Stop Ripping Off Low Income Families, Walmart

I hate Wal-Mart, the junk, the service, the employees, the
environment, the company policies and procedures, all of it! When I
did still shop there I always came out feeling dirty, drained and
ticked off by being trated like poo. What really pushed it over the
edge was a little clothes buying spree that hubby and I went on a few
months ago. First stop was the mall. When we left our bag included 3
pairs of South Pole Jeans, 1 pair Polo Cargos and 3 shirts. Total?
$110. Not bad for pants. Next stop later that night was Wal-Mart. We
got 2 shirts and 2 pairs of panties. Total? $95! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
For panties that long ago fell to pieces and shirts that shrunk to
baby doll tees after the first drop of rain.

So, all you Wal-Martites out there, you can keep it. I was once like
you, but saw the light and am now loving it!

I love Walmart... and I breathe a sigh o relief everytime one of you
self-righteous jerks say ya refuse to shop there... means shorter
lines for me....

Its a business nto a charity, they ARE ther eto make a profit, not to
help you with your budgeting skills.... Stop paying for high speed
internet access so you can eat bon-bons while compklaining & moaning
on websites liek this, then you will have at least an extra $100 bucks
for groceries...

I keep hearing about Unions and I've discovered that my workplace is
now going to have a Union. Could anyone help to explain to me what a
Union is and why people would join one? I've done some research but
I'm still a little confused. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

They are still cheaper than other stores. What more do you want? The
idea of a business is to GAIN profit not lose it. People are hungry
and kids go without clothes because of them? That's a little extreme.
If being low income bothers you so much then get a job. Problem
solved.

Things were diffent when Sam was alive now his family are just taking
the company for every dime they can get out of it. Some money magazine
did a survey to see what corporations gave the most in donations,
Walmart hardly gave anything.
And they do treat their employees terrible, I use to say in touch on
the wed with a gal that worked there and she was a basket case cause
of how they were treating her it was so bad. Years ago, I tried to get
a job there, and they make you sign a piece of paper saying that
you'll never put down the company.

Walmart has turned into a huge corporation with only one thing on
their agenda: profit. I stopped shopping there a year ago because I
refuse to support big business. The owners of Walmart have plenty of
money and need to be put out of business. But that will never
happen...

Vive la capitalism! No, seriously, Wal*Mart absolutely sucks. I
worked there years ago, and they treat employees like cattle now.
They treat the customers like feces on the bottom of Jimmy Choo shoes.
The only things I buy from WalMart are things I know they lose money
on. Such as DVD's on the day they come out when they sell them for
$12 and the "Blitz" promotion. However, if you do not like a store's
motive, do what I do. Vote with your feet, and your money, shop the
mom and pop stores. If every American stopped going there, they would
go out of business. But if all you do is write angry letters and spend
your money there, what message do you really send?

Just something I want to share real quick. I live along the main
evacuation route for hurricane Ike. Every gas station in town jumped
up gas prices around $0.20 per gallon, including Wal-Mart. However,
when Wal-Mart ran out of all their gas except premium they lowered the
price of the premium gas to the same prices as regular was.

That is something that I have not seen anyone else do.

So when you walk through Wal-Mart you see signs that say:

Roll-Back
Was: $12.50 Now: $63.00 :)

Just wondering.. maybe an example would help me to understand better
the audacity of Wal-Mart.

there are some drawbacks to unions as well. My biggest complaint with
them is that all workers get paid the same (for the most part), the
slackers get paid the same as the hard workers. Some employers do
provide an incentive to their hard workers by paying them overscale
but it's not that common.

Another drawback with construction is that it's not always steady.
Currently the union has a 10 week furlough period. Every worker must
take 10 weeks of unemployment so others can work. Yes, they get
unemployment benefits from the state and the union but it's not the
same. Not to mention that I'm stuck with him at home all that time!

I grew up in a union family, my father was local 1-2, Utility Workers
of America for 42 years. He died in 1981 and my mother still collects
his pension because he opted to take less of a pension so his
surviving spouse could get it if he died. He died less than a year
after he retired.

I married a union man and have worked closely with the IBEW in my own
profession. Like I said, there is good and bad in unionism but for
me, the good outweighs the bad.

I agree that unions are mostly good but their are some problems that
you identified. I've always said you should pay someone based on
their productivitiy not their seniority. But unions don't work like
that. Obviously their is still room for improvment.

Thanks

about $70 a month to his union. He has a different set up with his.

Note to self:

Freedom of choice is good...sometimes.

Ever seen the documentary, "Walmart the high cost of low prices"? In
you area Walmart has put most small business out of business. Now
that there is no compitition Walmart can charge whatever they want.
In my area there are many stores to chose from so walmart has to stay
compititive.

Second, Walmart imports most of their products and sicne the cost of
fuel has skyrocketed there prices will increase as well.

I think you would do well by organizing a union to improve wages and
working conditions for Walmart employees. Then everyone could afford
the higher prices.

I highly doubt that Walmart is the ONLY company that does this. But I
also imagine as it gets closer and closer to the day of the storm the
prices get higher because the supplies are dwindling faster.

But then once the hurricane has passed I am sure all will get back to
normal and Walmart will once again have happy shoppers. :)=

After a natural disaster, it costs more in transportation costs, etc,
to get products to the store and those costs do have to get passed
along. Sometimes fuel in stricken areas goes higher, sometimes roads
are blocked and alternate routes have to be taken... I don't honestly
think Walmart is singling out low income families.

