Around four years ago I was in desperate financial straights. I was starting my own business and sinking faster and faster into debt. Do you want to know what these big, mean, evil, greedy, corporate, SOB's at Wal-Mart did? Their "predatory pricing" (what an absurd thought) allowed me to buy a new pair of work boots, two pairs of pants, some t-shirts with pockets, and 4mos. worth of school clothes for my little girl. All this on the $150 that I had to borrow from my sister. Their prices are not the problem. In many cases they are the solution. I only wish they could get low price goods from some place other than Communist China. That may actually bite us in the ass some day soon. JINGOIST

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They allowed YOU to buy boots made by some poor slob who can't by food for his daughter. There comes a point where the decision must be made on the basis of eithics. Do I NEED a new pair of shoes or can I go without and wear the old pair (or get them repaired) so someone else doesn't have to go without?

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More on Wal-Mart, and similar corporations, here.

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Although I must admit that I haven't read every comment posted about the Wal-Mart Monster, I did scan the AlterNet articles found in the links. I find it interesting that there appears to be no mention of the fact that 1.6 million women are suing Wal-Mart for sex discrimination! This is the largest class action law suit in the history of this country, but it can't get a mention on the AlterNet? Hmmmmm. Did I miss something here? Could it be that this case isn't interesting to AlterNet writers? Gee, I wonder why? Could it be that it's because it only involves women? Please tell me that I'm jumping to conclusions here.

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i work for walmart, and i have learned alot about the company. to help alot of the community stores, they can work together by forming a partnership and buying from the same companies, and allowing the community to buy into this at a 10% discount by purchasing from their stores-not money wise, but maybe volunteering some hours in the community for whatever. the only thing that really should be addressed right now for me is the way they treat the "associates," is when they get hurt on the job!!!-legitametly. or a customer- nobody seems to look into this issue, because they are such a big company.

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For all the evils of Walmart, I must say as a disabled shopper, Walmart makes shopping easy for me. I only have to unload my scooter one time to shop for all the essentials I need. Other than that, I use the supermarket or the web.

Walmart has brilliantly figured out the part about convenience, one-stop shopping, and great prices. So let's not kill THAT idea! Instead, praise it for what it does right and focus on where it needs improvement. Just because Walmart is a giant and a bully, doesn't mean it can't be trained.

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I remember when Walmart first arrived in my hometown. I was a single mom and thought it was a gift. It took a few years for me to see the light.
5 of the Waltons are in the top ten list of the richest Americans and there is a Walton at #10 in the list of richest people in the world. And they can't offer better pay? They can't offer a better health plan? They can't buy American merchandise? Why are they so afraid of collective bargaining? What is the cost of that cheap pair of boots? I cringe to think of the women and children that are mistreated on the job to give American consumers better prices and the Waltons more money.
In Massachusetts workers at 3 companies looked towards the state for health insurance, Stop and Shop, Dunkin Donuts and Walmart. We pay because the companies won't pay. There are companies that have proven that good benefits means productive workers and that reflects costs to consumers. Costco is one.
I refuse to shop at Walmart. I'm already paying for the merchandise. We all are.

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I read the article about the evils of walmart. I understand how this kind of corporation affects our communities. I'm wondering what the difference is between Walmart and stores like "Target" that sell just about everything you could need at affordable prices. Is it that they are not as prominent? Do they treat their employees better than walmart does? Why aren't there are many issues with Target? Can someone explain to me why it's better, or if it is at all?

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I find many of the posts on this topic to be embelmatic of why progressive issues get such short shrift by "middle America." We tell people to stop shopping at Wal-Mart and drive further to buy more expensive priced goods. One post even suggested holding onto to an old pair of boots until it was absolutely necessary to replce them.
The progressive voice against Wal-Mart should not just consist of calls for boycotts, but a statement that this kind of business is not healthy or sustainable- neither for American consumers & workers nor for Wal-Mart itself.
Which brings me to another point about why middle-America is turned off by the left. We complain, yet offer no solutions. how about touting the successes of corporations that do value their workers, encouraging small businesses.

