Identity of “Wal-Marting Across America” RV’er Revealed

Well, well, I now wonder what “B0b in” will have to post on this thread.  They weren’t just an ordinary “couple”.

knowledgeable,

I never said they were just an ordinary couple, I said that they were going to make the trip anyway to write a story about it.

This is as low as it gets for a “professional” “photographer.”

Just what the American working class needs, another segment of society selling them out so they can get a free ride. Some souls sell pretty cheap...apparently Jim and Laura’s were made in China.

well, Jim sure acts pretty folksy.
this is what he says in his bio: (see my hompage link)

oh, baby, could a retired brick layer who’s also a Vietnam vet and his honey have fun with this! Going across America in a borrowed RV and only staying at Wal-Marts. Seeing the country and spending as little as possible. Sort of like being on the Intra-Coastal Waterway in a 40-foot sailboat (done that) only without the water!

So here we go, Jim and Laura, blogging on the road from Wally 1, staying mobile and showing you our cross country trip with my photos. Y’all come back and share where we’ve been and see what we’ve seen!

suzie,

Kind of like the unions folksy bus trip, huh?  But, I guess it’s different, if the unions do it, right?

Good work suzie. Just shows you that you can’t believe so much of this WM promotional stuff as being real.
I would encourage Jim and Laura to bring their show north of the border and to park overnight in the former Jonquiere Walmarts parking lot. That would make a warm and fuzzy story.

Please remember. Walmart, don’t forget.

Bob asked: “Kind of like the unions folksy bus trip, huh?”

Wal-Mart has a track record of “borrowing” ideas from others, but I don’t believe the union bus tour is where Jim and Laura got the idea for this.

A documentary film made in 2002 entitled “This is Nowhere” dealt with the subject of RV’ers camping in Wal-Mart parking lots.

My favorite quote from the critiques:

“At the same time, the film reveals several contradictions experienced by this group of people (and many of us): for example, expressing our freedom yet choosing sameness, simplifying life but trying to ‘have it all,’ valuing community yet spending time in ways that make community increasingly out of reach, and ‘rediscovering’ nature from the perspective of pavement.” George Cheney, Director of Graduate Studies, Dept of Communication, University of Montana

“‘rediscovering’ nature from the perspective of pavement”....LOL

http://www.highplainsfilms.org/fp_nowhere.html

The sad thing is that if WalMart would just take the millions they’re ploughing into damage-control PR efforts and use that money to improve the working conditions of their employees, they wouldn’t have to spend it on damage control.

WalMart considers its employees to be disposable animals, though, and it considers the rest of America to be mindlessly stupid.

Did everyone notice who his employer is… The Washington Post… one of the most liberal rag newspapers in the country.  Who’s to say they are not paying for, or at least supporting, his efforts in order to do a story of their own, albeit more of an an anti-walmart slant? 

As for the money, union leadership as done quite a bit on their own in wasting their membership’s money on failed political campaigns.  If they really wanted to help their membership they would lower their monthly dues providing more money for them to spend as they see fit.

-Richard K

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4037423.stm

Wal-Mart has finally found a union it can live with.

Up to now America’s largest employer has opposed every effort of its employees to form a union. Wal-Mart doesn’t recognize unions; it doesn’t even recognize “employees.” The proper Wal-Mart name for its workers is “associates,” a term that connotes higher status and collegiality and that actually means lower pay and workplace autocracy. For the privilege of associating themselves with Wal-Mart, its employees are paid so little that many can’t afford the health insurance the company generously allows them to buy. One study of health care in Las Vegas revealed that a plurality of that city’s employed Medicaid recipients worked at Wal-Mart.

But that was the old Wal-Mart. Last week Wal-Mart announced that if its associates wanted a union to represent them, that would be hunky-dory—as long as the union was affiliated with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, a body dominated by the Chinese Communist Party. The official statement was simple and seemingly unambiguous: “Should associates request formation of a union, Wal-Mart China would respect their wishes.”

