LISSA’S: New Years Resolutions by The Angry Leprechaun and The Spanish Fly.

• NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS with THE ANGRY LEPRECHAUN: If you need some help picking out your New Year's Resolutions this year, the Angry Leprechaun is here to help you. Or not help you.

• NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS BY THE SPANISH FLY: The Spanish Fly loves to give advice. In this edition, the Spanish Fly talks about New Year's Resolutions.

BILL’S: Etiquette for Apologies after a Nuclear Bomb

Let me start from yesterday. Just like everyday, I arrive at work. The first thing I do is go to the back to get directs. It is something that needs to be done, and working the movies and music that comes in on a daily basis is something I really look forward to doing. But yesterday, I go to the back to pick up the shipment, and I am stopped by the Department Manager. He tells me not to worry about the movies right now, there were already three carts on the floor and we need to work them first. They had already taken all the video games that came in the directs out to the floor and they were being worked. So, I go out and do what I can. Two of the other associates working were working their areas of the department. After awhile, one finished their two carts and got it off the floor before going to lunch. Since the requirements of the Department Manager had been met, I figured it was a good time to get started on the movies I needed to work, so I went back and grabbed what I needed to start and get some done while one was out at lunch. Normally this would give me a hour of working movies before the person would return.

As I came out with the cart of movies, the Area Manager stopped me and told me not to worry about movies and music today because we are so shorthanded, in fact I am the only person in the department so just stay in the department and don't worry about the rest. With no one else in the department, I parked the cart off to the side, until I could get someone to watch the department and then I would run it back to the backroom. It doesn't take long for our department to get torn up, so I started "zoning" the department, or basically tidying up. The Department Manager saw me, RAN over to me, got just inches away from my face and told me in an extremely angry voice, "I told you not to work the movies! Now put them down!" I tried to explain that I was just straightening the department, and not working the movies, but he wouldn't listen, and walked off. I couldn't believe it.

After a couple of people returned to the department, I took the cart of movies back to the backroom, and set them aside on a pallet for someone else to work. But curiousity was still with me. I was wondering why everyone else was able to work their area, but I was being addressed with extreme hostility when I tried doing my area. That's when I got the news. Apparently when I do my job, no one else is able to do their job. So, basically, one person taking movies from the back room, taking them out of a box and putting them on a shelf where they belong prevents two other people from doing their job. And then to top it off, it is okay if other people do this job. That way it doesn't distract the others who are trying to work. So, one person, me, doing a job is bad, but three to four people dedicated to the same job is good. After digging, I discovered that one person complained to the Department Manager and Area Manager about this, saying that I am the reason no one can work in the deparment.

Then comes the cherry on top. Today, this person comes up to me and tries to apologize. She tells me, "I didn't mean to get you in trouble. I was mad at Melissa and misdirected my anger." Okay, so let's look at this. She is mad at my wife (who doesn't work with me) and gets me in trouble at work. She still has her area, which she likes, I have nothing to look forward to anymore. I am now faced with a Department Manager and an Area Manager who believes outlandish claims without even trying to find out the truth from someone with an outside personal vendetta, but takes it out on fellow associates. Trust is now an extreme issue.

So, what is the etiquette for apologizing after dropping a nuclear bomb? You still have what you like to do. So does everyone else. I am the one out, I am the one who has had my work environment destroyed and you want me to accept your apology? You take away everything I enjoy about work, and want me to be happy? I spent alot of time today thinking about the times I took her side when she was having dilemmas or problems with others in the store. Now I am wondering who was actually right. Maybe the problems wasn't where I thought it was, but from the one shedding the tears. That's fine, I got a look at a true side over the past two days. I have to tolerate, but I do not have to respect or appreciate. It is impossible to respect someone who has done something so completely disrespectful to me. I don't believe in your pain, because you are too good at dealing it. Do not try to fake the tears, do not try to gain sympathy. And hope and pray to God, no one asks me my opinion, because I will make sure everyone knows the true side of a fellow associate. This is Texomite friendship at it's finest. Take someone who has defended you and stab them in the back. Thanks.

LISSA’S: Proving Stupidity

once again youre proving how stupid you are.

These are the words that a "friend" wrote me. The same one Bill's story is about. It made me curious about why she was mad at me, and after a few words, I get into some interesting facts. Now that I am not so pissed off, it is actually funny to read.

i got pissed off from all the lies in your stupid blog.

In a previous letter, it was this:

half your "anti-walmart" bullshit is just that- shit. no one comments your blog because no one really cares, and half the stuff you write is stupid and a gaint lie. which btw, you can be sued for slander.

First of all, I am flattered that she kept coming back to my page, and forced herself to read the words that I posted. I can only imagine how traumatic it was for her to keep coming back when every word pissed her off so bad. The one question that comes to mind, is her home life similar to "A Clockwork Orange"? For some reason I have visions of her arriving at home, being strapped to a chair, her eyelids peeled back, and she was forced to read the things she didn't want to read. All I know is that I didn't make her come to my page and read my blog. I didn't take control of her computer and direct her here.

