The Wal-Mart Watch Blog
midwest

| Feb 24, 2010

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Check out Wake Up Walmart’s latest piece over on Huffington Post. It highlights the story of Patricia from Ohio, a Walmart worker who was faced with the choice of going to work sick or losing her job because of Walmart’s irresponsible and harmful sick day policy. 

| Jan 28, 2010

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Walmart has a pretty spotty record when it comes to grassroots support groups. They can’t seem to resist the temptation to simply let PR firms make things up for them. There was the fake blog “Walmarting Across America” which, it was revealed, was actually organized by Walmart’s PR firm. The vehicle the “bloggers” used as well as their meals, expenses and gas, were all provided for them. There was the fake “community group” Working Families for Walmart, which was also run by a PR firm Walmart hired.

And now it seems that Walmart is doing the same thing in Chicago, where they’re struggling to get a foothold for their potential second store within city limits. Chicagoist, a prominent local blog, received some suspiciously pro-Walmart comments on their blog and decided to investigate. They found what seems to be theChicagoland Chamber of Commerce and Serafin & Associates are both working to push Walmart’s agenda in Chicago, and posing as a local community group.

The Chicagoland admitted to launching the site Our Community, Our Choice which proclaims, “Everyone else but Chatham and the South Side are making the decisions – It’s OUR CHOICE, NOT THEIRS.”

You should read the full article from Chicagoist, but the following section is particularly interesting:

Mike Mini told me that Wal-Mart is indeed a member of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, that they have “a representative on the Government Affairs Committee,” and that “our process is kind of open. Any member that expresses an interest can come to meetings and work on issues that are important to them.” Is the Chamber working on behalf of Wal-Mart in the city? “We’re working on behalf of policies that we feel further business and commerce in the city.” Because I got to Mr. Mini through Our Community, Our Choice, I asked what his involvement in the site was. “It’s part of our advocacy effort to gain support,” and that “we set that up as a way to communicate with people. We were expecting this to come up for a vote before the council sooner, but obviously it’s been stalled.” I asked him if he was familiar with Serafin and Associates. “Yes, we have worked with them in our strategy sessions. We’ve worked with [Thomas] Serafin and his team.” When I told him that our site had gotten comments from the email address that led me to him and asked if he knew that it was being used to comment on blogs, he said “no, not that I’m aware of.” Are you surprised that an IP address from Serafin was being used that way? “No, not in particular.” Why not? “I really can’t comment without looking into it further.”

| Dec 02, 2009

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Al Norman has a throughly disturbing story over at the Huffington Post:

On December 3rd, a 15 year old black girl will enter a Juvenile Courtroom in Davenport, Iowa to face charges of shoplifting $39 worth of merchandise from the Wal-Mart superstore on West Kimberly Road. Hundreds of similar incidents take place everyday in the Wal-Mart Empire, and most escape notice by the media.

Destiny Crawford, the 15 year old defendant, denies she stole anything from Wal-Mart. But the ordeal she went through after the alleged incident doesn’t fit the crime.

According to the family, on August 2, 2009, James Crawford Jr. was shopping for groceries at Wal-Mart. James’ teenage sister, Destiny, was in his care while his parents made a short trip to Chicago. Destiny was accompanied by a schoolmate on the shopping trip. While James shopped for necessities, the two teenagers wandered through the aisles, trying on shoes, and looking at trinkets. In the bakery section, the girls met up again with James, who gave them his wallet and a bag of dog food, instructing Destiny to pay for the item with cash at the self-check out and to meet him outside at the car. James waited in a longer line to pay for the groceries with his EBT card.

As the two girls left Wal-Mart, two men--who neither produced identification nor asked the two teenagers for their I.D.--stopped the girls, and accused them of shoplifting. The men physically forced the teenagers back into the store. James saw the men walking his sister and her friend to the other end of the store. He made his way over to the girls and asked the men what was taking place. He was told the teens were being taken to an interrogation room. James stated that he was his sister’s guardian and as a minor she needed to have a parent or guardian present. The Wal-Mart employees told James he wasn’t allowed in the room. A Wal-Mart manager appeared and stated that she would serve as guardian for Destiny. James refused to agree to his sister or her friend being questioned without his presence, and he tried to follow the girls into the interrogation room.

The girls complied with the order to enter the room, but when James followed, he was pushed out of the way and the door was shut in his face. James says he could hear the men yelling at the girls. One asked, “Why don’t you people respect us?” James then called 911. Two Davenport police officers arrived. They didn’t identify themselves to James nor did they ask for his version of the incident. They took their place in front of the door.