“one of the most liberal rag newspapers in the country”

You’re joking, right?  Or you don’t know anything about the Post, more likely.  The Post smashed its own typesetters union twenty years ago and has had a history of acrimonious relationships with its unions continuously since then.  Its business coverage is pro-business and its editorial policy is pro-free-trade.  It was a cheerleader for the Iraq War.  It’s favored columnists, like Sebastian Mallaby think Wal-Mart is just great, e.g., http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/27/AR2005112700687.html.  The Post isn’t liberal- it’s reliably Washington establishment insider, right down the line.

J man,

“The proper Wal-Mart name for its workers is “associates,” a term that connotes higher status and collegiality and that actually means lower pay and workplace autocracy.”

And yet, every time they open a store, thousands of people show up applying for the few jobs offered!!!

Dissento,

You get it, “It’s not my job”.  What do expect from a high school dropout, who’s only getting $11.00 an hour?  Maybe I’ll think about it, if I get a $6.00 an hour raise, plus a $200.00 clean up bonus and fully paid insurance.  After all, isn’t clean-up a highly skilled job?

Bob in, you idiot. Walmart opens in areas devastated by ReNAMBLAcan policies, so thousands of people show up for jobs, having been lied to by Walmart ads on TV. They don’t find out about overnight lock-ins, no medical benefits, no overtime and indentured servitude until it’s too late.

Hey Bob in,
Do you get paid by WM, or does your ignorance allow you to love them so blindly?  Why do you hate America Bob in?  If you like China so much (and seeing as how Bush has sold us up a river to them, why wouldn’t you), why not move there?  You could get all your little cheap trinkets for a fraction of the cost.

I hate America because it lacks more Walmarts.

hey bob,

fully paid health care benefits?  that’s only a small portion of walmart employees, and with their recently announced policies to push more “associates” to part-time, even that paltry number will drop precipitously.

nothin’ but PR smoke, like this damn tour.

See there folks, Bob in is a freedom hating evildoer.  He can’t be trusted.  He admits he hates America.  I think he needs a free trip to Club Gitmo for some Citizen Training Exercises.

Bob-

There seems to be a sudden influx of idiots. How many of them are Alex and how many are JM?

Raven-

You bring up a valid point. As pitiful as Wal-Mart’s PR efforts have been, they probably could better allocate the funds. It would be nice to see how much exactly they are spending.

The photographer is an idiot. What’s he making after a quarter-century at the Post? 90K? 100K? More? And so, what? he needed more money? Or he is so in love with WalMart that he absolutely had to do this?

He’s lucky the paper didn’t just can his ass instead of just making him pull the photos.

Aren’t there enough starving photogs and artists in this country for WM to exploit? Aren’t there any Chinese children the company could teach to use a camera?

“one of the most liberal rag newspapers in the country”

JR, we’ll just have to agree to disagree here.  Their editorial support for democratic candidates, lack of follow-up on stories that didn’t fit their political agenda and their conspiracy involvements to “dig up dirt” (aka Joe Steffan in MD) tell me and many others what side of the fence they live on.  The only thing tempering their opinions is the Washington Times down street.  The Washington Post joins The NY Times and LA Times as some of the most left leaning rags in the country.  The only difference is the Washington Post is published from in-side the beltway.

-Richard K

I can’t believe WMT is paying Edelman a million dollars a month for this dreck.

>suzie,
>
>Kind of like the unions folksy bus trip, huh?  But, I guess it’s >different, if the unions do it, right?

>Bob in
>Wednesday, October 11 at 01:43 AM

Are you saying union workers can only afford to take the bus?  Harsh, Bob.  Unions don’t hide behind paid shills, money spent on this astroturf project by Walmart would be better spent on higher wages and benefits for their employees.  Or is that too socialist for you?

ronjazz,

“Walmart opens in areas devastated by ReNAMBLAcan policies, so thousands of people show up for jobs, having been lied to by Walmart ads on TV. They don’t find out about overnight lock-ins, no medical benefits, no overtime and indentured servitude until it’s too late.”

How have they been lied to by ads by Wal-Mart?  I have never seen an ad that claims a Wal-Mart job, is high paying and with great health insurance.

