Do you shop at walmart?

If you shop at walmart you need to watch this movie, I know it's long it's about an hour and a half, it's a shocking movie, I can honestly say I will re think my shopping for now on. If I can buy stuff else where I will. After watching this I was sick to my stomach, crying, and very angry.

Some of what is talked about in this movie is, how they promise their employs full time work but only give them between 20 -30 hours which makes them loose their health benefits, then the managers suggest that their employs apply for gov assistance, they even help them apply for gov medical expenses, food stamps, etc..... They talk small towns into investing in their company so they can open a store there, which closes down all of the mom and pop shops, then they talk about the walmart factorys which is disgusting they way they treat these people will made you wanna scream.

So if you can find the time watch this it's unreal


WALMART COSTS THE US BILLIONS EVERY YEAR WHILE THEY MAKE BILLIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3836296181471292925



America Can’t Afford Wal-Mart Any Longer
Dec 05, 2008 3:08:05 PM
$1.8
billion in taxpayer subsidies to cover employees' medical expenses.
Lost wages for 1.6 million women. Untold numbers of jobs sent overseas.
Wal-Mart continues to turn a profit while America's middle class foots
the bill.
The latest ad from Wake Up Wal-Mart. For more, check out this week's
Meet the Bloggers [...]

here is a link to a web site about Walmart

http://www.walmartmovie.com/?successMessage=Welcome+to+the+Revolution!&key=35370552&message=Successfully+updated+Supporter+information

Pretty fucked up stuff. I haven't watched the film yet, but I have a few family members that are/were employed there, and were treated like last class citizens. This is what corporate America has turned into.

I haven't shopped there for years, and never will for as long as I can avoid it.

Fortunately, there isn't one within miles of my house.

!c

This shouldn't be a revelation. They have been crippling otherwise good companies like The Rubber Maid Corp. for years. Target all the way man

wal-mart actually helps it's employees get on gov't welfare because they don't pay a living wage. our taxes help fund wal-mart's healthcare plan. they leverage manufacturers to a point where only walmart will make the big profit.

the money pretty much goes to china - the only place where labor, production and safety standards are low enough to provide the ability to produce their crap at a "low low price"

the problem is they have built a culture that will expect cheap items. it is super discount stores like walmart that make people more comfortable with being less productive since they can buy more with less money. everyone is obsessed with more stuff for the absolute cheapest price rather than a good product at a fair price. it's hard to remind people that the little extra profit that retailers make allows them to pay thier employees better and then the level of service goes up.

This has forced most manufacturers to move to china in order to compete. just wait for a chinese labor revolution - that is when the shit will hit the fan. all they have to do is demand more money - what would we do? where are the manufacturing plants in the US?

as right or wrong as it may have been, i remember growing up that if you wore clothes that were "generic" (dated myself there) you would get made fun of. but this made people strive to get better things - or at least be in a position to get things that were not "cheap". not that you had to blow all your money showing off, but to strive for something better.

does anyone find it funny that china is buying us t-bills with basically our own money?

this can go on and on, so to sum it up. i don't shop at walmart unless i HAVE to have something and it cannot wait until the next day.

agree w/all post...I avoid those stores as much as possible

Some of us actually work at WalMart and actually make a living at it. I was unemployed 4 months and finally deceided to try WalMart. I was hired and within a few months had health benefits and other percs. I worked in the automotive field for 23 + years and never once had any kind of benefits. My oldest son also works at Wally World full time. He just applied for a supervisor position at age 18. Dont think that YOUR place of employment is any different. (unless your CRUX) Its all about how much profit you can make. I know that someone in here works at a Dealership and makes a great living. I know for a fact that the Dealership would NEVER screw you over on a new car purchase. I work with a great group of people and at my store we are turning profits everyday. As the economy get worse, im still secure in having a job. My wife works at HEB and dont think that they are any different. Remember when we had Albertsons and Kroger here in S.A.? Hey Houston, seeing any HEB's going up there?????????

HEB's are everywhere...except inside the loop (where they have a more expensive verson)...here in Houston...IMO, BEST GROCERY STORES AROUND

i know i work at a dealership and that generally puts me at the bottom of the enviable job list and high on the people most likely to screw you list.

hell, a big reason i left best buy is the 32 hour "full time" rating and the way they were squeezing labor. i was a top salesperson at the store and generated WAY more sales than my $15/hr pay was worth.

the fact is wal-mart is here and they don't seem to be going anywhere. hell, i saw something the other day that showed chinese tours coming to the US to buy land / houses. i also saw a cartoon on one of the kids channels that introduces kids to the chinese language.

good thing i can cook a mean stir fry...

