WalMart is Pure Evil

Site Feed is Changing

2008-11-14T23:12:00.001-08:00

I guess I've gotten tired enough of having my rss feeds crossed and every post going up here on WIPE funneling through my regular blog, Intellectual Poison.

The site feed will be changing shortly.

Sorry if this munges things up on your end, it isn't intentional.

Wal-Mart Exhibits Meta-Stupidity

2008-11-14T22:38:00.000-08:00

Techdirt: Wal-Mart Now Going After Search Engines For Linking To Sites With Black Friday Ads

Note, this isn't sites posting Black Friday ads, these are sites that link to sites that post Black Friday ads. Nevermind the fact that Wal-Mart needs every bit of help it can get in this holiday season that promises to be one of the worst in recent years.

I say, fine. Just don't go to friggin' Wal-Mart and don't spend any of your money there. But I'm sure they are trying to figure out a way to sue people who don't shop there.

All Hail Costco

2008-10-31T10:15:00.003-07:00

The Motley Fool has an interesting article, All Hail CostCo that details some of the sharp differences between Wal-Mart and CostCo.

# CEO Jim Sinegal earns a mere $350,000 per year, with a bonus of as much as $200,000 (and possibly some stock). He aims to earn no more than three or four times what his highest-paid store managers earn. "Having an individual who is making 100 or 200 or 300 times more than the average person working on the floor is wrong," Sinegal has said.
# Costco pays its employees relatively lavishly. Workers reportedly start at $10 or more per hour, considerably more than elsewhere, where minimum wage is the usual starting point. According to a 2008 SmartMoney article, average pay topped $18 an hour, fully 68% more than employees earned at Wal-Mart's (NYSE: WMT) Sam's Club, and more than BJ's Wholesale (NYSE: BJ) employees earn, too. Roughly 85% of Costco's employees had health insurance last year (at fairly cheap rates), versus only about half at Wal-Mart and Target (NYSE: TGT). All this leads to low turnover, saving the company money on recruiting and training new employees, and helping Sinegal argue that it's simply a rational business practice.

How much did the Wal-Mart CEO take home last year? How many hundreds of times was that above the floor level grunt?

I shop at CostCo because the prices are good, the stores are well cared for, the employees are well cared for and it is a company I can feel good about supporting. How many of you shopping at Wallyworld can say the same thing?

Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Lawsuits

2008-10-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

Wal-Mart Threatens Sites Over Black Friday Ad Deals before those sites have even posted any ads.

That's right, folks. Wally world is now pre-emptively lashing out with its cadre of lawyers and paralegals who gleefully send off threatening letters without a shred of legal merit to them. Why? Because they know ordinary folks, you know, ones without a billion dollars in the bank, can't afford to fight legal actions.

But nevermind the fact that Wal-Mart has been told that they can't do it, they do it anyway. Nevermind the fact that Wal-Mart doesn't own pricing data nor is it copyrightable. Wal-Mart does not care. They only care about getting their slimy hands on every last dime they can.

Don't worry, Wally, your Black Friday ad secrets are safe with me. I wouldn't look at them, let alone publish them online to help drive shoppers to your stores.

Residents battling Wal-Mart win round

2008-10-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

Residents battling Wal-Mart win round by collecting petition signatures and packing the public meetings. The citizens wanted the evaluations of the area's needs to be performed by people selected by city hall rather than the developers.

The issue isn't whether they want a Wal-Mart but whether they want any big box retailers. And they are taking the controls to decide for themselves rather than hoping Wal-Mart will be merciful when they decide to inflict themselves on the town.

"We got exactly what we wanted," resident Peter Meisenheimer said. "This will set a precedent on how the city will deal with (land that can be developed)."

Smart Centres [which builds big-box malls often anchored by Wal-Mart] says other developers won't invest in London if city hall takes over the process midstream.

"It puts many developers in a not-very-happy position," said Peter Nikolakakos of Smart Centres.

And that's just fine by me. I'm all for towns taking back control over development and just saying no to huge box stores that take money out of the local economy and send it to China forever.

Wal-Mart and the Capricious Return Policy

2008-10-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

Walmart: Walmart Refuses To Take Back Air Mattress, Makes Up New Return Policy On The Spot and blames the federal government for a 15 day air mattress return policy based on bed bug infestation. Which was made up on the spot.

The company doesn't care about being fair or honorable, they care about making every last red cent they can, about bleeding people dry and then they'd probably even accept post-dated checks to get your future money too.