And, if it is true, as you say, that “They don’t find out about overnight lock-ins, no medical benefits, no overtime and indentured servitude until it’s too late.”, too late for what?  Are you trying to say that the people who have worked there 15 years are so ‘stupid’, they never saw it?  And, they DO offer medical benefits and people here have complained about having to work long hours, besides, why would some company HAVE to give overtime anyhow?  Lastly, where do you come up with this “indentured servitude” B.S., are you saying that once a person hires on at Wal-Mart, they can never leave?  Guess your words, show that you aren’t qualified to work there.

Bob wrote: “And yet, every time they open a store, thousands of people show up applying for the few jobs offered!!!”

Every time? Hmmm, Bob?  Apparently you missed this one:

Wal-Mart baffled by lack of applications

“EDINBURG — The 400 open jobs at the new Super Wal-Mart were expected to attract a block-circling line of applicants, especially in an area with one of the highest unemployment rates in the state.

Yet, in the two weeks since the open positions were first advertised, managers at the retail giant have been twiddling their thumbs, wondering why the droves of hopeful Wal-Mart employees that cities like Oakland, Calif., attracted in the past week are not so in Edinburg”

http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=14976&Section=Local

Sorry, Bob, we’re just going to have to strip you of more credibility. (Is there an Absolute Zero of credibility where all atomic activity ceases and Bob falls into a pile of electron-size dust?)

ronjazz,

“Walmart opens in areas devastated by ReNAMBLAcan policies, so thousands of people show up for jobs, having been lied to by Walmart ads on TV. They don’t find out about overnight lock-ins, no medical benefits, no overtime and indentured servitude until it’s too late.”

How have they been lied to by ads by Wal-Mart?  I have never seen an ad that claims a Wal-Mart job, is high paying and with great health insurance.

And, if it is true, as you say, that “They don’t find out about overnight lock-ins, no medical benefits, no overtime and indentured servitude until it’s too late.”, too late for what?  Are you trying to say that the people who have worked there 15 years are so ‘stupid’, they never saw it?  And, they DO offer medical benefits and people here have complained about having to work long hours, besides, why would some company HAVE to give overtime anyhow?  Lastly, where do you come up with this “indentured servitude” B.S., are you saying that once a person hires on at Wal-Mart, they can never leave?  Guess your words, show that you aren’t qualified to work there.

No Corporation,

“Are you saying union workers can only afford to take the bus?  Harsh, Bob.”

Appearently, you didn’t hear about the Bus Campaign undertaken by the UFCW union.  I don’t attack workers, I just attack unions that are trying to destroy America, by trying to get rid of capitalism and the freemarket system.

By the way, has anyone heard about the big STRIKE by the United Steel Workers union, against Goodyear?  12 plants closed and 15,000 workers out on the street.

Hello everyone. Alex checking in.
I have to agree someone that there is a lot of people on here, but they are not me. I have to admit that sometimes I am surprised when there are a lot of people. Other times there are few.

Anyway, my message is that Walmart is a poor company that screwed Canadian workers in Jonquiere.

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM CANADA

The National Post, The Montreal Gazette and other papers are running a story with the title:

QUE. CLOSE TO HAVING UNIONIZED WAL-MART

The store is in St. Hyacinthe Quebec.

Missing the point....

What’s frightening here isn’t the support or not of Wal-Mart, but the plantation behavior of one of the handful of US media corporations that control 99% of all you read—and, trust me, the WP absolutely is NOT a “liberal” one, LOL.

Jim was on his own time, not the paper’s!  Does everyone here think the WP is entitled to enslave him 24/7?

WP a for-profit corporation, like Wal-Mart, not a person.  Why does this inanimate entity have the power to control his personal, private life because the soulless corporation doesn’t approve of what it might appear Jim thinks on his personal time and in front of an audience primarily outside his work community, at that?

Or, consider the analogy of a pimp and whore.  Is Jim “WP’s girl” and can WP collect $ from anyone enjoying Jim’s time?  Should he make his parents pay WP for pix he takes of their grandkids on his own time, too?

