Friday Blog Round Up: Last Post Edition
Well, my faithful blog readers, after two years of working on Wal-Mart issues and more than a year as the main editor of this blog, our Friday Blog Round-Up today will be my last post. I hope you all continue reading, commenting and working to challenge Wal-Mart’s business practices. Enjoy the writing of my Wal-Mart Watch colleagues and try to keep the infighting to a minimum. As for now - on to the week’s blogs!
BLOGGERS WEIGH IN ON “EMPLOYEES SPEAK OUT”
Real Voices, Some More Wild Stuff [Working Life]
Wal-Mart Watch has set up a website where you can actually hear and read about the actual workers who have to put up with the oppressive behavior of The Beast. This is part of the picture: the Great Robbery that we have all endured for a number of decades--wages not going up (even though productivity goes up), no health care, no pensions--plays out, day-to-day, in those aisles at Wal-Mart.
The voice of the workers (Part 1) [Writing on the Wal]
What you get there is a look behind Walmart’s PR curtain to see what employees are really thinking, but too afraid to tell their supervisors since they don’t have a union to protect them. Indeed, let’s start this series there, in the category that Wal-Mart Watch calls corporate culture.
After the jump, union-busting in Canada, bottle water, Nike’s suit against the Bentonville behemoth and Sarah Palin.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, October 17 | 32 comments | Permalink
New Report Finds Sweatshop Conditions at Wal-Mart Suppliers in Bangladesh
SweatFree Communities, an anti-sweatshop activist group, went undercover in Bangladesh to examine working conditions in Wal-Mart’s supplier factories. The resulting report (PDF) paints a heart-wrenching portrait of the poverty and abuse that make Wal-Mart’s low prices possible.
BusinessWeek’s article on SweatFree’s findings is equally troubling. The piece highlights problems at Wal-Mart that enable sweatshops: preannounced factory inspections mean managers can hide violations, and fewer corporate reports on the state of its supply chain means Wal-Mart executives are turning a blind eye. Wal-Mart also tried to suppress SweatFree’s report, alone a worrysome fact. SweatFree Communities Executive Director Bjorn Claeson is quoted in the article saying, “Wal-Mart has incredible economic muscle in that country. If it takes the leadership position as a retailer and works with other brands, there is no question that it can really have an impact.”
Wal-Mart Supplier Accused of Sweatshop Conditions [BusinessWeek]
The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), is being accused of buying school uniforms that were made under extreme sweatshop conditions at a factory in Bangladesh.
The JMS Garments Factory in Chittagong, Bangladesh, produces school uniforms that are sold in Wal-Mart stores under the Faded Glory brand name. A report from SweatFree Communities, an anti-sweatshop activist group based in Bangor (Me.), found that workers at the factory work up to 19-hour shifts to finish Wal-Mart’s orders under tight deadlines; are made to stand for hours as punishment for arriving late to work; and are frequently subject to verbal abuse and kicking or beatings. Some workers earn as little as $20 each month, the group says—even lower than the country’s legal minimum wage of $24 per month.
The report is based on interviews with more than 90 workers conducted away from the factory in workers’ homes by a Bangladeshi nongovernmental labor research organization on behalf of SweatFree Communities, a five-year-old nonprofit group funded by activist foundations such as the Solidago Foundation, CarEth Foundation, and Presbyterian Hunger Program. The group works to get commitments from schools, cities, and other employers to buy goods with employee rights in mind.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, October 10 | 5 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Kicks Off Christmas 85 Days Early
Christmas decorations usually start showing up in stores starting in early November. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, shallow panic sets in and consumers start acting like starving hyenas hungry for merchandise. Retailers only make the savage atmosphere worse by discounting for a-limited-time-only and pitting shopper against shopper for the hottest toy or lowest price. Now, a full three months before Christmas, Wal-Mart says: Let the games begin.
Wal-Mart Cuts Prices on Toys for Holidays [Dow Jones Newswire via Wall Street Journal]
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it will cut prices on some of the most popular toys and speed up the opening of Christmas shops in its stores nationwide as it tries to lure budget-conscious shoppers and jump start its biggest selling season.
