This story is essentially my thoughts and opinions coupled with excerpts from a Fortune Magazine story that ran a couple months back.

As you've guessed, it deals with Wal Mart, and what Fortune Magazine (and I!)believe is perhaps the only company that Wal Mart fears. Here we go. First, my views.

:-:~ PhantomGhost ~:-:

Wal Mart has always been about unfair practices to achieve lower prices. They don't treat their employees very well. They squeeze their manufacturers to lower prices. They ruthlessly exterminate their small-town competitors and other discount chain stores. They continually reach into new markets like the music download service and try to exert their philosophy. They are all about the drive to eventually become a monopoly; which is the day American retail stops being capitalism and becomes socialism.

Wal Mart is supposedly an unstoppable force. It's thrown a bruised and battered KMart against the wall. It's currently trying to throttle Toys R Us in the toy market. It seeks to inflict damage on competitors like Target and is wiping out many competing, smaller stores, across the nation.

Yet, where I live, in the tech hub of Redmond, Washington, the home of infamous Microsoft, there is no Wal Mart. In a 200 mile radius (maybe more) of my home, which basically encompasses the entire Puget Sound region and beyond, there are only 10 Wal Marts. Only 10? None of them are in major cities, they're in smaller, expanding towns with strip malls.

There isn't one Wal Mart in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, or Everett- the major cities in that radius around Redmond. Washington is home to about six million people, and the majority, perhaps two thirds, live in the Puget Sound region. That's 10 Wal Marts for some 3-4 million people; none of them are in major cities.

I looked up the concentration of Wal Marts in Phoenix, Arizona (the metro area population of Phoenix is about 3.5 million, comparable to Puget Sound). Again, there are 10 Wal Marts: but, every single one is just inside Phoenix and neighboring cities of Tempe, Glendale, Scottsdale, and Peoria. The concentration of Wal Marts is directly in and close around Phoenix instead of outlying, spread out towns like in Puget Sound.

What makes Seattle so different? Something must be keeping Wal Mart out of Seattle, Everett, Bellevue, and Tacoma. What is it?

It's the only company Wal Mart fears. Can you guess who it is?

Here's Fortune Magazine, from their article, published November 24th 2003, by John Helyar.

"In the world of retailing, Wal-Mart is the unstoppable, insatiable force. With $247 billion in revenues— and growing 15% a year—it reduces downtown shop owners to quivering jelly and once-formidable competitors, like Kmart, to bankruptcy. Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott rules the commercial strip the way Julius Caesar once ruled the Roman republic.

Except, that is, for a solitary rebel-held province where a company 20% the size of Wal-Mart has made a monkey of the 800-pound gorilla. In the retail niche of warehouse clubs, the irresistible force is an irresolute flailer. During the past ten years Wal-Mart has gone through five CEOs and countless stratagems at Sam's Club trying to assume its customary command.

All have been thwarted by Costco Wholesale, the master of the cavernous space."

There you have it. COSTCO has make a mockery of Wal Mart's wholesale business. That's why there aren't any Wal Marts in major Puget Sound cities. Wal Mart's only hope is to build in strip malls in the edge of sub-suburban communities- that is, communities on the edge of existing suburbs that are only now exploding with housing and don't have Costco Wholesales yet.

I do my shopping at Costco: a very respected company that pays top dollar to its employees and has good products at good prices.

Back to Fortune:

"Consider some figures. Sam's Club has 71% more U.S. stores than Costco (532 to 312), yet for the year ended Aug. 31, Costco had 5% more sales ($34.4 billion vs. an estimated $32.9 billion). The average Costco store generates nearly double the revenue of a Sam's Club ($112 million vs. $63 million). Costco is the U.S.'s biggest seller of fine wines ($600 million a year) and baster of poultry (55,000 rotisserie chickens a day).

Last year it sold 45 million hot dogs at $1.50 each and 60,000 carats of diamonds at up to $100,000. Chef Julia Child buys meat at Costco. Yuppies seek the latest gadgets there. Even people who don't have to pinch pennies shop at Costco.

