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The Truth About Wal-Mart..

I can firsthand ASSURE you Wal-Mart is not a very nice place. Wal-Mart gives its employees benefits in which premiums continue to rise and care decreases. Why? Well, because they have a deal w/ local hospitals so that the insurance goes under a different name and when you're paying increased premiums for less care out of your paycheck every month, it goes straight back to Wal-Mart. Why? Because Wal-Mart IS their OWN insurance company. They even turn profit off of their employees.

Ever been injured at Wal-Mart? They have a group of individuals from a company they hired to call you and basically threaten you into not filing suit even when you could WIN a case. In most cases, they will bully you out of taking action. They take down everything you were wearing the day of the accident to attempt to make it your own fault. (I.E. if you had flip flops on and you slipped on a wet floor and broke your back, it's your fault and they will fight you tooth to nail over that)

It was posted earlier on this board that WalMart stores begin w/ low prices and as they gradually push out local businesses, these prices continue to rise and that this is actually a plan of Wal-Mart's. EXTREMELY true statement.

The earlier argument concerning unions.. all I can do is laugh at that statement, because any person in a management and sometimes even lower positions that even MENTIONS unions or is affiliated w/ one in any way will be fired. It's illegal for them to fire you for this, but they nit pick and find the tiniest reasons to fire you for, never telling you it's because of unions.

If you've been a Wal-Mart employee.... ever try to take a leave of absence for a severe medical reason? It's hard enough to even get the leave of absence so many employees will work while they are desperately injured or ill because they cant afford to lose their jobs. If you do get your leave of absence, if you have not returned by wal-mart's set date, your job will be made available and once you return to work, they will give you whatever position they have available *whether you'd be moving from manager to janitor does not matter*. If in 30 days, no position is available you are terminated. EVEN if you have a doctor's excuse for not being able to return to work. Legal? No, it's not legal, but what average Wal-Mart employee can afford to take a multi-billion dollar corporation to court alone? Not too many.

As for wages, your average Wal-Mart employee actually starts out above minimum wage. In our state minimum wage is $5.15, Wal-Mart starts at $6.50 here. Not a whole lot above minimum wage, but in a small town like mine, people will work for just about anything to put food on the table. The store managers however make a great deal of money.

Ever wonder why the people at Wal-Mart are so nice to you? It is because if Bentonville Arkansas *Wal-Mart's home office* were to get a complaint from you about an employee or an individual store, the employee would be fired and the store that the complaint came from would have a worse average for the quarter. What does a store's average mean in this case? Well there a few different ones, one is for sales, one is for customer service, etc. If the store beats their set mark, the manager gets a HUGE raise, and is BASICALLY paid a commission. The employees get nothing.

There's always that Wal-Mart employee that will tell you where to get a better deal.. you know why? Generally not because they actually like you, but because they realize how bad of a company Wal-Mart actually is and do it out of spite.

Wal-Mart's products coming from sweatshops is a HARSH reality. You wanna complain about people getting paid minimum wage..... how about the ones that actually MAKE the items you're purchasing that get paid about $.10 an hour? Fair? Humane? I think not. These people work for this because it is the only income that they can make in some of their countries, so walmart hops on that bandwagon and takes advantage of poor, starving people and countries.

Wonder why they will take back anything you bring them? Because they being a multi-billion dollar company saves money by cutting their losses on the item because they know you will be impressed by them taking it back and continue to shop there and possibly tell others your story.

Have you ever heard of the glass ceiling theory? Wal-Mart is a large part of this. Many female employees have joined together to file lawsuits because Wal-Mart paid them on average $.75 for every dollar a man makes. Doesn't seem like much, but lets do the math. Let's assume you are female and you and your husband both work at wal-mart in the same position. When you get paid $75.00 he will get paid $100.00, When you get paid $7,500 he will be paid $10,000. Starts to add up quick. Imagine the difference in a year's work. Fair? No, I dont believe. Any woman that would stick up for Wal-Mart ought to be ashamed of herself in my opinion.

Wal-Mart is a manipulative, evil company that unfortunately has monopolized the United States market and it doesnt look like they'll be leaving any time soon.