Secondly, if she thinks it was all bullshit, why even bother? Why even get mad? I am not trying to convert. I am only trying to educate. When something appears in the news everyday, it is easy to overlook it when it is surrounded by hundreds of stories. I pull out the news on one subject and post it. If you don't agree, fine. If you want to hide your head, it is your choice. So, why get mad at me? I hope her kids turn out like angels, because if not, I am sure she will sue the video game industry saying "Raymond's Raving Rabbids" destroyed her homelife.

I think this is funny. All my information comes from the news, everything is documented. There are even times that I have provided links back to County websites giving the information. So, I guess I have been wrong all this time. The Grayson County Sherriff's office posts lies on their website. And I am the one who can be sued for slander? Why don't they sue the Sherriff's office? I am sure they could get a bigger settlement from the city and county than one ex-Wal-Mart associate. And all this time I thought Wall Street Journal and the evening news was truthful. Nope, I just found out that if it didn't exist in the Harry Potter stories then it was all lies. I gave my references. I can't help it if the people who are supposed to "tell the truth" like NBC, CBS, and ABC officials are just putting out propoganda. I guess lies are just a matter of perspective. To some people lies are truth, and to some, they can't figure out when they are lying themselves.

I mean just looking at her first letter:

i only apologized to bill so that things would be so heated at work. but since i got the "fuck off" response, i take it back.

The "fuck off" response was his blog that she was again forced to read. And just a little bit later, she replied back:

and the shit at work (which has nothing to do with you) is not personal.... so no anger was taking out on bill.

If there was no anger taken out on Bill, why did she apologize in the first place? Oh, I forgot, truth only exists as you make it up.

i know enough about keeping personal stuff personal, so my feelings about your family wont interfere working with bill.

It's good to know that this person can keep personal stuff personal, but didn't she just say it wasn't personal? Okay, I am confused.

And speaking of writing the truth as it flows from the mind. Here is another lovely statement:

you teling me i cant use my open door policy? ill be damned if you try to do that.

I checked back on my blog, and please I beg everyone to do the same, just in case I overlooked something. I mentioned the Open Door Policy at Wal-Mart three times:

First and Second time was in the blog LISSA'S: Wal-Mart: Home of Favoritism and Popularity, dated on November 28, 2007. In those two statements, I said, "I was told that there was no Open Door Policy. The Open Door Policy that Wal-Mart is so willing to throw into their associates faces is only there when they can use the information against someone. It is not there when an associate needs it." This was my personal experience with the Open Door Policy. This was an actual event that happened to me, and this was my opinion on how the management uses Open Door Policy. I never once said anyone could not use the Open Door Policy.

Maybe it was in the third time I tried to take away their rights. It was in LISSA'S: Attention Wal Mart Associates: Do YOU get YOUR breaks? dated December 7, 2007. I said, "So you Communist pricks up in home office have NO idea what's REALLY going on at store level. Your so-called Grass Roots meetings and your Open Door Policy is a crock." This was my response to an article in St. Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota), 10/30/07. I took their article and put what happened to me with it showing that it was a commonplace in Wal-Mart. The message actual means that the corporate level should actually be more aware of the happenings at the store level. Again, nope, this was not directed at one person in Texoma, trying to take away something from her.

I guess it was another one of those subliminal "A Clockwork Orange" moments again. But this time they used Fall Out Boy instead of Beethoven.

oh, and you can be banned from myspace (and if that happens your lazy ass wont know what to do, will you?), bill can be fired, you can be sued.

I am thinking about making a poll. Is it true that I am the only one on MySpace who has an opinion? Am I the only one of the millions on here that still has free will? I read the Terms & Conditions of MySpace. I haven't broken any of them. And even on MySpace, it is still a free country. As shocking as it sounds. I wonder if she read the Terms & Conditions? Or could it be making them up as she goes? And as far as Bill getting fired. These are my words. That is why LISSA is at the beginning of the blog. When Bill talks, you see BILL at the front. So, is what is being said here that Wal-Mart can fire someone over something someone else says? If that is true, watch out, President Bush is going to say something soon, no telling what the fallout could be. Or is this a threat, that this person is going to try to get Bill fired?

first of all:
ive never liked you. it was strictly to make working near you less hard.

i want nothing to do with you. dont message, me, dont talk to me. dont ever mention me -by name or otherwise- in your blog. when your ship blows up and sinks, i want no connection.

It kinda sounds like a threat now. That's why I am making sure her words are here.

so leave me alone.

there are so many things i want to say you, but ive narrowed it done to two (2) words:

fuck off!

Eloquently said, back at 'cha sweetie. But I don't understand. Who's the stupid one? Who's the one with the closed mind? This is a prime example of Texoma and Texomites at it's finest.

you dont know nothing about me, you that shit about "figuring me out?" im not even from around here bitch.