TOYZ_2 wrote:

Some of us actually work at WalMart and actually make a living at it. I was unemployed 4 months and finally deceided to try WalMart. I was hired and within a few months had health benefits and other percs. I worked in the automotive field for 23 + years and never once had any kind of benefits. My oldest son also works at Wally World full time. He just applied for a supervisor position at age 18. Dont think that YOUR place of employment is any different. (unless your CRUX) Its all about how much profit you can make. I know that someone in here works at a Dealership and makes a great living. I know for a fact that the Dealership would NEVER screw you over on a new car purchase. I work with a great group of people and at my store we are turning profits everyday. As the economy get worse, im still secure in having a job. My wife works at HEB and dont think that they are any different. Remember when we had Albertsons and Kroger here in S.A.? Hey Houston, seeing any HEB's going up there?????????

My wife has worked at HEB for 10+ years now and they are no different than Wallyworld. They have run alot of mom and pop groceries out of business. They ran Albertsons and Krogers out of the San Antonio area. They spend tons of money promoting San Antonio Spurs projects, but yet give any profits back to their employees. You are lucky if you have been there a while to receive a bonus of 100 dollars. This is just the reality of the world we live in. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. But as job securities go, i think we will be ok for a while.

TOYZ_2 wrote:

Some of us actually work at WalMart and actually make a living at it. I was unemployed 4 months and finally deceided to try WalMart. I was hired and within a few months had health benefits and other percs. I worked in the automotive field for 23 + years and never once had any kind of benefits. My oldest son also works at Wally World full time. He just applied for a supervisor position at age 18. Dont think that YOUR place of employment is any different. (unless your CRUX) Its all about how much profit you can make. I know that someone in here works at a Dealership and makes a great living. I know for a fact that the Dealership would NEVER screw you over on a new car purchase. I work with a great group of people and at my store we are turning profits everyday. As the economy get worse, im still secure in having a job. My wife works at HEB and dont think that they are any different. Remember when we had Albertsons and Kroger here in S.A.? Hey Houston, seeing any HEB's going up there?????????

Hearn, TX

mom and pop grocery store family owned and operated for 40 years walmart moves in the family who owned the grocery store bankrupted, the Hardware store family owned for 50 years went under. The pharmacy gone. The pharmacist who worked there made 20 per hour after his store closed down he was forced to work at the Walmart pharmacy now he make 15 and hour.

Downtown Hearn is now a ghost town. You can say walmart is good all you want but it's just not true, you go to a pharmacy an ask the pharmacist a question about your meds you will get an answer you go to a walmart and ask their pharmacist the same question you get attitude and very little answers.

Try this go into a walmart and ask the man or lady behind the cash register in the electronics dept a question about an emachine computer, see how much help you get see how much they know.

better then that try this, call walmart and ask them if they sell finch food, you will be on hold for over an hour only to finally get a very rude person to answer the phone and tell you that they don't sell birds. then you will be hung up on, hang up and try again, this time you will talk to 3 diff people one will tell you very rudly that they don't sell birds, the next will have no idea what you are talking about and the third will tell you that they do not carry the item, but guess what they do carry it. now call Ace Hardware and ask then the same question they will tell you right away yes we do it's on isle 4.

Yes, you pay low prices there but they have poor customer service, their empolyees are poorly paid, maybe you got lucky there, but my sister worked there, she was hired on at full time but most weeks only got 18 hours, did not get benifits, the store was under staffed because they were under staffed they did not get their breaks when they were supose to.

you can say other stores are just the same and I call bull shit. I applied at walmart for shits and giggles as a front end cashier they offered me 6.25 and hour with a 4% raise each year thats a 25 cent a year raise, applied at HEB they start their sackers out at 7.50 per hour and a front end cashier who has exp. starts out at 8.00 per hour, I worked for Albertsons and made 9.50 an hour as a cashier if I worked the over night shift I got an extra dollar and hour. I was hired on as full time, never once did I ever work a week under 38 hours, I had great affordable benifits.

Yes, if you make it into management at walmart you may be able to make a living but not every one can be a manager!!!!!!!

There has been talk about putting a walmart in our town and I will fight it !!!!!!!!!!!!

did you know that walmart asks its employees to donate some of their wages to a fund to help other walmart employees who were needy they collected 5 million dollar in 2005 and gave away 6000.00 of that money. where did the rest of it go? there is now a class action law suit over this missing money.

