OK, so the Sam Walton kids take up a big chunk of the "Wealthiest" Americans top ten list (they're worth about $100 billion), how are they improving their father's blueprint?
The less human beings, the more machines, more profit.
Yup. That old corporate logic.
There is a Wal Mart grocery store RIGHT by my house, and when I get off work (I close thursday through Saturday) or I go out and live it up, when I stop by the grocery store to grab something, it's me and a bunch of machines.
Yup. That's right. At 11pm, Walmart Grocery stores cuts all of the checkout staff except for one manager, and all transactions are Human to Computer.
You self scan in your groceries, put your money in the machine, bag your own grocieries and then leave.
In the whole WHAREHOUSE of a grocerystore, after 11pm, there are NO human beings to check you out, only computers.
So from 11pm to 6 am, (it's open 24 hours) Walmart saves itself a lot of money by implementing the Corporate Dream of Machines taking the place of Humans.
Sad. No.
Apparently, $100 billion doesn't buy what it used to, and the walton kids need more, more, more, more and more.
<T>
[ October 03, 2003, 01:39 PM: Message edited by: The Silverblue Sun ]
Posts: 2752 | Registered: Feb 2001
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That's what I did after being taken by the arm and led to one of the self check-out lanes. Do all the work myself and NOT get a discount for it? Pshaw.
Voting with your feet is all that works in the modern marketplace.
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Why do you shop there? Because they have the lowest prices? If so, then you only have yourself to blame. Is it because it is the only place open? Well, for it to be open they have to make a profit at it. Higher someone to work all night for two customers does not make sense.
Do you shop there when there are people working the check out lanes? If so why? If it is because they have better prices then you support them.
If you don't like what they are doing, shop someplace else that does what you like. You will pay for it, but that is your choice.
We have a local market that specializes in organic stuff and high end food. Many people shop there, even though the prices are higher than the chain stores, BECAUSE of the personal service and the selection of brands. That is how they are thriving agains all the big chains. They are not competing on price. They can't do that. They are competing on service. YOU, the customer, decides if the service is worth it. If you shop at the Walmart grocery store, then you have decided that the service is not worth the price.
posted
I don't know who would want to work for Wal-Mart anyway. I once thought about applying for work there, in fact got so far as going in to pick up an application. Good thing I read the small print at the bottom. It stated that by signing the application, I gave Wal-Mart corporation permission to access all of my medical records from every doctor who had ever treated me.
I don't think that is at all appropriate. If they are worried about their employees being healthy enough to work for them, then keep a physician on retainer to give new or prospective employees a physical. I can't believe that they can get away with such an intrusion on prospective employees' privacy.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Well, you've got to check the peons to make sure they are strong enough to work in the fields. They used to look at the teeth before buying a slave. Not that different now, is it?
It's always the folks at the bottom end of the socio-economic scale that get hit with the most scrutiny. Remember how the reformed welfare but didn't do anything about campaign finance reform or corporate tax cheaters?
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
...or then their is Walmart's old policy of taking out life insurance policies on employees, and when they die, the family of the deceased gets ZERO dollars and walmart makes $100,000.
Yes. It's a bit grotesque.
This brings me back to my old Austin bank, about 6 months before I moved to Houston, my bank got rid of all the tellers inside the bank, and went to automated machines.
It was gross.
The last few times I went their, I scratched "1984" into the wood of the computer screen.
I realize that Walmart is the Republican Corporate jesus, with their competition crushing profits, their union busting and their hiring of the most employees (and minimum wage employees) in America...
...but it's not cool.
I'm going to do a mini documentary on the process.
quote: It stated that by signing the application, I gave Wal-Mart corporation permission to access all of my medical records from every doctor who had ever treated me.
Oh my God, I skip the fine print too often. I'm glad you posted this. I cannot believe they expect free access to all employee's doctors as a condition of employment. That should be illegal, in fact I thought such a sweeping policy was illegal in hiring.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Get this straight. People who shop there don't care about the Mom and Pop stores that Walmart drove out of business. The ones who employed their family and friends. When Mr. Smith went to the local store and found that the widget that Walmart had, but for 50 cents more, he went back to Walmart and bought it. He did this after he had the guy at the local store explain to him how to use the widget and the best ways to store it. He took the expertise for free, and then spent 1/2 hour going back to Walmart to save 50 cents. The next week the local store closed, putting 10 people out of work.
