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LeNoceurHamilton Nolan
8/22/14 1:18pm
If it were legal or remotely morally defensible, many segments of corporate America would use slave labor.
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  ObliteratiLeNoceur
  8/22/14 1:34pm
  They probably wouldn't even care about it's moral indefensibility. As long as everybody else was doing it, they could get away with it.
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  toothpetardLeNoceur
  8/22/14 1:38pm
  Or prison labor...
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BumbugoloHamilton Nolan
8/22/14 1:05pm
While the government raising the minimum wage nationwide to $10-$15 may not be wise,since it cost jack shit to live in Idaho and living in NY on $15 would still relegate you to a life of poverty.

I really don't understand the labor practices of America's mega corporations, they seem counter-intuitive. Paying your workers more will allow them to have more disposal income allowing them to spend it at your store, and taking them off welfare possibly lowering the mega corporations tax burden.
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  Hamilton NolanBumbugolo
  8/22/14 1:07pm
  It speaks to the total divorce of the mega-rich from the rest of a nation's citizens—and the ongoing erosion of any sense of collective responsibility or collective fate—in the age of the multinational corporation.
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  burps25Bumbugolo
  8/22/14 1:13pm
  Paying them more means they buy more, meaning they now have to produce more stock, and hire more employees to deal with the additional sales, shelving, receiving, etc, who now get paid more. Would it be a net-zero increase after all that work? Would they even spend the additional money at Wal-Mart anyway?
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MorganHamilton Nolan
8/22/14 1:00pm
But unions are totally pointless in 2014, right guys?
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ObliteratiHamilton Nolan
8/22/14 1:26pm
This sounds exactly like the Walmart here in small town Kansas, where my son works.

Walmart's been here for 30 odd years. Up until two or three years ago, many of the employees were lifers. Obviously Walmart's never been a great job, but people who'd been there their whole adult lives were making $14-$17 an hour - decent money for someone with no education, and in a town where Walmart had already destroyed all the competition.

All those old-timers have been let go now though, just like the guy said in his emails. And their replacements are all people like my son: high schoolers and kids from the local community college. They work part-time for minimum wage and no benefits, and then leave after a year or two to head to college or to Kansas City to find better work.

Part-time short-term workers have always been a part of Walmart - I worked there when I was in high school, a zillion years ago - but there's always been this backbone of fairly regular, fairly competent, fairly loyal, adequately paid long-term employees. Not anymore, and now the place is grinding to a halt.

They're chronically understaffed. Shelves are bare for days at a time, the parking lot is a sea of shopping carts that never get collected, checkout lines go on forever...and if you're hunting for something in particular don't even bother looking for an employee to help you. It's better to just call the store from your cell phone and have the "operator" (generally just an employee who happens to be standing by a phone) call someone on the radio to help.

It's just a joke, the store's never clean, never stocked, never organized, shoplifting is rampant, just mess after mess. I hate shopping there, and nowadays I buy everything except perishables off of Amazon.

I think the Walmart empire is starting to crack.
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  Atomic BuffaloObliterati
  8/22/14 1:58pm
  But now that Walmart has momentum and has eliminated most competition, even when people hate their practices and hate the experience, they won't (can't?) entirely quit shopping there — so is the empire starting to crack, or merely evolving?
  
  BTW, buying things from Amazon instead of Walmart is really just trading one slavedriver for another. Amazon may not be as bad as Walmart today, but read up on the conditions their warehouse workers face and you'll probably find yourself wishing you could quit buying from them, too...
  
  ...if only it wasn't more convenient than the alternatives.
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  ObliteratiAtomic Buffalo
  8/22/14 2:18pm
  Oh I know Amazon sucks, but "shitty work conditions and shitty service'" vs "shitty work conditions and pretty good service" is really a no contest. Unfortunately the closest Costco is something like 50 miles away from my house.
  
  As to your first point, Walmart to me seems like one of those companies that can only succeed by constantly growing. With Amazon constantly pushing the pace, it's a red queen scenario for Walmart, they have to keep running faster and faster just to stay where they are, and once they start to slip their advantages will go away and they'll fall further and further behind.
  
