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Others have pretty much said all about how Wal-Mart is making the U.S. a race to the bottom: not paying livable wages so many of their "associates" are forced to use government subsidies that we ALL pay for, how they force manufacturers to ship good paying jobs overseas for cheap labor, how they force mom & pop stores to go out of business, etc. There is this infamous sign from last Nov.
Not too sure if anyone has mention how they took life insurance policies out on employees. To be fair, other corperations have done that, too.
I have NEVER bought anything from Wal-Mart and I never will. I have been in their stores a few times when I was with other people but never stepped in one on my own-and I will NOT!!! I try to convince people to boycott Wal-Mart but unfortunately, some can't. Wal-Mart has made it so they can't. It is either Wal-Mart or they have to go a long way to get to some other store.
Cat
Last edited by Oldhag1; 06-15-2014 at 04:59 PM..
Reason: copyright material
I clean my toilet with a scrub brush because I'm against poisoning the planet. I don't have a cat and I don't care about the Colorado Rockies. My Birkenstocks don't need laces and I make my own laundry detergent (google "washing soda.")
Let's face it, for all the repeated reasons in this thread, WalMart is bad for the community and bad for the country. It's good for the Waltons, and basically nobody else. And this isn't coming from Mother Jones or the Daily Kos. This is coming from Forbes, Bloomberg and Motley Fool.
Why the Waltons have so many pom-pom waving cheerleaders is beyond me. Perhaps it has to do with this: Stephen King: Tax Me, for F@%&
Again, another person presuming to know how I shop. Actually, I buy things like "a filet of steelhead trout," some ribeyes, parmesan cheese and coffee at Costco. I don't buy much in the way of durable goods there, because it's the same foreign-made crap that everyone else sells. I don't buy things in bulk. I prefer stores to do the warehousing, not my guest bedroom.
OK, I was just giving examples. I think you get the drift. You go to Costco, where you say you shop, so you must need something they sell! Do you never need just ONE of something? Or a small size of something? OK, I see you buy food there.
So you think I'm rich and irresponsible, eh? You're cruising to getting this thread closed d/t personal attacks.
I don't care for the business model, corporatism and some of the management princiciples of walmart. However I try not to let my perception and opinion affect the reality of what it is and like to make objective decisions rather than jump on band wagons and perpetuate myths and deceptive judgments.
Some people say walmart eliminates retail "small business" jobs in the area that they move into. Does anyone have any first hand experience with these small business jobs being eliminated in an area that it built its store? I think it has an effect of lowering prices to some degree. I have seen some large retail stores go out of business where a wal mart has been built but not sure about the small business aspect.
Some people say walmart underpays their employees and doesn't give them enough benefits. Is walmart really supposed to be a career type job? When I rarely go into a walmart store to see what i haven't been missing I don't see a lot of work being done. The workers in walmart stores don't seem to be working all that hard for the most part. It seems as long as they do what they are told they have a job. Productivity is not a priority. So are they really under paid for what they do?
Some people think wal mart sends more money overseas than it keeps in America. If people can get what they need in one stop and save some money doing it won't they have more money to spend elsewhere on other items?
I do notice that where there is a walmart there are usually strip malls and other businesses that seem to do okay. These other businesses give people jobs.
To the people who can't stand walmart with a passion, what is your solution to the wal mart "problem"? Do you ever shop there? What first hand experience do you have being adversely affected by it? You really think retail shopping in America would be better overall if not for them?
I vote with my dollar and WalMart doensn't get my vote.
I'll change my lifestyle.
Every retail employee should have to do five months in the WalMart Warehouse,
to EARN the retail postings. I would bet my paycheck that they wouldn't make it past five days.
In Ancient Rome the average job span in the mercury mines was five months.
The average job span 2,000 years later in the Walmart Warehouse......is five months.
Books such as Kennedys' The End of Shareholder Value have covered the predation of the Walmart "business model" and the damage, particularly to small town America. And this book was written by
a very pro business consultant.
VOTE with you dollar, plan your spending, buy quality, and yes, we'll be living with less but less will be
going to the landfill, you'll lose a little weight, and have less colon cancer.
Oh, and happy fathers day.
I'm originally from VT, too That's the side of VT that most people don't see on their way to the slopes: the generational poverty, the lack of gainful employment, the rampant substance abuse. Outside of the affluent enclaves, people couldn't care less about "being green" because they are living hand-to-mouth. My friend's daughter is at UVM right now; total shock for her when she ventured out of Burlington one day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperSparkle928
Ugh... having spent 75% of my life in New England (and now in a much more enlightening and enjoyable world, granted NH was awesome...) Look at VT (like MN, WI and CA)... Killington ski area attempted to secede from VT to NH, because of the stifling VT taxation. VT has voted more than once to secede from the union, and I would welcome that. Not that this has anything to do with W*l-mart, but the stigma of VT was: a Volvo 240 in the front yard, up on blocks, with a tree growing out of the open hood. The extension of 'closet space' was called 'the front yard'. Only met one person from UVM... no comment. Dated a few from Middlebury (Morgan horses are cool!), but they were unemployable. Calling it 'The Green Mountain State' is absolute fallacy, as the deforestation that occurred was almost incredible:
[URL]http://www.uvm.edu/landscape/learn/Downloads/scrapbooks/forests2.pdf[/URL]
'Progressive' is a PC term for something I cannot post here, or will get flagged, and I believe in keeping things civil.
