Wal-Mart to Employees: Donate Food to Coworkers w/o Enough to Eat

If the irony of this problem is lost to Walmart executives then their minimum wage workforce is already lost. Good grief, they barely pay subsistence wages to their employees and they know many are on food stamps already. The Walmart solution, instead of admitting they may have a problem with their wage levels have the gall to ask other employees to shoulder the additional burden.

I'm sure that the other employees will step up in this case but it make Walmart an even lower corporate life form than they already are. I'm sure the executives won't have to worry about having enough to eat though, they never do. It seems only the working class has to worry about food now days.

Wal-Mart asks employees to donate canned goods to workers who don’t have enough to eat

Employees at an Ohio Wal-Mart store are being asked to donate canned goods to help out co-workers who don’t have enough to eat at the holidays.

“Please Donate Food Items Here, so Associates in Need Can Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner,” reads a sign near bins tucked away in an employees-only area at the Canton store.

Wal-Mart employees in Cincinnati and Dayton were scheduled to strike Monday to demand higher wages for cashiers, stock clerks and other positions at the retailing giant, which was the target of a blistering congressional report that found many employees were paid so little that they were pushed onto public assistance.

After this hit social media Walmart had this to say.

A Wal-Mart spokesman said the food drive, which was photographed and shared on social media, was proof that employees care about each other.

“It is for associates who have had some hardships come up,” said company spokesman Kory Lundberg. “Maybe their spouse lost a job.

Or maybe both spouses are working at Walmart and are barely surviving on the wages being paid, short hours and no medical benefits. No one doubts the employees care for each other. Wal-Mart's care for their own employees however is barely a matter of debate.

Blood sucking, greedy, heartless b@st@rds. They probably don't have a clue as to why this is wrong they are so blinded by their own greed.

If the Walmart execs were actually smart and truly empathetic, they would offer to match any donation made by their employees.

It seems to me that Walmart could give some food at a reduced rate to workers who are hungry. Ones that only work part time. They want their other employees to help them out when they are striving themselves. Well, I am sure Super One will give the Walmart employees a discount if they do all their shopping there.

reply to post by Bassago


Considering the Walmart family is the richest in the world whose estimated worth is around 93 billion, you would think they would have some heart and increase the salaries of their workers who are adding to their billions. It's not only Walmart, all you have to do is look at how many U.S. corporations have taken their production facilities overseas for cheap labor and higher profits.

Do they not have an employee discount like most workplaces?

reply to post by Bassago

If people really want to make things better in our economy, I suggest that a good first step would be boycotting Wal-mart until they return to purchasing a substantial amount of their products from U.S. manufacturers and start paying their employees better wages.

When Wal-mart moves into town, local business go under. The jobs that local businesses previously provided are replaced with fewer, lesser paying jobs. The money the small business owner's would have made, that would have stayed in the local economy, is funneled out to Sam Walton's hellspawn. Over 90% of the products sold in Wal-mart are manufactured overseas, the majority in China. Wal-mart is such a large buyer that they set the prices in many sectors and they're more often than not, lower than U.S. manufacturers can compete with. Meanwhile, there are less and less retail outlets for these manufacturer's products because Wal-mart has been busy putting everyone else out of business.

I've been personally boycotting for about 7 years now, since I saw Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.

That's essentially mocking them at this point. I hope those pigs choke on their money.

solongandgoodnight
Blood sucking, greedy, heartless b@st@rds. They probably don't have a clue as to why this is wrong they are so blinded by their own greed.

Look in the mirror...... the profit margins at Walmart are not obscene, in fact they are pretty low for a business. The reason they are successful is that they offer the lowest prices around. YOU, the public, have had as much of hand in determining Walmart employees pay scale as their management does. You are fueling the machine that you rail against every time you shop at Walmart as opposed to a higher cost store. You can even take it a step further, anyone who owns a mutual fund that has Walmart inside of it, is doing the same thing. Walmart is delivering what A LOT of Americans want, products at the lowest possible prices. If it wasn't Walmart, someone else would be doing the same thing and be as dominant as Walmart is. You have gotten just what you asked for.

An ironic thing is, how many of us complain about how evil Walmart is, yet still find ourselves shopping there anyway?

reply to post by theantediluvian

The money the small business owner's would have made, that would have stayed in the local economy, is funneled out to Sam Walton's hellspawn. Over 90% of the products sold in Wal-mart are manufactured overseas, the majority in China. Wal-mart is such a large buyer that they set the prices in many sectors and they're more often than not, lower than U.S. manufacturers can compete with.

