Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Too easy to resist

I've been taken over by the machine that is big business.

Tonight munchkin and I made a Wal-Mart run. We needed a few things around the house and I had to return an iPod arm band that I had bought.

We walked into the store, just like we usually do. But this time, I happened to look at our reflections in the window on the way in. We were both, head to toe, dressed in Wal-Mart's finest.

Shirts, pants/shorts, shoes. Every single bit of it was purchased at, and helped to line, Wal-Mart's pocket.

I guess I could say that we don't have a lot of other shopping options here. And we don't. And it's not that I think I'm too good for Wal-Mart stuff. But it really does bother me a little that Wal-Mart makes so much money and pays their staff so little. I used to work there. I know. And from what I hear, the benefits are atrocious. I hear way too many stories of people being scheduled just under 40 hours so Wal-Mart doesn't have to pay for benefits.

I played a role in all those people getting less than they deserve.

If we didn't shop there, big businesses couldn't do this to their employees. But, with gas prices the way they are, convenience wins out. Besides, do I really want to pay a bunch of money for clothes that the munchkin is either going to ruin or grow out of in 3 months? Nope. So, watch me pull out my money and support the biggest of all mega-marts.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Look at it this way...I work there right now. And if they hadn't been willing to give me that just-over-minimum-wage job when they did, we'd have lost our apartment. And it's not like they're unique in having crummy benefits or underpaying folks...I'd hazard to guess that those are pretty much universal among retailers, especially (and certainly have been among those I've worked for), but common in a lot of the rest of the economy, too. And smaller businesses are not exempt from being jerks that way. I know this from hard personal experience.

So I have a hard time picking on Wal-Mart. You take the good, you take the bad...*giggle*

Seriously, though, it's a pretty standard-issue hourly job. It's pretty much just like every one of those I've ever had.