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Wal-Mart wins

Submitted by Rick on Sat, 03/11/2006 - 3:03pm.

It looks like Yelm will get a Wal-Mart after all. The story is kind of a strange one. Anyway, here's what they have to look forward to. From Willamette Week Online:

Wal-World
Inside the empire of the world's largest company.

BY ANTHONY BIANCO

[excerpt]

Today, the typical Wal-Mart associate...is someone like Jonnie Monroe, a 22-year-old rock musician who went to a Wal-Mart store in Olympia, Wash., to buy a can of spray paint one day and applied for a job instead, intending to work only long enough to buy an amplifier for her band. She sailed through two interviews and a drug test and was hired in February 2004, as a full-time cashier making $7.91 an hour. Her training consisted of shadowing another cashier and watching a video that included scenes of a sinister-looking union organizer working a parking lot. "It was weird, like an after-school special," said Monroe, whose supervisor made her cover up the small tattoo on her arm after a customer complained.

Monroe soon made friends with a co-worker, but within a few weeks the Customer Service Managers, or CSMs, separated them, making sure they worked in different sections of the store and eventually on different shifts. Wal-Mart discourages associates from forming friendships with the people around them, apparently because it both fears such fraternization will result in lost productivity and because there is a greater chance such bonds will facilitate unionization. If Monroe made even the smallest computation error, she had to call a CSM to fix it while customers waited impatiently. "Customers scream at you and there's nothing you can do," she said. Monroe was told not to joke around with her fellow workers or to make political comments, even on her breaks. Monroe came to particularly dread the "opening ceremony," otherwise known as the Wal-Mart cheer: "You guys treat me like crap, you won't let me switch shifts, you won't let me dress like myself, won't let me act like myself, and now you want me to be, like, 'Yay, Wal-Mart'?" Monroe quit on the spot after 11 months when her boss refused to allow her time off to attend her brother's wedding in Chicago.

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RIGHT ON!! Now for Tumwate

Submitted by white feather on Sun, 03/12/2006 - 8:00am.

RIGHT ON!!

Now for Tumwater and we will be set. I'm tired of driving all the way to Centralia. Heck, think of the green house gases that will be saved by having a Tumwater Wal-mart.

So, I take it that you suppor

Submitted by Rick on Sun, 03/12/2006 - 9:27am.

So, I take it that you support the following Wal-Mart practices:

Exporting jobs to China.
Destruction of local businesses.
Wal-Mart workers on Medicaid.
Anti-union behavior.
Environmental abuse.

Or maybe not?

Rick, take a look at most thi

Submitted by white feather on Sun, 03/12/2006 - 11:12am.

Rick, take a look at most things you buy at most stores, lots of it is made in China. Walmart doesn't have the corner on the market in that area.

As far as local businesses, do you support the mom and pop hardware store, or do you ever shop at Home Depot, Lowes, etc. What if Home Depot or Lowes are the only ones with the item you want, do you fudge on your beliefs then? Rob W.

Heinous by who's standards? Ours or theirs. This is like the "sweat shops" in foreign lands. "My God, they are only getting paid 1.25 a day for making Nike shoes, that's horrible". But the rest of the story is most in that same area may only make $1.25 a week in other jobs.

I do believe a business as large as Walmart needs to provide at least basic medical.

I'm very pro-union, but I also believe that if a business wants to avoid being union, thats their right. And if you involve a union, then prices will go up as the benefits the union negotiates for will cost money.

Walmart isn't the worst offender in the enviro-abuse arena. I buy from all kinds of companyies that injure the environment. I bought from one this morning, Shell.

I never said Walmart was perfect, but I will tell you that I'm on a limited income, and a frugal shopper. I get more bang for my buck at Walmart. I also do much of my buying on the internet. The business that gives the best deal gets my business.

I shop in Centralia because the last time I checked the Lacey Walmart wasn't a Super Walmart, we get our groceries at the Centralia Walmart, name brand American made food products at a big savings. Rob W.

Heinous by who's standards, our's or their's. This is like the classic "sweat shop" issue. People in the foreign land, are working for only $1.25 a day, "that is horrible". But the rest of the story is, it's common for the average worker to only make $1.25 a week in that area. So although it looks bad from our point of view, the locals think they are cutting a fat hog.

How much does it cost you to

Submitted by Rob Richards on Sun, 03/12/2006 - 11:30am.

How much does it cost you to drive to Centralia and back once a week for groceries? What kind of food do you buy? Bulk foods or ready-made foods? My household, which is seven people, spends about two hundred dollars a week on groceries, and we shop at the co-op, buying organic, local foods. I used to spend more than that by myself, buying the ready-to-eat processed junk.

Why drive to Centralia when t

Submitted by Rob Richards on Sun, 03/12/2006 - 10:01am.

Why drive to Centralia when there's one in Hawk's Prairie?

Wal-Mart has some destructive

Submitted by Robert Whitlock on Sun, 03/12/2006 - 10:48am.

Wal-Mart has some destructive, condescending, and demeaning labor practices. Shopping at wal-mart is like giving approval to those labor practices. I know that walmart has great low prices, but most of their stuff comes from China, which has notoriously heinous labor and human rights practices.

Essentially, shopping at walmart is buying into those behaviors. It's something that I am not willing to do.

So those of you that choose t

Submitted by white feather on Sun, 03/12/2006 - 1:52pm.

So those of you that choose to boycott Walmart, if you were to be successful in closing it down, would you feel bad about all the employees you would put out of a job??

I don't shop at Wal-Mart beca

Submitted by Rob Richards on Sun, 03/12/2006 - 3:34pm.

I don't shop at Wal-Mart because I don't like the company's business practices, it has nothing to do with the employees. I don't want Wal-Mart to go out of business, I just want them to change the way they treat people. Until they do, I don't want them in Olympia, and I'm glad our city council feels the same way. The "Wal-Mart effect" is very real, and I'd hate for it to happen to Olympia.

That's a cop-out Rob R. If yo

Submitted by white feather on Sun, 03/12/2006 - 5:04pm.

That's a cop-out Rob R. If you boycott and they go out of business real people lose jobs. Is your personal views important enough to you to put people in the unemployment line?

Supply and Demand. When walma

Submitted by Robert Whitlock on Tue, 03/14/2006 - 9:37pm.

Supply and Demand. When walmart collapses, new businesses (vision locally owned) will take its place.

Simplicity in itself.

It's elementary dear Watson!

Submitted by Robert Whitlock on Tue, 03/14/2006 - 9:37pm.

It's a tough question, no dou

Submitted by Rob Richards on Mon, 03/13/2006 - 12:47am.

It's a tough question, no doubt. But should I give up my principles because Wal-Mart employs people? In my opinion, these jobs do more harm than good. I undestand your point, that losing these jobs would hurt many families. Knowing that, until they change their ways, I will still not shop at Wal-Mart, and I will still tell other people not to shop at Wal-Mart. We need to create good jobs in skilled positions, this will give each worker value. The service industry is killing our spirit.

Wal-Mart is a drain on local

Submitted by Robert Whitlock on Tue, 03/14/2006 - 9:36pm.

Wal-Mart is a drain on local economies. The damn things are parasites. Will the Waltons decide to pack it up and ship off to China?

The only cure for the wal--mart disease is to starve 'em off. Starve 'em out. Capital B - Boycott, yessiree.

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