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Non-Tech : Wal-Mart

WMT 102.40

-0.2%

3:59 PM EST

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To: J. Nelson who wrote (503)	11/7/1998 9:08:00 AM
From: Chip Roos	Read Replies (1) of 1166

RE: Third World Sweat Shops You have to take some of the hysteria with a grain of salt. I run a footwear company that sources from one factory in China. Having spent much time in that country, I can tell you that there have been some abuses but today, I think it is our cultural differences that cause most of the concern. Our factory has a minimum age requirement of 16. The workers come from all over China and live in dorm style settings. They do work long days and weeks for the equivilant of about 28 cents/hour but that compares to no wages and living in the streets. Their food is included as well as a medical clinic and karaoke dance hall which the factory added in order to keep the trained workers from leaving and going elsewhere. The Chinese New Year Holiday is the entire month of February. Factory work stops and the workers go home for a month. By our standards, this may leave a bit to be desired and I would agree that child labor, forced labor and terrible working conditions should not be encouraged. However, when I am in China, I am sometime embarrassed at the Westerner's superiority attitude. Can you imagine the CEO of IBM being grilled by visiting Chinese as to how much he pays his workers, what benefits he allows, etc. Anyway, just my two cents worth. Most US companies are careful to avoid the bad factories that abuse their workers. I'm sure that Wal-Mart is careful.....probably cannot eliminate sourcing in every below standard factory but at least tries. Regardless, what a great company and we have all enjoyed a wonderful stock runup with WMT. Let's hope for continued success. Chip

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