I’m indignant here!

The same people who say shame on union-busting see no correlation with the shame of WP dictating personal choices of a person on time during which the company wasn’t paying him!!!!

It’s not even as if he’s a CEO or Hollywood celeb making many $millions/year.  Even then, I hear more sympathy for their privacy and rights to fallibility.

Look, I’m a reporter who hates Wal-Mart (guess I better not say that except anonymously, eh?), but I still would consider the deal to use its RV and gas and see the country in return for a few of my written insights or pictures.  Why does anyone assume I’m not going to ask employee critical questions to explore at some later date, whether or not I post criticism on the Wal-Mart blog?

Real journalists are open-minded, and strong minded.  HELLLLO! They can cover a murder trial without becoming a murderer.  A Steelers fan can cover a Steeler-Eagles game without giving favored coverage to the Steelers. 

And Jim can shoot pix of Wal-Marts without becoming a personal advocate of it.  So what if Wal-Mart may or (probably) may not benefit significantly from his shots?  What’s that got to do with his ability to cover news and news features professionally during his professional hours in that WP employs him?

News Flash:  Rank-and-file, even at the WP, don’t get paid crap!  Consider the cost of living in DC.

I don’t know Jim or his family, but I feel terrible that they have to go through this shame and embarrassment just because they took a crumb the WP salary doesn’t otherwise afford them so they could take their kids on trip to see some of our country before it’s totally lost to a corporofascist dictatorship. 

And as a fellow journalist, I can’t even state this opinion without being anonymous, lest I risk disciplinary consequences, too, and fear my ability to feed my family.

Geez Louise!!!

Mags, you may want to get your favourite anti-Canada quilt pen out and start writing another America kicking Canuck butt because it is not going to stop. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. (Papers are saying that St. Hyacinthe close to having unionized Walmart).

Remember Jonquiere.
St. Hyacinthe is picking up the baton and will continue the fight.

WP policy: “Any type of professional act performed by one of our journalists has to be considered freelance and it must follow our guidelines,” Downie told E&P;. “Which include not working for a competitor or an interest group.”

May be unfair, but there it is.

Let me tell you a little reality, Evilwalmart in.

We ALL have to sign that form every year at every media corporation.  If we don’t sign an acknowledgement of it, we get fired.

There’s an argument that this does not make a binding contract.  It’s quite akin to slavery, IMHO.

Besides that, just who gets to say what’s “special interest”?  The inanimate corporation.

I get free demonstrator samples when I shop at Costco.  Should I be disciplined for taking something of value of a special-interest group?  Wal-Mart/Sams and Costco are competitors, so it must mean I’ve picked a side of the special interest, right?

Further, if noncompetitivity was the purpose for the policy, as is implied in the quote you pulled, Evilwalmart, then you have to acknowledge that Downie admits Jim did inform his boss of the trip. 

The WP did not offer to pay for the RV and gas as its own competitive offer to bid for Jim’s professional services during this time he was on vacation....and it did have the chance to do that. 

This was done on this photog’s own time, not one dime of the WP’s time or resources.  I don’t believe WP has any moral right to any control, and I would hope lawyers would come to take an interest in this professional battle we face, because it gets worse every day. 

Our salaries stay flat while we pay more and more each year for benefits, and our “vacation” benefit even has strings attached.

Again, we don’t get paid crap, yet the corporations think they have control over our thoughts, our voices, our whereabouts 24/7.  And because we have technical skills employed by fewer and fewer companies every day, our choices are almost nonexistent—like slavery.

“St. Hyacinthe is picking up the baton and will continue the fight”
----As the new home of WalMart worker abuse! Seriously, at least you will be able to change the wording of your posts slightly....

So, Alex, if they unionize and WalMart decides, say to pull out of Quebec entirely will that make you happy? Will the thousands of workers who lose their jobs be better off or worse off? Does WalMart owe them a job at any price?

“WP policy: “Any type of professional act performed by one of our journalists has to be considered freelance and it must follow our guidelines,” Downie told E&P;. “Which include not working for a competitor or an interest group.”

