Besides I once had a lady who worked there go into a long spiel about how they had to take an entire class instructing them NOT to stare directly into the scanners that read the barcode on the merchandise. An entire class, I kid you not.
Perhaps I am an elitist but there always seemed to be a little something "off" about the people shopping at Wal-Mart. And watching how the average Wal-Mart shopper deals with their children has driven me from the store on more than one occasion.
Yeah I have to say I have not once missed shopping there since I decided to boycott them.
Full disclosure: when I was a freshman in college, a couple friends and I would go to Walmart around 2am (when EVERY employee goes on break and hangs out back), and wed steal all kindsof small, cheao shit just to say "eff you" to the bastardly ways of that store.
ReplyDeleteHaha. And to teach them a management lesson on letting employees break.
Dumbshits.
I agree. My daughter has been working there for almost a year. They make sure they give her 39.5 hours and not one bit more. They skew her schedule every week so she can't get a second job. The insurance is too expensive to participate. She has to live with me because she doesn't make enough to support herself. Thank God for Obamacare, or she wouldn't be on my insurance this year. I could have given WalMart a pass if they sold American made goods, but as we all know, that isn't the case.
ReplyDeleteWalMart is the epitome of everything that is wrong with corporate America and the greedy 1%.
Given that WhaleMart tends to build their stores closer to areas where the lower-income strata reside one should not be surprised at running into people there who run a bit short on couth.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, to their credit they did open a huge new store recently closer to the heart of our city and have attracted a much better class of shopper.
In fact, they built it between a large low-income neighborhood and an area of higher-end neighborhoods so it really is a good mixture of low income to upper middle income people -- something you rarely see in their stores.
I personally am glad to see it happening because I've avoided their stores in the past due to the customers.
Preemptive comment: I am not an elitist; just picky about who I share my personal space with.
There are several w/in biking distance of my home. I have never been to any of them. I know all too much about their predatory practices, bigotry, cheap merchandise, on and on...
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget, once they were found to be taking out life insurance on their older workers with the company as beneficiary, all unbeknownst to the insured.
The subject, Walmart, just leaves a bad thought in my head.
You should check out the website "people of walmart" also, too.
Not to mention the desecration they have done of native burial grounds.
ReplyDeleteI find it feels quite nice to be able to say I have never spent one red cent in wal*mart. I may have once lost 5 lbs of bulk meat in a clothing rack when an ex boyfriend insisted I escort him through wally world while he bought inferior chinese shit that would needed to be replaced in 3 months.
Balzafiar said...
ReplyDeleteGiven that WhaleMart tends to build their stores closer to areas where the lower-income strata reside one should not be surprised at running into people there who run a bit short on couth.
____________________________________
I have many friends in the low income strata and have been there myself. I've never seen any natural connection between income and couth.
Of course there are folks without much money who are short on couth. There are also Donald Trump, the Kardashians, and a large percentage of the 1%.
If, however, you are right and I am wrong, you should be seeing an enormous rise in the couth level at Walmart since so many people previously in the middle-class, no doubt with couth coming out their ears, are now reduced to having to shop there.
The last time I went to Walmart some old codger who was gathering shopping carts tried to run my son and I down as we walked through the aisles. No reason we could figure but we never went back
ReplyDeleteTake a gander:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.peopleofwalmart.com/category/location/ak?state=1
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/photos/search-by-state
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1rTSazpCJs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX86viXrV_4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1TWrPRCzbo&feature=related
@Balzafiar
ReplyDeleteI LOVE my Walmart! It's one of those places I can go and feel thin and healthy! (But I shop for gifts from Etsy and local shops, plus fair trade online stores. Elitist, yeah)
I have a friend whose son works for Walmart. They give him just enough hours NOT to get health benefits. And then they have the nerve to show commercials with elderly and disabled people working as greeters-- as if those people don't need health benefits.
ReplyDeleteI would never blame someone for shopping there but I save money in other areas rather than going to Walmart.
Balzafiar I have to say you are a elitist. There is nothing wrong with that as I do not like going into Walmart either because of the lowlifes.
