A Day in the Life of Wal-Mart’s Parking Lots

Are Target or Costco parking lots well lit, closed off from the general public and patrolled by heavily armed security teams? What about your local mall? How about the neighborhood Kroger?

Oh, that’s right. Only Wal-Mart parking lots are easily accessible, poorly lighted and monitored. Apparently, the lighting, security cameras, throngs of customers, dozens of nearby stores and Wal-Mart employees gathering carts do not exist.

Only Wal-Mart is unsafe. Why? Oh,well, you know...........they are non-union! Yeah! That’s why!

Nick,

You’re in rare form, today—I like it!

Seriously, I haven’t a clue what these people are even talking-about, as my local WM, even though it’s a Supercenter, doesn’t have the biggest parking lot in all of WM (they share a shopping center with serveral small stores and PetSmart).  Mine also has a local police presence.

Of course, that last paragraph of mine could be spun by these people to say that WM provides insufficent parking spaces for customers and that cops are needed 24/7 to scare-off would-be criminals.

Everything is always subject to interpretation--I happen to like my way, better.

WMW - Speaks for “some”, but never for “all”!

JB

hey jim (j.b.) the wal marts here in my yay area are ok that i have been to but the walmart in milwaukee near the south side is a haven for boot leg dvds and paraphnalia of all sorts they have their own lot and walgreens has a concrete fence the police station is only 7 blocks from this store

Roger,

Let me get this straight—the WM near the South Side of Milwaukee is selling “bootleg” DVD’s????????

My usual jabs at you aside, bootleg media of any form is a serious offense, and you should be a good citizen and report that to your local F.B.I. field office in Milwaukee.  You’ll be a better man for it.

Now, if you’re talking old black and white TV shows/movies on $1/$5 DVD’s in bins in the front of WM (i.e., “Beverly Hillbillies” sans the popular theme song or old Max Fleischer “Superman” cartoons), the sale of that stuff is perfectly legal, as those prints are considered to be in the public domain because their copyrights expired, years ago.

JB

Time to dust off this old chestnut:

Unfortunately, what the police found out is that Wal-Mart is a magnet for criminals as well as shoppers. ~ Don Markwood

i was shot 7834 times in a WM lot!

i was shot 7834 times in a WM lot!

What a lame thread!!!  For every example presented here, you can find 1000 crimes committed in areas where there isn’t a Wal-Mart in site.  I don’t suspect that a criminal sits around and says, “What Wal-Mart parking lot can I hit next?”!!!

“A 21-year-old Merrillville woman has been charged with a felony after she allegedly confronted a former roommate at Wal-Mart and pointed a gun at her, officials”

“A 20-year-old Merrillville woman is accused of aiming a loaded semiautomatic handgun at her ex-roommate’s boyfriend during an argument at Wal-Mart “

I suppose these 2 cases would have never happened if the people were somewhere else other than Wal-Mart, give me a break will you!!!  By the way, what were these people doing carrying guns in the first place?  Sounds like they were looking for trouble, wherever they could find it!!!

We’ve been down the Don Markwood rathole before Kenny boy.

Peace

I think the only danger of the Canadian Walmart parking lots is that there is a good chance you would have to see one of those ugly looking Walmart buildings. Could a worse design ever be made? I think not.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse
We will never forget what you did Walmart.
Never.

OK, let’s discuss some facts.  According to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office crime statistician, the Hazel Dell Wal Mart is the #1 site for patrol car call response in the Sheriff’s West precinct.  The Mill Plain Wal Mart is the #5 site in the whole county - behind 3 police stations and a hospital.

That does NOT make Wal Mart a hot bed of crime.  It simply means they place a big demand on scarce public safety resources.

GG

I was under the impression that Meth has been a problem in Clark County since the 1980’s. Was Wal-Mart responsible for bringing Meth to suburban Portland?

“Washington has the second highest number of overall property crimes nationwide.”

