Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Tis The Season

From Album 5
I suppose Wally World thinks any time of year is fine for exploiting their employees, but the holiday season must make it extra special.

Maybe they should make it official and change their slogan from Save Money, Live Better to....Are There No Prisons?
Posted by Michael at 6:14 PM

3 comments:

  1. charlie ehlen8:32 PM

    The first year they were going to be open for Thanksgiving, I remember telling the clerk at the register I was at that in opinion that was so very, very wrong. I wrote a letter to the store manager saying the same and called it a disgrace to have the people work on the holiday.
    It just is another example of how greedy the top 1% are. They never can get to the point where they have enough. I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to live that way. How much of anything, money included, is enough? Don't we all get to a point where we can honestly say, OK, now I have enough money to live in comfort and do not need more? Seriously, how much obscene profits do these corporate CEO's etc. need? What is wrong with their mental health that they never seem to ever have enough?
    I do wish I never had to shop there again, but when we see how Social Security is under the gun, well, we may not be able to afford Wally Mart for much longer, and have to "shop" at the fast food joint dumpsters.
    America, what a country. And I served four years as a US Marine and did a tour in Vietnam for this? Things are seriously wrong in (not so very) old America.

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  2. Michael6:01 PM

    I'm of the same opinion when it comes to money -- yeah, I like having enough to live on and not worry, but accumulation for its own sake? Just plain weird. For a while I vaguely knew some of those types, and it's almost a disease or maybe a psychosis -- you measure yourself by your capital accumulation...add in a touch of "I can't just win, my opponents must lose" and...yikes. It really becomes amazing in a bad way how people with that attitude will react to things.

    And that's how it is with Wal-Mart. The Walton family lives in such a bubble...and the folks they've hired to run the stores likewise live in a bubble, but a different one, one that says the EMPLOYEES are the enemy/opponent, and must lose. That said, in how many places is Wal-Mart the ONLY option for stuff like groceries, HVAC filters, clothes, pots and pans, etc.? It's hard to boycott the only "choice."

    Aside: my dad's uncle was an insurance salesman. He once told my dad that his business customers all closed shop because...Wal-Mart could retail for cheaper than it cost them to buy wholesale. Low prices...but high costs.

    Oh, and the "competition" isn't exactly any better for the most part, so if I do ever need to hit Wally World, I feel like I do so with a clean conscience...though that'll be a LOT less once Costco arrives next year. And if Barbara Ehrenreich (who I was lucky enough to meet once) likes Costco, it's gotta be pretty good...

    They're also not opening on Thanksgiving Day.

    One more thing: I've heard good and bad about Amazon.com, but damn if they don't stock pretty much everything...

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  3. charlie ehlen12:43 PM

    Michael,
    I agree with you 100%. We do shop at Wally Mart for most of our groceries. Social Security doesn't allow for many "luxuries". True, many of the competition for Wally Mart are nearly as bad if not worse in the treatment of employees. Before my back gave out for good, I told my wife that many employers in ALL industries/businesses were treating the workers like sandpaper. Use them up, then toss them in the trash when they were not so useful. That is shameful conduct, but seems to be the new norm for US companies. In that respect, the US is already a third world country.
    Yes, Wally Mart has and does put small stores out of business. Well, with TV ads that let you know that at one store you can buy underwear and spark plugs, that is where you go. One stop shopping.
    When I lived in SoCal, we shopped at Costco. They were a union shop, and treated the workers decently. Not sure if they still have a good union today and have not seen a Costco in Louisiana yet.
    Yes, I never heard of Costco being open on any major holiday either. Maybe there are some companies left where greed does not rule.

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