Walmart holds food drive for their OWN employees

[Toxik916]

I can't believe this


Wow words can't even describe just how f***ed up and sad this is. Try paying people better wages and shit like this won't need to happen.

[StuntGranny®]

Oh, neat. Now I have another reason to never give a dime to this horrible company.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

It does seem f***ed up, but doing SOMETHING is better than doing nothing.

[Deleted]

Eh, it's for employees that have fallen on hard times, it's not like they're saying "LOL we pay you jack shit, here have some donated canned food!"


I can't believe that I just defended Wal-Mart.

[Toxik916]

Nov 19, 2013 15:02:25 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

It does seem f***ed up, but doing SOMETHING is better than doing nothing.

Wouldn't paying their workers a better wage be better than a food drive? After reading the article again it was the employees themselves doing this for their coworkers that are having financial difficulties and that's even worse. The company just agreed to let them do this, so Walmart isn't doing anything to help out in this situation.

[Wolf Hurricane]

This thread won't end well...

My two cents before I go: I get that "something is better than nothing," but if they'd just pay their workers a living wage, this wouldn't be happening in the first place; and the whole "they won't turn a profit thing" is baloney, 'cause Costco has a much higher wage with much more job security and they aren't exactly flailing.

[Deleted]

Nov 19, 2013 14:51:04 GMT -5 StuntGranny® said:

Oh, neat. Now I have another reason to never give a dime to this horrible company.

But that means they'll cut the employee's hours and increase the wages!

[Kevin Hamilton]

Consider the possibility that say there's a family of four or five. Say dad has a fairly high-paying factory job that pays the majority of the bills, and mom just works part-time for a little extra money for the family.

Now say dad's laid off, and the bulk of the income is gone; and mom's co-workers know this, know the immediate need, and decide to help out.

That's one plausible scenario that could explain things sans the 'Evil Corporation' narrative.

Would better living wages all around be a GREAT idea? Absolutely, but without knowing details, it's quite a leap to blame it solely on that.

Say another scenario, the employee has a family member who has had a catastrophic illness or injury all of sudden, and co-workers are trying to give them a lil help out just for peace of mind as much as anything else.

Again, we have virtually no specific facts to go on, so it's easy to make conjecture that might not take major unknown factors into account.

[Sephiroth]

Wal Mart is America's favorite drug; no one likes them-EVERYONE shops there.

[HMARK Center]

Nov 19, 2013 15:35:06 GMT -5 Kevin Hamilton said:

Consider the possibility that say there's a family of four or five. Say dad has a fairly high-paying factory job that pays the majority of the bills, and mom just works part-time for a little extra money for the family.

Now say dad's laid off, and the bulk of the income is gone; and mom's co-workers know this, know the immediate need, and decide to help out.

That's one plausible scenario that could explain things sans the 'Evil Corporation' narrative.

Would better living wages all around be a GREAT idea? Absolutely, but without knowing details, it's quite a leap to blame it solely on that.

Say another scenario, the employee has a family member who has had a catastrophic illness or injury all of sudden, and co-workers are trying to give them a lil help out just for peace of mind as much as anything else.

Again, we have virtually no specific facts to go on, so it's easy to make conjecture that might not take major unknown factors into account.

Thing is, we DO know the details; if it were for those employees who have lost income from their family's primary breadwinner that'd be one thing, but this is employees trying to help one another out because they flat-out can't survive on what they make at Wal Mart.

[Kevin Hamilton]

No we don't. The story mentions them helping out someone who has had a hardship, and that's all.

[Dr. T is an alien]

Normally I am one of Wal-Mart's harshest critics, but this is a case of making a mountain out of a molehill. What if I told you that Costco, which pays twice what Wal-Mart pays (or maybe more), has a similar drive? Granted, I don't know this, but let's assume for a moment that they did. You cannot tell me that despite getting paid livable wages that some employees there don't face hard times. Would Costco be evil for having a drive for those employees?