Just goes to show, some are born here, some are transplanted. But ignorance rubs off and you become a true Texomite.

LISSA’S: Some people just can’t handle it...

This blog is strictly dedicated to those (ex) friends that do not believe in the freedom of speech for others. The ones that think they are simply forced to read everything that is posted on the internet. The ones that call themselves a "friend", but at the same time lie to your face and threaten to take away your Constitutional Freedom.

Let me start by saying first and foremost. The definition of a "friend" is someone who will stand by you, not lie to you and definately not judge you for your choices. No, they do NOT have to like the choices the other makes, and yes, may give their opinion every now and then. That's just life. But a true "friend" does NOT call their other friends names, lie to their face, threaten them and get them into trouble on their job. These are the "friends" that this blog is dedicated to. This is for the "friends" that threatened me not to post anymore blogs. I have news for you, "friends".. this is MY page, not yours. This is MY blog, not yours. These are my words, not yours. I have never (and never would) email my blog to you (if you have a MySpace account). The most I ever do is post a bulletin saying that I have created a new blog. Then the choice is 100% totally yours if YOU choose to come to MY page and read it. No one is forcing you to come read MY words. Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do? If you feel so strongly about these blogs, then PLEASE save yourself (and me) grief and time and just simply click that little grey button that says "DELETE" friend. You will not hurt my feelings. I had to grow up being bullied and was afraid to speak my mind. I refuse to be like that again, especially in Texoma.

Contrary to your belief (and I'm sure the rumors that will be started by you few immature ex-friends) there are some of you that I like. Not all you I consider bad. So not all of you should take my blogs so personally. If you do, I'm sorry, that is your decision.

Now.. for the finale..

Dear Ex-Friends that betrayed me, threatened me and told me that I better not post anymore blogs.... this is for YOU:

Oh yeah, and

LISSA’S: A Texomite Friend I Don’t Need

I'm sure you've seen my blog about my feelings about Texoma. No matter what I said about this region or its people, I didn't get any replies or comments from anyone. There are actually some people in this region that can take someone else's personal blog with a grain of salt. It's easy for most of my Texomite friends to not take my blog so personally... except one person.

I only recenly recieved an email from him after requesting to add him to my friends' list over 2 months ago! After about a month and a half I had given up and changed my mind about adding him. Since then I posted my own personal blog about Texoma. Now after all this time, being a closed minded Texomite he is, he wants to criticize me and tell me it's my fault that he chose not to add me. I am thankful that he didn't add me. Friends like him I do not need. Here is the letter I got from him:

FROM: Tommy

Date: Dec 26, 2007 3:10 PM

Subject: Melissa

Body: I finally saw your request to add to my friends list. After looking at your myspace and seeing how much hate you hold for everything around here I hate to tell you there is no way in hell I would add you to my friends list. Sorry Melissa maybe someday you will not have so much hate for everything and actually enjoy life.

Well I have an answer for you Tommy. You are the kind of Texomite I talk about in my blog. It's Texomites like you that really put the cherry on top for me. You are the kind of closed minded idiots I am trying to get the hell away from. Why did you take my page so damn personally? Last time I checked, this IS a free country. I created the page and some of the blogs as a free United States Citizen, to the way that I wanted them, not the way that you wanted them. I'm sorry there are not any evil hunting references, deer or sheep anywhere on the page. You know, day after day that I worked with you, I would stand and listen to your horrible hunting stories with a smile on my face and paid attention to you, even though I hated every minute of it. I tolerated your stories about murdering innocent wildlife because I considered you my friend no matter what your feelings or interests were. Now that I know that you can't even accept me because of a MySpace page, I know you and your so-called friendship was and is fake.

You Sir, are right about one thing.. I will give you credit. Read this next line very carefully:

I WILL ENJOY LIFE WHEN THE DAY COMES THAT I LEAVE TEXOMA FOREVER!!!!!!!!

Friends like you, Tommy, I don't want.

LISSA’S: Dirty Doings in all Wal Mart Stores

I just recently caught up with an old friend from school days. Turns out she used to work for the company and hates Wal Mart too. It's like I've said before... only people that work for Wal Mart REALLY know what it's like. With her permission, I am posting her letter to me. Here is her experience:

