the majority of them didn't seem to know that Aurerra, Superama, Vips and Suburbia are also p�rt of WalMart....

WalMart is a gigantic cancer killing all the healthy competition in its path.

reddevil79 · Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 7:11 pm Post subject:

I read a similar article published here in london last weekend and almost cried. Could those guys stoop any lower!? Of course they could, it's Walmart!!! Vivan los abarrotes!

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

Since last Saturday members of the Frente C�vico en Defensa del Valle de Teotihuac�n have been camped out in the town hall of Teotihuac�n demanding copies of the construction licenses. They have been asking for copies of the licenses since August 2.

Supposedly all the permissions are in order and the construction is legal. However, McDonald's also had all permissions in hand in Oaxaca to put one of its "restaurants" in the main plaza and the citizens, led by painter/activist Francisco Toledo, managed to keep the bilious yellow arches out of the z�calo.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Geez, I haven't had McDonald's in almost three months. Dang, right about now I could really go for a Big Mac or a Quarter Pounder with cheese. Wink

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

Moonraven has never set foot in a McDonald's. This raven eschews garbage.

reddevil79 · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 5:15 pm Post subject: BOYCOTT WALMART!!!

Hopefully there will be enough opposition to stop this going ahead, it's scandalous. I say boycott all walmart stores! They have just taken over a supermarket chain here in the UK, but they've lost my custom (not that they were going to get it in the first place)

richtx1 · Joined: 12 Apr 2004 Posts: 115 Location: Ciudad de M�xico

Personally, I'd like to see a few old Aztecs eat the dolts who approved this...

Unfortunately, Mexico is not some forgotten 3rd world country, run for the benefit of sight-seers. These sort of conflicts between "development" and those who want to preserve "traditional values" are popping up all over Mexico (McDonalds wanted to put a ... "restaurant" -- I'm with moonraven on this one -- on the Zocalo in Oaxaca, Costco ruined some important 1930s murals and tore down half of Cuernavaca's Casino de la Selva), and they have become national -- or in the Oaxaca case -- international causes.

The same conflicts have already been played out in the U.S. and Canada, generally with the traditionalists on the losing side. Without getting into a long riff on micro and macro-economics, these chain stores have some positive effects in the short run... in the medium and long run, they're disasterous for the local and national economy. Thankfully, in Mexico, it's nearly impossible to put up a big chain store without running into a heritage site... Mexicans love their heritage and know their past. I can only hope this slows down chain-store development enough to give everyone time to consider the economic and social consequences.

Or... there's always the "Cuatla solution". A couple of years ago, Sumisa (another chain swallowed up by the Walton Family) wanted some ejital land for a parking lot. The local planning commission approved, though a cranky group of ejitarios did not... and made their objections known, driving the planners out of town at machete-point.

But, that's right... this is a teacher's thread. My professional students always enjoyed reading what the foreign press had to say about Mexican issues. With a little creativity, you can always use this story to teach... oh ... the past conditional, irregular verbs, vocabulary, discussion...

For those interested: Here's Satan's Mexican representative's website http://www.walmartmexico.com.mx/

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Wow! 657 stores - though I suppose that includes all the various subsidiaries. I had no idea!

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

Yep, WalMart just keeps gobbling up everything in its path--destroying local economies, abusing its workers (in Chicago the world's largest class action suit is being litigated against WalMart because of its treatment of female employees) and keeping the sweat shop degradation going in China and Indonesia. Yet it has--or has HAD--a very vocal hoard of supporters on this forum--who are strangely absent from this thread.

Points of information: the Aztecs (Mexicas) did not create Teotihuac�n--that happened at least 1,000 years before they arrived in the Altiplano. And the machete-brandishing city in Morelos you made reference to is CuaUtla (the place where eagles live, in the Nahuatl language.)

richtx1 · Joined: 12 Apr 2004 Posts: 115 Location: Ciudad de M�xico

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

I am not a trivia buff--my comment about Cuautla reflects that it has been my home base for about 12 years now.

However, I AM (or was, for many years in the US) a film critic, and if my memory has not failed me, both Teotihuac�n and Burt appeared in the awful picture with the mis-written title of "Vera Cruz", filmed here in the 1950s.

Nice scenery--at least that which wasn't chewed by Burt.

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

The plot thickens: the Frente C�vico has now sued the mayor of Teotihuac�n, as he admitted that WalMart did not, in fact, have a construction license....

reddevil79 · Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 9:05 pm Post subject:

Now there's a surprise...

richtx1 · Joined: 12 Apr 2004 Posts: 115 Location: Ciudad de M�xico