I know that the reason you may have picked this magazine up is for fun motorcycle information, and that you may or may not want a dose of political rhetoric. However, there is an issue going down around the motorcycle world that should not only offend us as bikers, and Americans. Stick with me for a minute here and I’ll explain.
A few months ago we heard that Street Chopper, established back in the late '60s, was losing their deal with Wal-Mart. After recently centering much of its distribution around America’s largest retail chain, they were going to be put on waivers. This was probably a big part of their decision to only print two issues this year. Then, information from Cyril Huze’s blog came in that not only did this happen to Street Chopper, but other national motorcycle magazines like: Iron Horse, Iron Works, American Rider, Robb Report Motorcycling, Hot Bike Baggers and Motorcycle Cruiser. All these publications would be affected by the Wal-Mart newsstand adjustment. I put a call in to our distribution firm and found out that they were not alone. Over 1,000 titles on Wal-Mart’s racks, in and out of motorcycling, were discontinued, a decision Wal-Mart says they made because these titles were not profitable enough. Not that any of them were losers, just that the “Head Bean Counters” had come up with a number of what is ENOUGH profit for the space that these titles take up. The national distribution network already has a system in place to ensure that weak sales are adjusted, but Wal-Mart bypassed this and made their own rules.
The bulk of the business world might think that this is just a case of good business and that Wal-Mart is well within their rights to do so, but what about their responsibility to the community they support. After all, that was the original mission statement made by now deceased company founder, Sam Walton. I’m sure many will argue with me on this, but I propose this move means control of the free press. If you consider, the most popular magazines are often those that appeal to the general public or are accepted by the widest range of readers from society. To achieve this status you have to maintain and even keel, providing no passionate editorials that might get half the people in the country pissed off. It then becomes the responsibility of smaller, often independent titles to take the hard line on issues that will stir the pot.
Because Wal-Mart is the largest retail chain and the leading retailer of magazines in the country, they have a specific type of monopoly on the distribution of much of our printed media. With their latest move they have enacted a form of censorship on free press. I know that this all sounds very “Conspiracy Theory” but I’m not the only person saying things like this and it doesn’t just apply to magazines in the big box store. BusinessWeek reported similar facts about the retailer in their nationally accredited publication as well:
CULTURAL GATE KEEPER
There is no question that the company has the legal right to sell only what it chooses to sell, even in the case of First Amendment-protected material such as magazines. By most accounts, though, Wal-Mart’s cultural gate keeping has served to narrow the mainstream for entertainment offerings while imparting to it a rightward tilt. The big music companies have stopped grousing about Wal-Mart and are eagerly supplying the chain with the same sanitized versions of explicit CDs that they provide to radio stations. (Censored Versions)
“You can’t have 100% impact when you are taking an artist to a mainstream audience if you don’t have the biggest player, Wal-Mart,” says EMI Music North America Executive Vice-President Phil Quartararo.
Before we go any further, no we are not now. nor was Cycle Source ever available through Wal-Mart, so this move had zero effect on our magazine in a business sense. If anything, we stood in a good place for consideration to replace some of the ditched titles, that was until I called our distributor and told them to remove us from the list of considered titles for distribution through the Wal-Mart chain. I did this in the spirit of Jim Wier, CEO of Snapper Lawn Mowers; look it up, it’s a great story. But no, I will not support a company that does not support our community and to me, shutting the door on hard working publishers, photographers and journalists to make room for the more profitable poisonous toys of China is fundamentally wrong.
Moreover, I think that the motorcycle magazine publishers, hell, for that matter, all magazine publishers, should ban together and remove existing titles from their stores voluntarily. Of course I know that this is idealistic and I may be the only one who actually does it, the only one who stands up and tells the devil to kiss his ass, but that’s my point. There is a very real need for free press in our country; someone has to make a stand on principals!
I do need to apologize though, I have long had reservations about how Wal-Mart conducts its business and in spite of that, I let our magazine title be put on a list for consideration. The lure of selling thousands of magazines through their 5,000 plus, stores was great, and for that brief moment of weakness I am truly regretful. This is a sad day for publishers, however, this latest jab to the American population is not by any means the biggest problem with the Arkansas based chain. Below are some of the less than favorable facts that I gathered to add to this little rant. They come from credible news agencies and you can look any of them up by simply Googling terms used in their reports.
With $245 billion in revenues in 2002, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT Inc. is the world’s largest company. It is three times the size of the No. 2 retailer, France’s Carrefour.- BusinessWeek
138 million shoppers visit Wal-Mart’s 4,750 stores each week. -BusinessWeek
30% of U.S. household staples (toothpaste, shampoo, and paper towels, etc.) are sold by Wal-Mart.- BusinessWeek
82% of American households have made at least one purchase at Wal-Mart.- BusinessWeek
More than 70% of the commodities sold in U.S. Wal-Marts are made in China.- BusinessWeek
Wal-Mart buys 99% of the goods sold in its Chinese stores in China.- BusinessWeek
Wal-Mart buys 80% of all the goods sold in its Canadian stores in Canada.- BusinessWeek
Wal-Mart buys 93% of the merchandise sold in its Mexican stores from suppliers based in Mexico.- BusinessWeek
If Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it would rank as China’s eighth-biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada.- China Business Weekly
In its first study of how an American company treats its workers,”Human Rights Watch” asserted yesterday that Wal-Mart’s aggressive efforts to keep out labor unions often violated federal law (U.S.) and infringed on its workers’ rights. -New York Times
After years of fighting unionization efforts, Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s largest retailer, said on Wednesday that it would work closely with Chinese officials to establish labor unions at all its outlets in this country (China). -New York Times
These are simple facts, and I know that many people will cite the world economy and capitalism as a defense for the impact this super store is having on our country. But look outside your own town and ask yourself why Michigan is in such a bad way. Why is the entire Midwest getting its ass kicked by foreign imports? Why are the clothing and furniture manufacturers of the south going out of business like rats on a sinking ship? Why have long standing companies like Hasbro and Levi drastically cut their American work force and shipped their manufacturing overseas? Ask yourself these questions and you’ll have to come back to Wal-Mart and other big box stores like them who are trading American jobs and products for profit. These profits rarely even make life better for the people that work at those stores, their management, or in the long term, the people who shop there.
In closing, I would like to offer my sincerest sympathies to any of the magazines that have been affected by Wally World’s malicious attack on the free press of the American people. All I can hope is that reports like this start to show up in more of the magazines that aren’t sold in the big box stores, and the small mom and pop newsstands are once again known for the best selection in cool reading gear. As for me and my family, I will pay the extra 3%-14% that Wal-Mart can save me, just to buy from a small store. At least in that way, I will be joining the revolution.
Call me crazy, but Democrat or Republican, left or right wing, man or woman, I think that we can all agree that we’d like to continue to live in a world where some songs have swear words, some games and movies are violent, and some magazines are just not as middle of the road as others, but it’s still our choice. To that end, I bid you good luck.
To comment on this topic further I invite all of you to go to our forum and tell us what you think.
www.cyclesource.com
http://forum.bikernet.com
