Behold!! The cancerous growth of Wal Mart!!!

[August]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

Anyway 40 hours is debatable.

I've been in the American work force since the early 1970's and it's been my experience that any job less than 40 hours is considered a part time job.

Whatever their intentions, and it is difficult to tell at times with them, their wages are a joke.

That is very true, but again, jobs like that are not intended to be careers that you raise a family on.

[razark]

Originally Posted by August

I've been in the American work force since the early 1970's and it's been my experience that any job less than 40 hours is considered a part time job.

I was told at one place that they couldn't give me more than 30 hours a week, because I'd then be "full-time". So, yes, you can be full time at less than 40 hours. My guess is that it's a matter of company policy.

[August]

Originally Posted by razark

I was told at one place that they couldn't give me more than 30 hours a week, because I'd then be "full-time". So, yes, you can be full time at less than 40 hours. My guess is that it's a matter of company policy.

Could be, or maybe state law.

[Skybird]

WalMart is okay as long as it stays on it'S side of the Atlantic. In Germany, their business model did not work - they ignored too many local habits and customs and demands here, and tried too long to implement american habits. Even well-meant service offers like the young man helping to pack your bags earned them rised eye-brows - Germans simply do not want that and consider that to be "aufdringlich". Like the salesman in a bookstore, you just want to look around and he immediately dives down on you and asks "What are you looking for?" Hehe, I do not want a salesman by my side as long as I do not ask for one.

Spying on their employees' private sphere and gagging them by working treaties, also reports on bad payment, did not help to make WalMart more popular here. Customers started to avoid them, business did not run, and they had to give up. They are not missed.

A real explanation all that is not, becasue we have chain stores and discounters where all this happens, too, bad working conditions, spying, etc. But they stay in business, and expand. Maybe WalMart simply was not liked for being WalMart.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Maybe WalMart simply was not liked for being WalMart.

This..

[Zachstar]

I have to admit I am both sides on the walmart issue.

On one side their anti-union crusade leaves a bad taste in the mouth not to mention their constant use of china made products and not even offering the same type of product from an American made source.

On the other hand tho without wal mart there would likely be many many many more people in true poverty today. Atleast with the crap you buy there you can maintain a basic standard of living and they do provide boatloads of jobs that mom and pops just cant support.

mom and pops do not need to be selling general merchandise anyway. They need to sell local made stuff.

Its a sad crappy situation but its not going to change anytime soon.

[Platapus]

Sure wish I could have gotten a slice of Walmart stock back then.

[GoldenRivet]

About wal mart employees being well below the poverty line...

i have this to say:

hold on i have to get something out of the way first.



ok here goes:

Try being a regional airline pilot on a whole $18,500 per year

It aint just Wal Mart friends.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

Try being a regional airline pilot on a whole $18,500 per year

That's a pretty low salary.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by Platapus

That's a pretty low salary.

Yup, and while wal mart doesnt particularly take a high level of training and education... the pilot job does... yet the pay is about the same for that 20 something "kid" steering your connecting flight toward your destination at 300+ mph

nice thought eh?

[Sailor Steve]

Last year, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott earned $29.7 million in total compensation, or 1,551 times the annual income of the average full time Wal-Mart Associate.

I've been thinking about that fact for awhile, and I've drawn a couple of conclusions. Whenever I hear people complain about "overpaid sports figures" I'm always reminded of the book and movie Eight Men Out. Back in the day athletes were the slaves of the team owners. If they wanted to play they took what they were payed, and they were screwed so often that in 1919 the "couldn't be beat" Chicago White Sox threw the world series because a consortium of gamblers offered them enough money to make it worth their while. Today if a team wants a certain player they have to give him what he wants or look elsewhere. Is he "overpaid"? The people who actually pay him don't think so.

It's the same with a CEO. They pay him what he thinks he's worth because he's the one who can actually make things happen, and bring money into the business. If he doesn't do the job then they find somebody who can.

On another tack, I got to thinking about that $29,700,000, and I did a little research of my own. This is from Walmart's own website:

Walmart employs more than 2.1 million associates worldwide, including more than 1.4 million in the United States. Walmart is not only one of the largest private employers in the U.S., but the largest in Mexico and one of the largest in Canada as well.

If we lower the CEO's salary to match that of the lowest-paid employe, and distribute the money fairly, every single Walmart associate will pick up an extra $14.15. A year. If we do that to every ranking officer all the way down to store managers, i.e. they all make the same wage, they might pick up as much as $500 per year. And then they'll go out of business because no qualified CEO is going to work for that amount.

Want more money? Go to school. I wish I had.

[Task Force]

Holy hell, Didnt even know my region of the country had that many walmarts.

Hmm, I say we lynch Arkansas, It all started there.

[ReallyDedPoet]

This is the result of a free market society and I am fine with it in that sense compared to the alternative

At it's core I am a little more disappointed with big businesses swallowing up smaller ones and with that local ownership. By not having local ownership more dollars leave the community and are replaced with lower paying jobs, etc. On the surface it looks fine, more jobs created...., but the larger portion of the dollars ( profits ) do not stay within the community.

[tater]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

This is the result of a free market society and I am fine with it in that sense compared to the alternative

At it's core I am a little more disappointed with big businesses swallowing up smaller ones and with that local ownership. By not having local ownership more dollars leave the community and are replaced with lower paying jobs, etc. On the surface it looks fine, more jobs created...., but the larger portion of the dollars ( profits ) do not stay within the community.

That calculus is far more complex than you make it out to be. It;s not like a mom and pop store makes the goods they sell. They in effect sell the exact same goods, but at a higher cost of sales. Mom and pop stores likely pay LESS, and certainly employ fewer people. How can a mom and pop store pay considerably more for goods because they buy in FAR lower quantity, AND afford to pay wages higher than 10.whatever bucks an hour to sales clerks and stay afloat?

Since they pay more for goods, their margin is lower. The margin sort of stays in town—to the extent mom and pop exclusively buy local gods themselves—but the bulk goes to their wholesaler anyway (likely out of town).

I'm not seeing the "keeps the money in the community" advantage vs many jobs.

That doesn't even consider that the money SAVED by the consumer is also staying "in the community."

You might be right, but I'd need to "see the math" to judge properly, it's by no means close to being self-evident.

[Zachstar]

The only real advantage was they bought more American products. But most retail stores these days will atleast make a small effort to sell local product.

To be perfectly honest tho. We don't really stand a chance in hell of making it manufacturing. The only real future for our economy is resource extraction in my opinion. We still have many trillions in gold, copper, iron, etc...