  I don't think they'll have a sudden, explosive bankruptcy, just a long slow contraction and decline. Think Sears, which was the biggest retailer in the world for decades and eventually fell behind, but is still around now, 50 years after their peak.
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Collapsed ConversationHamilton Nolan
8/22/14 1:09pm
Hamilton,

Interesting piece, but I was unclear on a few things that would help in understanding the Manager's (and Asisstant Manager's) perspective. Mainly, what is the salary of the letter writer as an Assistant Manager at Wal-Mart? While he/she states it is over $23,000 (and perhaps under $80,000) it would be interesting to see if he was working 65-hour weeks in Oklahoma compensated at $30K , or at $70K.
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  PeersCollapsed Conversation
  8/22/14 1:21pm
  Also, he said his annual bonus was $20k. That could go a good ways towards covering some of that overtime.
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  PucksrCollapsed Conversation
  8/22/14 1:25pm
  This is kind of a moot point. Walmart is notoriously hard on their managers but they pay them more than industry average. They are definitely making as much money or more than they did at previous retail.
  
  Talking to friends in retail management, this is pretty much par for the course. Walmart forces managers to do all sorts of questionable things to insure their bonus. One example that is rarely mentioned is the practice of 'pricing mistakes'. Walmart is fond of making items ring up at a higher rate than the displayed signage. They typically do this for popular items and by a small amount. This is done at the store level so that there is not a systematic parity. This is also a violation of the law in most states. To be clear, Walmart doesn't just let this happen. They actively request it(or at least have in the past).
  
  Walmart managers are generally expected to come in as "assistant managers" even if they are experienced veterans of retail. You try to claw your way to store manager. The store manager is trying to claw his way to corporate. Corporate is generally more insulated from all of the crap, so they aren't just trying to advance their careers. They are actively trying to climb out of the shitshow that is a Walmart store. My understanding is that most managers would take a corporate(regional/headquarters/etc) position in a heartbeat if offered identical pay(bonus included)
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DolemiteHamilton Nolan
8/22/14 1:01pm
"since I make more than $23,000 a year Walmart was not required to pay me overtime." Most people don't realize that just because you are salary, it does not automatically exempt you from overtime pay. Depending on duties, you can still be eligible for overtime. However, corporations are constantly working hard with our government to get more and more duties and job titles added to the "exempt from overtime pay" category.
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  SFVapeManDolemite
  8/22/14 1:14pm
  You are correct. If a salaried manager spends 50% or more of their time doing the work of an hourly employee they are entitled to overtime. I won 2 years of overtime in a lawsuit against a former employer.
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  SOCdriverDolemite
  8/22/14 1:25pm
  Tech companies tried this with the IT field, it fell flat on its face. One of the reasons I struck out on my own, I make my own rate at a pace determined by me. If at some point IT positions become overtime exempt I know a lot of people who will hurt.
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Dainty UnicornHamilton Nolan
8/22/14 1:04pm
Costco is coming to (Central?) Oklahoma soon. Not that their labor practices are any better, but competition can work in employees' favor.
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  HelioDainty Unicorn
  8/22/14 1:06pm
  You might be thinking of Sam's Club (which is owned by Wal Mart). Costco has an excellent reputation for their hours, salary and benefits.
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  newsratDainty Unicorn
  8/22/14 1:07pm
  Costco's labor practices are significantly better.
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Justice Rains From My ButtHamilton Nolan
8/22/14 1:13pm
I work for another very large company(over 80,000 Employees that openly practices things like this. But they tell the employees right out of the gate that if they go over 1300 hours they can't work any more in that year and risk being let go. they do this to avoid having to pay out benefits to these employees. The way they spin it, this is a more flexible schedule and is good for second jobs or those in school. But in reality most just want full time so they can pay their bills. And it really isn't flexible since you're expected to show up 4 days a week for six hours and time off can be very difficult to obtain.
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  TheJabberwokkJustice Rains From My Butt
  8/23/14 5:40am
  Target? That sounds like Target lol. (if it is, I'm sorry, I'm there til school is done and I can run *is a gsa*)
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  Justice Rains From My ButtTheJabberwokk
  8/23/14 10:16am
  Nah, it isn't retail.
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dbushikHamilton Nolan
8/22/14 2:01pm
Capitalists: capitalism's biggest enemy.