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It is interesting that most of the complaints are about how our economic system is designed: Walmart is just a more visible example of how it works: they buy things AS INEXPENSIVELY as possible so they can sell them slightly less expensively than others. They pay their workers just enough to insure that they will come to work. They inevitably also don't pay any more for anything else than they must. They DO some community work and offer some employee benefits above what they MUST in order to create a good image.
Since they ARE a giant corporation, they will inevitably have some administrators who will commit some illegal acts.
An economic system has NO morals, it is about how to make money and distribute it. We used to have many more laws about what was required but they have been continually removed at the behest of big business.
The minimum wage doesn't provide enough to live on, There is NO required health insurance etc.
If YOU don't like it, start initiatives to change it or (Horrors!) support AND/or join a UNION that is working to.
Not buying from big corporations won't help anything! The corner store is using the same rules as they but doesn't have the buying power they do and being small won't be able to offer any more benefits.

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hey, i don't want to seem elitist or the bugger in a whiner's one-up-manship competition, but there are things going on elsewhere that are just as bad as Wal-Mart, but without any outcry whatsoever. Wal-Mart is a business: although they don't pay well and offer no benefits to their workers, they keep the business open and people in jobs, albeit exploitative ones.

I may seem less than sympathetic, but right now i'm in the throes of self-pity and aggravation. See, i work for the State of California COmmunity College System as an adjunct English Instructor. Although I have a terminal degree in my field, am a published poet, and am a popular, innovative, and effective writing instructor, my status (and the status of the many other adjuncts like me) is about equal to that of a Wal-Mart employee.

Let me explain: California adjunct instructors are not offered the school's medical insurance or even the option to purchase at a higher rate as a group. In addition, due to the CA budget crisis and the total and long standing disregard for education in this state, we adjuncts are at constant risk of "being cut." I have to "lobby" for jobs every semester. I beg for work and then i wait to a sched. braks, which means for a month or two in the Spring, Fall, and Summer, I have no projected income and am faced with the prospect of waiting tables to make ends meet, as i did to get through college, myself. (because, as you may have noticed, i'd never make it as a typist....)

Luckily for me, I have the good reputation of being able to teach any level of English instruction at the "drop of a quarter," so i always do get work. However, there have been semesters that i am assigned jobs 2 or 3 days before the first day of class. So, in the sense of stress levels and jub security, Wal-Mart employees actually have it better than adjuct teachers in california. I wouldn't be whining so much, but it's not about me, really. All this is just an illustration of how bad the california education system is, and how askew the priorities are. When i hear about the plight of the Wal-Mart employees, i do feel bad for them, but sadly, this is because i, as a california teacher,can relate.

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Change seems to come about as an act of desperation, or when there's no other alternative. Exactly what that will be in relation to Walmart I don't know, but it will have to be something that's as attractive to people as Walmart and as cheap.

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The great predator Wal-Mart can only operate in such a fashion because the political criminal class has put a system in place which removes income from the population.

The mal distribution of income is not a natural event, it is rather the strategy to effectively prey upon the labor resource.

The war on drugs, basically a make work program for stupid asswholes, is one of the mechanisms to prevent the spread of income to the ordinary folk. It also has the benefit of producing a secondary industry in the predators world of prison camp building.

The mass murder of the 'workin girls,' across this old crown colony is another one of the ways in which income is kept out of the hands of the working class. Gambling laws are also designed to prevent the redistribution of income.

Instead of focusing on Wal-Mart, we need to focus on the entire predator class of blood suckers that are now in the process of being sent into history, with their holy psalm singers with them. The Bible is a slave owners and operators manual, its nonsense is useful to the criminal class to keep the wage labor rate down.

The war criminal class need to keep the war machine going to continue to oppress the people of America, the war,takes away the surplus wealth that could fall into the hands of the ordinary people, the mass of the population.

The strategy of the criminal class is, "Squeeze them until their eyes pop out."