ReplyDelete1.1 miles and 4 years. Last time I went to Walmart was over 4 years ago in the summer - there was an extremely overweight lady shopping in her bathing suit, with excessive makeup and a bumpit bleached hairdo the size of Montana on the top of her head. She was screaming at her dirty kids. It's a little over 1 mile from my house and I have never been back.
ReplyDeleteI won't shop at Walmart either. It's just a gross place built on slave labor.
ReplyDeleteBalzafiar, You sound like a real American. I just love your comments about not wanting to rub shoulders with a lower class! You just never know what's going to jump off those poor people and onto you.
ReplyDeleteDear Americans,
ReplyDeleteMost of you have to shop at Walmart because you are now so poor that you can't afford stores that sell American. Keep up the good work and make sure those howwible socialist pinko commies don't get established in your country.
Luv from Canada.
i refuse to step foot in that shit hole wal-mart, always have always will, that also goes for every other disguised wal-mart entity such as borders, petco, sam's club, sportsman's warehouse etc...
ReplyDeleteI also refuse to shop at WalMart, but I have options, which is something a lot of cities in the south don't have. WalMart undercut prices and forced many stores to close, becoming the only place in town to shop without driving many miles. I feel for those without a choice.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvxNgdFeWqM
ReplyDeletePriceless . . .
I stumbled into Wal Mart for convenience (brand new facility). It was lighed with skylights and there was an eerie blueness to the light.
ReplyDeleteAND THE PEOPLE!
I came home and told my husband I felt like I was in a third world country.
My favorite stores - Target, Stein Mart and Neiman Marcus. They all have style and class.
11:06. Was going to post that link myself. I thought of it when read the story about Broomfield and the people he met shopping.
ReplyDeleteTarget supports a lot of right-wing, anti-gay candidates. I wouldn't include them in a definition of "class."
ReplyDeleteHappily boycotting Walmart for several years owing to the numerous lawsuits regarding employee rights, and the devastating damage they do to the small towns where they set up shop and wipe out local stores. I've heard horror stories from current employees who can't leave because there are no other jobs available to them and Wally knows that. That's why they get away with their methods knowing that there is a waiting list of desperate people to take the job of any dissenting employee.
ReplyDeleteThere are some fine documentaries out there that expose the workings of the Walmart empire and should be viewed by anyone who feels they just can't shake their shopping habit. Look around at other local stores for ads and specials and try to spread the wealth around. Keep in mind that no new Walmart has come to your town without exacting generous benefits from your local tax agencies not given to other local business start-ups.
where i live the sam's club and the costco are a block from each other. sam's club treats their employees like shit and costco gives them a living wage. purely on policy grounds, we go to costco.
ReplyDeleteagree re: boycotting walmart. haven't shopped there in years with a couple of exceptions -- i need something on an emergency basis late at night and it cannot be purchased at my 24-hour grocery. only then do i go to the super walmart. last time i did that was 2 years ago, though. i hate how they treat their employees and have put local business people everywhere out of business. back in the day i went to walmart i had some of my most intense altercations with other shoppers and sales clerks at walmart, all stemming from rudeness that i just could not ignore. i also don't think their prices are so wonderful. i don't spend anymore than people who shop there -- ever heard of re-sale stores, discount groceries, and dollar stores people?? i honestly think that the draw of walmart for some people walmart is the social experience -- the only place they go and they see all their friends and neighbors there.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never shopped at Walmart and never ever will.
ReplyDeleteI’ve got a Walmart story for you. A few years back, a young man of my acquaintance – in his 30s, married with 4 kids – worked at a Walmart’s in Ohio in a low level management position. One day, close to Christmas, he went in and asked for a salary advance, which (from what I’ve been told) is allowed under Walmart policy. His supervisors refused to give him the advance. He was desperate, so having access to the cash office, he took a stack of bills off the table shortly thereafter. Somewhere between $200-500.
Apparently the company had been coming up short for several months (other employees knew that the cash manager had been stealing) so no one missed it. A month later he went in to his supervisor’s office, confessed, and returned the full amount.
