Walmart Archives - Page 31 of 35 - I Hate Working In Retail

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15 ACTUAL ITEMS YOU’LL ONLY FIND IN A CHINESE WALMART. REALLY FUNNY BUT ALSO QUITE SCARY

W1

Crocodiles

 
I’m not surprised but wasn’t really aware they have Chinese Walmarts! A Redditorposted these pics of strange merchandise we wouldn’t see in a regular Hellmart. If you’re an animal rights vegetarian, this will freak you out. But the antibactirial underwear for men is a must have!
 
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Bulk rice.

 
 
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Mixed meats.

 
 
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Orange juice and cooking oil.

 
 
 
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Turtles and Frogs

 

 
 
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Walmart brand spirits.

 
 
 
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Ribcages.

 
 
 
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Assorted dried reptile parts.

 
 
 
 
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Boxes of liquor.

 
 
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More frogs.

 
 
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A vast selection of chopsticks.

 
 
 
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Ducks

 
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Great Value brand beef granules.

 
 
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Pig faces.

 
 
W15

Antibacterial bikini underwear for men.

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The reality of getting a promotion at Walmart

This Walmart worker went from temp to store manager. Here’s why that’s so tough.

A few days ago, the National Retail Federation posted a video on its Web site sketching out the career of Claudine McKenzie, a manager of a Walmart in Sunrise, Fla. It’s an inspirational tale: The daughter of poor Caribbean immigrants started out as a temporary worker when she was 20 years old and three months pregnant. Over the next 17 years, she had two kids, put herself through college and a master’s degree program, and worked her way up to a six-figure salary. After McKenzie went on television to advertise that her store was hiring temp workers for the holidays, the NRF reached out to see if she’d want to tell her life story on her employer’s behalf.
The video is only 2½ minutes long, which leaves out a lot. Contacted by phone, McKenzie filled in the gaps, by way of explaining why all Walmart associates can advance themselves too.
“People need to know the other side of the story, with all the negative things in the news,” she said in an interview. “We don’t publicize the good things. People see the bad things, and they don’t apply. When we don’t publicize these things, we’re actually taking away some of these opportunities. They won’t apply, and start out, and be the next store manager, and be the next me.”
It may be true that anyone with McKenzie’s gumption and drive can get ahead — and even that many Walmart associates do the same. But there are also structural reasons why most Americans don’t. Let’s walk through her story and see how representative it is of the country at large (the quotes are a mix of the video transcript and an interview).

“I started Walmart 17 years ago as a sales clerk in Miramar, Florida. I was 3 months pregnant with my son. I had no idea what I would do for a source of income. At the time I was enrolled in school, needed to get a job and care for my son. I moved on to department manager in boys, infants, and girls. When I went out to have my son, Walmart provided insurance and short-term disability. It was amazing, the support that I had from the company.”
The remarkable Ms. McKenzie. (LinkedIn)

