Political Discussion - "on-topic & unmoderated"Rated PG13, unmoderated but threads must stay on topic - that means you can flame each other all you want as long as it's legal
Personally I'm not willing to sacrifice my dignity to save 20 bucks on a Blu-Ray player, but maybe that's just me.
I am going to one store on Black Friday, a local mattress store that has a $500 memory foam mattress set as a "doorbuster" (they open at the civilized hour of 8am). There's no need to line up for them because they already said if they run out of store stock they can just order more and will give the doorbuster price.
yea you reduce labour overhead a lot when you stock shelves with forklifts directly loading shipping pallets onto them lol (probably why employees are paid more since on since they have on average more machinery operators).
man I love costco, temple of capitalist efficiency
yea you reduce labour overhead a lot when you stock shelves with forklifts directly loading shipping pallets onto them lol (probably why employees are paid more since on since they have on average more machinery operators).
man I love costco, temple of capitalist efficiency
Costo is indeed a great store. Much more worthy of my consumership than economy-vampire like Wall Marts
Costo is indeed a great store. Much more worthy of my consumership than economy-vampire like Wall Marts
Theyre not really direct competitors despite being in the same business...because of how differently they do things. No one goes to walmart for 6 gallons of ketchup
Sams Club is more the direct competition.
But yeah...My reasons for trying to avoid walmart are mainly the caliber of people there. I went one day for lunch in a shirt and tie and got dirty looks from some chick in her pajamas. Yikes.
Walmart is a great example of a store where you can never find an employee to help you when you need it, but they are constantly getting in your way when you don't.
yea you reduce labour overhead a lot when you stock shelves with forklifts directly loading shipping pallets onto them lol (probably why employees are paid more since on since they have on average more machinery operators).
man I love costco, temple of capitalist efficiency
That should just mean more profits for shareholders. Not higher wages for workers who could easily be replaced. AMIRITE?
BTW: Walmart hires out it's warehouse workers who get $8 an hour to work in 100 degree weather without access to water around here. Apparently they just got the water thing changed because they got busted by OSHA, but rarely fill the barrels.
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History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
There are two different issues being discussed in this thread. One is concerning wages/unions and although I am staunchly opposed to any individual being forced into union membership or abiding by strike votes (even by a majority of workers), I also staunchly in support of those who wish to participate in collective bargaining negotiations through a union to do so. From what I can tell, Wal-Mart has actively attempted to prevent the right to any kind of collective bargaining.
The second issue being discussed is to what extent it is appropriate for government to prevent business (big or small) from operating at all times. I think the last time this was a part of the public discourse in a meaningful way was when Sunday shopping was allowed.
I consider myself to tend toward the libertarian perspective on a lot of things both social and economic, but as I have grown older (I used to think people who opposed Sunday shopping were antiquated morons) I have increasingly felt that society would be served by having a set time where normal commercial activity was expected to halt. I'm not saying Sunday shopping should be banned, but I think there are a few major holidays where all non-essential commercial activity shouldn't be allowed (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter are probably the three main examples I can think of).
Of course that also raises the issue of who gets to pick what days this ought to be applied and secular libertarians would be loathe to see days like Christmas/Easter be granted special status religious holidays (even though those two holidays have been largely stripped of their religious significance). And, honestly, this is where I'm somewhat inconsistent in my political thought as I think society needs to share certain events/occasions and if we only share those things which are/can be universal to the entire population we would never be able to pick anything (Christmas/Easter & secularists, Victoria Day & republicans, Remembrance Day and & anti-war).
These holidays used to be designated times when the commercial was put aside to spend time with the family. In my life time, it seems that not only has the putting the commercial aside aspect been lost, but it is being lost to the extent that we are losing the actual purpose of these holidays which is to spend time with family and instead it is becoming nothing more than a commercial activity.
Walmart is a great example of a store where you can never find an employee to help you when you need it, but they are constantly getting in your way when you don't.
Never had this happen
There is no Wal-Mart around here but back in Seattle there were more of them
Where else can I get mp3-to-car cables and mice at 4 AM
A half century ago America’s largest private-sector employer was General Motors, whose full-time workers earned an average hourly wage of around $50, in today’s dollars, including health and pension benefits.
Today, America’s largest employer is Walmart, whose average employee earns $8.81 an hour. A third of Walmart’s employees work less than 28 hours per week and don’t qualify for benefits.
There are many reasons for the difference – including globalization and technological changes that have shrunk employment in American manufacturing while enlarging it in sectors involving personal services, such as retail.
But one reason, closely related to this seismic shift, is the decline of labor unions in the United States. In the 1950s, over a third of private-sector workers belonged to a union. Today fewer than 7 percent do. As a result, the typical American worker no longer has the bargaining clout to get a sizeable share of corporate profits.
Yes. Part of the reason they can pay more. Almost every customer that walks in the door pays to go to the store to buy stuff.
My Costco membership pays for itself...If you get the executive membership(I think that is the one) a certain percentage of your purchases through the year go back to you in the form of a check. I normally get a check from Costco for about 225 each year. Granted my Costco membership pays for itself in just the Milk I buy. With 4 young kids and my wife also babysitting a couple of other kids we go through about 10 gallons of milk a day. I love Costco and I have known people who work at Costco and they say its a really good place to work for as far as retailers/chains go. Granted the comparisons to Wal-Mart etc are way off. They should be compared to Sams Club. As to how Sams employees are treated I have no clue so I cannot really comment.
What Reich doesn't realise is that his reasons for the decline in manufacturing (technological change and globalisation) are the same reasons for the decline in unions.
Seriously, what's so hard about making the consumer wait until the next morning at 6am or whatever to go in and get what they want. If people want it, they are going to get it. I'm surprised Wal-Mart wants to pay its employees time and a half.
Personally I'm not willing to sacrifice my dignity to save 20 bucks on a Blu-Ray player, but maybe that's just me.
I am going to one store on Black Friday, a local mattress store that has a $500 memory foam mattress set as a "doorbuster" (they open at the civilized hour of 8am). There's no need to line up for them because they already said if they run out of store stock they can just order more and will give the doorbuster price.
Couldn't agree more. I will never rush into a store at an ungodly hour and fight with hordes of people on order to save five dollars on a DVD player or some other ridiculous unnecessary item. The other thing is that I drink a lot on Thanksgivings where I don't work the next day. Am I the only one? I am with family I love, I don't have kids yet. So we drink wine! I then wake up the next day at one in the afternoon and certainly don't want to shop.
