.editorial musings

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

The "I hate Wal*Mart" tirade.

I hate Wal*Mart.

I know, I know: Hate is a strong word. True. But I do, honestly, hate Wal*Mart.

We've all heard of the Wal*Mart effect: They build a store, come in with outrageously low prices. Once the surrounding businesses have folded, the prices inch back up. You've probably also heard of Wal*Mart's stringent anti-union practices. It's common to hear of lawsuits against them for unfair labor practices.

All of this lead me, several years ago, to a full-on Wal*Mart boycott. That's it, I'm done. No more Wal*Mart purchases. The way I see it, an American worker giving Wal*Mart money amounts to them selling you the rope they're going to use to hang you. I came to refer to them as "The Evil Empire."


Okay, let's set that aside and look at some facts for a moment:

In 2003 the average hourly wage for Associates (the most common position at Wal*Mart) was $8.23, netting an average yearly income of $13,861. Cashiers (the second most common position) brought in a whopping $7.92 on average, for a yearly income of $11,948. Mull that over for a bit. Can you survive on eleven grand a year?

How about that wonderful benefit package? Wal*Mart's health plan covers 48% of their employees. Considering that the national average for companies that employ over 200 people is 68%, until you remember Wal*Mart is the nation's largest employer. With approximately 1.3 million employees, that leaves a huge chunk of the workforce without coverage.

Okay, considering 45 million Americans don't have health coverage, and of those 27 million workers are uninsured because their employer doesn't cover them; Wal*Mart's 600 thousand aren't a huge percentage of the problem. However, the $2.5 billion in federal assistance Wal*Mart employees were eligible for in 2004 certainly didn't help.

I won't even go into how Wal*Mart increased advertising costs more than health care in 2003 and 2004, how they spend far less than the national average on health care (37% less, actually), how they only spend 75 cents per hour per employee for health care, or how CEO Lee Scott in 2004 recieved a salary of $1.2 million and bonuses & stock worth $22 million. We'll just set all that aside for now. We'll also not think overly much about Wal*Mart's contribution to the Sino-American trade deficit (10% of the Chinese trade deficit comes from Wal*Mart, making them China's eight-biggest trade partner, ahead of the entire countries of Russia, Australia and Canada). It also doesn't sit well to think of what goes on in those Chinese factories, or what China's lax environmental policies are doing to the rest of the world. All of that is fodder for another article.

When hurricane Katrina wiped New Orleans from the map, Wal*Mart were the first ones on the ground with supplies. They were the only organization to prestage supplies in anticipation of the need. 1,900 truckloads of water and supplies were waiting at stores in the surrounding region. When the storm cleared, they hit the road. The Wal*Mart company gave $15 million to the fund, and $3 million in merchandise. The largest retailer in the history of humanity only gave $18 million to help the people that put them there.

...

I met "Lynn" this January. I quickly developed a fondness for her, as anyone that spends more than twenty minutes around her does, and we became fast friends. Lynn works for the Evil Empire. At the time I met her, she worked in a Wal*Mart specialty department, netting maybe 32 hours a week (if lucky). Her work was fairly easy, and she enjoyed her job.

Thus, I spent a decent amount of time in Wal*Mart visiting her, while I was off work this summer. Came to develop a strange tolerance for the place - perhaps something akin to Stockholm syndrome, I'm not entirely sure. Maybe the head pshrinker can shed some light on that one.

As a company, Wal*Mart runs an impressive operation. Their organizational system is well thought out, and functions very well. They go to great lengths to both serve the customers, and serve long dick to their employees. Getting to see this first hand was interesting. This summer, the store Lynn calls her own special Wal*Mart home was in the final stages of converting to a "Supercenter," discount retail and grocery. Keeping a shit emporium discount store open while adding a grocery store to the side of it is quite the feat, to say the least.

When the grocery side opened, Lynn moved from her cushy, low paying position to become a lead in a high-volume department. The amount of overtime she works, and the number of labor laws that are broken in the process is simply staggering. She often works 20 or more hours out of a day. She has had to return to work after as little as three hours sometimes (the law in Washington requires a minimum of eight). Mind you, the extra time she puts in is primarily voluntary; if she didn't keep up with the pace she's been at, the department wouldn't be in acceptable condition, and her employment would be in jeopardy. Her dedication and steadfast determination not to fail are helping keep her going, and she's certainly doing well at it.


Even with this, my stance has started to relax. Sure, Wal*Mart may be contributing to many of America's problems, and most people are too stupid to see it (or to care if they did). But, to put it simply, they sell stuff cheap. Why should I, a humble civil servant, be spending my hard-earned (tax-derived) dollars to support businesses that will sink or float regardless of my input? Besides, you get shitty customer service wherever you go. It isn't like Ma and Pa Smith are going to fold up because I bought Nyquil at Wal*Mart: The small guys have already been run out of business by other large chain stores. The businesses around that carry the products I buy are already owned by other large companies that treat their employees almost as poorly as Wal*Mart.


So, I've started buying things there from time to time now. I still hate the place. After seeing what Lynn has been going through, I hate it even more than before. Being able to avoid the insanity and shop at three in the morning helps also (let me tell you, Wal*Mart at three am is a truly surreal experience). I try to maintain principles. I really do. Sometimes, though, they only get in the way. Should I feel bad for shopping at Wal*Mart? Yes, they screw people. Is shopping at Rite Aid, Fred Meyers, Safeway, Kmart, or any of the like better? Not really. The days of the small business making it in retail are rapidly ending.


Might as well make like Slim Pickens and ride the mechanism of our own destruction down to the end, yelling and waving our cowboy hat as we go.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Editorial Alpha

Holding for first post for previewing. Will be filled shortly.