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Can't Wal-Mart, a Retail Behemoth, Pay More?
The New York Times ^ | May 4, 2005 | Steven Greenhouse

Posted on 05/04/2005 3:24:45 AM PDT by MississippiMasterpiece

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To: durasell
Where I live, large Northern city, that's a month's rent for a lot of people.

Understood-- 25 years ago, my BIL rented a 4th floor, coldwater, walkup flat in NYC for ??? about $450 a month-- which here at the time was far more than the mortgage payments on a mansion in the finest neighborhoods. A lot depends on where you are.

41 posted on 05/04/2005 3:58:57 AM PDT by backhoe (-30-)
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To: MississippiMasterpiece

Now how do you know this is true? Does not the NYTimes equal lying scum?


42 posted on 05/04/2005 3:59:03 AM PDT by newsgatherer
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To: Hardastarboard

"Mr. Mrkwa said. "Unfortunately, in the market we live in there just aren't many jobs available"

Exactly. If you live in a market where there are not many jobs, what makes you think that a _retailing_ position -- retailing, of all things -- is going to end up paying you well, regardless.

In a market where there are not many jobs at all.


43 posted on 05/04/2005 3:59:05 AM PDT by Sandreckoner
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To: kb2614
Are people this stupid on purpose or does it take practice??

yes they are, public skoolin made'em dat way

44 posted on 05/04/2005 3:59:33 AM PDT by sure_fine (*not one to over kill the thought process*)
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To: SittinYonder

There's a Walmart in South Boston, VA that's been hit by OSHA 3 times in the last 7 days. I wonder if Walmart is being targetted?


45 posted on 05/04/2005 4:00:12 AM PDT by Arthur Wildfire! March (<<<< Profile page streamlined, solely devoted Schiavo research)
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To: GaryMontana

GaryMontana:
It's your choice to avoid WalMart, but WalMart isn't the problem. All too often we educate our children to be lawyers (dime a dozen Geoffrey Feiger wannabes), journalists (to save the world), environmentalists (to reimpose stalinism on the world), African Studies professors (drones), etc. We don't get them ready for the real world, and real jobs. We listen to lying promises from the public education aristocracy about the future they can facilitate for our children. We want everyday products at the cheapest prices, often because that's what we can afford. We can drive wages and living standards up when we quit screwing around with our children's futures and get serious.


46 posted on 05/04/2005 4:02:11 AM PDT by RushLake (Permission from the UN...we don't need no stinking permission slip from the UN.)
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To: durasell

Well thankfully, I don't make enough where the wrong women pay attention to me. I leave that misery to the Wall Street guys. Happiness is watching one of those Masters Of The Universe types get taken by a gold digger.


47 posted on 05/04/2005 4:02:39 AM PDT by thefactor
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To: MississippiMasterpiece

My 18 yr-old son's worked at Meijer for 3 1/2 years and makes under 8.00 per hour. No matter how small the weekly check, the union makes sure it gets it's cut first.


48 posted on 05/04/2005 4:03:06 AM PDT by OldBlondBabe
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To: MississippiMasterpiece

I have yet to find some small "Mom and Pop" retail store that pays its workers $12 an hour with benefits. Wal-Mart will by and large BEAT any small retailer on wages.


49 posted on 05/04/2005 4:03:24 AM PDT by scotts8826
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To: Nataku X
"My empathy is in the negative territory. So I'll swipe an appropriate amount from the collection plate."

My wife's grandfather used to say "when they pass the plate put in a dollar and take out five", then he would laugh.


Boy, do I miss him.

50 posted on 05/04/2005 4:03:32 AM PDT by G.Mason ( Because Free Republic obviously needed another opinionated big mouth ... Proud NRA member)
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To: MississippiMasterpiece
Jason Mrkwa, who stocks food at a Wal-Mart in Kansas, says he cannot afford more than an old Dodge truck.

Therein lies the problem. People who stock shelves are at the bottom of the pay scale, whether it's Wal-Mart or some Mom'n'Pop store. My grandparents ran an IGA grocery store for years, and the shelf stockers, and bag stuffers were high school boys.

51 posted on 05/04/2005 4:04:37 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (Don't hate me because I'm a player)
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To: thefactor

Haven't heard that phrase -- Masters of the Universe -- in awhile. Ah, memories of those carefree 1980s!

Today it's the hedge fund boys and they're smarter than the 80s versions. Happiness will be watching them get taken down by the economy...


52 posted on 05/04/2005 4:07:02 AM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: MississippiMasterpiece

GM paid such good wages and benefits that it is going broke. Surely Walmart will not be that stupid.


53 posted on 05/04/2005 4:09:24 AM PDT by kittymyrib
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To: mlc9852
Of course, people are free to not work there if they don't want to.

No, apparently not. Based on the article, it is clear that Wal Mart starts each day by rounding up people with guns to their head and herding them into the stores to work at slave wages.

54 posted on 05/04/2005 4:10:20 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (First you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women (HJ Simpson))
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To: MississippiMasterpiece
Jason is typical of many young people who refuse to continue up the education ladder.
Maybe he just doesn't understand that stocking frozen food isn't one of the Big 10 moneymakers of all time, and it probably never will be.

So...want more money?.....educate yourself, learn a trade, put out some effort instead of your hand......

Unfortunately unions, promoting their inflated "more money for less work" system are all too often ready to legitimize lame protestations like Jasons....
55 posted on 05/04/2005 4:11:05 AM PDT by yer gonna put yer eye out (Will quip for food...)
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To: MississippiMasterpiece

Ahem, did they really put this part in the article??

"Wal-Mart critics often note that corporations like Ford and G.M. led a race to the top, providing high wages and generous benefits that other companies emulated. They ask why Wal-Mart, with some $10 billion in profit on about $288 billion in revenue last year, cannot act similarly."


56 posted on 05/04/2005 4:15:30 AM PDT by ruiner
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To: BigSkyFreeper

I was reading 75% of Walmart's management are people who started as associates. Pretty good opportunity for someone who doesn't have an education.


57 posted on 05/04/2005 4:16:12 AM PDT by ran15
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To: MississippiMasterpiece
But Jason Mrkwa, 27, a high school graduate who stocks frozen food at a Wal-Mart in Independence, Kan., maintains that he is underpaid. "I make $8.53, even though every one of my evaluations has been above standard," Mr. Mrkwa (pronounced MARK-wah) said. "You can't really live on this."

If he wants more money and a new truck, etc., he could work somewhere else. People are driving trucks for Kellogg, Brown, and Root (evil Halliburton subsidiary) in Iraq for 120K per year. It's not the safest job out there, but this guy is whining about not having a good salary.

58 posted on 05/04/2005 4:17:19 AM PDT by SIDENET (Yankee Air Pirate)
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To: durasell

Harsh?
What world do you live in if the truth is harsh?


59 posted on 05/04/2005 4:21:28 AM PDT by yer gonna put yer eye out (Will quip for food...)
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To: MississippiMasterpiece
Why don't these socialists, liberals and union bosses cut the baloney and come out with their real aim......the nationalization of the retail sales industry.

That way, the workers can collect compassionate (inflated) wages directly from the government, bypassing capitalistic greedy corporation middlemen pigs.

Yep, that's the ticket.

Leni

60 posted on 05/04/2005 4:21:57 AM PDT by MinuteGal ("The Marines keep coming. We are shooting, but the Marines won't stop !" (Fallujah Terrorists)
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