"I like bargain securities," says Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger, a Costco shopper, investor, and director. "Why shouldn't I like bargain golf balls?"

The one man Wal-Mart fears doesn't seem fearsome in person. At 66, he has hair as thin as his company's margins, and he seems more like a twinkle-eyed grandfather (which he is, eight times over) than a killer retailer. His office in suburban Seattle overlooks the parking lot of the Costco next door. The folding chairs for visitors bear Los Angeles Lakers logos. The lamp on his desk is festooned with old nametags.

One wall has two Swiffer mops leaning against it; another, along the hallway, was knocked down to make the boss viewable and available to passing colleagues. Or they can pick up the phone and call, since he answers himself, with a brusque "Sinegal."

James D. Sinegal, the president and CEO of Costco, has no palace guard and no profile to speak of, particularly compared to a retail legend like Sam Walton. Yet he's the guy who in 20 years has taken Costco from a startup to the FORTUNE 50 using, as surely as Mr. Sam, highly distinctive practices.

He caps Costco's markups at 14% (department store markups can reach 40%). He offers the best wages and benefits in retail (full-time hourly workers make $40,000 after four years).

He gives customers blanket permission for returns: no receipts; no questions; no time limits, except for computers—and even then the grace period is six months.

Analysts have pounded on Sinegal to trim the company's generous health benefits and to otherwise reduce labor costs.

But he's taken only limited steps in that direction, like modestly increasing employees' share of health-insurance premiums. That doesn't satisfy critics like Deutsche Bank analyst Bill Dreher, who recently wrote, "Costco continues to be a company that is better at serving the club member and employee than the shareholder."

Sinegal just shrugs. "You have to take the shit with the sugar, I guess. We think when you take care of your customer and your employees, your shareholders are going to be rewarded in the long run. And I'm one of them [the shareholders]; I care about the stock price."

"But we're not going to do something for the sake of one quarter that's going to destroy the fabric of our company and what we stand for."

Moving on to another part of the Fortune article: the creed by which Costco rules the world of wholesale:

"The axioms Costco lives by come straight from the House of Sol (Price, the pioneer of low-cost shopping with his Fed Mart):

Axiom No. 1: Obey the law. When Fed-Mart began, according to Price, competitors sicced government inspectors on him, trying to find illegalities. As a matter of survival, he had to be purer than Caesar's wife. But then he came to believe it was good business. Retailers have many temptations to give zoning officials bribes, to give buyers kickbacks, and to finesse health and safety requirements. None of that benefits customers or employees, and none of it was tolerated by Price or Sinegal.

Axiom No. 2: Take care of your customers. Sure, every retailer says that, but Sol Price made clear to everyone under him that he meant it. "You are the fiduciary of the customer. You've got to give before you get. If you get something for a lower price, you pass on the savings."

Axiom No. 3: Take care of your employees. Sol Price actually invited unions in to represent Fed-Mart and Price Club workers. Following suit, Costco pays the top wage in retail, starting employees at $10 an hour. In the minds of Price and Sinegal, high wages yield high productivity, low turnover—Costco's is a third of the retail industry average of 64%, according to the National Retail Foundation—and minimal shrinkage; that's retail-speak for theft, which at Costco is about 13% of the industry norm.

Axiom No. 4: Practice the intelligent loss of sales. Many retailers' shelves are crowded with a plethora of products: different brands, different sizes, many choices. Costco offers relatively few choices. That means some customers may pass up purchases, because the gallon jar of mayonnaise is too big or the brand isn't their favorite. But the benefits far exceed the lost sales. Stocking fewer items streamlines distribution and hastens inventory turns—and nine out of ten customers are perfectly happy with the mayonnaise.

Costco, in fact, is driven by principles and ethics that you probably thought went the way of the five-and-dime. Sinegal reinforces them by traveling 200 days a year, trying to visit every store twice annually. He's got energy that leaves people half his age floundering in his wake. (Must be the near-daily racquetball games.) He doesn't inspect the troops; he interrogates them. CFO Richard Galanti, who sometimes goes along, recites the typical Sinegal rat-a-tat to store managers: "What's hot? What's Sam's beating us on? Have you seen that item in Best Buy? Don't you think we should have that?" All the while Sinegal scribbles notes that, upon his return to headquarters, will become the basis of memos and more questions that he will fire off in all directions."

