Wal Mart thread

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
Walmart should be outlawed just for the way they treat people working for them

I thought you were supposd to be a conservative.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
As Wal Mart expands (which they will), they will eliminate the inefficiency in every business they enter,

ineffciency = people and their living standards

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by JohnT
Standard Oil was stopped,

Bad example. They were stopped by the government.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Smiley
$50,000 factory job vs. $30,000 service job...

Where can you get $15 an hour for a service job?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


No, it was pwned by the post-war growth of airlines.

And trucks. Shipping by truck became more cost efficient in the post-war era, more or less killing the market for trains.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Tingkai
Why would anyone shop at Wal-mart? The stores are depressing. The stuff they sell is usually crap.

[DanS]

Shipping by truck became more cost efficient in the post-war era, more or less killing the market for trains.

Keep in mind that freight trains are still used very heavily in the US. By no means is that market "killed."

Where can you get $15 an hour for a service job?

Most people on Apolyton who make better money than $15/hr have service jobs.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by JohnT


They're not as cluttered (more room in the aisles) and Target stores are designed to allow more sunlight in, than WM.

New WalMyth: Some staff are vampires.


Thanks, JohnT.


Have you read the lovely Babs Ehrenreich's 'Nickeled and Dimed' by the way ?

" Ehrenreich said she expected these jobs to be physically challenging, but was surprised at the mental challenge they presented. The biggest one she faced was learning and relearning the exact locations of the constantly rotating stock in the ladies' department at WalMart.

"The lesson for me was an important one: I will never use the word 'unskilled' to describe any job," she said.

She also said these jobs were made unnecessarily difficult by an atmosphere of distrust and intimidation festering in the work environment. Rules prohibiting talk among employees reminded her of being in junior high school. And now, from what she's read since her experience, she believes she hasn't even seen the worst.

"There are ways in which many American workplaces are beginning to resemble what we think of as third-world sweatshops," she claimed.

One way she found particularly disturbing concerned adults having to ask to use the bathroom. She mentioned a conversation with a University of Iowa academic who had studied the issue of bathroom breaks. He told her there was an increasing number of job situations--assembly lines, cash registers--where the lack of bathroom breaks forced women to wear adult diapers."

http://outlook.collegepublisher.com/media/paper171/news/2003/03/11/News/Author.Recounts.Being.nickeled.And.Dimed-390706.shtml

One of the parts in her book I found most shocking was that in some companies workers don't have a statutory right to use the lavatory- incredible !


I make a point of never being rude to staff in shops- when you've been on the receiving end of the public it gives you a whole new respect for shopworkers.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Jeez! I can understand telling your manager you are going the bathroom and if you are going too much the manager being skeptical, but having to ask permission from the outset?

Even if you are a cashier, you aren't busy ALL day.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Jeez! I can understand telling your manager you are going the bathroom and if you are going too much the manager being skeptical, but having to ask permission from the outset?

Even if you are a cashier, you aren't busy ALL day.

Staff might be expressing their personalities in their 'bathroom breaks'. This could be dangerously close to setting a precedent.


It's a book you should read if you haven't already Imran. It makes me very very happy for the achievements of Victorian trades unions in Great Britain.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DanS
Keep in mind that freight trains are still used very heavily in the US. By no means is that market "killed."

I am aware of that, but it has shrunk considerably from what it once was.

Most people on Apolyton who make better money than $15/hr have service jobs.

White collar, yes.

[mrmitchell]

neffciency = people and their living standards

Che, this is called progress. The steam engine, the railroad, robotics, probably near every advance caused people to lose jobs at first. They lose their jobs because they're getting paid too much for something you can now do for significantly cheaper, and they can either retrain for a new career or (as a lot of people are doing, it seems) sit around and ***** and moan about how Wal Mart cost them their job. There are new high paying jobs to replace the lost ones in manufacturing. It's just a matter of the initiative to get them.

And trucks. Shipping by truck became more cost efficient in the post-war era, more or less killing the market for trains.

Like DanS said, trains are nowhere near dead, they go through Camden every day always loaded up with freight. As gasoline continues to go into the stratosphere pricewise, more companies may return to trains for shipping.

discussion about Target

I find most Wal Marts to be clean, uncrowded, and friendly, so I prefer shopping there AND saving money. The only things I won't get at Wal Mart are CDs (they never have a good selection anyways). The nearest Target is all the way out in Texarkana, I guess they're scared of moving into Walmart home turf.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I find most Wal Marts to be clean, uncrowded, and friendly

You're delusion... or you've been drinking that kool-aid

[chequita guevara]

I've only been to one pleasant Wal-Mart. Sam's Club, on the other hand, has always been enjoyable.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


You're delusion... or you've been drinking that kool-aid

From the Jonestown branch of WalMart ?


I wouldn't touch it myself....