Wal-Mart exploits third-world children to offer cheap downloadable music

First, Wal-Mart is helping combat the insane tactics of the RIAA by offering tunes in downloadable form. Secondly, Wal-Mart is delivering an excellent value to customers who want downloadable music. It's one of the best pricing structures around.

It will be entertaining to see how Wal-Mart bashers manage to spin this one. Perhaps Wal-Mart is exploiting third-world children to pedal bicycles to generate the electricity needed to run the music download servers. Granted, some of the criticism on Wal-Mart is justified in terms of their offshore sources and working conditions in those countries, but I also find that it's fashionable to criticize Wal-Mart these days, and practically all my friends can't wait to take another snipe at Wal-Mart. Many of those snipes are simply unjustified. Wal-Mart does an excellent job of providing the goods that people want to buy at prices they can afford, and these 88-cent downloads are yet another example of that.

The vast majority of the criticisms aimed at Wal-Mart have a different source altogether: the consumer. Wal-Mart provides the goods that consumers want, and the truth is that most U.S. consumers don't care where something comes from or how it's made as long as they can get it for ten cents cheaper. The big picture is that whether we're talking about food products, cheap plastic household products, toys or other items sold at Wal-Mart, the consumer really doesn't want to know the story behind the product. They just want the best price, period. So they buy it from Wal-Mart and don't ask questions. And that's the root of many of the problems for which Wal-Mart is frequently blamed.

In a sense, Wal-Mart is a perfect reflection of U.S. values. It delivers exactly what people demand.

• On Tuesday, the mammoth chain retailer formally opened its online music store, from which customers can download music at 88 cents per song.
• That's 11 cents less than Apple Computer charges at its iTunes music store, which has been the pacesetter on this e-commerce track.
• The Wal-Mart service allows customers to play downloaded music on Windows PCs, to burn songs to a CD or to transfer music to portable devices.
• Usage rights are uniform across the company's catalog of music.
• The retailer began testing the service in December and is working in partnership with Liquid Digital Media, formerly Liquid Audio.
• Microsoft plans to enter the fray in the second half of the year.