Come on, y'all.... I didn’t say ALL Wal-Mart customers fit that profile and certainly didn’t intend to indicate that, especially since I said I do shop there myself. Heck, I’ve even been on a three day bender before, but was too tired to leave the house.
It’s my perception that Wal-Marts attract a less than stellar element of society, perhaps it's due to the quick decline of the quality in surrounding neighborhoods and their property value, the increase in crime and just the casual observances of the parking lot and the customers. Maybe it's only the case in Mississippi and Florida where I've lived, but I think it's more prevalent than that.
In Orlando, the local police blotter indicates that the crime rate in a 5-square-mile area of MetroWest jumped more than 70 percent in the first year after Wal-Mart's arrival in August 2001. Traffic accidents rose 31 percent, property crimes 110 percent, robberies 231 percent and car thefts 56 percent, according to the Orlando Police Department. [Orlando Sentinel, January 27, 2003]
One study analzyed 32 Wal-Mart Stores and 32 Target Stores within 10 miles of each other. The average police incidents in 2004 for each of the Wal-Mart Stores was 770. The average police incidents for the Target Stores during the same period – 170. Crime at Wal-Mart Stores is 353% higher than that of Target Stores. Furthermore, the rate of “serious or violent” crimes at Wal-Mart stores is 6 times the rate of those at Target Stores. I won’t even go into the economic impact this has on the community, police departments and tax payers.
Wal-Mart Crime Report
You can go here to see how much crime there is at your local Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart Crime
The Wal-Marts that are most successful are generally located in rural and small towns where they have run off any serious competition and there isn’t any other choice for consumers. I know when I go home to Mississippi to visit, we always have to go to Wal-Mart if for no other reason than to see folks because that’s the only place left to shop, so that’s where everyone is. They are also more successful in MSA’s where income levels are lower than the national average. In more urban, larger areas where Target and other stores provide viable competition, they aren’t near as profitable.
Even most of the “name brand” things they sell are cheaper/less quality made knock-offs made especially for Wal-Mart. These are things the manufacturer would never sell in a more reputable store or one that prides itself on selling quality products.
LOW PRICES OR FRAUD?
Furthermore, they aren’t really the low price leader that many people think they are. It’s a perfect example of yelling the lie loud enough and long enough and folks will eventually believe it. Besides that, they frequently charge more than the price posted on the shelves, so whether folks realize it or not, they are paying as much if not more than if they had shopped elsewhere.
86.7% of the Wal-Mart stores sampled in California failed to meet the federal standard for pricing accuracy. 84.6% of the Wal-Mart stores sampled in Illinois, Michigan and Indiana failed to meet the federal standard for price accuracy.
In Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana, 6.4% of all of the items purchased for the study were priced incorrectly. In California, 8.3% of all of the items purchased for the study were priced incorrectly.
In the IL, MI, IN study the mean value of the difference between the actual price and the stated price for items overcharged was $1.33. In the CA study the mean value of the difference between the actual price and the stated price for items overcharged was $1.09.
Wal-Mart Facts
EMPLOYER CRIMES
Wal-Mart’s 2006 Annual Report reported that the company faced 57 wage and hour lawsuits. Major lawsuits have either been won or are working their way through the legal process in states such as California, Indiana, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington. [Wal-Mart Annual Report 2006]
A Pennsylvania court, also in December 2005, approved a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. by employees in Pennsylvania who say the company pressured them to work off the clock. The class could grow to include nearly 150,000 current or former employees. [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 12, 2006 ]
The State of Connecticut, investigating Wal-Mart’s child labor practices after the federal investigation ended, found 11 more violations. In June 2005, Connecticut fined Wal-Mart Stores Inc. $3,300 over child labor violations after a state investigation found that some minors lacked proper paperwork and were operating hazardous equipment at the stores. [“Wal-Mart Is Fined for Child Labor Violations,” Bloomberg News, June 22, 2005]
TAX PAYER HAZARDS
* The estimated total amount of federal assistance for which Wal-Mart employees were eligible in 2004 was $2.5 billion. [The Hidden Price We All Pay For Wal-Mart, A Report By The Democratic Staff Of The Committee On Education And The Workforce, 2/16/04]
ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS
