Unmitigated Gall

Katybug

Katybug

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
I know it serves a purpose for a lot of people and widely loved, but most of you know how I feel about this chain. Something in the news today truly takes the cake...


A Cleveland Wal-Mart (WMT -0.25%) store is holding a food drive -- for its own employees.
"Please donate food items so associates in need can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner," reads a sign accompanied by several plastic bins.


The Cleveland Plain Dealer first reported on the food drive, which has sparked outrage in the area.


"That Wal-Mart would have the audacity to ask low-wage workers to donate food to other low-wage workers -- to me, it is a moral outrage," Norma Mills, a customer at the store, told The Plain Dealer.


The very nerve!!! I could write a book on how much I hate W-M since the founder died. It wouldn't be the success it is unless the majority of people felt differently, but ya gotta admit this is ballsy!
 

Absolutely unbelievable.

However, Wal Mart is spinning it differently

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/behind...ood-drive-for-employees/?mod=msn_money_ticker

Company spokesman Kory Lundberg told MarketWatch that the store has conducted such food drive for a few years year round for employees who have gone through some “unforeseen hardships” such as a death in the family or a spouse losing job. He said last year an employee at the store got help because she lost her childcare support.

“It’s sad this is being twisted into something it’s not,” he said in reference to the response of employees he’s spoken to at that store. “Our pay is competitive to anyone out there.”

He said Walmart as a company also has a trust that gives grants to employees in critical need. Walmart will treat employees who work on Thanksgiving to a traditional dinner, he said.

Walmart U.S. has 1 million hourly employees making full-time hourly wage of $12.83 on average, Walmart said on its website.
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......Katy, now you know they only made 3.7 billion profit last quarter..... how can you expect them to help out every Tom, Dick and Harry...:rolleyes::rolleyes:
 

In ancient times, when a slave would fall while building the pyramids the other workers would band together and donate a portion of their grain to the widow ...


pyramid.jpg
 
Diwundrin said:
Ha! you think that's cynical? Out here we have banks who have customers best interests at heart. Just ask 'em.
Click to expand...

I have a standard routine for whenever someone asks me if I have a bank account. The dance steps, hand gestures, song lyrics and pantomime all come together into what the NY Times has termed -

"A MUST SEE PARODY AT ANY COST!" (NYTimes,11/12/13)

From my gig at the Alhambra - the closing number ...

We're For You

We're for you, we're for you,
Take a coffeemaker, juicer and a
Toaster, too

We're for you, we're for you,
Just remember we're your friends when we take
A point or two

We slave all night and day inside our
Plush vault walls
We hope that you don't mind we've got you
By the balls

We're for you, we're for you
We ... are .... for ...

YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!


*fireworks, glitter, parading elephants*
*exeunt*
 
In Australia, there 2 giant supermarket cdains.
All the near "use by" and "best before date" items, as well as damaged items are given to charities. Many other outlets, restaurants, hotels etc., are following the example.
 
babyboomer said:
In Australia, there 2 giant supermarket cdains.
All the near "use by" and "best before date" items, as well as damaged items are given to charities. Many other outlets, restaurants, hotels etc., are following the example.
Click to expand...


I think there only in Victoria, not throughout Australia. The two giant food supermarket robbers are COLES & WOOLWORTHS.
 
You do realise that those charitable donations are tax write offs of course? They 'make' almost as much on those donations as they do on the stuff they sell.
Just mentioning that to forestall any misconceptions some may hold that they are exhibiting signs of philanthropy.
 
Diwundrin said:
You do realise that those charitable donations are tax write offs of course? They 'make' almost as much on those donations as they do on the stuff they sell.
Just mentioning that to forestall any misconceptions some may hold that they are exhibiting signs of philanthropy.
Click to expand...
Well if they were "disposed off" in dumpster, they would still be "tax write offs"
 
Jackie22 said:
......Katy, now you know they only made 3.7 billion profit last quarter..... how can you expect them to help out every Tom, Dick and Harry...:rolleyes::rolleyes:
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All I can say is I must have lost my mind, Jackie, when the company is obviously doing as poorly as their employees, and made just under $4 billion. How are they going to get by on that pittance? So excuse me, I obviously misspoke.:hororr:
 
Jackie22 said:
I think Walmart got into trouble with some of their grant giving in the past, having conditions attached, not sure it had to do with employees....of course they have to put a good face on it.
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They would certainly spin this in their favor, of course, because the truth should humiliate them terribly...and it does or they wouldn't be trying to 'splain their way out of it. I've heard this first hand and know it to be true....I despise the way they treat their employees and that, too, began after the founder's death. Things weren't at all the way they are now when he was in charge.
 
As long as the drive is, more for less, among so many people these huge companies will continue to exist. They will continue to treat their employees the way they do. Walmart is not the only one. These companies will continue to open on Thanksgiving, and other holidays. It is not just the CEOs, the others in charge, and the people who buy their stock, it is the people who shop there.
 
You are right, Judi.D.....two things about Walmart that really gets my goat is that they hand out instructions to employees on 'how to get government help' and when they opened stores in Mexico they tried to pay employees with vouchers that the employees had to spend at ......where else.....WALMART.
 
