Shining A Bright Light On Wal-Mart’s Misdeeds

i really like fight wal-mart and i think it’s a great cause, but this is the dumbest idea ever. is this what walmart watch spends their time doing?

In conjunction with handing out information about Wal-mart’s bad practices I think this is a great idea. Today during my lunch hour I went over to the local Walmart and handed out info sheets. The response was great, we actually had people thanking us for doing it!

Excluding any illegal practices I agree with Walmarts strategy. The know how to make it and make it well in a world economy. Americans should learn to accept the fact that they do not deserve their lifestyle if they can not earn it. That would be more than an average Walmart job in case you were wondering. Just look at GM and Ford, over paid idiots just sank two companies.

Next time you go to shop at Wal*Mart, Ken, be sure to ask the Store Manager as to how much the company squeezed the Distribution Centers where WM gets their grocery items and how many employees were let go as a result of the “Low Prices” that WM demands.  See what kind of reaction you get.

We despise Walmart. They are filthy dirty and the people thatwork in them are not much better.  You get what you pay for.  Walmart treats their employees like scum.  No wages, no benefits.  Do not shop at Walmart

Im no expert on walmart’s business practices, but I do know that I hate shopping there. So what if the prices are low, the quality of their products is also very poor. We are working class, and savng money is important, which is why I would rather spend 15$ at the local consignment store for a name brand sweater, rather than get a new one at Walmart for the same price. The stores are miserable to shop in, and I’d rather spend a few bucks more and go down the road to Target or Kmart.. ANYWHERE BUT WALMART!!!!!

The union activists fall to an all-time low in beaming those slanderous images onto Wal-Mart stores.

“2 for 1 discrimination, race and gender”

Did you know that Wal-Mart was named among the best 30 companies for diversity by Black Enterprise magazine and was also in the top 50 by DiversityInc Magazine? 

Did you know that WalMart’s “board of directors includes two females, two African Americans and two Hispanics. Wal-Mart is a leading employer of Hispanics in the U.S. with more 139,000 Hispanic associates; a leading employer of African Americans with more than 208,000 African Americans; an employer of more than 775,000 females; and an employer of more than 220,000 seniors who are 55 and older.”

did you know that walmart has special leadership seminars and management training set aside just for women?

And they are beaming the message “2 for 1 discrimination, race and gender” onto a WalMart supercenter.

Goes to show you that these union nut activists have nothing but lies in their war against walmart.

The Prices are cheap! For working class familys trying to get by that means alot. But most of there Goods are made in CHINA!!!!!!!!!  That Sucks There went the Good Jobs In The USA....

I’m a Union Member and I have a work ethic, but I do not believe in this attack against Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart started out as a small business, and like every small business wanted to expand. Well, now they have the largest workforce in the USA, and are everywhere.

They have shortcomings. The chinese don’t know how to make a sweater, and some of the employees leave something to be desired. The clientelle is mainly the illegal immigrants and those of us that work for a living. You’ll never see a rich person there.

So what if they don’t give health care, most companies don’t give it out. They help out. When you’re making less than $10/hr, health care is the last thing on your mind. But hey, thats your own damn fault for not wanting something better in life growing up. Falling into the socialism that is presented to your everyday. I.E. Medicare, Medicaid, Social In-Security, Welfare, yah know, take from me give to you kind of programs. Piss off you leech.

You get a hand up from me, but not a hand out. Socialism has screwed this country up. Get a grip that you have no clue as to what the average worker needs or wants.

I really liked walmart esspecially when it was a family oriented store. I do know of associates who are practically losing benefits because their hours are being cut.  (fla and etc. I know of a store that has cut associates by 18 hours a week. They don;t want to pay for anymore benefits.  Not only that anyone they hire anymore are only hired at part time hours.

WAL-MART Corp. are hipocrits. They no longer allow workers to say MERRY CHRISTMAS because they don’t want to offend anyone. The name of that game is GREED. If you offend someone they wont spend any money in your store. BULL. Where the H___ else are they going to go, “SO offend them !” Their business was built on “made in America"> That’s no longer true, But their business was built by AMERICANS and it’still true that we are the majorr spenders, SO People it’s all about saving our A---e’s help the little guy get his American business going again. “BUT, God don’t go to Target they’re owned by the French. Oh by the way send help for the French send matches

Every time I come back to this web page Walmart Watch is doing something new and creative.  It’s really great.

Union thugs? Slashing shopping cart tires? Socialists? Losers?Dummies? Overpaid idiots? Phony? Hope you get the worst kind of cancer? filthy? dirty? nut activists? hypocrites? Send matches to the french?

A random selection of the perjoratives above from both sides?
Choose your own poison. Choose your own evil. It’s a waste of time arguing with so many people who have obviously lost it and are not even attempting to make a coherent statement.

This is a real waste of time.  In the grand scheme of things i cannot see why so many people waste there time wondering about what walmart is doing.  When it comes down to it everynight i wonder who is going to feed my family and where is my dollar goin to stretch even further.  I have read the reports supporting both sides of this big mess. Have you? In all walmart has helped create jobs and more securityin america.  Walmart is not in control of closing factories—If you spent your day making dressers and you know that that in america it would cost you 23 dollars to make the dressers and provide for your employess and keep up with regulations per dresser… then you found out that you could save 13 dollars and make the same dresser in mexico and abide by there regulation and on average create a 50-54% increase in profits into your pocket and still live in america you would do it!  Dont blame the walmart for the mistakes and greedyness of the american public, blame those people that continue to raise the costs of goods in america - Unions - Goverement [refering to bad regulation decisions] and people who continue to support this effort, mainly those who agree with this website.

Wow.  This has really turned into a mess.  First of all, Walmartwatch.com is allegedly pulling posting from pro Wal-Mart contributers (Dave in Zack, AR).
The folks that run this site know that it is full of lies and half truths.
*Wal-Mart does offer benefits!  No matter what benefits it offers, it will not be enough to please you as long as Wal-Mart is non-union.
*The practice of a couple of knuckleheads are conveyed as policy.  Not the case.
*I for one have a college degree and choose to work in the hourly ranks for personal reasons.  I have a very secure job and roots in the community.  Don’t call me stupid in any of your posts.
*Target, K-Mart, Dollar General, etc. all buy from China also.  Heck, check out J.C. Penneys, Kohls, Dillards, and other high end stores. Don’t single out Wal-Mart just because it is number one.
*The reason Wal-Mart imports from China is because YOU TELL THEM TO!!!  If people didn’t buy Chinese goods so imphatically, Wal-mart wouldn’t sell them.  All the merchandise on the shelf has to “pay its rent”.  If the item doesn’t sell, it is cut. 
*I could go on and on and give you actual numbers and bore you to death.  This whole campaign against Wal-Mart is disgraceful to this country.  No other retailer has helped keep inflation under control and kept money in our pockets like Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart proud for 15 years and counting!

I think the campain to put wal-mart down is a bunch of horse hocky.I shop @ Wal-Mart all the time,i think its the best value,and has the nicest workers,and the radio comerials i hear ---- I WILL BOYCOT THE STATIONS THAT AIR THEM!!!!!!!!!!

To Tommy Goldman........

TARGET is NOT a French Company!!!

TARGET Corp. is headquartered in Minneapolis, not Paris!!  Before it was Target Corp. it was the Dayton-Hudson Corp. Dayton’s in the old days was the Nieman Marcus of the North. Very upscale. Target was the discount store for Dayton’s. Dayton’s bought the Marshall Fields Stores. Soon, the Dayton-Hudson Corp changed its name to the Target Corp. This is a publicly held company started in America and still American owned.

Get your facts straight Tommy!!  Target is my store of choice for Housewares, small appliances, Christmas presents, etc. My clothes come from Marshall Fields, JC Pennys, and Eddie Bauer if I do not make them myself.

hey dale, if you don’t like what is being said about your store, then please feel free to post comments on the pro-wal-mart site, where they pull posts from anti wal-mart people. i will tell you what, why don’t you pay me the taxes i spent so your fellow workers can have health-care, and i will be more than glad to shop there. oops i forgot, wal-mart gets a tax-break from it, sorry my mistake.

Abraham wrote:

“ I’m a Union Member and I have a work ethic, but I do not believe in this attack against Wal-Mart. “

Honestly, how many people are employed at your job and how many share your work ethic?  At the place I worked with a union, I would have to say that at least half were slackers, who wanted to work less and get paid more.

Tommy Goldman wrote:

“ WAL-MART Corp. are hipocrits. They no longer allow workers to say MERRY CHRISTMAS because they don’t want to offend anyone. The name of that game is GREED. “

Can anyone out there tell me the relationship between not saying “Merry Christmas” and GREED?  Tommy states that it is alright to offend people, a good business doesn’t do that if they want to stay in business, it has to do with Customer Relations, not greed.

As for Wal-Mart buying from China, I would be willing to bet that they try to buy American as often as possible, but, sometimes things just can’t be bought in America or companies refuse to sell to Wal-Mart at low prices.  Most companies buy from China in this day and age.

As for quality, an Igloo cooler at Wal-Mart is the same quality as an Igloo cooler at any other store.  Igloo doesn’t make inferior coolers for Wal-Mart and better coolers for others, get the point?

I think it is a shame that so many of the American people can not grasp the concept of BUYING USA MADE PRODUCTS.
No countries are buying/importing our products, Our places were closed due to CHEAP foreign labor everyting now days is imported.  With Americans (numerous other countries have suffered also losing jobs) losing their jobs how are they going to feed the their kids ON MINIMUM wage. I do shop at WalMart occassionallyBUT I read labels and buy USA made products.  Has anyone out there check the prices on made in China Leather furniture??? Motherinlaw paid $2900 for a sofa and it ripped in 4 months the repair looked horrible.  I have finally found a couple USA manufactured companies a bit pricey but worth it in the long run.  If we don’t take care of ourselves (Americans) who will??? definetly not China.  Any one interested in a joke on Wally world check out the website www.jibjab.com and watch BigBoxMart. I’m a proud hard working blue collar family person.

I have been working for Wal-Mart for almost 2 years now, and I’m very proud of being Non-Union. It’s nice being able to go in and talk to my Managers any time I have a problem. Or having my District Manager calling me at home if he can’t get ahold of me during my scheduled hours and still getting paid for it. IT"S WONDERFUL! I also like being able to help out in other departments when it’s slow in the store. You can’t do that under Union.

Second of all, Wal-Mart does offer Health Insurance. They also offer Life, Disability, Dental and a few others. Sure it’s expensive, but what insurance isn’t now days?

I firmly believe this is all over the Non-Union thing. You people that are union, you keep on paying those Union dues. No Union can ever guarantee you anything, and I mean ANYTHING. It’s a more “hit or miss” situation.

I think what a few of you people need to do is take a look at how some of the Associates at the Wal-Marts get treated like by CUSTOMERS, not Managers or anything else. I happen to be a Customer Service Manager and I can’t even begin to tell you some of the people I have had in my store. Do you think I like standing in front of a customer who is yelling at me because he can’t get his way and then decides to spit on me? NO! Do you think a Cashier likes to be yelled at because the customer is having a BAD DAY? NO!!! All you people see is what you want to see. You spend one day in my shoes and see how long you last.  I love my job, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. And of course, I would ask to work for a different company. But you people need to start treating other people with the same respect that you would like to be treated with.

Sorry. That should have been wouldn’t.

If you don’t like Wal-Mart, then don’t shop there.  But attempting to usurp the choice of other individuals by use of propaganda, political action committee, or any other form of guerilla anti-consumerism, is as unethical as it is ultiimately ineffective.

Whatever your grievences with Wal-Mart (low wages, low product quality, aesthetics, etc.), decide for yourself whether to do business in their stores.  But allow all others the opportunity to do the same.

We get it. You don’t like Wal-Mart. Your radio commercials are annoying.

If my low prices are taken away cause of your shenanigans, I’m just gonna have to form a “walmart watch” watch group, to take you down for your unethical anti-capital methods.

freakin’ liberals.

I work for this horrable company. I have no health insurance. I get paided fine but not enough to pay for the $400 an month it cost to have insurance. Our hours get cut everytime Walmart “donates” anything. If the sales are"down" we get cut. This time last year I had 28 hours. I am full time. Hired at 40 not 28. Most of the managers there are morons. I’m so glad for the one I have now. She will do what ever it takes to keep our 40 hours. She is one in a million. Last year Walmart implamented this stupid pay scale thing. All current employees had to sign papers stating we would not discuss what we were making to new hirers.
This years stratagy is to hire only part timers. That way they dont have to schedual them hours for certain weeks, send them home when ever they want, and not have to pay health insurance.
Unfortunatly Walmart has basically blown out the compation. So its hard to find work when all there is is Walmart.

I must have taken a wrong turn on the virtual highway and ended up in lost reality land.

Correct me if I am wrong but doesn’t Walmart hire people that want a job and go apply there?  And if these people are working now, does this mean they have a steady paycheck and can put food on the table?

So if logic follows, encouraging people to not shop there would cause walmart to stop employing people which would put those people out of work.

Why would pro-union groups want people out of work?  Do they really think that is better for them than having a job?

ROFL @ forming a “walmart watch” watch group.  Not a bad idea if not for the waste of time it would be.

ever put just one piece of a puzzle under a microscope? can’t tell anything about it until you look at the big picture that comes on the box. pull back from that one piece your looking at and then you can see that theres so much more to the final picture. to get the giant picture puzzle together, every piece has to have just the right curve fit up snuggly to the next.  you’ve got to look at the big picture to decide if your putting it together correctly.

Billie & Don in Tucson AZ SAID
“They are filthy dirty and the people thatwork in them are not much better.  You get what you pay for.  Walmart treats their employees like scum.  No wages, no benefits.  Do not shop at Walmart “
Funny I have never seen a filthy dirty walmart could you post some pictures so I can see this filth?Then maybe (and I did say maybe) I could believe one thing in your post. You see cause everything else you said is a flat out lie. Produce JUST ONE person being held in slavery in Walmart, let alone the entire work force because according to your post no one gets paid, nor does anyone get benefits. BULLSH*T IDIOT. You know this is the the kind of post that makes your entire bashfest so unbelievable. If you all want to make any progress at all STOP EXADURATING EVERYTHING IT MAKES YOU ALL LOOK STUPID!

one little piece to this giant picture is transportation. no matter the origin, the product has to get to the retail end before you even decide (yes it’s a choice to even go in) purchase your item.  let’s see..there’s the driver, an american citizen that has been through a mirade of interviews and crutinized background checks,.etc...who wears cloths locally cleaned and provided. who eats along the highways that the truck pays untold taxes and permits, much less the tractor that is made and purchased in the united states. then theres the equipment that makes that tractor roll...ugh...tires..lube, fuel, maintence...on, and on it goes...he picks up the products all over the united states and takes it to a centralized location for distribution..this location is built and maintained by people here in the united states..the people inside this distribution unload and redistribute the product so that it gets to the correct location, and then out it goes again, in trailers built and sold in the united states with tires built and sold in the united states..then there’s the taxes on all of these..and if any of the equipment needs repairs out side the shops on site, that are full of people that live in the united states, citizens with local repairs capacities are called and sent to the locations of repair...all locally accessable ....this is just a tiny tiny tip of one of the pieces that goes into the puzzle...can go on and on..and just might…

p.s. haven’t even started on the technical part where the computers that are constant contact with these drivers tract the tractor trailer rigs, maintained by trained and well paid technical support associates....

I have worked at Wal-Mart for 6 1/2 years.  there are many denefits of working here.  I have a 401K that I never put a penny of my own money into, but it is over $4000.  People that say we have no benefits don’t know what they are talking about.  I will be 100 % vested in less then 6 months and will recieve 136 hours of paid time off per year. As a single mother, I can sure us this.  As for union--- I DO NOT WANT TO PAY DUES EVERY MONTH---- I WANT TO SPEND MY EARNINGS ON WHAT I WANT !!!!

Abraham, we do not have socialism in the U.S. 43 million americans do not have health insurance and cannot afford to go to a doctor. We are the only industrialized country that does not have some form of universal health care. If you are rich you can be well, if not, oh well, you are probably better off dead. We also have the lowest minimum wage of developed countries. Social Security and Medicare are not socialist programs. We pay for these all our working lives. And have you thought about all the tax breaks and subsidies given to large corporations, wal-mart included? Guess who pays for that. We do! The social programs that we do have are a very small part of the national budget and are being cut all the time because of people like you. I wonder what you would do if you suddenly became disabled and could not work. Would you turn down assistance for you and your family? I certainly hope so since you seem to feel so superior to people who need help.

I find it funny that you choose to tear down an american company and not focus any energy tword Target.  The french based company refuses to support any community and does not donate to any charity except for their credot card program for schools.  Everyone has fialing healthcare problems with businesses and wal-mart is no exception.  But you don’t see wal-mart stealing their employees pension funds.  I have shopped their for years and so does my wife.  She also thinks that your attacks are off the mark.  Me and my wife will continue to shop there because of their low prices and great customer service. I see you as no different as any action group trying to control something or to persude to public into believing whatever it is that ypu want.
I for one think you people need to reasses your energy into more useful gains.

Angrly-
Someone who is tired of that stupid jingle on the radio!!!!!

If my daughter works at walmart less than 38 hours she receives no insurance benefits.  There are also no discound for employees on food only on non-food products.  What is going to happen to the class action casses about under paid overworked females and minorities and the hiring of ill legal aliens?

Walmart is one of many companies that sell products “Made in China”.  THAT is what we should be boycotting - goods made in COMMUNIST repressive China.  Alot of goods are made by prisoners (now There’s a cheap workforce).  The chinese government Hates Christians and regularly imprisons them.  Hey, those christmas lights you just bought were probably made by Christian prisoners in chinese jails.  Boycott “Made in China” !!!!!!!

To Shannan in NH----- What Wal-Mart do you work for I pay my Insurance and that of my 4 depaendents and it’s less then $75 per pay period.  Saying that you pay $400 is a flat out lie.  Shame on you. Maybe you should find a job were you can be happy !!!!

Why all the fuss with Wal Mart.  No one forces people to shop or work for Wal Mart.  If people want a job that pays a “living wage” and has great insurance, go find another place to work.  If buying cheaper products that come from China is not something you desire, don’t shop there.  If Wal Mart is truly a problem, then the natural life cycle will shut them down.  Do sales associates at Target, or Sears, or any other retailer make a living wage?  I am willing to bet that there isn’t such a thing as a “living wage” for any non-commissioned sales associates in any area.  People don’t like Wal Mart because it is easy to point the finger at that one entity, rather than pointing a finger at the millions who CHOOSE to shop there and the thousands who CHOOSE to work there.  Wal Mart fits the economy of the areas it moves into...if you don’t like Wal Mart, don’t shop or work there, but don’t try and speak for those who choose too!  If you succeed and close a store, will you also find replacement jobs for those who lose theirs?  Will you find another place for low-income families to shop or supplement their income...I doubt it!

I am so confused…

Socialism screwed up America?
Target is French?

Last time I checked, Target was incorprated in Minnesota, and the U.S. was violently allergic to “Socialist” ideas like single-payer healthcare.

Hey Sue (or anyone who can answer), I have a question, and I swear I’m not asking just to bait anybody. Have you ever taken a maternity leave while at Wal-Mart? What was it like? Was it paid? Did you have to use STD, or did you use vacation/sick? What’s the deal? I’m asking out of curiosity, not malice.

Della-- I have never taken a maternity leave but know friends that have.  It isn’t paid, but you can use any vacation, personel ( you get 2 days per year after 1 year) or sick time that you have. They will also work out a different schedule for you when your ready to come back, weather it’s a differnt shift or just less hours.

Thanks, Sue.

Did your friends manage to put together enough paid time for a whole six weeks (God. I say “whole six weeks” like it’s enough, right?:) ), or did they have to do without for awhile? Or did they come back before that?

I’m always curious about this stuff, having done it myself.

Catrina

You couldn’t be more wrong. The United States was founded as a Constitutional Republic with a Free Market Economy. It has evolved into a Socialist Democracy.

As for Social Security and Medicare being worthwhile programs, well, the Ponzi scheme was a worthwhile program..........for Ponzi. Everyone else got shafted. Social Security and Medicare did not used to be part of the general federal budget. But the scumbag politicians, starting with LBJ, started taking the yearly surplus and spending it on general budget items. That is how Clinton “balanced” the budget. Social Security is not a giant mutual fund, with an account under the name “Catrina” set aside for you. It is a Ponzi scheme but with a twist. Here you have no choice. It is not a stupid investment, it is robbery. The government takes more than 14% of your income at gunpoint and pays it out to retirees who get back, on avg. 8 times more than they paid in. If you had invested that same amount of money in the market over your working life, the average person would have more than $1 million in their retirement account, to do with as they wished. It would be your money, not the governments’. That figure assumes a 25-year old investing at the same rate as the government’s theft, tax-free, for 40+ years and earning the median wage. It also assumes the market will average at least a 5% annual return (it has averaged more than 6% over the last 40 years) and inflation remains relatively stable (which it has).

At some point, we are going to have to make hard choices with regard to Social Security and Medicare. They are unconstitutional programs and if I had my way they would be ended tomorrow. They were never intended to be your sole source of income or care. They were meant to be supplements. Down the road, future political scum will have to choose between lower benefits, higher age requirements, higher taxes or a combination. Technically Congress could wake up tomorrow and say that these programs are going to be eliminated. There is nothig to prevent that. The average senior spends more money on gambling than on food, clothing or medication and seniors are the wealthiest demographic. Why are we subsidizing them?

Let me know.

Ever since the walmart showed up the city has become a infestaion of door dings. nothing will stop the carts from giving your car a door ding

Walmarts theme is door dings on my beemer. even when i park in the oppsite lot of sams club the carts still find a way to ding my doors

Della--- Most of them didn’s have enough for 6 ( or more ) weeks.  they used fewer hours per pay period to stretch it out.
recently we had an associate that had a heart attack and we all were allowed to donate some of our sick time to him so he didn’t have to worry about money while he recovered.  We also had a fund raiser for him and Wal-Mart matched what we raised.We received our bonus checks while him was off and he still qualified for his ($875). He also had disablity insurance ($16 a month) that paid him while he was off.

To all you door ding people---- if everyone would put the carts in the corrals when they are done with them or take them back up to the store , this wouldn’t be a problem.  NEVER HAD A DOOR DING IN ANY OTHER LOT !!!!????

A little history lesson:

Once, America was an Agricultural society, mostly small family farms.

Then we moved into the Industrial Age, which moved people from farms to the cities.

Now, like it or not, we have moved into the Service Age.  People have to deal with that.  Everytime we moved from one age to another, there were people who boo-hooed the change, yet we as a country survived the changes.

Another big change came when we moved from the local economy, to the world economy.

The sky is not falling, but, the landscape is changing.  Adapt to the changes and things will go fine for you, resist the change and you will fall behind.

If you only buy American, you will have to do without a lot of things.  As for China, will it ever change if we keep pushing it down?  In the past, we complained about Japan and Russia, now, they are different countries, because we allowed and helped them to change.

Buy the way, how many people out there own a car that says FORD or GM or CHRYSLER on it?  Think it was made in the U.S.A.?  Suprise, some of them are made in foreign countries.  The only thing American about them is the nameplate.  Ever hear of the Ford Festiva or Ford Espree?  Both were made in Korea by KIA Motors.  Others are loaded with foreign parts.  Diamler/Chrysler is a partnership wit a German company. Wake up to the real world.

Remember hearing about the people who cried out, “Get a horse” and “If man was meant to fly, God would have given them wings”?  What ever happened about their alarming statements?

As for this maternity leave thing, I would like to ask a question.  For people who do not work at Wal-Mart.  How many out there, get paid for their maternity leave?  There is a program called FLMA, which helps you keep your job during medical situations, but, I have never heard of many companies that give 6 weeks of pay for it.  Am I wrong?

Hey to all you geniuses that spout the money your saving the value of your dollar is shrinking at a far faster rate.

70% of WAL_MART comes from China be sure to post that when your wages fall or your jobs are eliminated alltogether.

It is almost amazing to watch people like trained monkeys buy cheap products that put our own economy in ruin.

support american companies and our government that sells us out for slave labor and ecological destruction around the world.

Way to go you saved $2.00 on a six-pack of soda-Einstein!!

Go Wal-Mart Now there trying to erase Santa Claus!!!

“Merry Christmas!!”

is the American way.

“Happy Holidays!!”

is the Wal-Mart Way.

What did you expect from (CHINA) Wal-mart anyway.

Do yourself a favor AMERICA boycott your local Wal-Mart EVERYDAY!!

Sincerly not buying ANY Wal-Mart product.

Tim Peters

P>S> Target banned Salvation Army bell ringers last year!
so ##%$$^ them too!

Hey Robert Springer,

here is a little present day lesson. A child working for an american company in china factory with no heat,safety,or health care works for 12 hours for lees than 1.00 dollar a day.

Boo-Hoo that as we support the largest suppressive communist society on tyhe face of the earth.

We crushed Communism in Russia by the desecration of their economy -Ya think the Chinease found our weak spots.

Stuipity and Greed!!!!!!!!!!!!

To all you historians it’s called modern day history- a mere 200 years!!

