Anyone heard the Wal-Mart fake advert on Air America? It’s hilarious, especially when they talk about in 20 years they’ll just rename themselves to “The Store”.
Their pay scale for the run of the mill “associate” pays people below the poverty line. They are viewed as totally disposable employees-the average Wal-Mart worker makes 25% less after two years on the job than other workers in the industry. Many empolyees are paid so little that they are eligible for government aid-in effect, Wal-Mart is feeding at the taxpayer trough by letting the government supplement many of their employees’ effective incomes.
They have policies on their suppliers that eventually destroy or cripple them if they don’t seek out cheaper and cheaper labor, forcing factory closings and overseas sweatshops. And if you’re a supplier, Wal-Mart is your crank-you can’t just drop them and not completely ruin your company. Wal-Mart will go through your books and tell you where you can reduce costs and then make their next contract based on the assumption that you’ll do them, no matter what long-term impact it has to your business.
Wal-Mart has dealt with repeated charges of union busting and unfair labor practices. They promote an “open door” policy but former employees have reported repeatedly that using the open door policy results in punitive measures-loss of hours and demotion, specifically. Basically Wal-Mart grunts know not to use the open door or it will hit their ass on the way out.
The real insidious points about Wal-Mart is that they A) artificially accelerate the erosion of the US manufacturing base through their pinching of suppliers, and B) encourage easily-replaceable slave workers as part of common labor practice in one of the fastest-growing job markets in America.
Wal-Mart has enough labor market power to define standards of treatment at the low end.
The short answer to the question “is Wal-Mart compataible with eudomania” is “No, because their health benefits and pay suck so much that it’s extremely difficult to have any mental space for the good life.”
Can they? As I understand it the way the system works is that you can’t get benefits if you do that. You are absolutely forced to work because you cannot get welfare and alternative jobs do not exist.
cyborg- Are you serious? Well, yes, you are forced to work if we’ve assumed you cannot get welfare(I don’t know why we assume this, but OK), but alternative jobs don’t exist? Uh, do you work at Walmart? Does anyone on this board?
Jason- Uh, what? That’s even crazier than cyborg. Walmart is incompatible with eudomania?
Who asked that question?
Who cares? It’s not a great job, but not everyone can be the starting shortstop for the Yankees.
And I somehow doubt you have much information about how much “mental space” WalMart employees can devote to “the good life.” I imagine Walmart employees feel a lot like Target employees- poor.
And they are a big employer, but in that thread there’s a quote that claims they have 1.4 million employees worldwide. I don’t think that’s enough to control the lows-skills service market in the US. Additionally, IIRC Walmart gives a 10% employee discount, which is really quite valuable, as Walmart sells damn near everything you need.
Walmart the law-breaker is wrong, obviously, but that’s simply a matter of punishing them for their crimes. Walmart the business plan, a place that sells everything cheap while paying $8 an hour…
Hey, don’t screw up my life to feel better about people you’ve never met. You guys want to shut down Walmart, I better be on the receiving end of something, because shutting down Walmart costs me money. Their groceries are much cheaper than Kroger, and I don’t need one of those stupid cards to get good prices.
Alas, Creole Ned, I don’t think they are in nearly enough numbers to keep the slow downward spiral our manufacturing base is falling into to produce the cheap, cheap, cheap goods that Wal-Mart demands.
And Ben, Wal-Mart is costing you every bit that you’re saving by going there, in a combination of their driving manufacturers to cut corners and reduce product quality in order to keep prices low, as well as the loss of the tax base your community gets from competing smaller shops, as well as the increase in taxes to support the drain on community support for workers who get no real benefits from the company thanks to creative ways around the “full-time” designations for employees.
I’m sure it’s possible to have a fulfilling, satisfying life as a Wal-Mart employee, Ben. It’s just pretty goddamn hard, what with the extreme poverty and all. Being sneered at by the rest of the population is probably worse than the lack of money. It’s well established that comparitive economic and social positioning is one of the chief indictators of people’s happiness, regardless of their income level.
What do you think Cindy was asking by “the compatability of the good life with Wal-Mart?” Excuse me for breaking out the fancy words.
Er, what? Has anyone actually said this?
nd they are a big employer, but in that thread there’s a quote that claims they have 1.4 million employees worldwide. I don’t think that’s enough to control the lows-skills service market in the US. Additionally, IIRC Walmart gives a 10% employee discount, which is really quite valuable, as Walmart sells damn near everything you need.
