Wal-Mart

[guywithashovel]

A few years ago when I was a regular on the CS site, the subject of Wal-Mart used to come up quite a bit. Many participants expressed remorse over the ways Wal-Mart conducts business, treats employees, and does other various things. I would always feel a little conflicted when this happened, because on one hand, I didn't like some of the things that Wal-Mart did, but at the same time, I also worked for Wal-Mart at the time, and I felt weird saying bad things about the company that gave me a paycheck.

They say that Wal-Mart treated their employees badly, and to some extent, I could agree with that. I had a few managers there who were real jackasses. Though, I also had a few who were really nice.

Right now, my mom works for Wal-Mart in the jewelry department, and she's getting pretty fed up with them. She says they are tacitly trying to get rid of all full time positions. Whenever a full time person quits, they replace that person with a part time associate or don't replace him or her at all. Also, they demoted her a few months ago. She was a freight manager, but now she's just a sales associate again, and she's still doing many of the things she did as a freight manager only without the title and at a lower wage. Also, her demotion was not for anything disciplinary-related. She had good evaluations.

There is one criticism that people make against Wal-Mart that I honestly don't see much merit in, and that is that Wal-Mart pays low wages. Granted, nobody gets rich working there (unless you're in management). However, aren't their wages pretty much standard for hourly retail? I think most of the sales associates (cashiers, stockers) start out around six or seven dollars per hour. I suspect that if I were to get the same type of job at Target, Kroger, Meijer, etc. that I would be making about the same wage.

As an added note, it seems that Wal-Mart is now going to try to go the way of Amazon.com and eBay. http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/to...s-benefit.aspx

[linguist]

There is one criticism that people make against Wal-Mart that I honestly don't see much merit in, and that is that Wal-Mart pays low wages. Granted, nobody gets rich working there (unless you're in management). However, aren't their wages pretty much standard for hourly retail? I think most of the sales associates (cashiers, stockers) start out around six or seven dollars per hour. I suspect that if I were to get the same type of job at Target, Kroger, Meijer, etc. that I would be making about the same wage.

the company i work for (not one of those you listed) is a direct competitor to walmart in this region, and we start our lowest-level employees at $1-2/hour more than most of the walmarts do in this area.

i can't say that that's the same in other areas, but i also think a lot of the complaints stem from the fact that, from what i've heard from walmart employees, the company may start out at comparable wages, but then they keep the employees at that wage level for as long as possible, where competitors give raises more often. for example, i began at my job just over 3 years ago at $9.50/hour. within three months i was at $10.75, $12.50 within six months, and in less than a year was given the opportunity to get into management, where i'm salaried, but my equivalent hourly rate started at ~$17.90/hour and now is significantly higher. in contrast, a friend of mine started at walmart at around the same time i started at my company, doing the same job and has been given no opportunity for advancement (though he is qualified and has pursued opportunities), and has only been given $3/hour in raises in the same time period.

[BroomJockey]

and has only been given $3/hour in raises in the same time period.

$3/hour in a year? That's actually pretty good. At my first job, in a theatre, you were limited to about $1/hr per review if you scored perfect and knew every area in the theatre. And reviews were after your first 3 months, then one per year. Hell, my job NOW only has about 30 cents/hour raise every 6 months.

[joe hx]

Walmart has made many changes for what seems to be the better since the first half of this decade:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...yee_bonus.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...GYg&refer=home

On a side note, does anyone remember when Walmart promoted that most of their stuff was made in the USA?

[linguist]

$3/hour in a year? That's actually pretty good. At my first job, in a theatre, you were limited to about $1/hr per review if you scored perfect and knew every area in the theatre. And reviews were after your first 3 months, then one per year. Hell, my job NOW only has about 30 cents/hour raise every 6 months.

no, $3 in three years. which isn't bad, i suppose but is not anything put up next to the $3 in 6 months that my company gave me for doing the same job.

[BroomJockey]

no, $3 in three years.

ah, eyes skipped a line. Too much reading today. Okay, yeah, $3 in 3 years ain't so good.

[DrFaroohk]

I've always noticed that the wal-marts in my area pay the same as anyone else. As for treating their employees badly, well, EVERYONE DOES THAT. Employees get shit on, and the lower you are on the ladder the more shit you collect. It's like if something goes wrong, the big boss yells as his #2. #2 and big boss will yell at the regional manager. Now the regional manager, #2 and big boss yell at the district manager. Now the RM, DM, #2 and BB all go yell at the store manager. You see where it goes. The guy stocking shelves is going to get the worst pile of shit you can ever imagine. That's just how it goes. The cashier or grocery bagger is going to have like 20 people all up in his koolaid over something he can't even control, and for minimum wage, whereas the #2 guy just had one dude yelling at him, and he gets like 200K a year.

One complaint I always hear is that they are in general a big corporation and therefore suck. Or that they put other stores out of business. It's called competition, people! Wal-mart started out as some shitty hole in the wall 5 n 10 store, and they had to compete with people then, but Wal-Mart ran their business right and beat out the competition and became successful. The same is true for any big business. Lots of restaurants started out as little hamburger stands competing with other hamburger stands, but they stuck to their guns and did their business right and beat out the competition. It's not their fault other people can't compete.

[Dreamstalker]

They also bully vendors, suppliers, and contractors...another reason why their prices are unfairly low.

[BlaqueKatt]

no, $3 in three years. which isn't bad, i suppose but is not anything put up next to the $3 in 6 months that my company gave me for doing the same job.

yes but you have to look at the number of employees your company has nationwide-you have not said weather or not you work for a national chain or a "mom & pop" or a smaller local chain.

without that information it's apples to oranges.