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First, the Jingo guy ommitted that the reason he was unemployed was that the manufacturing/assembly job he had was forced to move to China to satisfy Walmarts desire to drive down U.S. wages, destroy unions and the benefits that union families get from liveable wages and health benefits, suck as much money out of local economies as they can, and Walmarts insatiable need to buy cheaply made products made with slave labor from it's communist partners in China. Yet, he loves the poverty Walmart furnishes for him. Go figure.
Now: In summer 2000 I entered a new super Walmart off I-95 on Hilton Head Island with my parents. We were on vacation, just arrived within the hour, needed to get stuff. After 2 hours in the store, at the checkout a local Cop pulled me aside and then the manager, along with 7 employees, accused me of stealing the sandals I was wearing. After much shock and surprise, then angry argument, while 3 or 4 employees insisted that they witnessed my theivery, while my elderly parents waited wondering if their son was a thief, after finally showing the brand name on the bottom of my sandals which I purchased several days before in Massachusetts at brand name mall store, and after my mom remembered and remided me that she plucked my reciept from the trash and saved it and that it was in our car (only a mother can do such wonderful things), the manger decided to "check the tape." He returned in less than 5 minutes and sent the employees away, tried to dismiss me and the cop, and tried to walk off. I HALTED him, calmly got names of all employees involved and called alot of local lawyers the next day. They all told me Walmart is always doing what they did to me. I wound up calling Walmart claims in Bentonville AK. I spoke to a Walmart insurance person, provided proof and acted all lawyerly and did the stuff I was advised to do (which was common sense stuff) - by the way, I got lengthy and free free of charge advice by several awesome attorneys from Beuafort SC (God bless Lawyers like John Edwards) - and finally, six weeks later, I recieved a settlement check for $15,000.00 which I negotiated on my own. I asked for $25,000.00. They began at $5,000.00 I have never stepped foot inWalmart since then, and I never will again. The Waltons are evil bastards to the last one onf them.

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I may be the only person around who feels this way, but I believe that the biggest losers at Wal-Mart are the customers. Before I quit going there, I bought several items at what seemed like good prices. Shirt shrunk in the first washing, a radio quit working quickly. The prices were such that I didn't bother taking them back. I bought similarly priced shirts at K-Mart that I can still wear comfortably after several years. You get the quality you pay for.

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Now that our local Wal-Mart has driven the other grocery stores in the neighborhood out of business, their service has gone down, and their "low, low, prices" have gone way, way up!

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Oh MY! A movie about Wal-Mart? It must be a 100 hours long!

I've wanted a movie like this for years and in fact appealed to Michael Moore to make this movie when F-9/11 came out.

Since then I have talked to a Wal-Mart employee of several years about what it is like there since my only experience was as a customer (and not long at that -- living in a metro area I have better choices like Target and Costco; even being farther away the aisles are less crowded and the lines at the registers immensely shorter. I can get in and out of Target in less time than just the standing in line at Wal-Mart. MY time is worth a lot too. My friend doesn't have the luxery I do as he is living in a small town).

The employee I talked to revealed just how evil the company is on a local level. He hadn't been reading about the company like I had but his stories paralleled those that are published.

First, when the store opened in his community the food was beautiful and priced ultra-cheap to get people to come in. Now he says most of it is already expired before it is even put on the shelves. He says the employees know better than to eat there while working and not just because they might get sick but because it is just gross. The deli uses the expired meat they can't sell to make the sandwiches.

For X/mas the store promised the employees holiday pay AND a big spread with all the trimmings to eat on their breaks. What really happened after everyone was signed up was their schedules were trimmed on other days (the busiest weeks of the year) so they didn't qualify for the holiday pay (by ONE hour) and the big spread was Wal-Mart pizza and Wal-Mart soda (and that was limited to one slice/one drink).

He finally worked enough to be able to get health insurance. He had to work at the store a year. Then he had to pay huge amounts to buy in (when you get paid $7-8 bucks an hour the percentages are huge) and then was told he couldn't use the insurance until he had it for a year.

Overtime is non-existent. Just doesn't happen. You can't leave until they let you and will often hold you after your shift but if the time is logged then you have to take longer clocked out breaks while you are there the next day. You do NOT get to leave early the next day or come in late. IF you somehow do get an hour of overtime you are written up.