Yea, maybe i did get lucky and now am able to put food on the table for the wife and kids now. Being unemployeed 4 months was so much fun. I know the location i am at is great and they are building homes and new schools all the time which should keep me employeed for a while. ME personally, i am more concerened about Chrysler and GM. I own 1 Jeep, 1 Nissan, 1 Toyota and a son who has a Honda. If Chrysler goes under, What are we going to substitute for a Jeep? Will Jeep Nation become Honda CRV Nation? Suzuki Nation? And just a little side note, Wallyworld also was being sued for the Smiley Face which you no longer see.....

I shop at Wall Mart and HEB. Like them both. Convenient, have everything and they are both close to home. If I need customer service I go somewhere else.

Truth is, They aren't going away. It's all about money. I have been fortunate enough to always have an employer that takes care of employees. All you can do is make sure you and yours have the resources so they can work where they want.

Sounds like some have done well at Wall Mart and HEB. They do provide a lot of jobs. If people are treated that bad, they should go somewhere else.

If they stay and complain then they are part of the problem. We can't just blame Wall Mart, there is obviously a demand.

TOYZ_2 wrote:

And just a little side note, Wallyworld also was being sued for the Smiley Face which you no longer see.....

Yup, I won the lawsuit, and you can find evidence of that in your browser.

the point is not to get rid of walmart, but to make them own up to their mistakes and fix their problems. Yes, they offer lots of Jobs but whats the point in getting a job and working your butt off to still have to live on food stamps and have to rely on medicare?

The point this movie is trying to make is that Walmart is a multi billion dollar company but they don't even offer affordable benefits, There is an interview with an EX HR director from walmart he states that walmarts answer to health care for their employees is gov aid. I use to work for a company of 1500 people, not a very big company at all, but we had full benefits, for our family it only cost 230.00 a month for Health and dental that was with the HMO plan we had great health care. Bt we were paid enought to be able to afford it.

85% of walmarts employees make aprox. 12,300.00 a year and their health benefits for a family of 3 is somewhere around 400.00 a month which

so lets do the math

12,300.00 a year income
4800.00 a year for health ins
----------
7500.00 left over for bills and food

so the answer is to stop complaining or go get a job somewhere else

some people don't have to option to just go get a better paying job

last year the CEO of Walmart made 27 million dollars.....they can afford to pay him that but can't afford to make a better health package for their employees.

when I worked at Albertsons I paid 225.00 a month for health for a family of 3 and made 18,800.00 a year wanna do the math?

Walmart screws their employees and screws the gov.

Walmart got a 1.8 billion dollar tax break last year for opening new stores.

they need to change they need to help their people. think about what you make every year and how much you pay for your benefits.

Wall Mart doesn't need to change. It is business and a very successful one.

I agree they shouldn't get huge tax breaks. That is our money. That is an issue for the legislators. Letters to your congressmen and your vote is the only thing that will change that. Wall Mart and every other company, individuals for that matter, will take every tax credit or deduction they are allowed.

This is a capitalist country and Wall Mart is taking full advantage. Only way it will change is if people refuse to work or shop there.

I guess your right Walmart does not need to Change, guess our Government needs to change, stop giving medicaid to children who's parents have jobs


WAL-MART Costs Taxpayers $1,557,000,000,00 to Support its Employees

HEALTHCARE STATISTICS


An up-to-date compilation of states' reporting of employers whose
workers are enrolled in Medicaid or state health programs is being
maintained by Good Jobs First, a non-profit research group based in
Washington, DC. The film does not list all 15 states that report such
data. Philip Mattera, research director for Good Jobs First, has also
given testimony on this healthcare data before the Maryland Senate.
That testimony can be found on the Good Jobs First website [PDF file].

ALABAMA: 3,864 Children of WAL-MART Employees are Enrolled in Medicaid

• "Retail giant Wal-Mart tops the list of companies in Alabama whose
  employees have children on Medicaid, the [Montgomery] Advertiser
  reported, citing state records. Wal-Mart workers' children account for
  3,864 children on the Medicaid rolls at a cost between $5.8 million and
  $8.2 million."
  
