December 3, 2004

• Wal-mart, the last Evil Empire

  Throughout history, many great empires have come and gone, most of
  them, arguably, having committed such atrocities in the process as to
  be rightfully considered evil.  Most recently, the Soviet Union
  went down the tubes.  Germany and Japan did their best slightly
  less recently; that’s why we fought the War to End All Wars–excuse me,
  the Second War to End All wars.  Great Britain had a good run;
  even little Holland and Belgium had their day.  Rome, too, and
  Greece even did so well, a movie about it has recently been
  released.  That leaves Wal-mart, that great bloated stinking Jabba
  the Hutt of global merchandising.

  Wal-mart did not get to be the greatest retailer on the face of the
  earth by offering quality, value or service–they offer low prices.
  Period.  And they do that, they amassed the great Walton family
  fortune in the old-fashioned, piratical way–they steal.  They
  steal from pretty much everyone they can.  And for the most part,
  they get away with it.

   In a sense, they steal from third-world nations by putting
  pressure on their overseas suppliers to make their workers produce
  more and more for less and less,  always on wages that are a mere
  fraction of poverty-level wages.  In a similar sense, they steal
  from wholesalers by pressuring them to give them better-than-usual
  deals–not long ago, you could buy a certain multi-tool from Wal-mart
  for less than I could get  the same thing for resale from one of
  my wholesalers.  This is not illegal; it should be.  Wal-mart
  routinely ignores and/or violates Fair Trade agreements, which is why
  you will never find a Spyderco knife for sale there–Spyderco got
  tired of their unethical bullshit. 

  They steal from their own employees, in a very literal sense. 
  They steal from the mid-level managers by forcing them to work overtime
  for no compensation whatever.  More astonishing, they steal from
  their lower-level employes by going into the computerized hour records
  and changing them, so that some workers work for, say, 50 hours a
  week and only get paid for 45 or so.  The most amazing thing about
  this heinous atrocity is that the bastads admitted it.  A  PR
  type for Wal-mart said “In an organization of this size, that sort of
  thing is inevitable.”  That is an exact quote.  Is America so
  totally corrupt that big business ROUTINELY, INEVITABLY steals from
  it’s own workers?  My god, I hope not. This sort of corporate
  arrogance should not go unpunished.

  Here is another way they steal from their employees.  It used
  to be, you got health care coverage as soon as you started 
  work.  Not now, not Wal-mart.  At Wal-mart, you have to work
  there for six months before you get coverage, if you manage to get any
  at all.  Many employees can’t stand working there and don’t last
  six months.  Wal-mart doesn’t care.  There are always plenty
  of minimum-wage slaves–thanks to the Bush administration’s
  policies–to replace the ones who leave.  The rest of big business
  is watchng this, and if Wal-mart gets away with it, screwing staff out
  of six month’s worth of health care coverage will become the industry
  norm.

  In another sense, they steal from their female workers by
  discriminating against them.  Right now, the biggest class action
  lawsuit in history is going on against Wal-mart on this matter. 
  And speaking of lawsuits, I recently read that every working day, every
  day of the year, THREE NEW lawsuits are being filed against Wal-mart.

  They steal from competitors by offering loss leaders to steal
  customers.  On Kodiak Island recently, a new Wal-mart went into
  business.  It was not long before they started to drive the local
  retailers out of business.  People who once owned their own
  business are now eating dirt and working for Wal-mart.  At least
  they are upfront about it–a Wal-mart biggie was quoted recently as
  saying that their corporate goal is to drive as many other businesses
  out of the marketplace as possible, in as many countries as
  possible.  This is greed and rapacity on a scale once unimaginable.

  Now I am not making any of this up.  All the facts above cited
  have been documented in that notorious radical rag, The New York Times.
  (Except for the KodiaK Island thing, which was reported locally.) 
  What can we do about it?  Boycott the bastards, for one
  thing.  If you can offord to pay, say, an extra 20 cents a pound
  for catfood, buy it somewhere else.  Instead of supporting their
  international clothing sweatshops, pay a lot less and get more value by
  purchasing name-brand clothing at thrift shops.

  And if you are prone to vandalism, shoplifting, or any sort of
  computer-driven mischief, now I offer you a target worthy of your best
  efforts.  Hit Wal-mart.  Ht them high, hit them low, hit them
  hard and hit them often.  You will be fighting on the side of the
  angels.

   

  PS–This morning, I held my nose and went shopping there–I frankly
  can’t afford to boycott the bastards.  I got there as they were
  opening, and the staff was having this weird, Lord of the Flys-like
  ritual–”Gimme a W, etc.”  It was really creepy.

  Oh, and there was this prominent poster near the front doors,
  crowing about the money they put into local communities. This is
  another lie, and a damned lie at that. Study after study has shown that communities lose money
  when a Wal-mart invades the area.

  One final note–at a recent holiday show, a man came by wearing a
  t-shirt that said “US Public LAw something gives Wal-mart employees the
  right to unionize.”  I admired it, and he told me he used to work
  at the local Wal-mart.  He wore the t-shirt to work.  They
  fired him.

  • 3:19 pm
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