Within seconds of the officers’ arrival, the door to the room opened, and Destiny ran out toward her brother. Destiny had not been told to stay in the room, nor was she being physically restrained. She never reached her brother’s side. One of the officers applied an arm bar that put Destiny face down on the floor of Wal-Mart. The officer then dropped his knee into the middle of her back. As her forehead hit the floor, Destiny was lifted up by the back of her shirt and spun around so that her forehead hit the wall. Her face was then manually turned by the officer and pressed into the wall. The officer turned Destiny around so that she was facing him and pressed down on her shoulders until she was sitting on the floor.

As Destiny hit the floor James took a step forward and said, “That is my sister.” The second officer told James to step back, and he stepped back. But when Destiny’s forehead hit the wall, James stepped forward again and asked, “Why are you doing that to my sister?” The second officer then put James’ hands behind his back. James says he knew in that instant that this was an entirely new game and he said nothing else.

James was taken to jail and charged with two misdemeanors: disorderly conduct and interfering with an official act. Destiny was put in a squad car. One officer reportedly took out his stun gun and said to Destiny, “I swear to God I will taze you if you resist.” The stun gun was held twelve inches from Destiny’s head a little above her ear. Upon arriving at the squad car Destiny had her face forced into the trunk of the car. She was then handcuffed and read her Miranda rights. A short while later, Destiny was released from the squad car to her second oldest brother. She was given a ticket for shoplifting. Destiny was taken to the hospital. She had a concussion, lacerations and bruises. Her hospital bill totaled $3,000.

This week, 4 months after this harrowing incident, the Crawford family has still not seen either the police tapes from this incident, or the Wal-Mart surveillance tapes. James and his family asked Wal-Mart for a copy of the tape. They were told by Wal-Mart that the Davenport Police Department had the tape. The tape eventually showed up in the City Attorney’s office. After two months of having the tape and preparing his case, the City Attorney offered to let James see the tape if he would go to trial without a lawyer.

On November 24, 2009, the Assistant County Attorney in Scott County, Iowa wrote to Destiny’s Court-appointed attorney, indicating that the County had reviewed the Wal-Mart surveillance video. The Assistant County Attorney said the Wal-Mart tape was “not material or relevant to the case...It does not show the alleged theft, it does not contain a confession by Ms. Crawford or the other involved juvenile, and it does not show the retrieval of the stolen property.” The Assistant County Attorney also acknowledged that he had a copy of the police video of the incident, which he said was also ‘immaterial and irrelevant to the alleged offense.” Destiny’s lawyer subpoenaed the Wal-Mart video from the county, but the Assistant County Attorney says he cannot provide that tape, since it is in the hands of the Davenport Police. Neither Wal-Mart nor the Davenport Police want a Rodney King-style video to reach Iowa TV viewers.

So far, the Crawford family has received no apology from either the Davenport Police, or from Wal-Mart over the violent arrest of their daughter for allegedly stealing $39 from the world’s richest retailer. Wal-Mart has not dropped the charges, or offered to pay for Destiny’s hospital bills.

But they still have time before Destiny walks into that courtroom.

| Nov 17, 2009

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There’s an interesting story involving Walmart that is getting some national attention today. Rick Sanchez, who has a show on CNN every week day at 3, is covering a story about a young African American woman, Heather Ellis, who switched check out lines at her local Walmart store, apparently to join her cousin, and sparked a racially charged disturbance. Walmart called the cops and Health Ellis claims they were unduly harsh, using racial slurs and unnecessary violence. She is now facing a trial that could put her in jail for 15 years, accused of assaulting police officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace. Ellis also claims that she was hassled by Walmart employees before they called the police. You can read the full story from the AP here.

That this incident happened at Walmart is not really that shocking. For whatever reason, Walmart has a recent history littered with violent altercations between guests and security guards, and often involving police. Their extreme tactics with shoplifters have resulted in harsh injuries and, in a few cases, death. Walmart also has a history of racial insensitivity. Despite their official PR messages, their corporate culture seems to be lacking tolerance for minorities. Walmart sued for discriminating against African American truck drivers, there was a case where Walmart employees mocked a Muslim woman, and just last week a gay couple was accused of shoplifting and banned from the store for life despite Walmart and the police admitting they did nothing wrong. Finally, it seems that Walmart’s security team could have dealt with a simple line cutting. If elementary school teachers can keep kids in line on a regular basis, shouldn’t security guards keep rational adults from fighting with one another?

We encourage you to call in to Rick Sanchez’s show at 877-742-5751 or send him a message on twitter (@ricksanchezcnn) with your thoughts on this case.

| Nov 09, 2009

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Walmart has some strange habits. First, many stores like to forces customers to show receipts before they leave, even though customers don’t have to. This has lead to several unpleasant, and even violent, encounters. Second, Walmart aggressively goes after some shoplifters (sometimes so aggressively that they cause serious injury and death) while ignoring others. They even have a policy (that may have changed, we haven’t been able to figure out their current policy) not to prosecute anyone under the age of 18 for shoplifting, or anyone stealing anything under $25.

