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‘Living wage’ impact could stretch beyond Wal-Mart, D.C. deputy mayor warns.

Unintended consequences of blind hatred for Walmart.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/living-wage-impacts-could-stretch-beyond-wal-marts-top-dc-official-warns/2013/07/12/737aae38-eb24-11e2-a301-ea5a8116d211_story.html

 

This probably is a case of market incumbents flexing political power under the spin a "living wage" for the poor when it's really just protectionism.

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I could be wrong and am not suggesting this is a well thought-out law, but it's likely those full-time D. C. school maintenance and custodial employees making $11.75 also receive good government benefits that trump the benefits available to Walmart employees who would make $12.50. 

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A funny thing happened during the Walmart living wage nonsense in DC. (But, but, but we're the government, you can't expect us to....)

http://www.nbcwashington.com/blogs/first-read-dmv/DC-Government-Doesnt-Pay-a-Living-Wage-215585001.html

Whoops!

But then it was never really about making all employers pay a living wage. The law was written to specifically target Walmart.

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I could be wrong and am not suggesting this is a well thought-out law, but it's likely those full-time D. C. school maintenance and custodial employees making $11.75 also receive good government benefits that trump the benefits available to Walmart employees who would make $12.50. 

You're probably right about DC employees getting better benefits, but what about employers like Starbucks and Apple who wouldn't be affected by this at all and also don't provide government-level benefits.? They get a pass.

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I could be wrong and am not suggesting this is a well thought-out law, but it's likely those full-time D. C. school maintenance and custodial employees making $11.75 also receive good government benefits that trump the benefits available to Walmart employees who would make $12.50. 

 

Nice spin.  You may have a future as a politician.  :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Penned by the director of RUHD, as if that was a surprise.

I'm going to start RUFP, Responsible Use of Forest Products to protest the numbers of trees that could have been better served in the manufacture of toilet-paper than in the pages used for this op-ed.

Well, this one was penned by a Republican who was county tax assessor:

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Sumners-Houston-should-stop-giving-free-money-to-4691548.php

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Well, this one was penned by a Republican who was county tax assessor:

He could be a one-armed, cross-dressing, juggling nun for all I care. Names and titles are meaningless, otherwise we would have people up in arms over our Nobel Peace Prize winning drone-crazed POTUS.

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  • 2 months later...

From news reports:

 

Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Walmart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Walmart was so packed, "It was worse than any black Friday" that he's ever seen.

Lynd explained the cards weren't showing limits and they called corporate Walmart, whose spokesman  said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700.00 and only had .49 on her card. She was held by police until corporate Walmart said they wouldn't press charges if she left the food.
 

So, Walmart knew there was a problem with the debit card system, but let people buy as much as they could for two hours until the problem was fixed. 

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From news reports:

 

Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Walmart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Walmart was so packed, "It was worse than any black Friday" that he's ever seen.

Lynd explained the cards weren't showing limits and they called corporate Walmart, whose spokesman  said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700.00 and only had .49 on her card. She was held by police until corporate Walmart said they wouldn't press charges if she left the food.

 

So, Walmart knew there was a problem with the debit card system, but let people buy as much as they could for two hours until the problem was fixed. 

 

Probably the right call.  Every news outlet in the country would have been running a story about WalMart refusing to accept EBT cards if they didn't.

 

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Probably the right call.  Every news outlet in the country would have been running a story about WalMart refusing to accept EBT cards if they didn't.

 

 

All they have to do is say that their EBT system is down and ask people to come back later.  They didn't want to do that because people would have just gone across the street to their competitor.  And, with no max on the EBT cards, they could empty their inventory on the government's dime and boost their numbers for the month. 

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All they have to do is say that their EBT system is down and ask people to come back later.  They didn't want to do that because people would have just gone across the street to their competitor.  And, with no max on the EBT cards, they could empty their inventory on the government's dime and boost their numbers for the month. 

 

Walmart has a market cap of $243 billion.  2 hours of inflated sales in a single state doesn't even register as a blip on the monthly numbers.  I know that you really dislike Walmart, but this is much more about image than sales. 

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Walmart has a market cap of $243 billion.  2 hours of inflated sales in a single state doesn't even register as a blip on the monthly numbers.  I know that you really dislike Walmart, but this is much more about image than sales. 

 

You know nothing about Walmart.  Corporate execs get a single pen and a pad of paper.  They cannot get another from the supply room until the pen runs out of ink and the pad of paper is out of paper.  There isn't another company in the world that is more revenue and cost conscious than Walmart.  They even go so far as to cut labor costs so much that they couldn't get new product on the shelves.  They knew that if they shut down the EBT system until it was fixed, they would lose sales.   So, the just let it ride on the government. 

 

Walmart could care less about image.  Just look at the image that got out with this story.  It makes it look to every crook out there that Walmart is the place to be whenever there is a problem with the EBT system.  With this news coverage, you can bet that twice the amount of goods will get ripped off if this happens again.  Had they just blamed the government for the problem with the EBT system (which would have been the truth), no one would have faulted them for shutting it down for two hours.  Everyone would have just gone across the street to another store and got what they needed or just waited for two hours.  No news story there.  Probably happens all the time.  And who would care if some poor people had to wait two hours to get groceries.  Poor people have to wait for stuff all the time.

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Being from this part of the world, I can tell you first had that there would likely have been riots if EBT cards were denied for a system issue.

 

I worked at a Brookeshires Grocery store when the EBT system broke once (this is when the Lagniappe Cards were brand new) and when we told the customers we couldn't process their cards because of a system glitch we had to call the police because some of the customers started throwing things at us (one person got hit with a can and actually cut their head).  You don't just go across the street to another store... your showing your ignorance there for sure.  Springhill is a very small rural town that is a good distance from even a small city (shreveport).  I haven't been there since highschool track meets, but back then they i don't think they even had a walmart, so I'd imagine it is probably the only big discount store in town. 