An excerpt on Sinegal's self restraint:

"Sinegal has also kept himself in the good graces of subordinates by limiting his pay. His $350,000 salary last year was practically cause for drumming him out of the FORTUNE 500 CEO club; and at his own request, he took no bonus for the third consecutive year. He does have $16.5 million worth of options, but he's intent on capping his salary and bonus at about twice the level of a Costco store manager."

And the last paragraph from Fortune:

"Pity poor Wal-Mart (a sentence I never thought I'd write). In this one niche, it's run up against a company that shows you can't discount some old business verities: The nimble first mover can outrun the powerful colossus; the innovator can stay a jump ahead of the imitator; the quality of leadership can trump the quantity of resources. "Here's the difference between Sam's and Costco," says Charlie Munger. "We have a live Sam Walton who's still there, and Wal-Mart doesn't."

There are some good guys and companies out there. Sinegal and Costco are the good guys. They're the guys who can win against Wal Mart, even if it only be in the wholesale niche.

To read the whole story (and it's very good): http://www.fortune.com/fortune/subs/article/0,15114,538834-3,00.html

Well there is a walmart in downtown renton WA. not a major city but it's there and they are building a sam's club in downtown renton as well...

After seeing their spokespeople on their commercials, id say walmart fears people who breed outside of their families

Sinegal has also kept himself in the good graces of subordinates by limiting his pay. His $350,000 salary last year was practically cause for drumming him out of the FORTUNE 500 CEO club; and at his own request, he took no bonus for the third consecutive year. He does have $16.5 million worth of options, but he's intent on capping his salary and bonus at about twice the level of a Costco store manager."


There ya go...if you dont live beyond your means 350,000 is enough. Just because you can TAKE a bonus, does not mean you HAVE to.

indeed $350,000/yr is perfect to live a fantastic life and not need to just waste money to be able to spend it fast enough

Obey the law, take care of your customers, take care of your employees, practice the intelligent loss of sales.

If the record labels could do any three of the four, the world would be a better place.

There is a Walmart being built near where I live; I wish it was a Costco!

There is this guy that lives in Massachusetts, I think, and his job is to advise communities on how to prevent Wal Marts from being built.

You can search for him on the internet, he sounds like a great guy.

tds67, I wish you were getting a Costco too. But the folks at Costco are creative; they'll keep innovating. I'm sure their future is bright.

:-:~ Phantom

I live in Spokane, WA, and their are 2 cosco's and 2 walmarts (one being a supercenter). As for them not takeing care of their employees, I've seen both sides of the fence on that issue. My wife worked for wal-mart when they first opened here and they layed her off 2 weeks before her full year, and her profit shareing kicked in. She thinks that she was layed off so they didn't have to pay her profit shareing, however, I was just dating her at the time, and I am a Manager of a local business, and for that stand point, and knowing how much she missed work and such, I would have layed her off to, actually, I would have fired her. Calling in everyweek, missing coming in late adds up after a while.

Now on the good side, My parents have a family friend, who has worked for Wal-mart for 7 years, and gets payed pretty well. His wife passed away a few months ago. Anyhow, Wal-Mart paid for All of the food at the funeral reception (a get together to remember and talk about his wife). He also thought he used up all his vacation and sick leave by taking all the time off to deal with the funural, that emotional termiol of loosing his wife. Well, when he got back to work, he found out they payed him for all his time off, and did not charge his vacation time, or his sick leave time. It is all still their. During this bad time, he also lost his tv, so he needed a new one. He went looking and found a nice flat screen at wal-mart. But couldn't afford it at the time, and was going to wait. A week later, get got a check in the mail from wal-mart in the amount of the tv so he could go purchase it.

Later on, my parents, our family friend, and I got in a converstion about how well they treated him during his bad time of his life, and he told us that if you work hard, work all your shifts, don't be late to often, and don't try to buck the system, they treat you pretty darn good.

