MetaFilter posts tagged with walmart

In Wal-Mart's Image

acb — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:00:58 -0800

How Wal-Mart's values are shaping America's economy -- and why this is a very bad thing:

Around the time that the young Sam Walton opened his first stores, John Kennedy redeemed a presidential campaign promise by persuading Congress to extend the minimum wage to retail workers, who had until then not been covered by the law. Walton was furious. Now the goddamn federal government was telling him he had to pay his workers the $1.15 hourly minimum. Walton's response was to divide up his stores into individual companies whose revenues didn't exceed the $250,000 threshold. Eventually, though, a federal court ruled that this was simply a scheme to avoid paying the minimum wage, and he was ordered to pay his workers the accumulated sums he owed them, plus a double-time penalty thrown in for good measure. Wal-Mart cut the checks, but Walton also summoned the employees at a major cluster of his stores to a meeting. "I'll fire anyone who cashes the check," he told them.

It is available through churches and at Wal-Marts....

squalor — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:27:02 -0800

“They are brands that may not be considered cool by the often elitist and self-absorbed standards of New York media,” she said. She had taken a car from Manhattan that morning, and wore a pink wool shirt-dress, patent leather Manolo Blahnik heels, and diamond hoop earrings.

Reader's Digest jumps the shark. (NYT)

"So I lost the baby, but I totally got the last Wii."

resurrexit — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:45:52 -0800

SighFilter: In light of other Black Friday tales of horror or posts urging a more sober consumerism, now comes this story of a worker trampled to death at Wal-Mart and a woman who miscarried in a stampede. They ought to have read FEMA's Black Friday Advisory.

Watching the Growth of Walmart Across America

y2karl — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:59:44 -0800

I am Walmarticus! --Watch me grow....

A new jug ships clean

dirtdirt — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:53:36 -0800

Wal-mart/Sam's Club and Costco are in the process of switching to a re-designed milk jug. Although the new design may take a while to get used to, the ecological benefits are fairly clear - the new design is cheaper to ship and fill, and doesn't require milk crates, thereby saving fuel, water, and labor. Of course, some will ask why we should use plastic jugs at all. After all, what's wrong with bags, or cardboard, glass?

Worst Practices in Corporate Video

VicNebulous — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:59:52 -0800

For 30 years, retail juggernaut Walmart used a small video production company to capture footage of its top executives -- sometimes in unguarded moments. Two years ago, they stopped using the company. But Walmart never signed a contract with the company...and now the material is "proving irresistible to everyone from business historians and documentary filmmakers to plaintiffs lawyers and union organizers."

They actually read Omnivores Dilemma

Xurando — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:20:54 -0800

Checkout: Where all lanes are open. NYT article article on Walmart's new blog written by their buyers with uncensored commentary on Walmart products. "After heeding the lessons of Wal-Mart’s earlier blogs and consulting with several well-known bloggers from sites like the Huffington Post, the buyers decided the site would succeed only if they wrote in their own voice, free from censorship and corporate review." My stereotypes are busted. Some (not all) of these people are actually smart, critical, not your usual corporate zombie. They even read books.

I Told You Not To Kill That Albatross!

jonson — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 15:30:40 -0800

Disaster at Sea!! A collection of dozens & dozens of photographs of misfortune striking those GIGANTIC shipping vessels, the kind that bring goods from China to Wal Mart. Every kind of affliction imaginable, from shipboard fire to heavy weather to grounding amidst crushing waves to capsizing from ill balanced loads to random explosive cargo to terrorist attack to so much more. Descriptions of the vessels and what brought them down are included in the first link.

You might be a Walmart shopper...

rzklkng — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:07:55 -0800

Proported [Leaked] Walmart Internal-Marketing Presentation. Hate Walmart? Well, you're now a Conscientuous Objector (14% of their market). Read up on the Price-Value Shopper, the Brand Aspirationals, and the Price Sensitive Affluents, and see if you can figure out where you are in the Walmart Universe.

There's a reason that yellow smiley is so happy

Target Practice — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:22:13 -0800

Wal-Mart sells hentai now? (link SFW) Strange activity for a retailer well known to ban men's magazines (of both the pornographic variety and almost-but-not-quite pornographic variety), music with explicit lyrics, or pretty much any book they don't like. One can only assume that they were trying to get into the market for these newfangled Japanese comics that are suddenly all the rage, and didn't pay attention to precisely which ones they were ordering.

