The boyf and I watched Wal-Mart – The High Cost of Low Price, last night. Chilling stuff. I try to buy local when I can and believe that retail globalisation is responsible for many of society’s ills (as well as those of the environment), but some of this was truly disgusting. Never mind the abuse of workers in other countries (which was horrible), but they exploit every part of the US system to extract maximum profit from their workers and customers. Their pay structures mean many of their “associates” have to use welfare for healthcare. Ugh.
The response of Wal-Mart to the movie made a very interesting read.
As someone who has worked for them for many years.. I found out recently they put a cap on raises for those who are in the same dept for ‘too long’ – one woman had to move to another department and become a manager just to get her 20-60¢ raise each year.
Kinda cruddy – I have yet to find out what the limit is for my department.
By: Dawn/FFL on March 14, 2009
at 5:10 pm
That’s awful. No wonder you set up your web site!
By: arcticcartoons on March 15, 2009
at 9:50 pm