GDAD said:
I think there only in Victoria, not throughout Australia. The two giant food supermarket robbers are COLES & WOOLWORTHS.
Click to expand...

I'm still thinking of Wal-Mart as more like a K-Mart rather than a groc store, tho I know huge groc sections have been added to most all their stores. But none of the original ones that I shopped in (when the founder was running them) carried many food items, just everything else under the sun. Even w/the groc section included, that's only about 1/4 of the store. It is 1-stop shopping for anything you may need and that makes it even more popular, and their prices truly are cheaper. But there is way too much publicity smoke as to how poorly they treat their employees (again, since the founder died) for there not to be a fire...and a big one at that. I think the OP speaks for my feeling this so strongly.
 
That "trust" for helping employees in need? It's funded by payroll deduction donations of employees not by Walmart. What? You expect the owners/shareholders to part with their own money. Silly you!
 
I think that many places will band employees together to help an employee who is having hard times, so I do not see that as unique to Walmart. I have worked in places where the employees took up collections to help a fellow employee who was going through a hard time for some reason, or had contracted a serious illness.
Also, Walmart, while being a large corporation, is still basically pretty much an entry level type of job, or part time job, and just like Burger King, or any fast food place, it is often just a stepping stone to better employment for graduates. If a person continues to work there, it does offer higher wages, as well as a retirement plan. My husbands stepmother worked there for many years, and is now drawing her retirement pension from there, and she was a manager in the flower department.
Just because a company is profitable does not mean they should pay more for workers, just as an unprofitable company does not pay less. An employee is paid the going wage for the job they are performing, whether it is a giant superstore, or the neighborhood market.
 
Judi.D said:
As long as the drive is, more for less, among so many people these huge companies will continue to exist. They will continue to treat their employees the way they do. Walmart is not the only one. These companies will continue to open on Thanksgiving, and other holidays. It is not just the CEOs, the others in charge, and the people who buy their stock, it is the people who shop there.
Click to expand...

I feel so sorry for those who have to work on holidays, but for some they don't mean that much. If I didn't have family, I would offer to work, as a lot of them do and at time & a half. But for all the people I know who work some holidays, their companies treat them well in other respects. Not at all like I've heard first hand from several Wal-Mart employees....and, again, since the Owner died. It's like a working for a different company altogether, they say, since he passed -- and that's when the poor treatment began.

Hating crowds, I never go into any store the day before or after a holiday, haven't in decades, and you can bet the farm I wouldn't be in Wal-Mart on any day. But I understand what you're saying.
 
You all need to read the whole story. A large company I use to work for did this every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Lundberg said holding the food drive at the Canton Walmart was decided at the store level. However, the effort could be considered in line with what happens company-wide. The Associates in Critical Need Trust is funded by Walmart employee contributions that can be given throughpayroll deduction. He said employees can receive grants up to $1,500 to address hardships they may encounter, including homelessness, serious medical illnesses and major repairs to primary vehicles. Since 2001, grants totaling $80 million have been made.
 
Happyflowerlady said:
Also, Walmart, while being a large corporation, is still basically pretty much an entry level type of job, or part time job, and just like Burger King, or any fast food place, it is often just a stepping stone to better employment for graduates.
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But the sad truth is that, while jobs like this ARE meant for those new to the workplace, they are actually being filled by mature adults who are scrabbling to survive. There's a big difference.

It isn't a stepping stone for those people - it's a life raft.

I have no problem with a company organizing a collection for an ill employee, unless that illness is due to not having medical coverage (part-time employment, anyone?).

The $1,500 that W-M offers as emergency medical coverage? That's a joke, as anyone who has paid a medical bill for major services could tell you. That might cover the cost of a few tests.

Finally, it's just the irony of a company widely reviled for its employment practices and mistreatment of employees to put out a few buckets advertising charity. It's as if Ebenezer Scrooge were to suddenly start collecting for UNICEF.
 
Sifu, I do see what you are saying, and you are absolutely right !
However, in my way of thinking, that makes those jobs even more important, since they ARE literally a life raft for some older people. I have seen elderly greeters working at a Walmart store, that had to do the job from a wheelchair, and know that it is their way to supplement a meager SS pension.
For several years, I sold newspaper subscriptions at stores from a little kiosk, on commission, to help us survive on my SS pension.
Now, I do surveys, and other online tasks to help out.

Jobs that pay more than the basic wages found at Walmart or a fast food place are much harder to come by, especially for the handicapped people.
Yes, it would be wonderful if they did pay more than basic wage, but then there would be less of them, since more people would then not try to better themselves with a better paying job.
The life-raft people would then have NO life raft jobs.

And the employee collections are not meant to replace health and injury disability insurance, they are to simply help with other expenses the person is unable to properly afford while they are sick.
My brother in law was a lineman, and one day a power pole fell over with him. Even though Workman's Comp paid for his hospital and doctor treatment, he still appreciated the donation that the other linemen took up to help him and his family, which helped to put food on the table while other compensation had not yet kicked in to help with household needs.
 
Anthony-300x300.jpg
 

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