walmart is the devil.

[souldoubt]

http://www.dsausa.org/lowwage/walmart/Dec17_03.html
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/

[jsinger]

Walmart isn't the only place that is like that. I used to work at Best Buy and I would work past my shift, off the clock, miss breaks, miss lunches, etc etc. Any major retailer is probably like that. It sucks though.

[GHOST 2.2]

i wrote a whole essay about it..... if you want ill send you the file..its all the facts put together which will make you hate walmart..... but yea i still shop there haha

[owequitit]

PUHLEASE!

1) Yep, Wal-Mart is the only one paying minimum wage...

2) Everybody bags on Wal-Mart because they have ultra low wages. I would agree with that.

BUT:

A)EVERYONE still shops there because they have THE cheapest prices.
How do you suppose they get those? By Magic and Good Luck? Welcome
to the REAL WORLD of economics. In order to be a successful profit driven business
with the lowest prices, you MUST also have the lowest costs. You can't have your cake and eat it too. KMart has been paying those wages for 60-75 years. They just weren't as large or as competitive as Wal-Mart. Where was the social trend to complain then?

Besides, here is the thing I love about statistics. They have painted exactly half of the picture for you(not surprising since the New York Times is known to be one of the most liberal news papers in the world, which is fine, as long as you filter their information correctly).

What percentage of Wal-Mart employees are retired from another job and have a retirement income from their previous career, receive Social Security Benefits, or some other kind of supplement to their income? Of those, what percentage knowingly work for minimum wage because they need something to do, not because they need the money? What percentage of employees would not be able to get a job at all? A lot of the physically/mentally challenged greeters come to mind. What percentage are college students or minors who know they are making crap money, but are working for beer money or car money, or because Mom and Dad said they had to?

What percentage of all of those time violations were a result of the company intentionally trying to break labor practices, and which were the result of employee miscalculation, volunteerism, or mistake?

Most time clocks round to the nearest 6 minute increment. That means if I clock out at 1:06 because I tripped and got to the back of the store late, it will punch me out at 1:12. Guess what? I just violated the law with no intention on my part or the company's. Considering they have somewhere near 1 MILLION employees, that kind of statistical violation doesn't really indicate a problem when you consider the number of employees, stores, shifts etc. etc. etc.

Not saying their statistics are flawed, just incomplete. We can't apply dollar facts and figures demographically unless we know the demographics of the data we are trying to use. Pretty sneaky eh?

B) Unless you have voted with your feet (by not shopping there) you have absolutely 100% no room to talk. Period. As long as you condone the practices by contributing to their profit margin, you are just as guilty as they are. Period.

Psychology fact for you. If you reward Behavior A you can expect to see more of Behavior A. You will not promote Behavior B by rewarding Behavior A. Period.

In most cases the whole Wal-Mart being the devil argument is simply another way for the American People to pass the buck onto someone else.

1) The Consumer - They can feel the guilty pleasure of saving XX amount of dollars by shopping at Wal-Mart (which does indeed fight inflation, because it gives them more purchasing power with the same money), but they don't want to take responsibility for the consequences of shopping at such a location, which is a constant battle against increasing prices. If you think Wal-Mart squeezes their employees, you should see what they do to their suppliers. At least the employees know ahead of time how much they are being squeezed.

This also, in a round about way, leads to depressed wages (every company on Earth is somehow related to the product you are buying cheaper) which in turn reduces buying power. It would appear to be a vicous cycle. However, based on the fact that the economy has continued to grow every year for the last 30 years (regardless of what any other sources have told you), the net benefit MUST be positive.

If you really want me to prove growth, let me know. I will use any set of indicators you prefer.

2)The Supplier - Labor workers in manufacturing all over the country complain about Wal-Mart sending jobs overseas. It isn't that the companies WANT to send jobs overseas, in many cases they HAVE to in order to stay in business.

GM and Ford are prime examples. The average UAW wage is like $20.00 an hour, plus benefits, and retirement etc etc etc. By the time everything is added up, they make like $75,000 per year, maybe more. PUSHING A BUTTON OR TIGHTENING LUG NUTS! Honda and Toyota line workers have an average wage of $9.00 and hour plus benefits (that are good, but not as good). Who is getting more for their money? Based on every quality study I have seen as well as financial results, I would have to say Honda and Toyota. Yet the workers refuse to take any cuts whatsoever, or increase productivity to justify the additional wage. They were so adamant about "full pay to the last day" they have just recently cost 60,000 of their "brothers" their ENTIRE wage. I am not a genious, but I would rather make $9.00 an hour than nothing...

