Customers Flee Wal-Mart Empty Shelves for Target, Costco

Yahoo News/Bloomberg ^ | 3/26/13 | Renee Dudley

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***and the help there is always courteous,***

I’ve noticed the same here in Walmart (Benton) County.

Some of the stores in BIG CITIES are rough, but so are all the other stores in the areas like Dollar General, K Mart, ect.

They are better in small towns.

We were at a Walmart in Colorado several years go when we noticed the help was extremely helpful to us. My wife could not understand why until I pointed out that her jacket had ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS on it.

They might have thought we were spies “checking up” on them. Neither one of us is employed by Walmart or SAM’S.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Nine are self-serve and at the most, only two of the remaining stations are manned by warm bodies. ***

I HATE self serve checkouts! I have had nothing but bad experiences with them! Our local WM put them in a few years back, then pulled them out. Now I see some are back again.

Now Home Depot has them and I now hate shopping there!

[Smokin' Joe]

(1)Note of a slight disagreement: tax avoidance is legal, tax evasion however is not. All income is always reportable; you are never allowed to “shield” income from taxation. But “taxable” income is determined by other factors such as netting gross income against legitimate and allowable deductible business expenses. That which is deductible as unreimbursed “Employee Business Expenses” are essentially the same as what are deductible to an independent contractor.

Whoa here. First off, I'm not an accountant or CPA, I'm a geologist on an oil rig.

I subcontract part of that work out. My subcontractors have their own company, established prior to any relationship between our two businesses, and the business to business relationship is all there has ever been.

Small (one person) consulting companies are all over the oil patch, so this is nothing unusual.

Forgive me for the apparent nomenclatural blunder, but what I meant by "shield" was that they, at their option could establish and contribute to their own company's (owner operated) LLC's SEPP.

In our age group, that contribution can be substantial (up to $50K).

The larger the contribution, the less of their LLCs income is taxable, and the reduction in tax bracket for the income which is left over after that is a force multiplier.

So I am guilty only of an unfortunate choice of words, not tax evasion.

The Government got enough out of me last year to support a welfare family in all its glory, and this year will be much the same.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***unfortunately very few of them are working the cash registers.***

Same here. I’m not afraid to yell out to some worker that “HEY! We need more checkers here! People are piling up!”

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***The WalMart in Shelton WA is backwoods Arkansas.***

HAY WATCH IT MAN! The stores in Arkansas are nice and clean. They are too close to main headquarters in Bentonville to slack. Now, I don’t know how the big city (think Little Rock and Pine Bluff)stores are.;-D

[GladesGuru]

“You have never obviously worked at a Walmart where thoughtless people let their little kids wet and do do on the floor without cleaning it up. That happens all the time. And they won’t let people in with dogs. :)”

Time for email to PeopleofWalmart.com

;-)

[Red Boots]

A lot of people try to get around labor laws with the ‘sub contractor’ situation. And for a pay by the job basis, you MIGHT get away with it. But the very first time you require them to show up at a specific time and do not allow them to leave without threat of losing money, they become employees. Many a mechanic shop has learned this the hard way. They get away with it for a time, until someone rats them out.

State unemployment insurance people frown on this and the rules are squishy enough so that you will lose under any questionable scenario. We just finished a 4 hours audit and they went over everything with a fine-toothed comb.

If they re-classify any of your subs as employees, you are in a world of trouble because then there is the not only the unemployment insurance, but the Feds are now involved because of back SS and Medicare.

It's a potential nightmare.

[SW6906]

;o)

[rockrr]

The one in Renton WA is ghetto and third world.

I had to lol at that one. You are absolutely correct - I no longer go there even armed - it's just not worth the risk.

[fatnotlazy]

Self serve is ok WHEN it works. The big problem for me is that the scanners often don't recognize valid coupons. And they often ring up the wrong price. If I have one or two items and don't have coupons, I'll do self serve. But too many items or coupons, no.

[winodog]

I am curious as to what sort of work they do?
I 1099ed myself one full year about 23 years ago.
The IRS ended that practice about the same time it got started in Vegas construction but they still allow it in Arizona.

Problem is too many of us do not pay unenjoyment, workers comp, fica, etc. IRS sent me a letter years later but went after the contractor.

[GVnana]

bump.

[MD Expat in PA]

I wasn’t accusing you personally of tax evasion, and I’m sorry you took it that way. Technically, the term you might have used and might want to use in the future as far as SEPP contributions is “tax deferment” rather than “income shielding”. Just saying : ),

I’m not a CPA either but I have over 20 years of experience in payroll and HR compliance and many years of experience in corporate accounting.

In your industry and from what you described; hiring contractors/ consultants who operate their own business is totally legitimate and perfectly legal. There is nothing wrong with a business hiring small one person business or LLC’s to perform work under an independent contractor arrangement. I have done such consulting work myself, part time while I was employed full time for another company and for a time as a 100% self employed consultant for a few years.

What I was cautioning against was those business who try to classify or re-classify employees, especially obviously hourly non-exempt employees as independent contractors either out of ignorance of the law or purposely as a way to avoid paying employment and unemployment taxes and pay overtime under FLSA. Sadly there are some unscrupulous employers who skirt the law and convince their employees that this is a beneficial arrangement when in reality, more often than not, it isn’t and the employee who is not operating a business and knows nothing about the tax implications, ends up getting screwed nine ways to Sunday.

The Government got enough out of me last year to support a welfare family in all its glory, and this year will be much the same.

You are not alone in that.

[Tea Party Terrorist]

Remember, Wal Mart was a big proponent of ObamaCare and Sam Walton Jr. donated $300K to a pro-Obama PAC in the last election.

[freekitty]

ROTFLOL

[freekitty]

I agree. I do remember watching the employees restock a while back. They had these hand held thingies which showed them what needed restocking when they held them up to the shelves. At that time; those shelves were restocked almost immediately.

[JSDude1]

I’ve heard the same thing, and I work there!

[Vermont Lt]

It would not be the first time I was wrong! Ha ha.

[MHGinTN]

Well, in my local Wally World, where I shop once every week, the store manager and two of his staff were working the registers when I checked out. I asked him how it was that he was running a register. He said that he had four on _____ (a term I didn't recognize which referred to the four calling in not coming in), and he didn't mind doing it because the rush only lasts for a few minutes and it reminded him of how he started working for Wal Mart. I must say that the store I frequent is staffed with courteous, efficient, personable, and honest folks.

[ And if there are Wally World folks reading this, the store is in Johnson City, the Browns Mill Rd store and the manager who was working the register was Keith Davidson. I know the man only through the store, but he and his people are good folks. ]

[editor-surveyor]

Target is a real loser.

You have to be out of your mind to go there.