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Good managers who treat the employees well are taken out. That isn't money making or good for the bottom line. The bad managers have the power to pick on you. If they decide you aren't working hard enough they dock your pay (more money for Sam and FREE labor!) and write you up. Three write-ups (false or not), no matter how minor and you can be fired no questions asked. So you BETTER do as told!

You often have to attend meetings off-shift for no pay and can be written up for not attending even on your days off or if sick or...

Arm-twisting at its finest!

Due to sprawl, contributed to by Wal-Mart, there isn't a lot of ability to walk to your job and few who work there can afford even an inexpensive used car. His grandmother had to drive him to work and then pick him up often waiting up to an hour after his shift for them to allow him to leave.

However, once Wal-Mart comes in, with a small community where else are you going to work? There are THREE jobs lost in a community for every TWO Wal-Mart provides. Wal-Mart jobs are American sweatshop jobs. As long as the customer keeps coming in, they don't have to treat employees or the public well. Where are they going to go if they don't go to Sam's?

Wal-Mart USES poor communities often by getting big tax breaks (that are covered by the same people who work and shop there) to build and then abandoning the sites as soon the tax breaks run out. They rebuild down the road where there is a new tax break leaving the other community with am empty big box white elephant to deal with. Plus less taxes taken in by the community to pay for having Wal-Mart there means less county health inspectors and schools just good enough to keep supplying Wal-Mart employees. Pure elitist GENIUS from The Waltons!

Meanwhile the employees don't make enough to support themselves. My friend worked full-time (Graveyard) and his wife and two children were on state-aid and medicaid and they lived in subsidized housing (still just getting by and needing help at the end of pay periods from his grandmother living on Social Security to feed the children several days a month. And yes! The wife worked too! All those taxes are paid BY YOU with the money you save by shopping at Wal-Mart! A never-ending spiral. The more you support Wal-Mart, the more you need Wal-Mart.

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Sure you can buy a pair of boots there but how long will they last and how comfortable will they be during that time. Economically you are better off buying a pair of $60 shoes that last a year than $10 shoes you need to replace every month. Same with children's clothes. Ill-fitting and lasting barely one wearing, I'd rather buy Hanna Anderssen which is all cotton, looks good, has growing room (even for larger children), feels good wearing, washes well, lasts through all children in a family and then still has resale value.

As far as Target, yes they do treat their employees better. Even as a customer you can see the difference. I've never had a Target employee scared to help me because they fear their supervisor. Any slip-up at Wal-Mart and your job is on the line.

There are so many other stories, there isn't even time or space to touch on here or unfortunately in a movie however it is a good start. The more people who know, the more people they can tell.

So give Wal-Mart employees an alternative. Support other businesses and integrity! Get more quality in return; save money in the end.

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I have lived through the walmart invasion of my town. It wasnt pretty either. They come in with promises of every kind but what they deliver is death , death of just about every competing local business from food stores to hardware. Then when most if not all competition has been eliminated they slowly start to raise prices. There is not a lot of shopping choices in rural areas so now we are stuck shopping at the walmart it has become about the only game in town around these parts. It has become an almost unavoidable evil of life. I do believe though like most corporate giants they too will fall .....eventually.

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Does anyone know the answer to the Taget? question up above. Is Wal-Mart alone in their actions? People here have mentioned Costco and Taget as though they are better, are they really? I'm going to guess yes on the employee treatment, which is pretty big by itself, but what about overseas manufacturing and the like? Do other stores similar to wal-mart function any differently?