His reward for such honesty? They said they were going to investigate, and interrogated him for 7 hours without a lawyer present. They called his bank and tried to withdraw what was there, but were thwarted because he was so broke there wasn’t much in there. Then they decided that all the money that had been missing from the store for several months was his doing. Finding no evidence of this, they got their lawyers on it. Their brilliant lawyers decided that since as a security manager his job was to edit the store’s “tapes” at the end of the day, that he had edited out images of him stealing money.
They had no proof of this. None. But they spent 6 months investigating (during which the cash manager got herself transferred to another store). But on that basis they prosecuted him full bore, bringing to bear all their corporate might, and insisted he be given the full penalty even though this was a first offense.
His dad sprang for a lawyer, who ended up doing a terrible job. Walmart pushed hard against any kind of “deal.” The judge was sympathetic but pretty much forced to sentence him to the full term of 2 yrs plus a $20K fine. In addition, he has to pay the state back for the financial assistance they’d give his family while he’s in prison. In order to even be eligible for this assistance, his wife had to enroll in a work training program and find a family member to care for the kids.
By the end of his term the marriage had broken apart from the strain... So in my book, Walmart is guilty of not only severely prosecuting a basically honest-but-desperate “first time offender,” leaving him saddled with debt for years to come and rendering future employment more difficult to obtain, but also for breaking up a family, leaving 4 kids with only part time access to their dad.
They are despicable.
Wal Mart came to Kenai a couple of years ago. K-Mart had already done the damage to the local businesses, but I still hate to patronize Wal Mart. I've seen what they have done to small towns in the southeast, and I knew them before they became a worldwide economic force. In truth, though, their jobs are no worse than what the local businesses offer.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in small town America, with my dad being a merchant. We weren't allowed to shop at a mall because of the devastating effect to the downtown core -- which many have still not recovered after 40 years! Walmart had the same impact on small local businesses, and I've never shopped there. I supported the Shop Small/Local event in November (day after Black Friday).
ReplyDeleteIf you want a viable small community without boarded-up store fronts, and wish to make a difference for your neighborhood mom and pop businesses, consider changing your shopping habits. Give your money to people, not corporations -- oh, forgot, according to Romney corporations are people too!
I worked at Wal-mart my last year in college. It sucked. You never got a weekend off. The customers assumed since you worked there you knew where every single item was and how much it cost. I was in the toy department and customers actually expected me to watch their kids while they shopped. No kidding!
ReplyDeleteAnd I hate the Wal-Mart in the city I live in. Employees are rude, and the store expects you to scan your own items. When I buy items there I'm paying the employees salary to I expect them to wait on me.
Don't even bother going through the express lane cuz the person in front of you has 50 items when the max is 20. I actually demanded to speak to a manager about it and all he did was smile and say there is nothing he could do about it.
FUCK WAL-MART AND THE HORSE THEY RODE IN ON!!!!!!!
Where I live we actually have choices...Target, K-Mart (I hate them too), Shopko, Fleet Farm, and Menards.
ReplyDeleteI walked into a Walmart here in Tucson and experienced a moment of panic as I realized I didn't have my passport with me.
ReplyDeleteI decided to boycott WalMart as soon as it was announced they were building a store in my town. I've slipped a very few times over the years. One of the last visits was a hurried one to the optical department because it was evening and my glasses were killing me. The "optician" on duty practically ruined my frames completely. Another time I stood in line while the cashier and the customer caught up on old times. Given the length of the job application, you'd expect a slightly higher level of employee performance. I hate the place.
ReplyDeleteMy hub thinks I'm elitist in refusing to set foot in Walmart. I went several times with him when the Walmart went in near us, and never again. Sure the stuff is cheeeeep, but a combination of knowing it's mostly Chinese-made stuff, plus the Walton family's penchant for snuffing out the little guy, plus the fact that people who shop there STAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AISLE WITH THEIR CART AND THEIR 3.5 CHILDREN AND WON'T GET OUT OF THE WAY while they try to make their decision on what to buy...have made me too irritated to ever shop there again. Perhaps the last one just happened twice coincidentally while I was there twice, and on any other day, the other people would be ever so gracious and move off to the side while others wish to pass them, but, probably not.
ReplyDeleteSo there's my take on Walmart. Call me a snob; I probably am.
