Tag Archive for Walmart

Shoppers: Make that Really a Good Deal

December 9, 2015 Comments Off on Shoppers: Make that Really a Good Deal

Attention, Walmart shoppers:  Those deals you’re getting aren’t such good deals.  Set aside for the moment that you can get similar items elsewhere on sale and meet or beat Walmart’s prices.  Set aside the fact that you’re budget likes it when you buy items that are cheap every day, even though their manufacturer is subsidized by the Chinese government, with low standards that often produce sub-standard or dangerous products. The fact is, those “cheap” items cost America and our workers dearly.

Reuters reports that Walmart single-handedly caused 15.3% of our counry’s goods trade deficit between 2001 and 2013–that’s $48.1 BILLION that went to China rather than into our economy.  400,000 American jobs were lost to Chinese workers, who, by the way, suffer abuse in their jobs.

Walmart claims they’ll be adding jobs here.  Most of their workers, however, are paid low wages and are kept part-time so the corporation doesn’t have to pay benefits.  According to the Economic Policy Institute, real jobs are not materializing, and the EPI projects that Walmart will send more manufacturing jobs to China in the next decade than it creates for U.S. workers.  All in all, the situation harms our economy.

Keep this in mind this holiday-shopping season.  Watch the ads.  Use the coupons.  Shop wisely.  Just not at Walmart.  Make it a merrier Christmas for the American economy and our workers.

 

 

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Warning About Walmart Meat

July 14, 2015 Comments Off on Warning About Walmart Meat

If you shop at Walmart (I wish you wouldn’t) and buy meat there, you need to know the change that the corporation has made.  You may still see people dressed like butchers there, but they are not the ones cutting the meat, and they won’t, even if you ask for a special cut.  That’s because Walmart has moved to pre-packaged, display-case ready meats.  You know, in a tray that covers all but the top, which has cellophane on it.

What this means for you:  Because the suppliers are doing the cutting and packaging, often in far-away cities, the meat is not as fresh as if cut on-site by butchers.  It also means that you aren’t the only one guessing at what’s under the visible top; Walmart butchers don’t know, either, unless they were to unwrap and re-wrap each package, which, of course, they won’t do because it costs too much. Since the butchers have no quality control, you may end up opening the package to find more fat than you expected or brownish, aging meat.

Walmart says they’ve changed their procedure to ensure “the highest quality [they] can provide.”  Employees find the timing suspicious–right after the butchers at a Texas Walmart successfully joined the first ever independent trade union in a Walmart.

Whatever the reason, Walmart shopper, beware.

 

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Walmart’s Great Deal

December 9, 2014 2 comments

As you shop for Christmas and Hanukkah gifts, you’ll likely think of the great deals Walmart has.  Personally, I do as well on prices and better on quality elsewhere if I shop carefully and take advantage of coupons and sales.  That’s good, because my conscience won’t let me shop at Walmart.

It’s a matter of respect and concern for their workers.  Their mistreatment is a matter of record.  I’ve read the news stories and investigative reports from reputable news agencies: hiring the undocumented and locking them up in stores (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4146540/ns/business-us_business/t/suit-wal-mart-locked-janitors-stores/#.VHoEIzHF-So); hiring people with the promise of benefits, then as the corporate profits skyrocket, cutting those benefits (http://dailydigestnews.com/2014/10/profit-behemoth-wal-mart-cuts-benefits-raisies-healthcare-costs-for-part-time-workers/), knowing that most of their employees depend on their jobs to keep just this side of the poverty level; hiring the undocumented and making them work in harsh conditions, without overtime or even a day off (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/us/illegally-in-us-and-never-a-day-off-at-wal-mart.html); and practicing intimidation, discrimination, careless pollution, tax avoidance, and bribery (http://www.corp-research.org/wal-mart).

I agree that Walmart has great deals, but for the corporation, not for the workers.  So I take my wallet elsewhere.

 

 

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Speak Up To Help Children

April 29, 2014 Comments Off on Speak Up To Help Children

Picture this: You’re 20 and working hard at a job you’ve had since age 14.  In fact, 14-year-olds and younger work by your side.  Bathroom visits must be quick or you’re physically and verbally abused.  Your hours are from 8:00 am to midnight, sometimes to 3:00 am, seven days a week, with no days off.  You may make $125 a month or not be paid if the factory’s goal isn’t met.  You know that the building’s structure is weak but try to ignore the danger, because your family needs the income you earn.  Finally, one day, it collapses, killing some workers, trapping you under rubble for twelve hours and injuring you to the point that you can’t return to that job but must find little jobs here and there, where you (and you weakened body) can.

This is Rana Plaza’s story, and the story of countless others in places where clothing is made to be sold cheaply in our Walmarts, Children’s Places, and other discount stores.  In other words, the pennies that we save buying those items bring misery to children and adults in other parts of the world.

True, if we just stop buying those items people lose their livelihoods.  However, we can demand safer, fairer conditions for workers by raising our voices.  Walmart has to listen if we shout loud enough; they’ve had so many black eyes from their civil rights violations NOT to listen, as they’re currently trying to rebuild a more positive image.

Read Rava’s story–which mirrors millions of children’s stories–at Credo’s website. While you’re there, make your voice heard by signing the petition to Walmart and Children’s Place.

 

 

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Walmart’s Not-So-Super Market

March 31, 2014 Comments Off on Walmart’s Not-So-Super Market

If you think that Walmart has good deals, you haven’t visited their supermarket or read the results of the Consumer Reports survey of their subscribers.  Those surveyed complained that items are often out of stock and that there are too few check-outs.  The produce and meat are of low quality, as well.  As for those supposedly low prices, think again; survey respondents found that prices are just as low or even lower at other supermarket chains.  Yes, they, like many others, do a product match.  However, if you’ve ever tried to cash in on that at any store you knows that the product must be published in the other store’s current ad and be the exact size, type, and brand for the price-match to be honored, and that happens rarely.

Overall, although Walmart is the largest grocer, those surveyed rated them at the very bottom of all of the grocers.  I can’t help thinking that if these complaints are true of the grocery department, what does that say about the policies and workings of all their other departments?

I admit that I dislike Walmart—I don’t approve of their mistreatment of workers and their hiring/firing practices, among other human rights issues.  Now I have one more reason to avoid the place.

 

 

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