Walmart to the Rescue!!

[john5746]

http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/25/news/fortune500/walmart_wage/

 

Walmart CEO wants the government to increase the minimum wage. They seem to think people can't afford to shop anymore? Are they right?

[Phi for All]

Unless he redirects Culpepper's lobbying efforts to support a wage hike, this is just lip service, part of a sham effort to gain popularity with his target market. Lee Scott's employee's don't speak highly of the firm's new leadership either, and I've heard many claims of promises verbally made that went unfulfilled.

[Skye]

He doesn't need to lobby anyone to increase the amount that Walmarts associates are paid.

[john5746]

Yes, this is quite ironic that Wal-Mart, accused of paying low wages and running small businesses into the ground, are asking the government to fix it.

 

I wonder is it really a publicity stunt or do they really see people having a hard time buying food? Or do they want people to keep buying chinese imports, at the expense of small businesses?

[the tree]

If they increase thier wages then they'll loose a bit from that (duh) whilst their competetors don't. If everyone is forced to increase wages, then they can keep the playing field level.

[john5746]

Just to make sure everyone is clear. Walmart already pays higher than the minimum. They want the pay for some of their customers to be higher, not their employees.

 

Since raising the minimum wage is inflationary, they would have to eventually increase the pay of their employees also, but not in proportion to the minimum increase.

[Mokele]

I read that article as "Our customers don't have much money to spare, which means they're giving less money to us. We must find ways to ensure that people give us more money."

[ecoli]

As far as I'm concerned, raising the minimum wage hasn't caused anything except inflation. Politians use it as a political plow to the votes of the working class... most of whom don't see how this actually hurts the economy in the long run.

[Phi for All]

Yes' date=' this is quite ironic that Wal-Mart, accused of paying low wages and running small businesses into the ground, are asking the government to fix it.

 

I wonder is it really a publicity stunt or do they really see people having a hard time buying food? Or do they want people to keep buying chinese imports, at the expense of small businesses?[/quote']Small businesses fail all the time. As far as I'm concerned, a mom and pop who try to compete with a big box concept on their terms is courting failure. If you want to run a hardware store across from a Home Depot, you better have tools HD doesn't carry and associates who really know construction and are 10 times more helpful than your average HD associate. Try to compete only on price and you're dead.

 

As for the Chinese imports, the market supports their purchase, so don't blame the retailer. Personally, I buy my Chinese imports from a local Chinese shop, but that's because I want it to look Chinese. But if an American manufacturer is making cheap goods and still can't compete on price with a manufacturer who is shipping halfway around the world, maybe they should make something else, or make it differently to compete. Cutting costs by cutting corners is stupid these days.

 

If I had a company trying to sell clothing made in the USA, I would reeducate my market to expect beautiful durable clothing from us that got more comfortable as it got older, timeless designs that cost more but were an absolute pleasure to wear, something you looked forward to putting on every day. I would encourage my market to hang up the clothes after a day's wear instead of washing them (a very European concept that Americans have been conditioned to shun in order to sell more soap). My point is, there are ways to compete with big box mentality, but you have to think outside the big box.

[Bio-Hazard]

I grow my own plants, which I feed to animals and myself, afterwards I capture those fat little squirrels and eat them for dinner.

 

Bwahaha just kidding. Walmart will be killed by something we have in the Midwest called Woodman's. I think Woodman's will give Walmart deep competition. However, I can't find a way to invest in woodmans since it is employee owned.

 

I think we should have a system where college educated students w/ or w/o a degree are paid far higher than those without a normal education. Also, those who keep a high school grade average above a B should be paid higher. An egalitarian system in my mind. Or else a work quiz which challenges them.. I think that America's workforce is seriously screwed up, after hearing so many stories of store managers being incompetent of spelling things on a constant basis. I mean, the little things. Being less educated than their workers and being paid more.

 

With this system, more education = more money. Which will make people in America work harder to become educated. Sadly, the economic side of business goes with educated, poor people. AKA India.