PS Their vision department sucked too.
i try to buy local every chance i get, and if not local i'll peruse this site to find what I want/need ; http://americansworking.com/
ReplyDeleteEver since Scott Walker started union-busting in Wisconsin, I haven't shopped at Wal-Mart or Menard's, two chains that have supported him. Here's a Facebook page on the topic:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/BoycottScottWalkerContributors?sk=wa
I have never been in a WalMart and I live walking distance from one. I'm very proud of that.
ReplyDeleteI worked at Walmart years ago in Yakima, WA in the 24 hr. photo shop. One day someone noticed that on the back of a freeway ramp sign there was an image of the virgin mary. So then everybody and his brother had to get on the freeway clogging up traffic so they could look at the back of the sign. It was even in the newspaper. This pilgrimage to stop and take pictures of the back of the sign.
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't believe how many people came into Walmart 24 hr. photo to have their pictures developed of the virgin mary on the back of a yield (or whatever it was) sign.
While developing the pictures I was able to manipulate them in such a way as to erase any possible image from their photos. The people were SO anxious to get their photos back with the virgin mary on them. hahahahahahaha
I erased them all. Besides that it didn't even look like a virgin mary - just a giant splotch. THEN (this is funny!) they thought it was a miracle that they saw the virgin mary on the back of a freeway sign but yet it didn't show up in their photos.
Mwaahahahahhaahahaha!
And if you want to have some real Walmart fun visit peopleofwalmart.com
Corporate Costco here in seattle lost a fight to take over the state-regulated alcohol industry. But then it went to vote again and they spent $23 million in commercials and won. State alcohol stores were just fine. Now, thanks to Costco and Trader Joes they just put nearly 800 citizens out of jobs. I like knowing that kids can't hang out in the state run alcohol store & beg people to buy them alcohol. Now they can! 7-11, grocery stores, etc. now the kids can just shoplift it! Go to any corner this come June and now all the kids can get it!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to see many people vote with thier wallets! I don't find their prices all that "cheap", considering the shrit you buy will need to be replaced after four washings.
ReplyDeleteI love Steinmart, Ross, Home Goods and Costco. But if you shop the outlets and do your homework with ads, you can get great deals on quality goods that will endure, despite being a tad higher in price.
Quality is for poor/middle class folks, because it generally never goes out of style, lasts a long time, and holds it's shape for a long time. I don't mind "poor customer service" if what I'm getting is a good deal, but generally speaking, most outlets DO have decent customer service.
Speaking of shopping, an appalling incident occurred recently in an Austin mall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3woMqloj6
ReplyDeleteThere just are no words.... The young woman who was arrested (1) spent the night in jail on charges of resisting arrest, (2) criminal trespass, and, unbelievably, (3) assault on a police officer. The officer was not mall security, but, an actual Austin police officer assigned to the mall and working overtime.
She had three ribs broken during the arrest! Note that the cop had a minimum of 150 lbs on her and was, at least, 2 feet taller and, basically, overpowered and groped her needlessly.
Her boyfriend, who tried to intervene by putting a hand on the officer, was arrested much later, after all left. Many of CPA have contacted the Austin police dept. and city officials to complain about the brutality, and one of their group has connected her with a lawyer. The police chief has said that it would be investigated, but what progress had been made on that is still TBD. The mall manager maintains that the group should not have been on private property and that the officer did nothing wrong.
CodePink Autin has started a 'boycott barton creek square mall' facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-Barton-Creek-Square-Mall/176123679150269 Please spread the word on this and encourage people to 'like' it. They can also go to the mall's facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BartonCreekSquare and post comments showing their outrage about the treatment of a peaceful young woman who was probably shopping before she saw CodePink's protest and decided to join them.
Food for thought:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.salon.com/2011/12/08/the_insane_wealth_of_walmarts_founding_family/
I apologize if this has already been posted.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.peopleofwalmart.com/photos
I have very mixed feelings about Walmart. I do shop there for cheap camp stuff--candles, firestarter, camp fuel, etc. And sometimes for t-shirts because they carry decent cotton shirts and jeans for little kids and for big fat grannies like me.