“Spokane currently suffers the highest crime rate of any Washington urban area.”

Quotes from Washington residents. Is Wal-Mart to blame for these crimes?

Hazel Dell’s unemployment rate, in a booming economy, is about 9.2%. What would it be without Wal-Mart?

I’m sorry, I have seen cases of car wrecks, ATV wrecks, burgles, robberies, assaults, domestic batteries, murders, rapes, etc. in this county having nothing to do with Wal-Mart.

In fact, a mentally handicapped man is missing currently. He is familiar with the local Albertson’s and may mistake another Albertson’s for his usual store. If he was comfortable with Wal-Mart, WMW would be spinning this story to blame Wal-Mart for his disappearance.

This is SUCH a non-issue.

I watched police take two shoplifters out of Kroger the other day. Kroger is placing a big demand on scarce public safety resources. THE WHOLE POINT OF PUBLIC RESOURCES IS TO SERVE THE PUBLIC! Why are people shocked when a large taxpaying business that serves the public sometimes needs police assistance? Are we to pay for public resources for the sake of paying for them?

Such a non issue.................

Crime at WalMart is a huge issue and communities that understand this want to keep WalMart out for this additional reason.

Doing a search on WalMart and parking lot crime will show extensive study materials making the case that violent crime is disproportionate to WalMart. Police departments all over America are at considerable additional expense because of WalMart and the poverty it brings and subsequent criminal activities.

WalMart- We have been known to kill people over petty theft.

If you want to know about crime at any Wal-Mart by zip code go here.

Wal-Mart could implement roving security patrols at all stores nationwide at an estimated cost of 4 cents per weekly customer visit.

Ken

Do you mean that Wal-Mart could provide 24/7 security for just $1,400 per week per store? If we assume 1 guard per shift and 168 hours in a week, this means that you would need a minimum of 4 guards working an average of 42 hours per week with no break and no vacation. This means Wal-Mart’s total labor cost would be $8.33 per hour including wages, benefits & payroll taxes, which works out to about $6 per hour in wages. Where will Wal-Mart find decent people to patrol their lots for less money than the cart pusher earns?

I always love how you liberals are so quick to spend everyone else’s money. How about this one? There are more than 200 employees in the UFCW National Headquarters in Washington D.C. who earn base salaries of more than $100,000 per year. There are 1.5 million UFCW members. If HQ would just reduce the average salary for these 200 employees to $50,000, this would save $10 million per year, which would reduce dues by $6.66 per UFCW member.

Maybe I should start spending YOUR money for you.

Ken,

Nice going, but here’s what I got from the website you shared with us…

Sorry, we have no data for Wal-Mart stores within 100 miles of XXXXX. Please write your local police department and request a report.

To have our researchers analyze the data from your nearest Wal-Mart store, forward an official crime report to:

WakeUpWalMart.com
1775 K St NW
Washington, D.C. 20006

For the record, I used zip code for a WM in a small town, as I live in the St. Louis area, the likihood for any store-related crime (i.e., shoplifing) is going to be there, simpy because of the population.

As for the website Ken shared with us, all I can say is “Go figure!”

JB

I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you, Jim.

Try 77002, a zip code from “Wal-Mart Central”.

Ken,

Sorry—I believe you’re smart-enough to know exactly what I was getting-at.  Had I entered a zip code from St. Louis, Houston, or any other large population center, I would have received some entries to look-at.

I decided to go for the less obvious, and I got the truth—just another flashy “WUWM/UFCW Production”.

JB

Nick in -
You seem so knowledgeable, too bad you choose to deliberately mislead others.  The unemployment rate in Clark County is nowhere near the 9.2% you report.  Statistics for unincorporated areas like Hazel Dell are not broken out.  Spokane is on the other side of the state.

Curiously, you overlook the news story carried on our local NBC affiliate showing Sheriff’s deputies busting a meth lab in the Hazel Dell WM parking lot.  To quote the deputy, busting crime in the parking lot “is like shooting fish in a barrel.