Management, in many cases, shares an equal part of the blame. How many Aztecs is it going to take for GM to figure out what the market wants? When will they realize that they have to see more than 3 months ahead to keep their head above water?

Regardless, the pricing pressure has put increased incentive to move manufacturing jobs overseas. Lest American's be blind enough to think that we are the first ones to have this happen to us; we became a huge manufacturing labor base for Europe because of the cheap labor prices and lack of legislation. History repeating itself perhaps?

We live in a competitive marketplace and that includes labor. Other countries want our lifestyle and our expendable income. The difference between them and us is that they are willing to work for it.

3) Retail Business - Small business always claim that they are the ones that get pushed out of business by Wal-Mart. On the surface, it seems to hold creedence because they are David and Wal-Mart is Goliath. Trouble is, Goliath is smarter than David in most cases. The failure rate of small businesses is on the order of 80% anyways, whether Wal-Mart gets involved or not. Of course, Wal-Mart isn't there for many of those failures, so they don't count...

I come from a small town and can remember the HUGE deal it was when Kmart opened their doors. A lot of the little local Ma and Pa shops went under shortly thereafter. Is it because Kmart was the devil? No! It was because many of those shops had been price gouging for years, and everybody knew it. They weren't even smart enough to price match in most cases. When it is cheaper to drive 200miles to buy clothes, something is fishy. Then when Wal-Mart opened, it was DOOMS DAY. They were going to kill them all. However, the well run, smart, small business owners adapted and are still there to this day. They learned really quick to offer something that Goliath couldn't. Great Customer Service and slightly better product than the cheapest. Many have flourished.

Wal-Mart isn't the devil. It is an inanimate object that exists only in name and paper. Humans are the Devil.

[owequitit]

i wrote a whole essay about it..... if you want ill send you the file..its all the facts put together which will make you hate walmart..... but yea i still shop there haha

Please do share your essay. I would be interested to read it.

[wed3k]

keep them prices rollin...

[ACCORDianate]

I can get cat litter, tomatos, and socks all in one place. Walmart will be around for a long while regardless of everyones crying about it.

[clarksterdotcom]

you guys dont even know.. i live in rogers, AR. the place of the orig. walmart, blah, blah, blah..

ive never been anywhere that has SOOOO MANY WALMARTS!

neighborhood markets, sams clubs, supercenters, employee discount stores...
it seems like 4 out of every 10 people works for walmart out here.. it gets pretty annoying..

[growguy]

walmart , best buy and the like dont care about their customers or their employees. they are banking on the fact that more north americans have been *TRAINED* to buy the lowest priced goods regardless of where its coming from or what the implications are.

[souldoubt]

i hate shopping @ that store. i could carless about how much they pay, or hoe they treat their employees. i found the info in these articles interesting. they main reason i don't shop their, is the same reason i don't wait for a table @ a restarant. i hate crowds, a feeling like cattle. the employees chose took take the jobs, so than can choose to leave.

[azian21485]

<---doesn't shop at walmart....but the one buy my area (about 10 min from my house) is always packed...not surprised richest man in the world is president of walmart

[mrvinyl33]

always low wages, always.

that store doesn't move me either.

if you're in MD you've seen this, but for others, here's a link about the new 'wal-mart bill' :
http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...maryland_x.htm

[owequitit]

walmart , best buy and the like dont care about their customers or their employees. they are banking on the fact that more north americans have been *TRAINED* to buy the lowest priced goods regardless of where its coming from or what the implications are.

No offense or anything, but contrary to your condescending point of view, most people other than socially trendy teenagers and yuppies haven't been *TRAINED* to buy anything. Having said that, why would I pay $3.50 for a box of Kleenex, when I can buy EXACTLY the same thing for $2.50 somewhere else. Unless the place selling it for $3.50 has exceptionally good service or a more convenient location that justifies the cost, I would be an idiot if I payed more.

its not so much that they dont care about the customers, when one or two customers decide to stop shopping at walmart thats ok with them, they have a ton of other customers. the reason their prices are so low is because they set the price, then the companies they purchase through must be willing to work under the prices set by walmart. in fact they sell many things like music, movies, and magazines under cost. not to mention that walmart also has more of a say in song lyrics, magazine covers, album covers than you would imagine. if they decide they dont like a song, you wont ever be able to buy the cd at a walmart, or if they dont like a magazine cover, they sell so many copies of each magazine they carry that before magazines hit press the covers are approved by walmart first

