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there showing on are tv not to shop at walmart are they on yours

mommie75

By mommie75
in 2005

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mommie75

mommie75

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the commercail are saying they break child labor laws,no insurance and lawsuits made buy women for discrinmation..

 

they have been showing them all say saying do not shop at walmart.. is my local channels only one doing this ??

 

it is on abc here

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queenofshopping

queenofshopping

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there's an excellent documentary/news program that airs occasionally on cnbc called 'age of walmart' that highlights both the positive & negative aspects of the company's approach to business...i've heard many times about the female employees, it's a large class-action lawsuit & has gotten lots of media attn; ive also heard about the lack of insurance, but you have to remember most places that pay minimum wage (or just slightly more) do not offer insurance for lower-level workers (cashiers, stockpersons, etc)...however i've never heard about any child labor issues, & one would think it would be all over the news if there was any truth to that

 

im not defending them per se: i dont work for them & i dont know any inside info, but i think walmart's size as a company has made them an easy target for such problems, when they actually plague lots of companies that just dont get as much attention. i thought that cnbc special was very fair, giving both sides of the story, so you should check that out.

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Wormwood

Wormwood

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Other stores have difficulty offering competitive prices because 70% of Wal-Mart merchandise is outsourced oversees @ 18 cents/hr. vs. $10+/hr. here.

 

I shop at Wal-Mart regularly and enjoy the savings. But I also have friends who hand out anti-Wal-Mart flyers in their parking lots, and who belong to Wal-Mart Watch, a well organized group with facts to back up their critcism. They aren't out to close Wal-Marts, just make them more accountable to their employees.

 

If you weren't aware of the controversy, these two trailers from the documentary explain a little:Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price and

Confessions of a WalMart Hit Man (long but interesting).

 

All that said, I'll continue to shop there - while my friends try and help the employees.

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shanni

shanni

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I have not seen any commercials but I do remember hearing something on the public radio station months ago about women not recieving promotions at Wal-mart.

Other stores need to compete with Wal-mart in Price matching and in providing Lay-Away

When I worked there both the women asst. managers left because they were both promoted to managers in different states.

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ObiRich

ObiRich

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Ok. I get tired of hearing people ragging on WM for various reasons that are mainly undeserved.

 

First, the low pay. Here's 2 personal experiences. My wife works for WM, and has been there for awhile. She currently makes $13+ an hour stocking shelves. She's not management, she's a shelf stocker. She is full time, has health benefits available (not taken because I'm retired military), as are about 60% of the employees in her Supercenter (450 or so). Second, I was going through a job search a few months ago. I applied for full time at various retailers, including Shopko and Kohl's. Got offers from both of them; 15-20 hours PT a week, $6.50 an hour. WM here starts at between $7.50-$8.00. Even everyone's sweetheart, Target, starts at $6.50 an hour here. Plus the Kohl's I was at only has 14 full time employees (read benefits eligible) in the whole store!

 

Second, it really bugs me to hear about WM running the little guy out. If they do, it's because the little guy thinks they can continue doing business the way they have forever. Lots of small businesses thrive when WM moves in. A friend of ours owns an jewelry store. He recently moved from where he's been for years to a strip mall next door to a Super WM. Why? More visibility, more traffic, and since the line of jewelry he carries is far superior to what WM has, they really don't compete. There's a saying...those who don't change become extinct. That's the case of small businesses and WM. Yes, they can't compete head to head on pricing, but they can easily find a niche market and thrive.

 

Overall, I think that WM does deserve some of the bad press they get. However, the vast majority they don't. Being the biggest retailer, they make the biggest target, and the media seems to have a decidedly biased view of them. One of the local stations here did a story of a woman that alledgedly had her purse stolen in a local WM. Nobody saw what happened, but the woman's daughter found it in a cart being pushed around by 2 other women. She asked security and the manager to confront them, and they wouldn't as they did not see it. The cops showed up, and the two "thieves" had ditched the purse, but led the cops to where it was. The cops let them go. The media made a really big deal over the fact that the manager and security didn't intervene. Well, since they didn't witness it, they had no legal basis to. Also, in today's world, a confrontation could have led to a shootout in a crowded store. But the media here really played it up.

 

Well, enough of a rant. I just think that there's way too much undeserved nagative press about WM.

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Mikser

Mikser

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Unions are behind all of this negative Wal-Mart Propaganda. Personally when someone has nothing good to say about a person, business, etc. I wonder what their true motivation is. In this case I believe it is the unions struggling right now and the see one of the largest employers and start licking thier chops at the monthly dues they could collect.
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jedigirl21

jedigirl21

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Saw the ad last night. My little sis has worked at WM for 20 years...started in high school. She is in management. Of course she has a complaint now and then, but they GIVE BACK to the community as well. Lots of $$ for schools and organizations there for the asking.
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hpowers

hpowers

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Second, it really bugs me to hear about WM running the little guy out. If they do, it's because the little guy thinks they can continue doing business the way they have forever. I agree with this! Mom and Pop business have been overcharging us for years! I don't agree with any company using child labor or running business out because the won't lower their prices to keep selling to Wal-Mart but a lot of other companies use these products from foreign manufacturer's but because they charge a lot more for them people believe it's alright? WTF?
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queenofshopping

queenofshopping

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Second, it really bugs me to hear about WM running the little guy out. If they do, it's because the little guy thinks they can continue doing business the way they have forever. I agree with this! Mom and Pop business have been overcharging us for years! I don't agree with any company using child labor or running business out because the won't lower their prices to keep selling to Wal-Mart but a lot of other companies use these products from foreign manufacturer's but because they charge a lot more for them people believe it's alright? WTF?

