It's "official" - hello Wal-Mart (home, unemployed)

[doggiemama]

Originally Posted by Minervah

Oh, okay. I think I got it. Is that not too far from the Fred Meyer? Trying to picture it.

Just south of there.

[AZDesertBrat]

Originally Posted by PermanentlyLost

I used to work for a Walmart years ago, and I always find it funny when people talk crap about the wages. When I worked there I got annual raises, health, dental, vision benefits, profit sharing, 401k etc.

I've been with them for a couple of years myself. I have no complaints but you forgot some things. What about quarterly bonus pay, maternity/family leave, vacation/sick/personal days, all paid. Jury duty pay too. I've quit defending Walmart. I like my job and my co workers...even all the managers...so I just let people believe whatever they want to anymore.

[tickyul]

Originally Posted by AZDesertBrat

I've been with them for a couple of years myself. I have no complaints but you forgot some things. What about quarterly bonus pay, maternity/family leave, vacation/sick/personal days, all paid. Jury duty pay too. I've quit defending Walmart. I like my job and my co workers...even all the managers...so I just let people believe whatever they want to anymore.

I love Walmart.....a great place to buy lots of things at very-good prices.


To the hippies/urban hipsters in the Portland area........prices do not matter, Walmart EVIL........worse than Dick Cheney and GW combined.

[AZDesertBrat]

Originally Posted by tickyul

I love Walmart.....a great place to buy lots of things at very-good prices.


To the hippies/urban hipsters in the Portland area........prices do not matter, Walmart EVIL........worse than Dick Cheney and GW combined.

I agree. I have saved a ton of money at Walmart over the years and now, with ad matching, it's really easy to do it ALL in one stop.

LOL @ the "Walmart EVIL...." comment. It just amazes me how people think it's so 'evil'. Without Walmart here there would be about 400 more unemployed people in our town. And people are always talking about how bad employees are treated when they don't even know. They believe rumors. I've asked them to explain just how employees are treated so badly but never get any answers.

[hamellr]

I don't like Walmart for how they have treated one of my good friends, and an ex-girlfriend.

When the first one on 82nd opened, my ex started working there. She was a cashier, frequently just as she was getting off shift (frequently without lunch or a break,) she'd be made to go work in the stock room for another 3-4 hours. Often this would put her above 40 hours, but some how, week after week, she'd never get paid for anything over 35 hours a week. To keep shrinkage down, management would chain the doors closed in the stock room, so that the only exit out of the building was at the front.

About six months after starting there the manager started sexually harassing her with inappropriate touching and comments. He even did it in front of me once, pretty blatantly and on purpose. When she called HR to complain, suddenly she was getting written up for all kinds of things and "fired" three weeks later. Which is odd, because she'd been a model employee before that and had won their employee of the month equivalent trophy only a few weeks in the past. She ended up getting a job as a stripper and made more money in one night then she did in a week working there. Last time I talked to her, she had just gotten her PhD and was working for some genetics company near NYC.

Another very good friend had four kids. Her husband had been killed in an accident at his job. She had no family to speak of, and had to take care of her dad in addition to the kids. Their youngest had some major medical problem that meant she had weekly doctors visits with him. When hired, she was told repeatedly that she'd be able to have that day off, and that family came first. Within two weeks they started scheduling her to work those days. To keep her job, because they'd never change the schedule, even though they promised they would the next week, she'd have to reschedule the doctors appointment on a weekly basis.

They would also constantly promise to bring her up to full time status so that she could get health insurance for her self. That never happened, they would give her exactly one hour less then needed to get to full time. Instead she had to use welfare, food stamps, school lunch programs, just to make ends meet and get health care for her kids. I frequently "loaned" her money just so she could do simple things like buy herself new clothes or get the battery in her car replaced when it went bad.

Once there was a bomb threat against the store. Police, SWAT team, fire department all showed up. They store was evacuated of all customers, but all the employees were then locked in the store by management until the Police got pissed off and forced them to completely evacuate the store.