During 2003, wholesale trade employment averaged 5,605,600. In retail trade during the same period employment ranged from 13,490,800 (1994) to 15,279,800 (2000). Retail trade employment averaged 14,911,500 in 2003.
Current Employment Statistics estimates for the 1994 - 2003 period show annual average Leisure and hospitality employment at 10,100,000 at the beginning of the period, and at an all-time high of 12,125,000 in 2003.
It’s a blunt statistical instrument, but Wal-Mart is easily big enough to exercise pricing power. Especially when you throw in the “small town monopoly” nature of its locations.
Derek- It doesn’t cost me anything to have manufacturers cut costs, it doesn’t cost me anything to have Walmart replacing other shops(unless Walmart actually reduces consumption), and whatever tenous loss the government might experience from Walmart’s wages(it ain’t like those people were making $50K before getting their jobs at Walmart) they may very well make up for from the taxes that Walmart pays.
Jason- Sure, being poor is bad for one’s mental wellbeing, but what solution do you have? More importantly, what relationship does Walmart have to any of this? I think her question had to do with it’s size and the potential problems that could pose for consumers rather than it’s employment of low skill retail. Note that she’s asking about potential future problems, while the “problem” of paying people wages commensurate with their skills is preexisting.
As to shutting it down, well, why else are you guys whining? Either you want it shut down or changed so much that the end result is the same. Either way, Walmart’s existance as it is today gives me substantial utility right now. It gives lots and lots of consumers utility. Why isn’t the good life of the consumer considered?
Walmart setting wage levels seems unlikely given that they exist in a field with two rather large competitors. It’s something worth researching, but I’m a bit unwilling to do that.
I know 3 people in my town pretty well who work at the Wal-Mart that opened here about 2 years ago. 1 is “retired”, and the other 2 have always been retail clerks of one type or another. It’s a 2nd income in their house. All 3 like it. I don’t know what percentage of Wal-Mart employees depend on their job there for all of their family’s income, but the 3 I know, and many of the ones that they talk about who work there also, don’t.
I also know that the Store that moved into town took a run-down, abandoned, eyesore of a strip mall in the middle of town and dressed it up nice, made traffic improvements, and now other stores in the strip mall are filling in again. The previous tenant, Bradlees, was horrible.
I shop there alot. I don’t have a problem with it. As far as them shutting down the local shops - - I’m sorry, but I don’t view “being small” or “being local” as inherently a better thing, unless it’s accompanied by enhanced customer service. There’s a local clothing shop that we still use because we get that better service; the owners know us, they special-order shoes that fit us, etc. There’s a small hardware store where the owner is like Norm Abrahms on speed - he’ll pull the answer to whatever question I have out of his back room. But there are a couple of other local stores that offer nothing except a much higher price - - they can go.
Other than in general product quality. Manufacturers, particularly in the home improvement section, electronics and home appliance sections, have started to seriously reduce the quality of their products, using cheaper materials and cheaper, less skilled labor.
Some examples have included locks with plastic parts inside rather than metal, making them more prone to failure, microwaves with the reduced shielding, tools more prone to failure, etc.
I have no objection to manufacturers cutting costs to get into Wal-Mart, other than the obvious monopoly-style issues with Wal-Mart handling 50% of the toothpaste sales in the country.
As to shutting it down, well, why else are you guys whining? Either you want it shut down or changed so much that the end result is the same
I rather doubt Wal-Mart treating its employees like, oh, those of Target would destroy the company.
Either way, Walmart’s existance as it is today gives me substantial utility right now. It gives lots and lots of consumers utility. Why isn’t the good life of the consumer considered?
Walmart setting wage levels seems unlikely given that they exist in a field with two rather large competitors. It’s something worth researching, but I’m a bit unwilling to do that.
Some of it is an inefficient utility transfer from their employees, that’s why, because Wal-Mart is big enough to distort a specific segment of the low-wage labor market in their favor.
Who are these two large competitors? Target seems to be in a different segment/zip code demographic entirely.
And I somehow doubt you have much information about how much “mental space” WalMart employees can devote to “the good life.” I imagine Walmart employees feel a lot like Target employees- poor.
I’ve had a wide enough variety of jobs working with peopel in that area to come to anecdotal conclusions.