While these policies seem a bit strange and contradictory, they don’t explain what happened recently in Michigan. It seems that a gay couple and their two adopted children were shopping at their local Walmart and when they went to leave, a Walmart employee asked if they had bought Bic lighters. They said they had and handed them to the employee who then demanded to see the receipt, which was also handed over. At that point, the couple was accused of shoplifting (which they had not) and the employee demanded that they go back to their detention room. When the couple refused to go for fear of what might happen behind closed doors, the store called the cops who, without asking questions, put both men in separate squad cars and handed the two children over to Walmart who put them in their detention room.

After Walmart, and the cops, had review the security tapes, they determined that the men had not stolen anything. Instead of apologizing for putting the family through a traumatic experience, Walmart informed the family that they were banned from any Walmart store for life for being “uncooperative”.

The whole story is really worth a read because it is just so unbelievable. It is entirely unclear why this happened. Many are suggesting that the family was singled out because they were gay. We don’t know if that is the case, but it certainly seems that Walmart treated these particular customers far harsher than usual.

You can read the full story here. It is well worth a read.

| Oct 14, 2009

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Current and former Walmart workers in Iowa are the most recent to be a party to a major class action settlement with Walmart. The $11 million settlement is in response to Walmart illegally forcing employees to work through breaks or work off the clock. This particular settlement is part of a larger agreement Walmart made back in December to settle 63 wage and hour cases across the country.

Of course the settlement is far from satisfactory. First because Walmart admitted no wrong doing, even though they clearly systematically abused their workers. Second, with 97,000 workers sharing the $11 million settlement, that works out to a little over $100 a person. I would bet that that doesn’t even cover the wages they cheated workers out of.

Read the full story from the AP here.

| Oct 02, 2009

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From our allies over at Wake Up Walmart:

If you are an Ohio taxpayer, you’re probably footing the bill for Walmart’s unaffordable health care plans.

Newly released data shows that Ohio spends roughly $68.5 million each year providing state benefits to Walmart employees. The numbers are staggering. Over 15,000 Walmart employees use Medicaid, 12,000 are on food stamps, and thousands more utilize other state-run programs.

Worst of all, it’s paid for out of Ohio taxpayers’ pockets.

Walmart doesn’t need your money to support its employees. With nearly $14 billion in profits last year, Bentonville can clearly afford to do better.

We can’t allow Walmart to fail its employees and your state. Please take action: inform your local newspaper about Walmart’s exploitation of Ohio’s health and welfare programs.

Write Your Newspaper: Let Your Community Know That Walmart is Failing Ohio

Walmart claims to support health care reform and the employer mandate. Yet, In spite of astronomical profits, Walmart fails to cover 700,000 of its employees and offers plans too costly for its average employees to afford.

Walmart claims that nearly 95% of its employees are covered by company health care or by a family member. Yet, in Ohio, 28% of Walmart’s Ohio employees are on Medicaid.

Walmart’s claims simply don’t add up, and your state needs to know about it.

Why is Ohio subsidizing the #1 company in the Fortune 500? Let Ohio know that you won’t allow your tax dollars to be a stopgap for Walmart’s low wages and unaffordable health coverage.

Write a Letter to the Editor Today

With your help, we can make Walmart live up to its responsibilities to its workers and to Ohio.

The Team,
WakeUpWalMart.com

| Sep 30, 2009

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Yesterday the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services released a report ranking major employers by their employees’ reliance upon various state run programs like Medicaid and food stamps. With health care reform on the front burner of the American political agenda, this is obviously a pretty important report. It shows that large companies are shirking their responsibilities and forcing tax payers to subsidize them, and guess who was at the top of the list in Ohio.

That’s right, Walmart has more than 15,000 employees and their dependents in Ohio on Medicaid, costing state taxpayers $68 million a year. Walmart has higher Medicaid and food stamp numbers than any other company on the report.

If you read this blog regularly, you know that Walmart is attempting to convince the American people that their company is a positive force when it comes to health care. They’ve run ads, started programs, attempted to open health clinics in their stores, and more. But stories like this throw Walmart’s credibility in to question. How can we trust a company on health care when it fails to cover nearly half of its own employees? How can we trust a company on health care when they are slashing benefits for their own employees? How can we trust a company on health care when they claim that only 2.6% of their workforce in America relies on Medicaid when, in Ohio, the number appears to be so much higher? If Walmart really believes in health care reform, they need to lead by example. If Walmart really believes in health care reform, they need to offer quality affordable health care to their workers.

| Jul 07, 2009

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What do Michael Bloomberg, Donald Trump, and Howard Brookins have in common? They all don’t understand how Wal-Math works. The New York City Mayor, the entrepreneur, and the Chicago Alderman all think that Wal-Mart means new jobs. But according to “Wal-Math,” one job created at Wal-Mart, minus one job destroyed at another retailer, equals one job.

