Topic: will wal-mart kill us all
hellkitten54's photo
Sat 12/06/08 09:45 AM


Ok.. it's simple..
watch the movie..

'WalMart - The High Cost of Low Price'

Made me hate WalMart...

It's on Netflix


Watched it. It had some good points. Too bad no one realizes the same thing goes on at Target and K-Mart too.

I dated a girl who went from Wal-Mart to Target. They treated her worse, and she's now out of retail all together.



That is one good thing about living in America, we can pick and choose where we work. We don't have to be treated like crap if we don't want to.

Mindsi's photo
Sat 12/06/08 09:47 AM

i think a huge problem is that america has lost it's
manufacturing base.

almost nothing is manufactured here anymore. We cant even manufacture a hairdryer !!!! I look around my place and everything, and i don mean everything, is foreign.



You try selling anything for the price it costs to get an American to make it. The American can't afford to work for less because he has to make payments on his house, both cars, the boat, the kid's college education, oh and one of them will need a car next year. It goes on and on. I'm not sure what will fix the situation, but singling out Wal-Mart for a systemic problem may be popular, but won't help.

Mindsi's photo
Sat 12/06/08 10:08 AM

It seems a lot of people don't like the fact that Walmart sells mostly items made in China.. What about the other things Walmart does.. such as not making it possible for most of it's employees to get health insurance so they are on government assistance for it? plus the average Walmart employee makes $13k a year.. Could they afford it anway? A class action lawsuit by 69,000 employees that were forced to work off the clock without pay...Deleting time from employees time cards.. Class action lawsuits for discrimination against women.. federal allegations it used illegal immigrants to clean its stores.. Right now there is 26,699,678 square feet of empty Walmarts wasting space in the US... Walmart imported $18billion from China in 2004..


Where do you get your info? In Kansas the average Wal-mart associate starts at about $7 an hour. 40 hour week, so that's about $280 a week before taxes. 52 weeks a year, so that's 14560. That's starting. Before taxes, granted, but there's also associates that have been there 10 plus years making 16 to 20 plus an hour. If you want more money make planes or cars. There's not enough margin in retail.

On health insurance, I work for Wal-Mart (as if you haven't guessed yet) and I have a Health savings account through the company that I pay 8 dollars a paycheck to have maintained, I put an additional $40 that the company matches. It goes into an account that earns interest that I can use to pay medical expenses. Once I've paid the deductible with that, the plan pays up to 80% of the other expenses. It's worked pretty good for me. I don't have kids though, so that might change the math a bit.

You do realize that some of those lawsuits are decades old now? Doesn't mean that they didn't happen, but it could mean that there are policies in place to make sure that it doesn't happen any more often than it does in the local grocery store, or Denny's, or Burger King?


I get a little bitter when everyone is happy to bash the place I work because it makes a good target. How many of you have studied sociology or economics? What do you think of it?


martymark's photo
Sat 12/06/08 10:17 AM

Maruchan Ramen noodles are made in the USA.

good thing too, I eat a lot of those, you can actually get pretty creative with them, add stuff to em and all. drool

SamaraNJ's photo
Sat 12/06/08 10:54 AM


It seems a lot of people don't like the fact that Walmart sells mostly items made in China.. What about the other things Walmart does.. such as not making it possible for most of it's employees to get health insurance so they are on government assistance for it? plus the average Walmart employee makes $13k a year.. Could they afford it anway? A class action lawsuit by 69,000 employees that were forced to work off the clock without pay...Deleting time from employees time cards.. Class action lawsuits for discrimination against women.. federal allegations it used illegal immigrants to clean its stores.. Right now there is 26,699,678 square feet of empty Walmarts wasting space in the US... Walmart imported $18billion from China in 2004..


Where do you get your info? In Kansas the average Wal-mart associate starts at about $7 an hour. 40 hour week, so that's about $280 a week before taxes. 52 weeks a year, so that's 14560. That's starting. Before taxes, granted, but there's also associates that have been there 10 plus years making 16 to 20 plus an hour. If you want more money make planes or cars. There's not enough margin in retail.

On health insurance, I work for Wal-Mart (as if you haven't guessed yet) and I have a Health savings account through the company that I pay 8 dollars a paycheck to have maintained, I put an additional $40 that the company matches. It goes into an account that earns interest that I can use to pay medical expenses. Once I've paid the deductible with that, the plan pays up to 80% of the other expenses. It's worked pretty good for me. I don't have kids though, so that might change the math a bit.

You do realize that some of those lawsuits are decades old now? Doesn't mean that they didn't happen, but it could mean that there are policies in place to make sure that it doesn't happen any more often than it does in the local grocery store, or Denny's, or Burger King?


I get a little bitter when everyone is happy to bash the place I work because it makes a good target. How many of you have studied sociology or economics? What do you think of it?




