[geeks] Wal-Mart

[Rick Hamell]

> Here in Indianapolis the Wal-Mart closest to chez-Katz is a veritable
> freak-show complete with baby formula kept under lock-and-key because
> it gets stolen all the time! Other attractions include a female midget
> with a mustache as a cashier, screaming children, parents screaming
> and usually hitting their children, prices on various items maxxed out
> to the WIC and food stamp maximums for the area, and other craziness.
> I've seen employees yell at customers and run away when people are
> looking for help. I haven't set foot in there in over a year because
> of seeing this stuff for the past 2 years. The story is dirty, poorly
> lit, but one thing is that it is always packed. It makes so much money
> that corporate doesn't have to invest in it (my assumption.)

The average Walmart store is completely paid for by the end of it's second
month in Business according to a co-worker who was an ex-manager of one.
This may be corporate propaganda, but considering how many people shop there
I can see it being true.

In addition, from Corporate, each store manager has to figure out how to
reduce their costs or increase profits by 2-5% (depending on demographics of
the area,) per a month.

The biggest way that they have been doing that is by removing health-care
from their employees. A friend, who was a single parent with three kids one
of which has severe medical problems was not allowed to work over 30 hours a
week so that she would fall under the minimum requirements to get health
care. New employees are now given a pamphlet on how to get free/reduced
medical care from local governments.

In addition to that they force mandatory overtime on employees and call it
team-building exercises. The entire store was broken into three teams. All
the top producing people and departments were put on one team. The bulk of
the people were on the second team, and then all the non-producing people,
those with disabilities, door greeters, etc were forced to work overtime for
no pay to bring the "team's" profitability up to the level of the first
team. Not only that, but they were frequently locked in the store at night
like they were working in a 19th century factory.

When her father died she was not allowed to take any time off to attend his
funeral. Two weeks later another girl who was about the same age, with no
kids, was allowed to take an entire week off when her own father died.

That particular store suffered weekly bomb threats from phones within the
building for several months straight, and was set on fire at least three
times. She was finally fired when her son started going into cardiac arrest
at the babysitters and she wanted to leave to take him to the hospital.

Workers there put up with this because they have no choice. They will get
fired for any number of reasons if they complain too much, and in most cases
Walmart has put any competition out of business and depressed the local
economy so much that there is no where else to work. There have even been
rumors of private detectives hired to follow workers they deem
"troublemakers."

I've also heard of Sexual Discrimination suits being brought against
managers from their employees. The Employee has been fired every time and
the manager moved to a different store or promoted. I dimly remember a suit
being brought against Walmart for wrongful termination for this, because the
girl's father ended up being a State attorney in Florida or some similar
state.

Locally Walmart tried to open a new store that met with little enthusiasm.
The piece of land they choose is zoned Residential/Low Density Commercial.
And (I forget the term but,) zoned for pedestrian/mass transit/bicycle
traffic only. The plans submitted to the City called for a building 4 times
larger then allowed in that Zone. It also estimated 10,000 visitors a day,
1000 cars a day, but only provided spots for ten bicycles. The land is two
miles away from a major Mass Transit stop, and right next to a major
highway.

The City Council let that slide until the local Anti-Walmart Citizens group
provided studies that say a Walmart attracts 5000 cars a day in extra
traffic minimum. Even the Cities best estimates say that the max amount more
of traffic in that area that can be handled is 2000 cars a day. The same
group also produced research that directly correlated a large drop in local
taxes and a giant increase in public health service needs to a new Walmart
store opening.

Due to citizen pressure the City Council finally said no to Wal-Mart, but it
was a pretty tough fight. The problem is that due to some new land use
measures voted in last year, the owners of the land are suing the City for
$77 million dollars in lost sales and "damages" in not being able to sell
the land to Walmart. Keep in mind the land is valued at $2million at most.

So the City is faced with a problem, pay $77 million, or allow Walmart to
buy the land and build a store that will greatly increase wear and tear on
the local infrastructure, reduce taxes, increase the burden on public health
care and a whole host of other problems.

While my friend may be full of shit, might just be a poor worker, and my
co-workers stories stretched, I've heard the same or similar tales from
enough different people that you have to believe there is something wrong
with the management at Walmart.

Rick