Watched "Walmart, The Cost of Low Prices"

[Jim]

Seriously, if you have a relative that works at walmart, watch this movie. If you shop at walmart, watch this movie.

Berkley did a study just for California and it costs taxpayers over $83million in health care because of walmart. In the US as a whole...well over a $Billion.

[RedCherry]

Wow, why? Since I live in a town where WalMart is our only shopping option for most items, unless you want to make a 120 mile round trip into Vegas, I shop alot there.

[Jim]

Part of it is this...You can get insurance through Walmart but...you have to pay the whole share. People that work at Walmart can't afford to have medical insurance, live in public housing and work overtime without pay. 31 states have sued and won for them not paying overtime. During hurricane Katrina, Walmart donated $5,006,000.00 $5 million was donated by the employees, $6000 was donated by the Waltons who are all consistently in the top 10 richest people in the US. The Walton family donates .001% of their yearly income. Conversely, Bill Gates donates 53% of his yearly income to charities.

Then you go to China where almost everything at Walmart is made. They are paid $3/day and are expected to work 18 hours/day. They don't have to live in the Walmart dorm but if they chose not to, they still have to pay the rent. If they are being punished for not working hard enough, they must work a month without pay.

There have been several Walmart stores that have voted for a union. Those stores were promptly closed down. Not to mention that when a Walmart comes into a town, mom and pop stores last about a year.

If the Waltons gave up 10% of their income, every Walmart employee could not only get free health insurance but also get a livable wage.

The Waltons are the Getty's of this century. If George W didn't call the CEO the same pet name his wife called him, they would have been broken up already.

It just goes on and on and on...
Watch the movie and you will never shop there again. A lot of hidden cameras and nothing like a Moore documentary. All facts that can easily be proven.

Oh yeah...one more thing called a peasant policy. While new employees sign all the papers to work there, they sign a peasant policy. This is a life insurance policy that goes to Walmart when the employee dies. So, after a few more years, they will be making money just from people working there and dying one day.

[Jim]

Oh yeah....those cameras you see in the parking lots. They are not for shopper's protection...they are looking for unions. Over 20,000 people were raped, beaten or just stolen from last year alone in a Walmart parking lot.

[RedCherry]

OMG I had no idea. The sad thing is, it is one of the biggest employers, if not the biggest in my town.

Since Nevada is a "right to work state" we have crappy wages in most every sector, with horrible health insurance benefits. Before I moved to NV, I lived all my adult life in Hawaii, and I thought every state was like them... full paid medical benefits if you work over 20 hours a week, and you are entitled after the first month. And, employers must give you a choice. I got a rude wakeup call when I went to work for a casino and found out I had to work 6 months before I got health insurance, and then I had to pay about 1/2 the premium cost.

I have a better health insurance plan now being self insured then I had at any job I worked at in this state, which is a sad fact.

I'll have to watch out for the film. Is it just on TV, or could I find it at the video rental store?

[Jim]

It just came out not too long ago on DVD

[RedCherry]

Originally Posted by Jim

It just came out not too long ago on DVD

Thanks, I'll go look for it to rent. Doubt seriously I could buy it at WalMart, lol.

[SirMoby]

But Jim, all the studies show that Walmart creates 100 jobs per new store. Just watch Fox News and they'll tell you that Walmart is the best thing to ever happen to America.

Of course most independant studies show a different reality.

[RawAlex]

Jim, that movie is a well known one sided hatchet job. Nobody from Walmart was involved in the making of it, and the movie was majority financed through union groups and other "interested" organizations.

NBC’s “Today,” CNN’s “Showbiz” and “Lou Dobbs Tonight” all included Wal-Mart’s response to Greenwald’s documentary, saying there were three errors in three minutes in his trailer. None, however, told viewers what those errors were. Wal-Mart made a short video explaining those inaccuracies:

* Greenwald showed a hardware store and stated that Wal-Mart put it out of business. But the store closed before Wal-Mart opened, was sold to a new owner, and is now open and looking to expand.

* The trailer had an African-American woman stating, “He just bluntly told me there is no place for people like you in management.” What she meant by “people like you” was never specified, the viewer is left to guess, but assume it’s either racial or gender. In regard to race and sex, Wal-Mart is one of America’s most diverse companies. Black Enterprise magazine rated it as one of the “30 Best Companies for Diversity,” and more than 40 percent of Wal-Mart managers are women. “Time Magazine” ran a story on September 5 about the growing support that Wal-Mart has from “black America.”

* The trailer showed a man who said “if they don’t pay a living wage, they can’t come to Chicago.” Wal-Mart pays on average more than $4 an hour above minimum wage, and $1 higher than the “living wage” set by Chicago for city contracts.

That was the three minute trailer.

I like the Michael Moore mentality, I like the "hang them with their own words", but the movie itself starts with too much of a biased point of view to even self-evaluate the points being made to see if they are correct or not.

Blaming a company like Wal-mart for working conditions in China isn't a stretch, but it is a weak causal link. If all companies in China charged 10% more for their good, Wal-mart would likely pay that 10% more than they pay now. Labor is cheap and people work like dogs in China because they need the work and their government permits and encourages such working conditions. If the Chinese government enforced better working conditions, the prices would go up and Walmart would likely pay that higher price (and pass it on to consumers).