So I guess the question is, is it Wal-Mart that treats there employees bad, or is it the employees tha treat their jobs with little priority, and pay the price?

They don't treat their employees very well.

As a employee of Wal-mart I would agree with that statement. As for their Online downloading site if it's like their CD they sell at the store their download music is probably also censored and I wouldn't buy it.
Todd

"Costco continues to be a company that is better at serving the club member and employee than the shareholder."

Sounds great. but when Siengal leaves the bean counters and shareholders will get the next CEO to run it like a traditional company.

NWRmidnight - There are a few good walmarts out there but I can tell you from personal experience that most of what you're parents friend received was from either the employees contributing or that particular stores mad money funds (not from Bentonville). Or maybe both.

Walmart management is very dog eat dog. to get ahead and promoted in that company is more stressful than any place I've ever worked in my life. I was nearly fired for using their open door policy, lost a promotion because I used that same policy about freight issues in my department. I was more concerned with My responsibilitys in the deparment I was in charge of than playing games. This mangement struggle and games reflect on how the employees are treated. 80% of the promotions I've seen has nothing to do with the persons abilities or hard work.

I can tell you that in the many stores I'm familiar with hard work, never calling in or being late doesn't guarentee one bit being treated good. This article IS right on target

Doesn't matter how WalMart treats its customers or emplyees, it's the way it treats communities and other businesses in general, and it gets an F grade in that department.

This article was right on. I have never seen a Cost-Co in my life but my town is definatly an expanding suburban area of about 20000-25000 and there is a Wal-Mart in, you guessed, a strip mall.

If getting a walmart ment hiring all the employees who were laid off from businesses that closed. and everyone was paid better wages for their family's and benifits, and customers felt they got better services for their money and the areas economy gets better, than WalMart would be a good thing. All change (even good change) has it's victims. But this isn't the case with Walmart.

employees and customers are part of the community as well as other businesses. they are all treated bad and are just as important.

"Doesn't matter how WalMart treats its customers or emplyees, it's the way it treats communities and other businesses in general, and it gets an F grade in that department."

Do some reading on Costco and its abuses of Eminent Domain, and decide if a major corporation stealing property from private citizens is any better for the community.

I have never worked for Wal-Mart, but my Sister and one of my nieces both have. For the most part, they felt that they were well treated. I have no doubt that there are those who may feel they have been screwed, but every large company has folks who don't particulary like their big employer (sometimes for good reason).

As for driving out other businesses: this is certainly true. But I have read or heard little evidence that this is due to "unfair practices". True, Wal-Mart is under investigation for hiring cleaning crews which may harbor illegal aliens, but there are many many companies who could be accused of hiring such cleaning crews. And it is still disputed as to how much senior management knew about the make-up of the cleaning crews (after all, its not really their responsibility to keep track of the legality of all the employees of contractors).

Bufo you are right. Upper management doesn't know the details. I sill submit however, they set the stage for the abuse by the lower ecolons. I'm glad you sister and neices have been treated well. but the majorty haven't. for many it's just a job and the only one avaliable so they overlook many things.

Why is there such a thing as Eminent Domain? Isn't it completly unconstitutional?

I would encourage everyone to check out:

http://www.walmartwatch.org/

There are links there to published stories about Walmart.

Please remove at end of website name in browser.

"br", that is...

Yeah, compmore, it is true that a lot of Wal-mart employees are upset now because many had their hours cut back last year (my niece is still with them).
But of course that happened in a lot of companies, not just Wal-mart.

In New England, the biggest complaint I have heard about Wal-mart is that they do end up driving some smaller stores out of business. But is this due mainly to unfair practices, or is it just due to more efficient operations in a competitive, capitalistic system?

Wal-mart is the worst palce to work for. It doesn't matter how good you do your job or if you show up on time if someone in management doesn't like you for whatever reason your screwed. I worked for wal-mart for a short time and the head manger I had used to drag the women in to his office and make them cry. COSTCO on the other hand sounds like a good place to work, don't have one around here so I don't know for sure.

