Walmart launches food appeal...

MonsterCookie

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/walmart-launches-food-appeal-for-walmart-staff-1.1599888

According to the IT, the food appeal is to help associates working at the store in Ohio to enjoy thanksgiving :eek:

P_1

Wonder what way the PR folk at Wallmart will try to spin this

krudler

There's a great doc about Walmart online, the stuff they get away with is shocking employee wise, people working for them who can't afford the company plan healthcare and wind up spending most of their wage back in Walmart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfgbQakINfE

Guy:Incognito

Why is there a group that lobbys wal mart to unionise their employees instead of just lobbying to improve whatever conditiins they think unionising them will improve?

BillyMitchel

The way they treat employees is disgusting. Now they give charity to make them look like the good guys.

Fockers.

seamus

BillyMitchel wrote: »

The way they treat employees is disgusting. Now they give charity to make them look like the good guys.

Fockers.

It's worse than that. Walmart aren't giving anything at all, they've set up collection boxes in their own shops for their own staff for customers to make donations.

Chances are this has only occurred in one or two stores, by low-level management just trying to be helpful. But it exposes a massively creeping problem in the USA - there are people with full-time jobs living below the poverty line, relying on charity to make ends meet. That's insanity. And it relates to the other thread discussion wealth distribution in the US. It's also why the issue of minimum wage and social benefits have become such talking points in the US.

The conservatives are very wrapped up in ultra-capitalist flawed ideals where the amount of money you have is totally down to how hard you work, and therefore there's no need for social protections. But they are slowly but surely being dragged into the 21st century and being forced to sign up to more socialist schemes to protect poorer people.
The US will never be as socialist as Europe, the "American Dream" is too ingrained in the culture, but as cold war era politicians die off and retire, the single-minded resistance to socialism will soften.

jimgoose

Now that's screwed-up.

krudler

seamus wrote: »

It's worse than that. Walmart aren't giving anything at all, they've set up collection boxes in their own shops for their own staff for customers to make donations.

Chances are this has only occurred in one or two stores, by low-level management just trying to be helpful. But it exposes a massively creeping problem in the USA - there are people with full-time jobs living below the poverty line, relying on charity to make ends meet. That's insanity. And it relates to the other thread discussion wealth distribution in the US. It's also why the issue of minimum wage and social benefits have become such talking points in the US.
.

I saw something online once about airline pilots being eligible for welfare sometimes as they got paid so little, that is absolutely nuts.

anncoates

The public being asked to subsidize the living expenses of employees on behalf of profitable companies?

Isn't that called JobBridge here?

Paramite Pie

Many Walmart employees already survive on benefits since Walmart mostly hires part-time staff. Walmart "assist" their employees helping them claim benefits, providing forms and information on what the employees are entitled too.

First taxpayers footing the bill for corporate employees? Now customers are expected to feed the employees too? The average Walmart customer is not that well off either....

Larbre34

Conditions of employment and work practices in the United States as a whole are dire, compared with the EU. The US calls us pinkos for having reasonable social care and welfare provisions, fair working time rules and leave entitlements, and think its Ok to drive employees to burn out and heavily skew remuneration on tips and commission. The reason Walmart is so bad is because its entire jobs market is so bad.

Penny Dreadful

seamus wrote: »

It's worse than that. Walmart aren't giving anything at all, they've set up collection boxes in their own shops for their own staff for customers to make donations.

IIRC this was on Matt Cooper last night and he said that the CEO earns $20m.

BillyMitchel

Penny Dreadful wrote: »

IIRC this was on Matt Cooper last night and he said that the CEO earns $20m.

Might be in Naomi Kleins No Logo that she says they hire no full time staff and that if they give only certain hours on a contract it saves them money. All mad types of short cuts to save a few quid.

Another documentary that goes around America showing all the small business that they kill when they open up their superstores the size of Galway.

Serious depressing stuff when you look into it.

Greed and capitalism at its finest.

Makes me sick.

WilyCoyote

What Seamus says above in post 6 is correct.
But the system (way of thinking here) will change eventually. 1.5% of the US population is in the nick. That is a terrible endictment of a progressive country. Because of the lack of a welfare net, if you lose your job the slippery road becomes very slippery. So, you lose your job .......... get unemployment for a while ......... spend your savings ........ get turfed out of your accommodation ........... couch surf with people you know 'til they get sick of you ...... then live in your car/truck before stealing food/goods. Slap on the wrist for first offenders before being caught again (basic law of nature being self preservation/survival) and being canned.
It then costs a humonguous amount to keep you in the nick but a lot of these prisons are privately run so they care little about rehabilitation. Why would they. If they did a good job in turning around the prisoner into a useful member of the community ........... they would lose the repeat payments that are derived from recidivists. The founding fathers would not be impressed.
Rant over.

Penny Dreadful

BillyMitchel wrote: »

Might be in Naomi Kleins No Logo that she says they hire no full time staff and that if they give only certain hours on a contract it saves them money. All mad types of short cuts to save a few quid.

Another documentary that goes around America showing all the small business that they kill when they open up their superstores the size of Galway.

