Sam's Club Tulsa Hills

[Conan71]

That and I'm not going to spend any money at Wal-Mart (at least when I have a choice) until they start paying their employees enough that they don't have to be on welfare. All you're doing when you shop there is exchanging money paid for product for money paid in taxes.

Aside from your well-reasoned boycott, they will survive without you.  Wal-Mart apparently serves a purpose in the job market or people would not work for the wages they pay.  That's the nature with any grocery store and most big box retailers as well though.  I'm not aware of Target, Best Buy, Big Lots, Kmart, Borders, etc. paying any better wages.  Wal-Mart is an easy target because they are the largest.

I don't have so much an issue shopping at Wal-Mart Market since most goods there are necessarily produced in the states with the exception of some of the fish and produce products, but again you will find that at most every grocer.  I generally avoid Super Wal-Marts due to having to park so freaking far away, the relative filth, and not being able to find what I want and get on my way quick enough to suit me.

[nathanm]

Aside from your well-reasoned boycott, they will survive without you.  Wal-Mart apparently serves a purpose in the job market or people would not work for the wages they pay.  That's the nature with any grocery store and most big box retailers as well though.  I'm not aware of Target, Best Buy, Big Lots, Kmart, Borders, etc. paying any better wages.  Wal-Mart is an easy target because they are the largest.

I can't say about the others, but having known people who have worked at Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy, I can say with certainty that Wal-Mart pays less than the other two. They also refuse to let most of their employees work enough hours to qualify for health insurance, and they have a history of forcing employees to work off the clock.

As far as serving a purpose in the job market? It's called desperation. When there isn't another job, whether due to the bad economy or because they drove most of the other businesses in town out of business, you gotta take what you can get.

In any event, I don't really care if other people shop at Wal-Mart or not, but it's still not something I'm interested in doing.

[Conan71]

The retail business model seldom uses full time employees other than management.  They are generally considered entry level jobs or fill in as second jobs.  Same as fast food.  People know what the pay is when they hire on, and so long as the consumer side of people demands low prices, it keeps the wages depressed of those who provide the labor in the stores and restaurants.

I agree that shopping there simply encourages the demand for low end labor both on the manufacturing and retail level, but how do you suddenly modify consumer habits and tell all consumers they need to pay 1/3 more for everything they purchase just so everyone in big box retail or fast food can have a pay raise which puts them into the middle class?

[nathanm]

The retail business model seldom uses full time employees other than management.  They are generally considered entry level jobs or fill in as second jobs.  Same as fast food.  People know what the pay is when they hire on, and so long as the consumer side of people demands low prices, it keeps the wages depressed of those who provide the labor in the stores and restaurants.

I agree that shopping there simply encourages the demand for low end labor both on the manufacturing and retail level, but how do you suddenly modify consumer habits and tell all consumers they need to pay 1/3 more for everything they purchase just so everyone in big box retail or fast food can have a pay raise which puts them into the middle class?

Alls I know is that Albertson's paid their employees reasonably well and prices weren't nearly as much higher as you claim.

Also, other companies use a lot of part time labor because that's what the employees are looking for. (aside from their seasonal hiring, of course, which is all part time) A friend of mine manages a fast food restaurant. Almost everybody who wants full time gets it, so long as there are enough hours to go around. He's also got plenty of part timers, but the almost all want it that way. Works out well for him since he needs some part timers for Friday and Saturday rush and to fill in on occasion if someone calls in sick. And his company has a lower threshold to qualify for benefits than WMT does. Unless it's changed recently, WMT offers benefits if you work 40 hours a week. (for the purposes of marketing, they call 37 hour a week employees 'full time'). This particular restaurant chain offers benefits, including the accrual of paid vacation, if you work 25 hours a week or more.

[heironymouspasparagus]

It would be wonderful if you could raise a small flock of chickens in your backyard.  I want one very much.  Now if Tulsa, Broken Arrow and surroundings would just develop a little sanity about what pets one can have....

[Gaspar]

It would be wonderful if you could raise a small flock of chickens in your backyard.  I want one very much.  Now if Tulsa, Broken Arrow and surroundings would just develop a little sanity about what pets one can have....

You can in El Salvador.

[Gaspar]

I love Wal-Mart.  They used to be an account of mine.  Every buyer, every national, regional, and local manager was once a store employee.  You start low in the organization, but if you have good work ethic and drive, they will pay for education and promote you through the system.

I watched people start watering plants in the garden center and end up L&G managers, and ultimately buyers (I sold live goods, plants).  Once you worked your way up in the organization, you were set for life with incredible benefits and retirement. 

I also sold to Depot, and that is another top notch, promote from within org.  I have a good friend that I used to run track with in HS.  He went to work for Depot when I went to college.  He's been a regional buyer for years now.

We live in a time of immediate gratification.  It is unfortunate.  People demand higher wages, and extensive benefits at entry level.  They have no intension of building a career and working for such things.  They think they are entitled, just because they show up. 

LOL!  I sound like my father. 

Thanks Dad!

[RecycleMichael]

It would be wonderful if you could raise a small flock of chickens in your backyard.  

You can have hens in Tulsa

[nathanm]

I love Wal-Mart.  They used to be an account of mine.  Every buyer, every national, regional, and local manager was once a store employee.  You start low in the organization, but if you have good work ethic and drive, they will pay for education and promote you through the system.