Wal-mart was built on “American made” which is not true anymore, by far.  Anyone can have low prices when 75% of their goods are bought from the only communist country left - China.  I’d rather not support them.  I’d rather support Americans, and I mean the Americans who are still willing to give a hard day’s work for a decent wage—not the ones who think the world owes them a free living or a $20 an hour job where they can loaf.  Come on people, are items that are a few cents to (at most) a few dollars cheaper worth supporting China and screwing over hard-working Americans.  You know, not everyone has the education or ability to work somewhere other than Wal-Mart, but if they are willing to work every day and put in a hard day’s work, they deserve decent pay AND decent benefits.  And yes, we all realize that a lot of things are no longer made in America, but that is our fault too - us as consumers because we Americans all want to earn big bucks but want to pay little change for anything we buy.  We have to pay our car making employees $25 an hour or more in the USA but a car made in say Korea, their employees are paid say $10 an hour so which car will end up being cheaper in price?  And to think that these foreign car makers even have enough confidence in their products to offer warranties that put American car warranties to shame.  Something is going wrong here in America wouldn’t you say.........and Wal-Mart only adds to that problem.  Free enterprise is one thing, but to hurt your OWN country and your OWN people is something that only America would do to itself.  We need to wise up and soon - in a lot of ways.  By the way, who here in the USA would like to live under communist control?  hum?  didn’t think so..........watch what a world economy, world religion, world this and that will get you.  Did you ever study the book of Revelations?  No, didn’t think so there either..............oh yeah, and the guy complaining about social security & medicare - how about lets end welfare, child support enforcement and unemployment benefits then too.  I hope when you’re 70 or 80, you are wealthy ‘cause if you’re not, too bad - live on the streets for you Mister.  You GO Gene in Phila and Catrina in AR!

I hear you constantly telling me that WalMart discriminates, so I came to this site to try to find out what you’re talking about.  If you’re going to say something that many times, you really should put up better proof than the percentage of management in certain groups is lower than you’d like.  The same is true in just about every company, and proves nothing.  Perhaps fewer women apply for management positions than men do - I know that’s true in places I’ve worked.  You don’t explore that possibility. 

With as much union money as you guys have footing the bill, I’d think any REAL discrimination would end up in a successful lawsuit.  All you can tell us about is what a few individuals have done.  Let’s see you win a suit against the company, before they turn around and sue you for libel.

Are all of you people really that uneducated? If you do not want Wal-Mart do not support it. The unions are upset because they cannot get their hands on the union dues that would come from Wal-Mart if it was union.  Every associate of Wal-Mart that I know seem satisfied with their working conditions. If a person is dissatisfied with their job then they should change jobs. Who is anyone else to make that decision for another person? I do not personally like Wal-Mart but I admit I do shop there on occasion because of great prices. In my hometown Wal-Mart was just shot down on trying to change the existing store to a super-center. People will continue to shop there but what is going to stop Wal-Mart from leaving our town altogether? They could move 5 miles north, outside the city limits, and build a supercenter and close the existing store and then there would be zero tax dollars. Shop where you like but do not critisize others for making there own choice.

It seems like Walmart has paid some of you for your comments.
It is sad what Sams kids have done to his business. He is probably rolling over in his grave.
Shame on Sam Waltons kids.

Beware the price may be cheaper at Walmart but you will pay much more in the long. The local businesses will close, the manufacturing plants will close, jobs that pay a family supporting wage will be gone. How will you then pay the lower prices?

Its simple economics. I wish everyone would learn before its too late.

I think that alot of the positive comments left on an anti-walmart site such as the ones below should be taken with a large grain of salt. Why would people sign up and write comments to bash what the site is about unless they are wal-mart themselves trying to change peoples minds again, just like they have done a thousand times before in documented cases.

i love wal-mart i’ve shopped there for years. now i work for wal-mart and it’s the best job i ever had . great company to work for

If you want America to be taken over by the COMMIES then by all means shop at RED-MART...you may save money but you will pay for it later...we do need to take the time to buy American and support our own economy...China is trying to destroy free speech on the internet and hack into American sites that are critical of communism as we speak. Do we really want to support that...and yeah I have read revelations, that’s why I call Wal-mart the “Mart of the Beast”
Our currency’s value is falling against China’s and our avergae wages are declining...Champion of the service economy explain to me how that’s a good thing?

Hey Robert.

FMLA applies only to companies with 50 or more employers, and only to employees who have been on the job for a year or more.  it doesn’t stipulate that the leave must be paid.

That said, most places that I’ve worked and many of the places my mama friends work have paid for it to some degree, and employers, if they’re smart, recognize that if they want to keep good people for long, they have to do more than the (ridiculous, bare) minimum when they have families. When I had my son, my employer gave a generous twelve weeks paid and I was able to supplement it with vacation/sick.

Oh, and hey, back to the topic at hand:

I think the projected images are interesting! I really don’t find them offensive. Wonder how Wal-Mart reacted.

You must keep in mind that the people working at Wal-Mart are working there because they applied--they chose to be there. There are no slave drivers, as some may try to suggest, who drag people in by the necks and force them to work for skimpy wages. These people understood exactly what they were getting into when they signed up for the job. If they really have a problem with it, they would either quit or find a way to resolve it. They don’t HAVE to work there! The fact that they work there is a testament to the fact that they are at least somewhat content with their situation, be what it may! AND, Go Walmart for finding a way to do what everyone else has been trying to do, but better!

By the way, lets spend our time fighting a problem much worse and often overlooked…

Have you noticed that the french fries at McDonalds are getting smaller! HOLY COW! Talk about a jip! I think I’ll raise a lawsuit and organize a rally to ban McDonalds because they’re trying to skimp me on my fry size! AND, I hear they give an extra fry-per-box to men than to women! Oh, the rage!

Think about it people.

Nick
Were do you get your stats? The average elderly person spends more on gambling than than on food and medicine? What a crock. Sure there are some very wealthy elderly people. But there are many, many more who are barely getting by and for whom a choice between food and medical care is a disturbing problem.

My mother worked for Walmart as a “greeter” during her begining stages of Alzhiemers. She was fired for allegedly stealing a candy bar......She said she forgot she had it. They also kept her hours low enough so that she didn’t qualify for benefits.

Wow.  Lot’s to comment on.

First, people who are not anti-WalMart that like to see, view and analyze ALL sides of an issue should visit the opposite views information to come to an educated conclusion.

Secondly, as a labor historian, the unionization of the work force comes from within, and because of that, the 40 hour work week, benefits, and a “livable wage” came about.  (livable wage is in quotes, because livable is subjective.  A single person in college can easily support him/her-self on $20+k/yr, while a family of 4 can’t).  However, that strategy has backfired and the unionization of labor now has hurt the country.  Don’t believe it?  Why are manufacturing jobs leaving the US?  Because the cost of labor is extreme.  Because an uneducated person, who stands all day and observes the working of an automated machine should not garner $72,000/yr in any industry.  If you feel that I am exagerating, ask the UAW, just how many of their union members have been laid off.  Asked United Airlines mechanics how effective it is to go on strike, to have your wages and benefits cut again.  The union mentatlity of protecting the lowest common denomonator is what has pushed josb overseas.

Thirdly, if the employees would like to form a collective bargaining unit, they are free to do so, since it is illeagal to prevent a workforce from doing so.  If the EMPLOYEES of Walmart are unconcerned with their situation, why is the point of the AFL-CIO getting involved?  Oh wait, (sarcasm) maybe it’s because the AFL is in dire straights and desperately NEEDS the union to survive.

As far as buying American made products, we as Americans are part of a global economy.  We have VERY low unemployment, we are able to see a physician when we want to, and there is a reason we are the richest country in the world.  France has double digit unemployment, so does Germany. Why?  Because of the unions. 

Understand the motives of those that do not like Walmart.  Do your own research.  Don’t buy into propaganda of either anti or pro Walmart rhetoric.  Be active in drawing your own conclusions.

Shannon: “I work for this horrable company. I have no health insurance. I get paided fine but not enough to pay for the $400 an month it cost to have insurance.”

Where do you get your $400 a month Shannon?  The most expensive plan is $143 bi-weekly for an entire family of no matter how many.  I even check the premiums for your state compared to mine, they are the same.  If things are so bad where you are, quit.  WM would be better off, and maybe you would too.

wal mart is obviously a very vicious bottom line type of company: case in point: have you ever seen any other stores having to put ads on TV simply stating that they are good for the community: think about it..there is a reason for the NEED for that PR ...

I really do not think it would be unfair to break up wal mart for the same reason that standard oil of new jersey was broken up many years ago…

they are a monolith...they are just too big and too uncaring

pete tarbrake

Pete,

“...too big and too uncaring” How do you make a general statement about a corporation that employs so many people world wide?  And as a comparison, how is a union more caring?  If a union truly wants to fight for ALL of it’s members, how is it not more beneficial to take $1/hr pay cut across the board, vs. having to lay off members?  How is that more caring for ALL members? 

Seems to me that the real issue is selfishness.  The mentality of “what’s in it for me” vs. “what is best for all” is what continually ruins the idea of community, nationalism, and yes, employment.  The real trick is to realize that working together to address grievous issues, instead of blatent liablism and fear tactics will help reach an understanding of practices and fairness across the board.

I beg all people interested in this topic to think critically, ethically, and look at the “big picture” instead of bashing an institution that provides millions of jobs, products that the “average” person is able to afford, and the convenience of one stop shopping.  There is a reason that the Wal Marts of the world are successful.  They provide a service and/or product(s) that are in demand and affordable.

Let’s compare Wal Mart to universal health care.  How would universal healthcare, in a non-unionized environment be any different than what Mal Mart does?  Universal healthcare would be FORCED to deal with the lowest price to make it affordable so that services would be covered.  Best practices would need to be established and advertising would need to be put forth so that people would choose one hospital over another, because to make money, instead of focusing on quality it would be forced to use quantity to meet cost coverage.  Very similar to what Wal Mart does now, no?  Low prices and high demand product gets more shoppers in the store.  Product is made in China, at a lower quality, and still meets the expectations of consumers.  Advertising dollars are needed to assure that Wal Marts success is repeated by having the most customers walk through the doors.

Pro-Wal-Mart people,

You are blinded by your own ideology and look beyond the facts; Instead you turn your attention to union bashing and politics.  The only people who mention organizing Wal-mart are you.

By the way, employees, not the union, decide whether or not to organize.  Get it, the employees are the union and do most of the work in an organizing campaign. 

Also, does anyone know of a company that shows anti-union material as part of the orientation process for new hires? I have seen this video and it is misleading at best.

Just found your web site and can’t believe the propaganda that you are spreading. As far as wages… When Walmart super sized our store the starting wage for cashiers was (and still is) $7.75 hr… while the fast food places were paying $6. Now the fast food places had to raise their wage to keep good employees ... basically Walmart raised the wages for entry level positions… people are making more money!. There is also a new movie coming out which blatantly lies about Walmart. A story about it is posted today on foxnews.com… give it a watch…

It is easier to throw rocks at a large solid target like Walmart then hit the real, more important, fuzzy problems that we face. Blame Walmart for health care issues… not the lawyers filing outrageous lawsuits, which drive up the cost of malpractice insurance and in turn healthcare… Blame Walmart for shipping jobs overseas… not the people who like to get things at a low price, the most bang for the buck or the labor unions who’s outrageous wages force company to either go overseas or close their doors… Blame Walmart for using the word Holiday instead of Christmas… not the ACLU for all their wonderful work in making companies and government afraid to use the word Christmas or be sued… Walmart is just an easier target… more tangible… a big brick building that can be picked as opposed to a concept or a system that has gone wrong which we have little or no control over. It’s not Walmart that I think most of you are angry at… its the denigration of society that Walmart has had to reflect in order to compete successfully.

Robert Springer in Springdale, Ar.
You asked about paid maturnity leave, and Della Schwartz in Skokie, IL said:
When I had my son, my employer gave a generous twelve weeks paid and I was able to supplement it with vacation/sick.

I would have to see proof of it before I would go so far as to say I dought it. The fact is that I have NEVER heard of a woman being paid maturnity leave pay. When my first daughter was born I was in the union and the fact is I still had to use my sick leave and vacation time to have my daughter.

I would have to say one of two things about Ms Della she is either a liar or she owns the company she works for. Just because a woman chooses to have a baby does not mean the company should pay her to do so, and I do not believe that there are companies out there that do either.

All of the low prices in the world is not worth my time to wait and wait and wait in line to check out.  Yes, there are self-service checkouts, which usually are also backed up, not to mention they do not work half of the time.

Secondly, the QUALITY of Wal-Mart products has drastically gone down hill.  There was a time I loved Wal-Mart, but I am really getting sick and tired of the junk they sell.  The stores are becoming extremely dirty, the bathrooms are grossly dirty.  Our Wal-Mart was remodeled in the last 5 years but you would never know it. 

Someone said they were “nice to everyone”.  Yes, some employees are.  A longterm grocery stocker in our East York PA is VERY RUDE.  She refuses to help anyone find anything in the grocery department.  Just one incident?  I don’t think so.

I know several people who have worked at Wal-Mart.  Some of them in the retired age group but by far ready for a nursing home.  Pushed/forced out their jobs.

I am returning to local and state grocery chains and department stores.  Better quality meat, better quality products (clothing, shoes, etc.) better customer service, and much cleaner stores!

I own a small business and exercise extreme ethical practices.  I believe that my employees deserve quality healthcare and benefits in this crappy economy.  I empathize the hard working Americans that put their hours in at Wal Mart stores accross the United States.  Our forfathers did not forsee this type of monopoly or business practice in our communities. 

To the people that work at the distribution centers which provide Wal Mart their products, and who’s profit margins are cut short at the end of the year: I am sorry.

The holidays are approaching, and so is the flu season.  This is the time of year when cash flow and insurance comes in most handy.  Unfortunately, the employees at Wal Mart won’t be seeing what they deserve. 

I used to work at Wal Mart, and I can assure the non-believers of this movement that this is needed and legitimate.  It’s about time someone spoke out against this business tycoon which absorbs all the resources of our society.

As a business person, I am obligated to help the community and I have a duty to provide for the people who work for me.  Wal Mart is only interested in lining their pockets with profits...but what about the starving families and other such issues facing our great country today? 

My point is emphasized by the poorly educated non-supporters who have posted their comments here.  The mis-spelling and grammatical errors only show how ignorant they truly are to the “real world” problems which face each citizen today.  This issue will not go away, and I only hope that Wal Mart will change their practices to better serve the community which they have pirated.

REVISION TO MY FIRST E-MAIL

“I know several people who have worked at Wal-Mart.  Some of them in the retired age group but by far ready for a nursing home.  Pushed/forced out their jobs. “

Should have read “in the retired age group but by far NOT ready for a nursing home....”

Note to Tim Peters and all others wondering what Wal-mart is really doing in China.

Wal-mart makes every company and factory that it does business with in China go through repeated audits.  These audits focus on everything from factory safety, to wages and employee ages (No one under 16 allowed), to product quality, and the list goes on.  If you fail these audits, you cannot be a vendor or supplier for Wal-mart.  This is not a one time deal.  These audits are random and they repeat as long as a factory does business.

Most retailers conduct these audits, so a factory that is doing significant business in the U.S. with large companies like Target, Home Depot, Kmart etc.  goes through multiple audits with each retailer.  The factory must constantly maintain the high standards. 

Anyone complaining about 12 year old Chinese slave labor or is simply lying, or more likely is just completely uniformed and willing to dispurse or accept this notion because it fits in with their desired perception of the facts. 

There are no 12 year old child workers in factories that Wal-mart or any other large retailer does business with.  The average wage for a worker in China varies greatly depending on the job, skill of the worker and education (Just like in the U.S.).  The average unskilled and uneducated worker in the factories that I deal with makes about $150-$200 per Month, and these wages are going up all of the time.  Of course this seems low, but the fact is that China is about 100 years behind us.  $150 to a person in China is good money.

Edjucated Chinese make significanly more and in fact a new middle class is quickly forming.  I do not predict when, but soon the Chinese will have the buying power to buy American.  Heck, there is already a starbucks on every corner not already occupied by a McDonalds in every major Chinese City, and part of Wal-marts expantion calls for stores in China.  What is more American than that.

ONE MORE THOUGHT ON THE MIGRATION OF AMERICAN JOBS.

The reallity is that while some American jobs are being lost, new jobs are always created.  This has been happening since the begining of time in all markets.  Consider the following example

1.  People used to recopy books by hand.  I call them “book copiers”.
2.  The world did not have great access to books and books were expensive.
3.  The printing press was invented. (Call this Wal-mart/world economy/off shoring...whatever)
4.  All of the “book copiers” lost their jobs and had to find new jobs. 
5.  Books are now readily available, and relatively inexpensive.
No one would argue that this evalution was bad except for the “book copiers”.

There are millions of other examples of the above evolution in business.  The exportation of U.S. Factory jobs to cheaper labor markets is simply a modern day evolution like the printing press from which we in the U.S. do and will benefit.

The good news is that the new jobs always seem to better than the ones they replaced.  Additionally, we as a society are forced to be better educated to get the “good” jobs or better jobs and this makes better.  We are forced to be more innovative and to work harder to stay on top.  This is the American way, and this is what keeps us ahead of the rest of the world.  Just think....In fifty years, we may not need the factory worker at all.  Every thing is automated, and our evolving and more edjucated society already has the skills, workforce and economy in place.  We will have already adapted because our economy is not dependant on out of date factory jobs here or in the rest of the world.

While this evolution takes place, we all have the benefit of less expensive goods, which keeps are cost of living down. 

The difficulty is getting the Americans worker on a whole to embrace the notion that we are not “Etitled” to a standard of living.  This is what pro union front groups like Wal-mart Watch want.  We must always evolve.  If we do not, eventually we would be a country of “book copiers”.

Those of you who love Walmart, have never been to the one on Lincoln Highway, in Lancaster, PA.  It is filthy, the employees are rude, as well as most of the people who shop there.  I know of someone who wrote to the CEO about the store’s deplorable condition, but of course, got no response.  I cringe every time I hear Paul Harvey talk about what a good neighbor Walmart is.  We’ve been fighting them for 2 years.  They want to build one at the most dangerous intersection in our county.  There have been numerous deaths over the years at this intersection, and it would only make it worse.  We live in a rural area.  They want to use a 93 acre Amish farm.  There are already 2 Walmarts in Lancaster, just a few miles apart.  Not to mention they have been fighting another group of local citzens for 8, YES 8, years.  They want to take over a wetland area there.  This is also only a few miles from the other 2 Walmarts.  If I want to shop there, I don’t mind driving 25 minutes to get there. I live in the counrty because I want to.  I don’t need a big box store in my back yard.  I’ve heard that Sam Walton said they would never build a Walmart where it wasn’t wanted!  What a dishonor to an honorable man.  So my conclusion is, if Walmart can be so unethical in their building practices, how far-fetched is it , that they are unethical in their treatment of employees?  Hum, makes ya think, doesn’t it.

The people who defend Wal Mart because they say it is the only place thay can afford to shop, don’t seem to understand that Wal Mart creates situations in which people have low incomes and so can afford to shop only at Wal Mart.  This is one Canadian who feels that we should pack up every one of them and ship them back to Arkansas.

Don’t be so cheap and invest in your county.  Support locally owned establishments and American made products.  Would you have the same feeling if the schools you send your children was built by the cheapest contractor and they were bussed in the cheapest made vehicle.  We are the best county in the world lets keep it that way by spending it where you earn it.

if you think walmart is bad try working for lowes,all they care about is profit not there employees...i think its walmart under a different name.

I don’t believe this!! What are all the Libs bored and want something else to complain & grip about!!!! You people are NEVER happy there is no pleasing you!!!!

I do find it quite ironic that your are complaining about spending/buying chinese made goods when you were willing to vote a man in office that his wife’s CO. was ALL overseas and MEXICO!!! (they also sell her goods their as well) Walmart is the most supportive AMERICAN CO. we have,
did you even notice how much they gave for hurricane Katrina??? And with that anytime we have ever had a disaster they were among the first to help!!! Why don’t you ask the girl who had to stay in the store for a time, How awful they were to her and OH! My word she was a WOMEN!!

It is also funny that you say no healthcare when I have talked to a many employee of walmart who said they got a job their for THEIR HEALTHCARE!!!!! Everybody I know that have ever worked at walmart have made careers their because they were treated so good + they were WOMEN!!!

I don’t believe anybody can say anything to change your minds, because what ever ya’ll don’t like you want to change
it...The Constitution, The Schools, The Money, Absolutely NO TEN COMMANDMENTS ANYWHERE NEVER MIND THAT WAS WHAT OUR COUNTRY WAS INITIALLY BUILT ON!!!!
( talk about unAMERICAN!!!) and now Walmart!!!

PLEASE PEOPLE WAKE UP!!!!

I like Walmart.  Why go to some of these big expensive stores and pay $50 for a shirt or $100 for a dress?  We can buy it all cheaper at Walmart.  Why don’t you jump on Target, Sears, Kmart or some of the Mom and Pop stores that don’t pay as well as Walmart.  They don’t provide any healthcare at all.  Some one should start being very concerned about Exxon, Mobil, Shell, etc.  They are really ripping us off.  We have to have gasoline.  You don’t have to shop at Walmart.  Also check out those horrible drug campanies that are charging prices that are obscene!  We have to have our medication.  You don’t have to shop at Walmart.  I think some of the big corporations are jealous of Walmart and the fact that they can help the middle class by lowering prices.  Also they are providing jobs for people who might not have a job otherwise.  Do you want them to be on welfare?  Joan in Texarkana

I am writing as a support for my company, you can refer to me as “WalMart Loyal”, I just call myself a WalMartian. I have been with WM for 10 years and believe it or not no one comes to my house everyday and forces me to go to WM for work. I have a college degree just like Dale and my choice is to work at WM because believe or not I enjoy the customers, for the most part. If you say that our stores are ‘dirty’ just who do you think makes them that way? It’s not me or my fellow associates, it’s the customers who open packages and then put that one back on the shelf and take another, making waste because no other customer will buy that one opened, it’s your kids taking everything off the shelf and throwing it on the floor, it’s walking around drinking and eating and spilling on the floor, total disrepect for the store is what makes it dirty. When you come in my store in the morning it looks like a ‘new’ store because the night associates can’t leave until it does look that way. We spend alot of money on full time maintence just so you can come into our restrooms and pee on the toliet seat or do something worse on the floor. 
As for minorities, I am white and I am the minority in the store. Almost all of our managment are “of color”. There is all kind of opportunities no matter your race. I have worked in this store and in Ca and things are the same in both.
One other area is what some people think of the associates in the stores. We treat you much better than you treat us. On the occasion that I have been a cashier you come to my register talking on a cell phone, totally ignoring me and my scanning your items, then half the items you bring to the front you decide you don’t want. Your kids are putting the candy in their mouths and screaming at the top of their lungs when you put the now slimy candy back on the shelf. Not to mention when something is not the right price it’s now personally my fault. Through all this I still find the strength to thank you and ask you to shop again. I have shopped at many other competitors and gotten much worse service than I have ever seen at WalMart. Maybe the ones running this site are just jealous because they applied to be part of what we have and they never received a return call,,,,????

Here in Guelph there has been a 10 year long dispute going on over Wal Mart.  Wal Mart bought a piece of land in a part of the city that was not zoned for retail.  It is adjacent to two cemeteries and a Roman Catholic retreat.  The people who run the retreat are concerned that the quiet and solitude of their grounds will be seriously compromised by the establishment of a big box store right next door.  Other people have the same concern about the cemeteries.  Moreover, the infrastructure of that part of town was not made to handle the traffic that would result from the installation of a Wal Mart, and it would cost the city millions to revamp it.  Wal Mart has been offered other, more suitable locations, but refuses to even consider them.  This dispute has divided the community.  There are those who feel that Wal Mart is doing us a big favour by wanting to open a store here, and they want Wal Mart to come here under whatever circumstances the company demands.  They are angry that there has been such a long delay in Wal Mart coming here.  They ignore the fact that Wal Mart started it, by choosing an inappropriate location.  Then there are those who say that they aren’t opposed to Wal Mart coming here; they just think the store should be in another part of town.  They have a petition with over 10,000 signatures on it, which says that Wal Mart should choose another location.  Wal Mart says that they have a petition with an equal number of signatures from people who want the store in that location.  But Wal Mart won’t produce this alleged petition.  Finally there are those, like me, who hope Wal Mart never opens in Guelph.  I read in the newspaper that Wal Mart tried to challenge the Canadian government on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is something like the American Bill of Rights.  I am proud that there are people in my community who are taking a stand against this arrogant corporation.

“But most of there Goods are made in CHINA!!!!!!!!!”

“70% of WAL_MART comes from China”

“What did you expect from (CHINA) Wal-mart anyway.”

“Anyone can have low prices when 75% of their goods are bought from the only communist country left - China.”

“If you want America to be taken over by the COMMIES then by all means shop at RED-MART”

I see a trend.  Ignorant people hear the talking points of unions special interest groups and then faithfully repeat them time after time after time.  They don’t check the facts for themselves.  Does anyone in here know that only 7-10 per cent of Wal-Mart’s Cost Of Goods Sold is for merchandise imported from China? 

The ignorance and laziness to look for real facts in here makes me ashamed to be an American.  You people need to stop taking talking points from these self-interested union organizations and start looking at the facts for yourselves.

And don’t quote PBS Frontline or BusinessWeek saying that 70 per cent of WalMart’s merchandise is imported from China.  Why?  Because I already read those articles and those articles engineer and distort the facts to favor their own conclusions.  If you put two and two together than you know that 70 per cent of walmart’s merchandise is not imported from China.  But it seems like no one on here likes to think for themselves.  They just like walmartwatch to tell them what to think.  And then they faithfully go about their business reciting those talking points not even thinking twice about checking the facts for themselves.

Do your goceries at walmart come from China?  No.  A little less than half of walmart’s total sales are for groceries, so how on earth can you say that 70 per cent of walmart’s goods come from China when 40-50 percent of it’s goods right off the bat don’t come from China.  Just that debunks the distorted 70% figure.  Look at the facts people and think for yourselves.

A friend worked at Wal-mart over Christmas rush the year PlayStation came out. Of course the PS was on sale and they ran out. Christmas Eve, he’d just told one customer after checking the back room, that there were none left, when another customer came up asking for it. He told that customer also, that he’d just checked and there were none, whereupon the man grabbed my friend’s shirt and told him to ‘get your fat ass back there and look, or I’ll kill you’. My friend reported the threat to management and was reprimanded because he should have gone and checked again. My friend was so traumatized by this customer (who back again), that he ended up on medical leave and could not work for a year afterwards. That was 4 years ago, and to this day he cannot go into a Wal-mart.