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During college, I worked at Wally World for 3 years. I know first hand how employees are treated. I think part of the reason that the "Wal-Mart" effect will be so difficult to remove from our economy is that, thanks to Wal-Mart's Everyday Low Prices, lot's of people have come to believe that a pair jeans isn't supposed to cost more than $9.99. Pointing out that the only reason Wal-Mart can sell their jeans that cheap is because of foriegn and domestic worker exploitation doesn't have much effect because those are rather abstract arguments. As a former Wal-Mart customer, I'll admit that it's a hard notion to get out of your head. Even now I'll catch myself saying "Damn, I've bought 2 pair of pants and a shirt for that much money before."
Also, I think for a lot of customers, particularily in rural areas, shopping at Wal-Mart is source some sort of defiant pride - eg. "If you think you're better than me because I can only afford to shop at Wal-Mart, then fuck you". There's a cultural connection that has been established between working class people and Wal-Mart. And make no mistake about it, this is something that Wal-Mart is very intentionally working to strengthen. That fact makes Wal-Mart that much harder to uproot from small town America, because now we're not just attacking some company anymore, we're attacking John Doe. We're trying to put his family members who work there out of work. We're trying to take back all the stuff that the local Wal-Mart donated to the Elk's Lodge charity auction. And we're trying to take away his ability to buy a DVD player for $39.95.
Rest assured, for ever person on this forum speaking out against Wal-Mart, there are 10 people out there for whom Wal-Mart plays a central role in their lives. Educating them won't be an easy task.
- Mike Lorenz

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I think that many of us can agree: Wal-Mart drains resources from communities, treats its employees like dirt, and sells crappy low-quality products. It's not a place most progressives want to give their business to.

Now the question is, what do we do about it? How do we reach people for whom Wal-Mart is, if not the only game in town, the best of a bad bargain? As other posters have pointed out, calls for boycotting Wal-Mart, shopping elsewhere even if it's a time-consuming hassle, and making things yourself don't take into account the realities many working-class people face. All too often, progressives come off sounding like Marie Antoinette advising the starving masses to go eat cake.

What are the realistic alternatives to places like Wal-Mart for people who can't drive an hour out of their way to shop elsewhere? For those so squeezed for time that the idea of comparison shopping or making it yourself is laughable? For those who can't shop the Internet because they have no computer or credit card? What if a worker lives in a place so economically depressed s/he has a choice between a job at Walmart, welfare or begging?

Lots of people hate Wal-Mart with the fire of a thousand suns but have little choice but to deal with them. Progressives need to have some kind of plan that those people can take advantage of. "Boycott Wal-Mart!" just doesn't cut it for many.

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nope. sick of it. fed up. looking for jobs outside the country... tres far away. (there's no money in private tutoring anyways. I know a woman who didn't notice that her kids were barely literate until they hit junior high. She seriously never noticed and only cared when she found they couldn't move up, gradewise, anymore. At that point, she asked me, a social aquaintence, to homeschool them for her. She talked a lot of what she wanted me to teach them--never mentioned real compensation. That's what it is around here. to many, teachers are clean up crews: bus boys.

Similarly, i WAS friends with a polish girl, an illegal alian named issabella. When i helped her with her homework, she demanded i DO the writing for her, just as the house wife above demanded that i take over the care of her kids. She's just YUCK, anyways, but i learned from that People don't want to learn to write, they want things written. People won't pay for tutoring, they'll manipulate and then get pist when i assert my need not to be their "teacher on call."

Of course, these are all worst case scenarios, but i seem to attract those. HEHE. I should mention that issabelle the polish girl is the same one who tried to prostitute herself in my apartment to my poetry mentor from the university. that type of thing is why i'm sick of So Cal. Ps.Jingoist, you write well.. .want Issabelles addy? I'm sure she's to be "had" by all at some price or another. Yick to her pleeeze.

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...that Target and Wal-Mart are both quite "red" in terms of how they gave to political candidates last election cycle. I was hoping Target would be a better alternative than Wal-Hell, but no such luck... except that Target has better stuff. [okay, ducking and running now]

Target Info

Wal-Mart Info

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Those who express skepticism about the power of a documentary to effect change need to keep this quote in mind:

"Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it." –Gandhi

In our Burger King society we want instant gratification with all our desires satisfied in 15 minutes and wrapped in plastic. Well, it doesn't work that way.

It took nearly 100 year for women to get the vote, hundreds of years to end slavery and Jim Crow, 10 years to build up the anti-war movement against the Vietnam war, etc. (Did Nelson Mandela ever quit while he sat locked in a hell hole for 27years and then became president of the country?)