You can learn alot about a company by how they treat their employees, how they treat returns and how they treat the localities in which they exist. Wal-Mart fails everytime because Wal-Mart doesn't give a damn about anything but themselves.

Wal-Mart Sells Knockoffs

2008-10-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

Walmart Unwittingly Sells iPod Nano Knockoff as Actual iPod and didn't seem to give a damn when a concerned customer explained to them the differences between an Apple branded iPod Nano and the piece of shit knockoff (I can say this because I have actually tried to help a kid who had one of these things and it was utter crap, I felt bad for the kid).

Wal-Mart doesn't care what they sell just so long as they get their greedy little hands on every last dollar in your wallet or available credit on your account. They'll even sell you a fake iPod Nano and call it real (and probably charge you the full Apple price for the faker while they're at it).

Billionaire Walton Gives Whopping $75k to Anti-Lottery Campaign

2008-10-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

Arkansas News Bureau - Billionaire Jim Walton gives $75,000 to anti-lottery campaign which is to say, he reached into his pocket, pulled out some change and tossed it into the bowl.

Let's be clear, to you and me $75k is alot of money. Okay, to me its a lot of money.

To a billionaire, its almost nothing. Look at it this way. If I make $50k a year and I were to donate the same percentage of my income as Jim Walton gave (for the sake of argument let's consider his fortune at an even billion dollars) then I would be donating an amazingly unimpressive $3.75.

The numbers get much worse if his true wealth is used and not just the handy (and round) 1,000,000,000 number (that's an awful lot of zeroes).

So yeah, what an open and giving guy.

Yet Another Reason Why Wal-Mart Sucks Goat Nuts

2008-09-29T14:07:00.003-07:00

Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection if you "bought" it from Wal-Mart.

Which is to say, you didn't buy anything, you rented that music and are about to lose it because Wal-mart decided to.

What does this do to people who wanted to legitimately buy their music? Screws them over. What does this do to people that downloaded music illegally? Not a thing.

Nice work, Wally. Next are you going to demand a quarter from shoppers to keep the lights turned on while they're in your store?

I expect lawsuits over this shutting down of the servers and I expect Wal-Mart to lose, again.

An Excellent Wal-Mart Labor Synopsis

2008-09-16T00:04:00.004-07:00

If you still want to try and defend Wal-Mart, then maybe give a read of Wal-Mart's Labor Problem and think about it.

With the exception of a billion where it should say million (the article states each individual store is worth $204 billion but that's just a little outrageous), the article does a pretty thorough job of exposing just how much Wal-Mart sucks.

From income discrepancies to violations of Fair Labor Standards Act to The Family Medical Leave Act violations to union busting to deplorable health care coverage to discrimination. Its all there with references.

Read it and draw your own conclusions.

How Do You Retain Employee Money? Pay Them With Gift Cards

2008-09-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

Mexican Court Rules Against Wal-Mart for paying a worker in store cards usable only at Wal-Mart.

Which means, of course, that he was paying retail on goods that Wal-Mart got at their strongarm wholesale prices.

Oddly enough, the lawsuit only aids the worker who brought the suit and Walmex (Mexican Wal-Mart) isn't required to stop using the cards with other employees. I hope every single last one of the other employees sues and wins, as they should.

This is the same as company towns that paid workers in money only good at the company store. And that's a solid way to create your own indentured servants. Heck, if Wal-Mex could, they'd probably house their employees and keep every last cent (or peso) they were paid.

Boo, Wal-Mex, Boo Wal-Mart. It is time to join the 21st century and treat your employees with respect and dignity, not BS store cards.

Wal-Mart Fires Woman with Epilepsy

2008-09-14T18:58:00.001-07:00

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission files suit against Wal-Mart for firing a greeter who was having an epileptic seizure and was swearing in a back room.

Nice compassion, Wally.

Wal-Mart Tries to Fix Elections as Well as Prices

2008-08-05T08:18:00.002-07:00

My friend Jack over at What Would Jack Do has a piece up about allegations of Wal-Mart attempting to coerce its employees to vote for John McCain in the upcoming election because Barack Obama supports legislation that will make it easier for the employees to unionize and force Wal-Mart to pay better wages, provide better benefits and not be so damned capricious in their practices.

I'm running on short on time but Jack eloquently shreds the philosophy of the largest corporation in the history of the universe. Give it a read.

Tags: Wal-Mart, WalMart, coercion, election, unionization

Another Day, Another Lawsuit

2008-08-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

MPR: Minn. judge rules against Wal-Mart on work breaks

When Wal-Mart breaks the law, they break it bigtime.