Wal-mart does not care about their employees. I work at the unemployment office and see more people out of work from Wal-mart than from any other department store.

I have seen “The Good, The Bad,and The Ugly” of Wal-Mart.
There are also explainations I haven’t seen brought to light in anyone’s comments.
I worked at Wal-Mart and saw the compassion of employees and even local management for persons less fortunate. I have seen a store manager “give” an elderly gentleman new slacks in order to spare him embarassment after having accidentally wet himself in public.
I worked with a caring team of people who gave what little they had, generously to community causes or to people stricken with a serious illness.
These are the Wal-Mart Employees I worked with.
On the other side, I have seen and heard the lies from mid and upper management regarding specific topics.
Wal-Mart denies being anti-union. When I was there we were required to attend meetings at RTDC in Tyler explaining to us why we do not want unions in Wal-Mart. We were told we had to specifically report to management any time we suspected union people in the store talking to other employees. It was made very clear that even discussing unionizing was forbidden.
I have seen store management require teenagers to stay after their scheduled hours until 1:30 am to do zoning. This was finally reported and stopped, but only after the government became involved.
As a department manager of a very busy Super-Center, I saw and heard a management style from assistant managers up to co- managers that was totally abusive toward the employees.
We were given task that were impossible.Once I was even told a particular task, according to Wal-Mart guidelines, required 3 people, five days to complete. I was told since we were short handed, I had to complete this task in 5 hours alone. This was a common practice for the South Broadway Super-Center. Not just for myself, but for all employees. 
Now to the part no one has mentioned. Do the words “NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE” mean anything to you?
In case no one has noticed, the CEO’s of NYSE listed Corporations will do anything it takes to save their jobs.
They have to answer to the increasingly greedy stockholders.
They have to show increased earnings per share ever year.
These useless Lizards do not care who they hurt. They look out for number one. They lie, they manipulate books, they are the best tap dancers in the world when it comes time to meet with stock analyst. I have been in meetings with stock analyst and CEO’sand CFO’s. I worked for companies and knew what was actually going on regarding performance only to hear made up stories by the CEO’s and CFO’s. As long as they can manipulate stock prices and keep their jobs, they will do what it takes.
In conclusion: I am so glad the road to Heaven is a very narrow road. Maybe some of these people will read this and see themselves and rethink what they do. But probably not.

Molly if someone saying that to your friend made them unable to work for a whole year, your friend has bigger issues to deal with. I used to work in a book store in a bad part of town.  One gentleman I worked with had been shot, yes SHOT on 3 seperate occasions and run over by a car once in his 10 yrs there.  And he never missed more than a few weeks.  I think the correct phrasing would be that your friend really didn’t want to work in the first place, this supposed angry customer just gave them an excuse not to.  Tell your friend to quit being such a victim.

As for more people out of work from WM than any other place, I would assume they also employ more people in Lancaster than any department store.  Oh wait, that would involve math, logic and reason.  Something the WM bashers seem to lack.

Molly Wrote: “My firend was so traumatized by this customer...that he ended up on medical leave and could not work for a year afterwards. That was 4 years ago, and to this day he cannot go into a Wal-Mart.”

I am sorry for your friend’s suffering, but he obviously has too fragile a psyche to work in a retail environment. As those of us in retail are profoundly aware, one will be cursed at, yelled at, threatened and generally treated in an inhumane fashion by an angry customer several times throughout one’s career in retail. It is just plain part of the job. The trick is to do one’s best to difuse the stiuation and barring a resolution, inderstand that the idiot who cannot control himself is going to continue to have a bad day as long as he stews and that your bad day will end as soon as he (sometimes she) leaves.

Ok People. 2 Facts… Last I checked, Walmart does not force anyone to work for them or shop with them. I am not the biggest fan of Walmart but I am a huge fan on how far I can stretch a paycheck. If someone wants to go after something that really affects all of us, go after the inflated real estate market.

all you fu@#@$ idiots out to save a couple bucks at walmart are the same rednecks that do not think twice about a $4.00 cup of coffee at starbucks or half a days wages on lotto tickets or casinos. you think for yourself now because it does not affect you right now.....it will catch up to you so i hope your loaded. i am, so do not come running to me when your out of a job....better yet, go work at walmart.

Della,
I have worked for Wal-Mart for 17 years and have taken maternity leave twice. The first time I took 8 weeks off using my sick time for the first 2 weeks and then short-term disability for the rest. The second time I took 12 weeks off using sick pay and disability also. I also had surgery once and took 6 weeks off for that- used short-term disability and sick pay.  I also had to take about 8 weeks off when my husband was getting chemo and radiation treatments for cancer. This entire time I also got a paycheck, either from my sick hours( you can use them to care for a sick family member) or vacation hours.  I really appreciate all the great benefits I get at Wal-Mart.
I know there are some women who are working at our store just for the insurance. Their husbands are farmers or own their own bussiness and the insurance at WM is by far cheaper than what they would have to pay for a policy on their own. There also are alot of women who are covered on their husbands policy and alot are high school or college students. That’s why the figures they keep thowing out are not very accurate about how many people WM provides insurance for.

Wal-Mart Fact for the day:
40% of WM employees on the health-care plan HAD NO INSURANCE BEFORE COMING TO WAL-MART

Sue in Illinois writes:

I have worked at Wal-Mart for 6 1/2 years.  there are many denefits of working here.  I have a 401K that I never put a penny of my own money into, but it is over $4000.  People that say we have no benefits don’t know what they are talking about.  I will be 100 % vested in less then 6 months and will recieve 136 hours of paid time off per year. As a single mother, I can sure us this.  As for union--- I DO NOT WANT TO PAY DUES EVERY MONTH---- I WANT TO SPEND MY EARNINGS ON WHAT I WANT !!!!

Knowing how 401K plans work, Sue, you would have had more than double the amount had you contributed money into your fund in 6 1/2 years. $4,000 is not a lot of money to bank a retirement on.  But it’s definitely more money than you started out with.

When my son was at Best Buy for 7 1/2 years, he had more than $9,000 in his company matched 401K because he contributed up to the maximum 5% of his paycheck to it each week. It adds up. When he changed jobs, he rolled it over to the other company’s plan he worked for and it continued to grow. Now that he is with a Bank as a Branch Manager, he put most of it into his tax-free ROTH IRA and the rest into other investments.

I have done research into WM Health Care Plan and the premiums are high. In 2002, my sister was making $14.35 an hour at the Reno Store, but could not afford the Health Care Plan. I looked over the literature she had about that. Seeing the $1,000 deductible was amazing for a company so huge and with profits to match!! To have the WM plan would have taken up close to half her income annually. There was no way she could pay that without taking a loan first in the event she were to be injured in an accident. She was barely making ends meet as it was!! So she went without Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance. Nor could she put her husband on her plan.

As for Unions! Your dues would have been less than $20 a month or two hours wages, depending on your wage per hour. Those who smoke a carton a week can afford dues. Don’t give me that B.S.!! Employess who are asked to work off the clock, harassed if their work is not done during their shift becauase they are given too much to do in addition to helping the customer, are injured on the job and cannot work, fired unfairly, descriminated against because of a handicap, gender, etc., representation might be an asset.

AS for your paid off time, or vacation, that is 3/ 40 hour work weeks, plus 2 days at 8 hours a day. It is illegal for a company to call you to work if you have paid vacation coming. Companies are known to do that if they are short handed. If an employee works 40 hours per week, then they are to recieve vacation pay for those 40 hours for the time they have earned.

As far as profit sharing goes, that is determined on how much each employee is paid per hour. Those who make more, get more. It all depends how well your store performs for the quarter after expenses and overhead is paid. That determines the overall profit sharing.

I am not trying to convince you otherwise Sue that a Union would best look out for you. You’ve already decided that it wouldn’t!!! But should you ever find yourself in a situation where one would have best served you, it is still your choice.

On the maternity thing…
FMLA requires a leave of absense.  It does not require it to be paid.  Wal-Mart offers short term and long term disability.  When your couple of weeks sick and or vacation and or personal time is over, short term disability kicks in.  By the way, it is REALLY cheap insurance, just about a buck or so a paycheck if that much.

On the “the only people talking about Wal-Mart unionizing are the pro Wal-Mart people” THIS SITE IS FUNDED BY SEIU, A UNION.  THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EXPOSED THIS SITE FOR THE SHAM IT REALLY IS.
That is why there are so many postings here from the pro Wal-mart position.  We should go to battle for the company that is in a constant battle for us.  Yes, they constantly do battle for us.  I know that remark will generate all kinds of remarks, but it is true.

IF WAL-MART ASSOCIATES WANTED A UNION, THEY WOULD HAVE ONE.  WE ARE NOT ANTI UNION.  WE JUST BELIEVE IN RESPECT FOR THE INDIVIDUAL ENOUGH TO LET THEM SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

John in Tyler, Texas writes:

I have seen store management require teenagers to stay after their scheduled hours until 1:30 am to do zoning. This was finally reported and stopped, but only after the government became involved.

It is a violation of Child Labor Laws to keep school aged workers at any retail store under the age of 17 past 7pm on school nights. It is also illegal for workers under 18 to operate machinery that could cause injury. Only over the age of 18 with the required and documented training. Thus a MAnager has to sign off the employee first. That is why there is OSHA. You can thank the Unions for pushing for that.

...By the way if I remember correctly GM has just revised their healthcaare and now they have to pay higher ins. for their coverage and they also took some benefits away from the Seniors who are retired & their spouses....HMMM…

Looks like Walmart employees are doing MUCH BETTER!!!

that union thing really worked out for those other folks though?...NOT!!!

Wy du so meny oif the possts on hear look like the were writen by 8 yeer olds?

Really people, if you want to be taken seriously you could at least try to check your spelling and grammar. It leads me to believe that the same idiot is constantly posting on here under different names. To those that use words such as “Etitled” (entitled) and “Edjucated” (educated)and “Stuipity” (stupidity) and “compation” (competition)… PLEASE CONSULT A SPELL-CHECKER. You’re inability to grasp the english language is an embarassment to our country, even more than wal-fart is.

Where my husband works, Health Care premiums went up 3%. Retirees also pay the increases as well.

My husband is also retired from IBM. When he officially retired in 1996 after 30 years, he had to pay monthly premiums for Health Insurance out of his retirement check of $130 a month for the both of us with no deductible. IBM then changed HMO carriers and reneged its promises to the Retiress prior to 1987. They had Health Care for life. That changed in 2000. Now all retirees pay a high premium of over $400 a month, plus a paid percentage for perscriptions.

More and more companies are cutting Benifits, Teresa!!  Not just GM!!! Employers are having their employees pay more out of pocket regardless. You have no concept of what goes on during a bargaining session that may have included some consesions of both the Union and the employer.

CAPITALISM IS THE GREATEST ERATICATOR OF POVERTY IN THE WORLD, AND WALMART IS AN EXAMPLE OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM AT WORK. NO ONE IS FORCED TO SHOP THERE, OR WORK THERE.  A TARGET STORE OR OTHER STORES ARE ALWAYS NEAR BY.  THE FREE MARKET ECONOMY THAT HAS BUILT THE AMERICAN DREAM IS SPREADING TO THE DEVELOPING NATIONS OF THE WORLD. AS THESE NATIONS BUILD A MIDDLE CLASS BY PUTTNG PEOPLE TO WORK MANUFACTURING AMERICAS NEEDS AT PRICES CHEAPER THAN EVER BEFORE THE WORLD ECONOMY IS SLOWLY BEGINNING TO REAP THE BENIFITS.
THE ENTRY LEVEL WALMART EMPLOYEE IS LIGHT YEARS AHEAD OF THE CHINESE FACTORY WORKER MAKING $150 A MONTH. BUT THAT FACTORY JOB IS THE BEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO THAT CHINESE WORKER.
THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS HERE AND WALMART DID NOT CREATE IT. THE GLOBALIZATION OF BANKING ( WORLD BANK ), WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, AND EFFORTS TO OPEN FREE MARKETS IN EUROPE AND THE REST OF THE WORLD, SINCE THE FALL OF THE SOVIET UNION, HAS VASTLY IMPROVED THE LIVING STANDARDS OF PEOPLE WORLD WIDE. GLOBALIZATION IS HERE TO STAY.
HISTORY HAS SHOWN THAT WHEN GOVERNMENTS OR GROUPS TRY TO CONTROL THE EFFICIENTCIES OF THE MARKETS THE CORPORATIONS , THE WORKERS, AND THE CONSUMERS ALL LOOSE.  WE HAVE SEEN GREAT STORES COME AND GO IN THE PAST - EACH REPLACED BY A MORE EFFICIENT COMPETITOR.  LET THE MARKET FORCES DEAL WITH WALMART. 
ORGANIZATIONS LIKE WALMARTWATCH ARE THE CLOSEST THING TO SOCIALIST ZEALOTS AND ONCE THEY GET THERE HANDS ON THE POWER TO ORGANIZE AND CONTROL LARGE GROUPS OF PEOPLE THERE IS NO TELLING WHAT THEY MIGHT TRY NEXT. 
THANK GOD THAT THE AMERICAN PUBLIC IS NOT THAT STUPID. WE DON’T NEED WALMARTWATCH TO PROTECT US FROM THE EVIL CAPITALISTS.

What do you mean I have no concept!! At least I can spell
concessions!!! Let me just show you how much of a concept of CONCESSIONS I really DO HAVE!!!!

I watched my own Father work for two Union Co.’s as a Machinist in Dallas, TX (Billy) I also watched him aged 20yrs. in a 10 yr period. Why?  Because he worked for two Union Company’s and then they fell!!!  Can anybody say BELL HELICOPTER!! My father going in was Pro-Union now he is wishing he hadn’t been such a fighter for it. He has over 40 yrs. experience as a Machinist, and since Union is all that the shops are down there he has to work where he can which is in a shop that he’s only been there maybe 5yrs. and being that it is Union there is NO WAY he will ever be moved up under UNION laws!!!!
However, just maybe if he didn’t get on that band wagon to Unionize to start with then maybe fewer shops would have gone that way and just maybe they would have started moving people by their experience and what they can actually do than putting somebody in a position that has no clue and giving him awesome benefits & the check to go with it for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! Don’t tell me it doesn’t happen Kathy I’ve seen it happen too many times to count to my Dad. Furthermore, My own husband would not have a job right now if their shop went Union (He is a Printer) He has 25yrs. experience but even that is not enough to put him in the bracket of having a high enough seniority to not be worried about his job!!!

On the subject of healthcare if we’re gonna be mad at anyone we need to be mad at AMERICANS!!! OH MY LANDS!!! DID SHE JUST SAY THAT.... yes, we need to be mad at ourselves for all of the bogus claims we file so we don’t have to get out of bed and go to WORK!!! WHAT IS SHE TALKING ABOUT YOU ASK??? How about suing for lung cancer when there is a warning label, suing for getting fat at Mickey D’s, suing for spilt coffee on your lap while driving, suing for falling in a store, suing a mobile home co. because you actually thought your mobile home was somehow auto-pilot controlled you sued and got a great heap in medical, all of these claims add up to a pretty penny in the people pockets who actually care and work in the world!!! No, we have no one to blame but us for this problem. Its not the Presidents fault, its not each States Governors fault NOBODY but OURS!!! 

As far as Walmart goes if they don’t want it then don’t force it, it is not our place to say they should or shouldn’t. For their sakes I hope they don’t. Why? Because on occasion I shop at Meijer and yes they are more expensive and yes I have been rude to countless times there, but also in the times I have been there certain employees (I guess the ones who feel secure in their jobs) are ironically more testy with the customers than the newly hired ones!! At Walmart every employee has treated every customer the same!!!

I simply feel that the Union is seeing another Big Corp go right on by before their eyes and they want to get their hands on it before its gone!!!

I apologize to you Teresa. You are well versed it seems with the subject. Please accept my apologies.

I know how to spell consessions also. Typos happen all the time. Happens to us all.

To what end is economic growth so relentlessly chased?  On account of numerous, political, cultural, and other differences, the following example should not be construed as a direct comparison.  Just some food for thought.
In Japan, starting workers at major (similar to Walmart) department stores get paid the equivilent of about $12 per hour with guaranteed, marginal raises every year.  They are, by law, enrolled in a national health insurance scheme which, despite its many faults, pretty well guarantees that one will receive medical treatment when in need-without having to pay for it. Ah, prices.  The case of soda that previous posters so gleefully mentioned getting for $7.99 would indeed cost you about ten dollars, but when the average wage-earner makes a hell of alot more than in America, that doesn’t really seem to fuss anyone.
To those who fear creeping socialism in the intentions of those who would take Walmart to task over its labour practices, let me assure you:  the United States has never known any economic system even remotely resembling socialim.  If more money was invested in public education there, you might have known this.  Heavens, I might not have been subjected to so many spelling and grammatical errors in the previous posts.

Look what wonderful things the unions have obtained for the airline industry. BANKRUPTCY! The union leaders are not concerned about working conditions, benefits, pay, etc. Their focus is all the dues a million plus employees would be forced to pay. This supports the unions political agenda. Unions will be the death of industry, productivity, competition, all that is good.

Walmart says “Happy Holidays” instead of “Mery Christmas” because the Red Commie Chinese that run Walmart are anti-religion...can’t offend your biggest supplier...they don’t even have Christmas in China, they even enslaved Tibet because they hate the Dalai Lama...SHOP WALMART AND SUPPORT COMMUNISM HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Kathy in MN---

If your sister was making $14.35/ hour she grossed $29848/ year.  $1000 deductable is hardly half of her income.
My husband is in a unoin and pays over $200 / month in dues.
I have a 401K that I condribute to--WM’s is just and extra benefits that a receive.
As for paid vacations--- I have never been asked or told to come in to work when I am not scheduled.

The bonus that we received was given to everyone in the same amount that had been there for a year.  It was not based of wages.
Kathy--- you seem to know alot about WM and how it works and treats it’s employees.  How long did you say YOU worked for WM????

Sandra Monday in----

As an American of Chinese decent I assure you that I and my family for many generation before me are christians and very much celebrate Christmas. 
I have never been told to say Happy Holidays, not Merry Christmas at WM.  However, I don’t want to affend anyone by asserting my debeifs on them.  HAPPY HOLIDAYS can express many things without affending anyone.

How ridiculous that the “Happy Holidays” vs. “Merry Christmas” greeting has become such a disaster!  In America, many of the population are Christians - but there are many, many other religions that add up to a good percentage of the population.  Since I am one of those “other” religions it finally feels good to be greeted with a non-sectarian greeting. 

I personally don’t shop at Walmart as a commentary against their strong-armed business practices, I don’t think that the greeting issue is something to get your panties in a knot about.

I also think that unions have long outlasted their usefulness.  I certainly don’t support unionizing Wal-mart.  If you don’t like the working conditions, maybe it’s time to move on and get a job that works for you!

DOOR DINGS !!???!?! No More Door DINGS !!!! Down WIth Walmart’s Door dinging carts!!!

Hey Lori,

Nope, not a liar. Don’t own the company, either. Excuse me if this gets buried. I didn’t bother to scroll throught he whole list of coments.  You don’t have kids, do you? A lot of places offer paid parental leave as a benefit. Following link’s from Working Mother Magazine:http://www.workingmother.com/abbott.html

Sherri, thanks for the reply. I’m actually pretty relieved to hear it was doable.

I’m already sick of hearing your “Better Watch Out” abomination of a good christmas song.  Your reasons for fighting wal-mart are trivial in so many cases.  The most stupid comment is the “...and 70% of Wal-Mart’s goods come from China!” Have you idiots been into any stores?  99.9% of the goods in any store (target,meijer,wal-mart,etc.) are manufactured in China. Why?  Because the damn unions have made it impossible for the companies to employ American workers here.  I’m all for decent wages but the unions have screwed all of this up with their own greed.

I shop at Wal-Mart and will continue to do so.

I never worked for WM, Sue.

But I have worked in retail for well over 25 years though. I once worked in the Alterations Department at Dayton’s in the 80’s, managed the Customer Service Desk at a Grocery Store, did Sales/Costume Designing/Making in the Costume Business. I now have my own Costume Design/Making business out of my home doing Custom work for Clients and local Businesses. My sewing room is an organized mess. I charge a nominal $15 an hour for the type of work I do.

I keep a keen watch on the Business World. I know many people who once worked at Wal*Mart. Some had good experiences, some did not.

I would like to report the cheap lube at walmart, i had had sex the night before i woke up with barbes on my penis, it turned out to be herpes, my doctor said that it was caused by the lube that was made in china, that walmart sold to me at the great price of 1.99 can you find lube cheaper ?

As for my sister’s situation, Sue, she was a 40 hour a week Assistant Manager in Fine Jewelry at one of the Reno, Nv. stores. Gradually, she saw her hours being cut down to 32. There would be some weeks she worked 28 hours. $14.35 was the most she had worked up to. She had her own place, bills, etc. The cost of living was rising faster than she could keep up. Reno is one of the fastest growing cities next to Las Vegas as far as Nevada is concerned. It is getting more expensive to live there. My mother has lived out there from California since Dec. of 1991.

She also had health issues as a result of an accident over in Truckee that nearly killed her when a friend drove her car while she slept on the way home from a concert they attended. She had no inkling that her friend was a closet Alcoholic. He had picked up a hitchhiker on the way back to Reno, who was killed in the accident. My sister had to have the Truckee Fire Department cut her out of her car as she was so mangled inside. This was in the latter 90’s. All the while she worked for WM.

As my sister was getting her health back, she had to take time off from WM, and collect what she could. In 2000, my father was crittically ill and passed away in August of that year. The personal time my sister took to help my parents was causing a drain as far as her work tht she loved. WM was accomodating up to a point.

By mid 2002, she had the accident while in one of the Women’s Departments with an employee not watching where he was going while driving one of the pallets of merchandise. She slipped and damaged her right knee, for which she finally had her replacement this year. WM fought her tooth and nail about it. She was fired because she was on Management to see to her claim. Her position was given to someone else as she was on crutches. Her pay was reduced despite having worked for WM for over 10 years.

Moving with her husaband to Oklahoma in March of 2004, she tried to get rehired by WM there at one of the Arkansas stores just over the State line from Tulsa. She was hired for way less than she made at the lowest point while in Nevada. That lasted just a few months, for she could not get around as well using canes in both hands. She loved working at WM. It just was that WM did not treat her as well as the Company CEO says they treat their employees. She was also Sexually harassed by one of the Managers in General Merchandise where she worked. He was reprimanded, but not fired. She saw the injustice of the situation and quit.

Let’s bash the UNIONS and return to the 1020’s when there was NO health care,paid vacations,justice in the workpalce of any kind or a myriad of other social programs (including S.S.) that the UNIONS supported. The middle class was created because of the UNIONS.

Think about the adage that “Everybody does better when Everybody does better” That’s what UNIONS advocate.

Do you like Communism but hate Unions?

Here’s a Fannie Doolie for you Consumer Zoomers!

Wal-mart is the store for you, Be just another brick in the Wal-Mart, help the world be taken over by the red menace who are trying to destroy and hack the free-internet with every purchase. Do you love communist China and Maoist murderers in Tennimen square? Greatl we finally have a business that ardently supports the repressed Commie way of life! Who needs McCarthy and WWII? They were idiots, COMMUNISM IS IN we have Wal-mart to supress democracy by turning us slowly into a third world country and enhancing the flavor of an inferior service economy at the same time.
What other retail store can do that?!

I love my COMMUNISM and my WAL-Mart ...that’s why I shop there everyday, because I hate america and Unions but boy do I love a country that knows how to beat the shit out of its own people. Why I can practically smell the sweat of dead children in every pair of socks! It’s like old spice only more bitter and its longer lasting, new and improved.

Free dead baby girl fetus with every purchase for a limited time only!

Communism and Wal-mart, two things that really go great together, try it today of your own will, before we force it down your throat at the debtors work camp!

“Look what wonderful things the unions have obtained for the airline industry. BANKRUPTCY! The union leaders are not concerned about working conditions, benefits, pay, etc. Their focus is all the dues a million plus employees would be forced to pay. This supports the unions political agenda. Unions will be the death of industry, productivity, competition, all that is good. “

Mike in Jacksonville, FL

The Airline industry has been having financial problems for many years, Mike. Well before 9/11 ever occured!!  The various Unions representing the workers in the industry have made consession after consession to keep their respective comapnies afloat.

How about looking at the mismanagement of the CEO’s and all the perks they had given themselves while their companies faltered? Look at other companies that did not have unions fall on their asses because CEOs of ENRON, Global Crossing, WorldCom, and others raided their employees undefunded pension funds and cooked the books to give themselves MILLIONS that they did not deserve? I doubt a Union could have stopped the White Collar crime that took place.

IBM is a damn fine example of what happens when once valued employees are shown the door because they are skilled at what they do to take early retirement and the Bosses of the company award themselves with Binus packages for saving the company money!!  My husband was 4 years from retirement with the company. He was given the choice of a leave of abscence and bridge the rest towards his retirement or be fired. 26 years down the drain and nothing to show for it. Just because it is legal does not make it right!  The Airline Industry is doing the same.

I just flew Northwest Airlines for a convention. The State of Minnesota has poured BILLIONS of tax payer dollars into that company over the years and the CEOs want more consessions from all the Unions for their workers to work more for less money. They have families too to provide for!  Once the back of the workers have been broken, there will be no more airline industry as we know it?

It is easy to put blame on the Unions for the ills taking place in business today!! I will always be for fairness at the workplace and for the right to be protected by representation. Even where my husband works, he sees abuses by Management to other workers that not only violates Labor Laws, but also violates the Contract the Union has with the company. Since implementation the UAW of over 30 years ago where he works, the company continues to profit every year.

And Yes!! Unions are getting more astute with Political issues and supporting candidates for office that are Labor friendly. The Department of Labor has become more of a supporter of Big Business rather than seeing to the concerns of workers in the various sectors of the economy. It takes many eyes and ears to oversee that business is conducted fairly and morally these days.