Hello,

Well I worked for Wal-Mart in Denton during a remodel in 2004. I was staying with my sister, she had twins. I was helping her and trying to get a job and place so that we could move back that way. It did not happen, but when I first started I loved it. The people I worked with were all great. Well the remodel was over and I was asked to stay on, but things were not working out and I needed to get back to my husband and kids. Well when I got back and the Wal-Mart here was hiring, I got the job. It was good at first, then oh OMG, management sucks there too! I worked almost every where: started as a cashier. The CSM's sucked ass. I never got breaks on time nor lunches. Then I went to service desk, then over night in Electronics. Over night was great, but I was not getting much sleep with 3 kids and a husband. Then a position came open for sporting goods, 2nd position to the department manager. Well I was in that department for 1 week. Then they sent the Department Manager to another store that was just opening to help them out, and there I was by myself, not knowing shit. I had to do everything a Department Manager did and had not been shown anything. She worked Mon-Fri. All scans had to be in on Thurs for orders and all paper work, everything. Well the Assistant Mang. over that area had me off every Wed and Thurs. She wanted me there on the weekends because she didn't like the old guy to work on those days. My work was not getting done on time because the guys that worked evenings and overnights did not do a damn thing! I went to management over and over about the situation and nothing was ever done!! Time came for modular change and yeah, I was the only one doing it. No one, not even management, would help. So, of course, they were late and I got my ass chewed out. So after about 6 weeks of this, I snapped and said screw this! When I went to management and quit, they had only 3 part time guys working in the dept that did nothing and no Department Manager. I was so pissed! I tried to work there but when there is no help, why bother? I hate going in to Wal-Mart! If I have to go, I can only be there a short time, or else I become the biggest bitch. Oh and I was full time, so I got insurance on me and my husband. They did not cover shit and said everything was preconditioned. I went to the doctor because I was getting stomach ulcers from working there. They did not even cover my x-rays or blood work. My husband had gone because he was having lots of heart burn. Wal-Mart insurance did not even cover that. I will never go back to there! It sucks because that and the General Dollar is about all we have around us!

-Stephanie

LISSA'S: Forgetting the Wal-Mart way

Just to prove a point, on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, several people in my husband's department called in to work sick. The ones that worked really pulled together and worked hard, putting in overtime to cover the missing people at the busiest time of year. Brian, the department manager came in at night to cover the missing times. Eddie, Jessica, and Michael covered the department on Wednesday. On Thursday, Michael, Jessica, and my husband covered. In know my husband cut his lunch short, and stayed until Brian showed up that evening in the department before leaving for the night.

The next day at the morning meeting, Bryan Lambert took the time to thank everyone who worked hard to cover the people who called in and kept the deparment going. Everyone was thanked by name. Brian, the department manager, Heather, the area supervisor, Eddie, Michael, Jessica were mentioned by name.

But there was no mention of my husband doing anything. He did not get any thanks, no recognition, nothing. Again, a square peg in a round hole being forced to pay because they don't like me.

LISSA’S: Wal-Mart’s King of Favorites

I know in the past I have tried to introduce everyone to Bryan Lambert, the store manager at the Sherman, TX Wal-Mart #947. If you have forgotten some of the things, just click his name for all that has been said in the past, including his criminal record. When you are up to date, feel free to continue on reading.

As I have stated before, this is the same person who makes people work off the clock. The same person who instructs his Department Managers to tell their employees “It is okay if one of their associates doesn’t get a break.” The same manager who pulls items off the floor, or won’t allow items to come out to be sold. The same manager who tries to screw vendors. The same manager who makes his department managers work other departments, and then gets mad that their departments are not done. The same manager who bends the rules to fit his mood, and the same one who started the annual popularity contest. This is the same manager who decided that he can get credit for Christmas movies and music, and has been sending them back to the vendor for the past couple of months, and has made the order that all Christmas items from vendors be removed from the store by the 24th of December so he doesn’t have to use his dollars to mark them down. This is the same manager who has decided it is better to have his employees work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day instead of hiring an outside company to allow his employees one day off a year.

This is also the same manager who has two drunk driving convictions. While I am on this subject, let me explore this one detail. Since posting the criminal record, I have heard many rumors from people at Wal-Mart on this subject. First of which, Bryan used political pull through his associations to have one drunk driving conviction removed from record. When checking into his background to see how possible this could be, I have found out that Mr. Lambert does have many influential friends. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Denison. Secondly, I have heard many, many people talk about Wal-Mart District Manager Buddy Sherrill, his boss, as being the person who bailed him out of jail on his last conviction.

This is also the same manager who has made the new rule in the store that the cart pushers can no longer do carryouts for the customers. So, I guess you are now responsible for taking your own television or entertainment center out to your own car and put it in.

But now, there is new news. Apparently, we have underestimated our good Mr. Lambert. In a new report from the store, I was forced to look back on his career. I have talked to many people from his old store in Denison, TX, Wal-Mart #147. In the year he has been gone, the bonuses for store associates has jumped up. The associates at this store offered their condolences to the Sherman store Mr. Lambert now infests. Since arriving at Sherman, sales increase has been slower than normal, but if you are not going to pull everything off the shelf you are supposed to sale, I guess it is only reasonable. The Denison store does not do as much business as the Sherman store. Wal-Mart categorizes its stores by annual income. Managers move up through the ranks of the stores, until they get to the Sherman store level. But Mr. Lambert was able to jump a category or two to get to this current store. I guess his boss saw something in him. Oh, yeah, the same boss who was rumored to have bailed him out is the same one who brought him up a couple of levels. Seems they have been friends for awhile.

