Has anyone seen the special on CNBC about Wal-Mart?

[kick-ass-bob]

It was on again last night.

I was pretty disappointed with their handling (I saw 45 minutes) of it - even the "hardball" questions were pretty softly thrown up there.

And I didn't really see anything about their employee problems.

[meegbear]

1. Check out "Is Wal_Mart Good For America" on Frontline ...

execllent documentary on them.

[benburch]

2. WalMart should be broken up.

One store at a time.

With axes.

[pstans]

3. There was 1 segment on employee problems and lawsuits

There was 1 segment on employee problems and lawsuits. It was towards the end of the show.

I agree about the easy questions, but if they were going to ask the hard questions I doubt Wal Mart would have let them have access to everything they did. I was amazed about the computer system (2nd largest next to the Pentagon) and that you can't fly directly to Little Rock (state capital and home of U of Arkansas), but you can fly directly to Bentonville, home of Wal Mart.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Actually, Fayetteville is the flagship U of A campus

25 miles down the road from Bentonville.

[pstans]

5. D'oh

I should have known that.

[kick-ass-bob]

6. So do people fly there to get to U of A?

Or do they have their own airport with some direct flights?

Just curious...

[Art_from_Ark]

8. Fayetteville used to have its own airport

It was called Drake Field and it was (still is) at the southern end of town. Difficult to fly into because of all the surrounding hills and updrafts. There was twin-engine service to Memphis, Dallas, St. Louis, and a few other places, but I've heard that it's mostly used by private planes now. If you want to fly to the U of A, you'll have to go to XNA, otherwise known as Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, the same one that serves Bentonville (and Rogers, Springdale, etc.).

[kick-ass-bob]

7. Let me guess how the segment went...

They showed the problems in a gloss over, and then interviewed the CEO.
He stated that, you are always sued when you are the biggest company in the world. And that Wal-Mart is a great place to work.


How close am I?

[pstans]

9. That was about it

The CEO made one good point that I actually agreed with. When you have 1.5 million employees (or associates as Wal Mart calls them) if 1% are upset that is 15,000 people.

But his argument was we are so big, so we get sued a lot. After the segment, I could just picture Bu$h standing up saying "lawyers are bad for America."

[kick-ass-bob]

10. I wonder how much the average "associate" makes per hour

and they don't work "full-time" either, right -- so Wally world doesn't have to provide certain benefits?

If they would just fix that part of their business, then I wouldn't have such a problem with them. They are creating a world of people who will not even be able to afford to shop at Wal-Mart - unlike Henry Ford, who paid them enough to buy the cars that they themselves made.

[Art_from_Ark]

11. I've known a few associates

Their big benefit, they said, was getting a discount (10%?) with their associate's card.

[Maddy McCall]

12. $7/hr starting pay, and they work them up to 1 hr. short of the limit

to which they have to provide benefits. And, according to some of the lawsuits right now, management catches them coming into work before they clock in, or leaving work after they clock out, and gives them extra duties to do off of the clock.

The way they treat their employees is despicable, but they have provided a template in personnel matters that many other industries have since followed, much to the chagrin of the workforce.

[kick-ass-bob]

13. I knew about the off the clock stuff.

And so for a 10% discount (according to the other poster) they sell their soul for (guessing 29 hrs per week) about $800 a month gross pay.

Thanks, Sam.

Is this really what he envisioned?