Serious depressing stuff when you look into it.

Greed and capitalism at its finest.

Makes me sick.

And that is why I shop local and shop Irish as much as I can. I know there are cheaper shops out there (Aldi Lidl, etc) but I think it is important that when you can and where you can afford to you support you local businesses and producers.

jimgoose

Penny Dreadful wrote: »

And that is why I shop local and shop Irish as much as I can. I know there are cheaper shops out there (Aldi Lidl, etc) but I think it is important that when you can and where you can afford to you support you local businesses and producers.

Same as that.

BillyMitchel

jimgoose wrote: »

Same as that.

Same here. Goes without saying really. I know I'm paying over the odds on things but I don't mind really.

Another good documentary is one on Starbucks. The aggressiveness of how they do business and purposely put smaller coffee shops out of business is outright wrong. The fockers now have one on college green and TWO on Westmorland St facing each other.

Penny Dreadful

BillyMitchel wrote: »

Same here. Goes without saying really. I know I'm paying over the odds on things but I don't mind really.

Another good documentary is one on Starbucks. The aggressiveness of how they do business and purposely put smaller coffee shops out of business is outright wrong. The fockers now have one on college green and TWO on Westmorland St facing each other.

Is it paying over the odds or is it what good food costs? When you think back to the horsemeat debacle many butchers said it is absolutely impossible to produce beef burgers for the price that Tesco et al were charging. You pay a little you get poor quality/ in some cases not what you think you're actually buying.

I like that when I go to the butchers and I ask for 500g of minced meat that I can point to a piece of round steak and ask them to mince that. They mince it in front of my so I know what I am getting. I can see the name of the farm (and farmer) whose land the cow was raised on and occasionally in some butchers even where it was slaughtered.
I think I am paying what the product is worth here rather than over the odds.

In many cases people now feel they should be able to get gold standard everything (clothes, food ,cars, housing, etc) for peanuts.

seamus

Penny Dreadful wrote: »

IIRC this was on Matt Cooper last night and he said that the CEO earns $20m.

On the face of it, I don't really have a problem with that. If a private company is profitable and not engaging in massive salary/stuff cuts, then pay your CEO whatever the hell you want.

Walmart has 2.2 million employees. I put that in italics so you'd know it's not a typo. Even if the CEO took a 99% pay cut, that wouldn't cut enough off the payroll to give each employee a $10/year payrise.

But in context of profits, Walmart could increase its employees earnings by an average of $1,000/year and this year would still come home with profits of $15bn (probably more actually once you factor in the tax trickery).

There's aggressive business practices in pursuit of profits. That gets some stick for killing local retailers, but by and large people accept it as just being a business. It provides employment, so what harm.

But then there are aggressive employment practices to maximise profits. That's cutting your nose off to spite your face. A company can operate for a long time without a CEO or a board. But it can't operate for five minutes without its front line staff. Walmart's exec team seem to have forgotten that. 70% of new entrants leave in the first year. What Walmart will find happening is that people stop applying to work there. They'll find it easier to make ends meet on benefits, doing odd jobs, panhandling and thieving.
All over the US, you will have towns with 25% unemployment, massive crime rates and a Walmart with 200 open positions that nobody's applying for. And with stock that's disappearing as fast as they can bring it in because the people who do work there have zero qualms about fleecing their employer.

That bizarre situation will cause the US government to sit up and start shining a spotlight on what's going on, and that's when Walmart will be screwed, because in backpedalling they'll see profits crumbling, investors fleeing and customers staying away because of the years of resentment that have been built up.

biko

"When I give food to the poor employees, they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor employees have no food, they call me a communist."

Killer Wench

I wouldn't put Starbucks on the same level as Walmart. Eliminating or diminishing the competition is key to our capitalist system, unfortunately.

Starbucks has historically offered health insurance and other benefits for all employees, including part time. I believe that there may have been a subsidy for child care, too. I seem to remember hearing that from an employee.

seamus

Killer Wench wrote: »

I wouldn't put Starbucks on the same level as Walmart. Eliminating or diminishing the competition is key to our capitalist system, unfortunately.

Starbucks has historically offered health insurance and other benefits for all employees, including part time. I believe that there may have been a subsidy for child care, too. I seem to remember hearing that from an employee.

Indeed, I would put Starbucks in the category of aggressive business practices, but not aggressive employment practices.

They are struggling in the US anyway because their competitors have copied the Starbucks format, but offer better coffee. The same is true here, but I think we're still somewhat in the honeymoon period with coffee shops, so Starbucks remain popular.

JONJO THE MISER

I used to shop in Walmart, one day i was in there and i saw a large empty box, on it was written that this box costs walmart so much and to store it in the proper way, so they pay there staff crap and then expect them to care that the box costs walmart so much.

wandatowell

I support myself and my family, everybody else can take a run and jump.

padd b1975

I would think there is plenty of edible food thrown into bins behind every Walmart on the planet.

Mal-Adjusted

I just finished watching that documentary on the first page. truly despicable stuff...