For obvious reasons, your response does not address my point that the Hazel Dell Wal Mart is a high crime location.  All the other top 10 locations are precincts, the hospital, and low rent apartment complexes.  Not Kroger, etc.

It seems if all the crimes committed across the country take place in Wal Mart parking lots why not put all the police stations in Wal Mart parking lots.
Just think no more crime in America.
But I suppose the criminals would just move to the Kmart parking lot.
We have a Wal Mart here in Deming and the parking lot sure doesn’t seem like a hot bed of crime to me.
My guess is most of the people who post here and knock Wal Mart just don’t like Wal Mart so no matter what Wal Mart does these folks will find something to complain about.

Patrick,

You are right on the money, friend (and as you may have figured, I am not one of them, either).

In my town, there is a small office in the vestibule of our WM Supercenter that is marked for local police use, if need be (along with convenient parking for police vehicles adjacent to the handicapped spots).

Needless to say, no major crime has happened, there (as verified by the people at WUWM).

And you’re right—crime knows no particular chain store. 

It’s noteworthy that when I lived in New Jersey, we had an actual police substation inside one of our Target stores.

JB

we had an actual police substation inside one of our Target stores.

Not to be outdone, Wal-Mart has police annexes inside several stores as well.

But, since there are more Wal-Marts than Targets, there’s more crime associated with Wal-Mart. And here is my nominee for the Wal-Mart Parking Lot Horror Award:

Stacy Driver

Driver, of Cleveland, was chased by employees after he left the store in the 6600 block of FM 1960 East with items they said he stole. Four employees in the Atascocita Wal-Mart wrestled Driver — who was shirtless at the time — to the ground and struggled with him on the hot pavement for 10 to 30 minutes, witnesses said. He stopped breathing and later died at a Humble hospital.

Wanna play “Can You Top This”?

Ken,

Now you’re name-dropping the deceased—are there no limits to what you do??

My take on the matter is “You play, you pay!”—it’s unfortunate that the man died while being apprehended, but that doesn’t excuse him from what was clearly criminal behavior.

As for WM’s involvement in the matter, no retailer in their right mind would tell their employees to do what these WM associates did.  Liability issues alone would never encourage or allow anyone to physically tackle a shoplifter.  I think these associates were your fellow Texans just being...well...good Texans.

JB

Jim

I guess you missed the part in Ken V’s blog where the deceased was only accused of theft. And as far as them being “good Texans” I guess Wal-Mart’s made in China crap is worth more than a human life?

Roland,

You almost had me until you pulled “made in China crap” remark from the WMW playbook—way to go!

As I previously said, it was “unfortunate” that this man died while being apprehended, but it wasn’t as if a WM associate put a gun to the man’s head and pulled the trigger (his death was an unanticipated consequence of the apprehension).

As for your playbook remark, the last two pieces of merchandise I bought at WM were made in the USA and Mexico.

Want “Made in China”?  Go to Dollar Tree—they built their entire business on it!

JB

For pure chutzpah, these two get my I made out like a bandit in Wal-Mart’s Parking Lot award:

Armed Thugs Shoot 1 Person Waiting in Wal-Mart PlayStation Line

PUTNAM, Conn. — Two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people waiting for the new Playstation 3 game system to go on sale in Putnam early Friday and shot one man who refused to give up his money, authorities said.

Fox News

Ken,

Everyone with half a brain knows that during the holidays when both PS3 and Nintendo’s Wii were released, there was a rash of criminal behavior that happened at stores of all different stripes (including WM).

Your effort to singularly point-out WM sounds like the writings of a man who is really desperate to prove his point, whatever that may be…

JB

There was a man shot standing in a Best Buy line here when they went on sale a few months ago.  Your attempt at presuming Walmart to be an ill, especially compared to other retailers, is really stupid.

