More Food for Thought

This entry on Boing Boing stirred my pot a little this morning.  How about yours?

Comments

[Rachel]

What Platt wrote sounds correct just as I am sure Ehenreich's book was correct. It wasn't until after several lawsuits and bad publicity that Wal-Mart changed lot of their employee practices and cut back the amount of power the store manager had.

[Kara]

Fascinating. I dislike WalMart, but more because it makes me angry when I'm there due to the other customers blocking aisles and being generally annoying. I know little about their business practices, though.

[Bridgett]

I worked there. Granted, that was 1993, and so Ehrenreich's book sang the right tune for me--I was forced to clock out and continue to work instead of getting overtime (I was then clocked in the next week before I arrived to make up the hours, on the regular pay schedule). I was told to keep my salary a secret under threat of dismissal. I was dressed down in front of customers for shortchanging a customer, and even when it was discovered that I hadn't (the drawer was even and the customer was suspicious and they searched my purse), no one apologized. They told me to be more prudent in the future. Right. There was a wal*mart cheer that we were forced to participate in at a weekly pep talk meeting.

The work itself was never a problem--I like monotonous stuff and beating the clock (scans per minute, in this case) and keeping an aisle clean and whatnot. I never had to clean a bathroom or clean up vomit or anything horrible. Scanning and bagging items, whatever. That was never the issue.

Walmart is a tricksy place. It could be that things have improved for employees, but it's because of people like Ehrenreich. I do not shop there--haven't been inside a walmart willingly in 5 years (I say willingly because one night at my inlaws Maeve got sick and the walmart in Cape Girardeau was the only thing open). I found that I spent more money than I planned when I went there, regardless of the sales or deals, and I never was able to find everything I needed.

[Pat K]

One of my kids had to read "Nickeled and Dimed" and I picked it up as well. Perhaps due to her book Walmart improved their practises. I have not heard of any other issues.