A judge has ruled against Wal-Mart in a class-action lawsuit, saying the discount retailer violated state labor laws 2 million times by cutting worker break time and "willfully" allowing employees to work off the clock.

Wal-Mart vs. CostCo

2008-07-01T08:08:00.002-07:00

Slate's article, Wage against the Machine details the case of Wal-Mart's employment practices against CostCo's.

It's not hard to make a case that Costco pays employees more. The most relevant comparison is between Costco and Sam's Club, Wal-Mart's membership warehouse, since both business models rely on membership fees for a large percentage of revenues. A Sam's Club employee starts at $10 and makes $12.50 after four and a half years. A new Costco employee, at $11 an hour, doesn't start out much better, but after four and a half years she makes $19.50 an hour. In addition to this, she receives something called an "extra check"—a bonus of more than $2,000 every six months. A cashier at Costco, after five years, makes about $40,000 a year. Health benefits are among the best in the industry, with workers paying only about 12 percent of their premiums out-of-pocket while Wal-Mart workers pay more than 40 percent.

(emphasis is mine).

Tags: Wal-Mart, WalMart, pay, comparison

Wal-Mart Doesn't Care about Shoplifters

2008-07-01T08:03:00.002-07:00

Police say Wal-Mart snubbed efforts to cut shoplifting

Mesa police are using the equivalent of two full-time officers to answer shoplifting calls at Mesa Wal-Marts, but efforts to help the big-box retailer curtail theft have largely been pushed aside.

Thefts at Wal-Mart's seven Supercenters rose 89 percent from 2006 to 2007, police records show. Police estimate thefts will rise 117 percent this year if the January-through-May numbers continue at their current pace.

Police were called to Mesa Wal-Marts on 376 shoplifting thefts in 2007, with thieves generally targeting electronics, clothing, beauty products and alcohol.

The article goes on to describe some prescriptive measures Wal-Mart can take to help curtail the shoplifters but Wal-Mart has implemented exactly none of those suggestions. They appear to be happy to use two up two police officer positions to try and fight their internal crime.

Another example of Wal-Mart foisting costs on the locality where they are rather than doing it for themselves.

Tags: Wal-Mart, WalMart, theft, shoplifting, tag

Wal-Mart to Pay $1.60 Per Share for Adidas Copies

2008-06-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg.com: Exclusive: Adidas Poised to Win $1.60/Share on Wal-Mart Copycats

The world's second-biggest sporting-goods maker may collect at least $326 million in damages, the equivalent of $1.60 a share, if a jury agrees Wal-Mart copied Adidas's three-stripe sneakers by selling shoes with two- and four-stripe motifs as Payless did.[Note: Payless had to pay Adidas $304 million in May for infringement.]

Never let a little thing like copyright infringement stand in the way of profit taking, eh, Wal-Mart? Say goodbye to those profits.

Of course, $326 million is just a couple of days worth of revenue for the mega-giant corporation. But I would imagine shareholders are pretty damned pissed off about it nonetheless.

The fact that this is the third go-around where Wal-Mart's copied Adidas' design is a pretty good indicator of the mentality of the company and that they should pay a rather large sum in penalty.

I'm sure the Wal-Mart knockoffs just looked like Adidas and were made of crappy bottom end materials by sweatshop labor overseas, most likely in China. Heck, the shoes should probably be tested for lead.

Great news for Adidas, their brand security and future. Bad news for Wal-Mart's knock-off business model.

West Dundee, Illinois Residents Fight Against Wal-Mart

2008-06-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

Wal-Mart Supercenter opposed in West Dundee

Citing concerns about traffic, noise pollution and around-the-clock deliveries, West Dundee homeowners rallied Monday night against plans for a Wal-Mart Supercenter slated for an undeveloped 31-acre site near Spring Hill Mall.

"It's not fair, it's not right, and I do not know a single redeeming value that Wal-Mart is going to bring to our village," resident David Stokes, 59, said at the meeting.About 100 people jammed into a fire station, where the Village Board moved the meeting in anticipation of the large crowd. The seven-member board decided Monday that it will vote on the plan next week.

Why let a little thing like being unwelcome stop the retail monster that is Wal-Mart from imposing itself anywhere they choose to? Answer, they don't let it stop them, Wal-Mart doesn't care what the residents think or want. They'll keep doing what they feel is best for their stockholders.