i agree completely! all the small businesses on our main street here have very limited stock & overcharge, sometimes as much as double

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fairydustcrissy

fairydustcrissy

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Mom & pop places charge more because they have higher overhead. They dont get the deals that WM does. And i worked at WM here, and was started at 5.15 an hour. Yep, min wage. And that was with PLENTY of retail experience. I also was not given the position I was told I had. I ended up working in the resteraunt. I ended up quitting. They did not allow ANYONE to get overtime. There were big posters everywhere. Most people were scheduled just under the cut-off for benefits. Im sure some stores are run differently, but there seems to be alot that are run similar to mine. I will not shop at WM, and i end up getting better deals at Target anyways!
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malachitecat

malachitecat

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As I buy what I can afford, with all the members of my family it usually means shopping at Wal-Mart. Sometimes it's because I found a good deal (like the laptop) and sometimes its just out of convenience (they are less than a mile from home and have just about everything I could ever need). But I can attest to the low wages. Wal-Mart is one of the biggest employers in the valley here and starting wage is around $7.50 per hour which is not bad for this area. However, when it comes to raises they are very stingy with them. In the year I worked for them I got a $0.40 raise. In the two and a half years my fiance worked for them he went up like a dollar something. He finally got tired of Wal-mart's crap and found a new job. He started at more than he was at after two+ years at wal-mart (even having no experience whatsoever in the field) and at his 90 day evaluation he got a $1.50 raise, and should get another similar raise in like 60 or so more days. To get what he is making now he would have to work at WM for another __7__ years (10 years if you count his next raise). So unless you can get into management, wm really isn't that great a work place. The one we were at would make us work beyond our scheduled time, and then instead of paying overtime for making us stay, would make us take longer lunches, come in late, or leave early. If we were on lunch and the only ones in our departments we would have to come back to help customers, off the clock. Mandatory meetings we would have to attend but couldn't clock in for because it would take us into overtime. In general, wm as an employer sucks, but I'll still shop there because they are the most affordable.
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drmy91

drmy91

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While I enjoy the novelty of small town shops, I can not afford to go there on my budget. I know Walmart has a bad rap, but I will continue to shop there because it fits my budget. Leave the small town shops to those not on the tight budget. Let us have our Walmart.
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ReillyCheyenne

ReillyCheyenne

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Just to let you know that Wal-mart starts their people out pretty high because when I started working at TRU 5 years ago I started out at $7/hr, 6 mths later got $.25 then 6 months later another $.25 and then 6 months after that they changed it to $.23 and that is the way it has been since. To break $9/hr I had to get a promotion and then I got my raise right after that. It took me 5 years to get a promotion when someone who had been there for like 3 months got a promotion but then he got fired and I got his job. I have had friends who worked at WalMart tell me that I should go to Wal-Mart but I just got benefits at this job so I am not leaving plus I like the store and people I work for and sometimes the company is really good to us. Oh and by the way to the person who posted earlier about Target's pay I worked there for 1 month back in 99 and they started me off at $6/hr so you are very right in that Target does pay low.
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amandasdennis

amandasdennis

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Unions are behind all of this negative Wal-Mart Propaganda. Personally when someone has nothing good to say about a person, business, etc. I wonder what their true motivation is. In this case I believe it is the unions struggling right now and the see one of the largest employers and start licking thier chops at the monthly dues they could collect.

Every time a new Wal-Mart opened where I used to live, the union boycotts and picketed. There wasn't even a strong union presence, but yet the boycotted and picketed. When you spoke to the people who were boycotting, they weren't even from the area. They were hired guns from the union transplanted staying in nice hotels collecting a union wage to boycott Wal-Mart. Hello, they wouldn't have shopped there or been picketing if the unions had not paid their plane tickets, hotel bills and meal moneys to be there. it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen IN MY LIFE. I am a proud Wal-Mart shopper. I believe in low prices, but I shop in several different stores for different reasons, and I feel that as consumers we should be able to make our own minds up without this propaganda being stirred.

 

I'm not so sure that the best thing we can do this Christmas for our sanity is to just turn the TV off!

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bassmount

bassmount

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I really think Wal-mart's down falls are regional and do follow what the area around it is tolerant of. My DH's aunt has been at Wal-Mart for around 11-12 years and has never broke over $14.00 an hour. In fact she was making so little, that she qualified for a Habitat house. In her county, in order to qualify, you could not make more than 16,000.00 (when they built the house in 1996, now they allow you 18,000.00) a year as a single parent. So, that put her wages at a little under $8.00, 9 years ago, when they built the house. What makes that bad even for that time was she had already been at Wal-Mart for 2- 21/2 years when they built the house.

 

Now with all of that said, working for Wal-mart is better than not working at all. She is thankful for the job and shows up every day. She is a good employee and does like it. I personally will not go to Wal-Mart unless I have no other recourse and not because of working practices or labor laws. I won't shop there because you "get what you pay for." If you buy cheap, odds are you are going to get a cheaply made product. I don't buy things from Target that I want to last either, or K-mart for that matter. I will occationally shop for groceries at Target or Wal-mart, but for the most part, I don't shop in any of the "discount" mega stores if I want something to last.

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