I see that Walmart threatened to move out of Washington, D.C. if the city raised its minimum wage to 12.50.
The D.C. council raised it anyway.
Bravo to D.C. for calling Walmart’s bluff. Let’s hope the Mayor signs the measure; evidently, he’s expressed some concerns, since Walmart was proposing to create jobs and to expand into neighborhoods currently underserved by retail.
Those neighborhoods deserve to be served, and jobs are important–but are they worth $6000 of taxpayer subsidy for each person Walmart employs? Because that’s what the research shows: for every job Walmart creates, taxpayers are filling the gap between the low wages being paid and what workers need to survive. Walmart employees are overwhelmingly dependent upon the social safety net for food, housing and medical care.
Walmart has a great business plan: Those of us who pay taxes subsidize Walmart’s costs of doing business. So long as they can get away with paying below-subsistence wages, our tax dollars will continue to fatten their bottom line.
Defenders of these rapacious business practices defend Walmart by pointing to the low prices of their merchandise. Low prices benefit consumers, particularly poorer consumers. But keeping prices low does not require paying poverty wages.
The big box store most famous for its stockpiles of toilet paper and $1.50 hot dogs also has a reputation for paying its workers a higher wage than most of its competitors. The average Costco worker made about $45,000 per year, Fortune reports. By comparison, Walmart-owned Sam’s Club, a Costco competitor, pays its workers $17,486 per year, according to salary information site Glassdoor.com….Costco’s insistence on treating its workers well hasn’t come at the expense of the company’s bottom line. The retailer’s profit jumped 19 percent to $459 million last quarter, while Walmart’s sales suffered during the same period.
So that claim about helping low-income shoppers by offering bargain prices doesn’t fly–Costco manages to keep prices low (and profits high) without screwing over its employees. Or picking the pocket of the taxpayers.
Washington, D.C. should take a leaf from my mother’s book. When I was a little girl and threatened to run away from home, she’d offer to make me sandwiches for the trip.
“So that claim about helping low-income shoppers by offering bargain prices doesn’t fly–Costco manages to keep prices low (and profits high) without screwing over its employees. Or picking the pocket of the taxpayers.”
…I have been aware of this for years and do not shop at Walmart. Most of their products are junk anyway, needing replacement sooner than a moderately higher priced item of the same sort elsewhere.
For instance, had a neighbor that bought a riding lawnmower from Walmart at a 30% savings than our Club Cadet riding mower. Within a year the Walmat mower began throwing belts…than the pulley bearings went. The motor blew two years after the one year warranty expired. The Club Cadet had only one belt replacement in ten years and still working well after 12.
“Washington, D.C. should take a leaf from my mother’s book. When I was a little girl and threatened to run away from home, she’d offer to make me sandwiches for the trip.”
…LOL, I was five and Mother helped me pack my little red wagon…”See ya !”
Made it two houses down the Ally Way and decided to wait her out since i had nowhere to go. Didn’t know she sent my older sister to trail me and report back. 15-20 minutes is a long time for a five year old to sit in one place…I returned.
The only way your going to find me in a Wal-Mart Store is if by some strange quirk of events, my future funeral procession happens to drive through the building.
Quote:
“Washinbgton DC ; Walmart comes to town, 6 stores, dc liberal union idiots mandate in the 11th hour,
(waives union stores of course) a super min wage. Wal Mart says, “F you, we are gone!” Boom!
Liberals loose 1,800 jobs for their poor community. Way to go union democrats!!!”
McG
McG, you have summed up Wal-Mart’s position exactly.
I, personally, negotiatewd with them years ago and every negotiation started out with
“Fuck you, We’re Wal-Mart. Our field, our ball, our rules. Our way or the highway, Fuck you.”
Would you be OK with Wal-Mart paying wages of, say, $2 an hour?
If the people are hungry enough, they’ll work for that, right?
And if Wal-Mart is making $66,000 profit per second, you’re OK with that, too?
And what if 2000 people show up for those $2 jobs?
Wouldn’t the smart move for Wal-Mart be to drop those wages to $1.50?
BTW, YOU are paying for health care and food stamps for the Wal-Mart workers
because Wal-Mart doesn’t pay them enough to even get to the poverty line.
Plus, Wal-Mart has 500 lawyers working on ways for them to legally avoid paying taxes,
so the federal government (and your taxes, if you pay any) are subsidising Wal-Mart so
they can make even more billions for the Waltons back in Arkansas
I don’t like McG’s America.