I was taught a lesson several years ago.... (start-up guy here)... if you cannot design/build/sell something for less than the competition, you are called 'out of business'. Look at it this way.... if some of your jobs go overseas, for financial reasons, that is better than folding up shop and firing everyone. Pick your poison.
Just a personal opinion, but your 'faith in humanity' is not properly grounded, unless you are one of the rich.
JMHO
Last edited by Ginge McFantaPants; 06-15-2014 at 02:11 PM..
Others have pretty much said all about how Wal-Mart is making the U.S. a race to the bottom: not paying livable wages so many of their "associates" are forced to use government subsidies that we ALL pay for, how they force manufacturers to ship good paying jobs overseas for cheap labor, how they force mom & pop stores to go out of business, etc. There is this infamous sign from last Nov.
Not too sure if anyone has mention how they took life insurance policies out on employees. To be fair, other corperations have done that, too.
I have NEVER bought anything from Wal-Mart and I never will. I have been in their stores a few times when I was with other people but never stepped in one on my own-and I will NOT!!! I try to convince people to boycott Wal-Mart but unfortunately, some can't. Wal-Mart has made it so they can't. It is either Wal-Mart or they have to go a long way to get to some other store.
Cat
I saw that pic during the holidays. That had to be the only store in the country that did that. We sure didn't. We DO have a special fund to help employees out when there's a death in the family, critical illness, etc. We contribute by paying to wear jeans to work on Fridays and different things. But nobody who works at our store is in any danger of not being able to eat or need US to give them 'charity'.
I shouldn't have generalized, but in my neck of the woods, it's expected for salaried retailed employees to work 55+ hours per week, because it doesn't cut into payroll the way hourly employees working overtime does.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AZDesertBrat
Our managers don't work over 40 hours unless they have to for inventory or a few days during the holidays and they get paid OT for it. Walmart does NOT like to pay OT and our store makes sure they don't...or very little. If someone reaches their 40 hours they go home early on the last day they work. And that includes dept. managers. Our garden center manager went home early today.
Vermont is so sparsely populated that it wouldn't be profitable to open a Walmart in most areas. The more developed areas have their fair share of big box stores already; I recently passed through Rutland for the first time in a good 15 years, and was shocked to see the sheer number of chain stores and restaurants!
Quote:
Originally Posted by odanny
A truly progressive state like Vermont limits how many Wal Marts can be in the state. Wal Mart's are like weeds, if you don't take precautions they will take over your lawn. One of the last areas of "green space" in the middle of the city near where I live saw the city council secretly deliberate with Wal Mart on bringing one of their stores in to this location (even though one exists only miles away in a worse neighborhood), and when people found out, it caused an uproar. Moments like those restore my faith in humanity.
So nobody who works at Costco is on food stamps? Has $1 phones? Lives in Section 8?
Really? Are you sure about that?
I'm wondering how you know that.
I live in a house in Arizona that I bought for $275,000 from a lovely young couple who had built it in 1999. They married the year they had Pulte construct the house for them and had two babies in the five years they owned it. They only put the house up for sale because the husband had been offered a promotion by his employer: Costco. He accepted a store manager position in another state. His wife was a cashier at Costco who had been working there full-time but moved to part-time after she had the kids. They met and had their romance at the Costco about four miles from where they built their dream house when they were in their late twenties. I don't know about all Costco employees, but I know about them. They are living the American dream that many people their age, without parents providing them financial assistance, are still dreaming about.
Aside from my anecdotal story, this article offers head-to-head comparisons of what the two companies offer employees, with statistics that come from reputable media. Walmart vs. Costco: How Do They Really Compare?
The primary take-away if you don't have time to read the whole thing:
Average cashier hourly salary: Walmart, $8.53; Costco $15.60.
Annual pay for a low-level manager: Walmart, $44,774; Costco, $53,956
2012 Total CEO compensation: Walmart, $19.3 million; Costco, $4.9 million.
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Here's my Wal Mart Answer
That's the side of VT that most people don't see on their way to the slopes: the generational poverty, the lack of gainful employment, the rampant substance abuse. Outside of the affluent enclaves, people couldn't care less about "being green" because they are living hand-to-mouth. My friend's daughter is at UVM right now; total shock for her when she ventured out of Burlington one day. 
