Bruce_Daddy, maybe Wal-Mart should treat their workers better because, oh, I dunno, it’s the right thing to do?
I swear, you’d probably have told a Jew living in Germany during the thirties and forties that they could just leave if they didn’t like Hitler!
Treatment of Jews by Nazi Germany compared to Wal-Mart. Now that’s some pretty heavy duty hate. :dubious:
If the Wal-Mart meat department closed, the competition is gone. Not sure where the problem is!
It might sound harsh, but my advice is move to where the food is. Even with that, I grew up in a small southern town not much larger than that. There was a Wal-Mart but there were hundreds of other stores as well. As a matter of fact, when the time came for my friends and I to take our first time jobs, not a one of use worked at Wal-Mart. I waited tables, some worked in a local music store, others in the grocery, other delivered pizza, not one of my classmates worked at Wal-Mart. I can’t remember any particular reason, but nobody did.
Also, in a town of 4.5k, I can’t imagine a Wal-Mart being able to employ more than 50 people which is around 1%. Hardly a monopoly.
And since we’re throwing out anecdotes, I will add my own. One of my best friend’s mom works at Wal-Mart. She’s been there for 18 years, I think, and loves it. She’s not a manager or anything like that, just a regular employee. The way you people talk, you can tell a Wal-Mart employee by the lesions caused by the ankle and neck bands.
And Guin, Godwin on line one!
Conway, Arkansas?
They don’t stop selling meat, they outsource the cutting and packaging to a non-union facility, and truck it in.
Yes.
Next question?
I can’t imagine a Wal-Mart operating with 50 employees. At *least * 15 in management, 3 shifts of at least 5 registers is 15 more (30), 3 shifts of at least 1 greeter is 3 more (33), 3 shifts each in electronics/men’s clothing/women’s clothing/children’s clothes/shoes/appliances/toys/pet supplies/gardening/hardware/meat/veggies/dairy/bakery/furniture is 45 more (78), 2 shifts of 3 in the pharmacy is 6 more (84).
And that’s just on-floor help. You have to add in stock boys, security, loaders, bag boys, etc. Round it up to a very conservative (IMO) 100 employees per store, and you have ~2% of the entire population of your town. Halve that population to account for the young and the elderly, and 1 Wal-Mart is employing about 5% of the total workforce of the town. That’s significant.
Wait a second. How do you go from Wal-Mart circle-jerking to blaming the workers who are forced to go to work for crappy wages and blatantly repressive labor practices? They are “dumb” enough to go to work for a mega-corporation that cares not about their health, welfare, and citizenship status because Wal-Mart came into their community, forced local retailers out of business and became the largest employer in the general area. This allows Wal-Mart to jack people on pay, promotions, and generally hold it over their head that they can’t get anothetr job for 30 miles, so they might as well fucking suck it up.
The Vlasic defense? I wasn’t aware that Vlasic being damned near put out of business by Wal-Mart wasn’t a valid defense. It’s an oft-repeated scenario with Wal-Mart, and I think it is wholly valid. The Magazine industries are also in the titty-twister grapple-hold of life with Wal-Mart, as was Huffy(‘was’ because they folded after having to sell bikes for something ludicrous like $10 to big-box giants).
I’ve never been in a clean Wal-Mart. I’ve never seen employees that gave a damn at a Wal-Mart. I’m repulsed every time I walk into one and can’t wait to leave.
On the other hand, Target stores are a joy to shop in, are clean and generally have employees who care about the cleanliness, orderliness, and customer satisfaction. Not always, but for the most part. A damned sight better than fucking Wal-Mart.
Duffer, I plead with you, fight ignorance and stop posting here.
Sam
It’s only a matter of time until Walmart will decide to pave Paradise and put up a parking lot.
Yeah, that sounds about right, good call.
Of course, I wasn’t comparing Wal-Mart to Nazi Germany.
My point is, telling people, “Love it or leave it,” or, “If it’s so bad, you can just quit, so you suck!” isn’t always a valid argument. Sometimes, it IS bad, but at the same time, you can’t leave. People may have no other options at the moment. If I have to use an extreme example, so be it.
Yeah, but the CEO EARNED his huge bonus. After all, he cowed the union and/or employees to shut up and agree to the $5 pay cut or else. Now THAT’s what we like to see in our CEO’s!!
God Bless America!!
Don’t citizens have the right to decide whether a corporation gets a Charter or not? If so, why do we continue to let lifeforce-sucking behemoths like WalMart exist? (don’t answer that-- I saw the Big Red Map with cute little Blue fringes on election night too) Fuck this shit!
Does anyone in RightWing Inc. realize that money is not the most important thing in the world? That there is only so much ridiculous crap that you can buy and that you can’t take it with you? That their progeny don’t need to go to $30,000 a year private college because most of them have only the wherewithal for Vocational School and besides, the state schools have the Greek system too, and that’s the only reason the spoiled brats attend University anyway …to hobnob and network with other future, close-minded nimrods so they can sit on each others’ Boards in 10 years and laugh as they shit all over America?
