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I used to go to Walmart for all my groceries, and they've become increasingly greedy, prices have gone up a dollar or more on a lot of items....
Even their butter is more expensive, power bars, their produce, and by the way, their produce at the one nearest me, is bad....so it's management....
and just b/c they sell 8 o'clock coffee cheaper, doesn't offset their other prices.....
Where I live, they have gone way up....so I now will go to Aldies....its like anything else, people will get sick of it, and go elsewhere....Walmart used to be cheaper, and as far as their TV's and such being cheaper, beware, b/c when Sony makes TV's for Walmart, they are made cheaper....
So by that logic, I shouldn't buy eight o'clock coffee there because something else is more expensive, even though I'm not buying the something else? It's called being smart and frugal. I go to ALDI frequently, they have several items I like that I can't get elsewhere. BUT they don't sell eight o'clock coffee so what's a poor shopper to do? Oh, wait, I know!! Go where they have it at a good price.
Well, you do realize that Walmart is a business, right? A not-so-profitable business. It's not like they have a whole lot of extra money to raise wages with. Retail is not a high-margin business.
No, it's very profitable.
I worked for Wal-Mart for 4 years and worked my way up to Dept. manager (essentially the highest hourly you can go and the 1st step toward becoming a salaried manager).
My store as a whole grossed over 90 million a year. Payroll was in the ~10 million range when you count benefits and tax obligations, etc... They have 500 workers but only the managers - at team of 15-20 are making actual middle class salaries of $45K or above. The rest are part-time making 15-40K per year. We ran between 6 and 11% profit margins - usually around 8 million in a decent year. I remember one year it was a big deal because corporate made us pay for our own remodel and that reduced our profits down to 6 million which the store manager thought was horrible.
In terms of profit margin it's true that's among the lowest. If you were running a small business that would be trifling. But when you've got the kind of scale Wal-Mart does, that is big money.
This increase in wages WM is doing is all PR. They've had more than enough money for years to raise wages significantly.
Believe me - they know they can pay crap because there are district level managers for whom part of their job is analyzing what benefits poor people can get like SNAP, EITC, TANF, WIC medicaid, etc... now Obamacare. They set wage scales based on that. So much so that they have business plans that involve taking advantage of those programs and trying to make sure those recipients use their funds at Wal-Mart and not elsewhere. I'm a liberal but sometimes I support getting rid of some of those programs because I've seen how companies exploit them for their benefit. If they weren't around WM and the like would have to pay more.
I never worked at another retailer but I'm sure that is industry wide practice for the discount retailers.
Last edited by redguard57; 04-28-2015 at 02:34 PM..
This is not true about Amazon. I buy from Amazon constantly and ALWAYS pay sales tax. It is required by state law for Amazon to collect and pay to my state. This has been the law for over 5 years. Amazon shows me on my receipts how much I paid in sales tax in addition to the cost of the item. They're not absorbing anything. I am paying the full amount.
Some states require it, some don't. Oklahoma doesn't. Many other states don't. It required changing the state law in California to add taxes.
I worked for Wal-Mart for 4 years and worked my way up to Dept. manager (essentially the highest hourly you can go and the 1st step toward becoming a salaried manager).
My store as a whole grossed over 90 million a year. Payroll was in the 4-7 million range although I think benefits added to that fairly significantly. We ran between 6 and 11% profit margins - usually around 8 million in a decent year. I remember one year it was a big deal because corporate made us pay for our own remodel and that reduced our profits down to 6 million which the store manager thought was horrible.
In terms of profit margin it's true that's among the lowest but when you've got the kind of scale Wal-Mart does, that is big money.
Your boss was right. 6% (6 million) is a horrible Net profit margin (assuming you are talking net figures). You might see the number as millions, but profit should be looked at on a percentage level and not just the bottom total figure. Retail is not a very profitable business and this is known. Why do you think so many retailers froth at the mouth over the holiday season? Because they've been treading water ever since New Years and the holidays are their only chance to turn a 'decent' profit for the entire year.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by redguard57
If they weren't around WM and the like would have to pay more.
Umm, no they wouldn't. They would continue to pay what they are currently paying. It isn't the responsibility of the business to pay a livable wage. It is the responsibility of the employee to live on the wage they are given, or find secondary/other employment.
Last edited by headingtoDenver; 04-28-2015 at 02:43 PM..
Your boss was right. 6% (6 million) is a horrible Net profit margin (assuming you are talking net figures). You might see the number as millions, but profit should be looked at on a percentage level and not just the bottom total figure. Retail is not a very profitable business and this is known. Why do you think so many retailers froth at the mouth over the holiday season? Because they've been treading water ever since New Years and the holidays are their only chance to turn a 'decent' profit for the entire year.
The nature of selling all kinds of various goods and necessities doesn't really lend itself to high profit margins - I don't think any grocery store could do all that much better because the variety and nature of the goods are just higher. It's not like Starbucks where you sell a .45 cup of coffee for $3.00 or a pharmaceutical company where they sell a .01 pill for $5 each.
Payroll, however, was not really holding profits back - that was a relatively small concern and low priority; something the even the 2nd tier levels of management didn't even think about - those of us at the dept. level dealt with staffing. The logistical supply chain seemed to be the biggest single issue. I always felt that if we wanted to make higher wages a priority, we definitely could have, but that was not policy. One of the reasons I quit was because the more into management I got, the more I saw how the culture looked at the workers with contempt. They also looked at customers negatively, by the way. What the company seemed to value was administrative efficiency especially in transportation and logistics. It wasn't that they couldn't pay more wages, it was that.... well they kind of liked to see just how much they could do with as little staff as possible.