Does the Smiling Yellow Orb See the Light?

mrbula — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 21:19:27 -0800

Wal-Mart and the Light Bulb [NY Times link] - Wal-Mart officials admit their push to sell 100 million compact fluorescent lights per year is at least partially a marketing ploy, but if successful, it would increase the number of the energy-efficient bulbs in use by 50% while "saving Americans $3 billion in electricity costs and avoiding the need to build additional power plants for the equivalent of 450,000 new homes." Wal-Mart's environmental record is less than perfect, of course, but if they managed to pull this off it would be hard to see it as a bad thing.

Wal-Mart Sells T-Shirt with Nazi SS Logo

paulinsanjuan — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 03:04:28 -0800

Blogger goes to Wal-Mart and finds t-shirt with Nazi SS logo. Wal-Mart apologizes and promises to pull the shirts. But have they been doing a good job? [via] the consumerist

Walmart Shoplifing Complaint

DougieZero1982 — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:48:23 -0800

my3cents.com is an addictive read. It's for people to air their grief about various retail stores (Walmart is the clear favorite). This particular complaint is a riot.

Breaking the Chain.

chunking express — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 06:55:11 -0800

Breaking the Chain: The antitrust case against Wal-Mart. Barry C. Lynn argues Wal-Mart is a monopsony, and should be dealt with the same way A&P and Standard Oil were many years ago.

Harry Potter and Lord Wal-d-mart

cjoh — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 07:42:30 -0800

Harry Potter and Lord Wal-d-mart: The Late Night Players entertain us this friday: Harry Potter combats the low low prices of Wal-Mart.

Black Racism?

mischief — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 18:02:49 -0800

From WalMart's latest PR campaign: "I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs..." The author? Former MLK lieut, Andrew Young.

Can't set up a snitch line? We're outta here.

telstar — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 17:57:40 -0800

"Workers were also told not to flirt with one another." After eight years of "fiasco", Wal-Mart bails on Germany.

WalMart Tries to Be MySpace, Badly

fenriq — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 08:37:16 -0800

Pending Approval, WalMart Horns in on MySpace, Badly
WalMart wants in on MySpace's lock on teen minds. So they've launched schoolyourway to give kids a place to "express their individuality" so long as the WalMart censors approve of it.

WalMart, a Christian company

skwm — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 11:07:44 -0800

WalMart Manager: We feel that as a Christian Company it was inappropriate to carry things associated with morally corrupt themes.

L.A. South Central Farm Receives Eviction Notice

Artifice_Eternity — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 00:06:50 -0800

L.A. South Central Farm Receives Eviction Notice 350 families have been growing organic produce on 14 acres in inner-city LA for over a decade. Now the owner wants them out -- so a warehouse for Wal-Mart can be built on the site. LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says he wants to see the farm saved, but the city can't afford to buy the land.

The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart

five fresh fish — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 10:59:46 -0800

Choose your own adventure! You are the manufacturer of a premium product. Wal*Mart wants it. They want it cheap. Do you buckle to their demands and out-source, reduce the build quality, and make money on volume? Turn to page 67. Or do you keep your American employees, increase quality, and make money by targeting the higher-end market? Turn to page 28. The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart.

The Lord's Wal-Mart

thisisdrew — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 22:03:19 -0800

"This is the day that the Lord has made! We shall rejoice and be glad in the new Wal-Mart that the Lord has made."

Documentary journalism? Activism?

graymouser — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 14:16:53 -0800

Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, the latest film by Robert Greenwald, director/producer of last year's Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (mentioned here and here), is being screened across the country this week in a private activist-driven model used by Outfoxed. The campaign is driven by Wake Up Wal-Mart, a UFCW-driven campaign to change the retail giant's reputation and unionize its employees. The film's trailer has gotten a reaction from Wal-Mart's PR division. Is the political documentary a new form of journalism, or a form of disinformation?

from the unlikely-headline dept.

kliuless — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 21:02:21 -0800

Wal-Mart urges Congress to raise minimum wage and "unveiled a series of initiatives designed to present a kinder, gentler face for the world's biggest retailer... exploring ways to use the company's heft and resources to have a more positive impact on society." In its bid to turn over a new leaf, Wal-Mart also announced it's going green and lowering health care costs for its workers. Is this a new sign of rethinking the social responsibility of business where the kind of growth matters as much as the amount? Or is it right to be skeptical of it as a ploy to help open more stores like its critics charge?

The Shark Jumps The Shark?

effugas — Sat, 13 Aug 2005 14:59:17 -0800

Walmart Murders Customer In Broad Daylight? They thought he shoplifted something, so they tackled him and held him down, shirtless, against the hot pavement...for ten minutes, he begged for his life and the 30-strong crowd did too...and when his heart finally stopped, the Walmart employees didn't even try to give him CPR. Somehow, this changes the discussion.