Ten toys, from butterfly-winged Barbie Mariposa to Fur Real Newborn Animals, are priced at $10 apiece, the Bentonville, Ark.-based company said Wednesday.
Wal-Mart said its moves to get an early start on the holiday selling season are warranted for several reasons. Shoppers are facing higher energy prices and food costs as well as a sluggish economy and the credit crunch. They are expected to start their Christmas shopping earlier and make other changes to help stretch their holiday budgets.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, October 02 | 3 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart, Credit Cards and the SCLC
Gawker breaks down a strange story from the Washington Post today. You can read the full story here, but we’ll add a third point to Hamilton’s argument: the story also shows just how powerful Wal-Mart’s political contributions can be, and the depths organizations will go to to stay in Wal-Mart’s good graces. (We won’t even get in to the pros and cons of Wal-Mart’s credit cards, but for those interested, read our blog archives on the matter here.)
The New Civil Rights: Keeping Wal-Mart Happy [Consumerist]
The story we’re about to bring you is sad on so many levels. Well, two levels. First, it illustrates the disappointing and kind of disgusting decline of a legendary civil rights institution, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), former home of Martin Luther King, Jr. Second, it shows what a farce half of the things you see on editorial pages are, if they come from public figures. We’ll give you a condensed version of this ongoing media vs. advocacy group vs. PR firm controversy—as you read it, ask yourself whether MLK would have found himself caught up in this crap.
Charles Steele, Jr., president of the SCLC, wrote an editorial which ran in several southern newspapers. The editorial was against upcoming legislation that would limit credit card fees—a bill favored by retailers (which would save money) but not by credit card companies (which would lose money in fees).
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, July 29 | 6 comments | Permalink
What Wal-Mart Can Learn from Costco
Wal-Mart defenders are quick to justify the company’s low wages and poor health care plan as necessary for keeping prices low. This piece from author Liza Featherstone argues otherwise. Featherstone examines the differences between Sam’s Club and Costco, two stores with similar business models but divergent views on employee treatment.
Costco’s comparatively higher wages, better health care plan and unionized workforce prove that employee happiness and high profits can co-exist, despite Wal-Mart’s seeming insistence to the contrary. And while Wal-Mart’s profit margins are twice as high, Costco’s revenue per employee is five times that of its Arkansas-based competitor. So while Wal-Mart may insist on low pay and poor benefits, its forward-thinking competitors might just prove this business model is behind the times.
Wage Against the Machine [Slate]
Nearly everyone who’s looked at Wal-Mart’s practices as an employer—its union busting, sex discrimination, low wages, and minimal benefits—has concluded that it’s America’s retail bad guy. By contrast, many who’ve examined the practices of Wal-Mart’s competitor Costco—including New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse in his recent book The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker—conclude that it’s the good guy. Costco CEO and founder Jim Sinegal repeatedly insists to Greenhouse that treating employees well is “good business.”
That makes a pleasing sound bite, and assume for a moment that Sinegal’s assertion is true. Why, then, wouldn’t Wal-Mart do everything it could to make itself more like Costco? Now assume that Sinegal’s assertion is false. Why, then, does Costco treat employees better if that’s against the company’s financial interests?
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, June 27 | 30 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart’s ‘Reform’: Progress or PR?
The debate continues over whether Wal-Mart’s efforts to shape up are actually genuine, or merely the result of a well-crafted PR campaign. I think it’s fair to say: both. Perhaps the biggest problem this debate reveals is Wal-Mart’s lack of transparency. Despite the retailer’s dominant presence in communities across the country, no one really knows how it runs its business. What we do know, however, is that Wal-Mart will do anything to fight the negative publicity it’s received in recent years. As Wal-Mart Watch’s executive director David Nassar says in the article, “Wal-Mart heard the criticism and is trying to do something to address it. All the changes it’s made so far have passed costs onto someone else, whether it’s a health care plan that’s increasing costs for workers or environmental initiatives that pass costs on to suppliers.”
Creating a Better Rep: Wal-Mart Undergoes An Image Turnaround [Women’s Wear Daily]
Talk about a turnaround.