Here:
http://www.bartcop.com/
Living on a low fixed income I must consider price on everything; being disabled my driving is limited so I shop for many items – but not all – at Wal Mart. I have never been in a Costco because of location so have no idea about their prices. I compare prices at Wal Mart, K Mart, Kroger, Marsh, Save-A-Lot and Family Dollar. K Mart prices went up when Martha Stewart’s name began appearing on most items and have stayed high – higher than some items available at Kroger as well as all other above mentioned stores. I have never had a problem with anything purchased at Wal Mart and their employees can tell, or show, me where every item is that I ask for.
Friends who worked at a Florida Wal Mart to supplement their Social Security income were well treated. When Linda was diagnosed with cancer and took a medical leave and was assured she would have a job with them when she was able to return. Employees held a benefit for her and contributed to continue paying her health care insurance. When she could no longer work and had to move to southern Indiana to live with their daughter for full-time care, Wal Mart found a position for her husband Dick in a nearby Wal Mart and transferred his employment. When Linda died 4 months later, Wal Mart told Dick to take his time returning to his job there and to let them know when he was ready to return to their home in Florida. They then transferred his employment back to the original Wal Mart in Florida. He continued working till he was 75, then retired. Guess I should have mentioned Dick was disabled but they found positions he could handle and he worked there for approximately 10 years.
Maybe you who prefer Costco have higher incomes and your idea of lower prices is not the same as my idea of lower prices. I also buy Wal Mart Equate brand of many items, also brand name foods and computer supplies. If employees are disatisfied with their pay rate; deal with it till they can find another job. I hope no one out there believes Indianapolis City Government paid a good living wage to support staff workers; private business sector shied away from hiring local government workers because of the reputation of incompetentcy, cronyism, nepotism and political patronage workers. I must shop where I can afford to pay the prices; not to insure the employees are being well paid.
Another angle here Mrs Green
Quote:
Rep. Stephen Fincher, latest in long line of wealthy right wing hypocrites, cites Bible as reason for slashing aid to needy…
But the facts of Fincher’s argument are even more embarrassing than that. The Times notes that Fincher himself has “collected nearly $3.5 million in subsidies from 1999 to 2012” in federal support for his 3,000 acre family farm.
“In 2012 alone, the data shows, Mr. Fincher received about $70,000 in direct payments, money that is given to farmers and farmland owners, even if they do not grow crops.”
The truth, however, is that many Americans, including many hard-working Wal-Mart employees, are forced to seek food stamps to feed their children because a business that has allowed the five member Walton family to accumulate more than $100 billion in personal wealth doesn’t pay its workers a livable wage.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the failed House bill that Fincher supported would have eliminated free school lunches for 210,000 children who had the misfortune of having been born into low income families.
Here:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10044
I haven’t stepped foot in a Walmart in at least 10 yrs and I find affordable things all over the place! I have been a member of Costco for nearly 4 yrs now and go there every week for groceries. They don’t carry everything I need so Kroger and Trader Joe’s and even Big Lots supply me with the rest. We have stocked our home with their household items and have never ever been dissatisfied with their products.
There is no way we can lower income taxes for Americans if companies like Walmart continue to lobby congress and pay slave wages to their employees that then need to apply for food stamps, housing subsides and get health care free through Medicaid. We taxpayers are all paying for Walmart’s corporate welfare and I refuse to step foot in their evil stores.
Then there’s the bribery story out of Mexico that feeds this disgust of them. I know many people that continue to shop at their stores but I try to point out to each and every one of them that they can’t complain about their ever increasing local taxes because they are only digging themselves in deeper by continuing to shop there. DC told them to shove it and that makes me want to stand and applaud them too!
I think your assumption that their business models is similar is a bit far-fetched.
Costco has an annual membership fee. We renewed ours 5 or 6 months ago and if I remember it was in the neighborhood of $100. They only take cash, check, or debit to keep costs down. Their checkout lines usually have two employees, which is nice, but they have neither paper NOR plastic. If you’re lucky they’ll box a few things for you.
MOST of their produce is cheaper, but if you’re only eating for 1 or 2 you’ll end up throwing away a good chunk of what you buy. I say MOST because their apples, for example, cost three times what they do at Meijer, my assumption is people think they’re cheaper so they buy them anyway. Their diapers are the same way.
Kirkland diapers are cherry, and they used to be cheap, but now they cost just as much as name brand. Same goes for cereal, coffee, etc. If you’re feeding a family you can save but you have to watch what you buy or you’ll get ripped off. That having been said they still have super deals.