Now comes the new twist. The Sherman store was just nominated for “Store of the Year.” Hmmm, sales are down, employee morale is at an all time low, bonuses are decreasing, freedoms are being taken away…. And he gets nominated “Store of the Year.” Now if I was a betting person, I would guess that the nomination came from Mr. Sherrill again. Since he is the District Manager and it is his store, I am sure he had some hand in the nomination. Now just in case this store wins this award, the store gets a pretty certificate to hang in its “Site to Store” area, yeah store! I am sure the associates who are working at the time when the certificate is given will be able to get a slice of cake. But the cake will be long gone before everyone gets a chance, just like every other award the store has gotten. But the Store Manager gets something special. If the store wins, the Manager gets a fat bonus (goes good with the $10,000 he has to spend to keep his license) and a promotion to District Manager. Huh? Yep, it seems Mr. Lambert has used his friends to get him the fast track to promotion. It didn’t matter who he ran over, it didn’t matter about his employees he has put into the hospital, and it didn’t matter about the customers or the people who had to work in his dictatorship. All this time, it was about him.

And many are mad. Yes, this story comes from higher up in the ranks. Mr. Lambert has many, many, many people who hate him. Several are his closest workers, and they do not feel that he deserves this award. You would think that a manager would need at least a little respect to do his job. Fortunately, a Wal-Mart manager doesn’t need any respect, just an oppressive thumb.

There you go, another chapter in the “Meet Your Sherman, TX Wal-Mart Manager” saga.

BILL'S: Interesting story on today's society

Tent city in suburbs is cost of home crisis

By Dana Ford Fri Dec 21, 8:18 AM ET

ONTARIO, California (Reuters) - Between railroad tracks and beneath the roar of departing planes sits "tent city," a terminus for homeless people. It is not, as might be expected, in a blighted city center, but in the once-booming suburbia of Southern California.

The noisy, dusty camp sprang up in July with 20 residents and now numbers 200 people, including several children, growing as this region east of Los Angeles has been hit by the U.S. housing crisis.

The unraveling of the region known as the Inland Empire reads like a 21st century version of "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck's novel about families driven from their lands by the Great Depression.

As more families throw in the towel and head to foreclosure here and across the nation, the social costs of collapse are adding up in the form of higher rates of homelessness, crime and even disease.

While no current residents claim to be victims of foreclosure, all agree that tent city is a symptom of the wider economic downturn. And it's just a matter of time before foreclosed families end up at tent city, local housing experts say.

"They don't hit the streets immediately," said activist Jane Mercer. Most families can find transitional housing in a motel or with friends before turning to charity or the streets. "They only hit tent city when they really bottom out."

Steve, 50, who declined to give his last name, moved to tent city four months ago. He gets social security payments, but cannot work and said rents are too high.

"House prices are going down, but the rentals are sky-high," said Steve. "If it wasn't for here, I wouldn't have a place to go."

'SQUATTING IN VACANT HOUSES'

Nationally, foreclosures are at an all-time high. Filings are up nearly 100 percent from a year ago, according to the data firm RealtyTrac. Officials say that as many as half a million people could lose their homes as adjustable mortgage rates rise over the next two years.

California ranks second in the nation for foreclosure filings -- one per 88 households last quarter. Within California, San Bernardino county in the Inland Empire is worse -- one filing for every 43 households, according to RealtyTrac.

Maryanne Hernandez bought her dream house in San Bernardino in 2003 and now risks losing it after falling four months behind on mortgage payments.

"It's not just us. It's all over," said Hernandez, who lives in a neighborhood where most families are struggling to meet payments and many have lost their homes.

She has noticed an increase in crime since the foreclosures started. Her house was robbed, her kids' bikes were stolen and she worries about what type of message empty houses send.

The pattern is cropping up in communities across the country, like Cleveland, Ohio, where Mark Wiseman, director of the Cuyahoga County Foreclosure Prevention Program, said there are entire blocks of homes in Cleveland where 60 or 70 percent of houses are boarded up.

"I don't think there are enough police to go after criminals holed up in those houses, squatting or doing drug deals or whatever," Wiseman said.

"And it's not just a problem of a neighborhood filled with people squatting in the vacant houses, it's the people left behind, who have to worry about people taking siding off your home or breaking into your house while you're sleeping."

Health risks are also on the rise. All those empty swimming pools in California's Inland Empire have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which can transmit the sometimes deadly West Nile virus, Riverside County officials say.

'TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT'

But it is not just homeowners who are hit by the foreclosure wave. People who rent now find themselves in a tighter, more expensive market as demand rises from families who lost homes, said Jean Beil, senior vice president for programs and services at Catholic Charities USA.

"Folks who would have been in a house before are now in an apartment and folks that would have been in an apartment, now can't afford it," said Beil. "It has a trickle-down effect."

For cities, foreclosures can trigger a range of short-term costs, like added policing, inspection and code enforcement. These expenses can be significant, said Lt. Scott Patterson with the San Bernardino Police Department, but the larger concern is that vacant properties lower home values and in the long-run, decrease tax revenues.