There is no way I believe someone working at walmart that isn't a manager or anything is making that much money..
The median pay for a walmart employee being there 10-19 years is $14

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Walmart.com/Hourly_Rate

Winx's photo
Sat 12/06/08 10:58 AM
Edited by Winx on Sat 12/06/08 11:02 AM

just by chance I happened to go to Target yesterday. I swear
I do not work at Target.

I checked the food prices, which is pretty much the only thing i buy, and they were comparable.

the only thing missing was the dirt, masses of people, and workers who couldnt speak english.

i go to a "high end" store to purchase meat & chicken, i will not eat the pre-packaged stuff from the discount-boxes. but from now on iam going to Target.

just find something else besides wal-mart - the place is bad.


Your Walmart is way different from the ones by me.

We don't have dirt, masses of people, and workers that can't speak English.

Also, Target's prices are much higher then Walmart here.

Btw, I'm leaving now to buy my child a bicycle for Christmas.
I'm going to Walmart.



beautifulsoul08's photo
Sat 12/06/08 10:59 AM


BUT WE DO NOTHING WHILE ALL THE SMALLER STORES ARE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS BY WAL-MART ???



THEN WE FIND OUT THAT WAL-MART IS OWNED BY THE CHINESE ???



I think I watch way too many horror films !!!!!


Have you ever worked for one of those small stores or shopped in them? Especially in smaller towns that can't support a Wal-Mart by themselves? The small store has to pay more to have the product shipped to them, therefore there is less profit. Less profit, means they have to pay lower wages compared to the Wal-Mart (Or Target, Or Kroger-brand Grocery store, etc.). When the store owner can go to Wal-Mart and buy it off the shelf for less than he can get from the distributor, it may be time to admit that the small store isn't viable any more.




not to mention the food is 1-2 dollars more in price. im sorry but i cant afford to spend 4 dollars on something i can spend 2 dollars on at walmart

Winx's photo
Sat 12/06/08 11:01 AM


Maruchan Ramen noodles are made in the USA.

good thing too, I eat a lot of those, you can actually get pretty creative with them, add stuff to em and all. drool


Ramen noodles aren't healthy.

RKISIT's photo
Sat 12/06/08 11:14 AM
american made products are more cause of labor cost. you can thank the union for that...it has finally come back and bit us in the ass.the automakers are now feeling it cause an employee makes $68.00 an hour to put on 5 lug nuts....and we b!tch about government officials that get paid to do nothing.:smile:

CATBW56's photo
Sat 12/06/08 11:35 AM
I don't care what anybody says......I worked for Walmart for 12 years. Did every conceivable job there was to do at Walmart, including Asst. Manager. I would probably still be there if it wasn't for the fact I had an a$$hole for a store manager...so I chose to leave the store and the company. I still shop there on a very regular basis. Would rather shop there then Kmart or Target any day

ArtGurl's photo
Sat 12/06/08 11:39 AM

for the most part you are correct on walmart carrying foreign made goods....but they also carry American Made products. We would be boycotting Walmart for some of our very own goods if we avoided them altogether.


Cut-n-paste:

Abandons Buy American Program. In February 1985, Walton wrote 3,000 American manufacturers and wholesalers to announce that the chain wanted to buy more American goods. Walton said: “We cannot continue to be a solvent nation as long as we pursue this current accelerating direction. Our company is firmly committed to the philosophy by buying everything possible from suppliers who manufacture their products in the United States.” Today, however, over 80 percent of Wal-Mart’s 6,000 global suppliers are based in China. [Wal-Mart Press Release, 3/13/85; Wal-Mart Literature, 1994; PBS Frontline, 11/16/04]





hellkitten54's photo
Sat 12/06/08 11:47 AM


for the most part you are correct on walmart carrying foreign made goods....but they also carry American Made products. We would be boycotting Walmart for some of our very own goods if we avoided them altogether.


Cut-n-paste:

Abandons Buy American Program. In February 1985, Walton wrote 3,000 American manufacturers and wholesalers to announce that the chain wanted to buy more American goods. Walton said: “We cannot continue to be a solvent nation as long as we pursue this current accelerating direction. Our company is firmly committed to the philosophy by buying everything possible from suppliers who manufacture their products in the United States.” Today, however, over 80 percent of Wal-Mart’s 6,000 global suppliers are based in China. [Wal-Mart Press Release, 3/13/85; Wal-Mart Literature, 1994; PBS Frontline, 11/16/04]







Yep, I remember those days.

Mr. Walton started something great, and his family destroyed his values.

Winx's photo
Sat 12/06/08 02:32 PM
Edited by Winx on Sat 12/06/08 02:34 PM
Mr. Walton started something great in my city. He paid most of it too.

Our city schools lost their accreditation.