Go look around your house. Where you see a label marked "made in china" or "made in taiwan" you probably want to get rid of it, you supported slave labor (and got ripped off by a higher price retailer that made a larger profit than Wal-mart selling it to you).

Alex

[Jim]

Alex
I have 6 in laws that have either worked at Walmart or work there now. And they watched it and they all agreed, they were expected to work extra time for free, could not afford the insurance and since their last names are Gonzalez, they had to put up with racist comments.

[Jim]

Just one of those things i guess like the Michael Moore movies.

[RawAlex]

Jim, yet none of them made formal complaints, they all accepted the jobs and the pay, and went along with it?

My feeling is that Wal-mart certainly pushes the limits (and often goes past them), and that their sheer size and influence in the US and world market makes them a good target.

I like Michael Moore (I have a couple of his books here, he is quite funny at times) but there is a point where he crosses from intent to inform and moves right over to intent to make people look bad even if they are not as bad as he wishes they were. He is a truly skilled film maker that has taught a whole generation of wanna-bees to make sarcastic movies that often don't portray the sides of the issue that would detract from their goal of belittling and mocking companies or individuals.

http://channels.netscape.com/news/st...&w=RTR&coview=

There are all sides on this one - including some good old american bashing from Europe.

Alex

[Jim]

They really had no choice about working there. And 1 of my sister's in law was fired for what they said stealing. Although she never stole a thing. She wanted her overtime. The others...they are just morons

[RedCherry]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

I like Michael Moore (I have a couple of his books here
Alex

Me too, my brother went to school with him, nice to see someone from my home town make it big.

Now it is hard to know who is right on the is WalMart a good place to work or not. One thing I do plan on doing is when I go shopping next time, I'll talk to some of the workers there, I'm friends with almost everyone in the store. Ok, we have no malls to hang out, so everyone hangs out there to chat.

[ecchi]

Not being American, and never having shopped in Walmart I cannot comment on the original argument. However "some good old American bashing from Europe" is a stupid and ignorant comment for two reasons:

1. Europe has plenty of stores with the same faults that this film claims for Walmart, I have even worked for a couple of them in the distant (but not distant enough) past. Any comments from Europe on this subject (if there are any) would be along the lines of "they are as bad as us". "American bashing" takes the form of "they are worse than us", and those that do it only pick on targets where those who defend America cannot say "you do it too".

2. All comments I have heard in the British media (Britain is part of Europe) have been from American commentators, or from people who are commenting on American commentators.

[ecchi]

Re-reading my last post, and knowing how sensitive some members are here, can I point out that I said THE ARGUMENT is "is a stupid and ignorant" not that RawAlex was, before someone deliberately misreads my post.

[RawAlex]

Originally Posted by Jim

They really had no choice about working there. And 1 of my sister's in law was fired for what they said stealing. Although she never stole a thing. She wanted her overtime. The others...they are just morons

So they were taken a gunpoint to work? Perhaps the government set up a secret draft to enlist people to work at the stores. Maybe (as suggested in the Simpsons) they put devices on the workers to control their thoughts.

Nahh.

Ecchi, this movie didn't get played much in America, but it has found a welcoming audience in Europe that it didn't find here. There seems to be some sort of satisfaction in finding that "the best of America" could be the worst.

Alex

[Jim]

Has Walmart started the lawsuit against the maker of this movie yet? I mean, the Government could not sue Moore for his movie but Walmart has all the right in the world if the movie is nothing but slanderous tripe.

Check out their internal memo
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/.../26walmart.pdf

[Jim]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

So they were taken a gunpoint to work? Perhaps the government set up a secret draft to enlist people to work at the stores. Maybe (as suggested in the Simpsons) they put devices on the workers to control their thoughts.

Nahh.

Ecchi, this movie didn't get played much in America, but it has found a welcoming audience in Europe that it didn't find here. There seems to be some sort of satisfaction in finding that "the best of America" could be the worst.

Alex

No, I guess since all but one retail store in this area went out of business when walmart opened, they could have tried to work there. Or, they could have just gone on welfare. I agree with you...they had choices.

[Jim]

Alex, are you some sort of secret Republican in disguise?

[RawAlex]

Jim, question: Why did all the retail stores close? Because they could not compete against a company that offered low prices? Or would it more be that the customers chose to shop at the lower priced store?

You seem to want your higher priced job and quaint mainstreets, but as a whole americans have voted with their wallets and their feet (or cars). Pure capitalism without checks and balances mean that people often do things that are against what they "want" because it satisfies a baser need.

Walmart's fault or the nature of the system?

Alex

[RawAlex]

Originally Posted by Jim

Alex, are you some sort of secret Republican in disguise?

Nope, according to MikeAI, I am as liberal as they come, making Dean look like a bible thumper.

I just think that blaming Walmart for being successful is a weak way of shifting the blame from the very consumers that drive it.

Alex

[Jim]

I guess the smaller retail stores didn't have access to cheap Chinese labor.

[Toby]

Originally Posted by Jim

I guess the smaller retail stores didn't have access to cheap Chinese labor.

and were likely paying overtime and paying for health coverage and other benefits

[fetish1]

I suppose too it depends on the individual managers of each location to a degree. My friends little sister works at Wally World while going to college, and she gets overtime frequently (paid that is). I also have to ask if that movie discussed the tuition reimbursement program they offer to college students that are employed there? Sounds like they mentioned a lot of bad, and none of the upsides of that employer.