May be unfair, but there it is.”

Evil, couldn’t the same be said about WalMart’s employee pay and benefits package? And their vacation policy? And their scheduling policy? Might be unfair, but there it is.

ATTENTION WALMART WORKERS EVERYWHERE

Only hours ago the papers in Canada are reporting that “Quebec close to having unionized Wal-Mart”.
The people of Quebec will get up every time WM trys to bully them. They may have knocked down the Jonquiere store but the people will never give up. They will never give in.

St. Hyacinthe is taking up the baton for the Jonquiere workers.
Their tenacity will be rewarded.

“Their tenacity will be rewarded”

With fewer jobs!!! Hoorah! So what will you think if thousands lose their jobs, Alex?

Threats, threats and more threats. That’s all Walmart and their loyal supporters can drum up to control Walmart workers and supporters.

How much longer will these workers put up with this behaviour?  Not forever, that is for sure.

The frightening thing for Mags and friends is that Walmart is losing control. Walmart will not forever have all the leverage to make people jump when they command jump.
Walmart will have to respect its workforce in the future. That will be hard for them to accept.

BREAKING NEWS: OVER 700,000 SIGNATURES TONIGHT

EXTRA: AMERICANS PETITION

“...having been lied to by Walmart..”

We’ve all seen TV ads glorifying a career at Wal-Mart. Is it a lie?  Well, there certainly seems to be a conflict of purpose in these two statements:

“Our company employs more than one million Associates world-wide and is always recruiting talent to fill the needs of a continuously growing business. Through sourcing of Hourly and Temporary talent, our company fulfills its business needs, and at the same time, provides you with a starting point for a potentially successful, long-term career with a company.”

http://walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=638

“Given the impact of tenure on wages and benefits, the cost of an Associate with 7 years of tenure is almost 55 percent more than the cost of an Associate with 1 year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity. Moreover, because we pay an Associate more in salary and benefits as his or her tenure increases, we are pricing that Associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart.” ~ Susan Chambers Memo Executive Vice President for Benefits

Walmart will not forever have all the leverage to make people jump when they command jump

They will always have the leverage to scale back their operations vastly. And who will care? The unions would rather have dues from 500,000 than see 1.5 million employed with dues from zero. In many regions, that will cause wages for low-skilled workers to fall dramatically as thousands of newly unemployed compete for fewer and fewer jobs. Many WalMart workers are happy with their jobs. Many of them look forward to advancing their careers with WalMart. Should a few lazy malcontents who lack the vision, drive and intelligence to further their own career through additional education or simply getting a different job be the cause of thousands and maybe 100s of thousands of jobs lost?

Ken V,

““Our company employs more than one million Associates world-wide and is always recruiting talent to fill the needs of a continuously growing business. Through sourcing of Hourly and Temporary talent, our company fulfills its business needs, and at the same time, provides you with a starting point for a potentially successful, long-term career with a company.””

Where’s the LIE?

Does not Wal-Mart employ ‘more than one million associates worldwide’?
Do they not recruit ‘talent to fill the needs of a continuously growing business’?
Do they not use both ‘Hourly and Temporary talent’?

And, the most important point, is: ‘provides you with a starting point for a potentially successful, long-term career with a company.’ Notice the words “starting point” (entry level) and “potentially successful, long-term career with a company”, notice they didn’t say with Wal-Mart, but, “A COMPANY”, which is the point of entery level.

Maybe you have seen the ads from McDonalds, which show successful people who got their start in the working world, by starting at McDonalds.

Ken V,

As for the Susan Chambers memo:

““Given the impact of tenure on wages and benefits, the cost of an Associate with 7 years of tenure is almost 55 percent more than the cost of an Associate with 1 year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity. Moreover, because we pay an Associate more in salary and benefits as his or her tenure increases, we are pricing that Associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart.” “

Let’s break this down too.  First, she is saying that as a person gets 55% more pay and benefits, it costs the company more, even though they may not get an increase in productivity, in other words, the company is giving more, with no return to the company for it.  Next, she says that because of this 55% increase in pay and benefits, it is likely that an employee leaving, will not find a job elsewhere, with a starting pay as high as they are now getting, therefore they would have to take a cut in pay to go elsewhere, so they may have a tendency to stay employeed with Wal-Mart, rather than move on into the job market.

