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You do have choices. Most people don't realize it today. Between thrift stores, garage sales, and estate sales, I find just about every thing I need. Or else I shop online. As someone one else said, Wal-Mart is the worst of the worst. If I have to drive a little further and pay a little more to shop at, for instance, Lowe's or Home Depot, I will.
For instance, today I needed a tire pressure gauge so I stopped at AutoZone. I also needed detergent and toilet paper so I went to Family Dollar (which is cheaper than Wal-Mart and much less hassle). I bought a hoe for the little garden I've got going at an estate sale yesterday ($4). I bought my son 4 summer shirts on sale at Dillard's for $8 each yesterday as I was doing my walking. As cheap as Wal-Mart, or cheaper, and name brand and better quality. I go to small stores when I can. If I can't find something, I can always get it online in 2 or 3 days.
Walmart gets its employees from a large pool of applicants who have applied there because employment at Walmart was going to offer higher wages than where they currently were at.
Yes, many employees come from those smaller hardware and grocery stores in order to earn a higher wage/ and or secure a better life.
Sorry, but not in my experience. Most of them apply at Walmart because they have no other good options. No special skills or training and often very few other businesses hiring in the area. Certainly not because of higher wages, they are the lowest paid workers around, even fast food pays as much or better in many cases. Their scheduling practices suck (two four hour shifts at opposite ends of the day is pretty darn disruptive to a 'better life') and a lot of their employees don't qualify for benefits, and couldn't afford them even if they did. Mom and pop places don't have to keep you at a ridiculous low amount of hours in order to keep you from qualifying for benefits either.
On line, eh? Online retailers usually collect no state sales taxes, except in the state where they are located, thus depriving states and municipalities of needed revenue. Family Dollar? This is the second time they've been mentioned today in this thread. Do you really think they're any "better" than Walmart? How so?
If someone is paying less than minimum wage then they need to be reported to your state employment bureau. I had an employer where I worked while in high school that was messing with my tax withholding. I reported them and of course I quit my job because the principle of working for them. Many of my co-workers collected on their unpaid overtime because of my complaint.
Yes, many of us have worked for minimum wage while paying our dues to go on to other jobs afer high school and college. And many of us are now choosing to work part time as we transition into full retirement. The problem with Walmart is that they are the LARGEST employer in the US. Most of their employees are not on their way to something better. Due to a lack of education or motivation they just move from one low paying job to the next. In some places Walmart is all there is so no matter how poor the conditions there is no way out. And one of the problems with the current economic recovery is that we have put people back to work but they are under employed as part timers without benefits or at much lower wages than previously earned. And the CEO's are still making 100's of times over what their average employee earns. There's a basic problem with that business philosophy and many companies are guilty of it, not just Walmart.
When you have a workforce of 2.2 million people that are not able to support themselves on the wages that they earn at Walmart this puts a significant burden on the state governments to provide services to these people. These people have to eat, cannot live in a tent at the river forever, and everyone eventually gets sick.
If it was just the wages and working conditions for these people I wouldn't be so opposed to Walmart. But when they come in and build multiple stores that they later abandon and refuse to sell the property to other retailers so they can stifle the competition, leave behind concrete and asphalt blights for decades, target the little guys in town (I finally never stepped foot in another Walmart after they started offering livestock feed to compete with our local guy who has been in business for 50+ years), do not offer reasonable benefits to employees, and spew the made in America lie...it's more than just creating a generation of working class poor. I have found other stores to meet my needs at reasonable prices and source their products either from the US or from countries I trust. Read labels, do your homework, keep a spreadsheet of prices. Without ever asking the feed store guy carries 50-pound sacks to my truck, and he makes minimum wage too. But he gets a bonus every quarter when the store is in the black. And when times were tough, they kept all of their employees on the payroll. If Winco, Ace Hardware, and Costco continue to run respectable companies I have no reason to shop at Walmart ever again.
If someone is paying less than minimum wage then they need to be reported to your state employment bureau. I had an employer where I worked while in high school that was messing with my tax withholding. I reported them and of course I quit my job because the principle of working for them. Many of my co-workers collected on their unpaid overtime because of my complaint.
Yes, many of us have worked for minimum wage while paying our dues to go on to other jobs afer high school and college. And many of us are now choosing to work part time as we transition into full retirement. The problem with Walmart is that they are the LARGEST employer in the US. Most of their employees are not on their way to something better. Due to a lack of education or motivation they just move from one low paying job to the next. In some places Walmart is all there is so no matter how poor the conditions there is no way out. And one of the problems with the current economic recovery is that we have put people back to work but they are under employed as part timers without benefits or at much lower wages than previously earned. And the CEO's are still making 100's of times over what their average employee earns. There's a basic problem with that business philosophy and many companies are guilty of it, not just Walmart.
When you have a workforce of 2.2 million people that are not able to support themselves on the wages that they earn at Walmart this puts a significant burden on the state governments to provide services to these people. These people have to eat, cannot live in a tent at the river forever, and everyone eventually gets sick.
