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.
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