# In 2005, Wal-Mart reached a $1.15 million settlement with the State of Connecticut for allowing improperly stored pesticides and other pollutants to pollute streams. This was the largest such settlement in state history. [Hartford Courant, 8/16/05]
# In May 2004, Wal-Mart agreed to pay the largest settlement for stormwater violations in EPA history. The United States sued Wal-mart for violating the Clean Water Act in 9 states, calling for penalties of over $3.1 million and changes to Wal-Mart’s building practices. [u.S. Environmental Protection Agency, May 12, 2004, U.S. v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 2004 WL 2370700]
# In 2004, Wal-Mart was fined $765,000 for violating Florida’s petroleum storage tank laws at its automobile service centers. Wal-Mart failed to register its fuel tanks, failed to install devices that prevent overflow, did not perform monthly monitoring, lacked current technologies, and blocked state inspectors. [Associated Press, 11/18/04]
# In Georgia, Wal-Mart was fined about $150,000 in 2004 for water contamination. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2/10/05]
WAL-MART AND CHINA
If Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it would rank as China’s eighth-biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada. [China Business Weekly, 12/02/2004]
* Workers making clothing for Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China filed a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart in September 2005 claiming that they were not paid the legal minimum wage, not permitted to take holidays off and were forced to work overtime. They said their employer had withheld the first three months of all workers' pay, almost making them indentured servants because the company refused to pay the money if they quit. [New York Times, September 14, 2005]
* Workers making toys for Wal-Mart in China’s Guangdong Province reported that they would have to meet a quota of painting 8,900 toy pieces in an eight hour shift in order to earn the stated wage of $3.45 a day. If they failed to meet that quota, the factory would only pay them $1.23 for a day’s work. [China Labor Watch, December 21, 2005]
* Workers from Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Nicaragua and Swaziland brought a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart in September 2005 asserting that the company’s codes of conduct were violated in dozens of ways. They said they were often paid less than the legal minimum wage and did not receive mandated time-and-a-half for overtime, and some said they were beaten by managers and were locked in their factories. [New York Times, September 14, 2005]
WAL-MART ANTI-UNION POLICY
Wal-Mart closes down stores and departments that unionize
* Wal-Mart closed its store in Jonquierre, Quebec in April 2005 after its employees received union certification. The store became the first unionized Wal-Mart in North America when 51 percent of the employees at the store signed union cards. [Washington Post, 4/14/05]
* In December 2005, the Quebec Labour Board ordered Wal-Mart to compensate former employees of its store in Jonquiere Quebec. The Board ruled that Wal-Mart had improperly closed the store in April 2005 in reprisal against unionized workers. [Personnel Today, 12/19/05]
* In 2000, when a small meatcutting department successfully organized a union at a Wal-Mart store in Texas, Wal-Mart responded a week later by announcing the phase-out of its in-store meatcutting company-wide. [Pan Demetrakakes, "Is Wal-Mart Wrapped in Union Phobia?" Food & Packaging 76 (August 1, 2003).]
Wal-Mart has issued "A Manager's Toolbox to Remaining Union Free,"
* This toolbox provides managers with lists of warning signs that workers might be organizing, including "frequent meetings at associates' homes" and "associates who are never seen together start talking or associating with each other." The "Toolbox" gives managers a hotline to call so that company specialists can respond rapidly and head off any attempt by employees to organize. [Wal-Mart, A Manager’s Toolbox to Remaining Union Free at 20-21]
Wal-Mart is committed to an anti-union policy
* In the last few years, well over 100 unfair labor practice charges have been filed against Wal-Mart throughout the country, with 43 charges filed in 2002 alone.
* Since 1995, the U.S. government has been forced to issue at least 60 complaints against Wal-Mart at the National Labor Relations Board. [international Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Internationally Recognised Core Labour Standards in the United States: Report for the WTO General Council Review of the Trade Policies of the United States (Geneva, January 14-16, 2004)]
* Wal-Mart’s labor law violations range from illegally firing workers who attempt to organize a union to unlawful surveillance, threats, and intimidation of employees who dare to speak out. [“Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart," A Report by the Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, 2/16/04]
Wal-Mart & Undocumented Immigrants
In 2003, federal authorities arrested 250 undocumented immigrants who were employed by janitor contracting services and hired by Wal-Mart in 21 states. Many of the janitors - from Mexico, Russia, Mongolia, Poland and a host of other nations - worked seven days or nights a week without overtime pay or injury compensation. Those who worked nights were often locked in the store until the morning. [Wall Street Journal, 11/5/05, CNN Money, “Wal-Mart pays $11m over illegal labor”, 2005]
March 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to settle federal allegations it used undocumented immigrants to clean its stores. This was the largest immigration related fine ever levied. [CNN Money, “Wal-Mart pays $11m over illegal labor”, 2005 and Wall Street Journal, 11/5/05]
In October 2005, Wal-Mart shut down work on seven stores under construction in North Dakota to check for undocumented workers after two illegal immigrants working on Wal-Mart projects in Bismarck were charged with molesting two 13-year-old girls. [Associated Press, 11/18/05]
Source of the above information: Wal-Mart Facts