What if we COULD all move to Canada? Can you say Brain Drain? We’d be leaving the free-market fundie freaks to drown in their own drool. Who the fuck would do their thinking for them? There’d be systemic societal breakdowns, starvation, epidemic and anarchy within a year. But, at least there would be forced Christian prayer in schools.
Let God have Mercy on them, 'cause the rest of us would be up in Canada living as civilized folks yet no doubt feeling massive guilt as we look down on the hellish Hieronymus Bosch painting that used to be the USA.
I apologize for not being clearer, Bruce_Daddy, but as mks57 states:
I’m not sure if you’re aware of the conditions that exist in some of these meat plants but they can be E. coli and salmonella breeding grounds because the workers are forced to make quotas which effectively means that they simply don’t have the time to properly wash down their equipment should they splatter a gut or cut away the affected meat.
Not to mention that the cutters work in execrable conditions that often live them crippled within 10 years.
But as far as you know, Target does sleazy things. Oh well.
It’s best that one keeps his veneration of Target to a minimum, though. After all, Target is Wal[sub]*[/sub]Mart’s most apt pupil.
Funny that you mention it.
Yesterday I was reading “Ambito Financiero” which reproduced an article of “El Mundo”. The authors “infiltrated” a couple of toy factories in China. The working conditions they found were very similar with those of a concentration camp:
1.- Employees work a minimun of 14 hours a day, being this close to christmas sometimes they work 20 hours.
2.- Each working day they can go to the bathroom twice.-
3.- They live in the factory: one room for more or less 20 persons, and one toilet for the entire factory.-
4.- Not only they are paid almost nothing, they are not even properly fed.-
When they asked the owner (he didn’t know he was talking to journalists) he blamed Wal Mart. According to him each year they demand another decrease in price or else.
Of course most workers don’t last that long but it doesn’t matter, each new year hundreds of thousands of peasants want to join the “chinese dream” securing in this way the work force for your teacher to buy with discount.-
The goverment does nothing.We are talking about china, there aren’t many unions, western corporations mind the profits and nothing else.
So fuck you bruce daddy, duffer and all your kind. If you are educated, properly fed and happen to live in a place were your rights are more or less respected of course you have choices.
The greatest part of humanity simply don’t.-
That doesn’t necessarily sound harsh, just not always practical. You know, like if you’re caring for a terminally ill family member, etc. And yes, there are other jobs in their town, but nothing with the same pull as Wal*Mart has. It does seem like an improvement over working nights (if you are a single parent) or have some sort of problem (no car) or disability (where you can’t drive) so that pizza delivery and the like are out of the question. I realize those are just examples, but I’m trying to impart how difficult, but livable, some conditions can be for certain folks.
As to how large the employee base is where they live, I have no real idea but it’s a Super Center, so I’m sure that makes a difference. Hell, I’d think 50 people work between automotive and lawn and garden alone. But I’ll ask when I get the chance because I don’t want to be spreading misinformation.
Lastly, my dad absolutely LOVES it and I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. However, he’s not very savvy overall (and that’s not a slam to him or anyone else, just a fact) and considers what he gains in fellowship to hugely compensate for any other problem issues he may be aware of. I’m fine with that and my feelings on the matter don’t extend to him and are solely my own. I hope that doesn’t make me unreasonable.
I’m thinkin you should stop going in them. I have never set foot in a Walmart, and I never, ever shall. Ever. Under any circumstances, for any reason, no matter what. Period.
Walk it.
Not unreasonable at all.
Yeah, I understand, during my recent 9 month long sabbatical in Tx, the little one horse town we lived near really only HAD a Walmart. I really, really hated shopping there, but not much of a choice if you needed anything other than groceries (there I drew the line and shopped at the slightly fancier grocery store).
But back home here in civilization. There is really no need. As someone else mentioned, it’s not like their prices really ARE the lowest, just the few loss leaders And the stuff they have is such crap. The commercial with the teen girls talking about how they get their “fashion” at Walmart.
gggggaaaaaag!!!
I prefer shopping at vintage (only place you can get clothing that isn’t all boxy and ugly anyway) and thrift stores for fashion. And anything else at the specific store where stuff like that is sold. For instance: outdoor stuff? The outdoor stores. Tires? Johnson’s Tire Service (I wouldn’t put MY precious car on el cheapo sam’s club tires on a bet), and so on.
Garage sales and making it yourself for all kinds of other stuff. And that’s more fun anyway. Got my makita drill WITH two chargers and a case for about 10 bucks HAHA Walmart 
I shop at Target, but that is only because there isn’t a WalMart close to me, and I find the shopping atmosphere there to be (ahem) less than optimal. I share some of the concerns about hostility to labor that some posters do. There is one argument though that I just can’t wrap my head around.
Isn’t it the goal of every retailer to negotiate with suppliers to get them to lower their prices? Does the fact that most companies don’t have the volume to be successful in those negotiations change a damn thing? I can understand some objections, but that one just seems like it is coming from people unfamiliar with sound business practices.