If people had stopped working on those issues change wouldn't have taken place.

For those who doubt our ability to effect change, consider THIS:

Tuesday's 2-to-1 vote against a Wal-Mart supercenter in Inglewood CA "has broad implications for the expansion of Wal-Mart across the country." Wal-Mart spent more than $1 million on PR for the referendum, compared to the opposition's $150,000.

AND THIS:

The mega-store is fighting a new bill in Minnesota which would create "a public list of companies whose workers are enrolled in MinnesotaCare and other government-funded health care programs." Last year, Minnesota spent $270.2 million on MinnesotaCare, the state program for people without access to affordable health care. This led lawmakers to wonder which corporations have the most workers enrolled in the state-funded program: "If it's true what people say, that big multinational companies are outsourcing health care to taxpayers, then it would be good to have a handle on which ones," said state Rep. Sheldon Johnson. Other states recently have exposed the Wal-Mart drain: Wisconsin last week reported Wal-Mart employees "topped the list of BadgerCare recipients, a state health care program for low-income residents."

AND THIS:

Maryland lawmakers have passed "legislation that would effectively require Wal-Mart to boost spending on health care ... or put the money directly into the state's health program for the poor.

It takes time to build a movement for change. Persistance, movement building and keeping your eye on the prize is how progress is made over time.

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(see, i just got a new computer and haven't become used to the buttons and buzzers and bells, etc. SO, i accidentally posted this "i know a tramp who will have sex with you for the price of a paper" stiff as a "new post" instead of a "response" to JINGOist's suggestion to my whine post that i start a tutoring business. I have a brand new computer and i'm still getting ued to the buttons and buzzers etc. ) I'll try to tie it all in to the appropriate WAL-MART discussion, though..
just give me some elbow room... here goes:


I"m not going out there to start my own business. I hate business, esp WAL-MART. That's why i'm sooo disturbed by my experiences with ESL clientele.
cause Isabell's WAL-MART-- a predator with beady little brown eyes and a greedy fat face with a former mouthful of rotting black teeth (wormy gums, man. really) until she dated (!) an elderly married polish american dentist and extorted veneers, rent, a motor scooter, and lump sums of money from him or she said, she'd tell his wife.

Jingoist, issabelle Issy IS WAL MART, ...claiming, like the Waltons, that she just wants to pursue her own distorted version of the "american dream" by using and exploiting people who just want to live their lives> And when she's done with one, she climbs up to the next one, using people up and them kicking them, penniless, to the ground when they have nothing left, monetarily and emotionally. I know all this because she told me, bragging and actually laughing mockingly about the dentist that she called pathetic.... And she NEVER STOPS... never. even if you have to get tough... she laughs that maniacle laugh and then calls your mother, your husband, your little brother... probably on your cell phone or on your e-mail.....and it goes on and on and one..... (it's all because her brain is like oatmeal--but like a child, she wants more and more and more, no matter who gets hurt)

SO NO NO NO JINGOIST (or any schmuck that would)--nevermind! NO WAL-MART. JUST STAY IN SCHOOL AND SHOP AT TARGET.

(and don't write papers or exchange tutoring for sex) You should buy your shoes elsewhere. Wal Mart is playing victim when they are actually the evil predatory exploiters.
(see how i tied that all in so nicely.... it's all about WAL-MART NOW... and why it all makes us CRAZY, in personification, no less. i impress myself. :)

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A dear friend has a very successful company which makes toys that sell at Target and ToysRUs, as well as at specialty shops. She has horror stories about WalMart trying to lowball them on price. The WalMart model works like this: WalMart sells the product rediculously low, and other stores have to follow to compete with WalMart. This undercuts the manufacturer, who then has to farm out work to cheaper places (if possible). In this case, my friend chose not to have her products sold at WalMart; simply, it would cheapen the image of the product as well as potentially damaging profitability. Fortunately, the word on walmart is getting out. In Washington, where I live, the state will not reimburse for purchases made at Walmart, not will they award them with contracts of any kind.

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Notice to Wal Mart employees - UNIONIZE!!!