And it all comes at a time when municipalities are ill-equipped to respond. High foreclosure rates and declining home values are sapping property tax revenues, a key source of local funding to tackle such problems.

Earlier this month, U.S. President George W. Bush rolled out a plan to slow foreclosures by freezing the interest rates on some loans. But for many in these parts, the intervention is too little and too late.

Ken Sawa, CEO of Catholic Charities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said his organization is overwhelmed and ill-equipped to handle the volume of people seeking help.

"We feel helpless," said Sawa. "Obviously, it's a local problem because it's in our backyard, but the solution is not local."

(Additional reporting by Andrea Hopkins in Ohio; Editing by Mary Milliken and Eddie Evans)

LISSA'S: The Sherman Wal-Mart Story

I dare you to try to tell me that this is not Wal-Mart and Sherman, Texas. I found this to be completely true for the area, and I know it is not just here. This place is just a prime example.

Big Box Mart Funny Jokes at JibJab

LISSA'S: Lee Scott is SCUM

Dear Consumer,

This year, Wal-Mart pulled millions of recalled products off its shelves -- from toys to food to children's car seats and cribs. So what is Lee Scott, Wal-Mart's CEO, doing to inform his customers about these recalls? He put a tiny link at the very bottom of the Wal-Mart homepage. That's it.

Surely the biggest company in the world can do better than that -- especially during the holiday season, when Wal-Mart sells even more toys than Toys 'R' Us. But since Mr. Scott won't be open about Wal-Mart's product recalls, we are doing it for him. Wal-Mart Watch has launched a new site, Recall Wal-Mart, which is full of information about the recalled products sold at Wal-Mart. It also has a tool that lets you send a letter to Lee Scott about Wal-Mart's role in its customers' health.

Check out the site, and tell Mr. Scott that when Wal-Mart has a recall, it should be the first thing on their website, not the last: http://www.recallwalmart.com/

Wal-Mart Watch believes there is a reason Wal-Mart stocks so many recalled products and then buries the news at the bottom of its website. Mr. Scott is putting the company's interests ahead of its customers' safety. Many of these recalls are the result of the intense cost-cutting pressure Wal-Mart puts on its overseas suppliers -- thousands of which are located in China, where safety standards are much weaker. Because of Wal-Mart's tremendous size and influence, manufacturers are forced to meet its demands. When Wal-Mart requires lower prices, that means sacrificing quality and using cheaper materials, like lead paint.

To make matters worse, once the dangers of these products came to light, Lee Scott failed to properly inform Wal-Mart's customers about the recalls. That's just irresponsible.Visit Recall Wal-Mart and tell CEO Lee Scott to put customers' safety first: http://www.recallwalmart.com/

This isn't the first time Lee Scott has put the corporation first instead of people. For years, Wal-Mart has been skimping on employee wages and benefits, so that less than half of its workforce gets its health coverage from the company.Wal-Mart also hurts local communities and neighbors by forcing small businesses to shut down and spoiling the local environment.And Wal-Mart has continually tried to bilk communities on the local tax bill, whether it is petitioning to lower its property value or setting up dubious foreign arrangements to take advantage of tax loopholes -- depriving communities of much-needed revenue.Wal-Mart Founder Sam Walton valued the communities that supported his stores, and he valued honesty with his customers. Wal-Mart has long since abandoned his original vision.Again and again, Lee Scott has shown that Wal-Mart's interests are more important than the people it serves or the communities it calls home. Visit Recall Wal-Mart and tell the retail giant you've had enough: http://www.recallwalmart.com/

Sincerely,
David Nassar
Wal Mart Watch

LISSA’S: Wal-Mart’s Damage To Communities Far Outweighs Charitable Donations

Yesterday's post on food banks raised the issue of Wal-Mart's charitable donations and whether they actually benefit the community, but the question goes far beyond donations of food. Wal-Mart loves to be seen donating money to local charities, especially around the holidays. These donations, while perhaps beneficial in their own small way, don't even begin to make up for the amount of resources and taxpayer dollars Wal-Mart drains out of local economies. For Wal-Mart, these donations are nothing but some cheap PR.

Wal-Mart lowers median wages, exports jobs, shifts company costs to taxpayers, and leans on public subsidies to make its billions. These costs far outweigh any local donation Wal-Mart has ever made.

Wal-Mart's charitable donations continue to lag behind its close competitors, and the Walton Family itself is ranks only 37th on the list of generous donors. But perhaps more tellingly, is that Wal-Mart donates most to charities in its own best interest. From the National Center for Responsive Philanthropy:

"Behind the Wal-Mart facade, the goals of the company and the family have nothing to do with promoting the community's or the public's or even their customers' interest. Instead, there is one goal, and that is to make one of the wealthiest families in the country even richer.

Wal-Mart's donations to little league teams and nursing homes also pales in comparison to the company's donations to non-profits, think tanks and individuals willing to lobby on its behalf or grant favors return. In doing so, Wal-Mart buys the power necessary to continue harming communities and getting away with it. Think Wal-Mart's generous? Maybe so, but only to itself.

