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Are there Targets and Wal-Marts in Europe? If so, are they unionized? If so, have these companies left europe?
Wall Mart opened stores in Germany, but got their nose bloodied by the competition and they pulled out.
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Yes, you read that right. The German discount retail landscape is extremely competitive, with relatively small stories like Aldi and Lidl offering good-quality groceries at below-average prices. Metro AG, the German retail group that acquired the Wal-Mart stores, operates a number of successful chains that offer discount prices on everything from electronics to groceries to department store goods. German consumers, not unlike Americans, are extremely price-conscious. Wal-Mart was largely unable to undercut its competitors, particularly when it came to the grocery business. Potential customers may have been disenchanted with some of Wal-Mart's practices at the beginning, but one imagines they could have put up with having someone bag their groceries if those groceries had been cheaper than those they found at the competition
I've known people who worked at Target and Wal-Mart and they both are bad. Target may look better on the surface, but it's still retail. Genera;;y retail treats employees badly.
In general, Wal-Mart is a hated company, but many of the same things happen at Target. Wal-Mart is a huge company so it's easy to pick on them.
Pretty much.
They don't pay their workers much better and they preach union lies just like Wal-Mart.
At least Kroger lets their employees join a union and their health care benefits are pretty good. My girlfriend works for Kroger and only pays $4.00 a month for health care benefits. A friend of mine, her mom has worked for Krogers for quite a while and she has barely had to pay anything for her cancer treatment.
Target will down-grade as many as 8,000 employees from full-time to part-time.
In an apparent effort to reduce the expense of health care and other employee benefits, a Target employee reports that he has just been informed that Target will down-grade as many as 8,000 employees from full-time to part-time. He is one of those full-time Specialists and Team Leaders who are being demoted.
The employee, who goes by "Michael," wrote an extensive missive to The Consumerist, stating that Specialist and Team Lead positions are being eliminated in all Target stores over the next several months. Those who hold those positions will be demoted to part-time status, being assigned under 32-hours per week and paid on a lesser, hourly basis. Target representatives dispute Michael's reports
Michael also claims that many of these full-timers will be expected to train the part-timers to do their core jobs, before they are demoted. Some speculate that they will be so angry about this that they will quit, and entry level employees can be hired to replace the higher paid workers.
For the Target shopper, this could mean less experienced and knowledgeable customer service. Those familiar with Circuit City's demise note that the same tactics were attempted with Circuit City employees in order to save a buck, but shoppers became frustrated by the lack of customer service and expertise and began buying elsewhere. It took less than a year for Circuit City to declare bankruptcy after that move.
"If this is true, I'm going to vote with my wallet," said one Target shopper in a comment on the Consumerist post. "If you are going to no longer treat your employees decently, I'm no longer going to patronize your company. Since I currently spend $300+ per month at Target (in order to avoid giving any business at all to Walmart), I guess that $3,600+ a year is now going to be going to CostCo."
However, Target officials beg to differ. A concerned email to Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel (Gregg.Steinhafel@target.com) reported the following:
"This simply isn't true. A false and malicious rumor is being spread by a misleading article in TheConsumerist.com. We have not cut pay, hours or benefits. We continue to build new stores and add new jobs although fewer than in the past. Thanks."
A Target spokesperson explained the changes this way:
"Each year we review our store operations and structure, which allows us to continually improve our guest service and productivity. We made minimal changes to our structure this year – they affect less than 5 percent of our hourly store team member base. Overall, the changes affected team members will experience include shifts in title or responsibility (for example - a sales specialist - shoes, could be retitled merchandising brand manager), and none of these team members will see a change in their current pay, the number of hours they work or their eligibility for benefits."
Yeah and in spite of all Obama's talk, things are not looking up here at all. He has no clue. So many businesses i know are laying of, cutting back people's hours, or shutting down, there is no way this economy is seeing itself on the right track, all talk as usual.
oh my gosh .... give it a break will ya??? Even Sanrene said that Target could very well have laid these folks off and considering the freefall the economy was in when Obama took office, something made Target change their minds.
Who is going to work in this country anymore?
We'll be all sitting around in the streets, no jobs, no future, no hopes, with our hands out. It'll be like Mad Max.
Unfortunately, that's where I see the U.S. heading.
I am certainly scared for our future and it's like the people we choose to "represent" us could care less about our prospects. They give themselves raises every year but they should only get a raise when we get a raise. If the raise of Congress members was tied to a rise in the minimum wage, what do you think the minimum wage would be now? 15....20 an hour?
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Target will down-grade as many as 8,000 employees from full-time to part-time.
