I can see the argument that WalMart provides valuable job training for teens, flexible hours for moms, and a rather safe place to work for elderly greeters. That's not the real problem. The real problem is WalMart - a company that arguably offers no real future for a majority of employees - is now the largest employer in America. That role used to be held by companies like Ford or GM, where workers had good advancement prospects and could afford a solid middle class lifestyle on their pay.

Having lived in a former logging boom town where the only game left in town was WalMart, I've seen the other side of the coin. As much as WalMart wants to spin the idea that it provides valuable jobs to those not looking for full-time work, there are also plenty of WalMart workers who have little choice in where they work.

since walmart has 2.1 million workers, and the US has 150 million workers(one out of 75 workers works for walmart), I find it strange a walmart can survive being the "only game in town". Wouldn't a store need about 35 working customers(in addition to unemployed/retired/etc) per employee or so to stay afloat?

So, if Wal-Mart wasn't in your town, do you think that people would have more choices in where they work? Seems unlikely to me.

mchichi:

So, if Wal-Mart wasn't in your town, do you think that people would have more choices in where they work? Seems unlikely to me.

By virtue of its retail volume, Wal-Mart forces distributors to give them wholesale price breaks that smaller stores, including companies like Sears, Safeway Grocers, etc, cannot demand. As a result these companies go out of business (and I'm not even going to discuss the mom-npop issue, which is much more severe).

Hence, fewer choices in employment. It's not an illogical process.

One of the other major differences is the attitude of the companies towards paying their workers.

Henry Ford made the decision to pay his assembly line workers enough money to be able to afford the same cars they manufactured for him. This was a revolutionary idea for the time, and a huge contribution towards the creation of the middle class. A group of people paid well enough to be major consumers in the economy.

Compare this mentality to Walmart, where they want to pay employees as little as possible in order to driver greater wealth to a much smaller pool of people (executives and share holders). But this pool of millions of employees can barely afford to shop in their own stores, and only has money for necessities. Thus we have a shrinking middle class.

Fewer middle class workers means increased hardship for an economy based on consumer spending. If all employers paid like Walmart who would be left to purchase cars or homes?

While Ford did want to pay good wages it is a myth that he paid wanted "workers [to earn] enough money to be able to afford the same cars they manufactured." Of course, there is a big difference between manufacturing and retail--especially in wages.

You also weaken your argument saying Wal-Mart employees "can barely afford to shop in their own stores". While they might earn low wages, Wal-Mart's prices allow poor and lower middle-class shoppers to stretch their purchasing power.

Actually a number of sources have supported this view of the Walmart worker, including Barbara Ehrenreich in her book "Nickel and Dimed".

Store workers, including cashiers or salespersons, at Walmart do not make anywhere near enough to be considered middle class by any reasonable definition. As has been reported by people interviewing Walmart workers, people subsisting on Walmart wages often do not do most of their shopping at Walmart, unless their income is supplemented by someone else in the household. Walmart workers have reported the clothes and food being too expensive, and like others living below the poverty line often use alternatives such as food shelves or the salavation army. People making 20,000 dollars a year can’t always afford the relative luxury of Walmart when having to pay for housing, energy and medical costs.

So disagree with me all you like. I’ll stick with the stories I hear from people every week at the food shelf I volunteer at, and for years many of them have been Walmart employees.

Also, to refute your calling my comments on Ford a "myth" I will offer actual facts.

Ford famously offered the majority of his workers the pricely sum of 5$ a day, which was double most other similar jobs at the time. Most workers at that time would work at least 6 days a week, 50 weeks out of the year. So a Ford employee could make 1500 a year at these wages.

When the Model T was first introduced in 1908 it cost 825 dollars, but by 1915 was down to 440 and further lowered to 290$ by the 20s well within reach of his average workers.

These "myths" can be discovered in many history books about the Ford motor company.

Must be a bushie. If a fact is inconvenient, it is not a fact but a myth. I will second the idea that walmart employees are not middle class, except for the store managers. Asst managers don't do too bad (36k-48k) so I guess they could be considered middle class. The others...well, see for yourself, "The salary for full-time employees (called "associates") is $6 to $7.50 an hour for 28-40 hours a week..." It's important to note that most are not full time employees, which is done deliberately to prevent them from being eligible for health benefits. The health benefits, btw, are no prize, either. It's estimated that the benefits cost 40% of an associate's salary. So, they can blow smoke up people's asses about how no one is really suffering in the industry or that people who make around a $1,000 a month go home singing every day or, my favorite, if they don't like the job, they should get a new one, but I see what has come from this rampant greed where profit is the only motivating force and everything else can go hang. It's not gay marriage that's destroying america, its slimey little shits who screw over everyone else just so they can line their own pockets and then have the audacity to piously claim that it is merely the american dream.

Hey, did you all hear? Every non-management/corporate employee for Walmart just quit. Yeah, they said they could find better jobs somewhere else.

Oh wait... that didn't happen. Then it must be that working at Walmart is their *best* option. That's unfortunate... but working somewhere worse (or being unemployed) would probably be worse. People need to stop thinking they should control others' lives. This isn't an oligarchy where the smartest few get to decide how America should run. As long as no one is breaking any laws, let people make their own decisions. Anyone ever seen the South Park about Walmart? People thought they were against shopping at or working at Walmart... but it turns out it was everyone's best option!

Hate Walmart? Don't give them business. It's that simple. No one is even so much as requesting you shop or work there (let alone "forcing" like some people here are making it sound).

*Best option*.

What wonderful advice; people should quit complaining and just accept poor treatment because they can't do any better, and everyone else should ignore the effects this has on our society. Sounds like a similar arguement that an abused woman should stay in the relationship because they could never do any better than their current spouse.

If everyone followed this advice think of the great country we wold have, without woman's sufferage, civil rights or a host of other social improvements.

You honestly believe a woman couldn't do better by leaving an abusive husband?? What weak imagination you have. With 10 seconds of thinking, I came up with:

Live in a girl-friend's basement.

Move in with mom and dad.

Get an account on eHarmony.com to start looking for others.

Become active in your community and meet new people that way.

Travel to China, find a job teaching English (it's in very high demand), and live a new life over there.

You ALWAYS have options. It seems to me like I'm the one who believes in the rights of women, the working class, and other demographic groups. You seem to want to pity them and condemn them to a life of suffering (that is, until the government magically erases all of life's problems!). As soon as you say you can't do better, you stop being a human being. You can always do better. You always have options.