How exactly is that different than any other corporate retailer?
I realize hating Wal-Mart and all it stands for is the hip and cool thing to do but I fail to see why there is much anger directed towards it when every other hugely successful franchise is just as guilty of maximizing profit, running off the mom and pop stores (who would do the same thing if they were in the same situation), contributing to the decline of Western Civilization, kicking puppies, and stealing little girls’ candy as Wal-Mart.
Oh, I don’t know. Probably because the other big corporations (which I’m not really a fan of, either, btw) don’t make such a huge effort to portray themselves as warm, fuzzy, folksy, next-door-neighborly, family-friendly companies with happy employees as Wal-Mart does while they contribute to the decline of Western civilization, kick puppies and steal little girls’ candy.
I remember growing up in a smallish town before the larger stores came in. It was great when we got some large corporate super markets and drug stores in town. We got lower prices better selection cleaner stores it was a real improvement.
Have any of you worked for a small mom and pop place? Do they generally pay more than Walmart? I have not worked at walmart but I have work for some small businesses when I was in school. They did not pay better than the corporations or give better benefits. They were just the first people to hire me a couple of summers. Other summers larger companies were the first to hire me and paid similar money to perform similar tasks.
Who actually owns Walmart? A giant conglomerate? I would be moved to write to them listing the problems with my store - especially since the CSMs don’t appear to be able to do anything. Is this just naive - sorry, we don’t have them in NZ and our equivalent has a clear identifiable owner/developer.
I’ve known several people who’ve worked at (different) Wal-Marts, and all of them have called it the worst job of their life. And whenever I go into a Wal-Mart (which is extremely rare these days), the employees always seem more angry, worn-out, and depressed than in other department stores.
Based on this evidence and other nasty things I’ve read about the company, I’ve developed the opinion that Wal-Mart is pure evil, and if God had any sense at all, he’d wipe every store off the face of the Earth with one almighty sweep of His hand.
Well you’re a fine one to talk of credibility when your advice was to f*ck off while working which would result in termination. I can see that you have a fine future as a career consultant.
Look a job at Wally World, or interchange the name with dozens of other discount retail stores, is not for everyone let alone a career there. But there are people who need jobs like those that you piss on to use for a stepping stone to get something better, just to make ends meet, while going to school or something to do after retiring from someplace else. Do they make a ton of dough working there, no, but they work damn hard for what they are paid and I respect every one of them for being willing to put in an honest day’s work.
WM tends to carry a limited selection of goods. Sure, you can get Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup in the regular and family size cans, but you will probably only find one other brand of cream of mushroom soup offered. You won’t find that gourmet brand that you and your family all love and think is better than any other brand.
When I go to buy video or computer games, I sure don’t go to WM. The games I like tend to be not as popular as most games, but still popular enough that many video/computer game stores will have them in stock. WM will only stock the very top of the best-sellers, and it will have a gazillion of them, but will only have a few titles available. Sure, they might be cheap, but cheap games that I don’t want are games that I won’t buy. In books, again, WM only stocks “bestsellers”, which I probably don’t want. I’ve only read a few snippets of Danielle Steele books, I don’t think that I could stomach reading an entire novel by her. I certainly won’t buy my music and videos/DVDs at WM. I’m an adult, I can decide for myself if I want something with mature content in it. I don’t want to buy a bowdlerized edition.
To me, WM means (among other things) that I will get low prices on a very limited range of merchandise. I want more choices.
Even if WM had a better selection, I don’t think that I could bear to shop at a store that treats its employees so shamefully.
So the citizens of a community should pay higher prices for a smaller selection at the mom & pop store just to keep them in business and hope they spend some of the profits (if any) in town. No thanks. How about Mom & Pop get off their keester and provide a product or service that will make it worth my time to stop in.
From what I’ve seen Wally World and other mega discount stores pay better wages and offer better benefits than a mom & pop store. As for the employees shopping there because they get a discount, doesn’t that mean they would have money left over to spend in the community?
