WalMart and Sam's Club (owned by the Walton family in Arkansas, as jgk correctly stated) have been sued, I believe multiple times, for stealing intellectual property.
The fairly recent case I remember is a guy who invented a slick Christmas tree stand. After initial local success, he began selling to WalMart/Sam's Club. He geared up his production to handle the volume. After a couple of good years his orders from WalMart/Sam's Club stopped.
The guy went to his local WalMart and there was "his" stand, only now made in China. Everything was copied, right down to the cardboard box and picture! He successfully sued the Waltons and got several million dollars.
I have a friend who is in a related business and he told me that this was a fairly common practice by the Waltons. They claim to be helping the American worker, but they are absolutely driven by the bottom line. If they can save a nickel by having something built overseas, that is what will happen.
The same person, who has NO respect for WalMart/Sam's Club, has a great deal of respect for Costco.
/Ed
Burgess Howell wrote:
OK. I'm completely confused now.
What intellectual property are we talking about here and how do Sam's and WalMart (and, presumably, COSTCO) fail to respect it?
Burgess (befuddled)
At 09:32 PM 7/28/03, you wrote:
CB, I know that to be true for WalMart and Sam's Club, but haven't heard the same for Costco. Would be interested in any details.
/Ed
Corey Bailey wrote:
FWIW:
COSTCO stands for:
China Overseas Shipping & Trading COmpany.
They have about the same respect for your intellectual property as the rest of China.
CB
At 05:43 PM 7/28/2003 -0700, you wrote:
They generally have some nice tequila also.
Ed Reeder wrote:
FWIW - Costco buys more wine than any other company in the U.S.
And it isn't just cheap wine:
http://www.time.com/time/globalbusiness/article/0,9171,1101021028-366290,0 0.html