The remarkable Ms. McKenzie. (LinkedIn)
How easy is it to have a kid as an hourly Walmart associate? According to a spokesman, the company offers a program called “Life with Baby,” which is “an initiative designed to give associates and their spouses personalized tools and education to help them have healthier pregnancies and infants.” As far as maternity leave, you can only get it if you bought disability insurance, which McKenzie did because she knew she would soon have a baby. Salaried employees get 90 days of maternity leave, and new fathers get 14 days of paternity leave. Nationwide, the situation is similar: Only 11 percent of private-sector workers have access to paid parental leave.
McKenzie’s story is also remarkable because she was a single mom, with no partner to support her child, though her mother moved down from New Jersey to take care of McKenzie’s first son while she worked. She started out at minimum wage of $5.75 an hour, got $7.95 an hour as a supervisor, $9 as a department manager, and a base annual salary of $35,000 as an assistant manager. Despite having to support a family on a very low income, she says she didn’t take any form of public assistance. But lots of her colleagues do: In many states, Walmart tends to be the employer with the most workers receiving Medicaid and food stamps. That’s largely because of its size; dollar stores and fast-food restaurants often have a higher proportion of their employees on public assistance. Still, rock-bottom wages make it difficult to pass up government help.
Now, as a store manager, she’s doing really well.
“When you think of doctors and lawyers, that’s what we make. Six figures.”
That’s actually rare. According to a salary analysis from the career Web site Bright.com, only 10 percent of people with Walmart on their résumés ever make more than $70,000 a year, which is not the worst of all companies, but is still low. But McKenzie says everybody can move on up if they work hard enough.
“The thing is, working for Walmart is what you make of it. If you want it, there is so much growth in the company. People who don’t grow at Walmart, it’s because they’re comfortable in their jobs, and they don’t want to go further. The people who complain the most are the ones who are not going after what they truly want. You can’t sit back and ask for something unless you’ve really earned it. If you want more money, then apply for more money when jobs open up. …When nobody else wanted to do something, I said, ‘I’ll do it!’ Every time there was an extra day, I said, ‘I’ll work it!’ Oh, my god, they would have to send me home, because I would volunteer for everything. They’re a large company — there’s always something for everyone to do; people just don’t want to do it.”
Can everyone truly just get a better-paying job within the company if they’re unhappy making minimum wage? Walmart says it promotes 160,000 associates each year and that 75 percent of its managers started out as hourly employees. That’s laudable. But, at the same time, not everybody can get promoted to a job that makes a middle-class salary. For example, there are only eight assistant managers per store, with a base salary of $35,000; plus four shift managers and one store manager, who make more. That comes out to about 62,500 positions, or less than five percent of the company’s 1.3 million associates. There are obviously other positions along the Walmart supply chain, but here’s the point: The pyramid has a very broad base, and if all associates are inherently competing with one another for better-paid positions, some of them won’t get far.
So, what about those who do still make the minimum wage?
“If the federal minimum wage goes up, our company doesn’t have a problem complying with it. If it goes up, we go up. And with the increase in a minimum wage, you retain good people. The higher people get paid, the more satisfied they are. But you have to look at Walmart’s overall benefits. If you add all that up, the compensation far exceeds most employers out there.”
That’s a significant admission in itself — the National Retail Federation, which made the video, staunchly opposes raising the minimum wage. As for the claim that benefits make up for it, Walmart’s package does offer some advantages, like a six percent 401(k) match and an array of health-care coverage options (here’s a PDF summary). But the company says only that “more than half” of associates are enrolled in the plan, which doesn’t come anywhere close to industry-leading Costco. CNN suggested that many Walmart associates can’t afford it.
Then there’s the female empowerment message.
“One of the things I love as a store manager is the influence I have on other young ladies. As a minority female, I serve as an inspiration to other minority females. My story shows that they have the ability to be whatever they want.”
It’s worth remembering the class-action lawsuit filed against Walmart for gender-based discrimination in promotions. Though the suit was ultimately thrown out, that’s 150,000 people who disagreed with McKenzie enough to put their names on a legal filing.
Now, how about education?
 “The company’s enabled me to go back to school. I currently have a bachelor’s degree and am working on my master’s. Walmart has supported me and given me all of that….it wasn’t that I had to, because at this point I was making really good money. But I decided that going back to school was a personal accomplishment of mine. And I took one class at a time.”
The company offers tuition assistance for classes at American Public University, an accredited, for-profit, online-only college, as well scholarships for other institutions. McKenzie picked American Intercontinental University, and paid her own tuition while working. That’s also great — but don’t forget that income inequality and racial disparities are still huge drivers of educational inequity, which is part of the reason why not everybody transcends their station.
McKenzie also defended the company’s enduring resistance to union organizing.
“I don’t think our associates should have to go to an outside source to speak for them. I should be able to speak for me and get the same result. We’re not against anything, but we feel like our associates have the right to speak for themselves.”
Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board charged Walmart with retaliating against some of the workers who went on strike in 100 cities across the country before the holidays. It appears that quite a few workers don’t feel like their individual voices are being heard.
To be sure, McKenzie beat the odds. That’s wonderful, and it’s fair for Walmart associates to take inspiration from her example. But it’s not proof that all our ladders to opportunity, as the White House calls them, are all in good working order. The United States still has an economic mobility problem, after all — and it’s worst in the areas where Walmart’s presence is most felt.
Where the Walmarts are. (Excelhero.com)