ReplyDeleteWhere we shop Walmart is also pretty much the only place poor rural people [I can't speak for poor urban people] might find stuff that actually enhances their lives.
In the dying town near my grandparents' farm where we go to camp and hang out by the river Walmart is like a beacon for the local folks who really have not much nice stuff in their lives. They were abandoned 40 years ago by doctors and merchants who saw no future in poor people. Walmart [and Asian doctors] stepped in to the void here. Admittedly in some cases Walmart created the consumer void, but local merchants weren't very welcoming to the very poor.
It's tough to defend Walmart's internal policies, but I do see what it offers to people struggling to achieve some version of "middle class" life in their homes.
It's kind of sad to read posts like the one at 10:55 A.M. that targets the "dumb shits" who work at Walmart. Pathetic.
As for the "People of Walmart" videos, etc., shooting fish in a barrel isn't really all that much fun.
ReplyDeleteTo "My Dad Was Right", yes, I understand all of that. It's only common sense. But small businesses like your dad's excluded many of the people who now shop at Walmart. I'm talking about the Ozarks here; I don't know where you are located.
ReplyDeleteThe damage done to small town shopping areas by Walmart is undeniable and shameful. There probably was a better way. But the Waltons gambled on profits they could garner from a market which was closed off from small town merchants. And their gamble paid off.
I have a different take on The People of Wal-Mart. Yes, there is a lot of exposed flesh flowing in places flesh, ideally, doesn't flow. And if it was mine, I'd cover it up with something suitable - a burka perhaps.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, in many of the pople, I find something gloriously creative in the wild mixing and matching of patterns and garments, astounding hair sculptures, the tutus, accessorized pajamas, and political statements in sartorial form. Attractive? Rarely. But an uninhibited, in-your-face, I-have-nothing-to-lose expression of self-fashioning (albeit in a particularly unfashionable way)? Absolutely!
I venture to suggest if an *artist* placed some of these folks as an art installation in the right venue, many would-be celebrities - the real housewives of Just About Anywhere, e.g. - would don their designer duds to come gush over them and praise the artist's originality.
Note: the only people I'm being condescending about are the people in the designer dresses attending my pretend art exhibit. Some stylist picks out their clothes. They need make no effort what-so-ever.
There is an excellent book on this subject. It is:
ReplyDeleteNickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich.
The author went incognito to a series of jobs at places like Walmart and MacDonald's, then wrote this book on employment practices used by these businesses. Her story is eye-opening.
To anyone who thinks they are saving money by shopping at Wal Mart you need to also take into consideration all the state and federal dollars that go to provide a large chunk of their work force medical assistance ,food stamps & all the other tax payer funded programs that they qualify for due to the low wages paid.
ReplyDeleteI NEVER SHOP AT WAL MART! EVER!
Wiscogal
WalMart IS the evil Empire.
ReplyDelete.
In truth, though, their jobs are no worse than what the local businesses offer. 2:02 PM
ReplyDeleteIn truth, going into small towns and crushing local mom and pop shops had enabled or contributed to what local businesses have to resort to, just to try and keep people going there.
~~~
Neighborhoods with the evil empire present become dirtier.
Employees qualify for food stamps.
Illegals have been locked in during cleaning shifts after hours, resulting in injury.
A tweeker just spent 6+ hours pulling ingredients off the shelf and cooking her meth IN THE STORE, injuring a firefighter when burns were received.
Men trample over women on a non existent corporate ladder for women.
Wal*Mart is the epitome of how the 1% wants the 99% to exist.
Enjoy your cheap, poisonous, plastic leeching, non American made SHIT, as well as your savings handed to you by an underpaid, under-employed, non-insured struggling American work-force. Don't forget to thank them for all they have given up for your savings.
And we wonder why there is an up rising over the 1% forking over an extra fucking penny in taxes on anything over the first million.
I save a lot of money at Walmart. And that is all that matters to me.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't criticize people who shop at Walmart. Many of you critics probably shop there, too.
I have bought electronics, to household goods from Walmart, good quality. TV's, phones, vacuum cleaners, you name it.
They are not all in low income areas, either. I am of a middle-class household, our city is middle-class, and we have one in our city. And others nearby. AND THEY STAY CROWDED.