Yet another Stephen King book to be adapted into a movie
 

So, a popular opinion is that big business is an evil, soulless fist crushing the small, often family-owned businesses. But, really, there's something to be said about national chains and big businesses to a certain extent. Take movie rental places for example. Yeah, you can generally find some obscure titles at the "Mom & Pop" place, but a lot of the time they can't match the volume of selection at a Hollywood Video (Blockbuster doesn't count, it is evil and soulless), and Netflix just crushes any other rental place. So, what do you think? You can't do away with the big chains entirely, but the small businesses are definately important as well, so what's the medium? Where do you draw the line between the two?

What the hell does this have to do with a Stephen King adaption?

Nothing ^_^

I confused. Is the original poster implying Stephen King = Netflix?

Nothing wrong with capitalism. Business grow, it's normal.

But how a business treats its customers and employees must be examined. Some companies are inherently bad, seeking profits at any cost. Others do it the right way.

Wal Mart? Halliburton?

I think Wal-Mart's problem is that they're adding as much stuff to their stores as they can. Groceries, DVDs, clothes, toys, barber shop, bikes, et cetera.

thanks for quote sigging me!

The day big stores introduced selling alcohol
the whole shopping buzz went all to hell

In my opinion, Walmart isn't the devil because it's huge. It's the devil because it manages to bend the laws to treat it's employees like cattle. How does it accomplish this? Well, they are richer than god, but in addition they dump a buttload of money in the far right Republican coffers in exchange for consideration. That doesn't make it much different from Halliburton. Except that Halliburton is going to Dubai to make up for that whole "we're going to give you guys our ports, mazel tov" debacle. Walmart refuses to carry explicit lyrics and many movies, music, and manufactured items that don't fit with their very proudly stated Christian oriented business agenda. In addition, they are leading the fight for pharmacies that refuse to dispense doctor prescribed medications because it is against the moral beliefs of anyone that works in the store (i.e. the personnel in the pharmacy and the managers all the way up). They have recently made a decision not to carry the morning after pill at any of their stores because it goes against their mission.

Blockbuster has recently pissed me off in all kinds of ways. Blockbuster stores are geared toward the local environment. That's a business decision. I live in an extremely repressed area that doesn't approve of a whole lot, so our pickings were pretty slim. The close by college town, however, has an entirely different stock. It used to be that I could request a film, they would get it sent to the store by me and I could return it there to them. They decided not to do it any longer, so I'm on NetFlix.

I've tried to shop at the small, local stores, but many times that is sincerely overrated. Forget the prices. I was willing to pay an extra $10 for a pair of tennis shoes. The service is, many times, no better than the larger stores. I've decided for my own peace of mind that I will shop where I get good service. I refuse to shop at Walmart at any costs for numerous reasons, but I'm also not going to pay more money and select from a smaller stock in order to be given shoddy service to keep someone in business just because they are a "mom and pop". Sometimes Mom and Pop are jerks who have only stayed in business because they were the only game in town.