LISSA’S: Gizmodo’s Year-End Report Card for Wal Mart

Oh, Wal-Mart. You are so easy to hate. What with your union-busting, mom-and-pop-killing, big box awfulness, who wouldn't hate you? It would be all to easy for me to come in here and just give you an F and everyone would agree with me and we could all walk hand-in-hand into the sunset, hating Wal-Mart. And while I do have my Wal-Mart issues, there's no denying that it's made some pretty solid moves in the tech world this year, and no matter how much I hate to admit it, I need to give Wal-Mart at least some props.

This was the year that DRM stopped cramping online music stores, and that's in some part due to Wal-Mart's insistence on selling DRM-free tunes. Together with Amazon, it's one of two major online retailers selling MP3 files. And while the MP3 store is still pretty lousy, Wal-Mart's push to have the last major-label holdouts drop DRM will be good for us all. If that happens, Wal-Mart's influence will at least have something to do with it.

This year has also seen the prices of HD DVD and Blu-ray players drop significantly, thanks in part to Wal-Mart's pressures. Wal-Mart's size gives them huge influence over the industry, and earlier this year when it went around that Wal-Mart was pushing for cheapo HD DVD players it gave the then-suffering HD DVD camp a shot in the arm. The push for cheaper players makes us happy.

In addition to using its influence to bring down pricing in the HD disc war, it also used it to try and break up Microsoft's Windows dominance by introducing a $200 Linux gPC to thei generally non-techy clientele. It was a ballsy move, one clearly motivated by desire to sell cheaper computers over the desire to stick it to Microsoft, but stick it to Redmond it did. There's no bigger retailer out there who has the power to introduce an alternate OS to the masses and make it seem friendly, and that's just what Wal-Mart did. (Of course, we think the reason the gPC sold out so fast was because of Linux fanboys in search of cauldrons for their potions, but you never know.)

Things aren't all forward-thinking at Wal-Mart, though. They still do a lot of the stuff that's earned them a horrible reputation for years now. They refuse to carry movies and CDs that they deem "inappropriate," at times arbitrarily pulling products from shelves—or at least that's how it seems. Consumers should get to choose what they want to buy; they don't need retailers to act as babysitters and decide what is and isn't appropriate.

As for the brutal labor practices, there's still a lot we think is totally uncool to, but to be fair, Wal-Mart is introducing a much-improoved health care plan next month. Still, don't look for the reputation of Wal-Mart retail jobs to get a lot better anytime soon. Everybody knows the store is full of miserable employees half-assedly serving miserable customers.

So kudos, Wal-Mart, for being more forward-thinking in the tech department than I would have ever expected. Keep it up! When the gigantic, faceless companies that make up the RIAA and the MPAA want anti-consumer practices to become the norm, we need other gigantic, faceless companies to stand up to them, and if it's gonna be you I'll take it. And if you're gonna make next-gen disc players cheaper for everyone, I'll thank you for that. But I'll still never set foot in one of your stores. I'll admit to cautiously admiring some of your moves from afar but your reduced letter grade is because of the human cost: you really should treat your employees better.

Final Grade: C

source: Gizmodo's Year-End Report Card

LISSA’S: Wal Mart’s Employee Morale, Customer Service At An All Time Low

Business Week sent a couple of its own "secret shoppers" to some Wal-Mart stores to see how their new customer service initiative was faring, and found that the employees they spoke with not only didn't care, but really wanted customers to know this. Said one employee, "If Wal-Mart doesn't care for me, why should I care? There was this horrible smell in the store the last two days from some overnight spill. They did nothing about it. It got so bad that on the second day the fire department came by and we all had to wear masks."

Despite that mysterious anecdote, all three stores Business Week sampled scored high on cleanliness. The big failure in all three, however, was customer service, which continues to nose-dive due to poor morale:

As the experience with the cashier in Uniondale illustrates, many of Wal-Mart's workers feel outright hostility toward the company, and, by extension, they often treat customers with indifference or worse. That puts Wal-Mart in a box. Without reasonable service, the company is forced to compete almost solely on price. That in turn squeezes margins and makes it difficult to pay employees the better wages and benefits that could boost morale. It's a vicious cycle that now appears to be working against Wal-Mart.

BILL'S: Christmas Spirit in Texoma (again)

It is sad when the Christmas Spirit fills the air in Texoma. Right now the schools are at odds. Whitesboro School system seems to be getting ready for the new "School starts after Labor Day" law that goes into effect next year. They are still in school as the surrounding school districts have now released for the Christmas Holiday. We were welcomed this week to another child-like Texoma Christmas special. Monday night, bored kids from the area went around and smashed up the neighborhood's mailboxes (again).