[Nyoibo]

Wal-mart

Much as it's an amusing place to visit, I don't want it in Australia, yet I've heard that they're trying to start up here, I have no problem with American culture, so long as it stays in America, there's already too much of it over here, we don't need more. I can only hope that it goes the way of Starbucks here.

Also, I don't want to start seeing the same level of shoppers develop in Australia, that lowest common denominator, as examples I give http://peopleofwalmart.com/ and weep for the future of my country.

[pssorens]

Consider it the payback for Yahoo Serious and "Kath and Kim".

[Nyoibo]

Kath and Kim wouldn't be so bad if America hadn't remade it... Ok, it would be bad, but not as bad.

[Gravekeeper]

They've gotten a little better at treating their employees, but are still pretty shitty to be honest. The entire business was *founded* on exploiting cheap unskilled labour. They have a 70% turn over rate for employees in their first year. Not to mention all the lawsuits, working condition issues, using illegal immigrants as dirt cheap labour, ethical concerns, political concerns, PR shit storms and anti-union crap. Like it or not they are the stereotypical example of the Evil Mega-Corporation(tm)

The main problem is still that dropping one somewhere is like setting off an economic bomb. It wipes out smaller businesses, eliminates supplier's client list till they can only sell to Wal-Mart. Than Wal-Mart can freely bully the supplier down to even lower prices to force them to match Wal-Mart's foreign suppliers. Eventually everyone in town is dependent on or working at Wal-Mart. Than they can dial prices back up as they see fit.

DrFaroohk, you are correct in that Walmart started as one store....using some of the same shitty tactics they still use today. However, your argument is ridiculous. A local business cannot compete with a corporation the size of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart uses every trick in the book, ethical and unethical, to drive prices down which kills off competition. A local business cannot bulk import a product from a shady factory in China where it's made for 4 cents, sold to Wal-Mart for 5 cents and resold in their stores for 10 cents. Meanwhile local businesses can only sell it for 20 cents because it costs them 15 cents to buy it from local suppliers. Who, after the distributers go under due to Wal-Mart, will be forced to sell to Walmart for 5 cents too. As they have no one left to sell their product too. But at the same time have vastly greater labour and production costs because they're not in China and can't pay workers a buck an hour.

Wal-Mart has the freedom to set their prices where ever they want to drive out competition. Predatory pricing, basically. Which they have been sued for in the past, more than a few times. After the dust has settled and there's no competition, they're free to raise their prices again as the area around them is reliant on them now. Which they actually do.

Customer loyalty may keep a local business afloat for a while, but its guaranteed to lose some or all of its customer base in the run.

Sustained competition is good, it's beneficial to the consumer. But this sort of shenanigans is not competition. Its just extermination.

[linguist]

yes but you have to look at the number of employees your company has nationwide-you have not said weather or not you work for a national chain or a "mom & pop" or a smaller local chain.

without that information it's apples to oranges.

We have stores throughout Texas and Mexico with somewhere along the lines of 75k employees.

We had a noncompetition agreement with Walmart; we'd stay out of certain areas if they'd stay out of others. As soon as Sam Walton died they violated the agreement by dropping a store right into the middle of our home city. Then it was on. Since then we've managed to be one of the few smaller retailers who've managed to keep Walmarr from gaining overwhelming marketshare in our state.

[Mr Slugger]

Walmart actually are starting to fail in certain areas of the country. Texas is one of those areas. Up here in Boston I think the walmarts are failing as well. I worked for one for about 3 months before I got into the liquor store. It was a transitional job. But they do treat their employees bad here as well. The problem here is there's so many other options. The walmart I worked for actually had to hire day laborers to work their store it got so bad for them. Other stores are in areas of high drug use making it a nightmare to find help. Then on top of it I mean hell I'd see 10 carriages a day in empty boxes from stuff people stole, and I didn't work in one of the high crime ones.

The one I worked at I've heard is slated to close probably next year in part because stores fought back. I mean store like Old Navy, and JC penny went after their clothing selling everything for walmart prices, but the stuff is better. Sears went after their electronics, the music store went after music. etc. An ACMoore open last year tearing into their arts and crafts. And from the "daily meetings" and people I know that work there they've actually done worse in one day than a liquor store I worked at has done. I think the amount was $32,000 in sales and I've done $35,000 in a 2000 square foot building with 4 employees.

The other problem around here is people don't want them here. For instance a walmart can't open within Boston city limits. Stop &Shop from my understanding has 99 year leases on pretty much every large piece of property in the state. When Bradlees and Ames closed here they bought the leases in part so they could control where supermarkets go, but also where walmarts couldn't go. There's another Walmart near our store that was trying to go super. Stop & Shop bought all the land around the store so when it tried to go super it couldn't increase the size of the store. So now it's going super, but it's only the size of a regular walmart and even then it's gone to court, and there's a chance might not be able to open for the holidays, etc.

The ultimate problem for walmart is even if they no longer did any of the bad things they do they've still got that attached to them, and they can't shake it. And in reality sure they will probably will probably kill off the local hardware store. But the fish are getting bigger all the time. I mean hell even in my business there's "super" liquor stores that are trying to move into our area. Eventually most mom & pop store's will be gone, or they'll become bigger fish as well. I mean there's only one mom & pop c-store in my area the rest are 7-11 or tedeschis. So sure they'll kill a mom & pop, but they're almost gone already. The key is that they're not the only game in town, and clearly they're not, and like in the case of the walmart I worked in 4 years later 85% of the stores are still there, and come next year the walmart will be gone and they will still be there.