You would be surprised how many places deal in consignment. Most of your major retailers do right now, as they don't want to take the risk of buying 10,000 units of something that won't sell. The manufacturers of these places are taking the risk in getting them into the stores. The store that I work at, Epson, and Brother products are all on consignment, meaning we don't pay for them until they sell. This actually works out to your advantage, because you can get the same quality product for cheaper, and everybody makes money, and everybody is happy.

Yes, the economy is in the crapper. No, it's not Walmarts fault for that. Walmart is doing what every smart company does in this time, they cut costs, and do what they can to save money. The company I work for is doing this, and we're going to be there when the economy does turn around. The companies like Circuit City that didn't do these things, well... you see where they are at. The consumer has done it to themselves, we want everything cheaper, for the same quality. Well, when we're paying a Chevy plant worker 30 dollars an hour to put bolts in a bucket, you're not going to get it cheaper. That persons wage is put into every single car that one of those bolts go into. Do the math. Labor charges to build a car for Chevy and one for Toyota are totally different. Why are "foreign" cars cheaper? Becasue the labor is cheaper, and you know what, they're better quality. Like sprinter said, time are changing, and I buy "american" whenever I can, but the problem is they are few and far between.

I'm not defending Walmart by any means, and they should pay their bill that they owe the business you run, but before I slander them, I would have to see their case for not paying. I work in retail, and I know for a fact, that there is two bills at the store I used to work at before transferring that haven't been paid, because the services weren't done in the manner that they should have been, so it's being fought.