See above. Don’t try to compete on the same products/services. Other communities are flurishing on specialty shops, services, cafes, etc. that the giants are not providing.
[QUOTE=Mean Guy]
I’ve known several people who’ve worked at (different) Wal-Marts, and all of them have called it the worst job of their life. And whenever I go into a Wal-Mart (which is extremely rare these days), the employees always seem more angry, worn-out, and depressed than in other department stores.
QUOTE]
Yes, we have a reputation for being surly, and it’s because we’re in over our heads due to no fault of our own, but rather the management who’s decided to keep us permanently short-handed.
I feel very sorry for people who make Wal-Mart their career. This job has made me into an angry, hateful person and that’s why I’m getting out.
I realize that it’s just a stupid part-time job that I have while attending college, but I can honestly say that I have never felt so frustrated at anything in my life, not even when I worked ofr Pizza Hut or Kroger. It’s definitely been an eye-opener for me, I’ll say that much. Thank god I have the opportunity to go to college and get my accounting degree so that I that I’ll never have to do stuff like this again, once I graduate.
Yes, we have a reputation for being surly, and it’s because we’re in over our heads due to no fault of our own, but rather the management who’s decided to keep us permanently short-handed.
I feel very sorry for people who make Wal-Mart their career. This job has made me into an angry, hateful person and that’s why I’m getting out.
I realize that it’s just a stupid part-time job that I have while attending college, but I can honestly say that I have never felt so frustrated at anything in my life, not even when I worked ofr Pizza Hut or Kroger. It’s definitely been an eye-opener for me, I’ll say that much. Thank god I have the opportunity to go to college and get my accounting degree so that I that I’ll never have to do stuff like this again, once I graduate.
Because of the volume that Wal-mart can buy at, and in some cases because of wholesaler’s contracts with Wal-mart, the mom and pop stores have to pay more from their wholesaler than Wal-mart can sell the stuff at. The only option is to specialise. There again how do they do that? If all people will shop for is price, what is it they are supposed to sell? Short of wedding gowns, cars, Tuxes and coffins, I can’t think of anything low-end that isn’t sold at a Wal-mart.
Wal-mart pays about equal or slightly more than the mom & pop store employees get, but mom and pop loose their business and don’t have a job anymore. Uncle Harvey the pharmisist lost his store and works for Wal-mart for about 1/3 the pay, same with Uncle Mark’s Auto repair shop. Wal-mart only needed 2 of Uncle Mark’s 4 employees as auto mechanics so even though they get about the same as Mark payed them the other two who did manage to get a job at Wal-mart get 3 bucks less an hour. That is how it works. This means that although there are entry level jobs that pay what an entry level job anywhere is, there are not the higher level jobs in the operation so there is less money to float about the comunity. People don’t have the money to go to the specialty shop or the restaurant.
For the most part those places that are flourishing with specialty shops, etc. are the places that are destination places anyway. Tourist towns for one reason or another.
I am not saying dont ever shop at Wal-mart. That would be hypocritical of me at the very least, because I certainly do shop there some. I just think that in a market economy the only checks and ballances to corperate behavior is when we vote with our pocket book. Maybe we should consider where our money goes when we buy.
If you’re only trying to think of low-end products, you’re right, it would be very hard to compete. What Wal-mart doesn’t handle are the high-end specialty or gourmet items. People are not as price sensitive when shopping for those items.
The mom & pop pharmacist have bigger worries than Wal-mart. Most of the group health insurance plans now require members to order their drugs on-line. You never even get to see a pharmacist. As for the mechanics - skilled mechanics are always in demand. But I understand the point you are trying to make. The jobs that are in the biggest danger are the top-end highly skilled and/or owner/manager positions.
No doubt, today’s world is a nightmare for mom & pop retailers. The only way you can compete selling the same products as the giants is to provide kick ass customer service (and even that’s not going to always be successful). There will be some price sensitive consumers who will come in take up your time, get your advice on what product they need - then drive down to the mega mart and buy it for less there. Today’s business climate is just nasty.