[Kevin Hamilton]

No we don't. The story mentions them helping out someone who has had a hardship, and that's all.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Nov 19, 2013 15:37:55 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

Nov 19, 2013 15:35:06 GMT -5 Kevin Hamilton said:

Consider the possibility that say there's a family of four or five. Say dad has a fairly high-paying factory job that pays the majority of the bills, and mom just works part-time for a little extra money for the family.

Now say dad's laid off, and the bulk of the income is gone; and mom's co-workers know this, know the immediate need, and decide to help out.

That's one plausible scenario that could explain things sans the 'Evil Corporation' narrative.

Would better living wages all around be a GREAT idea? Absolutely, but without knowing details, it's quite a leap to blame it solely on that.

Say another scenario, the employee has a family member who has had a catastrophic illness or injury all of sudden, and co-workers are trying to give them a lil help out just for peace of mind as much as anything else.

Again, we have virtually no specific facts to go on, so it's easy to make conjecture that might not take major unknown factors into account.

Thing is, we DO know the details; if it were for those employees who have lost income from their family's primary breadwinner that'd be one thing, but this is employees trying to help one another out because they flat-out can't survive on what they make at Wal Mart.

Basically. Hell I want to move out of my parent's house but can't yet cause the wage I'm getting paid at my work isn't enough to live by myself on....yet(my section manager is trying to get me a raise, that should make it to where I can manage, though).

[Sephiroth]

Nov 19, 2013 15:43:23 GMT -5 Kevin Hamilton said:

No we don't. The story mentions them helping out someone who has had a hardship, and that's all.

I can get wanting to have all the facts before making a call. That said, this is Wal Mart-they do not have the best track record when it comes to actual philanthropy and treatment if their employees, so they are far from blameless in people making such assumptions. And second, what would it take for you to say " Wow, what a bunch of jerks," does a zeal Mart executive need to be caught on camera shouting down his or her employees and calling them the scum of the earth?

[Amazing Kitsune]

Not an example of evil corporation Wal-Mart. As somebody who happily worked retail--it paid me enough for what me and my family needed. I wasn't going to get wealthy doing it, but it's not specialized labor. Walmart or any other corporation doesn't owe you the perfect wage.

Most people I've worked with in retail didn't want to work, complained about their jobs, never showed up, and stole from the company. I'd say the majority did this. Pay is low because it's not really a good investment until somebody has really proven themselves.

[Sparkybob]

It's not Wal-Mart's fault for the fact that some workers don't have a true living wage. This is a a more macroeconomic issue than a micro one.

[nate5054]

Nov 19, 2013 15:37:02 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

Wal Mart is America's favorite drug; no one likes them-EVERYONE shops there.

Heh, Walmart reminds me of Nixon. He won 49 out of 50 states in 72 election, yet if you ask anyone who voted in that election nobody voted for him.

[Kevin Hamilton]

What would it take? Just some concrete facts that show this actually is simply what it's easy to have a visceral knee-jerk response to.

Look, I'm not defending any large corporation for not fairly paying their employees etc. It'd be obviously ludicrous for me to do that. I'm just saying all we really know about this one particular story based on the info that's actually on the page, is that an employee is facing some sort of hardship, and other employees are helping out.

That's all that story says. I can't personally shout down corporate evil with no more to go on than that.

They, and certainly all huge corporations have a lot of sins to answer for, paricularly in regards to wages. Again, it'd be naive and stupid of me to say otherwise; all I'm saying is, there's no real detail to say that's the case in this instance. Maybe the employee had their house burn down alla sudden..is that likely, probably not, but it could be more than just them not having enough $.

[Amazing Kitsune]

Nov 19, 2013 16:05:44 GMT -5 Kevin Hamilton said:

Maybe the employee had their house burn down alla sudden..is that likely, probably not, but it could be more than just them not having enough $.

That's highly probable, actually.

The HR at the store would not allow them to beg for money if it reflected badly on the company. It could be helping a variety of things. Somebody's home could have burned down. That happens all too often this time of year. Several people's homes could have been destroyed by a storm. There could be a lot of people at this Wal-Mart who are secondary incomes for their husbands/wives who work at another place that's been recently shut down.

If it was really something where the employees were begging for food on Thanksgiving because Walmart admits that they don't pay them well enough--well then lots of heads would roll.