Wal-Mart Blowzzz

Adding onto D's post below, I just need to rant for a moment...

I hate Wal-Mart. I mean, I really, really hate it. I refuse to step foot inside a Wal-Mart anymore, because I find them so thoroughly loathsome—though avoiding them is becoming increasingly difficult, as their mega-meganess usurps all other choices out of communities. I have the same visceral reaction at the sight of a Wal-Mart as I would looking through a microscope at a sample of a hideous virus.

I didn’t think it was possible for me to detest Wal-Mart any more than I already did, but they’ve found a way to turn my hate into mega-hate. (Here's some more of that article; emphasis mine.)

She wrote that "the cost of an associate with seven years of tenure is almost 55 percent more than the cost of an associate with one year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity. Moreover, because we pay an associate more in salary and benefits as his or her tenure increases, we are pricing that associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart."

The memo noted that Wal-Mart workers "are getting sicker than the national population, particularly in obesity-related diseases," including diabetes and coronary artery disease. The memo said Wal-Mart workers tended to overuse emergency rooms and underuse prescriptions and doctor visits, perhaps from previous experience with Medicaid.

The memo noted, "The least healthy, least productive associates are more satisfied with their benefits than other segments and are interested in longer careers with Wal-Mart."

[…]

"It will be far easier to attract and retain a healthier work force than it will be to change behavior in an existing one," the memo said. "These moves would also dissuade unhealthy people from coming to work at Wal-Mart."

You know what, Wal-Mart? Shut the fuck up. If you want to keep moving into communities and force out the competition by offering the cheapest bloody prices on everything from milk to tractor tires, then you’re stuck with whatever job force you get, unhealthy or not, because you leave people with nowhere else to work. And when your mega-presence ends up forcing Ma & Pa’s Little Local Grocer to close their doors, their staff, who may have been with them for years and years, is going to come knocking on your door—and yeah, some of them might be old, or unhealthy. Tough. It’s called corporate responsibility.

And by the way, if wanting a rotating workforce of young and skinny and healthy folks who will leave before you have to pay them too much is your new paradigm, then I never want to see one of your lame-ass commercials trumpeting the great work conditions for the elderly, or featuring some fat, middle-aged, middle-America mom blathering on about how great a place it is to work, or especially the ones with some dude talking about how he started as a cashier and has worked his way up to district manager, because “you can have a career” at Wal-Mart. Lying pieces of shit.