Need I say more??

I apologize for the typos in my last post.

This blog is getting weird....

Weird Della? 

Or perhaps some people actually know what they are talking about on both sides of the WM issue?

To Chris J in Michigan, The reason the prices are so cheap is because they are made in China.  You said that there went all the jobs in america, who in america would work for that kind of low pay?  And if we did make it in America it wouldn’t be cheap anymore!!!! It’s called a World Market.  The union people are among the ones who wanted all these things to become a World Market Trade, but yet they are the first to complain when it happens..... America’s money at hard work!!!

I don’t have a problem with shopping at Walmart.....

It’s really all about context. A dual-earning family might do okay when one spouse worked at Wal*Mart. A single with no children and without many expenses also might do fine. However, single parents, people with spouses’s that are ill, etc., would probably NOT do fine at Wal*Mart.

Problems with low earnings and crappy conditions really plague the retail industry—Wal*Mart can simply serve a microcosm because of its scale.

My first retail job was with a large, national clothing chain. One of our more ambitious workers organized a union in the store. The store was promptly shut down.

My second retail job (mid-sized reacord store chain) I worked in for three years and I earned the minimum wage...for the WHOLE three years. The term “raise” was non-existant in the vocabulary of the chain owners.

What would really be interesting to me would be a comparison of what Wal*Mart employees make on the corporate level as compared to those on the retail level. I am willing to bet that even the lowest-level receptionist makes a good deal more than those sweating their asses off on the floor. Just a guess.

C’mon, Kathy. The herpes thing is weird.

If anythingm this campaign is making me shop at Wal Mart even more.  Lies, inuendos, and half truths will send me to the other side everytime! 

Some Wallyworld Nazi above wrote: “Next time you go to shop at Wal*Mart, Ken, be sure to ask the Store Manager as to how much the company squeezed the Distribution Centers where WM gets their grocery items and how many employees were let go as a result of the “Low Prices” that WM demands.”

I respond: If the distrubution center didn’t want to to business with Wal Mart, all they had to do was say “Sorry, can’t sell it that price.  Go somewhere else.” Did they? apparently not!  Why? My guess is they were making a profit! 

GO WAL MART!  KEEP IT UP - WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING, IT WORKS FOR ME!

Well done Gary soon the Commie revolution will be realized at Wal-Mart...Mao appreciates your allegiance

LONG LIVE RED CHINA AND WAL-MART!

SOON AMERICA WILL BE UNDER OUR CONTROL!

Let the debtors work camps be built!

Wal-Mart does not purchase a majority of its goods and services from overseas.  Last year Wal-Mart spent $19 billion dollars on goods overseas including China.  How much do you think they spent on US suppliers?  10 billion, 20 billion, 50 billion?  Try $153 billion dollars on US goods and services.  That means they only purchased 12% of their goods and services from other countries.  This supports millions of addiotnal jobs in the US economy.  This information is readily avaibable by the way, I am suprised with all the “research” done by everyone this would be common knowledge. 
In terms of benefits: Wal-Mart currently has 568,000 Wal-Mart Associates enrolled in their health plan.  Add their families in and they cover 948,000 people.  This does not include the 220,000 people over 55 they employ who are covered by Medicare.  This does not include the large majority of associates who are second income providers that opt for their spouse’s health coverage.  This also does not include the thousands of high school and college students who are covered by their parents.  Did you know that almost 40% of the associates did not have health coverage before joining Wal-Mart? 
I just have this question for everyone, on both sides of the issue: If Wal-Mart is so horrible, why do people work there?  Do the people at Wal-Mart have no freedom of choice?
At a recent opening at an Oakland California Wal-Mart 11,000 people applied for 400 jobs.  With the Wal-Mart’s average wage of almost $10 per hour I am pretty sure it is more than they were making when they didn’t have a job.  Not too mention it is twice the federal minimum wage.  You want to improve wages?  Write your congressman/woman.
Please, everyone, be informed.  Research from the sources and other unbiased sources.  No one on this blog is biased, I am sure.  Good luck on the crusade, I for one am shopping at Wal-Mart.

Nice presentation and application of FACTS Nick in Sac town.  Gosh, I love facts.  They are so refreshing.  And Sandra Monday, your belligerence just makes me want to shop at WalMart even more.  There is a fine line between debating something passionately that you feel strongly about and just being belligerent.  I think you crossed that line.  Stop with the communism thing.  Look at Nick’s post and then talk about “Red China-Mart’s communism”.  Let’s see some actual facts from you as opposed to the scare tactics stating that the world will be taken over by “Red-Mart”.  Anyone who can think for themselves knows that you are just spouting lies.

walmart isnt the only company screwing its workers we all know that. i work at mci and all our jobs went to india we were bought out by a new company with new insurance i used to pay 35$ every two weeks now its gonna be almost 80 and on top of that we are taking a ten percent paycut. these companies know we need them as much as we hate them cuz we need money no matter how little amount it is u still need some so maybe what america needs is cheap healthcare and cheap college i mean why does it cost so much to better yourself it shouldnt society has messed itself up and we have only ourselves to blame humans are the dumbest smartes animals there is

This one is for all those pro-Wal-mart people out there.  You DO NOT know what you are talking about, so SHUT UP and get informed.  Wal-mart not only runs businesses out of town but they will also destroy suppliers while they try to get the best prices.  Talk to someone who lost a job to Wal-mart and they will tell you the true price of goods.  Capitalism is wonderful, but only if there is a fair playing field.  Wal-mart does not play fair.  People need to look closer at the prices too.  Not everything is the lowest.  Wal-mart is deceptive, unfair, and discriminates.  I have a college education and make over $70,000 a year.  I feel that since I am better off I have a duty to help those who have no choice but to work for low wages at Wal-mart.  I you work at Wal-mart you dont complain because you will lose your job.  Those people dont have a choice but to shut up and work.  I WILL SPEAK FOR THOSE WHO CANT.

If you love Wal-mart then you dont know anything about how economics work.  Go study it or work at Wal-mart.  I TAKE QUALITY OVER QUANTITY IN LIFE.

Hey Luke.

As a rule of thumb, I believe our comments are working when the anti Walmart crowd starts getting insulting.  I appreciate your comments, for a while I didn’t think we were getting through.

Just a little helpful hint.  It is more effective to actually provide data rather than a meaningless rant.

Luke, you only speak for yourself. Can you name one business that Wal-Mart ran out of town? It will have to be a business that Wal-Mart actually bought, closed, and opened elsewhere. A business that chose to close itself does not count.

If you really feel: “I have a duty to help those who have no choice but to work for low wages at Wal-mart”, are you helping them gain skills and attitude so they can earn more pay?

Quote from Kathy in Minnesota

“Next time you go to shop at Wal*Mart, Ken, be sure to ask the Store Manager as to how much the company squeezed the Distribution Centers where WM gets their grocery items and how many employees were let go as a result of the “Low Prices” that WM demands.  See what kind of reaction you get. “

Kathy why don’t you ask those “Distribution Centers” how many people would lose their jobs if Wal Mart did not buy?  They don’t have to sell to Wal Mart do they?

Get a life - WORK!

Chris

Nick in Sacramento writes:

“Wal-Mart does not purchase a majority of its goods and services from overseas.  Last year Wal-Mart spent $19 billion dollars on goods overseas including China.  How much do you think they spent on US suppliers?  10 billion, 20 billion, 50 billion?  Try $153 billion dollars on US goods and services.  That means they only purchased 12% of their goods and services from other countries.  This supports millions of addiotnal jobs in the US economy.  This information is readily avaibable by the way, I am suprised with all the “research” done by everyone this would be common knowledge. “

I have been doing “research” as well, Nick.  American suppliers eager to occupy shelf space at Wal-Mart. They bend over backwards to meet the ever-lowering prices established by Wal-Mart purchasing agents. American companies such as Rubbermaid, General Electric, Rival, Hamilton Beach, Sunbeam, Masterlock, and Levi Straus, Mr.Coffee, Hasbro, Matel, etc., have all felt the pinch. With demands from Wal-Mart to keep their prices low, they have been forced to shut down many, if not all, American production plants and have established factories overseas.

What has happened is the precedence set by WM that other retailers have followed in order to stay competitive. Name brand manufacturers once in the US , have their products made overseas using US materials, then sent back to the US Supply wharehouses. WM may indeed purchase products from American suppliers, but their products made overseas, mostly in China.

Is your figure of $153 BILLION, Nick, American supplied products made in American Factories by American workers? What brands are we talking about? Grocery items? Clothing? Housewares?  Bedding? Home Furnishings? Furniture? Toys?
Small Appliances?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

I have been working outside the home for well over 20 years, Chris, primarily in RETAIL!!!. Thank you very much!! I have paid tens of thousands of dollars in taxes as well.

I also have a very fulfilling life, Chris. I am a Costume Designer/Maker with my own business. I employ myself. I know what a work ethic is. I taught it to my children as they were growing up. They are both professionals making their way in the world that will make their futures very bright.

High health care costs and insurance premiums are the result of the health care industry and the insurance industry, not Wal-Mart!!!!  Can anybody tell me why pushing “health” over health care, is bad?  The more it cost the employee, the more they will try to remain healty and watch how they use the health care system.

Andy in Nagoya, Japan. wrote:

“ Just some food for thought.
In Japan, starting workers at major (similar to Walmart) department stores get paid the equivilent of about $12 per hour with guaranteed, marginal raises every year. “

I remember in the 1950’s when Japan workers got paid next to nothing, ( it was referred to as ‘their bowl of rice"), see how capitalism changes things?  The same will happen with China, once capitalism gets ahold of the economy, Communism will disappear.  America helped to create this with imports.  That’s the beauty of the Free Enterprise System.  What is so wrong with leveling the world playing field?  Since Russia turned from communism, the U.S. saves alot of money that was once used to fight the ‘cold war’, if only that savings was used to reduce the tax burdon to the taxpayer, but, instead the liberals find more and more ways to spend it out from under us, families could live better lives.  At least Wal-Mart is helping to keep prices lower for these families, thus stretching their buying power.

If workers in Japan get $12.00 per hour, that is about the same as the average Wal-Mart employee, so what is so bad about that?

This whole deal is simply laughable.  Unioins buying off the liberals...go figure....to take up a useless cause.

I have been in several unions and haven’t found a use for any of them other than to take my money.  I make it a point to buy American whenever possible.....but if I know it was made in a union shop I don’t care which socialist country it came from.

What boggles my mind is....the people that are so anti-Walmart are either union cronies or liberals.  Not a big difference between them as far as I can tell.  Walmart has followed Darwin’s theory of evolution down to the letter.  This should please them to no end since they think that evolution is all that should be taught on creation.  As far as capitalism goes.....there is no even playing field, nor should there be.  The little guy has every opportunity to thrive and be a big guy.  That is the American way.  Not whining and complaining because a bigger fish came into your pond.  You either become a big fish....or get eaten.  As far as Walmart closing the doors of smaller companies....again evolution.  The strong will survive.  Some smaller companies have made a success out of a niche markets along the way.  Our local hardware store took on some burden from Walmart offering products at lower prices, but a store with the variety of Walmart cannot have every possible thing you would ever need.  The hardware store realized that and adapted.  Sure they might have had more business before....but now they have repeat customers for items that Walmart doesn’t carry.  Adapt or die.....sitting in a corner complaining is a matter of waiting to die. 

Why have people with no ties to Walmart come out of the woodwork to fight them?  The fight should be from within....but it isn’t.  People have their jobs.  If they don’t like them they quit.  I have to assume that the people picking this fight with a giant are trying to find a way to reverse the tides of the ocean along the way.  I have to believe the Walmart watch people come from the low end of the gene pool.  If not wouldn’t they have a better use for their time than spending money on advertising that the average person only hears part of....and the part that they do hear they assume is a commercial for Walmart?  We have choices in this country....or we use to before all the social reforms.  People choose to work there, do business there, be vendors to.  All of these same people have the choice not to....but they don’t excercise it.  If you don’t like Walmart....don’t buy from them.  If you don’t have a personal grievance with them....please kindly sit down and shut up.  If you have a personal grievance with them I sincerely wish you the best of luck and hope that your situation is resolved.

One last comment and I am through.  I wish Walmart would say “Merry Christmas” but let’s put this in perspective.  This whole “Walmart watch” deal is liberal propaganda.  To the best of my knowledge liberals are the whole reason my kids have a winter party instead of the “Christmas parties” we all use to have and enjoy.  Let’s not forget letting them dress up for Halloween.  Not anymore.  All of these holidays have been so secularized that they can not even be tied to a religion any longer so why is something that the kids/general public enjoy taken away?  This whole concept of political correctness and let’s try to not offend anyone is ridiculous.  Why do my kids suffer these losses in a small community where there is no one that would even be offended?  Because they are afraid of lawsuits from the ACLU and other groups that make it a point to stand up for the views of the minority, or future minority that may move in....add your own useless reason here..... versus the majority.  It use to be if you didn’t like it you took control of it and put your kids in a place that went along with your views.  Now the American way seems to be harm the majority to shut up the minority.  Walmart won’t say “Merry Christmas” for the same reasons.  Why deal with the hassle.  We need to stop looking at the least common denominator and try to use some common sense.

I forgot one thing that strikes me as odd about this whole “Walmart watch” deal.  The way they promote this is against Walmart for the way they treat their employees.  Why have so many people in these same posts been bad mouthing those same employees?  Sure there are some rude employees.  But who doesn’t have them?  These are probably the same people that were complained about so often at the grocery store across town that they got fired.  Now Walmart may not have checked as closely upon hiring as they should have.  You have to watch out for frivilous discrimination lawsuits.  If they did call for a reference the other store couldn’t give them an honest answer for the very same reasons.  Lowest common denominator again people.  I don’t blame all of the employees for being rude.  Some customers are just shit heads.  You as a customer treat the employees badly how long do you expect it to take before they give some back.  Find legitimate complaints....or at least take a unified front, versus doing this in the name of the “discriminated” against employees and then bad mouthing those same employees at the same time.

Yes good good my little maoists! Be one of the Wal-Mart clones, let us do the thinking for you! You shop here then we brainwash you. Report to any one of our prison grey windowless supercenters for “reeducating”, also no baby girls...we kill those

REMEMBER COMMUNISM IS GOOD
CHRISTIANITY IS STUPID

Be another brick in the “Wal-Mart”

HAPPY HOLIDAYS MY FELLOW WAL-MART LOVING COMMIES!

Wal-Mao

By Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect. Posted December 8, 2004.

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.”

Wal-Mart America has made no such declaration, of course. Why it deems its 20,000 Chinese associates who work in its 40 Chinese stores worthy of representation while its million U.S. employees can’t be trusted with the right to represent themselves is a good question. Whence the Sinophilia and Americaphobia?

We can, I think, dismiss suspicions of anti-anyone-but-Chinese racism as such. The answer, then, must lie in Wal-Mart’s preference for old-line communist-dominated unions in authoritarian communist states over any other kinds of unions anywhere else. America’s unions, which Wal-Mart despises, have a long history of anti-communism, and today’s AFL-CIO is the staunchest defender on the American political scene of democratic rights in communist nations such as China. For that matter, unions affiliated with reformed or post-communist parties outside of the few remaining communist states have gotten nowhere with Wal-Mart either. Only in China, with its inimitable blend of Dickensian capitalism and authoritarian communism, has Wal-Mart found a union to its liking.

And small wonder. Unions affiliated with the All-China Federation seldom push for wage increases or safer machinery. Indeed, the locals are often headed by someone from company management. Not that there isn’t worker discontent in China: Every week brings accounts of spontaneous strikes, and now and then an occasional riot over such lifestyle impediments as unpaid wages. But the role of the state-sanctioned unions isn’t to channel the discontent into achievable gains; it’s to contain it to the employer’s benefit.

The leaders of genuine workers’ movements in China don’t end up running the All-China Federation. They’re to be found in prison, in exile, or in hiding.

Besides, truly democratic unions in China would run counter to the truly undemocratic, one-party state. Allowing a democratic union movement to form would threaten both Dickensian capitalism and authoritarian communism, and diminish some of China’s competitive advantage over other low-wage but not authoritarian nations in Southeast Asia, Central America and elsewhere. Such a development would be anathema to both the Politburo and Wal-Mart’s board of directors. It would introduce the concept of free choice and the prospects of higher living standards not just to Wal-Mart’s 20,000 Chinese store employees but to the far larger number of Chinese workers laboring in poverty-wage servitude to stitch clothing for the contractors, subcontractors and sub-subcontractors whose products fill Wal-Mart’s shelves.

When a company such as Wal-Mart is so plainly comfortable with authoritarianism abroad, it tells you something about that company’s values at home. Bentonville regards the prospect of employee free association and organization within its stores with the same fear and loathing that Beijing feels at the prospect of free elections in China. Anti-union American employers can’t imprison pro-union workers, but exile is a real possibility. Troublemakers are free to go. According to Cornell labor relations professor Kate Bronfenbrenner, at least 5 percent of workers involved in unionization campaigns are fired, which is both quite illegal and quite routine: Companies would rather pay the nominal fines than pay their workers higher wages and lose the absolute control they hold over the work lives of their employees.

. When America’s largest employer feels more affinity for the political legacy of Mao Zedong than for that of Franklin D. Roosevelt, it’s time to start democratizing our own back yard.

WAL-MAO that’s brilliant! We’ll apply the necessary changes immediately!

I have a daughter in law who works for Walmart and I know several.  They do not want to be unionized.  That is a small sample, but I believe that if Walmart employees wanted to be unionized they could overcome the so called efforts by Walmart to stop them.  They could meet in their homes and other locations away from Walmart and there would be nothing Walmart could do about it.

Sandra, to you I have to ask, are you helping your cause or hurting it?  The comment between yours, taken from someone else’s work as it may be, was thought provoking and backed up the “Walmart watch” cause.  There have been several other posts as well that have given some legitimate support to the cause.  Your posts have been childlike and I have to think that they do more damage than good.  They don’t support any form of open discussion which could persuade someone that is middle of the road.  They lead to the misconception that all of the supporters of this cause are childlike and unoriginal.  Open and intelligent discussion on either side, be it with supporting facts or at the very least common sense opinions, either for or against, is what is necessary to base any decision on.  Ask the others in the organization how they feel about the childlike posts?  I have to assume that most would agree they do more harm than good.  Granted in light of the situation I am pro Walmart...but that is my opinion.  I tend to disagree with anything union, or ultra liberal, or fighting others fights when they should be minding their own business.  Posts like yours just remind me why I see things the way I do.

I work for a company that sells product to WalMart. Unfortunately, we only repackage and distribute product that we contract from China. Our packaging will say usa on the address on the back, but if you look for the “made in” statement, it will say China (or what ever country it comes from) in very fine print.

I am ashamed of my company for doing this, and I feel it is not right for them to do this, but I am like everyone else on this site - I have to make a buck to support my family however I can.

All of the other discount stores in my town went out of business right around the same time WalMart opened, so now it’s either shop at WalMart or travel a half hour or more to a mall with much higher prices.

It makes me sick.

GO Walmart, Lower Prices and be the wealthiest business in the world not only that have a bunch of uniformed people mad at you, but it doesnt matter the fact is if walmart was so terrible they would have no business no employees.  But yet hmmm, i dont see them going out of business anytime soon, in fact i just went to walmart today and it was packed with people, so how do you morons plan on getting rid of walmart???? no one wants to hear your dumb commericals or your lies

I dare anyone to challange me

good things to know about wal mart
it more than likley pays the bills , feeds the kids ,and offers retirement for more than 5 people that you know and if the benifits were so bad why would the employes continue to work there and as far as all the trash talk it probley comes from the ex associates that got fired for steeling,never came to work or came in and was lazy as hell.and now they are mad because they dident get to try to sue wal mart like the rest of there family did wal mart does so many good things for people you all make me sick when you slam them because .they really are all about the people but you must understand that wal mart does own a very big piece of the pie so there will always be some one trying to get what they have and trying to start crap so just dont always belive if you want to know how a wal mart associate fills go to wal mart and ask them they will tell you you .

hey shannon in milford sounds like you need to find another job because you are probley one of those people working for wal mart that is lazy any way, looking for a law suit and you are just taking up a job for some one who really cares and needs it so why dont you do wal mart and your self a favor and just quit because you probley are robbing them blind any way.and you are a lyar because i work for wal mart and you really have know clue what you talking about.

Sue in Philly wrote:

“ I work for a company that sells product to WalMart. Unfortunately, we only repackage and distribute product that we contract from China. Our packaging will say usa on the address on the back, but if you look for the “made in” statement, it will say China (or what ever country it comes from) in very fine print. “

Let’s expand on this a bit, okay?  How does that product get from the docks to your company?  An American trucker has a job to bring it there, right?  And, you have a job to repack it, right?  And, someone has a job to take it to the Wal-Mart Distribution Center, right?  Someone has a job warehousing it, right?  Someone has a job tracking it, right?  Someone has a job taking it to the store, right?  Someone has a job at the store stocking it on the shelves, right?  Someone has a job checking out the item to the customers, right?

I count 8 American people who have jobs because of this China made product?  Seems like the only job that is missing in the U.S.A. is the one who made it!!!  And, that doesn’t even count all of the support people, managers, supervisors, computer people, etc. etc. along the route.  Nor does it count the people who have jobs at the diners, serving the truckers or the jobs of the people at the motels the truckers might stay at and the jobs at the gas stations that they fill their truck at, or the jobs at the electric, gas, telephone company, etc. that all of the companies involved in the chain use.

So, in the scheme of things, where it was made is the only thing different from a U.S. product.

I am writing to respond to an inquiry about how Wal-Mart spent it’s $153 billion dollars in the US.  First I have to tell you that of that $153 billion, $2.9 billion of it was spent in the great state of Minnesota (where I am from by the way after getting my 4-year degree at the Univeristy of Minnesota - Twin Cities) supporting 101,473 jobs outside Wal-mart in the state.  Those are US jobs by the way, not Chinese jobs, and they aren’t Wal-Mart jobs.  And thats just Minnesota. 
Where did they spend the money?  They spent it on goods such as , and I quote Wal-Mart buys” apples in Washington, pumpkins in Illinois, bacon in Minnesota, barbecue in Missouri, and many other products from every corner of the country.”
This $153 billion does not just include goods, it also includes services.  Like the unionized construction crews that build their buildings or the concrete pourers or the electricity they use to power their buildings.  It includes the local farms that they buy local produce from. (I know this is true because I have done it) The bottom line is that they are spending 88% more money here, in our country, on over 61,000 suppliers in the U.S than they are in China.  This supports an additional 3 million jobs outside of Wal-Mart.
The figure is eactly what it means.  They spent the money here.  Was it on all American products made by American workers in American ways with American raw materials mined by other Americans?  There is no such thing.  You have products from other countries in your house right now and you can’t blame that on Wal-Mart.  What I can tell you is we have an additional 3 million jobs and $153 billion dollars in our economy because Wal-Mart spent it on American suppliers. 
And here is the kicker, the one thing no one ever mentions.  You know those 2,400 stores they have overseas?  They EXPORT goods from the US to those stores.  American made goods exported to other countries to be sold in Wal-Mart stores.  They even export American goods to China.  Ask Procter and Gamble how well their Tide is selling in China.  Is Tide made in China?  I don’t think so.  Wal-Mart also exports “Washington apples to our Wal-Mart Mexico stores; Illinois peanuts to our stores in Japan and Korea; and fruit juices from California and New York to Wal-Mart Argentina.”
Let’s keep in mind also that those low prices that Wal-Mart gets through deals with suplliers get passed right back to the customer.  Wal-Mart makes less than $0.03 on every dollar of sales it has.  Meanwhile the American public, whether you shop at Wal-Mart or not, saved over $200 billion last year because of Wal-Mart and inflation control.  Wal-Mart did not force companies overseas, consumers did.  There is not a person in the United States that is not responsible in some way for outsourcing.  If casting stones at the largest company in the world makes you sleep better at night, thats fine.  For me, a quick look in the mirror never hurt anyone before making accusations about who started the precedent of outsourcing.  It certainly wasn’t Wal-Mart.  Good luck with the crusade, I for one am shopping at Wal-Mart.

First to Robert, Sandy, Sue and others who want “Happy Holidays” and says it to not offend anyone: you OFFEND me!! I am a Christian and for over 200 yrs this nation has been a Christian nation, i.e. the MAJORITY here are Christian. I have no problems with the other religions here except Islam, the “Religion of Peace” - but that’s for another forum. DO NOT OFFEND ME by saying ‘happy holidays’ as I will tell you (and I have told anyone & everyone at any store that says the same to me - AND tell the store i will not return if they continue) that this is the “celebrated” date of Jesus’ birth - TIS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON, for over 1500 yrs.

To all anti-Americans here who want to destroy America and it’s economy by letting Red-Mart and other stores get away with buying cheap FOREIGN goods; and yes CAUSING American businesses to go out of business or relocate away from America, re-read Gene in Philly, Denise in Harrisburg, Charles in Mtn Home, Ray in Leslie and Sandra Mondays posts and learn what it is to be a REAL American.

AND YES I DO ASK the stores if they have the same merchandise Made in America, and I BUY IT when possible!!

I was neighbors with a Wal-Mart manager for many moons, and he told me about the horror stories after Sam died. Of moving in to towns and purposely selling certain items BELOW cost so as to cause the closure of certain Mom & Pop stores in that community.