Where the Walmarts are. (Excelhero.com)
Where people are most and least economically mobile. (http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/)

Where people are most and least economically mobile. (http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/)
Sourced from Washingtonpost.com
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10 of the weirdest things to ever happen in a Walmart store

In the last few decades, Walmart has built quite a name for itself. It’s been growing at an outstanding rate, with new Walmarts opening up all over the country and abroad. As the business has grown, so has the number of weird occurrences at its various locations. While some of us simply see it as a place to buy whatever items we need, the store has also unintentionally acquired a reputation for attracting strange people and stranger events.

10Walmart Wedding

Wedding_rings
People have very different ideas about what they want their wedding to be like. A lot of people decide to go the romantic route and get married where they first met. Usually that means getting married on a cruise, in a specific city, or at a restaurant where the couple had their first date. For a North Carolina couple, that location happened to be a Walmart.
Wayne Brandenburg was a Walmart customer who became interested in a cashier working at the store. Eventually he asked her out to a Chinese buffet. She agreed and they started dating. When they got engaged, they ultimately decided on Walmart as the ideal location for their wedding. The store agreed to let them get married there, and even the wedding cake was from the store’s bakery.

9Milk Thief

cow
In 2011, at a Walmart in Virginia, an 18-year-old male decided to walk (or rather crawl) into a Walmart and steal 26 gallons of milk. Apparently the staff didn’t notice him on all fours, carrying many gallons of milk andwearing a cow suit. The weirdest part is that, upon leaving the store, he started to casually hand out the milk to people passing by. All that stealing must have really worked up his appetite, since he was later found sans costume at a McDonald’s, where he was identified by the police.

8Naked Shoplifting

Socks
Most of us have desperately needed socks at one point or another. Socks are easy to misplace and develop holes from constant use and washing. Verdon Lamont Taylor, a 32-year-old man in Philadelphia, was in that situation one day. He did what a lot of us would do and headed to a local Walmart in hopes of solving his sock dilemma. However, instead of walking in and purchasing the item on his list, he decided first to get naked in the parking lot, then steal his new socks. Police had to use a stun gun to neutralize him after he spat in an officer’s face and remained uncooperative.

7Sex

Handcuffs
The main appeal of Walmart is that you can find practically anything you’re looking for at a cheap price. Customers at a local Kansas store probably didn’t realize they would find a couple having sex inside the store in broad daylight, entirely for free. Justin Call and Tina Gianakon found themselves at Walmart one day and decided to steal a bottle of lubricant. After stealing the lubricant, they presumably thought it would be wise to test it before they left the store. The test eventually led the couple to full-on intercourse in front of the store’s many customers.
Of course, the police showed up and arrested them. The most surprising part of the story is that they were both completely sober.

6Human Teeth

human_teeth
Shopping for a new wallet at Walmart sounds simple enough. Unfortunately for one shopper at a Massachusetts store, he bit off more than he could chew when he found 10 human teeth inside a brand-new wallet. He informed Walmart employees, who contacted the police. Officers were baffled, confirming that they were human teeth but unable to find out whose teeth they were or how they had got there.