You can rail all day long about how evil Walmart is, but the bottom line is people shop there instead of the local place becuase all they care about is the bottom dollar. If people were really that concerned about the local store they would be willing to spend a little more.
posted
My brother worked for Wal-Mart and Sam's club. They are, all said and told, pretty good companies to work for, though this was while Sam Walton lived. His offspring seem more worried about profits, and less about the people working for him.
However, I digress. Not all of the evil stories have Wal-Mart as the villian.
1) Walmart used to donate all the day old bread that didn't sell to local food pantries. Then they noticed a remarkable jump in their return policy. It seems people would wait in line at the food pantries, and pick up all the bread they could, then march back Wal-Mart and return it as stale.
They had to cut out this policy.
2) If a package broke, it used to be policy that employee's could take the good but unsellable food home, until they caught people purposefully running forklifts into cases of food to get some free stuff. Now anything damaged in the day to day process of moving merchandise is thrown out.
3) Alcohol (beer) wholesalers used to offer managers free product to display their stuff in the best places. This is against corporate policy. One manager lost his job when the Beer rep asked my brother, doing the stocking, where he parked. My brother told him. After work my brother got in his car and backed out. He heard metal crunching and found a ruined six pack had been stuck under his wheel, the place where the weekly gift was left for all the managers. My brother didn't know about this gift and reported it as an accident.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Okay, I don't like Wal-Mart. And I don't shop there if I know another place I can find something. My mother works ridiculous hours there and gets paid rather little.
But by the time Wal-Mart moved in on my hometown, the local economy was in such bad shape that most people really _needed_ to save whatever they could, even that extra $.50. Most of my home county's money comes from tourism dollars; if you're not lucky enough to work at one of the tourist traps at Land Between the Lakes, or already have lots of money, you probably don't make much. So people went to Wal-Mart even though they knew what would happen because they really couldn't afford not to take the lowest prices they could find.
At least my sister got a good deal...sort of. She used to decorate cakes for the local IGA grocery. Wal-Mart offered her a huge paycheck, good insurance, and so forth--more than IGA, which was suffering badly by that time, could offer. Shortly after she left IGA went out of business.
Posts: 1041 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
I remember all of the anti-walmart propoganda that they made at Safeway last year. I remember one line in the satellite broadcast that everyone in the company (even the corporate employees) was forced to watch. It basically went along the lines that Walmart was evil, and that you weren't a real employee if you went there instead of a Safeway (where we don't get any discounts).
Posts: 851 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
I really have to leave work, but one last point.
The local big grocery stores in St. Louis just finished negotiating with the local union. There best offer, 5-25 cents extra an hour over the next 4 years.
They claim this is to compete against non-union Wal-Mart. Meanwhile these sweet innocent mom&pop groceries are hiring non-union clerks before a strike has even been announced, just in case.
The Union claims its just a plan to kill the union and is going on strike.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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You hate Wal-mart because they drive the small stores under with there better prices and larger selection and longer hours.
Then you complain that during those prime shopping hours of 11pm to 6 am, a time in which those mom & pop stores were NEVER open, they don't give you high quality service anymore?
Isn't that a bit hypocritical?
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I hate it when people whine about machines replacing humans. Back in the day, people had to work 12 hours a day 6 days a week to maintain a lifestyle much less than we have now. The reason we work so little now and have so much is because people came up with ways to do more with less people. Don't like it? Become Amish. That's all I can say. But as long as you are eating bread made using people-replacing machines, from wheat harvested by people-replacing tractors, and driving in a car, sitting on a chair, and typing on a computer all made with processes where machines have replaced the jobs of hundreds of people, you have no right to comlain.
Posts: 285 | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
Hazen, replacing some of the worst drudgery with machines is one thing, but at some point you have to stop and let people keep jobs, even if they're not the best or most enjoyable.
Posts: 1041 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Those checkout machines aren't limited to Walmart. I've seen some at a high-end grocery store in New Jersey. In fact, I thought it was pretty clever, to get rid of the often-incompetent cashier who goes way too slow and never bags things properly. It's perfect for a control freak like me.
Also, if you're concerned about people losing jobs, if Wal-mart saves x number of dollars a day by implementing these machines, then Wal-mart can afford to expand to new areas, providing more jobs. You could argue that the Walton brats just want to get rich, but eventually, it'll come back to the economy.
posted
People think that Wal-Mart is growing so much because they have the lowest prices. Well, that's only 1/4 of the pie.