Would you care to explain to me, then, why not even McD’s or Wally world will respond to my applications? I know why, mind you, but I think you should look at some of the people whom you’re making assumptions about.
. Um, no, it doesn’t. They don’t have money left over. I did mention that Wal-Mart employees work at Wal-Mart, right? If an employee does not have open availability, meaning 24/7, chances are they are going to be shorted on hours, which means less money coming in. So, yeah, they might get fifty cents an hour more than at the Mom and Pop place, but they are probably going to be working between eight and twelve fewer hours a week, if they have any responsibilites outside of Wal-Mart (such as, oh, kids, or maybe wanting to go to school and get an education). And as for the benefits, I don’t have my benny book anymore, but the premiums Wal-Mart charges are so high that many employees cannot afford Wal-Mart’s health insurance. Even if they could afford the premiums, the deductibles are so high that your average Wal-Mart employee will still not be able to afford to see a doctor, and they would be paying for the privilege. Plus the insurance companies they use generally try to claim everything is a pre-existing condition, even if the diagnosis comes after the employee has been paying into the plan for several years. Also, assuming the bennies are as good as you seem to think they are, an employee has to work a minimum of twenty-eight hours a week to be eligible, and Wal-Mart is notorious for scheduling people for twenty-seven and a half hours to keep them below eligibility (they actually did this to me for a while, until they figured out I didn’t intend to sign up for the “insurance”).
I did see above. See, the businesses that Wal-Mart competes with draw customer traffic into the area where the non-competing businesses are. When those businesses close, the customer traffic goes bye-bye. Thus the restaraunt across the street where the customers stop for lunch, and where the employees of the other businesses eat now has no customers, so it closes its doors, too. Ditto for many specialty shops. If they don’t happen to be close enough to Wal-Mart that it would be a convenient stop on a shopping trip, they too will lose business because on a normal shopping trip.
Funny, I seem to recall posting something along these lines earlier.
I always find it interesting that the two years I worked at Wal Mart, I never once had all the troubles that everyone else had. Nor did any of my friends.
Nothing in what I just quoted was *ever * an issue for me. I always had decent money for the work I did; was never forced to work open availability (which wasn’t even used at our own 24/7 Super Center) to get a full forty hours which I *always * got unless I called in sick or had to go to school; and was always able to work whenever I wanted.
Now unless I happen to have worked in the one Wal Mart that happened to treat its employees like people and not slaves, I tend to believe that everyone decrying them as Satan incarnate is either being hyperbolic, holding a grudge, just ignorant, or any combination of the three. The company may not be the best in the world to work for but it isn’t abysmal either… of all the jobs I’ve had, it’d be one of two that I would gladly work at again if I had to.
I still contend the Wal-mart employees are just as well off or better than they would be working for a mom & pop.
Pay is better or at least equal
benefit program (not always the case with mom & pop)
Group health insurance available (not always the case with mom & pop)
Secure that payroll check won’t bounce (could be a problem with mom & pop)
Standardized HR procedures (not mom & pop)
Thea Logica, the health insurance issues you address are not unique to Wal-mart. These issues are a problem for the majority of employers. I have no clue what Wal-mart’s group health insurance is like or how much employees are charged. I can tell you that my employer charges employees $260/week for full family coverage (optional dental is extra). Health insurance programs have created their own catch-22. The rates are so high, the “healthy” employees opt out of the program so the only ones left participating are the employees that have health problems. This causes claim history to be off the scale, which causes the rates to continue to increase every year. Viscous cycle.
As for the effect on the community, we are in a consumer driven economy. Things change. Look what the fast food & other national restaraunt chains did to the mom & pop diner industry. Only the good ones survived (which is not always a bad thing in the food business). Same with numerous other businesses. The mega stores/services are eating them alive. Not always a good thing, but business runs in cycles. At some point consumers may decide that the mega mart/service is not servicing their needs any longer, then things will change again.