How do you feel about Wal-Mart - link to survey

[Kadie]

Wal-Mart Launches PR Blitz To Fight Critics
CEO: Time To Speak Up For Workers

POSTED: 11:09 am EST January 13, 2005
UPDATED: 11:49 am EST January 13, 2005

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Wal-Mart placed more than 100 newspaper ads Thursday defending its impact on workers and communities, and chief executive Lee Scott said he wants the company to set the record straight.

If Wal-Mart's position as the world's largest retailer makes it a focus of attack, Scott said, he wants the criticism to at least be accurate. It's unfair to characterize Wal-Mart as a company that does not pay well and relies heavily on part-time workers, he argued.

"We want to get those myths off the table, set the record straight," Scott said in a phone interview from New York City, where he was giving interviews Thursday.

The full-page advertisements, in the form of a letter from Scott, say the company's average pay is nearly twice the minimum wage, 74 percent of its hourly workers are full time, and it offers health and life insurance, company stock and a 401(k) retirement plan. Wal-Mart has more than 1 million domestic employees.

more...
http://www.thekcrachannel.com/money/4079087/detail.html

take the survey at the above link...

How do you feel about Wal-Mart?

Choice Votes Percentage of 11426 Votes

I love it, it's a great store with great prices. 3704 32%

It's ok. 3165 28%

I don't like shopping there. 2114 19%

I hate it because it destroys other businesses. 2159 19%

No opinion. 284 2%

[Bouncy Ball]

1. I voted for "I hate it because..."

[shesemsmom]

16. same here

[hfojvt]

2. How about?

I like it for hardware and groceries and clothing, but it sells too many right-wing books.

[progressiveBadger]

3. They should have another option

I hate it because it destroys the quality of life of it's workers and it's a burden to taxpayers.

[Marthe48]

4. done

I choose hate it because it destroys other businesses. I won't shop in WalMart until they have destroyed every other option and become the official 'state store' Hopefully the anti-WalMart drive will prevent that from ever happening.

[JanMichael]

5. Hate it: It's a wage depressing, benefit busting, public service pushing..

..sprawl inducing, drag on the Planet.

It SUCKS!

[proud patriot]

6. done n/t

I hate Walmart

[Lorien]

7. Voted n/t

[prairierose]

8. I hate it....

they are a destructive force in this country. BTW, the survey showed 19% hate it when I took the survey.

[raggedcompany]

9. Notice that this "news" site links to the official Wal-Mart PR site for

promoting themselves, but doesn't bother to find even one counterpoint site. Isn't it their goddamned job to do a little bit of footwork and provide the reader with more than a press release?

For example, I went to the exasperating trouble of making a google search, entering: Walmart must die

and found this site:

http://www.walmartwatch.com/index.cfm

seems like the "reporter" could have done the same, even if s/he works for AP and doesn't get the byline. Come on, you bastards..the garbage men in my neighborhood do a good job at what they do, why can't you?????

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Leave notes on their messageboard...

These people just don't get it.

http://forums.ibsys.com/viewmessages.cfm?sitekey=sac&Forum=79&Topic=11400

---------------------------------------------------------
Save this nation one town, county, and state at a time!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

[mimitabby]

11. voted. i hate that place and NEVER go

[noamnety]

12. Fun with statistics

On average, the pay is nearly twice minimum wage. Does that average include the exec's salaries?

The offer health insurance, how many of their employees actually have health insurance (a good indicator as to how many can afford it)?

The article provided no meaningful information.

[hfojvt]

13. good point

store managers are making about $80,000 a year. The majority of cashiers and stock-people are making less than $8 an hour (but $7.5 an hour is still 146% of the minimum wage).
Still, if you worked at mom+pop hardware store, the pay and bennies would probably be worse, and I do not believe most grocery stores are any better now either (that is perhaps due to Wal-mart wiping out unionized grocers).

[central scrutinizer]

21. exactly - they should report the median

500,000 workers making $7 an hour averaged in with one Walton family scion making $10 billion per year works out to a mean annual salary of $34,000

[LuCifer]

14. Done

20% and rising! Keep this kicked...cuz Walmart needs a nice kick square in the nuts!!!!

DIE WALMART DIE!
Lu Cifer

[noamnety]

15. I submitted this to their discussion

but it needs to be approved by a moderator before it gets posted, apparently:

I would like to know:

Who actually wrote this story?

Do they have any ties with any PR firms, with the Bush administration, or with Walmart? Or are they entirely independent?

When they say that the average salary is nearly twice minimum wage, are they including the salaries of the CEO/executives in that average? What is the average salary of the bottom 90% of workers, I think that will give a truer picture.

Is it true that half of their employees qualify for federal aid under the food stamp program?

When they say health insurance is offered, what percentage of their employees actually have that health insurance? This should provide us with a fair estimate of how many can afford their health care plan - I've read estimates that only 40% have it.

If it's true that a large number of their employees have government-funded health care, then it seems to me a main reason their prices are so low is that they are subsidizing their labor costs with our tax dollars.

If the reporter is unbiased, why are they linking to a pro-walmart site, without also linking to a site that is critical of walmart?

I'm not convinced this is good journalism. On the surface it looks to be acceptance and echoing of corporate PR talking points.

[oneold1-4u]

17. I'm not against

Any totally American (family) owned company. Wall Mart may be the threshold of American industry returning to America.
You can give them hell if you never buy anything produced in any other country! That includes tomatoes and strawberries in December, escargot and truffles from Europe and caviar from Russia!
I seem to see a lot of Americans at Wally's and can't condemn them for saving a dollar. My own dollar today won't buy 60 cents worth of last years hamburger! Have to admit though that my SS went up $2 more than 04!

[noamnety]

19. To clarify something in your post

They don't actually save money shopping there, not in the long run. When Walmart first moves into an area, they subsidize their prices to keep them artificially low to drive out competition. Once they have loyal customers (and possibly have gotten rid of their closest competitors), the prices go back up.

I have a fact sheet online that addresses that, put together by a couple of students where I teach. From their flier:

For one month, a newspaper in Arkansas tested the prices of 6 Walmarts against other stores. Out of 19 household items, Walmart was the cheapest on only 2. The lowest total for all 19 items was $12.91. The highest total for all items was at a Walmart, $15.86.

I think this is one of those talking points that has been repeated so often people blindly believe it.

For anyone interested, the flier is here: http://ideamouth.com/politics/walmartflyer.pdf (it's set up to be cut into three fliers, so really just one column is the whole flier)

[hfojvt]

20. As a shopper, I have to dispute that

For one thing, it seems like the 19 items have an average cost of less than 83 cents (or less than 70 cents at the cheapest place). What about comparing something like a DVD of your favorite movie, or sadly, a book?
I had a bookstore in a small town so I know that Wal-mart was selling books for 25% off cover price. True, you can get better prices at Amazon or B&N but those are big corporations too. Every year they were selling $10.95 calendars for $4.88 whereas I was buying them wholesale for $6.57.
If you take something like Peanut Butter Crunch. It is $2.12 at the local Wal-mart and $3.50 or more at the local grocery stores.
I am just skeptical of a study where 19 items only cost $15.86. Then again, maybe I need to do some more comparison shopping. I do find deals sometimes at grocery stores, and I try to avoid Wal-mart when I can. I am just not convinced that they are evil incarnate.

[landdaddy]

18. Hate it

How do you feel about Wal-Mart?
Choice Votes Percentage of 15572 Votes
I love it, it's a great store with great prices. 5115 33%
It's ok. 4150 27%
I don't like shopping there. 2830 18%
I hate it because it destroys other businesses. 3128 20%
No opinion. 349 2%