B.

Ah COSTCO is a good place to shop. They have jumbo products for the cheapest price. bloody amazing.

Only problem is that its always busy

I knew it was Costco!I wish there was one around here!

This company is only good for the consumer, the prices are decent but if you look into what is not seen by every one you'll see that they're bad for the american manufacturer and their (Wal-Mart) own employees. They're coming into good hard working american businesses and telling them how to run their business and using their monopoly of the market to bullly the american manufactures into giving them the prices they (Wal-Mart) will pay.

I'm not impressed about their employee handling either, it seems that they don't care about their employees as much as their television commercials say they do, keeping the full time employees below 40 hours a week so they won't end up paying over time, gimme' a F*#@!! break and they're replacable at a drop of an hat and Wal-Mart knows it with the people that were forced into early retirement because the good american manufacturers had to cut costs or shut down, ask your local Wal-Mart greeter. Just remember good for the consumer bad for the manufacturer and while you're in the unemployment line you can thank Wal-Mart for their low low prices.

Keep it up Costco!!

Sad thing is I remember much the same thing being said about WalMart and Sam Walton in the early years when he ran the company. SAm used to do the same thing go around the country visiting the stores heck even drove an old beat up truck.

As it grew and Sam died this all changed. Once this guy dies and someone new takes over Don't be surprised to see the names WalMart and Casotco being refered to in the same context.

The big probelm I see isn't that Walmart wants to compete THEY WANT TO DOMINATE and put everyone else out of business.

I work for a competing company in the grocery end of the businerss and while yes my company wants business and to thrive they want to be comepetative NOT drive everyone else out of business. We service indipendant merchants and Walmart simply isn't happy with having a decent share of the market THEY WANT IT ALL!!.

The thing we all need to keep in mind is IF they succeed do you REALLY think prices will stay low? Once there is no competition to keep prcies low, MARK MY WORDS Walmarts prices will riase beyond belief.

bufo unfair practices. it's certinly not because they are more efficent. with the size there's a lot more efficency in some areas but inefficency in many others.

Plus it's not just because of having hours cut back. I could tell you a lot of what goes on behind the scenes in mangement but this site isn't for that

slydder they already have. prices aren't as good as they used to be. and bossrock those comercials make me sick. they are not real. I won't go on anymore on Walmart, this isn't for that and I've said more than I should already. I'm not mearly a disgruntaled ex employee as some might think. I know the company. if it's the same as many other companies (including the RIAA) doesn't make it right.

I miss Costco.

When I lived in Miami, my dad worked at Costco. He was making some damn good money. $14 or $15 an hour, if I remember right. Benefits up the wazoo. As an employee, though, there is a LOT you have to do. But they take care of you as much as possible. All the lifting he had to do, kind of screwed up his back.

But just to say, yes, Costco rocks. It's clean. It's orderly, even when busy. Wal-Mart is always fucking filthy and disgusting, and half the employees couldn't give a damn about its customers.

I work for AAFES. Communist AAFES...

Picture Wal-mart for the military. Picture it overseas. Picture it being that you have an ineffective Supervisor/manager combo and the only ones that know what they're doing are on the bottom end of the totem pole. Envision, if you will, the fact that you KNOW you can do a better job of running the store with your eyes closed but you are frustrated with the left hand, right hand policy that constantly gets put into effect. Picture the upper management getting mad at people for honoring another store's sales and trying to fire people for it.

This is AAFES our super savings store for the military.

So yes, I feel all of the Walmart pain here...