What is the lie here?  Maybe you just want to get rid of entry level jobs period.  But, where then, are the people to go, when a perspective employer tells the applicant, “Come back when you get some experience”?

“Given the impact of tenure on wages and benefits, the cost of an Associate with 7 years of tenure is almost 55 percent more than the cost of an Associate with 1 year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity”

If you see this statement as problematic, it’s obvious you’ve spent much of your life in academia or living off of a trust fund. If you’ve ever been a profit center manager or a business owner you know that this kind of analysis of labor cost is required on a constant basis. I ran the inbound sales division for a technology company in the 90’s when money fell down like rain. I was responsible for providing in depth labor cost and productivity analysis to the CEO on a weekly basis. We were doubling in size every quarter and making money hand over fist. Rational resource allocation was still required of me and of every other leader in the organization. That’s how you stay in business, that’s how you make payroll.  I dare not bring up fiduciary obligations here because we know that shareholders and investors are thoroughly despised on WMW.

The only other thing to be said about the “infamous Chambers memo” is that every word of it happens to be true. You can say what you like about WalMart, but you can’t fault someone for preparing an analysis that happens to be accurate.

“provides you with a starting point for a potentially successful, long-term career with a company”

See, it says potentially. Not guaranteed.

The fact that you neo-capitalists can’t see the contradiction in the two quotes doesn’t surprise me in the least.  Perhaps there’s too many words?  Let’s strip away the fluff and get to the point.

The current purge of tenured associates at Wal-Mart removes any doubt that the Chambers memo reference to “increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart” is an undesirable situation regardless of an individual’s productivity. 

If Wal-Mart doesn’t want any full time employees with more than a year’s tenure, that’s their perogative, but don’t tell prospective employees their jobs are “a starting point for a potentially successful, long-term career with a company”.

(Honestly, Mags, could you lay off the “How Great I Am”?)

“If Wal-Mart doesn’t want any full time employees with more than a year’s tenure, that’s their perogative, but don’t tell prospective employees their jobs are “a starting point for a potentially successful, long-term career with a company”.

Ken V, again there is no value in this statement.  Who cares whether you want full-time, part-time, temporary employees etc.  I could go into a job, any job with any company, only work one day, and it is a “starting” point for a potentially successful, long-term career WITH A COMPANY because I have gained work experience that enhances my skill set that ANY employer may find worthwhile and want to hire me for a job.  And that job may be only full-time, part-time or temporary or even long term.  There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING conflicting in this statement.  You just need to take your blinders off and read the statement.

-Richard K

The current purge of tenured associates at Wal-Mart removes any doubt that the Chambers memo reference to “increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart” is an undesirable situation regardless of an individual’s productivity. 

Job tenure in situations where productivity gains tend to diminish sharply over time, artificially inflates labor costs. Where there is opportunity to advance, employees should be encouraged to do so such that their labor price increases yield value to the company and to the employee. This nothing more than basic business. Every business is “up or out” to some degree. Jack Welch used to teach his managers to evaluate peoples potential for leadership and invite them to seek a new career if they weren’t promotable.

Again, if you have ever had to make a payroll with either your own money or money that you are responsible for, you get this. If you teach history and have no practical experience of managing employees or meeting a budget, you don’t get it and you never ever will. You think that they should just hire and keep people because they are nice and it’s nice to be nice to nice people. That’s fine. Just don’t spout off about things you have no experience with.

Your post doesn’t “strip away the fluff”. It ignores the meaning of words where they are inconvenient to your view of the situation.

.

All of you who have posted that Susan Chambers memo was so great, answer me this:  How did she get where she is with Wal-Mart?  What special talent did she bring?