 

 

 

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You know nothing about Walmart.  Corporate execs get a single pen and a pad of paper.  They cannot get another from the supply room until the pen runs out of ink and the pad of paper is out of paper.  There isn't another company in the world that is more revenue and cost conscious than Walmart.  They even go so far as to cut labor costs so much that they couldn't get new product on the shelves.  They knew that if they shut down the EBT system until it was fixed, they would lose sales.   So, the just let it ride on the government. 

 

Walmart could care less about image.  Just look at the image that got out with this story.  It makes it look to every crook out there that Walmart is the place to be whenever there is a problem with the EBT system.  With this news coverage, you can bet that twice the amount of goods will get ripped off if this happens again.  Had they just blamed the government for the problem with the EBT system (which would have been the truth), no one would have faulted them for shutting it down for two hours.  Everyone would have just gone across the street to another store and got what they needed or just waited for two hours.  No news story there.  Probably happens all the time.  And who would care if some poor people had to wait two hours to get groceries.  Poor people have to wait for stuff all the time.

If the Walmart CEO gets a pen before it is out of ink or only uses one side of a piece of a paper, he is flogged and put in the stocks for one week up in Arkansas.  Bill Clinton has been known to spit on the CEO for this wasteful behavior.  You don't want to know what happens if the CEO takes more than one sheet of toilet paper.  

 

And in other news, the police just caught the second JFK shooter and found Elvis living in Cuba . . . .

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Being from this part of the world, I can tell you first had that there would likely have been riots if EBT cards were denied for a system issue.

 

I worked at a Brookeshires Grocery store when the EBT system broke once (this is when the Lagniappe Cards were brand new) and when we told the customers we couldn't process their cards because of a system glitch we had to call the police because some of the customers started throwing things at us (one person got hit with a can and actually cut their head).  You don't just go across the street to another store... your showing your ignorance there for sure.  Springhill is a very small rural town that is a good distance from even a small city (shreveport).  I haven't been there since highschool track meets, but back then they i don't think they even had a walmart, so I'd imagine it is probably the only big discount store in town. 

 

Springhill has a Brookshire, a Piggly Wiggly, a Dollar Store, Walgreens, a Fred's Super Dollar, and a couple of convenience stores.  You are showing your ignorance there for sure.  Walmart didn't want people to go to their competitors and find out that they could actually get more for their dollar instead of being a sucker for a few loss leaders in the middle of the aisles.

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Springhill has a Brookshire, a Piggly Wiggly, a Dollar Store, Walgreens, a Fred's Super Dollar, and a couple of convenience stores.  You are showing your ignorance there for sure.  Walmart didn't want people to go to their competitors and find out that they could actually get more for their dollar instead of being a sucker for a few loss leaders in the middle of the aisles.

 

2012 gross margin numbers

 

Walmart - 24.5%

Walgreens - 28.3%

Dollar Store - 35.6%

 

I didn't bother to look at the others.

 

That's not even considering the fact that Walmart is legendary for having the lowest supplier costs.

 

So basically, you're saying that the company with the lowest cost and the lowest gross margin is afraid that their customers are going to find better value at their competitors?

 

To paraphrase your earlier comment - You know nothing about business.

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Springhill has a Brookshire, a Piggly Wiggly, a Dollar Store, Walgreens, a Fred's Super Dollar, and a couple of convenience stores.  You are showing your ignorance there for sure.  Walmart didn't want people to go to their competitors and find out that they could actually get more for their dollar instead of being a sucker for a few loss leaders in the middle of the aisles.

 

Hahaha...now that's really a laugh.  Do you think the people who have to watch every penny aren't going to pay close attention to where they can get things the cheapest?  The fact that you include two dollar stores, a Walgreens, and convenience stores in your example shows how really out of touch you are.

 

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So, Walmart knew there was a problem with the debit card system, but let people buy as much as they could for two hours until the problem was fixed.

Hell has frozen over as I find myself agreeing with this statement. Regardless of what the store manager feared would happen, there is no excuse to knowingly allow your store to become a co-conspirator in inter-state wire-fraud. This is a disgusting lack of concern for taxpayer dollars.

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Springhill has a Brookshire, a Piggly Wiggly, a Dollar Store, Walgreens, a Fred's Super Dollar, and a couple of convenience stores.  You are showing your ignorance there for sure.  Walmart didn't want people to go to their competitors and find out that they could actually get more for their dollar instead of being a sucker for a few loss leaders in the middle of the aisles.

Dollar store and Fred's Super dollar... HAHAHA  if you'd ever seen either of those you'd get how much of a joke that is.   Brookeshire's is a grocery store... not exactly the best place to go get home products. 

 

Brookeshire's is almost always more expensive as well, as they still try to provide full service to their customers (someone carries your grocery's out to your car for you, and they are not supposed to take tips as part of brookeshire's policy). 

 

You are really reaching for straws on this one. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I heard someone say the other day that the Walton family - not, I think, a very large family - now controls as much wealth as the bottom 40 percent of Americans. I googled the claim and found this: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/17/534591/walmart-heirs-wealth-combined/#

Don't know anything about the Economic Policy Institute.

But if true, I find this quite astonishing, though for all I know some other famous family - the Carnegies or the Vanderbilts or Rockefellers - once did the same.

I present this neutrally - I'm not interested in demonizing the wealthy; in fact, I believe that, traditionally and sometimes still, what is good in the world has most often been done by people of means, even if the Waltons seem unlikely candidates.

Well, mostly neutrally. I am ignorant of whether this means anything, whether it is a positiive sign, or whether it even matters (considered completely apart from the business they're engaged in, I mean).

 

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