Wal-Mart not too long ago was making headlines almost weekly as critics lambasted the retailer for its pay practices, pollution and rapaciousness. Now it’s being held up as one of the retail world’s better corporate citizens. Along the way, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executives — famously insular and focused principally on what founder Sam Walton would have done — have become more outspoken, open to outsiders’ views and adaptable.
Thanks to a multimillion-dollar public relations and marketing campaign, aggressive environmental initiatives and price rollbacks billed as the retailer’s very own “economic stimulus package,” the company is out to recast itself as a champion of the environment and a benevolent big business.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, June 17 | 10 comments | Permalink
Friday Blog Roundup: Shareholders Edition
SHAREHOLDERS MEETING: MORE SHOW, LESS SUBSTANCE
Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban are going to be performing in Bentonville next week! And some band we’ve never heard of called Lifehouse (and Taylor Swift)! WE’RE SO EXCITED ABOUT THE ENTERTAINMENT WE CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER WHY THE MEETING IS HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE oh wait, yes we do.
Wal-Mart to Shareholders: Just Say No [The Iconoclasts]
Lay up groceries and rent some DVDs before the Wal-Mart shareholders descend on Fayetteville and occupy the city next week. The big annual meeting is scheduled for June 6 at the University of Arkansas, the corporate giant’s wholly-owned subsidiary. They are coming to be entertained and to vote against any shareholder proposals to reform policy or hold management responsible for their actions.
Wal-Mart’s habit of entertaining visitors rather than conducting actual business has everyone raising eyebrows:
Wal-Mart’s green efforts becoming a smokescreen? [BloggingStocks]
Next week’s annual shareholder’s meeting in Fayetteville should once again be more spectacle that business.Last year, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) seemed to spend more money lining up speakers, having pieces of its global operations dance with flags and having a pep rally rather that digging into issues.This year, expect the same—as the retailer has already opposed all the shareholder proposals anyway, so it should be a nice, big party full of entertainment. Nothing else.
Wal-Mart’s emphasis on entertainment have activists decrying the retailer’s lack of commitment to the social issues on this year’s proxy. Pam’s House Blend states,
Call me less than flabbergasted, but Wal-Mart is opposed to a shareholder proposition to add gender identity and expression to their non-discrimination policy...this is the second major corporation we’ve tracked at Pam’s House Blend that has used their DiversityInc rating (Wal-Mart was no. 41 of top 50 company’s for diversity in 2007; Verizon was no 1 on the same list for 2008) as to why the corporation doesn’t feel a need to specifically add gender identity and expression language into their non-discrimination policies.
After the jump, Menu Foods settles with pet owners over melamine-tainted food, Wal-Mart’s environmental policy, classified ads and look out! There’s scorpions in the watermelons!
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, May 30 | 1 comments | Permalink
No Way To Treat a Friend: Wal-Mart’s Shabby Earthquake Aid to China
Wal-Mart has been quick to take credit for its donation to earthquake victims in China, but those affected by the disaster aren’t buying the company’s spiel.
Wal-Mart has donated a little over $430,000 to victims of the earthquake, less than 1/30th what it donated to victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Like this current disaster, Wal-Mart initially donated a far smaller sum to Katrina victims, but ultimately realized the PR benefit would make a larger donation worthwhile. If Wal-Mart wants a similar PR boon for its actions in China, it’s going to need to pony up a lot more dough.
Dirt Diggers Digest explains that Wal-Mart owes China big time. Wal-Mart’s $12 billion+ profits are largely made possible by cheap Chinese labor - the company sources the majority of its products from Chinese manufacturers, which are notorious for low wages and long hours. Wal-Mart also has a large retail presence in China and is rapidly expanding in the country. Considering that China is Wal-Mart’s largest supplier AND one of its largest markets, it’s in the company’s best interest to help the victims there as much as possible.
Donations Pour In, but Resentment Arises [Wall Street Journal]
The Sichuan earthquake has unleashed a flood of donations. Within China, it has also led to scorn heaped on successful people and big companies—including foreign brands such as McDonald’s Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.—whose perceived generosity somehow undershot expectations.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, May 23 | 37 comments | Permalink
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