After
reading all the bile against Walmart, I was shopping at Walmart last Friday when
I became aware of two older, fragile people sitting on stools at the door to
welcome me. A man with a club foot was straightening
shelves, there were a number of senior citizens at counters. I ran into a friend that works there that has
one glass eye and a bad back, he has just been shifted to the night shift with
a small pay raise.
None of
these people are getting paid what we would consider good wages; but without
Walmart most of them would be unemployed.
I bought a
new George Foreman grill for $29 and some groceries. We looked at some of the RV products and
priced some computers. I need new
jeans and will probably pick up a pair of Wranglers next week.
We wax
nostalgically about the old mom and pop stores that no longer exist, but if we
actually had to shop, have the limited selection and pay the prices of ‘before
Walmart’ we might feel differently.
It is like
twitter, facebook and the internet – we may not like them but this is where we
are in time.
the Ol’Buzzard
I have two friends that work at walmart..one is in management and female..she said she gets paid less that the men at same level..but also says she makes more money there than any place else she could work...the other is a male in his 50's and was given a part time job when he needed it and worked up to full time and gets raises when he deserves them..so? who's to say...
ReplyDeleteWalmart as a corporation has sucked the life out of America. Their corporate drive for pushing prices ever downward is what forced many manufacturers to shift production to China, Vietnam, and other Asian countries. The fact that old people (who really shouldn't have to worry about needing to work at all; they should be receiving a generous enough old age pension that they could kick back and relax instead of having to work until they die, but that's a subject for a different rant)and others can find jobs that qualify (just barely) as better than nothing does not mitigate much against Walmart as a corporate entity doing way more damage than good. I do not get the attraction of Walmart -- they do not offer the lowest prices (I can find better deals at Dollar General and Family Dollar), the quality of their fresh produce, bakery, and meats can't match most other supermarkets, and how many products does any human really need to pick from? Plus, half the time that wide selection is an illusion. Take a close look at the aisles in the grocery section sometime -- they're not stocking more brands of cereal or salsa or soup than the typical supermarket; they're just having what they do stock take up more space.
ReplyDeleteAs for the warm and fuzzy feelings about their employment policies, remember Walmart is the same company that trains its managers to tell employees how to apply for Food Stamps and Medicaid when those employees ask to be scheduled for more hours. For every nice anecdote you can cite about one store treating two or three people decently, researchers can come up with hundreds of documented examples of corporate nastiness. How good is a company treating its employees when it sets up donation boxes to help out its own workers at Christmas? Why not just pay people better or give them more hours instead of asking the public to treat Walmart workers as charity cases?
The fact that one of the first steps in their hiring process is to violate a person's 4th Amendment rights does not exactly endear them to me either.
In short, screw Walmart. As long as I can find alternatives, I'll never shop there.
Nan, I worked in a job where I was underpaid for over twenty years - the US Navy. I was paid an extra $65 per month hazardous duty pay while I was in Vietnam. The salaries were always to low for the job I was doing. Perhaps with the new volunteer military salaries are better.
DeleteO'B
What Nan said.
ReplyDelete