It should be illegal to have a business model that counts on government assistance to make up the gap between the low wages a company pays it's employees and the cost of living. It completely defeats the entire idea of free markets setting the price for wages. Corporations should be fined annually some multiple of the amount that their employees are forced to seek government aid for to survive.

The richest and most powerful among us set the playing field and determine how the economy works. When they set up a system where they benefit ridiculously and everyone else gets screwed, they need to be held accountable for that. When hourly productivity steadily climbs (the value per hour a worker produces) while wages remain flat, that is a complete perversion of what capitalism is suppose to be. It's very straightforwardly predatory with the most powerful not competing with each other to produce the best result, but instead sucking the least powerful among us dry like vampires.
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  Fleetwood T. Broughamdbushik
  8/22/14 3:07pm
  So you start by saying that capitalists are the biggest enemy, and then go into great detail (correctly) about how artificial market forces, aka govt assistance, bastardize the practice of capitalism.....in short, you do a great job pointing out how true free market capitalists aren't to blame.
  
  In a pure free market capitalism system, govt subsidization wouldn't be an option, and higher wages would be required to recruit a reasonably capable employee base.
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  BMOkcdbushik
  8/22/14 3:43pm
  Don't forget, the sales Tax collected at Walmart. 8.375% in Oklahoma City. Lets take a town like El Reno - a little town West of OKC thats not quite Deliverance, but no ones calling it progressive. As much business as Walmart does in that town. El Reno should be BOOMING with extra revenue. right?
  
  Lets just say it sells 2 million per year, at this store. We all know its much much much much more. But, for arguments sake. $2,000,000 / 1.08375% = 1845444 pre tax sales, which means that TAX collected revenue is $155,550 that should go to the coffers and help local schools and fire departments and the rest of the community.
  
  Add $155,000 to a local budget. Right?
  
  WRONG. Walmart, will not open in your town / city, unless given crazy incentives....
  
  incentives like...... a minor, small, minisule amount of sales tax collected.
  
  When my locally owned business collects 8.375% sales tax, my government get severe part of what i collected, but not Walmart - not the company that can afford it the most.
  
  Walmart pays a sales tax, in most cases of less than .005%.
  
  That leaves El Reno with —— drum roll please about $10,000 in sales tax collected..... oh and they have to share that with the state.
  
  Now maybe my number is wrong, i don't give a shit if walmart pay HALF the sales tax collected. It is illegal for any company to do what these ass holes (and many others) are doing, but is made legal by lawmakers and state officials.
  
  It almost makes me want to get into politics. But, I could never do it.
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bishheartHamilton Nolan
8/22/14 1:18pm
I used to work in the corporate offices of a large, national department store. One of the metrics in our annual reviews was "customer store experience." This consistently dragged down our total scores, and we didn't have a whole lot of control over the store experience from our perches in our ivory tower. Someone raised this point during a town hall meeting with our CEO and asked that the company do more to hire better store associates. The CEO basically said, "our company isn't known for good customer service, and we can't compete with competitors X, Y, and Z on customer service, so we're not even going to try."

I imagine Walmart is doing the same thing.

Also, this is hardly the only place where Walmart is penny pinching. When employees travel from the Bentonville HQ to other cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, for meetings with manufacturers or showrooms, their per diem is shockingly low. Like, they're expected to eat at McDonald's. And they're expected to share hotel rooms. Full disclosure: this was the case when I still worked in retail, which was, admittedly, awhile ago.

More recently, I was considering getting back into retail, and they offered me a job. But they require their corporate employees to come into the office one Saturday per month. And you get like, ten vacation days a year. Compare this to the people who work at Target's corporate offices; I have a friend who got a job offer there, and she would've started with five weeks vacation.

But everyone there was really, really friendly and easy to talk to, so they have that going for them.
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  OurGIIIbishheart
  8/22/14 1:44pm
  Doubling up on the road is still s.o.p. at Wal-mart.
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  bishheartOurGIII
  8/22/14 1:46pm
  I wasn't sure about that, so thanks for the confirmation!
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