One of the incidents precipitating my resignation involved one of my associates - the person who was probably my most overachieving associate - she always won the "up-sell" competitions. I got into a big argument with one of the managers who wanted to reduce her hours - the over-achieving she did was actually seen as a negative - setting a bad example that would encourage more associates to ask for more. The ideal Wal-Mart associate does no more or no less than what's asked; compliance, not excellence is actually what gets you promoted. That manager was actually able to work around me and lay her off. That kind of thing is not an imperative - it's a choice they make. There was more than enough money to raise wages if building a loyal workforce was a priority.
Quote:
Umm, no they wouldn't. They would continue to pay what they are currently paying. It isn't the responsibility of the business to pay a livable wage. It is the responsibility of the employee to live on the wage they are given, or find secondary/other employment.
I don't think so because their wage floor is artificially lowered because they know their workers can live when they get medicaid, EITC, etc... without those they'd have to pay more or not have adequate staff.
Last edited by redguard57; 04-28-2015 at 02:58 PM..
I used to go to Walmart for all my groceries, and they've become increasingly greedy, prices have gone up a dollar or more on a lot of items....
Even their butter is more expensive, power bars, their produce, and by the way, their produce at the one nearest me, is bad....so it's management....
and just b/c they sell 8 o'clock coffee cheaper, doesn't offset their other prices.....
Where I live, they have gone way up....so I now will go to Aldies....its like anything else, people will get sick of it, and go elsewhere....Walmart used to be cheaper, and as far as their TV's and such being cheaper, beware, b/c when Sony makes TV's for Walmart, they are made cheaper....
How is it greedy to increase prices? The vendors prices have ALL gone up so of course they pass the increase onto customers. If Walmart, Target, Home Depot, whoever doesn't make a profit, they don't stay in business.
I haven't seen huge increases in prices in my area. My bread has increased 20 in the last 5 years! What else has only increased in price by 20 cents? Nothing I know of.
I worked for Wal-Mart for 4 years and worked my way up to Dept. manager (essentially the highest hourly you can go and the 1st step toward becoming a salaried manager).
My store as a whole grossed over 90 million a year. Payroll was in the ~10 million range when you count benefits and tax obligations, etc... They have 500 workers but only the managers - at team of 15-20 are making actual middle class salaries of $45K or above. The rest are part-time making 15-40K per year. We ran between 6 and 11% profit margins - usually around 8 million in a decent year. I remember one year it was a big deal because corporate made us pay for our own remodel and that reduced our profits down to 6 million which the store manager thought was horrible.
In terms of profit margin it's true that's among the lowest. If you were running a small business that would be trifling. But when you've got the kind of scale Wal-Mart does, that is big money.
This increase in wages WM is doing is all PR. They've had more than enough money for years to raise wages significantly.
Believe me - they know they can pay crap because there are district level managers for whom part of their job is analyzing what benefits poor people can get like SNAP, EITC, TANF, WIC medicaid, etc... now Obamacare. They set wage scales based on that. So much so that they have business plans that involve taking advantage of those programs and trying to make sure those recipients use their funds at Wal-Mart and not elsewhere. I'm a liberal but sometimes I support getting rid of some of those programs because I've seen how companies exploit them for their benefit. If they weren't around WM and the like would have to pay more.
I never worked at another retailer but I'm sure that is industry wide practice for the discount retailers.
That's your store. I know my store doesn't make 10 million after paying out everything. It's a small store in a rural area. It's not very busy and has a lot of competition grocery wise.
You won't be able to afford to shop there.
Man oh man, gotta looooove this $15 per hour crowd... Do you really think that A.It will stop at $15? What do you do with the people who are above these newly minted $15 per hour employees? Who do you think will be paying this $15? The store? NOPE! The consumer.
If those that are so enamored with giving an unskilled burger flipper $15 per hour then why not take some of what you currently make and take an employee or 3 under your wing and subsidize their paychecks bringing 'em to that magical $15?
Hmmmmmm?
Side question,
To those that think this $15 movement is so great would you support the government giving these workers welfare to make up the difference? I mean for all workers making less than $15 they'd get a monthly stipend to bring them to $15. Would that be ok?
If the answer is no then please tell me what the difference is between giving them a stipend and forcing a company to basically do the same thing???? I can't wait to see the answers to this question...
I've got no horse on the $15/hr issue. On one hand, the wages aren't enough to live on. OTOH, it seems like we're already paying for it in other ways, like gov't assistance programs via our tax money. [shrug]
in the end, it seems like we're damned if we do, and we're damned if we don't.
I've got no horse on the $15/hr issue. On one hand, the wages aren't enough to live on. OTOH, it seems like we're already paying for it in other ways, like gov't assistance programs via our tax money. [shrug]
in the end, it seems like we're damned if we do, and we're damned if we don't.
Keep pay where it is and ALSO get rid of entitlements. This will force people to do what they should be doing anyways. Either get a second job, or get a skill that pays more.
Here is the problem with raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.............all workers now making $15 an hour will want their pay raise to be about $6 more than Walmart workers.
It will be a chain reaction and major inflation ( similar to Jimmy Carter's days) will sweep the nation.
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Oh, wait, I know!! Go where they have it at a good price.
