I am appaled at the politicians and at the "disgruntled" employees who are going after a terrific company. Sam Walton did what every person who is smart enough and agressive enough to do(very few are including politicians who need to get a real job and to the Wal-Mart employees who just whine like babies). If you socialistic employees do not like your wages and benefits at Wal-Mart please oh please quit and find something better. Wal-Mart is providing the nation and other countries the best value available. Politicians get on with your life and recognize capitalism when it bites you in the rear. It is still better than anything else---don't be tearing it down. No I am not an employee of Wal-Mart, I just get sick of listening to whiners and to politicians who will do and say anything for votes.

This Blog was right on. I am a stockholder and an ex employee as is my brother and daughter .
It is wrong to rail against an employer who is really better than most in the pay and benefits area.
Many firms today hire only part time employees so they need not pay any benefits. Wal-Mart is a very successful company founded by a man who cared greatly about his associates (Among the first to not call them employees).
The comment most likely heard is "I don't like Wal-Mart But I shop there for the low prices". Very hypocritical to say the least.
An eye opener would be for these critics to attend the annual stockholders meeting and really see how the associates feel about their company without the doomsayers and unionizers around.

There are about 18,000 Wal-Mart and Sam's employees in Iowa and those national politicians are saying those workers are stupid.

They are also saying the more than 100,000 Wal-Mart weekly customers in Iowa are evil people for shopping there.

Whose votes are these national politicians seeking in Iowa?

Is it true the people in Congress work 67days a year and their wage is approximately $167,000? That figures out to $2,492 per day and they talk about Wal-Mart.

if this is all a presidential hopeful can do to drum up votes, then i pity whomever votes for him or her.

1) The Wal-Mart of today is not the Wal-Mart Sam Walton started. In fact, in a recent news story, one of Wal-Mart's own executives claimed their benefits were "competitive" with other retailers. In other words, "We're just as good as lots of other companies". Not better, not unique, not a leader...just one of the crowd. That's NOT Sam Walton's Wal-Mart.
2) As far as benefits, not to sound too "whiny", but on the Wal-Mart insurance program, one office visit with a sick child could wipe out as much as 1/3 of my check (and I'm not a new employee - I've moved up the pay scale a few times...but thanks to pay caps there won't be much more of that). I don't think the folks at the bank would accept "My kid was sick" as an excuse for a missed mortgage payment. Now they're on a state provided health program (to my chagrin) and getting much needed glasses and routine care that I couldn't afford - because my "benefits" didn't cover it.
3) Just quit your job and get another one? Why, of course! THAT'S THE SOLUTION! Yes! I can just quit my job of several years to start over in another job at the new job's starting pay. Brilliant. I could take up brain surgery.
4) What Wal-Mart associates EXCEL at - besides hard work - are diplomatic skills. If you went into a Wal-Mart today and didn't get cussed, punched, slapped, or kicked by an associate, it's because they fought off that internal instinct to do so and instead offered up an apology for being short-handed, out of an item, never carried the item, weren't able to take the item back because it's 2 years old and rusted, or dared take a lunch break and be gone during the time that YOU graced our store with your presence. Yet, the people who work there and get treated that way by customers (and we do - daily) are called whiners because we dare think that putting up with that is worth a little more money. Because we dared to think that loyalty to our company was worth something. We thought we were working for more than "just another company" and now that we're too old to go elsewhere, our company has essentially told us "No, we're nothing special. Take it or leave it. Sorry."
No, Wal-Mart's problems won't be, and don't need to be, "fixed" by government. The marketplace will take care of that. Several fellow associates, and myself, have actually quit shopping there. Not out of protest. Simply because we're customers too. We don't like a crowded shopping experience, we don't like long lines at the checkouts, and we do like to be helped by friendly people. We know first-hand that the people in our stores are simply too tired and stressed out to be friendly anymore. We're in a death spiral. We try to hire enough help but by the time we get an "extra" person to take up the slack, the "primary" person quits out of frustration BECAUSE we don't have enough help. This is why you have 10 people in line at the checkout. They hired an extra cashier but because the experienced cashier quit after getting constantly berated by customers (after all, they're just retail workers - let 'em have it!) that cashier quits, leaving the new, inexperienced and slower cashier to be the only one. Repeat.
But, hey - I'm just a retail worker...what do I know?

The original Blog and the comments are right on line. These Walmart haters in Congress should suffer the ultimate fate of non reelection at the polls if incumbents and utter disgrace if they are elective wannabes. They Disgust me, regardless of Party.

As a matter of fact, I have decided to get big government out of my life and out of business by not voting for any incumbent. Better a lost vote than a plus vote for such arrogant socialists.

IMHO the independent candidacy of Senator Lieberman should be an answer to all the partisan non- thinking politicians. It is time for a vote for good government even if we have to vote for all candidates who are independent thinkers.

The Left Wing press and the proponents of big government at all costs have joined forces to bring down anything that is right with America. If we dont stop them in this November and again in 2008 they will be the downfall of the freedom of the country to say the least.