And YES Patrick in Ca, the people are uneducated thanks to our Government schools under the tuteledge of the un-Constitutional NEA. The GVMT schools are dumbing down American so we can be taken in by these self-destructive “free trade agreements” - NAFTA, GATT, CAFTA so we can be servents to the king (GVMT) and take on service jobs. (One simple suggestion; get rid of these “agreements”, eliminate the un-constitutional IRS, go back to the Constitution and place import fees on foreign goods to fund the GVMT (IF IF IF by chance it is not enough to fund the GVMT at it’s present rate of spending, then they will have to CUT SPENDING; and get rid of dozens of un-Constitutional programs) - this would give most Americans 15-45% more income immediately, bring factories back to America and of course more jobs, and make the rest of the world come to US for the BEST quality and intelligent/sophisicated equipment in the world, just like it used to be in the 40s, 50s & early 60s - ‘we did it before, we can do it again’ )

ps. Sandra Monday, are you married? :) If not.....

hey everyone i just wanted to say i do not agree with the whole thing about them not wanting to give people health insurance but the people stay working there so all in all if they dont like it they need to stop working there mcdonalds dont give very many people health benafits and u guys are not protesting them so all in all as long as wal-mart sells diapers and things like that cheaper then the other store i am going to shop there
thank you
leeann

Question? They are soon to make massive cuts to medicaid programs and make it harder for families to use the medicaid system? How will that affect wal-mart employees?

Also when Neo-cons lie down with the Red Chinese, you know the end is near...very very near.

Did you know in China if you are caught with a bible in your home the bible is confiscated and you are charged with a crime? They are still very anti-religion there and Wal-mart is in deep, very deep with those people. “Happy Holidays”

Sure China has more money but is just as oppresive as ever to its people..it used to be we fought communism and now we are enabling it...to the point we are willing to destroy our own country to save a couple of bucks on Soda.

Whatever happened to fighting the red menace?..I keep hearing people screaming dumb liberals, or I hate socialism this and that but not one not ONE word about fighting the last greatest and most powerful becoming a first world power communist state; China.

Someone said as China becomes more capitalist it will bring them democracy hog-wash, throwing money at a evil world power tends to make them more powerful, not less.  That’s logic.

Now they have more resources to spread thier oppressive ideaology, and it is clear Wal-mart embraces many of the communist philospohies.

As American public schools become more and more defunded and the more educated Chinese take over, it will become more apparent. Someone brought up evolution..fine are you wiling to let your children and grandchildren suffer for your evolution?

Is business for business sake your mantra, is that how you identify yourself as a human being?
If I come off as childlike too bad, I hope to come off as insane, to be a metaphor for the madness that engulfs us and turns us into mindless zombies, who would rather save money than oursleves.

Revelations predicts at the time of the end that religion and worship would become illegal and punished all over the world, and that those who did not accept the “mark” of the beast would not be able to “buy or sell”...that’s how it is in China right now. They have destroyed Buddhism and Tibet so forget Christianity because they already went after thier own Native faith first.

I’m not saying Chinese can’t be Christian, I’m not saying anyone has to be..I’m just saying stop, look, think, study the signs, read the handwriting on the wall.

Be no part of this world, of this system of things. It’s breaking down. Our American currency is falling falling falling and China’s is rising rising rising. If Walmart is helping America so much why is this happening? Level the playing field, some say, evolution others say, business greed is god all worship Baal; money.

It’s all coming to a ugly head, and when it happens just remember I told you so first, just like with the war when no one would listen to me.

Also let Leann’s post before mine serve as an example of what has happened to our Public Schools, this woman can barely write a cohesive sentence. Is it any wonder she shops at Wal-Mao?

“That there stuff is cheaper, I don’t care where it comes from , I tell y’r what!”

It is the choice of th ppl to work where they can get hired.  If they dont like the practices of the company they dont have to work there.  I am not for Wal-Mart but i also choose not work there, just as i choose not to shop there.

Sandra what exactly is it that you are fighting for/against here?  You have covered so many differing reasons and purposes that I am confused.  Are you against communism?  Buying from China?  Not saying Merry Christmas?

If you are against buying from China I hope all that feel that way have all the goods they will ever need.  Any store that you go into will carry products from China.  Even small mom and pop grocery stores typically have some products from China.  Be it in the hygiene section, toys, etc.  Why do companies buy from China?  Margins.  It’s all about margins.  If we could produce the same products in country for the same price they would buy them domestically.  It would save on tariffs, shipping etc.  Communism will eventually fall.  It is just a matter of time.  If not a crash like the USSR then it will be in baby steps from within.  If that had happened in the USSR they would be in a much better state.

If you are against them for not saying Merry Christmas....I back you 100%.  But Target, Kmart, insert store name here, doesn’t say it either.  For the same reason.  Loud mouthed people have filed enough law suits that it isn’t practical to.  Do I wish it were otherwise.....of course.  Take out the frivilous lawsuits and tear down the ACLU and we may be fine some day.  If you put all of your zeal into getting Christmas and Halloween back in school, not to mention “under God” back into the pledge, I would be one of your biggest backers.  The fight with Walmart to me is just silly, and in most cases unfounded.

For all of those that see Walmart as the Beast from the book of Revelations.....you are attacking the wrong animal.  You need to take on the U.N.  For all of the prophicies to be foretold we need one world order.....where else is that going to come from.  It is already a corrupt and useless organization.  If you can show me that the CEO of Walmart is of Roman decent I may start to worry.  Practicing Christian and Republican btw.

“Well done Gary soon the Commie revolution will be realized at Wal-Mart...Mao appreciates your allegiance

LONG LIVE RED CHINA AND WAL-MART!

SOON AMERICA WILL BE UNDER OUR CONTROL!

Let the debtors work camps be built! “

Sandra - I’m sure I won’t change your mind - nor you mine.  But believe it when I say Wal Mart, if anything, is probably helping China become more democratic.  China has loosened it’s control on buisnesses and now allows more and more private enterprise.  They are experienceing a BOOMING rise in middle class citizens with disposable income.  They are becoming a huge marketplace for the US.  Probably the biggest growth market the world has ever seen.  I’m also surprised a socialist such as your self doesn’t embrace the Communist regime there and rant and rave about how they seem to be moving away from the hard core socilaist views they have traditionally held.

Is it me, or do the vast majority of posts (with the exception of Sandra), on all of the boards here, support Wal Mart?  Seems to me this Wal Mart watch comment board kind of backfired on them! LOL

i’d like to highlight this statement because its so right.

let’s expand on this a bit, okay?  How does that product get from the docks to your company?  An American trucker has a job to bring it there, right?  And, you have a job to repack it, right?  And, someone has a job to take it to the Wal-Mart Distribution Center, right?  Someone has a job warehousing it, right?  Someone has a job tracking it, right?  Someone has a job taking it to the store, right?  Someone has a job at the store stocking it on the shelves, right?  Someone has a job checking out the item to the customers, right?

The only american worker he forgot was the salesman. haha Go walmart down with communists who think walmart is a plague.  And yes you are communists.

Sandra have you realized that 90 % of the shit we sell in America isn’t made in America ? so why tagert walmart, because its an easy escape.  Sandra you might as well give up because your wrong. its like saying video games made me commit a crime, No body made you do anything you choose to do what you did so take responsibility.  Walmart will be around longer then you and me will be alive, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Like I said , when it’s all going down in flames

just remember like I said about the war in Iraq of which a third of the troop presence has just been removed by South korea

That I told you so.

Until then keep shopping you mindless uncreative zombies,
hope buying things keeps your empty brains fulfilled. Because most of you are more consumers than you ever will be self-actualized human beings.

Support the troops (I knew that wouldn’t last long over 2,000 dead.
I was against it back in 2002)
Vote Bush ( I knew that would be a disaster back in 2000)
Shop Wal-Mao (Oh you’ll see, you’ll see, and then you’ll be even more angry at the people who told you so)

By the way how come noone addresses the draining of the medicaid system...too hot to touch?

When I turn out to be right how many of you will any of you change? Probably none, you think winning a war of words on a forum confers superiority but only time will prove itself correct. I know Wal-Mao isn’t the only store that buys from RED china....like I said throwing money at a problem will not fix it...just recently the Chinese government Hacked and shut down American websites critical of its government and is destroying access to the internet in its own country.

American journalists get beat within an inch of thier life by police if they are caught in the wrong place

Anyone care to address the issue on how free China is really getting?

For every example you give of how things are getting better in China I can give you 200 of how things are still the same.
So nicer cars and nicer clothes mean things are OK fine you put a bird in a golden cage and its still a cage. The people are still encouraged to shut up and take orders and it still
a ONE PARTY system of government. They still outlaw religion and any worship there, and any criticism is severely punished.

You have the right to a middleclass lifestyle but not to go to church or to speak your mind against the policies of the government..and you think throwing billions of dollars at a communist country will make it stop being communist?

HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!

Have any of you ever thought that this could backfire...and yes we do single out Wal-Mao probably because thier windowless grey supercenters are the ugliest most disgusting pieces of foul architecture ever seen in the western world.
It just displays thier common lack of imagination...very similar to the “ministry of love” in Orwell’s 1984.
But then I must remember Wal-Mao shoppers can’t read.

To me Wal-Mao is an ugly, low place to shop, when I was younger and did, it bothered me that they searched your bags as you were leaving like a common criminal, while you held your very reciept in hand, proving that these items were now YOUR property and not thiers.

If people want to shop at a place where they are treated like thieves if just proves how dumb they/you are. I am sure many of you will defend this practice as well. 

You seem to like to polish the brass on the titanic as it’s sinking...now I get what they meant on “Fight Club” when they said that...I really get that movie now.

My God woman. Get help or take your medication!  Or are you writing from mental institution?

View evidence of Wal-Mao’s American censorship in Florida here!
They tried to have ajournalist fired and the paper removed from thier stores just for disaggreeing with them
how American is that?

Read it seriously and then tell me what you think

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050724/OPINION/507240314/1020

Character assasination is the diversionary tool of the weak

address the medicaid issue, she asked about or are you

afraid to touch it too

Gary?

i could care less if walmart takes over because it has everything you need, cheap food, videogames, and appliances, sandra needs to report to the local looney pen because she is messed up.  I will help donate money to help pay for her insane medicine. so she will shut up and stop being retarded

This is in response to Nancy’s from WI’s post.  “I also like being able to help out in other departments when it’s slow in the store.  You can’t do that under Union.” Not really sure what union she is thinking of but I work in a local competitor of WM and I can say with certainty that you can work in other departments if you are in a union.  It’s not frowned on, in fact you can often get more hours from another department if you have to. 

And 2 dollars a week in dues is not bad, but then most people would rather spend it on things like cigs. And other crap they don’t need. 

Not all insurance is expensive; I pay less then 10 bucks a week to have the same insurance that most people pay 50 dollars for.  Insurance doesn’t have to be expensive. 

And yes I’ve shopped in WM, I’ve been the customer and I get treated poorly, I work retail so I come in friendly because I know how hard it is, and the people there with the exception of the greeter do not even pay attention .
You can walk by at least 5 people and none of them say hello or even greet you with a smile.  And the cashiers are very rude, again I work in a super-center and I know that cashiers can be but if you’re trying to prove that you’re an exception to the rule look again, I’ve never gotten great service at Wal-Mart, and I’ve never even seen management there.  And the guest that you get that come to complain to you, did you ever stop to think that they probably came in with a positive light but it’s just something about the place that sucks it out of you?

And in response to the comment about Child Labor not allowing minors to work past 7, she might want to get her facts straight, minors can work past 7 at least in Michigan they can.

1> Reading many of her posts - especially ones that insinuate Wal Mart and China are some how in partnership with the devil and are signs of Armeggeddon; or that together they plan to make the world a communist state - I don’t believe I have assinated anyones character.  The woman is paranoid, pure and simple.

2> I don’t see how the medicaid issue has anything to do with Wal Mart.  Are you impying Wal Mart is driving the changes to Medicaid?  Is this another of their evil plans, or part of their partnership with China to take over the world and/or contribute to the rise of Satan to fulfill the prediction of the Bible?  (In any case, I have no opinion on the question, since I haven’t studied the issue).

ok about walmart. Mr. walton had an original idea of luring in costumers by using one product that was rockbottom priced as a way of catching attention. the thing about this is the other products that follow related with the beginning product are not rockbottom priced. this technique is still used today with most of the products in walmart. you really aren’t saving very much money and actually their prices have gone up, so before you support the exploitation, corruption, and closing of your communities stores and factories, please go somewhere else. sure you may acumulate 5 extra dollars by going to walmart, but you would probably spend it on a caramel frappucino anyway. oh and the spotlight thing is silly...i can’t take this site seriously with that stuff

There is a problem with Wal*Mart’s aggressive expansion. Make no mistake about it, Wal*Mart can and will willingly take down the “little guy” if it means increasing their range and profitability. Many of you may sneer and say, “So what? It’s capitalism, the American way.” Fine, fair enough. But what this is leading to is a society with a huge polarization between the rich and non-rich; the owners with the abiltiy to strong-arm those who don’t own. In effect, not as much opportunity for your children—cause let’s face it, all of those who are on here extolling the virtues of Wal*Mart probably would not choose being a retail employee there as the ideal career path of your children.

So what I’m saying is, while Wal*Mart maybe cannot be stopped in any grand sense, why not try to tighten the reigns on them and let them know that, yes, the little guy does have power? Instead of being mindless slaves to “lower prices” (and mile-long check lines, screaming children, and flying elbows at the sales bins—I can’t think of a better way to spend my saturday afternoon, really) why not show wal*mart that they can and will be held to accountability if they try to eff us?  If being steamrolled by this giant is truly what is meant by “the american way” than I’m glad I’m Canadian.

i have worked for walmart for almost 8 years.  i got into serious trouble when i was 20 and spent time in jail.  walmart was the only company that gave me a second chance.  where im orignally from the union caused the biggest employer in that town (the papermill) to close down, cause they didnt care about the employees. alot of those people where my family members.  they lost everything the had worked so hard for for all their lives.  where was the union then, when the banks started calling for their money. 
oh by the way. in 12 years i’ll be able to retire (@the age of 45)cause of walmart giving me a second chance @ a new life. and not worry about social security that the government is trying to take from us all.  I think that is where everyones energy should be spent. worrying about what the government is going to try and take next.

Nice to know Wal-Mao will hire people out of prison. Makes you feel real warm and fuzzy about taking the kids there.

“View evidence of Wal-Mao’s American censorship in Florida here!
They tried to have ajournalist fired and the paper removed from thier stores just for disaggreeing with them
how American is that? “

Read the editorial you are speaking about.  I will agree that the response of the Wal Mart manager to the opinion piece was over the top.  But I guess that is what makes America great.  The paper continues to be published, and sold.  Wal Mart chooses not to support a a business that believes they are bad for the community.  Sounds to me like democracy at its best.

Toney wrote:

“ First to Robert, Sandy, Sue and others who want “Happy Holidays” and says it to not offend anyone: you OFFEND me!! I am a Christian and for over 200 yrs this nation has been a Christian nation, i.e. the MAJORITY here are Christian. I have no problems with the other religions here except Islam, the “Religion of Peace” - but that’s for another forum. DO NOT OFFEND ME by saying ‘happy holidays’ as I will tell you (and I have told anyone & everyone at any store that says the same to me - AND tell the store i will not return if they continue) that this is the “celebrated” date of Jesus’ birth - TIS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON, for over 1500 yrs. “

Can you tell me how “Happy Holidays” offens you?  Is it a derogatory statement?  Does it stop you from responding with a “Merry Christmas”?  Does it stop you from worshiping at your local church?

Wal-Mart is a store, understand the consept of A STORE?  It is not a church or a place of worship, IT’S A STORE!!!!  They cater to ALL shoppers, not just Christians.  If you can’t stand being offended by the greeting “Happy Holidays”, what else offends you?  Do African Americans offend you?  How about Jews?  You mentioned Islam. Is Adolph one of your idols?  Get a life, IT’S ONLY A STORE!!!!

“Revelations predicts at the time of the end that religion and worship would become illegal and punished all over the world, and that those who did not accept the “mark” of the beast would not be able to “buy or sell”...that’s how it is in China right now. They have destroyed Buddhism and Tibet so forget Christianity because they already went after thier own Native faith first.

I’m not saying Chinese can’t be Christian, I’m not saying anyone has to be..I’m just saying stop, look, think, study the signs, read the handwriting on the wall.

Be no part of this world, of this system of things. It’s breaking down. Our American currency is falling falling falling and China’s is rising rising rising. If Walmart is helping America so much why is this happening? Level the playing field, some say, evolution others say, business greed is god all worship Baal; money.

It’s all coming to a ugly head, and when it happens just remember I told you so first, just like with the war when no one would listen to me. “
###########################

I have never been able to figure out why Christians are so upset when they see signs of the “End OF Days”.  Logic would tell you that they should be overjoyed to see the signs of Christ’s return.  And if Wal Mart is part of bringing Armmeggdon down upon us all, should you be encourging all the godless to to “shop till you drop” (literally) at Wal Mart?  Hurry the event along, so to speak?

Thank You!

I want to thank you wal-mart bashers for driving the price of wal-mart stock down to an attractive price so I may buy in for a comfortable retirement.

And by the way:  I’ve worked at Sam’s club (owned by wal-mart) and Target.  I was paid 17% higher at Sam’s :)

Dan in Darien wrote:

‘ not to mention “under God” back into the pledge “

When did they take that out, I must have been napping?  Is “In God We Trust” off our money now too?

Pappy wrote:

“ Let’s bash the UNIONS and return to the 1020’s when there was NO health care,paid vacations,justice in the workpalce of any kind or a myriad of other social programs (including S.S.) that the UNIONS supported. The middle class was created because of the UNIONS.

Think about the adage that “Everybody does better when Everybody does better” That’s what UNIONS advocate. “

That may have been true in the past, when we were a separitist economy, but now as a world economy, we see the results of union involvement.  Just look at GM, Ford, the airlines, etc., etc. and see what is happeing.

“I want to thank you wal-mart bashers..”

i don’t think bashing is the intention here. All these people are saying is, “hey Wal*Mart, you have the money and opportunity to give your employees more, so why not?” i really don’t see what’s so inherently terrible and offensive about asking that question. why should people be silent? If public pressure in on wal*Mart, maybe things will improve for their employees—and i, frankly, don’t see how that could be a bad thing . Are you saying the employee that’s making 10/hour wouldn’t rather be making 12 with regualr raises?

All I have to say is it is real “classy” to turn a children’s Christmas song into something negative. No matter what your opinion is of Wal-mart, this is so uncalled for. Children have so much to deal with these days, then for this song to be put into their heads, it is discusting. My 7 year old is now singing it instead of the classic version. THANKS A LOT!!!!

To all of the religious fanatics here:

I heard all this in the 1950’s, ‘60’s, ‘70s, ‘80’s, ‘90’s and now it’s here in the 2000’s, The End is Near.  How near is it?  Do you really believe that the bible is refering to Wal-Mart as being the cause of “The End Of Times”?

True Christians, etc. use their brains, not fanatisim!!

robert......

yes they are thinking of taking it off of the coins too

I find all this funny and interesting to read. And I want to thank you all for the free advertising that you are all doing for Wal-Mart, and I hope you continue to bring more and more costumers into our stores.

Hey Wal-Mao employee in Iowa, it’s customers not costumers, those work on Broadway and you probably wouldn’t like them because they are gay. Great to see the high standards of the American Public Educational system at work.  I guess the one poster was right I should be glad to see idiots like you pissing your own economy away just so I can laugh at you later, but good folks who want better for thier children and planet Earth will suffer too. Until things are fixed, just pray its sooner than later.

Sandra you wrote in a previous post:
“Like I said , when it’s all going down in flames

just remember like I said about the war in Iraq of which a third of the troop presence has just been removed by South korea

That I told you so. “

You ignorant loser.  Can’t you punctuate a sentence properly, express a coherent thought, or , God forbid, look at an issue with intelligence and rationality?  You really are a pathetic excuse for a human - and perfect example of the ignorance behind this assine crusade.  Now grab your dictionary so you decipher what I’ve written.

sandra monday in. this is to you. 

yes walmart gave me the second chance, thats where i meet my wife of 6 and a half years.  by the way, i have 3 beautiful daughters and they love going to walmart cause they DO CARE and take care of them

Some of these comments are quite sad. People stooping to low insults and not even bothering to check facts before making wild accusations: eg “Target is French”. Can you prove that? No, you can’t, because it’s a bald lie, and you believed it without any proof. Take a hint and learn this address: SNOPES.COM. Use it to check first before making a baseless claim. You’ll find that any claim that is proven or debunked is clearly cited with facts. Target has never been French, it and its parent company have always been a major part of our Midwestern heritage.

As for Wal-Mart, the truest thing so far stated is that Sam Walton would be unhappy with things done by Wal-Mart since his death. I have great admiration for Walton as a person and as a businessman, but not for current management. Walton spearheaded the “Buy American” drive of Wal-Mart and took it seriously; he meant it when he said Wal-Mart would never go somewhere it was not wanted. 

As a business owner I paid close attention to CNBC’s documentary on Wal-Mart, one that attempted to be fair, and focus on its affect on local, regional economies and small and LARGE businesses. Those of you who want a completely laissez-faire, “do as you will” market, may be singing a different tune someday...when your children find it difficult to earn a decent wage, buy a house or start their own families or businesses. Globalism is inevitable, and with it change in the US economy, but it does not need to be so painful. I’m thirty, and I don’t have kids yet; it’s easy for me to move across the country to a new town, and a new job for my husband. Many people don’t have that choice, and those who insist that they should just “get up and go somewhere else” insult the predicament of many Wal-Mart and retail workers whose wages are not keeping up with inflation. At the end of the day we all put on our pants one leg at a time. Ten second judgments are not going to pay mortgages or medical bills.

Lastly, for those insisting that GM and so on were ruined by unions… Gas prices, not union workers, have unhinged GM. They had a much harder time selling new cars and went to such bottom-barrel pricing, they’ve made hardly any profit. You might find this educational: http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/17/news/fortune500/gm_woes/ There’s an old saying, “As GM goes, so goes the country.” Before GM there was a little company called Standard Oil which eventually imploded. Now there’s Wal-Mart. It won’t be around forever, so don’t stake your future to it.

Im confused ??? isnt working for a union the same as communisium? dont both TELL you what you can and cant do? dont both control you income and when you can earn a income ?  Here in washington i learned 1st hand on how the unions hurt the community.  Two yaers ago the longshoreman in Seattle went on strike. They wouldnt unload the boats for weeks. The complaint= same as always, not enough $ ( more $ means higher dues !) so when they finally came to an aggrenment and unloaded the boats, supply and demand had already sunk in, and products tripled in price in my busness. Then everyone had to pay more !!  ( ohh i see another strike coming..  we dont make enough to buy these expencive products that we caused to inflate in price :( ) ... The news reported an average dock worker makes 45-65.00 $ per hour. Thats alot for a forklift driver !!!!!!

To Robert in Springdale:
Yes Walmart is a store, not a church.  They have no obligation to Christians or any other religious group.  What’s sad is that the trend is to go out of your way not offend anyone BUT Christians.  A Kwanza display, OK.  A Hanukkah display, OK.  A happy holidays display?  What’s that?  These days, Jesus Christ is a dirty word.  Walmart could rise above this “pc” world and not give in to the liberal left.
And to those who believe that Walmart will usher in the end times, get real!  God is in control.  Jesus will not return to this earth until the work is finished.  I don’t think shutting Walmart down is one of His top priorities.

After reading the above and since i have been around for 62 years i have seen a lot of changes in our country.

In the fifties when mom and pop stores were the place to shop, the only place---the people that owned those stores lived in nice homes and drove new cars, while my parents and others fought daily to keep food on the table, no car, no phone, no computer, none of the modern things that we all have today.

In 1959 i moved to a larger city in kansas, got a job at a large new food store that was hurting the mom and pop stores, however now i and others could afford a better place to live and own a automobile, also a phone, a tv set, it was great.

Many changes have taken place since the fifties, what i have today, only a select few had fifty years ago, all you younger people need to talk to your parents and grandparents and ask them if they would like to go back to those good old days.

Stores like wal-mart is what made this country great, we can buy anything we want or need, its only a few blocks away.

Almost everone has a computer, a cell phone, a automobile and many more nice things, thanks to places like wal-mart and countless other companies.

Wal-mart gave me a job at age 57, when others wouldn’t give me the time of day, now i am 62 and am making more money than at any time in my life. also have health insurarce at a very affordable price with 401k and profit sharing all paid by the company, also save 10% on general mds when i go shopping, and have made over $1.500 each year in bonus pay--all i had to do is work hard, i dont want a hand out when i am able to work.

All the people that post on this site have a computer or acces to a computer, i have a new one thanks to wal-mart for giving me a job so i could afford one.

None of us want to go back to those days when only a select few were able to afford a good living.

Thanks to walmartwatch for letting me post my thoughts.

A VERY HAPPY WAL-MART ASSOCIATE

I hate to admit it, but I think Wal-Mart and anyone else should take advantage of any cost savings they can. We as consumers demand low prices, so how do we expect to get them? I have shopped at Wal-Mart. Many of the employees aren’t worth half of what they are getting paid. That’s the problem. So if immigrants want to come and bust their ass for low pay, more power to them.

To Sib in Texas- GM’s problems are much more complicated than gas prices. Gas prices can be adjusted for, and every business is affected at differeing levels. The union, health care, laziness, and mismanagement is GM’s problem.

No offense to any hard working Wal-Mart employees such as bry meant by my e-mail. There are many exceptions to any generalization.

To Robert, Gary , & Darien:

GOD BLESS YA’LL!!!!!

& A BIG HUGE AMEN THAT YOU SAY TO
FREAKAZOID SANDRA MONDAY!!!!

I am not one to talk about people or say things about
but girl you’ve got some problems! I feel that you really don’t care about the whole situation you just want to be on the opposite end of the MAJORITY!!! Maybe you are seeking
some attention, its just that this is not a great way to go about it (or maybe it is looks like you could have a girlfriend!!). More to the point the MAJORITY doesn’t want to read anything you have to say!!!

ROCK ON GUYS!!!

