What's this? Lowe's and Target are not blue companies? re: buyblue.org

[lavenderdiva]

ok, I was under the impression both of these companies, which I like to support, were blue companies. However, this morning, I visited www.buyblue.org, actually looking for information on FedEx, and happened to spy this information regarding Target and Lowe's. I couldn't find anything on FedEx,

but here is what I found on Lowe's:

BuyBlue.org's Position:

Lowe's currently has a 0% BuyBlue rating due to political contributions for the 2003-2004 election cycle. The rating is based on minimal contributions by Lowe's executives and the activities of Lowe's Political Action Committee during the 2003-2004 election cycle. It appears that for the most part Lowe's stayed out of politics in the last election cycle but the contributions that were made went to Republican candidates.

2003-2004 Election Cycle Contribution Statistics
View BuyBlue.org Methodology
Total Spent: $6,000.00

0% to Democratic Party candidates
100% to Republican Party candidates
0% to Other candidates


and here is what I found for Target:

BuyBlue.org's Position:

Target currently has a 17% BuyBlue rating due to political contributions for the 2003-2004 election cycle. Target executives contributed solely to Republican candidates and Target's Chairman and CEO contributed fairly heavily. Target also has a Political Action Committee which contributed very heavily in the 2003-2004 election cycle weighing in at $173,240 (21.00% D, 78.00% R).

2003-2004 Election Cycle Contribution Statistics
View BuyBlue.org Methodology
Total Spent: $212,440.00

17.13% to Democratic Party candidates
82.06% to Republican Party candidates
0% to Other candidates


I have actually gone out of my way to shop at these two stores, thinking I was supporting blue companies. Is this information correct? And does anyone know anything about FedEx? buyblue.org doesn't have any listing for them, although it does list UPS as a red company....

[LaurenG]

1. You know my son told me this a couple of weeks ago

He said he heard it on Air America. He said (ugh) walmart is bluer than target. :cry:

[lavenderdiva]

4. according to buyblue.org, here is Walmart's information:

BuyBlue.org's Position:

Wal-Mart currently has a 22% BuyBlue rating due to political contributions for the 2003-2004 election cycle. Wal-Mart's executives contributed heavily and almost exclusively to Republican politicians in the last election. Wal-Mart has a political action commitee which contributed a enormous amount of money - $1,655,500 (22.00% Dem, 78.00% Rep). Wal-Mart's rating might seem a bit high to some, but it will certainly go down in the coming months. There is a reason why they are currently running a laughable "we aren't so evil" PR campaign.

snip:

2003-2004 Election Cycle Contribution Statistics
View BuyBlue.org Methodology
Total Spent: $1,752,750.00

21.54% to Democratic Party candidates
78.46% to Republican Party candidates
0% to Other candidates

so, as percentages go, AMAZINGLY, Walmart gave more, percentage-wise, to Democratic candidates than Target... Hmmmm....

[NewJeffCT]

9. those numbers don't tell the whole story on Wal-Mart

The Walton family also funds RW "think tanks" and they are also one of the leaders in the school vouchers for private/religious schools movements.

[fudge stripe cookays]

29. Wal-Mart...

also allows their pharmacists to deny birth control to women with prescriptions. Sound blue?

Nope!
FSC

[fudge stripe cookays]

8. Keep in mind that...

Target gives a good deal of their profits to education, which helps repair some of the damage of "No Child Left Behind."

They also denied the Salvation Army the right to ring Santa bells in front of their stores. The Salvation Army is known for their anti-gay stance.

I think taken as a whole, combined with Wal-Mart's union-busting, support of sweatshops, treatment of employees, and killing of small-town economies, Target comes out a little better on the whole.

And no matter HOW red Lowe's is, Home Depot will ALWAYS be redder. If you have no other option of hardware store near you, choose Lowe's.

[Maru Kitteh]

23. They denied the Salvation Army because they felt it messed up their

feng shui, not because of any noble stand for the human rights of gays.

[AngryAmish]

31. I hate those f'n bells

good riddence

[Systematic Chaos]

2. Target is going red, yes.

But from what I hear they're still quite a bit better to work for than Wal-Mart. Let's hope the donation trends don't carry over into employee relations. :(

[bribri16]

26. We need a megamillionaire to start a blue discount operation.

There is just no place for liberals to spend their money to send a message. Can Soros start a company? Maybe start Martha Stewart for working women...???