This is all absolutely true too. They set the price and the vendors meet it or leave the store. Wal-Mart also doesn't have the lowest prices in many cases. They use "focus" products to draw your attention to something (which is the cheapest one around) and more often than not, you upgrade to a better unit for more money. The fact that they can't care about the individual customer because they have so many, is exactly the reason that well run small business continue to flourish. They CAN care about you. Being the largest customer to most companies puts Wal-Mart into a position to demand big things from their suppliers. Just as every individual person I have ever met uses this same leverage when they can.

i hate shopping @ that store. i could carless about how much they pay, or hoe they treat their employees. i found the info in these articles interesting. they main reason i don't shop their, is the same reason i don't wait for a table @ a restarant. i hate crowds, a feeling like cattle. the employees chose took take the jobs, so than can choose to leave.

I agree, and I don't shop there unless I absolutely need something, or I am somewhere where there is no where else to go. They are always packed, and I am not a crowd fan either.

<---doesn't shop at walmart....but the one buy my area (about 10 min from my house) is always packed...not surprised richest man in the world is president of walmart

Ummm, I am assuming that you are referring to Sam Walton. He has been dead since the early 1990's. The richest man in the world is Bill Gates...you know the Microsoft guy? The second richest is Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway fame. Sam Walton's kids are still up there though. At his peak he was worth 22 Billion, which pales in comparison to Bill's 50 someodd billion (probably more now).

always low wages, always.

that store doesn't move me either.

if you're in MD you've seen this, but for others, here's a link about the new 'wal-mart bill' :
http://www.usatoday.com/money/indus...-maryland_x.htm.

The problem with legislation like this is that it is inflationary. We have increased labor costs without a corresponding increase in quantity, quality, or productivity. So then as the money increases work their way through the system, other costs increase and pretty soon you have offset the pay increase. Southern California is a PRIME example. Guess what, people making minimum wage in Southern California STILL can't pay their bills, because the increased cost of living in most areas has offset the increase in pay. Don't believe me? Look at the minimum wage in California. Then look at the cost of living for any place that is a decent place to live.

[azian21485]

No offense or anything, but contrary to your condescending point of view, most people other than socially trendy teenagers and yuppies haven't been *TRAINED* to buy anything. Having said that, why would I pay $3.50 for a box of Kleenex, when I can buy EXACTLY the same thing for $2.50 somewhere else. Unless the place selling it for $3.50 has exceptionally good service or a more convenient location that justifies the cost, I would be an idiot if I payed more.



This is all absolutely true too. They set the price and the vendors meet it or leave the store. Wal-Mart also doesn't have the lowest prices in many cases. They use "focus" products to draw your attention to something (which is the cheapest one around) and more often than not, you upgrade to a better unit for more money. The fact that they can't care about the individual customer because they have so many, is exactly the reason that well run small business continue to flourish. They CAN care about you. Being the largest customer to most companies puts Wal-Mart into a position to demand big things from their suppliers. Just as every individual person I have ever met uses this same leverage when they can.



I agree, and I don't shop there unless I absolutely need something, or I am somewhere where there is no where else to go. They are always packed, and I am not a crowd fan either.



Ummm, I am assuming that you are referring to Sam Walton. He has been dead since the early 1990's. The richest man in the world is Bill Gates...you know the Microsoft guy? The second richest is Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway fame. Sam Walton's kids are still up there though. At his peak he was worth 22 Billion, which pales in comparison to Bill's 50 someodd billion (probably more now).



The problem with legislation like this is that it is inflationary. We have increased labor costs without a corresponding increase in quantity, quality, or productivity. So then as the money increases work their way through the system, other costs increase and pretty soon you have offset the pay increase. Southern California is a PRIME example. Guess what, people making minimum wage in Southern California STILL can't pay their bills, because the increased cost of living in most areas has offset the increase in pay. Don't believe me? Look at the minimum wage in California. Then look at the cost of living for any place that is a decent place to live.

I thought the president of walmart surpassed bill gates? oh well...guess not

[GHOST 2.2]

Please do share your essay. I would be interested to read it.

pm me your email addy. ill gladly mail it.