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Posted on 07/13/2013 6:15:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Wal-Mart has attracted controversy for decades: Its supporters laud its low prices and market efficiencies, while its opponents charge that the company exploits workers, destroys local economies and pollutes the environment. Now, despite warnings from the retailer that it would reconsider its plans to open three stores in Washington, the D.C. Council has passed a living-wage bill that would require Wal-Mart to pay its workers here at least $12.50 per hour. Let’s examine a few of these impressions about the world’s largest retailer.
1. Only lower-income people shop at Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart sells lots of cheap stuff, so it’s no surprise that low- and middle-income shoppers are the store’s most regular customers. However, wealthier people are among the more than 60 percent of Americans who shop at Wal-Mart each month. A 2005 Pew Research Center survey found that more than three-quarters of respondents from households earning more than $75,000 a year thought Wal-Mart was a good place to shop, and nearly 80 percent of them had shopped at Wal-Mart in the previous year. Of customers in this income group, 38 percent described themselves as regular Wal-Mart shoppers.
2. Critics just want to unionize Wal-Mart workers.
Most of the efforts to improve working conditions and compensation at Wal-Mart are led by union-funded groups that have been branded as allies of Big Labor seeking only to line their pockets with more union dues. But practically, none of these efforts has focused on formally unionizing Wal-Mart’s unorganized domestic workforce.
Instead, as early as 2005, groups such as Walmart Watch and Wake Up Walmart waged a largely successful campaign focusing not on Wal-Mart workers’ union status but on their compensation and benefits. A year after Walmart Watch was founded, the retail giant lowered premiums on its health insurance policies
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Rebekah Peeples Massengill, author of “Wal-Mart Wars: Moral Populism in the Twenty-First Century,” teaches writing and sociology at Princeton University.
The case against Wal mart has been and will continue to be the UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers Union) has been trying to organize them for years. They recognize the “Gold Mine” of dues if they were successful. However, every attempt to organize individual stores or multiple stores have failed. They have even resorted to what they call a “Corporate Campaign” where they send paid demonstrators to Wal Mart stores to attempt to intimidate shoppers. In every case, they have failed. If you go to the UFCW Web Site, you will see some of their vitriolic hate of Wal Mart. This is what the campaign against Wal Mart is all about and will continue as I don’t see any chance that the UFCW will relent in their efforts. In cities like Washington D.C. and Chicago, they have a lot of clout with their Democrat allies and that is why you see things like the vote in the D.C. Council.
Here’s the real myth: people in big cities that have been controlled by Democrats for decades want to work. The reality is they don’t want to work. They have the wrong priorities and the result is cities are crumbling. Businesses are moving out of cities, and the cycle continues. One day in the near future cities will be urban wastelands.
Just had an argument with my nephew (liberal) about “buying local vs buying Walmart” (in regard to fruit and veggies). The little pinhead said “we need to drive Walmart out of business! It’s an evil corporation that makes it’s money off the back of others”.
I know someone who works in Walmart produce who used to work at a Farmers Market.(totally local) We saw him at Walmart. He makes $2.00 more an hour at Walmart, gets vacation and medical bennies. It’s also physically less demanding. Plus the produce is cheaper. All simple economics stuff. Nephew refuses to waver. Starts to yell and sweat when I bring up his stupidity. Funny!
I worked with a union for years. Lots of staff shopped at walmart, but they weren’t allowed to admit it or even say it in the office for fear of reprisal. One person had bought a new car and got called down because she bought it at a non-union dealer.
I’ve never been a big fan of Walmart. That being said, one of the big complaints by inner-city Blacks is that no businesses want to locate in their midst. Thus goods, services, and jobs don’t exist close by.
Now a big retailer like Walmart wants to move in, and they get angry about it.
You know, you just can’t win. About the only way to win, is to not play.
Walmart, stay out of the area. Let them remain on welfare I guess. Like that’s ever going to end.
I’m certainly not liberal but I haven’t shopped in Walmart for years. They quit selling firearms for PC reasons and probably because they couldn’t get imports.
Furthermore I can’t stand going into the stores with their aisles full of Made in China products, while they decorate with hypocritical red white and blue colors, all while I’m being required to subsidize their CEO and their employees. Walmart has never used the term corporate citizenship in their mission or actions.
Jay Leno said last night.....The safest place in America from China’s intercontinental missiles will be a Walmart store.
Even welfare money/food stamps have to be spent SOMEwhere.
You walked in one day after a union meeting and said, "Yup .. they're right ... bunch'a chinky shit" and walked out.
Wal-Mart has done more to alleviate poverty in this country than all government programs combined.
Yes they do. And now they have to either walk, take the bus, or drive out of their communities to buy things at stores where Whites work.
A Walmart would employ their neighbors, provide more cash flowing through their community, and spur other businesses to move in to tap the new abundance of cash.
Getting welfare may cover a lot of what you need, but it will never give you a sense of accomplishment, pride, and self-sufficiency.
In their hearts Blacks know.
Hey son, the Welfare check came...
Hey son, today was pay-day. I did a good job and earned this for us.
They know...
Most Walmart jobs make for good second household jobs, not as primary income.
Hey, S&F, you forgot the barf alert!
I think ******s KNOW themselves and sort of opt for "protective custody" of sorts.
If they live with each other and get nowhere ever, and talk their own language, and kill each other occasionally ... they get to "have a pass" every month or two weeks to a different neighborhood ... probably cleaner (looking and smelling) and when they return home, they have fond memories of having a day.
Kind'a like normal people goin' to the beach for the day.
My wife and I buy groceries at WalMart, but not much else. We like to load up on staples once a month or so, and buy perishables more often from more convenient markets.
We can afford to shop elsewhere, but we prefer to spend the savings on something fun, like airline tickets.
In the Watts area of Los Angeles, they made a stink out of banks, grocery stores, and other convenience stores not willing to come in and do business.
An effort was made to get these concerns to come in and do business.
Then the 1992 riots came, and a lot of these businesses were destroyed.
Your explanation is as good as any. It’s so self-defeating.
One significant way that the wealthy became wealthy is by being careful with their money and living below their means.
Check out The Millionaire Next Door for more suggestions.
So does Target, K-Mart, Sears, Penney's, and a host of other stores. In many cases, it's the same stuff with a different branded label.
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