Lord WaldeMart Returns

Love this crazy video put out by Walmart Watch.
From the website:

We in WaldeMart Watch believe that the Dark Magic practiced by Lord WaldeMart and his company WalMart is inconsistent with the values in Harry Potter (see below for examples).

Together as fans of the Harry Potter books and movies we have the power to go beyond Lord WaldeMart's "gifts for spreading discord and enmity... by showing an eqully strong bond of friendship and trust" (Goblet of Fire 723) to all who have suffered at his hands.

We can show WaldeMart that the time has come to restore the soul that Wal-Mart's founder Sam Walton had dreamed for his company, and to become a company that gives it workers health care, treats neighborhoods with respect, does not discriminate against minorities, and is good to the environment.

The website goes on to point out parallels between the Potter books and WalMart such as:

• Using its power to buy in bulk to undercut prices at local stores, like the independent stores in Diagon Alley (like it will be doing with the new Harry Potter book by selling it at 50% of suggested retail price).
• Hermione's work with the liberation of house elves is compared to WalMart's health care plan, which covers fewer than half of its employees, as well as the abuses endured by workers in factories that supply WalMart. (See my earlier post on "Made in China." WalMart is not alone in this charge.)
• WalMart prevents its employees from organizing in unions, going so far as to spy on employees by reading their private emails and listening in on their phone calls. WaldeMart Watch compares this to Dolores Umbridge's Decree Number Twenty-Four that disbanded all student organizations.
• Discriminatory practices (against "Mudbloods") abound according to statistics...women make up 92% of cashiers, but only 14% of managers; 15% of American truckers are African-American, but only 2-3% of WalMart's fleet are African-American.
  
• WalMart has a history of and continues to pollute our "Forbidden Forest;" by contaminating water throughout the U.S., building on wetlands, and apparently even paving over Mayan grounds.
• Chambers of Commerce are compared to the Ministry that turns a blind eye when warned of the return of Voldemort. According to the site, Chambers of Commerce that approve a WalMart are giving it "loads of taxpayer-funded government subsidies so that it will build in their town." These subsidies take away from school funding most of time.

These are a few of the reasons that I never shop at WalMart. I also dislike shopping at Target, but at least their track record with their employees is much better.