Whats wrong with Wal Mart?

[G-Lexington]

Their business practices may be legal, but they're rather questionable. They've run several companies into the ground using them. One classic one is to "feature" a product - Vlasic pickles, say. They sell them below cost for awhile. Vlasic, in response, starts churning out a ton more pickles. Then, WalMart insists on a new contract - one where they get a sweetheart deal on the pickles. Vlasic, scared to turn away a customer that may (at this point) account for more than 50% of their sales, feels they have to abide by it. Their profits plummet, and they're stuck - they either keep churning out pickles for WalMart at a near loss, or cut off 50% of their income. In America, that's called "having you over the (pickle) barrel".

Lex

 

[markriley]

Does Walmart sell Dildos?

 

[Puzuzzu]

Does Walmart sell Dildos?

fake ones;
i like mine cut up fresh
hahahahahah im kidding

 

[J-23]

They schedule their workers for, say, 39 hours per week in order to avoid having to offer them the benefits that full-time employees would receive.

 

[sunoftheskye]

I remember watching a documentary where they said Wal-Mart will make sure their employees make just the amount needed so that they can apply for Medicaid. Basically, they try to do everything they possibly can to keep from paying their employees benefits.

 

[BluesDog]

I hate Wal-Mart with a passion, but I have to admit they have a great business model.

I blame all the yahoos who, knowing that the store is ruining their community with ruthless competition and abominable treatment of the employees, still shop there only based on the price.

 

[Pushover]

...not to mention there's never more than five cashiers on the check-out lines and there's fifty people waiting in line.

 

[gsdx]

I don't know if this is true for most Wal-Marts, but the one here in Peterborough never has anyone greeting people at the door. I've shopped there 4 times since it opened many, many years ago and I've never been greeted at the door.

And, when I get inside the store, there are no overhead signs indicating the various departments. The only way to find what you want is to try to find a floor person (who usually can't be found and, if you're lucky enough to find someone, they merely points you in a general direction) or simply to wander around the store until you find what you're looking for. And the main aisles are crammed full of sales items so much so that you often have to detour down other aisles just to get through.

Of course, during your wanderings, you're bound to find something else to buy that you didn't really want in the first place.

And you really don't save that much money as far as I've seen.

 

[Cedric]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-w1nqzYTS4&feature=related

This is a training video all new Walmart employees are required to watch. 'Nuff said.

(Sorry, I haven't yet learned how to do the youtube link correctly.)

 

[NineOfClubs]

They're not Union.

There have been instances where Walmarts have treated their employees like shit (Oh wow imagine that).

The 'lowest of the low' kind of people shop there.

I really don't have a problem with them, I tend to shop there from time to time.

Yeah, and Whole Foods isn't union either. It's an atrocious place.

And fat cat, liberal, yuppie, tree hugging, Volvo driving, latte sipping Democrats love it.

I could also add Starbucks!

 

[Just_Believe18]

They overwork and underpay their employees. They understaff all of their stores. Have you seen the security cameras outside the store? They're not for your safety. They're to spy on the store's employees to make sure they aren't trying to unionize outside the parking lot.

They are a sexist and racist company, that encourages their employees to go on welfare, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. They bully small towns and shutdown local economies. The Wal-Mart family is also the richest family in the world, and they contribute the least in charities and benefits to their own employees.

There's a documentary on it. I highly recommend you see it.

 

[eddielee]

When a Walmart opens, just about every small, family owned retail store, goes out of business. The masses would rather give up personal service and high quality for cheap, mass produced items. Another thing is that the store is too damn big. You have to walk a mile just to pick up a few items.

Yes, I sometimes shop at Walmarts.

 

[gsdx]

I can guarantee that any other retail has the same practices and goals that any other Walmart has.

Other retail stores may have been doing the same thing for many, many decades, but few of them have put so many people on the unemployment line and kept so many employees impoverished while the big boys pull in the big bucks.

There have been countless departments stores working right alongside the Mom & Pop operations for years. Now, entire towns are dying because of Wal*Mart.

 

[PreTTy PeTe]

Educate the Brit from across the Atlantic pond thanks =)

I think that they are a normal company that wants to make as much money as possible, at the lowest price thats possible, and pay the highest wage possible.

The wages are horrible, I know, but they would have to increase their prices to pay a higher wage. Overspending on wages is a problem in a lot of supermarkets, they already go beyond their wage budgets on overtime for a lot of employees.

no they don't
no such thing as overtime in canadian supermarkets
in fact they have hardly anything resembling full time employment in canadian supermarkets.
the union representing these workers is a travesty and a joke

most people who work for dominion, loblaws, walmart, zellers or whatever are paid poverty level wages. so when you watch galen weston in that commercial smiling not to worry he probably pays himself more then the entire workforce of loblaws

don't cry for the big boys cause they take care of themselves

 

[gsdx]

When I say other retail, I mean other bigger retail named stores.

So did I. . . Zellers, The Bay, Sears, Eatons and Woolworths (when they were around). Everybody lived together happily and they all provided competition for each other. Nobody can compete with Wal*Mart.

 

[PreTTy PeTe]

they really revolutionized themselves by offering 4 dollar RXs. good for the people who can't afford expense RXs.

i got scripts from them once and they fucked them up wrong pills in wrong container.

i knew cause i take them and i knew what they looked like

never went back to the fuckards

 

[mike_n_herrin]

They schedule their workers for, say, 39 hours per week in order to avoid having to offer them the benefits that full-time employees would receive.

I used to work for a union grocery store (i worked there for 6 years). I worked 36 hours per week (6 hours 6 days a week) and didn't have sick days, health care, or a retirement system. i got a 10 cent raise per year. the union was just your standard UFCW and i paid the same union dues as the (few) full time employees in the store. i got very little out of it.

my vacation time was figured by averaging my last 4 weeks prior to the vacation. which at that time my hours would get cut to 22 or 26 just so that they didn't have to pay me more for when i was gone. oh and when i finally quit, i was making less per hour than the starting pay at the wal mart across the street.

while wal mart may have business practices that result in smaller competition places going out of business, i do not see them as the big evil giant that a lot of folks do. when you have very little money you tend to shop at the cheapest place. sometimes that's wal mart.