Wal-Mart Haters of the World -- Unite!

I am not alone.

Like some readers of this blog, and like many Americans across this great land, I HATE WAL-MART! I know this is not a fashionable view. Wal-Mart seems to be the new General Motors -- as in "What's good for General Motors is good for America." Why, to hear some people tell it, It's almost un-American to dislike Wal-Mart.

Despite my disdain my family will, not as infrequently as I would like, journey into Wal-Mart hell. In our efforts to be frugal we simply cannot ignore that there are certain staple food items on which Wal-Mart is able to drastically undercut the prices of our local grocery store. At least, I tell myself, I'm not buying sweatshirts made in sweat shops. Yet I'm always unhappy when I shop at Wal-Mart. And not only because the store is dirty, the aisles cramped, and the people (Americans!) corpulent and slovenly.

To the rescue comes Chris at MyDD who points to a Slate article which says, in part:

Costco also has the sort of labor policy that would bring a smile to Barbara Ehrenreich's face. Pay starts at $10 an hour. About one in six employees is represented by a union, and workers receive nice health benefits. Sinegal has a non-zero-sum view of employee relations. Give people good jobs at good wages, and they'll be more likely to work harder, less likely to leave, and less likely to steal. As Helyar reported, Costco's turnover "is a third of the retail industry average of 64%," and "shrinkage"—the amount of inventory lost to theft—"is about 13% of the industry norm."

On the right: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Founded in Arkansas (a blue-turned-red state), it grew by spreading into the adjacent South and Great Plains. Like today's Republican Party, it focuses intensely on rural areas and generally avoids cities. (Republican conventioneers won't be able to shop at a Wal-Mart when they visit New York City.) As this Bloomberg story notes, "Sixty-seven percent of Wal-Mart's stores are in the 30 states that voted for Bush and Cheney in 2000."

The company's labor policies are state-of-the-art, for the 1890s. It has been investigated for hiring contractors who allegedly hired illegal aliens to clean Wal-Mart stores and for locking them inside overnight. (One wonders if the Wal-Mart employees who in April were bused in to hear Vice President Dick Cheney sing the company's praises at Wal-Mart's headquarters were similarly confined.) In June, a federal judge certified a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of female Wal-Mart employees who claimed discrimination. The average wage at Wal-Mart, which has no unions and bitterly opposes raising the minimum wage, is lower than Costco's lowest wage. Turnover at Wal-Mart, according to the Economist, is 44 percent, meaning it "has to hire an astonishing 600,000 people every year simply to stay at its current size."

So, it appears, I have a choice. Hallelujah! And if they have low prices and clean, wide aisles so much the better.

I think a dress code may be too much to ask for.