Wal-Mart helps its bottom line in Mexico with unpaid teen labor

If Wal-Mart's shoppers are only concerned about the bottom line, then Wal-Mart's only concerned about the bottom line.

Shalom Julie,

Oops...

That ought to have been:

http://www.thewritingonthewal.net

B'shalom,

Jeff

I am retired and live in Mexico in the winters. It is a common practice and has been long before Walmart was there to let school children bag groceries for tips. They get good tips also. It is a poor country and all the family has to work to survive. You should be saying "thank you Walmart"

Most Wal-Marts don't have baggers. The cashier bags as he/she rings up the items. It sounds like these teenagers have created a job for themselves where there was none. I applaude their initiative. They're probably making the lines move faster, so they are providing a service, and hopefully they're getting some tips from it. If Wal-Mart kicked them out, who would be better off?

Any one that has been to Mexico and gone to a local store where Mexicans shop has seen these young boys and girls working hard to earn the tips they receive. The people tipping are not tourists, they are the people of the neighborhood. This is a tradition.

My guess is if Walmart were forced to chose between paying them or installing the bagging turnstiles we are familiar with, they would put in the bagging turnstiles. And the young people would no longer have the opportunity to help with their family's livelihood.

Calling this slave labor is crap. It is a cultural tradition. Mexican children are allowed to contribute their "labor" at a very early age to help the family income. You can not impose American values on another country. IT ain't workin' in Iraq and it won't work in Mexico. Mexico will continue to pick and chose what they care to emulate and what they chose to leave alone. This is just another case of Walmart bashing.

You will find the same age children cleaning up tables in malls developed by Pepsico. Why not bash them for a while?

Seems "Julie Tilsner" is one of the "shoot from the hip" people. Sorry you have personal problems with Wally World, Julie, but use real issues in your attacks. Heaven knows those bean counters are vulnerable.
Besides, WalMart is only teaching them to get used to the idea of low pay when they illegally immigrate here.

Who's the biggest philanthorpist?The man that donates a million dollars to his favorite university or the man that works his whole life earning less than a living wage so we can have cheap vegtables,clothing and labor.

hmmm, if this is so wrong for walmart to allow teens to work for tips, then some one needs to investigate the United States Military!!! Not only do teenagers work only for tips, but also grown people, including senior citizens at the post comissaries all across the country and at foriegn posts!!! They even have to apply to get the job and be selected and adhere to a schedule!! but no hourly wage! this goes on while the comissary/military touts that there is no sales tax on food there, yet there is a 7% surcharge, and then the obligation to tip. I have also seen baggers assault those who didnt tip. slave labor? no, but walmart isnt the only one!!

When I was a kid, my brother would go down to the grocery store that was a chain and bag groceries for tips. Back then we called it hustling and everyone thought it was great that he worked for his own money. Now that it's done to help out in the family it's called slave labor.I thank wal-mart for allowing this, because here there are kids who would gladly do it to help out in there families if not to just help out with their own needs. with so many families living at the poverty level.and can't do for their kids as they wish. besides it teaches good work ethics. something we are lacking in the here.Giving our kids everything they want and not having to work for it.

At first glance, this does seem like yet another shady move from Wal-Mart, but when take into account that it is a Mexican tradition, then it seems a little less bad. I have never been to Mexico, so I can not say from first hand experience what it is like there... but if this practice is taking place at ALL stores in the country, and not just Wal-Marts, then I think Wal-Mart is ok letting it take place.

On the other hand, if these young men and women are working so hard just to earn tips... maybe Wal-Mart could make their situation a little better by setting up some sort of system where they are guaranteed a dollar an hour or something for their effort

Michael Fowlkes
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/bloggers/michael-fowlkes

Walmart has worked long and hard to earn their reputation. They have chiseled and conived their way to put hundreds of US businesses into bancruptcy from manufacturers to mom and pop stores.
Its only fitting they carry on their tradition of exploiting any cultural mores they can locate from the teenagers in Mexico, to the slave laborers in China to the USA.
Walmart never fails to squeeze every once from those souls so ready to be crushed in the Bentonville vise!