Tom Athanas

Wal-Mart ***WAS*** a good company **WHEN** Sam Walton was it's leader....
I agree with you to some degree and at the same time disagree with you. Yes, people could choose not to work for Wal-Mart, but at the same time there are many, forced by situations, to do so. An example is government, having gotten many people "off" welfare(a good thing), has forced many individuals into working in bottom line industries like W-M because they know that they are always hiring. The problem is that they can't pay for the health benefits and eat too. So who winds up footing the bill... government. Who supports the govt. you and I do! So doesn't that equate to Corporate Welfare!!!! Socialism Industrialized ???????
On top of that Wal-Mart's (W-M)employee turnover is out of this world (I am trying to recall from memory but I believe it is something around 500,000 people per year-give or take and was far above the standard).
Now Costco, on the other hand, has and average pay of ~$15.00/hr and ~82% of employees participate in their benefits. Its employee turnover is below industry standards too. Wal-Mart pays ~$8.50 on average and lower than 40% participate in the benefit plans.
The next point I make is that a great many W-M employees do not have post high school educations which puts them on the low end of the knowledge base(don't infer they're unintelligent). They don't have know how to improve their work environment and again W-M uses this.
Next negative, is if you get into bed with W-M as an other company who pays a decent wage and benefits, W-M will eventually bury your company. Take a look at what happened to Huffy Bicycles and Vlasic pickle companies to name just a couple. Fortunately someone has seen the results of sleeping with the enemy. "Simplicity Lawn" wouldn't kowtow to Wal-Marts demands. The owner saw what had happened to others and decided he wanted to stay in business. I applaud him tremendously!
So although we don't want interference from outsiders on how to run a company, which I primarily I agree with, it's companies of Wal-Mart"s ilk that take advantage of employees (ie. in having 16 yr olds running chain saws or hiring illegals to clean, to not paying appropriate overtime etc.)that forces people to come down on Wal-Mart.

I my opinion Wal-Mart is a ruthless bottom line
"evil empire"

....HMMMMMMMMMM!!! Maybe George Steinbrenner is a secret board member/ owner... He has an "Evil Empire" too!!! and maybe Osama is his boss???? Hey maybe I'm onto something! lol

If Walmart is guilty then so is the US Department of Defense. Many, many, many military families are on food stamps as well....due to the low wages the military pays.

Wal-Mart certainly provides value for its customer. Its also well documented that Wal-Mart pays most of its 1,000,000 plus employess less than its similiar retail companies. On the other hand no one is forced to work for Wal-Mart. Is Wal-Mart considered a generous charitable company, not really. Is the Walton family that owns around 40% of the Wal-Mart stock consider generous. By ever measure, NO. Its true they give hundreds of millions to charity. Much of it comes directly from Wal-Mart itself. Compared to the man in the street it appears Wal-Mart and the Waltons are generous in pure dollar terms. But by percentage of worth they rank near the bottom of the list in actual giving. Comparing the percentage of net worth to charity of indivduals like Gates and Buffett the Walton family barely scratch the surface. Again is the number in the hundreds of millions, Yes. But it should be in the many billions of dollars. The Walton family have spent millions and million trying to prevent as little of their vast, unearned, inherited wealth to lower the the future tax burdens. If they gave the money to charity and supported the employees health benefits they would not have to worry about paying the government so much money. Fairness starts at the top. The Waltons are worth over 75 Billion dollars. They cannot be forced to pay health care or better salaries. Just food for thought.

I've been very turned off by the entire Republican administration. Just about the time I felt I might have found a candidate in Biden or Richardson, they show me they are only trying to get the union vote.
They have more pressing problems than beating on the whipping horse of the year, Walmart.
Now I'm eying Hillary as my candidate. She sat on the board of Walmart and is the only high profile person in the political field to at least attempt to start a health care program for the only 1st world country in the world who does not have such a plan, since LBJ pushed Medicare, an idea of Harry Truman.
Wake up folks, the unions are behind all this and these candidates are joining this campaign against Walmart because they think they will win your vote.
Show them you can't be that easily fooled!

With the size of Wall Mart, 1000's of jobs have been shipped overseas. There is more to the low wages and benefits of Wall Mart. Besides that these employees are underpaid, to keep prices down, their benefits are sub-par. This forces these employees to get help from the government, social welfare, at the taxpayer's expense. This is totally legal but morally wrong. Wall Mart is the largest retailer in the world. It's profits are tremendous. Wall Mart management live a comfortable life with plenty of money and the employees are lucky to feed their kids, let alone put a roof over their heads. They will not only move into a city and undercut any competitions price, even at a loss to get rid of that competition, they have been known to shut down their store and move into the next town theirby destroying further economic activity and more job losses. What used to be going downtown for your shopping is now going to the next town for shopping. As far as American Made, they were caught advertising for American Made goods that were actually foreign made. Now most everything is foreign made. That's good for our economy, right! When it comes down to American manufactures, they will say we'll buy an X amount of your product. The manufacturer thinks hey I have a large account now. In order to make this amount of product they cut down on sales to other companies. Eventually they are supplying just Wall Mart. Here's where it get's tricky. Wall Mart now say's we'll give you such an amount for that product. It is alway's lower. Later they offer and even lower price. Finally their price is so low, and if you don't sell at that price they'll move on to another distributor, you can't make enough profit to stay in business. You've lost your business, your long standing empolyees are out of a job, and the cities economic base just took a hit. Wall Mart doesn't care, their just looking at corporate profits and the appeasement of Wall Street. Iv'e seen city councils deny Wall Mart the right to build in their cities. These cities are correct in worrying about the effect on their economy and job base. Wall Mart decides to pursue a proposition for an election. They think hey let's have the public decide, even though the city council was representin the public. After the public voted no on allowing Wall Mart in, Wall Mart then spends several thousand s more as a lawsuit in court. Make no mistake, Wall Mart is not looking out for you but only on their bottom dollar. This is not the Wall Mart that Sam Walton founded. I work for a company that was founded 99 years ago. And, like Sam Walton, this founder took care of its employees. I make 4 times what Wall Mart pays and have arguably the best benifits a company can offer. Boycott Wall Mart.