In Mexico Wal-Mart Sucks Too

The Supreme Court of Mexico recently ruled that Wal-Mart could not pay employees in Wal-Mart vouchers. Nice try Wal-Mart, how nice of you. It is awfully reminisicent of the company store, an awful part of the history of industrialization. The effect is, of course, to eliminate competition for business and eventually drive up prices.

Wal-Mart to Take Over Music

Good ol' Wal-Mart had a little music festival, er...shareholder meeting (vomit) recently with some of its favorite artists, including the mediocre but formerly famous band Journey. It seems Wal-mart struck a deal with Journey to exclusively release some 3 disc set of the bands music. They bought the rights, Wal-Mart, that is, from the band without a middle man (record label). Normally, it would be a good thing if a record company was excluded from a deal such as this and could mean more money for the artist. The real problem here is this is Wal-Mart we are talking about. The litany of bad acts by Wal-Mart is too long to list here. Just Google something like:

Wal-Mart + labor + health insurance + eats babies.

The NY Times article linked to above mentions how deals like the one Journey signed with Wal-Mart and the one signed by the band the Eagles and the anti-labor capitalist beast last year are the result of the success of digital downloads in that bands have less of a need for record labels. Its just too bad that there are artists (and their managers) who can't think of any more creative than signing on with a corporate piggy.