MetaChat - I hate walmart

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04 October 2005

I hate walmart My daughter was hired about three months ago to work in the Walmart photo lab. I was shocked to hear she was hired full time. Well, today I was NOT shocked to hear she has been cut to thirty hours a week just in time for her not to qualify for her benefits.

Thankfully she has an old job to go back to and a boss that will be glad to have her back (and who will give her a raise to boot) but just on principle this burns me up.

I may have to go spend some money at Target just for the spite of it all.

post by: bunnyfire at: 15:51 | 30 comments

I was shocked to hear she was hired full time. Well, today I was NOT shocked to hear she has been cut to thirty hours a week just in time for her not to qualify for her benefits.

They pulled the same BS on me back when I worked at that grocery with the cow logo that I often mention. Lousy greedy bums. But the Walton kids can get more diamond encrusted forks with witch to eat their caviar pie.

(and far be it from me to say I told you so, old friend, but GW Bush is making it easier for companies to do this kind of stuff. do some research and you'll see. I tell you because I care)

posted by jonmc 04 October | 15:55

I told you so, old friend, but GW Bush is making it easier for companies to do this kind of stuff.

You know what complicates things Jon? It's GW as the hi-rez figurehead of nothing that is good for business is bad. America hates Americans.

I'm sorry about that bunnyfire, I'm guessing it's hard to find another job for her, but here's hoping.

posted by Divine_Wino 04 October | 15:59

I'm sorry about that bunnyfire, I'm guessing it's hard to find another job for her, but here's hoping.

Oops I didn't read your last sentence, bunny... That's good stuff. She's lucky.

We have no walmarts in NYC but if we did I would go into one and do something quite shocking and rude (but just this side of obscene, in deference to you) in protest.

posted by Divine_Wino 04 October | 16:01

Heck, I might just do something quite shocking and rude right in my own office. I'ma riled up proper.

posted by Divine_Wino 04 October | 16:02

There's one in Norwalk, CT. I once went in there fairly late looking for Doritos, but they only had Fritos, which isn't the same. And the place was a mess. How exactly did this company manage to take over the world again?

posted by jonmc 04 October | 16:03

I'm glad she has her old job to go back to, wiser and more cynical, i'm sure.

Your thread title is a knock-out. :)

posted by reflecked 04 October | 16:04

It's GW as the hi-rez figurehead of nothing that is good for business is bad.

Bush isn't good for business. He's good for big monopolies, which is the opposite of free enterprise, you ask me.

posted by jonmc 04 October | 16:07

i fucked wal-mart right proper when it had my soul in it's grasp...and there are 5 super walmarts in this town of 100,000.

probably because two walton babies live here

posted by Schyler523 04 October | 16:11

This is what pays for those low low prices consumers love. This, and forcing suppliers to sell to Walmart at prices so low that they themselves practically have to violate labour laws and standards.

Your cheap groceries are bought on the backs of their employees.

Furthermore, the Waltons exercise defacto powers of censorship over the music, magazine, movie and book publishing industries. If you can't sell your media in Walmart, then it won't be a hit, and they have refused to sell stuff until the cover or content was changed to their moral standards.

Further furthermore, if employees try to organize to gain some leverage and get fair dealing, Walmart shuts down the store or fires the agitators.

These are not crazy conspiracy theories, or the rantings of bitter fired employees, these are just facts.

posted by Capn 04 October | 16:13

Well, I hated Walmart long before this...I was actually not all that thrilled she went to work for them in the first place.

Did I mention that on her first day they showed her and the other new victims an anti-union video?

Oh, and Capn, we all know you speak the truth.

posted by bunnyfire 04 October | 16:16

Also, further furthermore, their standard operating procedure when entering a small town is to start with prices super low, undercutting local shops and eating the loss until the local shops close. Then they put the prices back up to profit making levels.

If I am not making myself clear here, my opinion is that you should not shop at Walmart, that you have a responsibility to find out about the companies you give your money to, and that anyone who shops at Walmart knowing these facts if a fool.

posted by Capn 04 October | 16:17

This is what I want to do to Walmart:

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by Hugh Janus 04 October | 16:22

I posit that there has not been nearly as much "free enterprise" in America as people like to claim. There is some and it has provided some good, decent lives and small town egalitarianism at its' best. However, we've had oligarchy, cabals, cartels, price fixing and cronyism since the industrial revolution, in fact, I suspect the industrial revolution was the carpet knife to the jugular of the free market. What free enterprise there was, American bootstrappishness and so on, has served as a great sugar coating for the powerful rogering the working person has had to take in America.

Now, you know me homie, I cain't abide a commie, but perhaps just a little more honesty and compassion in our grey market centrally planned economy would be nice.

*goes back to living in agrian utopia with no negative impact on the world at large, conveniently located in Brooklyn*

posted by Divine_Wino 04 October | 16:23

Now, you know me homie, I cain't abide a commie, but perhaps just a little more honesty and compassion in our grey market centrally planned economy would be nice.