Manufacturers have something called inventory turnover discounts. If you sell all your inventory of a certain product quickly, you get a discount on the next shipment. Wal-Mart is capitalizing on this with extreme fervor. Stores like Raley's, Safeway, Albertsons, and Kroger owned stores (ex: Ralph's) can't turn over their inventory nearly as fast as Wal-Mart can. Manufacturers know this, and they might take their business elsewhere. Wal-Mart is major discounts that grocery stores/markets have no hope of getting.
Why do you think Safeway has their "Safeway Select" private lables? Why does Kroger stores have "Private Selection" and Raley's have "Sunny Select" and "Bayview Farms"? They're preparing for companines like Coke, Pepsi, and General Mills(some of the biggers manufacturers in perishables, not GM stuff) to end their business with them. It's not the best plan, but it's their only hope to compete.
That's the biggest reason why Wal-Mart has suddenly had an expansion explosion.
Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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quote: Those checkout machines aren't limited to Walmart. I've seen some at a high-end grocery store in New Jersey. In fact, I thought it was pretty clever, to get rid of the often-incompetent cashier who goes way too slow and never bags things properly. It's perfect for a control freak like me.
They're not just high-end stores. Food Maxx (they're local around me I think) for example, has 4 of them right at the exit. And, they're never used.
Lowe's has them too.
Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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quote: They're preparing for companines like Coke, Pepsi, and General Mills(some of the biggers manufacturers in perishables, not GM stuff) to end their business with them. It's not the best plan, but it's their only hope to compete.
Private labels have been around at least since the 70s and really took off in the 80s. It's simply a way for a retailer to increase margins. To say that Coke and Pepsi will "end their business" at grocery stores is puzzling. That would very much surprise me. Jack up their wholesale prices, sure.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
Neil Boortz, an Atlanta talk show host who's nationally sydicated, has been talking for 2 days about Wal-mart. It seems they are stymied by some land owners in Alabaster, AL that refuse to sell to a developer who wants to build a shopping center with a Wal-Mart. The solution: get town councilmen to vote to seize the property via eminent domain then sell it to the developer! Read the link, you'll be as shocked as I was at the abuse of the eminent domain power, not just here but in 10 other cases (not Wal-Marts.)
Boortz is a libertarian ex-lawyer who sometimes comes across as a blow-hard hot-head, but he is right to be angry at such egeregious and pathetic abuse of power. 2 other eminent domain links: http://www.castlecoalition.org/http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/t78459.html Wal-Mart's position seems to be that they accept no responsibility for these shennanigans. I'm sure they stand to profit though.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote:... at some point you have to stop and let people keep jobs, even if they're not the best or most enjoyable.
I, for one, would not find it the least objectionable if I could goof off all day while robots catered to my every whim. Posts: 285 | Registered: Jun 1999
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I have no more sympathy for the Luddites in these threads than I do for, well, the original Luddites. Which is to say a fair chunk, owing to their perceived plight, but not enough to overshadow the fact that they're backwards Posts: 1839 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
If machines ever really do take over everything productive humans can do, then we won't need money, because machines will provide all we want. You're thinking backwards: The primary purpose of work isn't to earn money, it is to provide something that another needs. Money is just a convenient way of exchanging things. We do $5 worth of work, and we trade that $5 for a similar amount of work by other people. I don't believe that machines will take over all the productive work, but I do believe that the amount of time we need to spend on productive work will continue to decrease. We will have the same amount, we will just need to spend less time to produce it.
Posts: 285 | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
It's a pretty tough situation. Like the others said, the only way to change it is to change habits, the economy is run by the invisible hand that rises out of our collective idea of what is important- and right now, we can see it in the trends, we have decided what is important is hording money. Efficiency is scary, when you trim away all the excess and you don't have exactly really what you wanted left.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I guess I should have said accumulating for control over redirection (not just because I spelled hoarding wrong). I just meant the state of finances in general is such a focus right now, on individual and corporate levels, other basic human needs are compromised by default. I don't think big corporations cause wanton destruction to the human race in the name of profit, but it's like the idea that your thoughts become your actions. If money is truly their root interest, eventually that will come into conflict with more compassionate interests. And if the actions of big corporations have an effect on the general well-being of people, which they do in our society, that's a problem.
Oh man. *clears throat, goes off to post in a fluff thread*
Posts: 66 | Registered: Sep 2003
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That would very much surprise me. Jack up their wholesale prices, sure.
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