Lol looks like Gary, Robert and I have a growing fanclub.  And yes “under God” has been removed from the pledge at least at my kids school.  “in God we trust” on our money is under assault as well.  Now to me this seems like a major joke.  Who is insulted other than the athiests by these statements, and why do they care?  If you follow Sandra’s paranoid line of thinking you can see a definite leftward trend.  If you follow the leftward trend to it’s inevitable conclusion you find socialism/communism.  With this being the case I can’t see why she doesn’t support Walmart with her position.  If Sandra is any indication of the type of people supporting Walmart watch.....they have some serious internal issues to deal with before they can even address Walmart.  Walmart watch please shake the nuts out of your tree and bring something real to the table versus paranoia.

Twas the night before Christmas,
and all through our towns,
were visions of smileys
all dressed up like clowns.

Beneath them lay signs
of really low prices,
after Walmart came in
we all had a crisis.

Most of our stores
were closed in a week,
So off to Walmart
for a job we did seek.

We all got hired
for much lower wages,
while they locked the doors
just to keep us in cages.

Our children got sick
but our insurance wasn’t paid,
so they sent us to the County
to collect Medicaid.

We shop at their store,
as there’s no place to go,
cause Walmart is king,
with their prices so low.

If China’s stops exports
that fill our store shelves,
Walmart’s insolvent,
just like ourselves.

Some wisdom to you
in Internet land,
When Walmart comes down,
we’ll need a big helping hand.

Unemployment Insurance
lasts just twenty six weeks,
with no jobs around,
this give me the creeps.

Whose right and whose wrong
seems to be all that you see,
but think for a moment
what you’re doing to me.

Like you I need work
so my family is fed,
so tone down your website,
before we are all dead.

As Americans we lie
in the bed that we made,
The time to change it
is gone, I’m afraid.

All we can do
is wait for the end,
and hope God is watching
so an angel he’ll send.

When it’s all done
and there are no more cries,
Just pray that a new nation
out of the ashes will rise.

In the meantime my friends
I would just like to say,
may you all have a nice
Happy Thanksgiving day.

Just a thought!

Nice thought Tom.  To bad it has no more basis in reality than the original Night Before Christmas tale.  There is no question that locally owned Mom amd Pops that try to compete with Wal Mart are not going to win.  They can’t match the prices, the wages, or the benefits of a Wal Mart (or any other big box retailer).  The big lie here is that Wal Mart doesn’t pay as well as local shops and doesn’t offer health care.  This has been debunked by more than one poster on this board and others on this site.  Even today, I listened to a local small business owner on the radio who admitted she counld compete with Wal Mart on wages and benefits.  She doesn’t compete withthem on merchandise, and isn’t in danger of closing because of Wal Mart’s pricing.  But she does suffer higher employee turn over.  To qute her"They pay their greeters more than I can afford.  And then give them a raise if they move onto cashier.” Did she resent Wal Mart.  No, she claims to envy them for what they are able to offer.

Teresa in Sunfield, MI

Thanks for the kind words!  It’s easy to debate someone when their argument is based on lies, half truths and inuedo.

Okay. I’ve said this before. Wal-Mart DOES offer Health Insurance!!!!!!  Unless you have proof stating that they don’t (which I know is a lie, since I do work for them), then you people really don’t have a leg to stand on.

Not only do I have their Health Insurance, but I also have their Dental, Disability (Short-Term and Long-Term), AD&D;, & Dental.  I also have a 401k plus I own stock in the company. So I really think you’re gonna have a hard time coming up with something stating that they don’t offer all these benefits.

To Dan:

I apologize for putting Darien down as your name instead
of Dan.

I was just so tired from getting out of work that’s under- paying me and abusing me to the point that I can’t wait to
go back there!! (sorry was that too cynical?) :)
Just checking LOL!!

just a comment made by sue about not wanting to spend her earning on due and about her company contributited 401 that is 4 grand.  i spend $26 on my monthy dues and 3% of my take home as working dues.  i have five anuitys and pensions and a special fund set up for medical co pays and such all that total around 20 grand and i have been in the brootherhood for four years.  not to mention i make enought money to support my family and my wife to stay home with the kids.  i am not trying to put your package down but dont try to compare dues as money lost because its investing.  the union gets a bad rap and all we want is to unite you for a better life and future.  if you kick a dog every day yet feed him steak are you doing him right.

I understand that WalMart has slim profit margins in order to beat out the local competition.  They apparently need to make that up on volume and substandard wages & benefits.  Still, the owners are the top 5 billionaires on the planet (something like that).  It’s hard to be sympathetic.

Poor people need low prices for healthy food and housing.  While I sympathize that someone may pay more for Coke and other health endangering “foods” it is a poor reason for supporting WalMart and their practices.  When neighboring stores have to cut reasonable prices to compete or when they forced out of business, it is not good for the local economy...and that means you, neigbor.

Lally

I am also envious of the Waltons.  I wish it was me rather than them.  Sam was a risk taker and a good business man.  He left it to his kids.  I only wish I could do the same.

My father in law had the opportunity to invest $1000 in Walmart when Sam was trying to start it up.  He declined.  He would have been a milionaire by now.  You could do the same thing.  There is probably some opportunity out there which will be just as good an investment as Walmart.  You only have to pick the right one.  In thirty years you could be a millionaire or you could just be out $1000.  With any kind of luck you could have a blog dedicated to trying to unionize your business or put you out of business, whichever comes first.

to Robert in Springdale,

miss Kim in Drumore did an excellent job of answering your post to me - and she was much nicer than I would have been, and MUCH nicer than you were.

I just hope she didn’t waste her time replying to a non-christian - how do I KNOW you are a non-christian? Simple. I KNOW because if you were a true Christian, ‘happy holidays’ would offend you too; and you wouldn’t even have to ask the question because you would already know the answer!!!

Simple.

I don’t agree with the whole Happy Holidays thing.....but I am biased.  It pisses me off to no end that the left have taken away Christmas parties, Halloween parties, Easter vacation.  Christian or non Christian these were all valued traditions for almost everyone.  Now these traditions were taken away for the same reason that Walmart watch takes the stand for the poor mistreated employees.  The vast majority of those complaining are former employees.  I have had jobs that I hated in the past....but I had the common sense to realize it was time to leave and not waste mine or others time badmouthing them, especially after I was already gone.  If you want to see Walmarts response to the whole Happy Holidays issue go to www.snopes.com and do a search.  I am not sure that I am 100% satisfied with the response personally but it does put things in context.....which Walmart watches biggest issue seems to be to take just about everything out of context.

Second is another reference to snopes.  Do a search for Target.  I was a Target basher at one point and have done enough research that I realized the error of my ways.  Target is a wholly owned domestic entity.  On the same token you can always do enough research to come to whatever conclusions you want on any subject, pro or con.  Be it fact or what you want to hear.  Again let’s look to Walmart watch and stop taking things out of context.  If you are going after Walmart make sure you add Target, Kmart, Circuit City, insert your own big box store here, to your list.  All of them pay in roughly the same terms....and all of them buy from China.  Now if you want to slam somebody for not giving health insurance or enough pay....you need to aim your sights at the remaining mom and pop stores.  Most of them cannot afford to keep their doors open and pay their employees higher wages regardless of how close a Walmart or other big box is.  Most of these companies do not offer health insurance.  How long is a mom and pop store with 20 employees going to stay in business when they have to pay at minimum 50% if the individuals premium?  God forbid if any of their employees have poor health.  Since they can’t be discrimated against that has just raised the premium of the whole group up anywhere from 100-300%.  Retail isn’t a high wage earning environment.  It’s the nature of the business.

Last issue.  This may be a local oddity for my corner of the world....but I doubt it.  For all of the locations that Walmart came to and pushed out the little guys, how many others have they made commerce strive in?  In my little corner of the world all of the little businesses were pushed out by Kmart or their own shortcomings.....almost 10 years before Walmart came to town.  This same Kmart later ended up being closed in one of the many downsizings of Kmart.  All of a sudden there were no stores left....and the closest Walmart was 15 miles away.  I use to travel to that Walmart simply because it wasn’t as dingy as the local Kmart.  Since Walmart has come to town there has been a boom in new business growing in the new commercial business park that grew up around the Walmart.  This is not the only town that I know of this has happened to.  Another town about 20 miles away was basically dead.  All of the downtown businesses had died off 10-15 years prior and crime had pushed out the only local mall to top it off.  Since Walmart came in there has been a massive resurgence in business as well as massive development in a part of town that had been nothing but vacant lots.  Again a matter of context.  People will find what they call facts to support their claims regardless of what these claims are or how valid their facts are.  I can support mine with hard evidence though....versus endless moaning of former employees or unions that want to push their way into places where the employees themselves don’t want them.  Let’s not forget those that think they need to stand up for those same current employees even though the employees are embarrassed by the bleeding hearts trying to stand up for a cause that the majority of them don’t support.  Who doesn’t want higher pay?  Really?  Who has any real use for activists?  Really?  As far as activists go the only people who have a use for them are other activists.

Now before anyone can take my last post out of context....the comment I made about the mom and pop stores was not against those businesses.  It was to put the issue into perspective.  It’s too easy to aim at the biggest animal.  If you are going to go after Walmart for these issues you have to go after the whole pack....and unfortunately that includes mom and pop stores.

Also a correction to my typo....I meant thrive not strive.

I think Walmart watch should hire an independent 3rd party to do a confidential survey of all current Walmart employees to see what they want before trying to tell them what they want.  Granted Walmart would have to agree to this.....but with most of the posts, here and on other sites, from CURRENT employees, I think it would definitely be in their best interest to agree to it.  From what I have seen the majority of current employees that have been in their position for any length of time tend to be loyal and not feel mistreated to any great extent.  Would they complain about higher pay? No, but neither does a guy making 70k a year.  On the flipside of the higher pay what do you have to give up to get it?  I think the whole thought of having to deal with the hassle of a union scares them, and from personal experience it would scare me as well.  I honestly could care less to hear the whining of former employees.  Every business has enough of those to go around.

To Tim in Jackson, MI:

You contradicted my post without checking out the link I posted, about GM’s “Perfect Storm,” and why it is failing eg your comment that there are “complicated” issues. Yep.
The story does not mention “laziness,” which is subjective and falls outside a news (rather than opinion) piece.
It does mention rising health costs and insurance won by union members (although that’s NOT a union issue… it’s an issue for employers and employees of every size and stripe), as well as gas prices that have affected their pricing structure bad.

The auto industry has had more concessions from unions than not in the last twenty years. The unions aren’t ruining GM, because they just don’t have the clout they once had.
I grew up in Michigan and feel somewhat ambivalent about unions; but they are not, in the end, the “lighted match”. If GM reneges on pensions and forces taxpayers to take up the burden, as some airlines have already done in bankruptcy… it’s not just because the Big Bad Unions led them astray. Enron and the S&Ls;of the 1980s didn’t have unionized employees to blame; they took people down the primrose path because they had no moral compass to begin with.

Personally, although I admire their efficiency and technology, Wal-Mart shows signs of lacking moral fiber. Some of these stories regarding people being locked in at night, being forced to work off the clock, animal abuse (the stray cat that was killed by workers, instead of brought to a Humane Society) or illegal workers… It’s hard to say how much of this is a regional problem at specific stores. But the steamrollering, the heavy-handed pressure against suppliers, competitors, and towns where they want to move… that’s happening across the board.

Anyway. The big hit lately for GM, on top of the other issues mentioned, is that GM decided to offer “employee prices” to everyone, and it was too popular. Similar to Edna Morris, who started “All You Can Eat Crab” at Red Lobsters and was fired as president… because too many people took up the offer.

GM is not the business it once was, and it’s not any one thing, but the gas crisis and health care has particularly sped up the decline. Businesses have a choice about how they’re going to evolve. The Big Three had a good thing going, but they didn’t change with the times. Neither did AT&T;or IBM, or the airlines; look where they are, compared to relative upstarts like Southwest and Apple. (And Apple was a miserable failure not that many years ago.)

Wal-Mart will dominate for a while, no doubt, but I think the poster who talked about them taking over the old KMart stomping grounds in her town has a good point. Someone, somewhere, is going to outsmart Wal-Mart. Complacency and losing sight of service is never good in business. And if you do bad things, it catches up to you eventually.

Toney wrote:

“ miss Kim in Drumore did an excellent job of answering your post to me - and she was much nicer than I would have been, and MUCH nicer than you were.

I just hope she didn’t waste her time replying to a non-christian - how do I KNOW you are a non-christian? Simple. I KNOW because if you were a true Christian, ‘happy holidays’ would offend you too; and you wouldn’t even have to ask the question because you would already know the answer!!! “

The answer I know, is that a true Christian exudes Love, not hate.  The Bible says, “Love thy neighbor as thyself”, not “Love only other Christians”.  We are all God’s children and it is up to God to judge, not you, “Judge not lest ye be judged”.  I choose to keep my religious feelings between myself and my maker, I don’t flaunt it or expect others to do as I wish.  They will be judged by a higher power than myself.  So, I let others do as they wish and they will have to account for their actions to the one who is the final judge.

Peace be to you and for you I wish a “Merry Christmas”.

You people are idiots. You spend all this time and money on this bullshit cause. You should look broader and invest in helping on worthwhile causes. If you take the time to look believe me you will find one worthy of attention. I agree with walmart in saying most of the country’s top employers are looking for ways to decrease spending on growing insurance costs. Everybody looks for ways to cut back on spending. Since when was that illegal? Why are we giving them shit for wanting to hire healthy persons? And as for hiring undocumented workers (unknowingly I presume) good for them. At least they are covering the jobs most americans don’t care to do. Bottom line, somebody’s gotta do it.

In my two years working at walmart, I get paid $10 an hour to play on my phone from 6 am to 3 am. Occasionally I have to put an order in but other than that I’m in the back playing on my phone. FUCK JAMES S. and thank you walmart.

We should probably worry more about our education system. Many of you cannot spell worth a damned.

If not for Chinese and other imports, Wal Mart would not be in business. The whole area where I work is completly dominated by imports. I can,t imagine how many American workers are out of work because of this. I feel ashamed at times to work for such a company, but I need the work till my Social Security starts in Feb. of next year.  Keep up the good work.

WM didn’t hire the illegal maintainence workers.  It hired an outside contractor that hired the illegal workers.

Bertdogg--- you are what gives WM a bad name.  Have a little self pride and do your job.

LLoyd Lennox --- where do you think you can work that doesn’t import anything they sell ?

Here is a thinking point.  It is aimed primarily at those that are not in the anti Walmart crowd, and more in particular at the middle of the road people.  Everybody has talked about pricing....on both sides of the issue.  There is an even more obvious reason why I think potentially the majority of people shop at Walmart.  This is my own personal reason as well.  I shop at Walmart for convenience.  Within reason they have everything I need in one place.  If I need to pick up printer paper so I can continue working, they have it.  While I am picking up that printer paper I realize I need to figure out something to make for supper.  Guess what?  In a Super Walmart they have that as well.  Oops....my kid tore a knee out of his jeans.....holy cow I can get it all in the same store.  I almost forgot that I wanted to get a couple of new fish for the aquarium.  Pricing may be important but convenience is even more so for me personally.  As long as Walmarts pricing are at the very least competitive I will shop there.  If they are lower even better.....but that is not my primary purpose.  As far as where my products come from....that is not the biggest factor to me.  I would have had to go to how many other stores to accomplish all of that?  Now I have stated this before.....with the variety Walmart has they can’t carry everything.  I buy quite a bit of stuff from my local hardware store.  The scary thing is....this store carries quite a bit of American made....but there biggest sellers are still imports.  Why is that?  Price.  Are you going to chew this poor store owners head off because his doors stay open primarily due to imports?  Simply put....alot of the stuff I use isn’t made domestically anymore....and if it is it is more than I want to pay for it.  Now on the point of jobs being taken due to the manufacturing being done overseas.....I don’t need to do that.  Another poster showed the distribution chain once it hit our ports quite nicely.  That one single product I got that was manufactured overseas potentially cost 4 US jobs in the plant (keep in mind I am talking my 1 item and not everything they manufacture)....but how many more does it support in the local supply chain?  Keep that in mind when complaining about where the product orignated.  How many jobs does that one product currently support here?  If Walmart watch wants to use their numbers we need to throw some realistic numbers in from the other side.  The funniest thing about this is....I am not necessarily pro Walmart.  I am definitely not anti Walmart.....just anti Walmart watch I try to use common sense in what I do.  Activists don’t believe common sense should be an issue....at least not from the views they support.

Guess what Sue,it’s wal marts responsibility to do the backgrounds on who is working for them; ever heard of references?would you just let anyone come in and work on your refrigerator w/out checking them out first? WM PRESERVER your the idiot!also, since when was it illeagal to try to pursue a liveable wage!?you talk about wasting time & spending money, well thats what wm does trying to build too damn many stores,and $ trying to get some good pr which won’t happen any time soon if I have anything to do with it!get over it!!!

How come Wal-Mart doesn’t advertise that 70% of their stock is made in China?

Why don’t you ask the Walmart employee’s what they want instead of picketing surrounding business. My sister has worked there for 10 years and if the union came in and this what it’s all about. The union would really love all those union dues from the largest retailer. Her salary would be cut so badly she would have to quit. As for health insurance she pays $60.00 a month for very good Blue Cross insurance. Of course it’s more for a larger family, but my son and wife pay around $500.00 a month thru the teacher’s union for their insurance. The union is’nt doing them any good.

Lol Gilbert I take it you have never been in a position which does hires and background checks.  If you had you would realize how unbelievably little a background check gets you.  Due to anti discrimination laws the previous employer can realistically only say that yes they worked there and when.  If they mention any negative work habits, attendance or anything else they set themselves up for a major lawsuit.  Now for a good employee that is no big deal....but the ones in question are the losers that would sue if somebody told the truth about them.  In the process of getting/giving a reference the law protects the losers.  Most companies will not dig any deeper simply to protect themselves....and abide by the laws.

Joe I don’t see Target, Kmart, or any other store advertising where there product comes from or what percentage of it so why should Walmart be singled out?  Walmart use to advertise when it was American made....but they don’t anymore.  This alone should take it out of the spotlight on having to advertise where there product comes from.  Take a look in your own house Joe.  If 100% of the items in your house are American made then you have a much more valid point.  If you have a foreign car in your driveway please sit down.  I don’t care where the product originates....but when it comes to cars it is all domestic for me.  They need to be serviced more.....but they are much cheaper and easier to service.

to Robert in Springdale:
Yes Robert, as Christians we are to love others as ourselves, but Jesus didn’t say let others walk all over you in the process.  Even HE threw the money changers out of the temple.  Are we to lay down and take it when “under God” is taken out of the pledge?  And now “one nation under God” off the money?  When do we stand up?  And as Christians we are to spread the Gospel to all the world.  I don’t mean shove it down people’s throats.  You can be a witness for Christ and not have to say a word.  BUT we are NOT to be ashamed for the cause of Christ.
(I know this is a forum about Walmart, but I just to get that off my chest--thanks)
..."that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Eph. 6:13

// I have no health insurance. I get paided fine but not enough to pay for the $400 an month it cost to have insurance. // - do you honestly believe that Wal-Mart is the only company that is “guilty” of this?  Most US companies are slashing benefits...they are being forced to because of the outrageously high expense of insuring their workers.  If you want to blame someone blame the insurance companies that insure the doctors, blame the fraudsters that bilk millions out of the health care system, blame the source of the problem not the US companies that are just as much a victim as their employees.  Look at GM...the crushing problem of trying to provice healthcare to current and retired employees has virtually bankrupted the automotive giant and if GM folds who wins...the FOREIGN automotive manufacturers thats who.  Wal-Mart and most US companies are just as much victims of the out of control insurance companies as the people they employ so why not educate yourself and rise above your problems rather than blame your employer for them?

Kim I have to ask which side of the line you are on?  I understand the sentiment behind the whole “happy holidays” issue.  Not only do I understand it....but I back it and for the same reasons that you do.  My concern is that taking it to Walmart strikes me as the wrong target.  Your fight is with the liberal left that is taking away all value and principle from our lives for the sake of civil liberties.  In all honesty I can’t say when my civil liberties where ever really threatened, and I actually back the fight when it comes to equality in race and gender.  What goes on in the bedroom is personal choice and wouldn’t even be an issue if it was kept there, so I can’t honestly support something that should be a non issue.  All Walmart has done is what every other major vendor, school, institution has done....buckle to the onslaught of the liberal left.  If your fight is with them you have my full backing sister.  If it is with Walmart all I can do is ask that you take the fight to the source and not down river from it.  Your effort and energy is needed in much more valuable pursuits.

Stan this one is for you....and just like for Kim it was not as an insult.  You are right on many counts except one....and it is the same shortsightednes that Walmart watch suffers.  Aiming at the biggest target.  In this case it is the insurance companies.  Insurance companies don’t set precedence.  They shift with the nature of the business.  The shortfall on insurance lands squarely in our own laps as much as anything else does.  Prior to the 70’s if people had health insurance they actually had a better grasp of it.  Health insurance is designed to protect you from major loss, just like your homeowners, car insurance, any other type of insurance.  As a country we have fallen into an entitlement mentality.  Health insurance isn’t designed to cover every little thing.  Some plans have that as an option....but HMO’s killed health insurance.  When it is used improperly it raises cost.  This is what has driven up health insurance.  People don’t understand what it is and how it is actually suppose to be used.  It is designed to keep you from losing your house when you have cancer.....not pay for a trip for a cold.  People need to be universally educated on health insurance and that may solve part of our problem.  We also need to lose the entitlment mentality.  The other factor as far as group health rates go.....you have a group of a million lives.  Of that group 75% (just a guess) is female, and in childbearing years.  You also have to factor 10% are elderly but not in the bracket for Medicare.  Now don’t forget you have diabetics and others with health issues varying from chronic allergies to cancer.  These all factor into the group rate offered, as well as the quality of the plan whether they it or not.  If they employed 20 healthy males and no one else they could get much better health insurance and get it at a much better premium.  Not trying to be sexist but there are gender based risk factors and they do directly affect the premium On every other issue you brought up I either agree or you wouldn’t far from the mark.

Alot of Mom & Pop stores shop at Walmart.  They buy mdse at the low Wal-Mart price then mark it up and resale it.  I see it everyday with the nontax business customers.  So we help them out as well.

Concerning the “Merry Christmas” issue.  Wal-mart doesn’t have a policy where they tell us we can’t say Merry Christmas.  That is each person’s own personal choice.  The only instructions they gave was for the telephone operator to answer the phone with “Happy Holidays, thank you for calling Wal-Mart, how may I help you?”

I know sombody who hates Walmart with a passion and also claims to be the ultimate bargain shopper.  Wich came first, the chicken or the egg....head?  If taxes werent this criminaly high, people wouldnt have to squeeze that last nickle from every bargain.  As for the issue of quality, the expression’ You get what you pay for’ has been arround longer than walmart.

Screw the majority they usually have what I like to call a “herd” mentality and the “herd” will often run over a cliff together.

Wal-Mao tops the Medicaid rolls over all other employers in 13 states, and who pays for that?! Us.... We do and no one will touch it or admit it. If your taxes are paying for millions of Wal-mao employees publicly subsidized healthcare, how are YOU actually saving money?

Now if someone can explain that and justify in in less than 1,000 words, you get in A in debate. Otherwise you are one of the ignorant “herd” dashing over the precipice.

Sandra by your own previous posts aren’t you trying to propel everyone that reads this post into a “herd” mentality on your views on the issue?  Your own comments on how you will continue to act like a moron until people see things your way backs this up.  How about you....and I mean you personally, take a look at some of the other supporting facts before bashing something that I have to assume you personally have no ties to.  If you don’t like Walmart, fine, don’t shop there.  Why has this become your own personal crusade?  Honestly....what has Walmart done to get you personally to put so much time and effort into a cause that realistically isn’t your own.  If it is, how so?

Oh Dan just give up, already!!! She is like talking to a brick wall. The only problem is she can talk back!!

Little does she know she is this herds mental mentality!! LOL

Anyways, its like I said it is ALL for attention!!!
It has to be nobody else is saying such crazy & stupid things
(w/the exception of the lube gel guy)
Maybe you were just allergic:{ !

Wal-Mart tops the charts on the number of employees in alot of states.  That has to have something to do with the number on medicaid.  I think it would be better to do the % of total employess rather then a total number.  Compare the percent of WM associates to the percent of other retailers. 

By the way, I am a single mother of one.  I was making less then $5 an hour and I managed to live off of it.  I never had any type of assistance.  True I didn’t have the nice car and nice home that I have now.  But after all these year, my hard work has paid off.  I’ll make over 40k this year as an hourly supervisor.  Bascially I’m a dept manager.  Walmart has been good to me.

Kim,
You have worked at Walmart for 17 years and are a department manager and you only make $40 grand a year.  17 YEARS!?  I think you’re proving the point that Walmart pays their employees shit.

Dan,
I know the fight is with the liberal left.  They are chipping away at our freedoms in every sense of the word.  I do all that I can at the polls and by letting my representatives know where I stand on the issues.
I’ll be honest.  I don’t know much about Walmart’s practices as an employer, only what I hear in places such as this.  I’ve been in a Walmart in TN.  It was clean and the employees were pleasant. (unlike what we have here in Lancaster county) My beef with them is that they are trying to build in a rural community that clearly doesn’t want them here. [see my entry on Nov. 16] We have all the access to Walmart we could ever want just 25 minutes up the road.  It will not bring anything good to this area.  Ours is not an area stricken with poverty.  We have many farms and small businesses close by.  Lancaster is a city full of employment opportunities.  We don’t mind the commute.  I just don’t understand, if the community is against it, why do they have to keep pushing?  I guess I’m a naive country girl who doesn’t understand big business (nor do I want to).

My boyfriend works for the federal governement.  He’s been there 23 years.  He makes 22.49 an hour.  He’s Union.  I get more vacation than he does, more sick time then he does.  And my insurance is cheaper.  He complains about the union protecting the lazy people.  He gets the same raise they do a year.  I think he got .40 an hour.  I got .55 for my annual.  And I got a .50 merit as well this year.  I will make 43k in 2006.  40k around here is very good money.  My mortgage is $600 a month.  The cost of living isn’t high.