Does Wal-Mart actually make their own products? I thought they were a
reseller, with their own brand mostly made by others with their label
slapped on the package.

If that is the case then they are not paying people overseas very
little, other companies are.

Even then, it is expensive to ship from overseas to over here, very
expensive. Plus Wal-Mart does pass the saving over to the consumer.

Every company raises their prices when something like a hurricane
happens. Not just Wal-Mart.

It is one of the basic principles of economics, supply and demand.

During any natural disaster demand goes way up. Usually it will go up
more than the supply can keep up with, either because enough cannot be
produced, or trucks cannot deliver shipments. When that happens you
have a price increase, always. It makes no economic since any other
way.

From a business standpoint, it may not seem like Walmart is losing
money due to everybody stocking up on groceries, but in reality, they
are.
During the threat of severe weather, people are piling up on food,
water...and all the essentials.
BUT they aren't buying electronic items and other expensive and
recreational items at the same time. People just want to get what they
NEED and survive. Walmart is taking a loss due to this and they have
to make it up in some way, so they raise their food prices. All retail
companies need to meet a sales goal and this is how they do it.
Walmart is an evil corporation, yes, but just like it is posted below,
it is not the only company to do it.
Its nothing personal towards low income families...its reality.

I have seen myself where wal-Mart does raise prices after storms and
natural disasters. It is normal for a store to raise prices somewhat,
after all it is more difficult to fill the demand when the supply
can't get through. But Wal-Mart does take advantage of the situation
by raising items such as milk and meats to where people can't afford
them who are on low income.
Wal-Mart does capitalize on VERY cheap labor from China and other
nations, so certain items that are made there should be cheaper to
make up for the ones that are higher due to supply shortage.
Capitalism is a way to make money but it is by no means to their
advantage to raise prices to where people can't buy the product, that
makes no sense because it results in no sales.
If Wal-Mart wants to help make lives better, as in their slagon, then
they need to set prices for the areas where their stores are.

http://wakeupwalmart.com

But its Ok, for them to take Jobs from Americans and take them over
seas right?

They are able to charge whatever they want. It's that simple.

http://www.walmartmovie.com.

You really should be careful about taking in documentary information
as fact. As others have pointed out, the economy in general is in
trouble. While they may not be doing much to alleviate the situation,
its hardly fair to lay the blame for rising prices and limited (or
non-existent)competition solely at WalMart's feet.

If other companies are so bad off that they have to close sites, how
do you expect WalMart to survive if they don't raise prices.

But likewise, if they closed this WalMart and your next nearest
shopping options were miles away, you'd be upset about that too - so
it's a no-win situation.

After reading all of the comments below, it appears that this letter
is the result of the poster watching a documentary bashing Walmart,
the fact her son is employed by them and is having issues with
management, the fact that competitors in the area have closed giving
her fewer choices as to where to shop and raising costs in general.
True - - Mississippi is a low income area, but the price of everything
is increasing constantly everywhere - - period. No matter what their
slogans say, Walmart is in the business of making money and as a
result their executives are doing very well while the common man
isn't. It's a sad fact of life that we all have no choice but to
accept. Is it right and fair? Of course not, but it is just the way
it is. When people are suffering financially there will always be
business leaders that are profiting.

The poster also references Katrina and Gustav - - Kartina was three
years ago and the economy has tanked since then thanks mainly to the
failing mortgage industry.

As far as raising prices surrounding the hurricanes is concerned - -
specific examples need to be provided in order to justify this claim
an thus far I haven't seen any proof.

Patricia B.,

Some of us ( me included ) might say this is all a result of Supply
and Demand. Your letter need specifics.

However, to best prove the case one would need to generate a list of
items for sale maybe a week prior to the weather event, during the
even and maybe 2 weeks later to get a real feel for what is going on.

I believe Walmart does not accept eMails from third parties so it
would be wise to go to Walmart.com and post your letter there to as a
backup.

Stop back and let us know what you hear back.

BillR.

This is why our family keeps a storm kit on hand just in case. Cases
of water, canned food, batteries, everything you'd need in the case of
an emergency. And we do not get a lot of tropical storms in Toronto.

Yes, it's wrong of WalMart to take advantage of natural disasters, but
welcome to capitalist America, comrade. Stock up while stuff is cheap
and you'll be the one winning.

I am the first to line up and say I do not like Walmart. I avoid them
as much as possible. I do not boycott them or anything, just try to
put vote with my money most times. There are some items though that
are simply cheaper for me at Walmart and I try to get them there if I
am near their store. The bread I usually buy is 1/2 the price of any
grocery store I go to, etc.

With that said, I have a hard time believe that Walmart goes around
and up's all of it's prices around the store just after a natural
disaster and then lowers them all once it's past. That's a ton of
work.
Do some items go up? Probably, I would think those that would be on
short supply would go up. That's called supply and demand. Though,
some states have laws that could come into play in terms of disasters
and price increases. I know Michigan does.

Now, my main point was this. This is America. Vote with your wallet
instead of complaining what CEO's, etc. live in. If you don't like
it, don't shop there. Walmart is in business TO MAKE MONEY. It's not
in business to provide a job for people, give people the best price,
etc. Those are all business decisions or side benefits of them being
around as a company.

Dont all stores in the area of natural disasters raise prices shortly
after said event?

Something about it being harder to get good trucked in?

Personally, I agree with the OP, MORE effort should be made to lower
prices during these times to help folks.

I always thought WalMart was where you could get stuff cheap. Do you
have specific examples of how they raise prices during a storm?

What products are "sky high" at WalMart?