Walton made a financial scholarship program for the low income city children. It's pays $1,500 a year per child to attend a school of their choice. It covers kindergarten through 8th grade.

I think it was offered to 100 children in a lottery. Thousands applied for it.

This also helped the private schools that were losing attendance. The kids are getting a better education.





ArtGurl's photo
Sat 12/06/08 02:44 PM
Sadly it seems a perpetual cycle ...

Many people work in minimum wage jobs ... sometimes 2 or 3 of them to make ends meet ...

they need ways to cut the cost of living ... the only way to do that is to buy less expensive products and fewer of them ... less expensive products are produced overseas ...

...and whether or not 'Walmart' is the devil incarnate ... how would you be able to deal with that many more unemployed citizens if they shut their doors tomorrow ...


Something has gone terribly array in the 'American Dream'...


Where is the 'good of the people' in all this?

Lynann's photo
Sat 12/06/08 02:49 PM
Don't shop Wal-Mart.

You can buy lotsa cheap $hit from China or a few quality things from elsewhere. You can do without so much stuff too...really you can.

Personal responsibility...Wal-Mart isn't killing us we are.

cutelildevilsmom's photo
Sat 12/06/08 03:01 PM



It seems a lot of people don't like the fact that Walmart sells mostly items made in China.. What about the other things Walmart does.. such as not making it possible for most of it's employees to get health insurance so they are on government assistance for it? plus the average Walmart employee makes $13k a year.. Could they afford it anway? A class action lawsuit by 69,000 employees that were forced to work off the clock without pay...Deleting time from employees time cards.. Class action lawsuits for discrimination against women.. federal allegations it used illegal immigrants to clean its stores.. Right now there is 26,699,678 square feet of empty Walmarts wasting space in the US... Walmart imported $18billion from China in 2004..


Where do you get your info? In Kansas the average Wal-mart associate starts at about $7 an hour. 40 hour week, so that's about $280 a week before taxes. 52 weeks a year, so that's 14560. That's starting. Before taxes, granted, but there's also associates that have been there 10 plus years making 16 to 20 plus an hour. If you want more money make planes or cars. There's not enough margin in retail.

On health insurance, I work for Wal-Mart (as if you haven't guessed yet) and I have a Health savings account through the company that I pay 8 dollars a paycheck to have maintained, I put an additional $40 that the company matches. It goes into an account that earns interest that I can use to pay medical expenses. Once I've paid the deductible with that, the plan pays up to 80% of the other expenses. It's worked pretty good for me. I don't have kids though, so that might change the math a bit.

You do realize that some of those lawsuits are decades old now? Doesn't mean that they didn't happen, but it could mean that there are policies in place to make sure that it doesn't happen any more often than it does in the local grocery store, or Denny's, or Burger King?


I get a little bitter when everyone is happy to bash the place I work because it makes a good target. How many of you have studied sociology or economics? What do you think of it?




There is no way I believe someone working at walmart that isn't a manager or anything is making that much money..
The median pay for a walmart employee being there 10-19 years is $14

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Walmart.com/Hourly_Rate


I worked for the Wal-mart warehouse as a custodian and made 12 dollars an hour and that was within 3 years and 10 yrs ago.My daughter made 9.50 as a cashier in a store just last year..Wal-mart bases it's pay on the local average.also when I worked for Wal-mart I had an HMO health plan,stock,2 weeks paid vacation,personal days and sick days.plus life insurance,long and short term disability and dental.When something is a success people want to tear it down.If I hadn't gotten pregnant,I would still be there today.

Ruth34611's photo
Sat 12/06/08 03:25 PM

Here is a way we can for certain not help anyone do anything bad, go be a hermit in the wilderness!


That's probably not a bad idea. flowerforyou

catwoman96's photo
Sat 12/06/08 03:27 PM


Here is a way we can for certain not help anyone do anything bad, go be a hermit in the wilderness!


That's probably not a bad idea. flowerforyou


its about the only idea that is left.

Ruth34611's photo
Sat 12/06/08 03:27 PM

Don't shop Wal-Mart.

You can buy lotsa cheap $hit from China or a few quality things from elsewhere. You can do without so much stuff too...really you can.

Personal responsibility...Wal-Mart isn't killing us we are.


This is the most true statement of all. Most of what we buy is junk and totally unnecessary.

Seamonster's photo
Sat 12/06/08 03:29 PM

Mr. Walton started something great in my city. He paid most of it too.

Our city schools lost their accreditation.

Walton made a financial scholarship program for the low income city children. It's pays $1,500 a year per child to attend a school of their choice. It covers kindergarten through 8th grade.

I think it was offered to 100 children in a lottery. Thousands applied for it.

This also helped the private schools that were losing attendance. The kids are getting a better education.








I remember When John Gotti gave a huge amount of money to help build a childrens hospitol in N.Y.
Everyone loved him for it.
did that make him a good person?