• Source: Associated Press, "Wal-Mart No. 1 in Employee Medicaid," The Decatur Daily, February 23, 2005
  

ARIZONA: 2,700 WAL-MART Workers on Medicaid

• According to state data provided to Capitol Media Services and
  reported by the Arizona Daily Star, "Close to one of every 10 Wal-Mart
  employees is getting health insurance paid for by Arizona taxpayers,
  according to figures obtained Friday from the state...In the Arizona
  statistics, nearly 2,700 people listed their employer as Wal-Mart out
  of more than 28,000 company employees in the state...The numbers came
  as a surprise to state Sen. Richard Miranda, D-Phoenix, who tried
  earlier this year to get a law requiring the DES [Department of
  Economic Security] to disclose the employers of people on AHCCCS. That
  measure was defeated amid opposition from corporate lobbyists,
  including Rip Wilson representing Wal-Mart."
  
• Source: Howard Fischer, "Wal-Mart 1st in State Aid Enrollees," Arizona Daily Star, July 30, 2005
  

ARKANSAS: 3971 WAL-MART Workers on Public Assistance

• "Nearly 10,000 workers with Arkansas' nine largest employers
  receive public welfare for themselves and their families, according to
  the state Department of Human Services. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., with
  3,971 of its 45,106 employees on public assistance, topped the list."
  
• Source: Brian Baskin, "Top 9 Employers in State Have 9,698 Getting Public Aid," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 17, 2005.
  

CONNECTICUT: 824 WAL-MART Workers Have Children in a State Heath Care Program

• According to a report prepared by the Connecticut Office of
  Legislative Research examining enrollment data for the HUSKY
  (Healthcare for UninSured Kids and Youth) program for children of
  low-income families, "The same employers account for the highest number
  of employed parents of HUSKY A [traditional Medicaid] and B [state
  CHIP] children. For example, Wal Mart employed the highest number of
  HUSKY A parents (824 in September 2004) and the second highest number
  of HUSKY B parents (79 in December 2004)."
  
• Source: Robin K. Cohen, "HUSKY A and B - Enrollment and Employer Data," Connecticut Office of Legislative Research Report 2005-R-0017, January 10, 2005.
  

FLORIDA: 12,300 WAL-MART Workers and their Dependents on Medicaid

• "Wal-Mart Corp., which is getting millions of dollars in state
  incentives to create jobs in Florida, has more employees and family
  members enrolled in Medicaid than any company in the state. ...The
  giant retailer, which has 91,000 full-time and part-time employees in
  Florida, has about 12,300 workers or dependents eligible for Medicaid,
  the growing health care program for the poor and the
  elderly...According to figures released Thursday by Florida's
  Department of Children and Families, Wal-Mart and four other large
  companies that receive state incentives have an estimated 29,900
  employees or their family members enrolled in Medicaid...The figures
  suggest taxpayers may be double-subsidizing low-wage employment by
  paying companies to create jobs and by paying for the health care of
  some of those companies' employees."
  
• Source: Sydney P. Freedberg and Connie Humburg, "Lured Employers Now Tax Medicaid," St. Petersburg Times, March 25, 2005.
  

GEORGIA: 10,261 Children of WAL-MART Employees are Enrolled in PeachCare for Kids

• "A state survey found 10,261 of the 166,000 children covered by
  Georgia's Peach Care? for Kids health insurance in September 2002 had a
  parent working for Wal-Mart Stores...Wal-Mart is the state's largest
  private employer. But when the top four companies on the list are
  measured by number of PeachCare children per the number of employees in
  Georgia, Wal-Mart still dominates."
  
• Source: Andy Miller, "Wal-Mart Stands Out On Rolls Of PeachCare," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 27, 2004.
  

MASSACHUSETTS: 4,172 WAL-MART Workers and Dependents on State Health Care

• "Section 304 of Chapter 149 of the Acts of 2004 requires the
  Executive Office of Health and Human Services to produce a list of
  employers who have 50 or more employees using public health assistance
  each year." As a result, the Division of Health Care Finance and
  Policy, in collaboration with staff from the Office of Medicaid,
  compiled a report of employers who had 50 or more employees on
  MassHealth and the Uncompensated Care Pool (UCP). The report found that
  in 2004, Wal-Mart had 1,258 employees participating in UCP and 823
  employees participating in MassHealth.
  
• Source: Executive Office of Health and Human Services Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, "Employers Who Have 50 or More Employees Using Public Health Assistance," February 1, 2005 (an additional data spreadsheet can be found here)
  

TENNESSEE: 9,617 WAL-MART Workers on TennCare

• "Wal-Mart, with about 25 percent of the company's 37,000 workers on
  TennCare, tops the list of businesses with employees on the expanded
  Medicaid program. Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer."
  