[fudge stripe cookays]

30. We have one.

It's called Costco. They treat their employees decently, give them fair wages and benefits, and they're blue.

FSC

[cascadiance]

32. What we need Costco to do now is to expand...

by putting in place another set of stores that are targetted more towards single people instead of families like Costco does. This store could also emphasize good employee pay and benefits and also selling of American made products. I really try to shop mostly at Costco as a single person, but wind up not buying a lot of stuff there that really isn't practical for me as a single shopper or I wind up wasting food, etc. at times when I can't eat all of it before it spoils. If they were to have another set of stores, or buy out another chain, and try to cater more to single shoppers (with cross "memberships" between them and Costco) that would help market penetration too in areas where another Costco might not make sense, but another smaller store (along with a gas station too!) might make sense. If there were more Costco gas stations around, I'm betting they'd get a *lot* of business away from other gas stations too.

If Walmart can have "Sam's Clubs", then why not have Costco have a new chain of stores targetting different consumers too.



http://www.cafepress.com/chinamart

[fudge stripe cookays]

33. Great idea!

We should contact the CEO. I know... reprehensor and I are DINKs (double income, no kids), and we have kind of the same deal. We don't want to buy TOO much food.

But we get our coffee, paper towels, TP, books, things like that. Plus electronics. Great deals in place so that if your conks out on you, you can exchange it no questions asked. I also like stocking up for our Halloween party-- I can buy HUGE quantities of juice for punch, and ingredients for the huge batch of munchies I have to make.

FSC

[TwilightZone]

3. Regarding Target, I think the data is shaky at best.

Particularly considering that Target was co-founded by Mark Dayton. Dayton is a Democratic Senator from Minnesota, and it doesn't get much bluer than that.

Target is also one of the most socially progressive large companies in the world. They give a higher percentage of sales to charity than any other large corporation and have so for several years now.

[peacetalksforall]

18. Hasn't Target been bought out? They were doing the buying out for

awhile, but aren't they now owned by the Federated system or Mays?

I'll take a minute to check it out a little later.

[TwilightZone]

19. Nope.

It's the other way around.

Edit: there have been several e-mails floating around claiming that Target was bought out. They're false.

[AlCzervik]

20. Target is owned by Dayton-Hudson, they also own Mervyns

[peacetalksforall]

5. I'd like verification on Target, but if true that means that we MUST go

to Independents - independently owned stores. We don't need all the oil based plastic anyway.

If anyone knows anyuthing different - please speak up.

The equation seems to be if you are a nationwide mega corporation you are a red company... with minor exceptions.

I just checked www.buyblue.org and they reflect what you are saying. I'm another person who thought otherwise about Target.

[TwilightZone]

7. Please see my post above.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4432519&mesg_id=4432560

[lavenderdiva]

10. yep, www.buyblue.org is where I got the information...

I found this very surprising, as I had always thought that Lowe's & Target, among others were considered blue. However, this data strongly suggests otherwise. Here I was, trying to avoid shopping at Walmart, when they actually are stronger (please read by a pittance) democratic supporters. I still think they treat their employees like crap though.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

6. Walmart and Home Depot are worse

And Walmart is the worst of the worst. I refuse to even buy school snacks at Walmart and their clothes are disgusting, cheap crap.

[DrRang]

11. Costco is blue. Try there. n/t

[lavenderdiva]

14. yes, I LOVE shopping at Costco, and try to go there whenever I can,

but unfortunately, sometimes I don't need or want large quantities of something, or they don't have the specific item I am looking for. I wish they had everything, 'cuz I would shop there exclusively! If only....

[5X]

12. Buy Blue needs to use more data than just

political contributions.

[Lex]

17. Yes, I agree.

Chartible giving and employee policies need to be added to get a better picture of the company.

[cascadiance]

21. Yeah one wishes for a more scientific and complete measurement...

that would factor in other things the company and its execs do.

Another example would be that Staples should get some extra brownie points for pulling it's ads on Sinclair stations after Sinclair's shenanigans. And Sinclair's various policy decisions also won't show up on their political donations report.

