ratings for stores?

[ztirffritz]

WalMart is bad for much more than how they treat their employees. They decimate towns where they locate stores. Local businesses go under, and competition goes away. In the process they run their suppliers out of business with requests to lower costs. I know this first hand, as my employer is a supplier. Fortunately, WalMart is not our only customer, and not a big one at that. They provide HUGE volume for us, but profits are about equal to a lemonade stand on a rainy weekend. One day we'll probably drop them as a customer because they just aren't profitable. Too many companies bet the bank on WalMart and get consumed by the cost reduction demands that are placed on them. Once you say you can't cut costs anymore WalMart drops you as a supplier and goes to a supplier in China. I'm in favor of Capitalism, but WalMart is Capitalism run amok. They lower the average wage in communities, destroy the competition, then the community's wage base drops and tax revenue disappears and the customers have no choice but to shop at WalMart because they can't afford to shop anywhere else. This just spins the cycle out of control faster. It is the fastest way to turn a low-income area into a poverty stricken disaster area. They might as well distribute complimentary crack pipes at the front door.

I don't have a good answer for how to remedy the problem. I don't want to legislate a solution, but telling poor people to shop somewhere other than the low-cost provider isn't a viable solution so the market will not self-correct anytime soon. Unless someone comes up with a better mouse trap WalMart has a GREAT business model. They cater to low income families. If they aren't low income YET WalMart will pull the neighborhood down until they are low income families thus ensuring continued business.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Ken Sp. wrote: If WalMart was so bad to workers, why do people line up for jobs there, and why do most employees work there longer than other retailers?

Answer to both parts of the question, because the Walmart* is the main employer in town after all the small business closed.

[lost in space]

ztirffritz has it right about WM. Try reading "The Walmart Effect." Quite the eye-opener. Or to see its effects on a small town live, find a supercenter in a small town. Really depressing. But then, that's not a measure of how they treat their employees.

[lazydays]

When a company has a job that can be done by a full time employee but chooses to hire two part time employees I have a real problem with that. The company is avoiding paying for benefits and then we ALL pay when the employee has to use state funded insurance or doesn't get any at all. It is a way to lower costs for the company on the back of all tax payers.

[AlphaDog]

I don't think there is anyone here who would have said Walmart was a good employer, but you are the one that lumped them in with others who don't have the same widespread bad reputation.