Since I've been living in Japan for the past four and a half years, there's something I've had the luxury of avoiding - Wal-Mart. And, well, since I'm moving back to the States in a month, I've decided to continue to avoid this massive, corporate evil. Back when I was in college, I always joked that Wal-Mart was my worst enemy. I had to park 3 miles away from the entrance, and I couldn't leave without spending $80. Now, it's an enemy for different reasons. Here are a few:
* The average Wal-Mart associate works 32 hours a week at $8.00 an hour--a monthly gross of barely $1000. Union members in retail occupations (which Wal-Mart does not allow) earn about 32% more on average. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
* Former Wal-Mart cashier Dana Mailloux, 33, worked for eight years at a store in Fort Myers, FL, moving up to $9.15 an hour. In the Fall of 2002, her manager called her and more than a dozen other longtime employees into his office and told them he had to lay them off because of lack of work. That same day, Ms. Mailloux says, she passed a room with six new hires, red vests in hand, filling out paperwork. Returning to the store that weekend, she says, she saw newly advertised positions listed on a bulletin board. (Wall Street Journal)
* A July 2000 internal audit of 128 Wal-Mart stores found 127 were "not in compliance" with company policies concerning workers not taking breaks. In a class-action suit in Texas, on behalf of more than 200,000 current and former Wal-Mart workers, statisticians estimate that the company underpaid its Texas workers by $150 million over four years by not paying them for the many times they worked during their daily 15-minute breaks. (New York Times)
* Most Wal-Mart employees cannot afford to pay the expensive premiums and deductibles required for health care coverage. The average worker would have to pay one fifth of his paycheck for health care coverage at Wal-Mart. On a wage of about $8 an hour and 29-32 hours of work a week, many workers must rely on state programs or family members or simply live without health insurance. Wal-Mart increased the premium cost for workers by over 200% since 1993. Medical care inflation only went up 50% in the same period. (United Food and Commercial Workers)
* Women make up 65% of the company's hourly employees, yet men hold 90% of top store manager positions. Women working at Wal-Mart make on average 4.5-5.6% less than men for the same work. (Institute for Women's Policy Research)
* 10% of all Chinese imports are imported by Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart were a separate nation, it would rank fifth in the world in importing Chinese goods. (LA Times)
* Wal-Mart has more than 1,107 international operations. Bangladesh workers earn as little as nine cents an hour making shirts for Wal-Mart. (USA Today)
* In 2002, 1,436 child labor law infractions were discovered at 20 Wal-Mart stores in Maine. (Maine Department of Labor)
And if that isn't enough for you, I'll give you one more reason. In 1981, a Wal-Mart was built in Morganfield, Kentucky - my town of 3,500. Within a few years time, Clements Drug Store and Fritts Drug Store (both locally-owned), a locally-owned hardware store, and a locally-owned auto-parts store went out of business. Then, in 1998, Wal-Mart abandoned the old building to build a brand new building where a Super Wal-Mart now exists. Since then, French's Food Mart (locally-owned) and Sureway (a western Kentucky business) have both gone out of business. A town of 3,500 has no need for a Super Wal-Mart. My hometown has lost its soul.
True, it could have been K-Mart or Target or any of the giant retailers. But it was Wal-Mart. For these reasons, I will never purchase anything at Wal-Mart ever again.
1 comment:
Dude, you and my Dad are totally on the same page! He loathes them because they are a big corporation, and he always has to wait. But he has a new pet peeve against them, as well: They are eliminating checkers, and instead you scan all of your made-in-China junk, and pay for it with a debit or credit card. The only catch is that before you leave the store, a Wal-Mart employee (Wal-Martian) would double check all of your bags to make sure you weren,t stealing 6 DVD players or whatever. And it made my Dad mad because they now claim that they don,t have to follow their "rule" of opening more registers if three or more people are in a line, because you can do it yourself. He hates the fact that 1) Wal Mart only did it to save a buck by not hiring as many people, and he also hates having people dig through his bags when they are already paid for. He LOVES making a scene when someone demands to check his purchases before he leaves the store.
Anyways, that,s my Wal-MArt contribution. But, I have to admit - I worked in a Wal-Mart in college, and it was the only thing that kept me afloat, meager as the checks were and the crappy hours(I was required to work EVERY weekend.)
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