Wal-Mart

I created this blog as a way to post photos of the Seligman family past to present. But I feel I have something to say tonight that not all of you will agree with and some may even take issue.

As most of my immediate family knows, I have absolutely no use for Wal-Mart. I don't think I knew exactly why that was until tonight while watching a two hour documentary. If you did not see it, you will probably think I am just babbling here. If you did see it, I hope you have tears in your eyes as do I as I write this.

I was horrified to see the thousands and thousands of people from foreign countries working in Wal-Mart factories. If indeed you can call them factories! The average wage for these workers is $.18 per hour. They work and live in conditions that mimic those of the slums in the United States. Many countries have dormitories set up for their workers so they work and live (or should I say sleep) in close proximity. These dormitories are little more than slave quarters.

These people work seven days as week 10-16 hour days and average $3.00/day USD. In one segment of the show, I listened to one of the workers who assembled toys. She made $.18 per hour and the toy she was assembling sold for $14.95 in the US Wal-Mart stores. Inspections of these facilities are known by the managers well in advance and the workers are told what to say. They are coached to say they work six days instead of the actual seven. If they do not comply they are more than aware that disciplinary action will be taken.

There is little time for socializing or just plain relaxing. Even if there were time, the little money made is used for food with a small amount sent to even less fortunate family members.

Oh, by-the-way, I almost forgot to say that if they choose not to live in the dorms, the rent for the dorm room is still subtracted from their wages. The only thing they don't have to pay is for the utilities.

So far, I have only spoken of workers in foreign countries such as China, Honduras, Brazil, Mexico... the list seems to go on and on.

Women and minorities in the United States (as well as other countries) are blatantly discriminated against. Overtime hours are not allowed, so if your time card shows any overtime at all, records are changed to reflect those hours forwarded to the next week. Workers are expected to "work off the clock" to complete tasks that could not possibly have been completed in an eight hour shift. It is made quite clear that there are hundreds of people just waiting in line to take your job. Many, many class action suits have been filed against this giant of low prices, lower wages, and few if any benefits. Wal-Mart touts that over 80% of their employees are considered full-time workers. What they neglect to tell the American public is that Wal-Mart considers 28 or more hours per week full time!

The above paragraph rings especially home to me as my daughter Tiffani worked at Wal-Mart while pregnant with her daughter Athena. I don't really know the details, but either she was fired after she started to show (at nearly 8 months and STILL doing her job) or her manager made it impossible for her to stay. Either way, she was in California with no family, no income, and baby on the way. Did Wal-Mart care? What do you think?

Did you know that Lee Scott C.E.O of Wal-Mart grossed nearly $23,000,000 in salary, bonuses, stock options and tax credits in 2007? Did you know that the Wal-Mart employees alone raised over $5,00,000 for various community efforts and to help fellow Wal-Mart employees meet the needs of their families? Wal-Mart's contribution was $6,000. Does the average American know that the surviving members of the Walton family are worth in excess of $53,000,000,000?

Somehow, I don't think this is what Sam had in mind when he opened that small store in Bentonville, Arkansas. When we lived in Bentonville, Sam was often there to great his customers, direct them to their needs and give a "helpful smile". That store was tiny in comparison to the smallest Wal-Mart today. It was often dirty and actually, I did not like going in it much even back then.

Are you aware that most every town that has a Wal-Mart paid subsidiaries to Wal-Mart for the "privilege" of having a Wal-Mart in their town at the risk of loosing small businesses? My children may remember the grocery chain stores "Esry's" in central Missouri. Red Esry opened his first store in 1970 in Cameron, MO. Soon he managed to grow to a four store chain. In 1995 Wal-Mart came to town. None of the subsidies given to Wal-Mart were made available to the Esry family. After two painful years of Wal-Mart’s unfair practices, Red was forced to close down.

I could go on and on about the lack of safety measures taken in the Wal-Mart parking lots. Even though it was proven that if security guards on golf carts were present the parking lot crime would fall to nearly zero. There are security cameras in nearly all Wal-Mart parking lots - but in very few is there actually someone watching the monitors. There have been many times more than the average of murders, rapes, car thefts, kidnappings and assaults in these lots; yet Wal-Mart does nothing except take your money inside. Maybe if the cash registers were in the parking lots?

Even the company I work for profits from Wal-Mart. It will sicken me tomorrow to do an estimate for a Wal-Mart flyer or hand-out or even just to see the Wal-Mart logo we have so proudly displayed in the halls of our small family owned company. It seems as if everyone in this country is affected in some way. I don't go into Wal-Mart, but my job is to help produce advertising for them! Ironic...

Sorry for deviating from my purpose of this blog. But hey... it's my blog and tonight I had to talk to someone.