The same of Celia Swanson, how did she become so high up in WM and have her “policies” hurt or advanced WM sales?

Eduardo Castro-Wright, and his alleged successful career in Mexico, is it now hurting WM or not?  Just watch the sales figures and the “eventual” stock price. 

Blogging on here is meaningless for I will speculate that over 90% of the bloggers on here, have not read much about these three individuals and their philosophy of changing WM to make it more “profitable?” from the successful company it once was. Can you not see the handwriting on the wall?

Oh, I see.  Wal-Mart is saying that working for them is the start of a potentially successful career with some other company.  lol

You two (Richard and Mags) are so absurd I’m surprised you didn’t say “long-term” is realtive, so if an associate stays a year, promise fulfilled.

No one brought up the validity of labor studies, the slowing of productivity or any of the other straw men you guys put up.

I started this by asking if Wal-Mart is disingenuous with their career promises. Rather than giving a simple “Yes’, you two dance around like pixies.  Entertaining if not enlightening.

Ken V,

Are you familiar with the Englih language and it’s usage?  When a person uses the phrase, “with a company”, that would mean in effect “some company”.  The proper usage meant to imply a certain company, would be “with the company” or “with our company” or in this case “with Wal-Mart”.  Using the “a” makes it non definitive.

“Let me tell you a little reality, Evilwalmart in.

We ALL have to sign that form every year at every media corporation.  If we don’t sign an acknowledgement of it, we get fired. ”

Now there is a journalist with principals! He will sign anything and then just ignore it. Ha, actually sounds a little like George Bush doesn’t it.

Guess none you numskulls really get Ms Chamberpots massage in totem. Jus so happens that Ms Chamberpots anal alys coincides with the 7 year point?
Point is a walmarts slave gets her FULL vestiments at 7 yeras.
You numskulls thing that just a coincerdent that Chamberpot thinks mabe peeple be FIRED or shatted out befor that 7 yeras period happens? You some ignorance peeple if you believe that Chamberpots somehiles come up with a 7 years nummers out of thin air, an she a gennious. Fact is she want and they want poor walmarts slaves to leAVE before the 7 years so that the bloodsukers donut have to pay full vestibules on vestiments.
7 years an walmarts slves get all their profit sharing and you numskulls think ms chamberpotts jus make this amout of years out thin air?

Ken V,

“Oh, I see.  Wal-Mart is saying that working for them is the start of a potentially successful career with some other company.  lol”

That is exactly what ‘entry level’ businesses do, unless you put forth the effort to move up in the company.  Do you think that McDonalds, Wendys and Burger King, expect their employees to make a career out of working there, and be a burgerflipper for 47 years?  “Entry level’ jobs serve one purpose and that is to give a person a chance to gain job experience, so they can move up or go on to work in other fields, they don’t want a person to latch on to a ‘sample server’ position and make a career out of it.

“… unless you put forth the effort to move up in the company”.

There’s the rub.  According to Ms. Chambers analysis no matter how much effort an employee puts forth, their productivity* remains at a first-year level so the chances of a career are nil.

Rather than couching their propaganda in subtle semantics, why doesn’t Bentonville say flat out:

“Taking an entry level job with Wal-Mart will prepare you for a potentially successful career with Costco.”

*The Chambers productivity numbers were arrived at through sales per man hour at each store based on the average tenure of the associates for that store.

Bob in is either a Wal Mart paid stooge or one of the raving lunatics from Yahoo’s WMT financial board. Either was he is a complete moron.

With all due respect, Bill, I’d be a raving lunatic also if I owned any WMT.  :o)

There’s the rub.  According to Ms. Chambers analysis no matter how much effort an employee puts forth, their productivity* remains at a first-year level so the chances of a career are nil.

That isn’t what the memo says and you know it. She’s saying it isn’t good business to keep people in the same low-skilled jobs forever.

i just came to this site as linked from the consumerist.  reading over most of these replies i am dumbfounded that walmart has apparently hired someone to come blog here under the name of “bob”.  do they think such a thing would be welcome at this site? it’s just like the rethugs - they love to keep us divided and to stir up the pot; keep us fighting with each other.