5Kidnapping Mix-Up

Couple holding hands
When you go to a supermarket or any kind of large retail chain, it’s filled with mothers and fathers with their children. Most people don’t think twice about seeing a parent with their offspring. At a Virginia Walmart, however, a customer was concerned about seeing three girls with their father. Normally, when someone is concerned in a situation like that, it’s because the parent is being physically or verbally abusive. In this case, the concerned customer didn’t see any signs of abuse or foul play—they simply believed that the children had been kidnapped since the man was white and the little girls were mixed-race.
The white father, Joseph, had gone to Walmart with his three daughters to cash a check. After he went home, Joseph and his wife Keana received a visit from a police officer. The police officer told them he was there to ensure that the children were theirs. Evidently the concerned customer had alerted Walmart security, who had then contacted the police. The officer asked one of the kids to verify that Joseph and Keana were her real parents.
According to Walmart, the customer was the one who decided to involve the police. The customer had told store employees that she didn’t think the man and his children “fit” together.”

4Giving Birth

Crying baby
The movie Where the Heart Is stars Natalie Portman as a young woman who gives birth at a Walmart after the store has closed for the day. Over the years, there have been various stories of this happening in real life. Nevertheless, it’s surprising to find out how common it actually is.
In July 2013, a 16-year-old girl was at Walmart with her mother when shegave birth to a baby boy in the bathroom. When the baby was born it wasn’t breathing, so a Walmart employee successfully gave the baby CPR. The girl and her child were then taken to a hospital to be checked out. She claimed that she’d had no idea she was even pregnant until she went into labor.

3Cooking Meth

Methamphetamine
When we think of Walmart, we don’t usually think of methamphetamine. And while Walmart isn’t exactly a hotbed of methamphetamine usage, it’s had more than its fair share of involvement with that particular narcotic.
A Walmart in Kentucky had to be evacuated after a man went into the bathroom with a backpack. The man was in the bathroom for long enough that employees became suspicious and checked up on him. When they found him, he was unconscious. The police arrived only to find that the backpack contained a mobile meth lab, and the man was arrested on multiple drug charges.
Another of the many famous meth cases at Walmart involves a woman in Missouri. Jennifer Vaughn-Culp was caught shoplifting at Walmart and kept in a holding area. When the police arrived they realized that in addition to theft, the woman was also cooking meth in a soda bottle in her purse. As in the previous case, the store had to be evacuated for several hours. Culp did not learn her lesson, nor was she very loyal to Walmart. A few weeks later she was arrested for the same thing outside a U-Gas station.

2Semen Stalker

Yuck
At a Walmart in Delaware, a 22-year-old man stalked a woman and threw semen at her. Frank J. Short Jr. decided to go to Walmart to “kill time” and noticed a woman whom he thought was attractive. He followed her around the store before walking past her and throwing semen on her legsand buttocks. The woman was mortified and at first assumed it was just spit. After examining the fluid, she realized it looked more like semen. The woman went to the store’s security and Short was arrested.
Short told the police that he had a cold and the fluid in question was just a result of him sneezing. Later he said it was saliva. However, the police were able to determine that it was, in fact, semen. The weirdest part is that this was not an isolated incident. Not only has Short done this before at Walmart, he’s also done it at Kmart. According to the police, he’s a loner and this is something that he does to women to whom he feels sexually attracted. Whatever happened to simply complimenting a woman and asking her out for coffee?

1Murder

Crime scene
During the holidays a few years ago, customers at a South Carolina Walmart witnessed a heinous crime when a man stabbed his wife to death. Lilia Blandin was an employee at the bank located at the Walmart. She got into an intense altercation with her husband, who proceeded to stab her repeatedly. Several customers heard and saw the incident. The man was initially able to escape before being apprehended by the authorities. Unfortunately, Lilia Blandin succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
As if this story weren’t repulsive enough, Walmart decided to remain open after the incident. The police were able to make the crime scene inaccessible to the public, but shoppers were allowed to continue their browsing as if nothing had happened. Understandably, many of them were disgusted that the store hadn’t closed.
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