The Wal-Mart Effect

2008-06-01T08:36:00.002-07:00

Are Wal-Mart’s Products Normal?

Quoting from Emek Basker in the article.

In this note, I estimate the income elasticity of revenue for Wal-Mart and Target over the last ten years. Because some consumers are likely to view each discounter’s products as normal while others view them as inferior, the aggregate relationship could go either way and depends on the size of the two groups as well as on the magnitude of their elasticities of demand (positive and negative).

I find that demand for Wal-Mart’s products exhibits a negative income elasticity and Target’s demand exhibits a positive income elasticity … For the average consumer, then, it appears that shopping at Target is perfectly normal, but shopping at Wal-Mart is not.

"Given Basker’s estimates, it is probably no surprise that the current slowdown is good news for Wal-Mart, but bad news for Target."

One of the commenters notes that there really aren't substantial differences in price between a Target and Wal-Mart and that one of the reasons people do go to Wal-Mart when the stores are filthy is because they perceive it is a cheaper place to shop and the prices will be lower. When the reality is that its just a filthy store with disgruntled, underpaid and overexploited employees.

Tags: Wal-Mart, WalMart, Target, elasticity, recession

Roanoke Slips Wal-Mart's Fatal Embrace

2008-05-20T16:07:00.002-07:00

No Wal-Mart for Clearbrook area of Roanoke County though the reason for the pull-out isn't clear. The lawsuit brought about by the locals was thrown out of court and they'd resigned themselves to a big, ugly 24/7 soul-sucking Super Wal-Mart blighting their landscape.

I'm glad they prevailed against the retail megalith.

Tags: Wal-Mart, WalMart, Roanoke, blight

Worst Company in America Voting

2008-05-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

Round 41: Wal-Mart vs Citibank with Wal-Mart carrying a healthy 66% of the vote.

Some of the comments are excellent indictments of the company.

"To me Wal-Mart is the epitome of everything that is bad in our country right now. Outsourcing of jobs to China. Low quality dangerous goods. Putting mom and pop stores out of business and making the entire country look like a homogenized genericana wasteland."

"Walmart is actively evil. Eviscerating middle class family stores? Evil. Workers rights violations, shoddy pay, dangerous products made for the poor, ironically made by the poor of the third world. Evil. They make a profit off of screwing people over."

Let me be clear. If you shop at Wal-Mart then you are funding China's human rights abuses. If you shop at Wal-Mart then you are condoning the homogenization of America into schlock retail crap. If you shop at Wal-Mart then YOU are part of the problem.

Unwelcome, Wal-Mart Fights On

2008-04-15T08:40:00.002-07:00

City officials say they expect the megastore to appeal a decision blocking it from building on Lady's Island which is another way of saying that Wal-Mart still plans on imposing its unwelcome presence on yet another community that recognizes Wal-Mart for the cancer it is.

Tags: Wal-Mart, WalMart, appeal, zoning

Apple passes Wal-Mart in music sales? | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

2008-04-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

Apple passes Wal-Mart in music sales? | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Still a rumor for now but its a good sign since Wal-Mart feels compelled to tell customers what they can and cannot listen to.

Retail censorship is wrong and another arrow for my quiver of reasons to never cross Wal-Mart's threshold.

The Many Reasons to Hate Wal-Mart

2008-03-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

A Stand Against Wal-Mart and, for Now, a Victory details the efforts of people in the town of Monsey, New York who have successfully thwarted the infestation of their locality with an enormous Wal-Mart. The reason the people of Monsey do not want a Wal-Mart is because they fear the influx of outside influences (lovely turn of phrase there).

There are many reasons to hate Wal-Mart. From the Walton family being tightwad billionaires to the exploitation of global supply chains to foisting healthcare costs on the neighborhoods and states to forcing employees to work overtime for free to sending massive amounts of money into China for poisoned and just badly made pre-landfill junk.

Don't limit yourself to just one, take the variety pack and hate Wal-Mart for a whole bunch of good reasons.

Japanese Wal-Mart Bleeding Money

2008-03-04T11:09:00.002-08:00

Life gets worse for Wal-Mart in Japan

The world's largest retailer did have a tough time in the big Asian market last year. The operation there said "it now expected to post a group net loss of 20.9 billion yen ($196 million) for calendar 2007, instead of its previous forecast for a loss of 10.4 billion yen, " according to Reuters. Same-store sales for the year dropped just over 1%.

Bad for Wal-Mart, bad for its shareholders but good for the universe in general.

Tags: Wal-Mart, WalMart, Japan, net loss