“bob,” you’re an ass.  you’re even more of an ass for getting paid to be one.

perhaps you’d be better off as a cashier at walmart; then again, if you’re a man, they apparently are more likely to put you at a higher level where you can lord over the females.  but you’d like that.

Mags wrote:  “She’s saying it isn’t good business to keep people in the same low-skilled jobs forever.”

You’re chasing your tail on this one, Mags.  Do you think a retailer with 7 years experience with Neiman-Marcus, or any other upscale store, is considered “low-skilled”?  It’s Wal-Mart that keeps retailing that way.

Chamber’s productivity numbers disregard experience and individual performance. If a new hire at Wal-Mart can do the same job as a tenured employee, there’s something wrong with Wal-Mart’s training/management.

The implication of the Chamber’s memo is Bentonville doesn’t care if you are a good employee or a bad one as long as you’re cheap!

“You’re chasing your tail on this one, Mags.  Do you think a retailer with 7 years experience with Neiman-Marcus, or any other upscale store, is considered “low-skilled”?  It’s Wal-Mart that keeps retailing that way.

First: Upscale retail at Neiman Marcus is a completely different job than cashiering at WalMart. Commission, clientele book, sales quota, in-depth product knowledge. Things can seem the same and actually be quite different. In your example there are more differences than similarities.  Try to compare apples to apples or your argument becomes weak.  Cashiers at WalMart>Cashiers at Target/KMart/JC Penny

“Chamber’s productivity numbers disregard experience and individual performance. If a new hire at Wal-Mart can do the same job as a tenured employee, there’s something wrong with Wal-Mart’s training/management”

Ken, take a management class.  In low skilled job categories, like cashier and stocker, there is a sharp diminishment of productivity increases over time. You can say it isn’t true, but it still is true. There’s nothing WalMart training could do to change this. Think about terminal velocity. The concept is roughly similar. At a certain point a worker will be as productive a cashier as they ever will be. The things that extend the productivity curve for other kinds of workers don’t apply to cashiering or stocking or ditch-digging or bussing tables etc etc. It would be nice if the world worked some other way, but it doesn’t.

You can argue that political policy should be used to ensure that every job shall eventually lead to high pay and benefits with no additional effort required by the employee. You can argue that everyone should be able to start cashiering or flipping burgers or washing dishes and that they should be guaranteed regular pay increases until they are flipping the burger or checking out customers for 20$ or 30$ an hour. But argue those things. Don’t try to argue that there are magical cashiers out there who can break the constraints of their position and increase their marginal productivity to infinity.

Anyone that argues Wal-Mart is a golden entry-level portal to rewarding careers in retailing is the one that needs the reality check.

The fact is, to many others in the retail sector experience with Wal-Mart is a negative, especially at the in-store management level.

From Bentonville’s perspective an employee is low-skilled when they’re hired and remain that way no matter how much tenure they have or how many CBLs they’ve digested.

Rather than being the bottom rung on the ladder to a potential career in retail, the Beast of Bentonville chews employees up and spits them out at the rate of about a half a million a year.

Bob in,
You have my nomination for douche bag of the week.  Stop calling your support of globalization simple advoccacy of the “free market.” I don’t consider American workers competing with kids in sweat shops to have anything to do with free.  Instead you are profiting on their lack of rights and forcing America’s standard of living to fall dramatically.  Of course, you probably don’t care because that’s a problem for poor people who are simply too lazy to grab the American dream.  FOX NEWS ALERT: The American Dream died 20 years ago, enter the era of wealth consolidation to be followed by pointless wars and eventually a Newer Deal to make you feel like a victim again.

They are putting another walmart in here, taking up (one of the) the last WETLANDS in this area. So what, it is only half an acre, we NEED them to compete with the OTHER SEVEN wallmarts, within a 15 mile radius.
I now avoid walmart at all costs and will pay extra for an item as weel as extra for gas before shopping there.
The people at the ELYRIA, OHIO walmart act like animals because they are TREATED like animals.

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