It’s time for the latest addition of Wal-Mart Watch’s speak out round up. As workers continue to write to us about their experiences with Wal-Mart, we’ll make sure to highlight some of the best submissions of the week. The following comments include a retail industry veteran telling it like it is, the experiences of a disabled employee, the departure from Sam Walton era values, and a dream job gone wrong.

A former employee from New York writes to us anonymously to say that Wal-Mart is one of the worst jobs out there:

“I’m 62 years old with 18 years of produce experience and over 30 years experience in retail. I wanted a part-time job to help pay for the extras my wife and I love. I took a job at hell-mart. In all my years of working in retail, I have never witnessed a company as heartless as Wal-Mart.

The pay is a joke; I was told my starting pay is based on my experience (LOL). I make $8.30 an hour. I was told I would be part-time...24 hours a week. They have no one in the produce department who knows what they are doing so they work me two weeks at 40 hours and then one week of 32 hours. This way they don’t have to make me full time and won’t have to pay for benefits.

When I complain about the number of hours I’m working, they tell me how lucky I am to be working at Wal-Mart. The hours are a joke. Every week is different. You never get the same hours from week to week. It’s impossible to plan anything.

God help you if you get sick. You better come in and work no mater how you feel. If you take a sick day five times in any six-month period, they coach you. This is when they take you behind closed doors and read you the riot act. If you are sick one more day after that, you are fired - for any reason they want. I have seen some very sick people come into work - so sick, they could hardly stand up. Wal-Mart doesn’t care. If they ask to go home, they are told it will count against them if they do. I was told even if your doctor puts you off from work you still have a count against you. There is absolutely no excuse for being sick.

There is a God and I just pray one day that the Walton family pays for the way they treat the people who make them rich. I have only been there for 7 months and I could tell you things you wouldn’t believe, it is unreal the way they treat the employees.”

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Second attempt allows Wal-Mart to build in Twin Falls [Idaho Business Review]

After years of planning and arguing and accommodating and resisting, Wal-Mart will soon throw down the first bricks of a Twin Falls store. The project is scheduled to accept bids from general contractors July 8.

The community greets the almost 200,000-square-foot supercenter with mixed reactions. Some broad-minded residents see the store as a benefit to the community because of the infrastructure it will bring to a location scheduled to house a new high school and a hospital, and they anticipate the store diverting traffic from the overcrowded retail zoo along Blue Lakes Boulevard. They tout the retail that tends to follow Wal-Mart stores and increased options for shoppers.

“We are all so excited,” said Twin Falls’ zoning and development manager Rene’e Carraway. “We are so close.”
Wal-Mart initially applied for annexation and a zoning designation change in 2004. But for years before that, there was widespread speculation about the company’s intentions for the area. Residents became worried, and some banded together to form the Concerned Citizens League of Twin Falls. At public meetings, the group and others showed up to try and muscle out the retail giant by whatever means they could lay their hands on.

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Decision on proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in Pullman not expected anytime soon [Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Id.)]

Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development attorney Dave Bricklin said it could take three to six months before a decision is rendered by the Division III Court of Appeals regarding Wal-Mart’s plans to build a super center in Pullman.

Bricklin and an attorney for Wal-Mart presented their oral arguments before a panel of three judges in Spokane on Wednesday.

PARD spokesman T.V. Reed said he’s glad to once again have the process moving forward.

“All we can do is wait,” Reed said. “We’d like to win and get this over with.”

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Many communities are eager to see a new Wal-Mart come to town, but few think of the effect the retailer will have if and when it leaves. This article from Minnesota’s St. Cloud Times gives a local perspective to the retailer’s global prospects. Visit Battle-Mart for more information about fighting Wal-Mart in your local community.

Wal-Mart’s exit is boon, bane for communities [St. Cloud Times (Minn.)]

An empty Wal-Mart building sits along a stretch of road in Little Falls and shoppers have been rerouted to a newer, bigger Wal-Mart down the street.

Its owners have taken care of the old building after the Wal-Mart Supercenter was built in August. It’s been repainted a shade of light green, masking signs of what once thrived there.

At any given time, about 300 to 400 former Wal-Mart stores sit empty around the nation, in some cases for as long as five to seven years, said Ken Stone, a retired professor from Iowa State University who has studied Wal-Mart for about 20 years. Those empty buildings can be a blight to a community and area businesses if they sit untouched for too long.

“It’s a real problem, there’s no question about it,” Stone said.

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Wal-Mart execs balk on Twin Falls redesign [Twin Falls (Idaho) Times-News]

Touting its energy efficient standards, Wal-Mart officials talk increasingly about improving the environment.

Sometimes, they forget to talk to each other.

On Sept. 24, Paul Smith, a local attorney representing Wal-Mart, told the Twin Falls City Council that construction for the store scheduled to be built along Pole Line Road would be delayed by three months as the company redesigned the store to make it more energy efficient.

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Farmers’ markets coming to Wal-Mart [KTVB-TV (Idaho)]

When hearing the name Wal-Mart, you might think corporate money and big business, but some Treasure Valley stores are working with local farmers to “take a bite” out of that perception.

Starting today corporate meets local and for the next week you’ll be able to find some of your favorite Idaho-grown fruits and veggies at seven Treasure Valley Wal-Mart stores.

“We’re in the business of pleasing customers, Wal-Mart is and we are too, and that’s what’s driving both of our businesses is - we have to satisfy both of our customers,” said Fred Schreffler, local grower.

Always low prices? --- maybe, but not always local growers, until now.

Through August 30th, seven Wal-Mart stores across the Treasure Valley will be home to farmers markets—and farmers from Idaho will produce all goods sold there.

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Wal-Mart makes deal for land east of Worland [AP via Channel 8 News, Idaho]

WORLAND, Wyo. (AP) - Wal-Mart has purchased land for construction of a super center east of Worland.

Josh Fair is spokesman for the Arkansas-based retail giant. He says that Wal-Mart plans to build a 99,000 square-foot super center on land it purchased recently from the Earl Bower Farms Company.

Fair says the timing of opening the store will be determined by regional and national expansion plans over the next few months. He says building and opening the store is a complicated process.

Roger Bower of the Earl Bower Farms Company says that he understands construction of the super center would begin next spring. The company says it has been in negotiations with Wal-Mart for the property since last spring.