Oh, as someone about to face a fusillade of medical bills, who's burned through all his time off, I'm with you completely, ace.

posted by jonmc 04 October | 16:28

Give em a fake name, I suggest Fradulino Medicale (prn: Medi-caaaley).

Fuck it bro, let's move to Sweden, my family still lives on a 400 year old farm somewhere around Gothenburg, I'm sure they won't mind a few more drunks who eat meat (that's their demographic) you can get a job as a radio dj playing what we will tell the Swedes is hot new American free-form Buttjazz and we can all get as sick as we want.

Also nice work in that oil thread over on mefi. You're giving the what for.

posted by Divine_Wino 04 October | 16:35

Hey, you, languagehat, graymouser, and a few other souls are the ones who help me articulate what I've had trouble putting into words, so kudos to y'all, too.

Sweden, eh? They do have the meatballs....

posted by jonmc 04 October | 16:54

We have family working for Walmart, so these discussions are always difficult. I hate Walmart, but our relatives have been with the company for a combined total of over 30 years. Rock, meet hard place.

posted by whatnot 04 October | 17:12

There's a lot to hate there. I reluctantly shopped there for a while years ago but finally decided I'd rather pay more for detergent and toilet paper than support their shitty business practices.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 04 October | 17:24

There are many reasons to hate WalMart. I'll give you another you may not have heard.

Truckers are paid by the mile or kilometre, not by the hour. Most warehouses, knowing this, do their best to get trucks unloaded or loaded and sent on their way as quickly as possible. WalMart does not. They do whatever is most convenient for them, and they don't care if a turcker has to hang around all day or not. For the trucker, this means an unpaid day, and it may mean he or she doesn't get home that weekend because there won't be enough time between runs. Amd no trucking company can afford to turn down the WalMart contract, so the trucker just has to take it or find another line of work. My dad's a trucker, and he says whenever a trucker from his company gets orders to go to WalMart, he starts right in cursing, because he knows what it'll mean for him.

posted by Orange Swan 04 October | 19:56

Stories like this have finally convinced me that the whole Walmart-is-evil meme is actually true.

We live in a town where not shopping at Walmart is hard--the smaller local places aren't just higher priced, they have shitty hours. My town has a picture perfect town square with struggling little businesses all around. We are constantly inveighed upon to "shop locally," but try and find a store open after 4:30, or on Sunday... And so good intentions are often thwarted, and I end up giving my money to Sam Walton yet again.

But I have been doing better lately, and Bunnyfire's story is a good reminder to keep trying. Thanks.

posted by LarryC 04 October | 20:02

Sam Walton wasn't so bad. Ruthless in a way, but he made countless employees rich as hell and was loved by the Wal-Mart "family" when he was around. He's been dead for years though and those in charge now are scum. Bud Walton was a class act too, he gave away lots of cash although he did not live long after Sam died.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 04 October | 20:23

I stopped shopping there a long time ago. It's hard- my hometown needs jobs, Wal-Mart employs a lot of people. The prices are good, as are the local stores. But I can't shop there.

posted by puddinghead 04 October | 20:26

Yeah, a lot was different when Sam was alive.

You all warm the cockles of my heart, y'know that?

Hey, we can all meet at Target-our local one has a Starbucks now. So, there!

posted by bunnyfire 04 October | 20:38

Sue 'em. You won't win, but they'll still need to pay cash to fight you in court. Claim you had an oral contract that your daughter would work full time unless she was fired.

There may be an anti-walmart organization that will help pay your legal bills.

posted by delmoi 04 October | 20:53

Not like walmart wasn't pulling this crap under clinton.

posted by delmoi 04 October | 20:53

Truckers are paid by the mile or kilometre, not by the hour. Most warehouses, knowing this, do their best to get trucks unloaded or loaded and sent on their way as quickly as possible. WalMart does not.

Many are the truckers I've talked to that would tell you that Walmart is in pretty good company on this one. I work in the food business, and spend a lot of time shooting the shit with over-the-road drivers, and it seems that pretty much any large operation will treat drivers that don't work directly for them in this manner. Sysco (mainly restaurant distribution) is notorious for this.

posted by deadcowdan 04 October | 22:34

Your poor daughter is lucky/unlucky that she's leaving now. I have a good friend/colleague who worked at the photo counter while she was a nontraditional college student. The managers treated her scandalously there. She endured enough abuse to write a novel.

Long story short? She's in grad school now, writing her dissertation and resting very comfortably on the spoils of a sexual harrassment lawsuit.

Anyway, my sympathies that your daughter had such a bad experience.

posted by freshwater_pr0n 04 October | 23:05

Bunnies wanna move to Sweden? I know a few old farms and mansions for sale, here.

posted by dabitch 05 October | 01:33

Another reason to hate Wal-Mart and their photo department.

posted by BoringPostcards 05 October | 09:19

Your link is dead boringpostcards, care to give us the lowdown?

posted by Mitheral 05 October | 13:58

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