• Source: Associated Press, "Study Shows Thousands of Wal-Mart Employees on TennCare," WKRN-TV Nashville, January 20, 2005.
  

TEXAS: 4,363 Children of WAL-MART Employees on CHIP

• "The Center for Public Policy Priorities, a non-partisan research
  center based in Austin, has obtained data on the 20 employers in the
  state with the largest number of employees whose dependents participate
  in the Children's Health Insurance Program. (Employer data for Medicaid
  are not available.) The data for February 2005 show Wal-Mart at the top
  of the list, with 2,333 employee families in CHIP, with an estimated
  4,363 individual children enrolled."
  
• Source: Good Jobs First [PDF file], with data provided by the Center for Public Policy Priorities.
  

WISCONSIN: 1,252 WAL-MART Employees and Dependents on BadgerCare

• "The biggest employer of BadgerCare recipients was Wal-Mart, which
  had 809 of its employees and 443 of employee dependents enrolled in the
  state program in April. Providing health care for those 1,252 people
  costs Wisconsin about $2.7 million a year; Wal-Mart turned a profit of
  $10.3 billion in 2004."
  
• Source: Stacy Forster, "Big Companies Fill BadgerCare Rolls," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 24, 2005
  

• "The Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the
  Workforce estimates that one 200-person Wal-Mart store may result in a
  cost to federal taxpayers of $420,750 per year - about $2,103 per
  employee. Specifically, the low wages result in the following
  additional public costs being passed along to taxpayers:
  
  
  
  • $36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for just 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families.
    
  • $42,000
    a year for Section 8 housing assistance, assuming 3 percent of the
    store employees qualify for such assistance, at $6,700 per family.
    
  • $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions
    for low-income families, assuming 50 employees are heads of household
    with a child and 50 are married with two children.
    
  • $100,000 a year for the additional Title I expenses, assuming 50 Wal-Mart families qualify with an average of 2 children.
    
  • $108,000
    a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into
    state children's health insurance programs (S-CHIP), assuming 30
    employees with an average of two children qualify.
    
  • $9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance."
    
  
  
  </li>
  
• The total figure is based on the average $420,750 per-store
  figure, multiplied by 3700 (the approximate number of stores currently
  in the United States).
  
• Source: Rep. George Miller / Democratic Staff of the Committee
  on Education and the Workforce, "Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price
  We All Pay for Wal-Mart", February 16, 2004.
  

Thats pretty impressive research.

What is your solution?

We could Make laws that say wall mart has to provide benefits.

they then cut costs by not hiring as many people, service gets worse and prices go up. Then everyone suffers. Especially all those people who "cant get another job"


We could let the government take over, then more of our tax dollars would go into another state run socialist program.

We could force wall mart to pay more competitive prices to suppliers. Once again we raise prices and jobs are cut.


All the Mom and Pop stores do not provide benefits and are less stable. If wall mart didn't employ all the "underpaid" people we would have even more people on medicaid and welfare.


Or we can let the market and demand drive wall marts success or demise. Doing something to jeopardize jobs at one of our biggest employers doesnt make sense to me. Especially with unemployment like it is now.

I wonder what all those people who count on their wall mart paycheck would do if they found out they no longer had a job because of cost cutting.

Why is wall mart the bad guy in all this? They are keeping the economy going and providing jobs. (I dont have the energy or interest to do the research but I do believe in a free market)

I completely agree about the tax breaks. I guess we will just have to disagree on the rest

Good debate though. Whats next? Politics?

jeeperjennie wrote:

the point is not to get rid of walmart, but to make them own up to their mistakes and fix their problems.

As said before I am NOT saying there needs to be an end to walmart, I am saying we need to support the people who work there! Help them with their fight to get better benefits, and get paid better. Maybe walmart could be a better place, where their employees came to work with a smile on their faces, maybe there could be a such thing as customer service there. When you pay your people right you get better results.


As for whats the solution, well it's to support their employees and to let them know that the American people are on their side and not treat them the way walmart does, by telling them if you don't like it leave. Some of these people are scared to stand up for themselves in fear of loosing their jobs


I take it you didn't watch the movie huh?????????????/

Can we do Denny's tomorrow?

sure why not! hey at least we had something to talk about today

TxRubiRig wrote:

HEB's are everywhere...except inside the loop (where they have a more expensive verson)...here in Houston...IMO, BEST GROCERY STORES AROUND

Ditto! HEB all the way!

No, didn't see the movie.

The one about mcdonalds caused some change there.

Maybe this will do the same at wall mart.