First of all:

If your sole mission in life (because you have *NO* other) is to discredit Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. then it should be no surprise that the only thing you post on your completely (unfounded) “here-say” website. 

I live in Northern Indiana.  I was actually in this area at the time this happened.  And if ya *actually* read the story, nowhere did it say that she was angry with how she was treated by Wal-Mart.  It DOES NOT say that she was assaulted by an associate of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.  It DOES NOT say that an affiliate of Wal-Mart was *EVEN* involved.  Does it?  Yeah, i really didn’t think so.  The ONLY thing that *any* of your “claims” have in common, is that omg, wait for it:  *drumroll* THEY HAPPENED IN A WAL-MART PARKING LOT!  *cymbal crash*
this is the official newspaper story link:
http://nwitimes.com/articles/2007/04/10/news/lake_county/docd0413e0ae8750367862572b8007fb562.txt

What i don’t see in your report though, that in Northern Indiana (AT THE EXACT SAME TIME these attacks were occurring, that IN BROAD DAYLIGHT robbers were picking-off helpless young women in parking lots all across Northern Indiana.  Shall I list them also?  Walgreens, CVS, Krogers, and Martin’s Supermarkets (of course, just to name a few).

I am a current Associate with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. based out of a store *IN* northern Indiana.  I have been for three years now.  I have been nothing less than thrilled at the opportunities that have been thrust before me, to travel, work in remote locations, set up stores, troubleshoot neighboring stores’ issues, ON TOP OF my WONDERFUL job back in my home store.  I may rag on my people every now and then, because i often take on responsibilities or tasks that are not considered part of my every day job, but THAT IS MY RIGHT.  I ACTUALLY WORK FOR THEM!  It is *MY* duty as an associate to provide a safe working/shopping environment, and in the process, when i don’t see something that is working, we take care of it.  We handle it, much to the dismay of low-lifes such as the owners of this website (for example.) I challange any single one of you to spend one day in my shoes.  It is actually because of people like you that do make our jobs as associates harder because we want nothing more, deep down inside, than to hand throw your asses right out the door, but we are obligated by business ethics, and common decency and morality to be nice to you and treat you as though you are a part of our family.

Just in case you haven’t figured this out, by the way....YA DONT HAVE TO SHOP AT WAL-MART IF YA FREAKIN’ HATE WAL-MART.  Oh dear God, what a revelation.  I think i just might pee myself from all the excitement.  If by now, you’re figuring out that the world is not actually filled with sunshine and rainbows, i apologize for ruining the rest of your life.  But hey, it’s free speech, right?  you’re allowed to do it to us, so that we may return the favor, right?  that’s what i thought.

I think i just might pee myself from all the excitement.

Clean up on aisle 3!

Anonymous Citizen in Northern Indiana,

Very nicely put… it’s just ashame it will most likely go on deaf ears.

It is actually because of people like you that do make our jobs as associates harder because we want nothing more, deep down inside, than to hand throw your asses right out the door, but we are obligated by business ethics, and common decency and morality to be nice to you and treat you as though you are a part of our family.

Yeah, Anonymous Citizen, if it wasn’t for all those filthy, smelly (ugh) customers your life would be a picnic.  No more cleaning up, restocking, or answering the endless stupid questions. All I can say is with your attitude toward the general public, <i>get out of retail!</b>

You’ld be much happier here (say ‘Hi’ for me :o).

Anonymous Citizen in Northern Indiana,

You said it all, brother...Your post was most definitely worth my dropping-in (when I said I wouldn’t!) for!  Ignore Ken—as you may have figured, he has some personal axe to grind with the WM organization…

Ken,

You really do need to get a life—this current one just isn’t suiting you all that well…

JB

Ken

Why do you attack Anonymous Citizen’s “attitude” towards customers in relation to the retail industry? You have said in the past that Wal-Mart is evil for requiring employees to be available to service the customers, to include nights and weekends. If you think a good customer attitude is crucial in servicing the customer (which it is), then why do you feel that a store should not be available to serve its customers? What’s the point of good customer service if you don’t work when the customers demand your help?