For a while it was unclear whether Shell was a red or blue company depending on whether you looked at choosetheblue.org or buyblue.org. I think it was reflecting data from different election cycles. But that again begs the question on whether we should just look at most recent data, or look at historic data as well. I eventually said no more Shell after buying them for a while and just switched completely to Costco and/or Citgo/7-11 to get gas.

[ret5hd]

13. the way it looks to me is...

that walmart gave the repubs a $997,665 gain over the dems,
while lowes gave the repubs a $6000 gain over the dems.

regardless of the percentages, i would say that i would a lot rather have walmart mimicking lowe's than the other way around.

[quisp]

15. I don't know about Target but the info on Lowes is correct

and Home Despot isn't much better.

Here's what I do. If I know EXACTLY what I need I'll go to the big box hardware store. For EVERYTHING ELSE I go to the locally owned Ace.

And I buy all my big yard power tools from the local dealer.

[photuris]

16. Related Question...boycott?

Is this a boycott? In addition to not patronizing these companies, are we writing and telling them that we will not purchase their products while they continue to support profits over the lives of our service men and women(Republicans)? Do we boycott companies that advertise on media outlets that agitate for war and suppress reporting of our side? We are not a bunch of uneducated poor folks. Certainly we wield a majority of the buying power, right?

[Bridget Burke]

22. We need more data before boycotting...

Ideally, we would make everything ourselves. Or buy only from local, organic, ideologically pure sources.

On the other extreme, WalMart is rotton to its employees & local economies--as well as supporting right wingers.

I'll continue to visit Target from time to time.

[cascadiance]

24. Target was also notorious for letting Arnold's signature gatherers

to have "booths" in front of their stores to get the special election here in California. There were quite a few recorded incidents where there wasn't even handedness when treating those gathering signatures for Arnold Schwarzenneger and those who were trying to distribute counter election materials. Security was kicking one out and not the other at times.

[jmowreader]

25. Something else to consider before you shop at Lowe's

Their pay plan for "salaried" positions is abominable. The official name is "salary plus overtime eligible"; everyone calls it "Chinese overtime."

And like almost everything else Chinese, it's cheap and shoddy.

Let's use nice round numbers here and say your base salary is $1000 per week. Lowe's puts this as "$1000 for 40 hours" or $25 per hour. It's not going to be that high--IIRC the Lowe's store manager who came to work for us as a flooring associate was getting $750 per week and he ran an $800,000/week store--but we'll use it. All salaried Lowe's employees are required to work no less than 48 hours per week, so that "$1000 for 40 hours" is really "$1000 for 48 hours" or $20.83 per hour. Still not bad.

To calculate your Chinese overtime rate, which is paid for each hour past 48, take your "40 hour" salary and divide by the number of hours you actually worked this week.

I'm an assistant store manager and they always work a lot of hours, so we'll say that for the month of June I worked weeks of 68, 64, 71 and 79 hours.

$1000/68 = $14.70 per hour
$1000/64 = $15.63 per hour
$1000/71 = $14.08 per hour
$1000/79 = $12.65 per hour

This rate is paid for each hour past 48. In effect, the more hours you work, the less you are paid for each one of them. (Lowe's is also a leader in firing hourly employees, who by law must be paid time and a half for overtime hours, for overtime violations, but that's a subject for another day.)

There's a reason why customers greet about half of our associates with the phrase "You used to work at Lowe's, right?"

[lavenderdiva]

27. thank you for posting this information...

I knew that these kinds of shenanigans went on, but didn't know Lowe's participated...

[jmowreader]

34. Apparently they're THE worst offender in America

Google "chinese overtime" and the only thing that pops up is stuff about Lowe's.

Besides, I go in there every week to spy on them. They sell shit I wouldn't put on a house at gunpoint--lots of hardboard siding, for instance. They're also woefully uneducated on the need to temper windows.

[mattclearing]

28. URBAN OUTFITTERS 94% RED?????

Their stuff is outrageously overpriced, so I never shop there anyway, but I'd never have guessed the place that sells retro wear and buddha and homer soap on a rope would be donating Republican. Wow.