Anyone that thinks Walmart is a good company should find out the facts about them. Lower wages, bad health care and overall financial abuse of their employees is a disgrace. Yeah, they employ Hispanics, too bad they don’t have the proper paperwork to work in this country. Shop there and you get what you deserve.

Kim (in Drumore) for the reasons you have stated your fight needs to stay on the local level.  If your community really doesn’t want them, and the polls support that, they will eventually move to an area that is more agreeable.  In alot of cases they hold out for quite awhile and public support swings in their favor just enough to get in, but they still had the public support.  Otherwise if they push and keep pushing, they still need to have support on the local level.  There have been many cases where businesses have given up if the community doesn’t want them.  What the narrow minded left seems to forget is that anyplace that has a Walmart it has made it into the community on some level of agreement.  If they don’t get it and it drags on for years they move down the road to a place that does....and typically they would get preferential tax treatment along the way. The liberal left and Walmart watch in particular will try to tell you this isn’t the case....but it is in any business.  But....it takes public support, and not just against Walmart.  Think of how many refineries have not come into local communities due to lack of public support. The downside to the lack of refineries is look at gas prices.  Not enough refineries creates a shortage.  More demand than supply = higher prices.  The politicians that have to agree to let them in have to answer to the public at the polls.  Walmart is big business.....but so is the oil industry.....but all these people are focusing on is Walmart.  The other thing to remember in all of these places that are fighting Walmarts is that you typically only hear the loudmouth minority.  In your case I feel for you....but if it comes to town, you happened to be on the short side of the fence.  If the overwhelming majority are against it, it will not happen.  If it does and the overwhelming majority are against it....remember that at the polls.  Somebody had to let them in.  For starters they need to apply for permits on every level....and a local official has to grant them.  No permits, no business.  Now if you do lose and they come to town I hope they do what they did for us.  We have 15 new businesses in town that would not be there if Walmart hadn’t come to town.  The whole corner of town they are on would still be vacant lots....that had been vacant for 10 years prior to Walmarts coming in. 

Please keep in mind by siding with any of these narrow minded activists you are siding with them in the big fight.  These people belong to the liberal left.  Look at the list of supporters on the main page and that is obvious.  You’re fight is on a local level with Walmart and should stay that way.  We need to stop being the silent majority and maybe we can drown out the loud mouth minority that are ruining anything and everything we hold dear.

As far as Walmarts employee practices just read the posts from the majority of the CURRENT employees.  Even the ones that do have some issues support their jobs intact on all other levels.  Why should an outside group tell these people what they want?  Most of the guys working in local factories around us retire making between 40-50k per year....and that is with 20 years in.  The annual wage is reflective of the local economy....even when it comes to Walmart.  A Walmart in your town may pay a buck less an hour than the store in a major city.  This is reflective of the local economy.  They have different pay scales that are based to the current rate of surrounding comparable businesses in the community they are in.  Keep in mind I said comparable businesses.  I didn’t say they pay UAW wages, they pay comparable wages to the Target, Kmart or any other retailer in the area, and in alot of cases they pay higher.

CJ do you speak from experience and from where do you derive your facts?  I have yet to see anything that I could call a fact on the matter.  If you have not....or even if you have for that matter....read the posts from the majority of the CURRENT employees.  I will give more credit to them than I will to facts that are not complete facts, but more picked apart to support the view of the group.  I just hope that when the hammer falls Walmart sues Walmart watch for defamation.  Keep in mind....I am not necessarily pro Walmart....but I am an opponent of activists spouting half the facts, and speaking for people who don’t want them to speak for them.  Hell if Sandra is representative of the group they are in a whole lot of trouble and have no credibility to begin with.  She shows that they want people under her “herd” mentality and they want zealouts.  What they fear most is people who will actually research a subject versus taking their “research” as being down to the letter of the law.  I am trying to promote that research on an individual level.  Make an informed educated decision.  If you side with Walmart, more power to you.  If you do legitimate research and side with Walmart watch, more power to you.  But do your own research and base it on actual fact, versus force fed facts that tend to be overly seasoned with bull biproducts.

Wow none of you once again really touched the Medicaid issue..very talented dancers all of you, you should try out for the Ballet..

the fact that you even mention my name means I have gotten to you weaseled into your brain like a childhood nightmare that just lingers below the surface.

They called Edgar Allen Poe insane Vangou, Kurt Cobaine, H.P Love Craft, H.G. Wells, Henry David Thoreau but everyone admitted there was a glimmer of brilliance in them.

Even Jim Jones who had over 900 people drinking cynaide koolaide at least recognized how dispensable the STUPID among you are.

You want to know who I am. I am alive and the rest of you are dead. Where is Dick, Jane, Sally. the Wal-mao employees?

They are dead dead dead, they were never born. Where is Mozart, Mary Cassat, M.C. Esher ?

Alive, Alive, Alive they were born. Only the ARTIST lives all others are dead, for they have no inner resources.

Those who have no inner resources shop at Wal-Mao work at Wal-Mao..you are the living dead..the zombies from the Dawn of the Dead Movie in the 1970’s in the Mall...Zombie consumers lacking an inner life..

you define yourself through how much money you can spend..and you are threatened by people who can see through you and the illusions you live by…

that’s why you had to kill Mahatma Ghandi, Lennon, Martin Luther King, Christ, Joan of Arc..anyone with any vision must be murdered by the dead. “BRains, Brains..we eat BRAINS” No I am not insane, I am an ARTIST.

I ask you; are you human beings are merely slaves of Wal-Mao?

Address the Medicaid issue come on you can do it..you weak minded babies with inferior intellects. I challenge your reality.

By the way the house is voting on pulling troops out of Iraq.  Can you support them enough to come home at last?

Babylon The Great Has Fallen All Mourn The Great Prostitute

FALL BABYLON FALL!

Hmmm hurling insults is the way to get a point across?  Again Walmart watch is in DEEP trouble.  Now everyone reading these posts please listen.  She herself said we are all dead if we don’t agree with her point of view.  I myself think she needs to go back to kindergarten to learn how to play nice.  And then with her overly superiour brain realize that insulting someone who doesn’t agree with you doesn’t make believers....it only makes mindless followers.  Again....I preach research.  Do it or fall into her category.  She herself more or less said you don’t need to do the research because she has already done it for you.  Perhaps not in those words....but if you find any other meaning to the rambling please let me know.  And yes Sandra I do have to give you credit.  You and your kind do get under my skin, but they make me take the opponents side every time.  How many other people reading these posts do you think may be sharing that sentiment?  Walmart watch look out.....the enemy is in your own house not in Walmarts.

Medicaid?  Someone else actually covered that quite nicely earlier.  You people look at the number of Walmart employees on Medicaid.  That seriously takes it out of context on any reasonable level.  Considering how many employees work at Walmart you need to look at the percentage.  That is what would be representative of a company of this stature.  My personal view on Medicaid is follow Wisconsin and many other states on what they did with welfare in general.  If you want to sit on your lazy ass we won’t give you anything.  If you want to work and have issues we will help subsidize it for you until you can sustain yourself.  I have to agree that Walmart’s wages cannot sustain a large family....but the industry in general can’t so why single out the biggest animal.  Please introduce me to one entry level employee in any RETAIL job that is making really good money and I may start to buy into this.  If you can’t, please take your meds and go back to bed.

Here’s another thing to think about on the medicaid issue.  As long as you qualify for medicaid, which has some higher limits for the subsidized healthcare and have a decent sized family (example 3-5), you can turn down any company sponsored healthcare that the employer does not contribute at least 80% of the premium.  In a lot of cases the individual is covered to that extent.  When you factor in a family there are hardly any companies that pay a substantial portion of the families share.  Granted there are some, but in this day and age they are in the minority.  Most pay the same amount of the premium that they would for the individual which they have to do by law. 

If the issue is with the medicaid factor then it still isn’t even with Walmart.  Take that up with your state.  Have them change the regulations for medicaid to a lower level.  Granted this will force alot of people into choosing between a plan they can’t necessarily afford, from whatever company they are working for, or go without.  If the benefit is offered make them take it.  Again not necessarily my personal view, but let’s keep things in perspective.

I really wish the mental institution Sandra is in would restrict her computer time.

all this arguing is stupid. debating on the internet is like competing in the special olympics. even if you win, you are still retarded

aby the way, i like walmart. always have.

Jason your analogy of debating on the internet was absolutely great.  Now give me my gold medal dammit lol.  My whole purpose on here has been to be a voice of reason and a reality check to Walmart watches fantasy world.  I support those that have seriously legitimately checked on the issue before opening their mouths.  I don’t hear an abundance of pro Walmart propaganda....but a lot of it from the anti Walmart side....most of which isn’t based on common sense or even complete factual evidence.

Oh btw....I enjoy debate regardless of the forum.  There may be no actual gold ring at the end of this race....but it is still entertaining to make people think....instead of being told what to think or be a zombie.

Kim in Drumore, PA wrote:

“ Yes Robert, as Christians we are to love others as ourselves, but Jesus didn’t say let others walk all over you in the process.  Even HE threw the money changers out of the temple.  Are we to lay down and take it when “under God” is taken out of the pledge?  And now “one nation under God” off the money?  When do we stand up?  And as Christians we are to spread the Gospel to all the world.  I don’t mean shove it down people’s throats.  You can be a witness for Christ and not have to say a word.  BUT we are NOT to be ashamed for the cause of Christ.
(I know this is a forum about Walmart, but I just to get that off my chest--thanks) “

The point I was trying to make, is that on the list of things wrong in this world, saying “Happy Holidays” is not very high on the list.  Like I said, this is not a derogitory greeting, it is just a neutral greeting.  I would be offended, if they said “Praise Be to Allah”, but to me, “Happy Holidays” is kind of like saying “Have A Nice Day”.

As for the “In God We Trust”, being taken off our money, when is this going to happen?  I looked on some of the most recent coins and it’s still there.  But, I want to make an observation.  You mentioned - “Even HE threw the money changers out of the temple. “, isn’t it funny that you are now complaining about words on money?  Ever wonder what Christ or God might think about money advertising them?  After all, aren’t the money changers, the ones who handle the money?  As for “Under God” in the pledge, it is a pledge to a flag and the union for which it stands, it is not a prayer.  And, “In God We Trust” was put on money in the early 1950’s and ‘Under God” was added to the pledge around 1963 ( I believe), I’m not sure as to the actual times, maybe someone can help me out with this.  But, somehow, the Christian religion managed to thrive for almost 200 years without them.

As for being a Christian, what kind of Christian are you?  There are so many variations, it is hard to know what type of Christian is a real one.  And, it has been said that 85% of all Americans are Christians.  The way I see most Christians act, it is hard to believe that they even believe in any Christian principles.  The daily, swearing, lying, cheating, back-stabbing, stealing, etc., remind me more of sinners, than real true Christians.  That is why I prefer to keep my relationship with God on a personal basis, and let others make their own beds.

Kim in Drumore, PA wrote:

“ but Jesus didn’t say let others walk all over you in the process. “

If this is true, what was that “Turn the other cheek” thing all about?

With all the talk about medicaid, it should be mentioned that in arkansas we have a program---- our kids program-- it is set up to give kids the health care they need, a couple with two kids can make up to 35 thousand or so--(not sure what it is at this time) and still get the kids on this program.

All kids need good health care, however it dont seem right that a family can drop their health plan at work and still get their kids on this program----i know someone that did that very thing, and went out and bought a new car.

Just how much can a family make before they are cut from all the free goverment programs---after all it is tax payers covering the cost.

Maybee someone else can give more details about this program.

Robert, Kim, you both need to slow down a bit.  From what I have gathered Robert is on the side of using some common sense versus eating force fed bull.  Kim had started out on the side of the anti Walmart gang due to emotion.  Kim has since started to come around once a bit of logical insight from a group of people were thrown in the mix.  Kim’s issue originally stemmed from Walmart trying to come into her town and they are against it.  I think upon further review she has probably realized that that is a local issue.  To be honest if that was the issue, Walmart watch was never out to help her to begin with.  Walmart watches principle goal seems to be the unionization of Walmart.  If that is the case will the unions not want them to keep opening stores and in the process bring in more dues?

The “happy holidays” thing needs a bit of review as well.  Personally I don’t like it if that is going to be the precedence....but that precedence was not set by Walmart.  The precedence was set by the liberal left and it affects almost every segment of retail and many other institutions.  From other posters it seems that the only ones told to say that are the ones answering the phones.  I have talked to several employees personally and they have told me they were never told that.  Now some of these same employees have stated that they will not say “Merry Christmas” in the store any longer....but that is due to rude customers.  If you say “Merry Christmas” to a little girl and her mother blows up at you with “how dare you say that to her, we don’t celebrate Christmas” how are you going to react in the future?  I have seen the whole thing as an issue but no hard evidence to support it.  This again strikes me as the spin put on to further an agenda.

I have tried to avoid hurling insults myself....but I can’t let this one pass.  Better to be working and supporting your family (let’s not forget looking for the facts versus being force fed them).....than to be a starving ARTIST.

you guys are so crazy lol. its funnny to watch the blind argue with the dumb.
For those who argue about forigen products....
My FORD thunderbird has a MAZDA engine. it wasnt made in the U.S.
all these products you THINK are American Made.... think where most of the supplys to make that product come from. and it takes American workers to get that product here.

So please continue w/ the mindless arguing.

Sandra,

Put down the bong and back away.  Then maybe you’ll stop posting this “artist” gibberish.

Medicaid?  Let’s see, Walmart is the largest employer in the US.  They have more low-skilled employees working at entry-level jobs than any employer in the country.  Is it any surprise at all that they’re on this list?  Here’s a hint: no.  A more interesting and relevant question is, “What percentage of their employees would be on Medicaid if they didn’t have jobs?” What you’re really getting at is that there is a healthcare crisis in America, and its affects are particulaly acute at the lower end of the earning spectrum.  That is true, and it is affecting every business in this country.  Walmart, from what I read, is at least trying to find a way to address the issue with its employees.

Zac is completely accurate on the supply chain...especially when it comes to domestic vehicles.  And he is also completely accurate when he says that it still takes American hands in every step of the way once it hits our ports.  Also please keep in mind that the trend, especially with the automobile industry having parts made overseas, started during the Clinton administration.

Now most of you won’t care a bit about my personal background...but I am giving it so as not to come across as someone spouting propaganda without being willing to say where my views originate from.  The last thing I want to be is a hypocrite of liberal left proportions.  I am a small business owner, and as such I have to study the trends in the local market.  I have no employees, and if I did I would not offer health insurance strictly due to overhead.  I would however pay higher wages, to an extent, to help compensate.  No employer is forced by law to offer health insurance....unless they are union, and then it is still not by law but by contract.  If a union forced it’s way into my company I would close my doors and reopen later as a completely different business entity.  Unions force everyones hands....but do not necessarily ensure better conditions.  By forcing an employer to offer certain things they also limit what that same employer, if they are generous to any extent, may offer their employees voluntarily.  Why give it away when something is already taken? 

My wife works at Walmart and has posted on here herself.  With that being the case I have had direct exposure to how they treat their employees and exactly what benefits they offer.  Does this make me pro Walmart?  Not necessarily.  What it does do however is let me make educated statements on what they actually do offer, and how they treat their employees.  Yes, there are a large number of managers that need to be horse whipped just to get them to do their jobs....but there are also the rest that do the best they can.....and have to pick up the slack for the others.  This happens in any business.  This also varies to degree on a store by store basis.  As does a stores cleanliness or lack of it, rude associates, etc.  What I have heard from my wife and a large number of associates is that there isn’t so much an issue with their jobs....most of the complaints stem from rude customers with unreasonable demands.  I have seen these customers first hand when I have been in the store....and if they were in my shop I would throw them out.  Granted some of these customers have legitimate reasons for their distress....but just as many if not more walk in the store with their attitudes.  Does this store pay less than the surrounding retail? No.  I mean flat out no.  They typically pay higher wages than comparable businesses in the area.  Now could my wife make more going to work in one of the business offices in the area?  Yes.  I have even pointed that out to her.  She works there by choice.  She actually works completely by choice......she doesn’t have to.  Her intention is to go back to college once our youngest child is in school full time.  I’m not quite sure why she doesn’t right now....but again, her choice and who am I to tell her otherwise?  Walmarts insurance is also not the absolute greatest I have ever seen, but it is not extremely expensive either.  For a single mother it is probably out of reach....but if that is the complaint then they should work elsewhere that either pays better or has more affordable insurance.  But again please keep things in perspective.  Walmart does not have to offer health insurance at all.  Has no one ever questioned why it is called a benefit?  Am I pro Walmart? No.  Am I anti Walmart? No.  I shop there, and I do it by choice.  I like the convenience.  Pricing is secondary.  Where my items come from.  Almost unimportant.  Everybody carries imports.  If my wife quit tomorrow would I be upset? No.  A fair portion of the people work there by choice.  The vast majority have little to no complaints.  Why does the liberal left feel they have the right to tell them they are ignorant, wrong, insert your own insult for being inferiour here?

I was wrong on one point and feel the need to correct myself.  I said a fair portion work there by choice.....they all work there by choice.  No one brought them in at gunpoint and made them apply, twisted their arms to go to the interview, stay if they don’t want to.  Employment is a funny thing.  It is voluntary.  And regardless of how much the other side wants to spout that there aren’t jobs....there are.  If people are going to complain about working there entry level there are all kinds of jobs if people aren’t picky about what they do.  This may not hold true for skilled employees....but the issue is based around entry level jobs.

Robert
Jesus does say to turn the other cheek, but we are still to STAND FIRM for His cause while doing it.  Eventually, we run out of cheeks!!!

Dan, thanks for the input.  We are fighting at the local level.  But I want you to know the people fighting are mostly conservatives, not left wing wackos.  The area where they want to build isn’t a town, just a rural area, dotted with farmland.  The problem is, township supervisors know where the majority stands, due to the response at the conditional use hearings, township meetings, etc.  All they can see are those tax $$$$$!  We will fight as long as we can.  It may be a lost cause, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

Kim you are absolutely right about trying and I support you 100%.  Since it comes down to elected officials who are calling the shots, remember that at the polls.  Now one point to take into consideration.  You said that this is a dangerous intersection.  If Walmart comes in, that intersection will have to be developed.  Granted there will be more traffic, but at the same time there will be developed controls in place.  Please realize I am not trying to convince you to be pro Walmart on this issue.....but to look at what good may come if the local officials cave in.  In your local pursuit I wish you all the best of luck, but if things look bleak try to look at what may be the potential brightside.  I guess my analogy if your people end up on the losing side is similar to if you were diagnosed with cancer.  Would you try to look at what good may yet happen (you may recover) or would you sit there hopelessly waiting to die?

Kim I have a suggestion for you.  Please do not construe this as legal advice, I am not a lawyer.  Be an activist on a local level.  Now I have stated my feelings towards activists, but I am primarily talking about these big leftwing machines.  Organize something officially unofficial.  Don’t invite the local government but do try to get as many of the locals with a similar view to attend.  Put together some kind of constraints on the Walmart.  Don’t even try to shut them out (that is your primary goal but don’t make it obvious).  Put together something so stringent on Walmarts coming in that they will move someplace else.  These have to be realistic in nature to promote the local community....but make it rough.  If you then present these in an open forum to the local officials they have the choice of giving in to the local demands or eating it at election time.  Remember...you are not even saying that you don’t want Walmart to come in....you want them to play by these rules.  If you do something of that nature DO NOT invite local business owners that could potentially be viewed as competition to Walmart.  This is for their own protection.  If they are there they set themselves up for potential anti trust suits.  Do by all means tell them privately, but only to one at a time.

Listen, I have worked in a Wal-Mart distribution center for 9 years now and yes we have some dumb-assed members of our management team and yes we have some idiotic productivity goals and grade school rules. I often do not agree with many things that Wal-Mart implements on the workforce. For a corporation as big as Wal-Mart, I know our medical benefits are sub-standard. But here is my point:
You can either work at Wal-Mart or choose not to. You can shop at Wal-Mart or choose not to. If you do not work or shop at Wal-Mart that is your choice. So, relax and work or shop wherever you may choose.

So my tax dollars should go to A Wal-Mao employee with four illigitimate children for Medicaid, just because Wal-Mao doesn’t want to offer affordable reasonable coverage?

When will this system collapse I wonder?

now I know why Red Commie p Chinese Wal-Mao can offer such low prices.

By the Way there was an article in USA Today about how China was going to surpass the US in money and power.

When Bush made his comments about China needing to be more free and democratic they ignored him. They can afford to, China is more powerful then America can ever hope to be.

Don’t think we don’t have Wal-Mao to thank for helping the demise of America as a superpower along, and all of you supporting that place can thank yourselves too. You’ve been very helpful at biting off your nose to spite your own face.

Hope you like totalatarian one-party asian rule...what am I talking about you’ll love it!

Your Idiots!

Sandra, what is the most commonly prescribed medication for paranoid schizophrenia and delusions of granduer?  I have to figure you would be the best one to ask....and isn’t it time for your medication?  Please stop rambling the hypocritical zealous party line and bring something at least interesting to discuss versus thinking everyone is a moron for not letting you do all of their thinking for them.

How dare you leave Jim Morrison off of your list and add a scumbag from Nirvana to it?  I must admit with that one shortfall your list was quite substantial.  Now my only other question is....how much arrogance does it take to add yourself to that list?  I have to figure that any of them would tell you to take your meds and go back to bed as well.  Brilliance they all had.  Narrow mindedness like yours they did not.

Sandra said “So my tax dollars should go to A Wal-Mao employee with four illigitimate children for Medicaid, just because Wal-Mao doesn’t want to offer affordable reasonable coverage?”

WHY is it Wal-Mart’s responsibility to support these children?  Wal-Mart didn’t make her have those 4 babies.  That is a life choice that person made and has to live with.  Talk to the government, they are the ones paying these women to keep having babies and sit home on their butts.

GEE NICK, Why don’t you just be yourself.  Your not fooling anyone with impersonating other posters.

Oh one thing I forgot in the last post Sandra.  In your previous post you even added Jim Jones to your list.  From your own words I have to assume that you are pissed that you are failing where even he succeeded.  He managed to draw followers right up to the point of their own death at his request, yet you can’t even get people to agree with you.  There is one word that defines the difference between you and Jim....charisma.  He had it....you don’t.  Jim would lure people in with kindness....not insult them from the get go if they didn’t agree with him.  If he couldn’t get them right away, he would keep trying and from the same perspective.  Instead of insulting those that oppose you....not to mention a fair share of those that even support you on a limited basis....you should look up the word “charisma”.  With your near omnipotent mind you shouldn’t have to much trouble with that.

Oh you also had a grammatical error on your final insult.  It should be you’re idiots instead of your idiots.  Not a typo, a grammatical error....a failing to grasp the use of the language.  Is your native tongue Chinese?

Remember people, a closed mind is much closer to the communist dogma than the search for truth is.  Also a person who tells people what to do or think, and oppresses those who don’t follow them, falls more into the category of a dictatorship.  Walmart watch look inside your own fences.

I wonder how many people know that one of the ways that Wally World shaves prices is by charging truckers who deliver to their distribution warehouses a minimum of $30 per load just to unload Wal Marts products.

I am willing to bet that the fellows unloading the trucks are not making $90 dollars an hour, if you look at a distribution warehouse and count the docks multiply by 3 and that will give you the trucks per hour unloaded take that number and multiply by $30 and think about the money they are making just unloading trucks with their merchandises.

100 docks times 3 equals 300 trucks time $30 equals $9,000 PER HOUR and they probably paid $900 to get the trucks unloaded leaving them a profit of $8,100 per hour, Not Bad

Don I see your point but actually fail to see the relevance.  Did these truckers (if they were independent owner/operators) or trucking companies not know they were signing into a deal with that as a part of the package?  If they didn’t it is illegal.  If they did, did they not have the choice of turning down the contract?  I doubt renegotiating would happen....but the truckers still took the contract to haul the freight.  Was there ever any breach of contract?  How does an unloading fee differ from shipping and handling fees that take advantage of the consumer?  Almost every company that ships anything charges s/h fees that are substantially higher than the cost to actually ship it....or package it for that matter, so what is the real difference?

Kim in Drumore - This is the last I’m going to say on this subject.  I just found it hard to believe that your chief complaint was “Happy Holidays” and how much it offended you and how much it would ruin the whole Christmas season for your family.  I would be offended if the people were to say “Merry X-Mas”, but, even then, I would not let it ruin my Christmas season, I would just shop at other stores.

Political Correctness is the fashion of the day from the Liberals.  Don’t blame Wal-Mart, blame the Liberals.  And, let God be the rock that anchors you. 

Pick your battles based on importance, not just emotion.  And, remember that might makes right.  Dan was giving some good advice.  If you decide to fight, go for it, but, make sure you will be happy with the results, should you win.  Take everything into consideration first and use logic instead of emotion.

And, like I said before have a “Merry Christmas” and a Great Thanksgiving.

Well then why does Wal- Mao encourage its employees to sign up for Medicaid if its not trying to dump its lower prices on me, and other citizens?

Answer the question if your not a neo-con coward who loves the money grubbing ways of this world more than you do truth.

Like I said what will Wal-Mao do when the Medicaid system collapses because it has overburdened the rolls with with its own employees?

Finally raise the prices to give its employees descent medical coverage...or switch to that one world government with China in control and tell the people to work like slaves until they a die a young death from overwork and malnutrition?

By the way none of you touched the China issue not even the one poster who said giving them more money will make them less totalatarian...ha ha ha now they are just a RICH totalatarian country with more POWER they are more of a threat than Russia ever was.

Oh I can’t wait to say I told you so...again

Oh and the comment about Jim Jones was directed at you, that you would be the idiots in South America drinking the poisoned Koolaid, because some Neo-Con probably told you to.

There is one happy note out of this...Neo-Cons and Commies working togther to bring down America’s economy.