At Wal-Mart damn near anything is cheaper, in terms of price and quality. The service is horrible but you do get your stuff bagged (and no membership fee.) From what I’ve seen they market to remarkably different crowds (I see more 29 prefixes at Costco than locals) so it’s kind of a disingenuous argument to say profit structures are the same but entry-level employee pay scales aren’t consistent. Not defending Wal-Mart, because my experiences there are always horrendous. Certainly not attacking Costco, as our service there has always been extremely above-board. Just pointing out it’s not a consistent comparison.
Google “Meijer employee salaries” and compare them with Wal Mart. Wal Mart is not the only business in this country who pay minimum wage or barely above. They are certainly not the only business whose employees NEED food stamps and probably second jobs to survive this economy which is at a standstill due to GOP obstructionism. Does anyone know salary levels of Mitt Romney business employee salaries – or Donald Trump, or Koch brothers or many local big businesses. Costco must be like Sam’s Club; I was a member when working for the city but…as Marco states, you have to buy in bulk after paying a membership fee. The only way I found a possible savings was to take someone with me to shop, go home to split the cost and share-out the purchased items. After doing this, our cost was about the same as going to Wal Mart and shopping alone for what I need. To paraphrase; you can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time. So – don’t shop at Wal Mart if you don’t like the way they do business but, you might try researching some of the other big businesses in town who belong to the 1% and hire some of the 99% to work for them.
Living on a low fixed income, try Aldi. They have many good quality items at very reasonable prices. If you are looking for higher end products, try Fresh Market or Trader Joe’s. Incidentally, Trader Joe’s is the same company as Aldi. If it’s bulk items, try Costco. I usually take a couple of large shallow boxes and a cooler in the car trunk when I shop at Costco. I can transfer all the items to either a box or the cooler, easier to unload when returning home.
We got the American Express card through Costco and get points every time we use it which has more than paid for our membership costs. We are only half way through our yearly membership and have 200 dollars worth of points through American Express. Costco pays us those points back in CASH, not credit so we can spend that money anywhere we chose. Last year, we got 350 bucks back and I used it to buy stuff for the house. All their employees are happy to be working, have holidays off (they are closed) and health care and vacations. Sounds like a great company to me. Wish I could get a job there myself. Unfortunately, they have a low turnover rate. I liked Meijers and Aldi’s too but they are not out west. From all of the reports I’ve read, including this blog, Costco’s business model is beating Walmart up! That just tickles me.
AgingLittleGirl, if what you wrote in the last sentence is true, I guess that capitalism isn’t all bad, then.
It boils down to supply and demand….good economy and good workers don’t work at Walmart. So they have to increase wages to obtain qualified workers.
Had the GOP passed the jobs bill to fix our crumbling infrastructure, millions of good paying jobs would have been created leaving Walmart and the others to fight for good workers. Than remove the corporate tax loopholes and incentives to bank offshore…
But Vulture Capitalism is, as well as monopolies…And the reason they broke up Rockefeller’s Standard Oil way back when. I had seen a few good documentaries about Rockefeller, JP Morgan, and Carnegie not all that long ago.
They need to break up the “to big to fail” banks now.
So Costco is the one bright spot in a dark night.
I won’t shop Wal-Mart either for multiple reasons. The Walton family helps finance ALEC which writes model state legislation to protect the biggest polluters, big tobacco, big oil, and voter suppression efforts. ALEC also writes legislation to eliminate women’s rights, public education, safety nets for the poorest citizens, unions, and more. They hate government and taxes while forcing many of their employees onto public assistance. If I learn that they have a lower price on something, I ask a competitor to match it, and they do.
If the manager of one Wal-Mart store was nice enough to care for a cancer-stricken employee, I’m proud of that manager and glad for the employee and her family. Unfortunately, the manager’s individual kindness is not a Wal-Mart corporate policy.
The Walton Family has run many locally-owned businesses out of towns across America. But they’ll not get my money to help them do it.
“The Walton family helps finance ALEC which writes model state legislation to protect the biggest polluters, big tobacco, big oil, and voter suppression efforts. ALEC also writes legislation to eliminate women’s rights, public education, safety nets for the poorest citizens, unions, and more. They hate government and taxes while forcing many of their employees onto public assistance.”
…Excellent point Mrs Papas!
Wal-Mart is the poster child for the working poor in the United States. This retail baron has been a public nuisance since 1988, when they began opening mega-stores. As far as I am concerned they can move out of America completely and live in one of the countries where they outsource cheap labor. C’mon Wal-Mart, ill help ya pack!