Okay, I've read a lot here. Some good. Some bad. I have a question tho. How much of this is based on experience and how much is based on opinion/perspective??
I work for Walmart in New Hampshire. Started working again because i got bored. Don't HAVE to work, just do because I don't like sitting around the house, gaining weight and watching Springer. Do they pay me less than I would like? Yeah, but how many of us are actually GETTING what we think we're worth. Are the benefits worth it? I don't know. I'm disabled/retired.. all my medical/dental is from the VA and the Navy. I do know that Walmart bends over backwards to protect people, some of whom really shouldn't be protected from a business model perspective. If *I* was the guy making the decisions, I swear about 30% of the people at this store would be canned. Problem is tho, that with all the Walmart bashing going on, no one WANTS to work for Walmart, so if I fire the ones who work like crap, I've got no replacments. It's a circle. Nuff about that
There are goods and bads in any system. There are people who love Walmart, love the prices, love the competitiveness that keeps prices moving around. There are those who HATE Walmart, hate the way they treat people "bad" (perspective here), hate the way they handle customer service etc. That's okay, but it's all got to be seen for what is is most of the time.. OPINION. Stuff stated from a certain PERSPECTIVE.
Bottom line is, I don't mind working for Walmart. They keep ME busy, and they pay me for it. The paychecks don't bounce, and to be honest, I've done a lot MORE work for a lot LESS money. I have to say that there are other companies out here that would pay me a lot less, and give me a lot less (benefits, discounts etc) and treat me worse. I've even worked for a few.
If you don't like it, change it. If you can't change it, learn about it. If you can't learn about it, find something else to read.
ttmmm

remye, not perspective on my part. it's experience. I've worked at jobs that were just as bad or worse as well. doesn't make it right. You're right about the 30% figure, I'd guess it more aroun 50% to 60% myself. That's what creates the problems.

to change it means you have to get in a postion to exert influence. that means playing their games which means as long as the games are played it won't change. vicious circle.

I ran the papergoods and chemicals department, I had a customer on a fixed income who would call once a month to have me order cases of TP for him in single rolls even though 12 or 24 packs would save him over 50%. when I pointed it out to him he didn't want to do it because he had already figured out his expenses and didn't want to have to refigure it. Then I'd transfer him over to the cigarette dept so he could order his months worth of smokes. all the while complaining he had no money. that's the kind of customers I see mostly in Walmart. Prices are not as low as people think over all. Selected prices, yes, overall, no.

My college student daughters both work for Walmart, not in my town. Our local Walmart is run completely different from theirs. Seems to me that's where discrepancies are found, in the local running. There are good and bad bosses everywhere in every system. Does the law of averages catch up with you sooner or later? Hopefully. I love to shop at Walmart. But the supercenter 35 miles north of here has much better prices than my local outlet. Not fair!

I think both companies suck, as most companies do today. You cannot automate customer service, and you cannot buy customer loyalty, or trust.

Correct me if that isn't the exact nature of this website. To make your customer happy, or else.

As a grocer, I do not earn a wage, I provide a service. My customers are my friends, I know how thier families are doing, and upcoming events in thier lives. And in the event of extraordinary weather, I am thier first line of emergency rescue service. I am encouraged by the people around me that feel the same about thier "job", and am pleasently rewarded by my company for what I do in my community. But the people I work with, and the service I provide make my career "profitable".

compmore, I will grant you this ....

Recently I talked to a person who was helping a senior managern in Wal-mart to get another job. This individual said that Wal-mart was a great place to work for when Sam was running the show. But without Sam, things are not the same. I consider this person to be very credible, as she is an ex-Wal employee herself.

I don't know if this point was raised here before (I was quickly scanning the responses), but the profits from all Wal-Mart stores go entirely to their corporate headquarters in Arkansas -- and NOT ONE PENNY is invested back in the communities.

I also wish to note that early in her career as a lawyer, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton ("D"-N.Y.) represented Wal-Mart. If all the other things about her aren't enough to give you the chills . . .

Bufo--- Bingo!!! that's exactlyt right!!

W-B that is also exactly correct!

Any community projects and money granted comes from the local stores budget (whatever isn't siphoned to Bentonville) and the local employees.