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I have never shopped at a WM and have never had to. It's not that I do it on purpose. Every time I "needed" to buy something I always found a better deal somewhere else after doing some research on it. When I needed a new lawn mower I found a better deal at Sears. When I needed a new VCR a found just as good a deal at Circuit City.

This has always been the case whenever my wife and I shop for something. We spend some time reasearching it. It's very easy with th internet. We search for reviews, check quality, etc. And in the end we always find what we need somewhere else besides WM. And again, it's not because we are avoiding them, it's because you can get better deals or deals that are just as good somewhere else.

So why do you shop there?

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I have personally boycotted Target, as I feel that their treatment of my son as an employee was unfair. This boycott has no economic impact, but honors my own sense of justice and duty.
My son was employed at Target as a 16-year-old high school sophomore, and assigned to work at the Starbuck's counter. He was so excited to have gotten a job there, he planned to work at Target for many years on a part-time basis. Several weeks later, this came to a crashing end.

My son received little supervision (the manager was rarely there), but he was conscientious, worked hard, and followed established procedures. He never got anything less than a positive feedback on his work and was assigned more hours than he could fulfill.

The staff poured themselves coffees at break times, which is permitted at other Starbucks, but not at the Target Starbucks. I do NOT condone this, but he was never told he was doing anything wrong until the day he was fired. The situation was allowed to continue until one day a security guy confronted my son and several others with their crimes. The security guy made my son cash his final paycheck and pay him some $240 in cash, ostensibly to reimburse the store for "stolen" merchandise. If my son didn't pay, the security guy said he would call the police and charge him with a felony. My son was terrified, and gave the guy the money, but was not given any receipt, nor any other documentation. He was never allowed to call anyone.

I learned that other employees were being "shaken down" in this way. I tried to contact someone in Target managment, but could never get past the local personnel manager. I could never get anyone else in the system to talk to me. I even tried calling the Minnesota headquarters.

Allowing someone to continue to break a "law" constitutes "entrapment", which is prohibited in conventional law enforcement. How many other principles of justice were violated? Yet Target maintains its own "justice" system, and does not feel compelled to honor legal principles long established in US law. They follow "The Golden Rule" (He who has the gold makes the rules.) It gave my son a valuable introduction to how powerless an individual can be in the face of a large corporation.

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I'd like to quickly respond to Helenwheels pesimistic comment about the lack of an effect Greenwald's documentary will have. It is precisely that immediate, "I know human nature" kind of reaction that is contributing to the lack of unity in our progressive party. What is Helenwheels going to do to help Greenwald's documentary become more effective? Is she going to show it or offer it to others, spread the word, organize an effort with others in her town to minimize use of Walmart?
Of course, a documentary simply by itself does not lead to immediate, ground-breaking change. It's what you and others joining together choose to DO with that information.
I think it's funny how unified Republicans and neocons become when some new story or event supports one of their "causes."
Why don't we try supporting the efforts of others who are working to promote our causes (Greenwald's cause being that he is promoting truth and awareness!) Why don't we start joining together right now to think about what WE can do to build momentum needed for change.

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I didn't notice any mention of Wal-Mart's practice of hiring elderly people as part-time "greeters" and taking out huge life insurance policies on them - payable to itself! If you heavily insure 10 eighty-year-olds, it's a safe bet that you'll hit the jackpot within a year.

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As an employee of Target I do not have one complaint. My store has made my work schedule very light to accomedate to my high-school schedule, and internship. I have no complaints on how much I am paid, since everyone's raise is based on performance. Even though I am still a minor I still recieved a benefit's package. I love all of my bosses and coworkers. I do not only have fun while I am working, but I look forward to work.
From
One of Target's jewelry speacialists

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As an employee of Target I do not have one complaint. My store has made my work schedule very light to accomedate to my high-school schedule, and internship. I have no complaints on how much I am paid, since everyone's raise is based on performance. Even though I am still a minor I still recieved a benefit's package. I love all of my bosses and coworkers. I do not only have fun while I am working, but I look forward to work.
From
One of Target's jewelry speacialists

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