Oh it warms my heart after how much the Communist and the Fascists despised each other in WWII. Now thanks to Wal-Mao, that Right wing Fascist Neo-Con idiots who love shopping, and bloody red communist China that leaves baby girls to die on Mountain sides;can come together over thier hatred of everything good, beautiful and true in the world.

Sure the neo-cons say they are Christian but they hate God because he doesn’t shop at Wal-Mao and beleive in Death camps.

Happy Holidays Wal-Maoists!

Sandra, have you taken your meds. yet today? 

I actually have been around artists and you seem to be the only one that sounds like a delusional moron.  Tell me how you managed to get out of the straight jacket and away from the padded walls of your safe place?

WM isn’t the only place whose workers are on Medicaid, look around almost every-place has workers on it.

You have got way too much free time.

A comment DON MULLEN made about how many trucks we unload each hr, if he or anyone can unload three trucks in one hr----wow , thats a lot more than i can unload--- where i work we only average three or so in eight hrs.

I can’t understand where some people get all those ideas.

Dont beleave what you read on this site until you check it out for yourself.

thank you, have a nice day.

Last week the Walmart in Texarkana had the lowest priced gasoline in town at $1.81 per gallon.  Exxon, Mobil, Shell and the big corporations were much higher.  I will continue to buy from Walmart.  I will not contribute to the Billions in profit that the major brand oil companies are making each quarter.  Which company do you think Walmart buys their gasoline from?  I would like to know.  (Shell, Exxon and Mobil were over $2.00 per gallon last weeK.) Joan in Texarkana

Isn’t it funny, that Sandra Monday, is against communism, yet advocates socialized business that provides everything a worker needs to survive?  Maybe she would prefer forced mandatory benefits over competition.  Gee, maybe we could even live in business provided housing communities, given business provided food baskets and have the CEO’s dictate what we do everyday, whether we are at work or not.

Sounds like she is promoting communism, doesn’t it?  Take the options away from the workers, right?  Maybe she would like us to become Red America.

Robert, this also will be my last comment.  I don’t think I came across as “happy holidays” being my chief complaint.  I realize this is a small isssue.
Dan, I do pick my battles, and I know the ramifications of my choices.  When I said stand firm, I mean for what’s right, in every aspect of life.  If good people say nothing, there will be no one left to stand.  Walmart will do what they want, and life will go on.  I know that.  I understand that.  We’re just trying to preserve our rural area.  We have to try.
I want to wish everyone a blessed Thanksgiving.  Remember to give thanks for all you have.  We are so fortunate to live in a country where we can freely discuss such issues.  Thank you all for some interesting and stimulating conversation. 
Have a blessed Christmas.  Remember, it’s not the tree, or the gifts, but the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, whom we celebrate.  God bless.

Kim in Drumore wrote about saving her rural area and thus a rural way of life.

I owned and ran a dairy farm for 20 years and found it to be a wonderful experience.  But, we all have to face some facts that we may not want to face.  The population of the U.S. is growing at an alarming rate and these people have to live and work somewhere.  We just can’t keep stacking people up like cordwood, so urban sprawl is inevitable.  And, let’s face it, rural life will not provide the income necessary for all the newcomers.  I had to sell my farm, because I could not afford to run it any longer and had to work in a foundry to supplement my income, there were not enough hours in a day to do both.  As for your children, if you have some, Kim, how will they support themselves in the future?  Fact is, most rural children leave the area and migrate to the cities.  I myself would rather have a place for my children to work that is close to home, than to have to travel to visit them. 

Just something to think about!!

The gas stations at Wal-Marts iare owned and operated by Murphy Oil Company.

Kim thanks for answering my question.

Joan,

Your welcome.  Count yourself lucky, our gas is still $2.15 a gallon for regular in NC.  It was up to $3.29 at one point.

OK, this will be my last comment.  My husband’s family has been farming for 3 generationson the same farm.  As dairy farmers and now crop farmers.  I know first hand the struggles they must deal with.  My son lives in IL, and travels throughout the country with his job.  He can work in a city or rural areas.  You say so matter-of -fact that the farmland will disappear.  Don’t take it so lightly.  The food in the cans, on the store shelves, has to come from somewhere.  I would be against ANY large store that takes away our precious farmland, not just Walmart.  OK, I’m done.

Kim wrote:

“ Don’t take it so lightly.  The food in the cans, on the store shelves, has to come from somewhere.  I would be against ANY large store that takes away our precious farmland, not just Walmart.  OK, I’m done. “

I do not take any of this lightly, it is just that I am facing reality.  Luckily, the farmers have been able to increase production to keep the supplies up.  When I was farming, it was reported that the average farmer had an income of $2.00 an hour, based on the number of hours they worked.  That was in 1989.  Plus, they had high costs for equipment and supplies, it was said that most farmers, would not be able to pay off most of their debts in their lifetimes.  I have great respect for all farmers.  On top of that, who sets the prices that farmers get for their product?  It’s not the farmers!!  It’s either the government or commodity brokers.  The government set the price paid for milk.  When I went out of business, we were getting $10.50 for 100 pounds of milk.  Government statistics showed that it cost a farmer $11.50 per 100 pounds to produce, how’s that for a profit?

I think it’s great that your family has heldout for 3 generations and sorry to hear that your son lives so far away from you, but, that is what I was saying.  Fight Wal-Mart and I hope you win and the store moves to a different area, but, sadly, I think it might just take up some different farmland somewhere else.

For Michigan, Oklahoma and Tennessee residents, maybe Wal-Mart could locate in the space of the abandoned GM plants and provide new jobs for displaced workers, instead of some rural area.

You people need to read this and then tell me I’m crazy
there are footnotes, everything is documented and well researched..prison work camps for people who commited no crimes making, Wal-Mao products. See I told you so.

http://www.lizmichael.com/qinshi.htm

if this doesn’t scare you then you have no feeelings at all for other human beings and how dare you call yourself a Christian. When you are shopping at Wal-Mao know what these people who are making these cheap products are going through for your low prices, you unfeeling scum.

Sandra Monday wrote:

“ if this doesn’t scare you then you have no feeelings at all for other human beings and how dare you call yourself a Christian. When you are shopping at Wal-Mao know what these people who are making these cheap products are going through for your low prices, you unfeeling scum. “

I hope then that you don’t own anything that was ‘Made in China”, because to do so would make you a hypocrite and an unfeeling scum.  Do you own anything that was made in China?  Are you sure?  What about components of your car or TV, etc.?

This factory prison was run “specifically” to make products for Wal-Mao. The people were not allowed to leave and were often forced to work at gun point, with little food, and cramped sleeping quarters and you have nothing to say about that at all?

Except to ask where my T.V. is made? We can’t fix everything overnight the fact is there is only one company left in the U.S. that makes T.V.’s and it was on PBS how Wal-Mao tried to bully them out of business.

So what do have to say now you demonic neo-con?

Robert, one more time.  I’m also sorry my son lives so far away, but he didn’t go to the BIG CITY for a job.  He went to Tech. school out there and he decided to stay. [he’s home for a couple months right now, praise the Lord!].  He stayed because he repairs hail damage on cars, and IL is a central location.  Not a whole lot of hail in PA.  So you see, he can work anywhere, big city or rural countryside.  He did not migrate to the city to find work.  You city folk need to wake up.  You need the farmers more than you know, until it’s too late.  Robert, I’m surprised you have such a “so what” attitiude, given that you farmed for 20 years.  I for one want American grown food, not chicken with bird flu shipped from China.  AND THAT’S MY FINAL ANSWER!!!!!

Lol Kim, Robert, at least you two are fighting nicer now.  Kim to you personally I would focus your attention on what to do to stop Walmart at home, and I am glad to see that you aren’t necessarily supporting the leftwing liberal machine that is Walmart watch.  We all lose on the whole “happy holidays” issue....but you have to take on the whole liberal machine to change it....instead of just one business that succumbed to pressure. 

Robert you are too effective at throwing in common sense to the half truth that Walmart watch is based on to waste it on infighting.  Keep slinging common sense and see how many of the people sitting on the fence can be brought to reason versus eating the force fed crap.

Oh everybody please do go to Sandra’s link.  I don’t know how much is factual.....this was written by a person that is definitely biased so it has to be taken with a grain of salt.  The one funny thing about all this.......this is NOT a prison camp.  In the article it talks about conditions, but it also says that these people go there to work....by choice.  This is a direct quote from the article “The Qin Shi factory has such a notorious reputation for cruelty and exploitation that the workers admit they are ashamed to tell anyone where they actually work – to endure such conditions must mean that you are very, very poor and down on your luck.” It really amazes me how people will see what they want to see but not actually analyze it.....if she would have she would have realized that this only supports poor working conditions....not a prison camp.  Hell we had these same working conditions in this country not so long ago, and we were already a democracy.  The way to bring about social reform is to drown them with as much Westernization as is humanly possible.  The government will not be happy about it, but once the common man realizes they can have this, reform will happen.  It will be suppressed at first, but it will eventually happen.  It has already started.  And yes Sandra, if you are anything, it is a hypocrite.

Oh one other thing to point out about that article after rereading it.  The source material is 5 years out of date.  Now does this ultimately affect anything?  I have no way of knowing.  I am just looking at an outdated piece of biased information.  Things may have improved in 5 years or they may not.  I’m not even 100% sure that Walmart itself offered health insurance of any kind to it’s retail employees 5 years ago....but I know they do now, regardless of the quality or the price.  Lol one other thing....if buying from China is so bad would we be better off buying from Thailand, Vietnam or any of the other asian countries to keep costs down?  Buying American is great don’t get me wrong, but being forced or told to takes choice away from us all.  In some areas we excel....in others we are sadly lacking in this day and age.  Who makes better electronics, America or Japan?

Ok Dan don’t be a liar the article says they had guns and guards and that thier I.D. Tags were taken away from them so if they were found by Chinese officials they might be arrested. China has not changed that much in five years I guarantee that, but even if I found some source material that proved that, you would still back track some how to defend thier practices, probably because you are paid Wal-maoist propaganda artists, who try to defamate anyone who speaks out against this. You protect those in power not the truth.

Yeah sounds real freakin’ voluntary....to a limp-pricked frigid anglo KKK unfeeling neo-con that eats babies for breakfast and calls them tax deductions

“Working up to 98 hours a week, it is not easy to find the time to go out. But the workers have another fear as well. Before entering the Qin Shi factory, management confiscates the identification documents of each worker.When someone goes outside, the company also takes away their factory I.D. tag, leaving them with no identification at all.When you need to use the bathroom the company again confiscates your factory I.D. and monitors the time you spend. If you are away from your workstation for more than eight minutes you will receive a severe fine.”

Further deductions from the workers’ wages are made for the temporary residency and work permits the workers need, which the factory management intentionally delays applying for for several months.  This also leaves the workers trapped and afraid to leave the factory grounds, since without these legal permits they can be deported at any minute.

“Qin Shi management also illegally withholds the workers first month’s wages, so it is only at the end of the second month that the workers receive, or may receive, their first pay. Because of all of the deductions and fines, many workers earn nothing at all after two months work, and instead, are actually in debt to the company. “

“46 percent of the workers earned nothing at all and were actually in debt to the company. “

“A worker at the Qin Shi factory tried to call Wal-Mart’s human rights complaint phone number: AT&T;Direct 1-800-963-8442 (outside the U.S.).  The worker could not get through.”

Check Mate

Okay, all these dates on the website are dated for 1999. How about some recent evidence to support your cause. Not some crap that is 6 years old!!!

The one thing you are start leaving out of the mix Sandra is that they went there in the first place.  They knew the reputation of the place.....they must if they were embarassed to say where they work.  Hell why are you defending them at all?  You call everybody that doesn’t agree with you inferior....so these Chinese must be at the very bottom of the food chain to you.....especially since somewhere along the line they went there by choice.

Now as far as your source material....if you find something even remotely current and from an unbiased source instead of a biased one I may start to see your point....but I’m still not sure if I could get my head that far up my ass.

Oh....babies are good....especially with milk.  Can’t get by without the lil crunchies. 

Check mate?  How the hell do you even get that?  You keep changing the game everytime somebody debunks you.  Btw debunking you isn’t that difficult.

Oh one other thing Sandra.  Don’t call me a defamation spouter....I don’t want to be anywhere in your league.  The only one I have potentially defamed is you....and you don’t need alot of help with that.  You also failed to list the other companies this same biased piece pointed out....you only picked out one.

So far in these posts almost everyone else has said something with some semblance of reason (for or against)....except you.  If anyone else reading these posts wants to even be remotely associated with this nut please sound off.  Also realize that not everything I have said has been in Walmarts defense....just in support of doing personal research and using a bit of common sense before spouting off half cocked, or buying into the half cocked ideas of others.

Sandra I apologize for doing this....but I finally have you figured out and have to let out what I now know.

Sandra is a mole for Walmart.  That’s right people.....she is on Walmart’s payroll. 

Why would Walmart watch want a nut who is so far out in left field that she makes their cause look bad with such outrageous lunacy?  Why would Walmart watch want someone who insults not only their opponents....but their own supporters who are not as far out their as she is, or not in complete agreement with her on all of these goofy ideas?  I’m not 100% sure that Walmart would post a mole....but if they would she would have to be it.  She portrays all Walmart watch people as being completely nuts with wild unrealistic accusations, which makes Walmart look better along the way.  Shame on you Walmart.

One thing I forgot to add in my last post.  Has anyone noticed how she has kept poking and prodding to make us rationally justify all of the points that Walmart watch has issues with?  To top it all off......we have done it.  I feel so used.  I think I need to be paid for all of my unintentional PR work.

I’m sure you are paid. We know which side your on and who butters your bread.

http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2004/03/meyerson-h-03-22.html

This is from 2004 you asshole,

People please Boycott Wal-Mao and Chinese products if and when you can. You’re too poor you say, well here’s how I do it
Buy things second hand that way even if it was made in the wrong conditions, you are not directly feeding back into that negative economic model. Buy things from Goodwill, Salvation Army, a reupholstered couch that’s used will often last just as long as one from Rooms To GO or Wal-Mao .
anyway. Salvation Army and Goodwill give back the community a million times more than Wal-Mao and you will save more money at the same time.. There are also Church thrift stores and in my community I shop at a thrift store that gives specifically back to the Autistic and developmentaly disabled community. Garage sales are a hit and stores like Save-a-lot have much cheaper groceries than Wal-Mao. Also if you have land, grow some of your own organic vegetables and herbs like I do, it will save you money and you can make a compost heap out of eggshells, coffegrounds etc so you don’t have to spend money on fertilizer. Make your own clothes and things when you can if you know how, I’ve made several dresses that hold up a ton better than the crap at Wal-Mao. Develop some inner resources people, get informed. Dan, Robert and thier kind are haters of everything real beautiful and true in the world, they probably kick puppies in thier spare time. They are dinosaurs destined for extinction because of thier inability to love. Thier affection for $$ outweighs thier affection for thier country and other human beings. They lack a soul, they are almost like cyborgs. Don’t sell out and be like them, be a human being develop a creative and spiritual center that dead things like them cannot touch.  Help the people of China, by repsecting thier rights to live better too.

Shove this up your ass you Neo-Con swine!

“But its foremost achievement may be to encapsulate the vast literature that describes the part-feudal, part-communist labor system in which Chinese peasants must labor when they go to work in China’s export-sector factories. Under China’s hukou system of household registration, citizens must live and work in the place where they are permanently registered, normally their place of birth. Every household is designated as rural or urban, a distinction on which a caste system has been erected.

Urban workers are free to apply for and leave jobs; they are entitled to state housing and pensions. Rural workers, however, need state permission to seek work in towns and factories. Once employed, they enter a bonded-labor arrangement in which they cannot quit unless they can pay their employer an amount plainly beyond their means. The hukou system forbids them to compete with urban workers for higher-paying jobs, and migrant workers without jobs are subject to arrest by the state’s public security bureau.

By state design, then, these workers have no power to affect their conditions of work. Though productivity in China has skyrocketed, they are routinely paid rural-level subsistence wages—as little as 15 to 30 cents an hour—when they are paid at all. Employers tend to recruit childless, young, single women, whom they pack into cement-block dormitories to which the women are commonly restricted when they’re not on the factory floor. They cannot leave. They organize at the peril of imprisonment or torture.

China has 160 million workers in manufacturing and mining, nearly 12 times the U.S. total. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that 20 million peasants will enter the urban workforce every year for the next 20 years. This is, make no mistake, the planet’s proletariat—and it in no way resembles the kind of free labor force we take for granted in the United States. Those U.S.-based corporations that invest in Chinese factories—a long list headed by Wal-Mart—owe some nice chunk of their profits to a workforce toiling, to resurrect a line from Mao, under “THE BARRELL OF A GUN.”

Yes, yes, yes Sandra.  We get the point, You’re a paid tool to make all the Walmart watch people look bad.  This is my last response to any of your stuff.  Keep spouting the litany of insanity to turn people off to the cause.  I don’t even know if I am for or against the cause....I just know this is pretty low to make them all look like morons.

I know you are but what am I?

Dan is bald and has impotence, his wife only has sex with him once a month..that’’s why he always votes republican. I picture him having the ugly deathly pale grey anglo-rodentia appearance of Dick Cheney. Dan is paid by Wal-mao in some dark dank moldy basement to plug into all the anti-Wal-Mao blogs, and there he lives an angry white neo-con with Rush Limbaugh plugged into one ear, and the stock market quotes in the other. A flag made in China adorns his wall.
He has no appreciation for poetry, the sound of birds in the dawn light, or the dew on the grass. He is all hate all control all nothingness, a catalog for a brain, a bank account for a heart, and a camera lens for eyes. He is a machine of his own making, he is dead to romance, truth, life the screaming yellow sun-flowers that blast like fresh ideas into others’ minds.

For him there is no God, no Other only his lonely biological self waiting for death on some cosmic que.
Until then he hates all that questions the rotting rusty system he worships, he is of the Serpent, he has no appreciation for the Garden, it is a waste of $profit$ in his eyes.

If there is a long list of corporations that invest in Chinese factories, then why is it that I only see you people going after Wal-Mart? What about the rest of them?

And Wal-Mart isn’t the one that makes these conditions, it’s their government. So until you start going after all the companies that have invested something in Chinese factories, you’re not going to get very far.

And when you say that Wal-Mart gives nothing back to community, that is a line of bullshit of it’s own. I have seen my store give so much back to the community. Along with helping associates when they are in need.  Just like a 17 year old Cashier who was just in a car accident last week and lost her right leg due to a piece of shit drunk driver. They have done so damn much for her. Along with me and a few other associates.

How many of your bosses would actually start a collection for you? Or put together a gift basket? Or just do anything at all? Until you actually work for Wal-Mart and see what they all do, then don’t even think about saying they do nothing for the community.

How about going after Target? They won’t even let Veteran’s stand outside their doors during the holidays to raise money. Or the Salvation Army for that matter. But I don’t see anyone going after them for anything.

Because Wal-Mao is the most powerful, so forcing it to change would have an immediate domino effect on the other retailers. Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the U.S. and over p of its goods come from China.

So because Wal-Mao is the largest employer in U.S and p of its goods come from China…

reason only follows that to change them would change workers rights here and the world over.

Like the Dalai Lama said, if you care about your brother’s rights to happiness, it shows that you care about your own.

So by caring about worker’s rights in China, not wanting young girls imprisoned or beaten and raped forced to work 18hrs a day, it shows you could love someone without ever having met them, which shows you are also capable of Loving God.

It is what Christ would require of you. If you can’t love the oppressed in other lands, how can you truly love God. God is love.

By the way, I’m sorry the only sense of community you can get is from a retailer, that speaks of the sad condition of our culture. I personally get it at my local YMCA, we meet and talk at the pool like Greek philosphers, we consel in each other and help one another in times of need. The great thing is we all come different backgrounds and have different employers. So we aren’t brainwashed by “shitting where we eat”

Just think about what I said

Not trying to be rude Sandra, but I’m done making my point. You can think/feel/act however you please. But I’m very happy working for Wal-Mart.

I love my health insurance and all the rest of my benefits that I get working there and I wouldn’t change any of it. But like I said before, until you actually work for Wal-Mart and see what they all do, you really can’t say a whole lot about their practices.

Then you have no love for those suffering at Slave Factories in China and so you have damned yourself by choosing to be selfish.

Christ would never work for, or shop at a company that condoned suffering and slavery of people, he was blind to race and nationality

But it is YOU who must sleep at night knowing you PROFIT FROM the suffering of others. Hope karma doesn’t come back to bite you in the ass.

Wal-Mao is good to you, only because you are here in America not China where over p of thier products come from a golden calf full of money, but your brothers and sisters created by God, and in pain,in China mean nothing to you.

If you choose to side with the greed of a corporation over the health and safety of other human beings than you have SOLD OUT NANCY.

and you know what you have sold out to:
Communism, selfishness, greed, apathy, coldness, isolation,

Wal-Mao is not a community, you are merely darkies picking cotton to them, and they are your white wealthy slave owners. You can always be sold to someone else.

wal marts the best ever

walmart is sweeeeeeet whoot whoot
sde5tdfr5ht7bgfh7

hey there. i thing walmart is bad idea! its going to cost us ZILLIONS!

I think Walmart totally sucks. I dont understand why we need to build one in Lockport - We already have enough shopping centers here. And if we HAD to build something, it should be better than Walmart. Something like Target or a mall or something. Not everyone likes Wal-mart (as you can see, I am one of these people) so I think that Wal-mart would be a very poor decision for the shopping

OK if we get walmart we are going to pay higher taxes and its gonna stink

lockport sucks.move to hawaii.

walmart is for hillbillies

Lol by the look of the current posts just about anybody who had anything worthwhile to input has said it and left the building.  Let open discussion come to a close and let the hypocrites have their spots back.  Let the assinine and moronic have their one sided issue and may they lose in biblical proportions.  Long after they are gone Walmart will still be here.  Maybe the bird flu or SARS will make a stand at these Chinese factories, wipe them all out, and leave nothing for our domestic hypocrites to complain about.  We can say a requiem mass for them instead of trying to kill Walmart to do absolutely nothing to the Chinese government who would just find another buyer anyhow, or cut costs even further to make our other domestic buyers buy more and in essence make these people work harder.  If you listen to some of these posters the Chinese workers would be better off dead anyhow.

One last thing.  Taking down Walmart to help the Chinese workers would not create a domino effect.  It would create a vacuum.  This environment would harm the Chinese much more than help them.  Less money coming in means that the Chinese would still work just as hard....but for less money.  If the fight is for the domestic employees of Walmart....leave it alone, they don’t want it.  If the fight is against sprawl.....sprawl is inevitable, we have outgrown our own resources.  If the fight is to help the Chinese workers.....stop, you will only harm them further in the end.  These changes all need to come from within their own respective areas......forcing them from outside will only make things worse for all that are actually involved.  If the only purpose to force these issues in areas where you are not directly affected is for the warm fuzzy feeling it gives.....you should feel ashamed of yourselves.  Trying to improve things that don’t affect you tend to harm those that are involved.  Stay out of others business, or may someone impact yours just as dangerously.

Sandra please don’t bother to tax your resources on my account by putting up a response to this.  The only reason I am even addressing you again is because this is my last post.  You can respond if you like....but if it is aimed at me it will never reach it’s target.  I am done with this whole foolish Walmart watch issue.  Those that had anything worthwhile to say, pro or con, have said it and moved on to greener pastures, which is what I am doing.  The end result is the anti Walmart zealouts will remain zealouts, those that support Walmart for whatever reason will continue to do so, and those that are on the middle of the fence will hopefully do some research from unbiased sources and make their own decisions.  Regardless, this is my last time coming to this site in general. 

Last issue directly to you Sandra....how dare you invoke the name of Christ?  Look at how you have talked to all of the people in here that have not agreed with you, in part or in general, and you think you can take a holier than thou stand.  You are of the worst class of hypocrite.  Go to your greek baths and stop spouting religious....it just doesn’t work for you.  When you insult all those around you and then call them bad for not caring about strangers.....you are considerably worse than someone whose sin is not caring.  Theirs is a passive sin....yours is active and by intent, offensive to man and God.

-Fin-

To Sandra,

Now you started bringing religion into this. If you don’t want to shop at Wal-Mart, THEN DON"T!!!!!!!!! That is your choice. Just like me working for Wal-Mart, that is my choice. I have made it and I’m sticking with it.

How about this. You go into Shopko, Target, any other big retail store and you come back and tell us how much of their merchandise is made in the USA? Then we’ll see if you really have a leg to stand on. Because from what I see from shopping at different stores, Wal-Mart isn’t the only company that has merchandise coming in from China.

And another thing, before you start putting down Wal-Mart and any other business that has items imported from China or anywhere else, you had damn well better than a look around your house and see what you all have that is from there and get rid of it. Your house is going to be pretty damn bare once you are finished.

So you should be pretty damn happy that these places are importing items otherwise I’m doubting you would even have them.

And about the work conditions in China. Unless I see this all first hand, I’m not going to believe any of this. It’s too far fetched for Wal-Mart to be treating Associates or anyone like is stated.  If what you say IS true and you have seen it with YOUR OWN 2 EYES, then we’ll talk. But until that time, forget it. I’m not taking anything that anyone puts down, especially a news article or anything like that as being true. A lot of time that is only going one way, not both.

So until I get a response AFTER you have seen all of this WITH YOUR OWN 2 EYES, your words really don’t mean anything except for false accusations.

your mother is niceee. your father is niceee. your brother is gay but hes niceee. to youu to youuu. but he doesnt llovee youuu. like i… love youuuuu. beava cleava..beava cleavaaaa.

wel guys, i agree with the hawaii person! lockport WILL suck with a walmart! its right across from a school and it sells liqour and alchohol… yea what a great example for highschool kids! jeez just go put it somwhere else!!! I HOPE THAT WALMART DIES AND BURNS!

Hey, Dan in Darien. One question - How do you know so much about the Chinese people and their so-called slavery jobs at Wal-Mart? Are you Chinese?

And if so, DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DO KUNG-FU?!