Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I work for Walmart and I think they start out too low on wages. However, the raises come regularly and if they stick it out it'll get better. I just got my 5th raise in 4 years. We have a lot of full timers and a lot of part timers. The part timers are mostly by choice, as I am. I'm 'old', I don't WANT to work 40 hours anymore and there are a lot just like me at my store. One reason for so many part time jobs isn't because they don't want to give them benefits, etc. but because they DO want to see as many people working as possible and no store needs 300-400 full time employees. My store alone is the biggest employer in the area. Then Home Depot. Part timers at Walmart have nearly as many bennies as full timers. In some cases it takes a bit longer to kick in but everybody who works for the company is eligible...IF they choose to take them.
Walmart CAN be a career type job. I see it at my store all the time. We have people who have gone from cashier, to CSM, to asst. dept. mgr. to dept. mgr. in four years. They can then go to zone mgr.. I think it depends on how much they want that type of career. I could be a mgr. by now if that's what I wanted. I am not interested. I've done my 'gig' in management over the years and now I just want to go do my job and go home.
You'd be amazed at the training Walmart actually gives their employees. We are constantly training, reviewing, renewing and being 'certified' for all types of things. Even us 'lowly cashiers'. Our managers have risen through the ranks over the years and I consider years of experience as good as book learning. Our last manager, who was with our store for over ten years, had a business degree. He has transferred to another store now with a big promotion and we have a new one. She has been with THIS store for 20 years and she's darn good. For some reason Walmart seems to usually bring new managers in rather than promote from within but this time they did and it was a good decision.
So how long does it take for a part time employee at walmart to get hired on to full time status, without wanting to be in management?
On Long Island (where I grew up), Walmarts didn't really come in until 2000. Before that we had K-Mart, Caldor's and even Target by that point. I don't recall seeing mom and pop's dying off because they didn't really exist.
In Arizona (where I live now), there really haven't been mom and pop's in Arizona. Most of anything are chains and there's really not any mom and pop's.
Overall, I haven't seen the effect of the Walmart economy. If anything places closed don on their own.
This is from my home area. This "shopping center" as it was called, was blamed for the demise of many a downtown in the vicinity. It opened in 1957. Anchor store was Penney's. There were a number of chain stores, e.g. A&P, Fanny Farmer candies, J. C. Penney's, Kinney's shoes, Kresge's (forerunner to K-Mart), Kroger, Speigel catalog center, Sun Drugs (was a subsidiary of some drug chain), Thom McAn (shoes), W. T. Grant, Western Auto.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 06-11-2014 at 04:03 PM..
I read an article bashing Walmart for driving mom and pop stores out of business when they came in. They quoted a building supply store, saying they had to go out of business because of Walmart. I have not seen a Walmart that is in competition to building supply store. Just a lot of hate against Walmart. It is Lowes and Home Depot that hurt building supply stores. Walmart gets blamed for everything. They are just a normal department store, working on a volume low price operation system.
What drives mom and pop stores out of business, is the fact they cannot compete in their buying. The larger the order, the lower the price has always been with us in Retail. There is an old joke. A salesman came into a store and started telling at different levels of the order volume wise, the lower the price got. The owner looked him in the eye and said, "Lets cut to the core of this order. I want a real big order. As you keep cutting the price with a larger order, exactly how many do I have to buy to get them for Free.
Buy one or a dozen of an item and it is one price such as mom and pop stores pay. Buy 5 truckloads of the item, and the price is considerably lower, and that is what Walmart pays. They often can sell, for what the mom and pop pays for the exact same merchandise and often less.
Walmart can operate at a lower profit per item. Where the mom and pop may sell $50 in a day, Walmart will be doing many thousands of dollars in a day. The mom and pop has to make as much profit to stay in business so they cannot use the smaller mark up that Walmart uses.
Walmart did not drive the small manufacturing companies out of business. What drove them out of business was when manufactured goods became an international manufacturing situation like we are in today, the low priced, heavy labor products were priced out of business. Before WWII, we bought a lot of goods from Japan as an example today. I know as I had numerous toys as an example that were marked made in Japan. They were made in Japan, as we could not compete in this country clear back then.
The companies had two choices. Go out of business and lay off everyone and go bankrupt, OR make the goods overseas
and keep half the staff working. If you were a factory owner which would you do. 1: Go bankrupt and lay off 300 people and end up broke. 2: Lay off half the people, and keep 150 people still working and your profits still coming in.
Walmart is in the top 20 best paying retail chain stores in the business. Within pennies of most of them, including stores such as Target and Macy's. Just think of all the high end stores, that did not even make the list. Walmart pays very comparable to other retail stores around the country, and beats a lot of the so called upper quality stores.
Walmart is in the top 20 best paying retail chain stores in the business. Within pennies of most of them, including stores such as Target and Macy's. Just think of all the high end stores, that did not even make the list. Walmart pays very comparable to other retail stores around the country, and beats a lot of the so called upper quality stores.
Best paying for who? Does it break that down by position? I work for a company that pays great once you reach a certain level of store management, but the poor front line employees make peanuts in comparison. We probably look good on those kind of reports too, but it doesn't mean we pay well if you're just an average joe.
Best paying for who? Does it break that down by position? I work for a company that pays great once you reach a certain level of store management, but the poor front line employees make peanuts in comparison. We probably look good on those kind of reports too, but it doesn't mean we pay well if you're just an average joe.
Even with management, on paper the salary may be good, but their working 55+ hours per week and getting paid for 40. That's not unique to Walmart; it's retail in general. I remember 15 years ago, I left my job as co-manager of high-volume clothing store, and went to work as a sales associate in a luxury leather goods store. With commission I ended up making the same amount of money, but worked half as many hours and none of the responsibilities. Retail is hard, and just like any other line of work, the few who make a decent income are the ones who have paid their dues and work exceptionally hard.
There is so much hypocrisy with the Wal-Mart controversy that it makes me sick. So many people who jump onto the podium to criticize the evils of Wal-Mart seem to have no qualms against shopping at Target or any other big discount stores in their area.
Here we have Fred Meyers where people are quick to jump to their defense because it is "at least a local" chain. BS!!! It used to be a local chain until they sold to Krogers years ago. Their prices are considerably higher, though their shelves are full of products from China; however, back in the 90's they broke their union and since then they hire only part-time to avoid health benefits. Then they sold to Kroger's.
Now, I have had the opposite experience from the poster right above me. While I've not always found what I was after at Wal-Mart, there have been MORE times when I had to go there to find what I couldn't find anywhere else. One time I wanted a pack of simple Thank You cards. Popped into Target, Rite-Aid, and Hallmark ~ none of which had them on stock. Had to go extra miles to Wal-Mart for them.
I don't know of any Wal-Marts here that are open 24-hrs.
Most, if not all, of the WalMarts around here are open 24 hours.......
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