On April 26, 2009, Sprawl-Busters reported that Wal-Mart was still trying to use the jobs argument to open a second store in Chicago, Illinois. But the company has been facing a strong political wind of opposition in the Windy City. The retailer’s attempts to open superstores in Chicago has resulted in one open facility, and five years of spinning wheels. Wal-Mart and big city Mayors generally don’t get along. But Wal-Mart figures that as the economy slides downward, and more people lose their jobs, “Wal-jobs” will start to look better, and more cities will open up their doors to the discounter. Boston Mayor Tom Menino wouldn’t let Wal-Mart into the Downtown Crossing area. Wal-Mart’s forays into Brooklyn, New York have been very bloody. But last June, speaking at an analysts meeting, former Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said that New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg wanted a Wal-Mart. “I just talked to the Mayor,” Scott said, “who wants us. And Donald Trump called this week. And he’d like to have us. But in general, New York City hasn’t called and said please put a store there. Things get bad enough, they will.” This waiting for things to get “bad enough” is the core strategy in Chicago. 

Read the rest of this story ...

| Jul 02, 2009

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Here are what the voices on the Internet are saying about Wal-Mart’s support of employer-mandated health care...not surprisingly, it hasn’t taken long for most to deduce that Wal-Mart is hardly acting in an altruistic way.

Number one on Wal-Mart’s hit list? Easy. Target. Because small businesses would either be exempt from the mandate or face a less-strenuous requirement, it would be Wal-Mart’s large competitors (and more specifically those who have to this point been better at managing health care costs than Wal-Mart) that would feel the brunt of the hurt.

Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic:

I don’t want to make too much of this: Wal-Mart may chicken out once the specifics of an employer mandate end up on the table. Even if they don’t, they may not lift a finger to help. And, make no mistake, Wal-Mart is acting--as it always does--out of pure self-interest.

My undestanding is that, after all of these years, Wal-Mart has suddenly found itself in the same situation its competitors once did: Dealing with unpredictable health costs and facing new competition from businesses that have found ways to spend even less on employee health benefits. Is there some justice there? You bet.

Reihan Salam with the National Review:

There is another way of looking at this. As a large, powerful, deep-pocketed firm, Wal-Mart can sustain regulatory burdens that mom-and-pops and new entrants can’t. And so burdensome regulations are invariably Wal-Mart’s ally. Jonathan Rauch explained this dynamic brilliantly in his book Government’s End. It makes perfect sense for Wal-Mart to back a regulatory initiative that hurts its bottom line as long as it hurts its competitors more.

Megan McArdle for The Atlantic:

Wal-Mart is always going to have a seat at the table when employer mandates are discussed, because Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest private employer.  Target and Macy’s probably won’t have a seat at the table.  So Wal-Mart can influence the rules in ways that benefit Wal-Mart at the expense of the competition.

Jeffrey Young in The Atlantic:

Based on the axiom that nobody in business or politics acts strictly out of altruism, it’s safe to assume that Duke and Wal-Mart’s board of directors concluded that backing the employer mandate would provide the company with some kind of competitive advantage. When I originally reported the story, it wasn’t immediately clear to me what that might be, though I suspected it must have had something to do with Wal-Mart’s calculation of how much money the mandate would cost them relative to other retailers.

Michael Cannon, for the Cato Institute:

A couple of years ago, I shared a cab to the airport with a Wal-Mart lobbyist, who told me that Wal-Mart supports an “employer mandate.” An employer mandate is a legal requirement that employers provide a government-defined package of health benefits to their workers...But it all became clear when the lobbyist explained the reason for Wal-Mart’s position: “Target’s health-benefits costs are lower.”

I have no idea what Target’s or Wal-Mart’s health-benefits costs are.  Let’s say that Target spends $5,000 per worker on health benefits and Wal-Mart spends $10,000.  An employer mandate that requires both retail giants to spend $9,000 per worker would have no effect on Wal-Mart.  But it would cripple one of Wal-Mart’s chief competitors.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce, quoted nearly everywhere (here courtesy again, of Mr. Jeffrey Young):

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce took a pretty nasty swipe at Wal-Mart when I emailed them for a comment. Here’s the statement the Chamber’s press office sent me, attributed to James Gelfand, its senior manager for health policy: “Some businesses make the decision to use the government as a weapon against their competition. We do not agree with this method.” Ouch.

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