Well, I can agree with all the bad things about Wal-Mart first hand, especially their "Open Door Policy" (sarcasm added). I worked for Wal-Mart two years ago and let me tell you, it was pure hell. I was a cashier and the supervisors just didn't give a damn. I'd need change and blink my light and they'd just either pace around looking busy or stand there looking stupid. Finally one day I went to the little stand blocking the aisle and asked for change. Boy did they get pissed. They told me to NEVER (and they stressed NEVER) leave my register for any reason. I thought, ok, good idea. Well, what ended up ticking me off was their little policy of customers not having to go through the cigarette line to purchase cigarettes. Here they'd gone though all this time and money to install one in the store only to turn around and never use it. The first time they bitched was when a customer asked where the cigarettes where and I told her and then another cashier was like "Oh, I'll get them for you, just stay right here." then the second time was when a customer went to get them himself because he had a large order and everyone knows Wal-Mart is picky about ring times and such.

To make it short, I filed a complaint with the manager, especially on the supervisor deal. A few days later the co-Managers talked to me about it and we came to an agreement on how to do things. Fifteen minutes later the manager fired me for insubordination! I'll tell you now that I wasn't insubordinate but now I can never work for Wal-Mart or Sams ever again and have recently stopped including Wal-Mart on job applications because of the lie they tell about me.

I once worked for Target, which treated both their customers and employees better and ran their business much better that Wal-Mart does. And where I live, there's a Supercenter that ran Kmart out but Target is still going strong after nearly 10 years!

compmore, I guess I did kind of come off that I was agreeing that it was "right" or fair", but that wasn't it. I guess I could have worded that better. I personally can see and agree with everything you said.
As to all the other comments, I've begun seeing a pattern in the last few months. I have done some research (just to further my own career/knowledge.. I don't plan on bein a 20 year man at Walmart LOL).. and I've seen in magazines like Forbes and Fortune that it WAS different when Sam ran things. Now Walmart is run like a business. An earlier post said that Costco is headed in the same direction, and I believe that's true. Anytime someone tries to live or work a "dream" of someone else's, there are problems. For the record, I'm NOT defending Walmarts practices.. hell I probably know as much or as little as anyone out there, I'm just sayin that for me, it works for now.
My personal bottom line, since starting at Walmart has always been about MY money, MY paycheck. I've worked at places where the paychecks bounced, and I've quit every one of them. I know it sounds like I'm being an ass, but whatever happens at the top of the line is pretty much no concern to me. I get a check every two weeks, it doesn't bounce, I go back to work. I have other things to worry about than who's biting who on the ass to get ahead.
I still believe that there is a lot of the old "worst job I ever had was the one I just left" going on. My store has a pretty high turnover rate, and I hear about iteverywhere I go (I live in a pretty small town, and we hire from a LOT of the surrounding communities), but again, I don't really have to nor do I care to respond to most of those comments. I had a woman tell me that Walmart had lost one of the best cashiers they could have ever had.. because they wouldn't give her what she wanted in a wage, so she didn't take the job. Guess where she was working? At a gas station, where i"m almost positive she wasn't getting anywhere NEAR what she asked Walmart for. I had a few words for her tho. A job is a lot like collecting antique (insert item here). You're never going to get what you think it's worth when you try to sell it. Besides, she was asking for more (as a cashier) than I make as a supervisor. Inequity? yeah, and then some. Not on my end though, as again.. I don't really do this for the mass amounts of money I "could" make in the next few years. I'm here to get thru school (another bachelors degree.. go figure) and get another job. Ya see, I was unemployed when I found THIS job..... End of story.
W-B, my store put almost $85,000 back into the community in 2003. We bought food for local shelters, we donated a HUGE chunk of money to some relief funds (fire, flood etc) and we did some food drops, among other projects. It does go back into the community, but at the store level, not at the corporate level. It's on the store managers to make those decisions, and I've worked at two stores now. the first one gave away a total of about 10K to the area, but as I mentioned, my current store did about 85K. BIG difference.
anyhow, I'm going to break up my soapbox now and build a fire. If I bored any of you, sorry. If I made some of you think, that's real cool. If anyone wants to chat further outside the forum, I'm registered at Dmusic, so drop me a line! It's probably time we got back to the music anyhow *smirk*
ttmmm

Remye,
I've worked for Wal-mart for five years and grown to hate wal-mart because they've not only intimidated me but other employee. So my hate of walmart is from own experience.
Todd