General General

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Why is there a group that lobbys wal mart to unionise their employees instead of just lobbying to improve whatever conditiins they think unionising them will improve?

Give a man a fish & all that...

COYVB

seamus wrote: »

It's worse than that. Walmart aren't giving anything at all, they've set up collection boxes in their own shops for their own staff for customers to make donations.

Is it not that they've set up the collection boxes for their staff to help out their financially struggling staff? I don't think the things are actually out for customers to donate

Mal-Adjusted

It's pretty telling that employees gave 5 million while the walmart family, each of which are worth billions, gave 6 thousand.

Penny Dreadful

seamus wrote: »

Indeed, I would put Starbucks in the category of aggressive business practices, but not aggressive employment practices.

They are struggling in the US anyway because their competitors have copied the Starbucks format, but offer better coffee. The same is true here, but I think we're still somewhat in the honeymoon period with coffee shops, so Starbucks remain popular.

Their coffee and hot chocolate is absolute muck. The coffee is almost always burnt and the hot chocolate tastes like powdered stuff you could make at home for a fraction of the price. I only ever buy their tea now and that is (here comes me sounding like a granny) to take to the cinema with me.
I don't like fizzy drinks and hate the whole "must eat lots while watching a movie" scenario. Starbucks which is right beside the cinema in Blanchardstown is great for that.
Many people I know who like coffee would opt for a McDonald's coffee over a Starbucks.

Seaneh

Penny Dreadful wrote: »

Their coffee and hot chocolate is absolute muck. The coffee is almost always burnt

It's roasted super dark because "people like a strong coffee taste in their fraps" is what a starbucks barrista I know from San José told me. Basically, so much of their business is in coffee-based drinks like fraps that they burn the beans to give more "coffee" taste to the 20oz of cream and sugar syrup drinks and don't really care that their espresso tastes like **** because it's not their main seller.

Penny Dreadful

Seaneh wrote: »

It's roasted super dark because "people like a strong coffee taste in their fraps" is what a starbucks barrista I know from San José told me. Basically, so much of their business is in coffee-based drinks like fraps that they burn the beans to give more "coffee" taste to the 20oz of cream and sugar syrup drinks and don't really care that their espresso tastes like **** because it's not their main seller.

Interesting. So really they are selling coffee flavoured cream and sugar drinks.
It would be interesting to know if the fraps are their main seller here in Ireland too. What sells well in one country doesn't in another. Ireland can be an awkward place for some retailers to get established in. Take M&S for example. They have had to start stocking Cadbury chocolate, Fairy Washing up liquid, Tayto crisps and some other brands that are very much favoured by Irish people. Apparently Irish people are among the most brand loyal shoppers in the world and M&S have noted a better profit in Ireland since they started to stock some of the non M&S branded goods.

All OT though so sorry.

the_syco

krudler wrote: »

There's a great doc about Walmart online, the stuff they get away with is shocking employee wise, people working for them who can't afford the company plan healthcare and wind up spending most of their wage back in Walmart.

Reminds me of the blacks of post-civil war era in America who worked on the farms, would buy in the store owned by the farm.

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Why is there a group that lobbys wal mart to unionise their employees instead of just lobbying to improve whatever conditiins they think unionising them will improve?

I can ignore what you (worker) say, for I am bigger.
I can ignore what your group (lobby) says, for I have more money.
I cannot ignore 90% of my staff (union) striking.

Basically, if there's a large union membership, they have a lot more leverage! Unions are taking the biscuit here, but I dare say they'll have some success in the States.

Gandhi

Seaneh wrote: »

It's roasted super dark because "people like a strong coffee taste in their fraps" is what a starbucks barrista I know from San José told me. Basically, so much of their business is in coffee-based drinks like fraps that they burn the beans to give more "coffee" taste to the 20oz of cream and sugar syrup drinks and don't really care that their espresso tastes like **** because it's not their main seller.

If you've ever had coffee from "Seattle's Best" (another chain, way smaller than Starbucks), their coffee has a very subtle burned aftertaste that I quite like. I always thought that Starbucks' house blend was a badly implemented imitation of Seattle's Best.

ScumLord

seamus wrote: »

Indeed, I would put Starbucks in the category of aggressive business practices, but not aggressive employment practices.

They are struggling in the US anyway because their competitors have copied the Starbucks format, but offer better coffee. The same is true here, but I think we're still somewhat in the honeymoon period with coffee shops, so Starbucks remain popular.

I've never even seen a starbucks in Ireland. I only tried their stuff once while in the UK, I can't really remember what it tasted like.

I think they've missed the boat in Ireland. You can get a decent cup of coffee in most petrol stations and thankfully Ireland has done a good job of supporting local cafes, especially outside of Dublin where our small populations don't make us appealing to large multinationals.

I'm always amazed how every street in the UK is taken over by some chain, it's a completely different setup to Ireland.

Capt'n Midnight

In the USA 1 in 7 rely on food stamps.

47,666,124 people http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/34SNAPmonthly.htm

and they've been cut
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/11/17/245487636/see-how-food-stamp-cuts-are-hitting-across-the-u-s