WALMART GETS A BUM RAP

 

 

Walmart hires a lot of disabled and handicapped people.  When I enter the Walmart here in town I see several people who wouldn’t be able to hold a job elsewhere, yet they have employment at Walmart. 

 

The local Super Store is a large employer in our area.  I know that pay scales and conditions often get highlighted by I-Hate-Walmart-People, but in a rural area where jobs are scarce, especially for older and less employable workers, Walmart is an option.  And they are always hiring.

 

Almost any product I buy now, I buy through Walmart online.  The reason is, that if I receive the product and have a problem with it, or just decide I don’t like it, I can drive down to Walmart and return it for a full refund on the spot, no questions asked: no repackaging, shipping labels or dealing with some customer service department.

 

All the surrounding small towns in our county depend on the local Walmart for products that would not be available locally otherwise, as our nearest big box stores would be an hour or more drive away – and for people physically unable to shop, Walmart delivers.

 

ALSO

The store is airconditioned and so what better place for people watching?

You can always see something great at Walmart.

the Ol'Buzzard

I SUPPORT WALMART

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 

IN DEFENSE OF WALMART

We buy most of our food locally, but we buy most products for the home from Walmart.  

I recently purchased a pair of bifocal glasses at the Walmart store: the frames were $17.00 and the total, including Transition lens, came to $125.00 – less than half of what it would have cost at the local eye doctor – and they came with a one year warranty.    

Our microwave, George Foreman grill, some of our dishes, some of my tools etc. came from Walmart.   I get the toner for my printer, most of our paper products and cleaning supplies and even the windshield washer fluid for our car from Walmart.    Many of these products I would have to go out of town to purchase. 

The bad rap for Walmart is the wages they pay - and the way they treat their workers; but, have you ever asked a worker at the Dollar Store, or Save-a-Lot what pay and benefits they receive?

When my wife and I first came to town thirty years ago the unemployment rate was 15%: one out of six people were unemployed.    The paper mills were the desired place to work; next came the shoe factories; then there were the wood turning mills ( seventeenth century sweat shops that never went more than three days without an work related accident);  and finally the tanning mill ( you could always tell the tanning workers because they had fingers missing.)   

Walmart employs a few hundred people in our small community.   For the most part the people working at Walmart are untrained and would be unemployed if the company left town.   Are there better places to work?  You bet – but those jobs don’t exist here. 

Before we get all high and mighty about the Chinese junk sold at Walmart check out where your cell phone was made; what third world country your clothes were made in; all the products, including fresh foods you purchase on a regular basis not produced in the United States.  

We liberals complain about global warming, yet we drive pickup trucks, heat our homes with fuel oil, burn wood stoves, buy our electricity from coal fired plants, and have a house full of plastic.   We should be conscious of our hypocrisies.  

Walmart, such as it is, forces local stores to compete – and for someone on a small fixed income cheaper products are important. 

We buy local when ever we can, but we shop at Walmart on a regular basis – and we say hello to a number of our friends that work and shop there.  

I will stand in a protest line with the Walmart workers for higher pay; but I don’t wish the Walmart store to go away.   Their business plan is like every other big business in the country: designed to pay big bucks at the top while paying workers as little as possible.   This isn't new.  It is the way it has always been.   It is the American free market way. 

the Ol’Buzzard 

IN DEFENSE OF WALMART*

Walmart is like cell phones: a visit to Walmart is distasteful but a fact of modern life.   People complain about the low salaries and the way Walmart treats their workers; but people know the salary scale when they apply for the job – and most people initially are happy to get it.    Walmart, like McDonald's, offers jobs to unskilled workers – workers who are not qualified for any other jobs.   If you have salable skills, you are not looking for a career at Walmart.  Instead of blaming Walmart for their salary scale, how about blame the Senate and Congress for failing to pass a livable minimum wage law.  

A man that lives near me works at Walmart.   He is over fifty and for years worked as a manual laborer for a construction company in the summer and drew unemployment during the winter.    He lost his eye and injured his back working construction doing shovel and grunt work.  He now works at Walmart and his major complaint seems to be that they don’t lay him off during the winter so he can draw unemployment. 

The reality is that most Walmart workers would be unemployed in our small community if we didn't have a Walmart. 

People are gullible and willing to believe things without weighing the factors, and people like to complain.   We complain about the weather, our spouses, our children, our neighbors – the list is unending – just check out my blog: probably ninety percent of my post (as are yours) are complaints.   And we like to complain about Walmart.

My wife and I shop at Walmart.   We probably save about fifty dollars a month by shopping there; and, on a fixed income fifty dollars, to us, is a lot of money.  We don’t buy everything at Walmart, but we regularly buy can goods, cleaning products, appliances, beer, liquor and paper products.   There was an old general store in Maine that posted the sign: If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.   And that pretty much defines Walmart.  From car products to electronics – from bird feeders to candles – you have pretty much one stop shopping. 

We complain that Walmart carries Chinese junk – but get real – many of the products in your life were made in China.  If your phone and computer were not made in china, their components were.  Inside the labels of clothing from L.L. Beans and the sports gear at Cabela's you will find the label made in China.  Many of your cars parts were milled in Chinese factories. 

We have a Walmart and we still have a vibrant little town.  Some of the mom and pop stores closed, and that seems a shame; but mom and pop stores, like dial telephones, are a relic of the past.   No one complained when our little movie house closed and a multiplex opened – like accepting cell phones – we move on.

You get the best prices and the greatest selection at Walmart – and if they don’t have it you probably don’t need it.

the Ol’Buzzard