If it was just the wages and working conditions for these people I wouldn't be so opposed to Walmart. But when they come in and build multiple stores that they later abandon and refuse to sell the property to other retailers so they can stifle the competition, leave behind concrete and asphalt blights for decades, target the little guys in town (I finally never stepped foot in another Walmart after they started offering livestock feed to compete with our local guy who has been in business for 50+ years), do not offer reasonable benefits to employees, and spew the made in America lie...it's more than just creating a generation of working class poor. I have found other stores to meet my needs at reasonable prices and source their products either from the US or from countries I trust. Read labels, do your homework, keep a spreadsheet of prices. Without ever asking the feed store guy carries 50-pound sacks to my truck, and he makes minimum wage too. But he gets a bonus every quarter when the store is in the black. And when times were tough, they kept all of their employees on the payroll. If Winco, Ace Hardware, and Costco continue to run respectable companies I have no reason to shop at Walmart ever again.
Do you have some links (or something?) to back up that statement in bold? When our local Walmart relocated about a mile away from its original store, the area formerly occupied by them became a megachurch (I'm fairly certainly they bought the property from WM) and an Asian "restaurant row".
If I ever need a PR company, I'm going to hire Costco's.
On line, eh? Online retailers usually collect no state sales taxes, except in the state where they are located, thus depriving states and municipalities of needed revenue. Family Dollar? This is the second time they've been mentioned today in this thread. Do you really think they're any "better" than Walmart? How so?
I didn't say Family Dollar is better. But they are cheaper, less of a hassle, and don't leave as big of a scorch pattern on the world as Wal-Mart does. We can make better choices.
Please tell us how many Sear's, Penney's, and Kohl's associates carry HI. Also, Sears and Penney's were reducing staff LONG before Walmart showed up in my community, at least a decade before, actually.
Just an aside here:
I worked as an associate for Sears in their electronics department back in the 90's. The city I lived in had about a half dozen Walmart stores; there were two Sears stores. Sears offered its full time associates health insurance after a probationary period of 6 months if memory serves. I have no idea what Sears' current policy is in that regard, but back in my day, Sears was a great employer. I didn't get a salary; my paycheck came all from commision sales. I'd say I averaged $10/hour - a decent wage back then. Sears used to train associates on their product lines, and every week or so, I'd view videos explaining the features on the latest TV's, computers, and stereo equipment, etc. The customer was number one, and we were given considerable latitude to ensure that our customers went away happy and got the best price in town on their Sears purchases. And neither I nor my colleagues were forced to go on public assistance.
I remember once when a Sears customer came in with an expensive stereo system that they had purchased 6 months before. They wanted to return it because they had unexpected medical bills when their child became ill. 6 months was long past the normal return date, so I referred them to our manager. He made a few calls, confirmed their story and let them return the stero system for the price they had originally paid for it. Walmart would never do something like that in a million years. I miss those days. Go into a Walmart now or then and just try to find an employee who can help you. The customer is on their own, wandering through a plethora of Chinese made products. Walmart has also started making all sorts of rules on returns. If you get home with your Walmart purchase and discover that it won't work or doesn't have the features you expected, Walmart makes it hell on earth to return it or even exchange it. They couldn't care less about customer satisfaction because they know they've got the market cornered.
Sears couldn't compete with an organizatin that hires one untrained sales associate for every trained Sears three. Nor could it compete with employees averaging $10.00 plus/hour versus Walmart's minimum wage drones. Sears fought the good fight for many years after Walmart stores began to proliferate like cancer cells, but ultimately Sears lost. Now Sears pay and policies mimic those of Walmart, but it took Sears almost 15 years AFTER the Walmart invasion to finally capitulate.
In one town I'm familiar with (population about 30,000), there are two empty Wal-Mart buildings very close to the newest Super Center. One is across the street and sets empty. The other, 2 or 3 blocks away, has been different things over the years but is now also empty.
I had not shopped at Wal-Mart for several years, and a year or so ago I had health problems and started back for convenience sake (turned out not to be that convenient).
Here is how their stuff is cheap junk: I needed a simple black frame for a poster, nothing fancy. I bought one and got it home. I realized that the plexiglass was busted but I had not been able to see it because the paper label underneath the plexiglass obscured it. I took it back, got another. This second one, when I got it home, I found that a glob of glue had melted into the plastic or something causing a blemish which would have obscured the poster once framed. I got my money back and found a nice one at Goodwill for a few dollars.
The last time I had my tires changed there (cheap also because 2 of them developed slow leaks at about six months old), I had taken the car back to have it fixed as I was planning a long trip, they broke my GPS changing the tire (which they did replace), and the next day I realized the sensor for my tire monitoring system had also been broken, which they didn't replace.
I also noticed the last time or two I bought groceries there that they normally only have one, two at the most brand choices. I guess whichever company won the right to sell there, plus their own brand which is normally just the most popular one repackaged.
Their tactics are insidious and destructive.
When your kids and grandkids are slaving for China long hours in a hot factory with no benefits and low wages, remember all that Wal-Mart loot you had to have.
When your kids and grandkids are slaving for China long hours in a hot factory with no benefits and low wages, remember all that Wal-Mart loot you had to have.
That's basically what all these pro-WalMart idiots want --- keep sucking the American economy dry until we're ALL working in a Chinese labor camp for a cup of cloudy water and stale bread as our payment.
This will be our future if things keep going as the six Walmart kids have planned....
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