I watched people start watering plants in the garden center and end up L&G managers, and ultimately buyers (I sold live goods, plants).  Once you worked your way up in the organization, you were set for life with incredible benefits and retirement. 

You're seeing what you want to see. It contradicts both the written evidence and the experience of most WMT employees I've known. (which is quite a few, having lived many years just down the road from their home office, as they call it) There's very little opportunity for advancement, simply because they have so many hourly associates and so few management positions. That's not to say that promotion from within doesn't happen. And not every buyer, national, regional, or local manager once worked in the store at an entry level job. I know at least three people I can think of off the top of my head that were hired into management from other places. One as an assistant manager at a supercenter in Arkansas and two who worked for the home office. One was even a buyer.

That was back before I realized quite how bad WMT is. In any event, it was different back before Sam died.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Wal Mart is a lot like Microsoft.  Started small, grew over time due to herculean efforts of the people working there.  Both have mediocre products at somewhat reasonable prices.  Both make a ton of money.  (Sadly, only one rewards the efforts of its people in reasonable fashion.)  Both have grown way beyond the point of mere capitalistic monopolism and have the court events to prove it.

Both wonderful examples of the American work ethic.  And how it can be warped and twisted as they grow to a certain point.
Question is, where is that point?  And how does one prevent that from happening?  Warren Buffet seems to have achieved this with his family of companies.  QuickTrip.  Johnson Controls.  HP at one time - not since Carly.  Landstar truck company.  TMC trucking.  BP - oops, sorry, wrong list. 
 
And there are still many out there.  (Here are some examples for you, Gaspar, in answer to the question in another topic.)

[nathanm]

Wal Mart is a lot like Microsoft.  Started small, grew over time due to herculean efforts of the people working there. 

Yeah, it's not so much their vast economic power as the way they have been known to misuse it. Microsoft was nearly able to kill the open Internet. Had they been successful, much of the innovation we've seen in the last five years wouldn't have been possible. Sort of like when WMT pays suppliers as little as they do, there's no money left to do R&D and come up with new and better products.

What annoys me more about WMT is their illegal union-busting tactics. Whether or not you're a supporter of unions in principle, you have to agree that there's something wrong with a company illegally suppressing efforts to organize. If their position on the topic was as strong as they claim, they wouldn't have any need to go beyond the bounds of the law.

[Ihearttacos]

Besides the mentioned problems with produce, variety, and poor quality meat.  I always find their lines to take so much longer than other grocery stores.  I would rather go across the street to Reasor's than wait in the long lines at WNM at 21st and Harvard, half the time they are out of what I am looking for or don't even stock it.  I find the selection at Reasor's is more extensive, I can find products that contain healthier ingredients, they also have the easy to maneuver European type carts, I feel like I fly through the store with ease.  When I think of WNM I think of a large scale, yet slow convenience store, it's got your basics, your impulse buys but doesn't grasp further than that immediate level of gratification.  

Tulsa could REALLY use another Whole Foods, I am not sure if Tulsa Hills is the best location for them or not but people already travel from Bixby to go to the one in mid-town.  Can't imagine it would do poorly.  Doubly poor on the developers part to deny a Super-Target at this location, love Target's grocery but the current locations are in way out in traffic jam city.  I-75 would be convenient in comparison.

[Ibanez]

Besides the mentioned problems with produce, variety, and poor quality meat.  I always find their lines to take so much longer than other grocery stores.  I would rather go across the street to Reasor's than wait in the long lines at WNM at 21st and Harvard, half the time they are out of what I am looking for or don't even stock it.  I find the selection at Reasor's is more extensive, I can find products that contain healthier ingredients, they also have the easy to maneuver European type carts, I feel like I fly through the store with ease.  When I think of WNM I think of a large scale, yet slow convenience store, it's got your basics, your impulse buys but doesn't grasp further than that immediate level of gratification.  

Tulsa could REALLY use another Whole Foods, I am not sure if Tulsa Hills is the best location for them or not but people already travel from Bixby to go to the one in mid-town.  Can't imagine it would do poorly.  Doubly poor on the developers part to deny a Super-Target at this location, love Target's grocery but the current locations are in way out in traffic jam city.  I-75 would be convenient in comparison.

I'm with you 100% on the idea of another Whole Foods. If they would put one in the development, albeit a stalled one, at 121st & Memorial it would boom. I know people in Bixby would also love a Reasor's in that location, or anywhere for that matter, but Reasor's seems to be afraid to compete with the Wal-Mart at 11th.

[sgrizzle]

I'm with you 100% on the idea of another Whole Foods. If they would put one in the development, albeit a stalled one, at 121st & Memorial it would boom. I know people in Bixby would also love a Reasor's in that location, or anywhere for that matter, but Reasor's seems to be afraid to compete with the Wal-Mart at 11th.

Given Akin's just opened there, I doubt Whole Foods will appear.

[Ibanez]

Given Akin's just opened there, I doubt Whole Foods will appear.

True, but Akin's is seriously lacking in the grocery department. I was in there one day last week and the store is very well laid out and clean, I just wish they had more variety and a bulk foods area like Whole Foods. We buy all of our flour that way and Akin's just doesn't offer that option.