A Walmart employee answers common questions such as why it is so hard to find someone to help you locate items and why, when you do, they tend to be so surly.
A Walmart manager also writes in to say how company compensation and benefits policies aimed at maximizing profits accelerated in recent years and have impacted the employees negatively. He describes the things he has to do to his workers in order to satisfy his bosses.
Both articles make for grim reading and confirm the image that this is a terrible company.
And yet, if you watch their commercials on TV, you’d think they are throwing money at their employees faster than they can spend it.
PR at it’s
bestworst.The second article is worth reading, the first one just an ax being ground.
For all my problems with Walmart, I have always found their employees pleasant, helpful and almost too eager to personally show me where a product is.
I don’t shop at Walmart.
Boy that makes me glad I’ve never ever shopped at a Lord Wal-d-mart!
The big problem with Walmart is the issue of restocking the shelves. In their rush to maximize profits, they have thinned the employment at their stores to the extent that all to often, the item one is looking for is not on the shelves, even though it is carried by the store. At some stores, this also shows up in the lack of cashiers leading to long lines at the checkouts. This has been the subject of a number of articles in the news media.
I drive past WAL-MART once a week, on my way to the farmers’ coop. I pay a couple bucks more but I’m supporting local businesses, and I’m not getting meat that has extra water in the package (and is not the worst cut of the worst) and vegetables that are actually not half rotted.
I’m sure WAL-MART is great if you’re hunting for deals and want to see what the lowest bidder offered.
I am certain Walmart is great for an enormous number of people in the world and in the US and probably in the neighborhoods of a lot of blind elitist progressive asshats that are privileged by being able not just to put food on the table and not suffer from food insecurity but able to pay extra on top of that for the premium cuts.
But what’s nice about Walmart is that we can drive by and feel extra comfy in our tighty whiteys that we are better than those who have to shop there.
I am indeed grateful to be a blind elitist progressive asshat who can afford to drive by and feel extra comfy in my tighty whiteys. Thank you for your concern.
I’m dirt poor and I never shop at walmart. Nine times out of ten you end up spending more in the long run anyways when the cheap crap you bought falls apart.
Pop quiz, what’s a better deal -- a $5 shirt that lasts six months, or a $20 shirt that holds up for years and years?
wtf whatever: The problem is-it’s a vicious circle. Shop at WalMart because of the low prices and watch the wages go down, both at the stores and at the manufacturers and suppliers. The relentless pressure based only on cost is great for the consumer as an isolated unit of consumption, but nobody is just an isolated unit of consumption. You are also workers…and busienss owners.
And meanwhile, all of the efficiencies and profits are funneled upwards to a few.
bmiller, it is indeed a vicious cycle and there are many reasons to be critical of Walmart and to think twice before stopping in, or before letting one be built in your neighborhood.
Agreed. This is why I will never buy anything from Old Navy again. Decent prices, but it seems like things start falling apart after the first wash.