 

Kinda funny how god works about that situation though. Nature has a mind of its own.

 

(i probably made mistakes but I'm not getting paid for posting!)

[Mokele]

The problem is that so many more people are completing college degrees these days than are needed (especially with wussy useless degrees like liberal arts and such). Too many college graduates for college-grad jobs, and the rest still need to eat, so they have to take more menial jobs. Basically, the market's been flooded and the value of the degree reduced to almost nothing except for some specialist fields (science and engineering, though those have suffered too, especially the glut of computer science people). As long as the supply of college grads outstrips the demand, grads will be forced to reduce their expectations.

 

Mokele

[Phi for All]

Here's a piece from the NY Times about an internal memo to Wal-Mart's BoD trying to cut costs by questionable hiring practices:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/business/26walmart.ready.html?th&emc=th

 

Does this sound like they're interested in helping their employees?

[john5746]

As for the Chinese imports' date=' the market supports their purchase, so don't blame the retailer. Personally, I buy my Chinese imports from a local Chinese shop, but that's because I want it to look Chinese. But if an American manufacturer is making cheap goods and still can't compete on price with a manufacturer who is shipping halfway around the world, maybe they should make something else, or make it differently to compete. Cutting costs by cutting corners is stupid these days. [/quote']

 

I agree with your assessment, small businesses need to adjust to the market. One way is to find services or goods that are not in direct competition to Wal-Mart and another way is to cut costs. I find it interesting that Wal-Mart is basically asking the government to force small businesses to pay thier employees more, so they can spend that money at Wal-Mart!

 

I think Wal-mart is seeing what most believe, that the lower and middle class are struggling, while the higher income brackets are improving. People, like the goverment are spending money they don't have, while costs are increasing. Wal-Mart can't expect them to just keep spending, they need to save more. Wal-Mart can focus on China, that's where they can grow. Increasing the minimum wage will just put more pressure on interest rates, which will probably end up hurting Wal-Mart and the rest of the economy more than the current situation.

[john5746]

Does this sound like they're interested in helping their employees?

 

No. They want to increase their share price, by increasing profits and remaining OK in the public eye.

[Phi for All]

I find it interesting that Wal-Mart is basically asking the government to force small businesses to pay thier employees more, so they can spend that money at Wal-Mart!

This is a real hoot and I meant to comment on it when you mentioned it earlier. Since minimum wage is not part of what Wal-Mart employees complain about, Wal-Mart would be completely unaffected by a wage hike.

 

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised by this tactic. It's a lot like inventing airbags for cars and then lobbying the federal government for mandatory installation of those airbags. Nice work if you can get it....

[Pangloss]

I'm glad to see that the left isn't going to be fooled by this rather brazen attempt on Wal-Mart's part to win back a little support from that side of the aisle.

 

Now if I could just get you guys to go on step farther and realize that the problem here isn't Wal-Mart, it's the concept of minimum wage.

[Phi for All]

Now if I could just get you guys to go on step farther and realize that the problem here isn't Wal-Mart, it's the concept of minimum wage.

Prithee expound, O Font of Fiscal Fecundity!

[Pangloss]

Actually I have to take part of that back. Wal-Mart will indeed by affected by an increase in mimimum wage. That's the secondary effect that ripples through the workforce whenever there are any increases in minimum wage. People making 8-9 bucks an hour demand increases commensurate with the increased minimum, otherwise what have they worked so hard for?

 

Small businesses are hurt the hardest, and of course Wal-Mart is all about killing those.

 

The whole business of minimum wage is a joke anyway. The far left won't be happy until everyone is doled out a "living wage", whether they've earned it or not, because in their view jobs are a right, not a privilege. As if money grows on trees.

 

At any rate, I'm rambling, but I think the talking points on this issue are already pretty familiar.

[john5746]

I agree on the minimum wage issue. We have too many freedoms to require govt to step in to increase someone's pay. I want more pay, but I don't expect anyone to make it happen for me, and if they did I wouldn't be as effective as an employee in the end.