Cashiers were never allowed to go on bathroom breaks. One of the other cashiers developed major kidney issues due to that. Did I mention she rarely got her 15 minute or lunch breaks? The excuse was that the store was understaffed and they couldn't afford anyone to leave for that long.

The management organized the store into three teams. All the management and full time workers were on one team. The second team was fleshed out with part timers, mostly cashiers, but the third team was the elderly greeters, the two handicapped workers, the third shift night workers, and herself as the only cashier on the team. Teams Two and Three had up working unpaid overtime for three months to catch up with the "sale goals" established by Team One.

When her father died, they wouldn't give her bereavement leave. She purposely scheduled the funeral for her day off. She talked with management, and made sure that they were not going to schedule her during that day, even left notes with every member of the management team that she needed that day off. The night before, she checked the schedule to see what the next week was looking like, and found that she had suddenly been scheduled to work the day of the funeral. When she went to management she was told to come in, or don't bother coming in ever again, so she ended up missing her father's funeral.

Two weeks later, another girl's father also died. She was one of the full timers. That girl got an entire week off, and management "arranged" for everyone in the store to "donate" five dollars to her to "help with expenses." My friend just looked at the manager who was collecting money and said some not very nice words.

She put up with all of this because Walmart was the only employer in town. The only other options were to work in the lumber mill. I even went so far as to give her enough money to come up to Portland, helped rewrite her resume, gave her and her kids a place to stay, all to try to find a job. But she never got any call backs.

Last time I heard via a mutual friend, she got fired from Walmart. She ended up getting written up for her till being $20 short, even though she counted it twice and was even when she turned it in. Next day she was written up for clocking in one minute late. Day after that she was written up for not showing up to work, even though she checked the schedule before she left for the day before, and had several witnesses who said she wasn't on the schedule.

Apparently she turned herself in to CSD, got the kids put into foster homes, sold or gave away everything and disappeared. None of us have heard from her since then.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by hamellr

To keep shrinkage down, management would chain the doors closed in the stock room, so that the only exit out of the building was at the front.

By "shrinkage" I'm assuming you mean employee theft? Baaaad WalMart.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

By "shrinkage" I'm assuming you mean employee theft? Baaaad WalMart.

Yeah, sorry. That shrinkage is the term the Retail industry uses to mean theft of any type, but most usually employee theft.

[Cinnamon_Girl]

Originally Posted by hamellr

Yeah, sorry. That shrinkage is the term the Retail industry uses to mean theft of any type, but most usually employee theft.

Nitpick: not just theft, but any kind of inventory loss. Shrink is also: damaged in transit, fell off a shelf, expired unsold, administrative/shipping errors, cashier/pricing error. It is true, though, that the vast majority of retail shrinkage is attributed to theft (employee, shoplifting, vendor fraud).

I'm not a fan of Walmart, either, primarily because working in retail, I've seen a devaluing of merchandise quality in favor of cheap, disposable product. People are more interested in getting more stuff for their money, regardless of how quickly they'll be needing to replace it. Why fix anything or even recycle old stuff when you can just thrown it out for something new? Why would I go to the thrift store for an old, used, but perfectly serviceable dresser, when I can buy a pressboard dresser that I can throw out when I move out of my apartment? Why would I want to spend $160 on a quality pair of boots that were fitted by an actual person who knows what they're selling enough to match me with the best product for my money, when I can grab a $30 pair of boots right off the shelf? It's not about how good the stuff is that you spend your money on. It's about how much stuff you have.

There's no value in getting some real long-term life out of things anymore and that kind of makes me sad. I blame Walmart and their crappy Chinese products that has inspired a nation of cheap-ass megaconsumers.

[Bluesmama]

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but for myself WalMart's prices haven't been the selling point, but availability! 4 times now I've had to go to WalMart to pick up something that wasn't to be found anywhere else.

Theft is a problem in all stores right now. My neighbor manages a Thriftway grocery store, and they're having a heckuva time with it.

[SyraBrian]

In Syracuse, I've noticed that a good percentage of the folks who are accused of stealing credit cards tend to get caught charging those credit cards at Wal-Mart.