IbPervert (imported) wrote: Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:49 pm
I have worked for Albertson's (think high end high price grocery store) and had to join the union. That Union took so much of my pay that I end up earning just pennies over min wage. So Walmart is not the only one treating employees bad. I earned so little as a Union member that I had to shop at Walmart and the 99 cent stores just to be able to work.
I have two Walmarts within three miles of my house, and if we extend it out to fifteen miles you can add in another four. With in the last three years they have all re molded to increase the amount of food carried. I do find it frustrating when I go to shop and find the shelf empty, and recently went to get some rabbit food for my mother and Walmart was out, so i had to go to Petsmart across the road and spent four times as much for a smaller amount of rabbit food.
Hear on the west coast is the Long Beach harbor, and I am told its the biggest on the west coast. About 90% of the incoming shipments are from China and most of that is for Walmart.
I do know one person at my favorite local Walmart and he has been working there since that store opened, and I do see new employees there all the time but I also see many of the same faces year after year. One guy is a check out person and I have gone through his line so many times that one time he asked to see my ID for a check I had just written and I joked, "What dont you know it by now!"
I have seen things in one of the local Walmarts, but not the others. Back when i had wheels I would drive my mother around and we would have a Walmart day and hit all the local stores. I would see alot of the same stuff, but I would also spot stuff that the others did not have or did not carry.
I am sorry about your experience. Unions do a lot to undermine themselves. We have Albertsons stores here, but I have no idea whether they are union shops. It seems that grocery stores are usually not union stores here.
TheAlbertson stores here are grimy with long checkout lines. I dont shop them because of the way the stores look and the long time it takes to purchase anything.
The profit margins in grocery sales are extremely low. Anything that gives a retail grocery a slight edge has considerable impact on costs, prices, and profits. I dont know what the margins are these days, but I recall years ago a one percent margin could generate enormous profits if the total or gross sales were large. That is why a retail grocery chain pretty much has to be one of two in its territory. You have to have enormous sales to stay in the market.
I really don't know economics and I am reaching a bit with these posts.
I dont recall what my union dues were, though in college I earned more at A & P than I would have earned at the competing store. I think that I came out ahead.
In Oregon, I again dont recall why my union dues were but the benefits we got through our union were the main draw. All of us earned above scale, considerably above scale. As I said, I earned almost as much as my wife earned as a teacher.
Back then, my medical benefits were affordable. I covered my wife with my policy and she covered me with her policy on her job. She had dental. My company did not, but we were to get it the year I left to return to Louisiana. My not having dental turned out to be expensive in Louisiana.
I have found Wal-Mart stores ugly and Sams Club even more uninviting. Sams does not have the stock that I need and, when it does have an item, it sells it in quantities that exceed what I want or need.
My former wife liked Sams Club a long time ago when they were a new item. I tried to buy film from them because I used a lot film at that time. However, my local camera shop gave me a discount that made their prices competitive and they sold me the film that I wanted. Sams Club sold whatever they had but their selection was limited. They also did not at the time process slide film. There was not much else that they sold that I used.
It was in my self interest to use the camera shop and I did use it.
I use Ford products in part because they are supposedly made in union shops and also because I like their products. However, I have bought non-uion built cars.
) be because of a certain female employee I know only by her first name (tag). She is cute as a button and there's a definite chemistry between us. Time will tell. In fact, the last time I saw her I hinted at perhaps meeting her off-premises sometime, just to chat. She was very receptive...well, so am I but I will, as always, be very cautious.