The same thing is happening in a lot of the lower income areas in the U.S

I should be considering Wal-Mart as a benevelont entity becuase they allow children to provide a customer service to Wal-mart's customers where Wal-Mart receives the greater benefit and where the consumers pick up the entire cost (tips) becuase this is a cultural practice? Do I understand that correctly?

Hogwash! You have a multi-million dollar corporation engaging in nothing more than cultural exploitation.

Just becuase a cultural practice develops out of poverty and necessity it does not make it right to see the continued practice of it by companies that clearly can afford to pay these children an adjusted wage -- even if that adjusted wage worked out to be something like 0.50 per day. Wal-Mart isn't your struggling grocery store or mom and pop shop that can't afford to pay the kid but is trying to help the kid in any way that they can.

People need to quit painting halo's on corporations. Corporations are not "nice". They have no heart and they have no conscience.

When is it OK to let destitute people remain poor when a company with billions in profits for its owners and stock holders could - should - have standards for ALL of its manufacturing plants and retail outlets? They have the power to award contracts to companies only if they treat their employees in a humane manner. And in their own retail stores they absolutely should pay decent wages and allow for adequate benefits.

Why is it OK for kids to work for tips because kids here “do the same thing”? A major difference is that the majority of kids here aren’t doing it to support a family; they do it for spending money. Mexican kids go home to structures with dirt floors, not enough food to provide adequate nutrition and poverty beyond most of our imaginations.

They continue to advertise how happy their employees are and how their goal is to provide good reasonable merchandise, but at what price? Ten years ago I read one of the first books written about the shoddy business practices Wal-Mart has engaged in for many many years. Since then a multitude of articles detail how they do everything possible to circumvent humane treatment of entire communities

The minute the covers of that now well read book were closed, I vowed to never enter a Wal-Mart again until they truly changed their self-serving practices. The way they are going I guess I’ll never shop there again.

What ever excuse it takes to bitch about Walmart. The only evil I see is the Unions that have a political campaign to besmirch the reputation of an American company. They pay bloggers to write negative stories about Walmart in an attempt to get Walmart to join the dark side and Unionize.

How can anyone defend Wal-Mart on this issue? Benevolent? Does anyone remember all the neighborhood businesses in America WM has put out? Dirty ugly stores with merchandise manufactured by slave labor in God knows where? Now they have free baggers in Mexico? How sickening. One day the poverty/over-population issue will have to be addressed in corrupt-ridden Mexico; but let's not allow the negative aspect of so-called free enterprise to take advantage of people in such a dreadful way. Thank you Ms. Tilsner for posting this.

Once again Wal Mart shows their true colors. Nothing is too low for them (and I'm not referring to prices). I have been to Mexico and people do depend on getting tips. However, WMT should be paying these kids something PLUS allow them to keep their tips. In this country we are not allowed to work off the clock or receive any type of gratuity. I thought this was company practice no matter where they were. I would like to see kids come in to any WMT here in the USA and offer to bag for tips. We'll see what they do then.

I, too have been to Mexico where even the other large retail operations as well as the smaller businesses allow teenagers to bag "stuff" for tips and all of them do quite well. Someone earlier made the comment that they've created their own work and it's not just WalMart but universal across Mexico. someone at bloggingstocks continues to harrass WMT for the last year with very few positives....regardless of the fact that their pricing for consumers (and especially in generic groceries and over the counter phamaceuticals) are between 15-20% less than Target, Walgreens and the like......and that does not include their lower cost name brands....including the now growing Neighborhood Markets that are blowing away Albertsons wherever they open a new store......so shame on Bloggingstocks for not doing their homework on the Mexicnan work environment and forgetting the added value of low cost to consumers. Service is awful there but I really don't care if I can save 15% !!!!

dark side , john? unions brought your sorry ass the weekend. ever hear of it? oh , excuse me. you are a world beater and just love the riches made possible by rat,illegal,underpaid,desperate and now unpaid workers! what a great country! you're hoping it becomes mexico north so you can gouge more money. drop dead,scum. maybe illegals will be your pallbearers. fitting.

I believe Walmart should pay these teenagers, reason being, is they are doing a service for this company and should be paid. It's obvious they are working because they need the income (any income) and I think Walmart should consider that. Its not like Walmart is a very small company and can't afford it. Right? To me, its taking advantage of a poor country and poor families.