Retail requires a lot of things. A good attitude and friendly customer service are important but so is being available when your customers need you.

As Sam Walton said “If you don’t want to work weekends, you shouldn’t be in the retail business”.

QWhy do you attack Anonymous Citizen’s “attitude” towards customers in relation to the retail industry?

A...we want nothing more, deep down inside, than to hand throw your asses right out the door...

Ken V,

“A...we want nothing more, deep down inside, than to hand throw your asses right out the door...”

I think if you read Anonymous Citizen’s post again, I think you would see that he refers to the people who want to unionize the company and those who want to tell the company how to run it!!  Notice the part that says “ low-lifes such as the owners of this website (for example.)”!!  Here is what he said:

“We handle it, much to the dismay of low-lifes such as the owners of this website (for example.) I challange any single one of you to spend one day in my shoes.  It is actually because of people like you that do make our jobs as associates harder because we want nothing more, deep down inside, than to hand throw your asses right out the door”

See, he was talking about “people like YOU”, not normal customers!!  And, you said I have ‘poor’ reading comprehension!!!

“people like YOU”, not normal customers!!

I’m not a “normal” customer?  Careful, Bob, you’ll hurt my feelings.

I’ve spent some time around disgruntled retailers. (Hence the reference to Customerssuck*) Ask Anonymous Citizen what’s the worst part of the job.

Customers!

When I worked waitresses I used to tell ‘em: You don’t want to be here? Go home!

Ken V,

“When I worked waitresses I used to tell ‘em: You don’t want to be here? Go home!”

And, that is basically what we are saying, “if you don’t want to shop or work at Wal-mart, GO home”!

Thanks for agreeing with our point!!!

Thanks for agreeing with our point!!!

So the war is over? The pro Wal-Mart and boycott positions are the same!

Bob, you’ve lost your mind.

(Of coursre I understand we’re not suppose to counteract advertising by showing folks the hideous Beast of Bentonville!)

Ken V,

“ showing folks the hideous Beast of Bentonville!”

Problem is, you, because of your “REVENGE” thing are creating the “hideous Beast of Bentonville” in your mind, making mountains out of mole hills and taking basic business and making it appear that Wal-Mart is the cause of all the ills of the world.  You may actually believe everything you say, but, most intelligent people can see right through your ‘smoke and mirrors’ act!!!

Pay attention once, to the people who are on your side of the issues, Alex (who can’t make even a ‘fair’ arguement), SDV (who sounds like he has been eating those strange mushrooms) and a cast of others, who have the language skills of a 1st grader (like ‘rowdt rrooo’ who makes a whole statement, [that doesn’t make a lick of sense], into one long sentence).  It’s not hard to convince the ‘sheep’ to follow a shepherd to the slaughterhouse!!!

In the category of:

Only in a Wal-Mart Parking Lot

Police in Tulsa, Okla., are searching for a man who hid under a woman’s car at a Wal-Mart parking lot and then licked her toes as she loaded groceries into the vehicle, according to a report.

The victim filed a police report and a witness also saw it happen. A Tulsa County assistant district attorney said if the man is caught, he’ll face a misdemeanor charge of battery or outraging public decency.

Being a “if-it-feels-good-do-it” Liberal, I never make judgements about another man’s fetish but licking a woman’s feet <b>after</i> she walked around inside a Wal-Mart is beyond the pale!

Ewwwww!  :o)

P.S. (to Bob)

..creating the “hideous Beast of Bentonville” in your mind...

Denying Sam’s Dream has evolved into the Beast of Bentonville is like ignoring the existence of the concept of a living wage.

Your tunnel vision, Bob, brings to mind a quote from the Bard:

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” --From Hamlet (I, v, 166-167)