Yeah it's pretty hard to argue with that assessment. On the rank scale of corporate greed Wal-Mart would probably one of the most visible poster child.

The who;e wage / manufacturing / off shoring problem is a self sustaining monster and other than a boycott like you suggest I don't know the answer.



reply to post by WeRpeons

Considering the Walmart family is the richest in the world whose estimated worth is around 93 billion, you would think they would have some heart and increase the salaries of their workers

You'd think so. Looking at their track record and the threats they used against raising minimum wage that would effect their new DC stores it looks like a long shot. Their employees would be better off buying a lotto ticket.

There is a constructive thing people could push for and I've never understood why not.

Walmart handles groceries now as much as anything, making them one of the largest produce/meat/dry goods warehousing systems in the world. That system gets *A LOT* of rejected loads, every day.

Some are legitimately bad and need trashed for cause in health concerns. (broken containers, dated produce..whatever) MOST I ever saw, were not. They were rejected for appearance or shelf appeal as often as anything else, so truckers take it to a local food bank or cut rate, junk produce shed for pennies on the dollar to just get it off the truck and insurance papers filed for those it applies to.

That's A LOT of food.

More than most would want to consider, come in 5-10 case amounts up to a couple dozen ..and as often as not in small amounts like that, find their way into dumpsters rather than the day or sometimes more in hassle it can be to return ship, say, 24 cases of Baby Formula or Kool-Aid. Small amount to truckers and shippers .... A BIG amount to normal people it could help. Receivers like Walmart could simply be required to take the product which isn't a health issue for processing back to it's own people, if putting it on a shelf isn't desirable for whatever reason.

Walmart also isn't, by far, the only national distribution and store system playing about the same games, the same way. They're just the biggest by retail exposure and impact with their brand attached. Sysco Foods runs an incredibly large network of supply, as another where rejected food could help a great many.

* It's just a thought for something which people could pressure and push for. Letters to Congressmen with a real idea like that aren't a bad thought in an election year like is coming, either. The politics of it alone could see something done.

reply to post by theantediluvian


Who can afford to boycott Walmart? Even a one or two day boycott will not work because people will return there on the third day to get what they need.

reply to post by superman2012

I try to shop there as little as possible, but sometimes I give in. Diapers- cheapest at Walmart. But I am weaning myself off a bit more each week. I know I make no difference to them, but I feel better when I don't walk in their stores!

I don't like Walmart. Period. For starters, I'm a union guy...
But I think this is being spun in an unfair way. Everything else aside, I see a gesture that would permit employees to help out some of their fellows who have really got it tough this time of the year.

But I like the suggestion of Walmart matching donations.

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck


Why don't other unions chip in and help? It might help the unionization of Walmart!

reply to post by Bassago


Better idea Walmart, why don't you pay your employees a living wage, effin jerkoffs

MystikMushroom
An ironic thing is, how many of us complain about how evil Walmart is, yet still find ourselves shopping there anyway?

It's like heroin, you know it's bad, but...
(note, I do not use heroin)

superman2012
reply to post by JohnnyCanuck

 

Why don't other unions chip in and help?

It might help the unionization of Walmart!

Walmarts that organise have a nasty habit of being closed. I do my bulk shopping at Costco, and my day-to-day at a unionised grocery. All at good prices, I might add.

I've got to agree the food drive was a nice gesture turned on its ear by folks with an agenda.

That said Wal Mart is not a company I like, its bad ethics permeate from the top down. Sam Walton I think would be very disappointed with the current day company.

Made in the USA at one time was an upfront marketing strategy as well as associates being part of the family as it were.

Now his progeny have turned it into China Mart and associates are but things to be used.

The problem here along with fast food and others who pay minimum wage along with part time is that Americans keep buying from these places and by default supporting their business habits.

Because of price point shopping

I'd recommend going to a locally owned store or restaurant even if it costs a couple dollars more your money stays somewhat local and helps provide an alternative.

wrabbits suggestion has much merit as I also can attest from family trucking hauling produce and reefer loads just how much ends up wasted.

In the end big picture the fed has to stop inflating the money, at just the reported 2% rate you lose 50% of buying power when its compounded in a ten year period. The real inflation rate in practical goods bought by the consumer is much higher and a doubling of loss in buying power is more likely.

Stability was mandate of the fed as chartered.

Does not matter if minimum wage earner or middle class - no ones wages are climbing fast enough to meet what's inflated by monetary policy.

Raising wages without stopping the inflation only adds fuel to the fire as corporations would raise prices to cover costs making for another round of inflation putting wage earners right back where they are now.