One thing about Texoma is that there is absolutely nothing for teens to do, but to drive around and destroy things. This is the first area I have lived in that does not have activities for teens and children. I have always been around places with teen clubs and teen hangouts. They have even had educational events for children. The Cultural Activities Center used to always have art exhibits, free classes on art or low cost classes on pottery and ceramics. I remember attending seminars with local poets who wanted to make sure that their love for the art was passed on to another generation. Here there is nothing of the sort. Here there are two possibilites for kids.

First, go to Wal-Mart to hang out. In my day it was the mall, but in today's society and the way Wal-Mart has taken over this area, it has put the mall out all but out of business. So there really is no way to take your kids to the mall now. Everyday, especially on the holidays, I see parents pull up outside of Wal-Mart and drop their kids off so they can spend hours walking around in large groups, destroying things inside the store and stealing. They walk around and terrorize other groups of kids, screaming at each other across softlines. Where are the parents? They do not get out and join their kids, they are not in the store shopping. No, they are looking for a free babysitter for their problem child and want the associates at Wal-Mart to deal with them.

The only other choice is to drive around and destroy. Which has become very evident. Every school holiday, our neighborhood gets attacked by bat wielding kids driving by at night and destroying the mailboxes. The streets are usually lined with beer bottles and empty alcohol bottles the next day. Again, where are the parents? Parents around here really don't care about their children, only their image in the local society. Children here are allowed to run free with no rules and no discipline. Again, it is so sad that parents just don't care enough to try to start some kind of program for children, or even try to discipline their kids. It is sad that parents don't want to spend time with their kids or know where their kids are going at all hours of the night. And what is worse, the "I don't care" attitiude is very contagious. The local Grayson County Sheriff's Department doesn't want to do anything about stopping this menace. They know the pattern, they know the routes the vandals take. But again, in most areas this is considered a felony. In Grayson County, it is classified as "Not Worth My Time."

Sad, parents who don't care. Sheriffs who don't care. Kids who don't care. And here it is the time of giving and caring, and this is all you get -- vandalism. And now a neighborhood who doesn't care. One thing I have noticed this week, no one has taken the time to try to fix the mailboxes this time. It isn't even worth it anymore.

LISSA’S: Wal Mart Waste

(KMOV) - News 4 Investigates discovered that every day, staggering amounts of safe and edible food are being thrown away.

Chief investigative reporter Steve Chamraz exposes how America's largest retailer takes cart after cart of perfectly good food and tosses it in the trash.

Wal Mart can make a better profit by dumping food as spoiled then giving it to donate it. They are in it for the money, not to help anyone but the corporation.


Many who have posted to this are wrong on laws.
The labels on food say "best if used byxxxxx"


We all buy things 1 or 2 days prior to "best" date, then store in our refrigerator for days/weeks, etc. Stores DO pull items thet exceed the "best" date. Many stres send their items to centers where outdated and damaged container food is wholesales out to discount food stores- they are ALL OVER MISSOURI!! many items have "best" date a year old. People still buy them at low prices and use them. There is NO reason Wal-Mart cannot give tons of stuff to food pantries.


Actually, they are SO greedy they want to help no one so those poor people will shop at wal Mart.


Wal mart is the Killer of The USA'S econpmy since Sam Walton died. Try shopping at the "Dollar Stores" and discount food stores.


Yes Walmat ignores the plight of the poor and rebuffs those of us who come out of retirement to pickup food and deliver it to local food pantrys. They are major delinquents, but there are some department managers, such as at one Harvester store, that will smile and tell you that its to much trouble to scan and box the good stuff so they choose to dump, milk, and other dairy products in the trash. People who serve the poor are willing to box the food just so those in need have food on their tables or in their laps for the homeless. And food search people are afraid to say anything for fear of retaliation or discrimination when they go into such stores fore they do not want to loose the food products they do get.
Also, most meat cutters are not allowed to give away hams, smoked meats, cured meats, partial cut loaves of lunch meats which may be frozen when they throw it in the dumpsters.


There are great old people who use their vehicles, even buy trucks and trailers to transport these food items. Maybe they get the right to claim l4 cents a mile while spending 34 cents a mile, but these little people often are the poor serving the poor while corporations are granted almost three times the travel allowance for corporate business.


It would be nice if our Governor would help those who help the poor by equalizing tax relief for those who are willing to pay for ways to serve others in need.

By: Bill Patty




RANDOM COMMENTS FROM READERS:

I think that this story once agian shows Wal-Mart does not care about the communites or people in the communities where they operate. What a shame!


Wall-mart is nothing more than a corporate criminal.


I do not nor will I shop at Wal-mart. My friend works there and when she had cancer, she still had to climb a ladder to put things up on shelf even when another employee offered to switch jobs with her for the day. They stated that if she could not do her job, she could quit. She has to work. I will shop anywhere besides there. I WISH EVERYONE WOULD FEEL THIS WAY


It's not a health code issue. It's just greed. If Schnucks can donate all their expired food, it must be safe and legal. Which can only mean this is more about WalMart's greed than anything else.


Those people who didn't appreciate this story obviously were not watching the same piece I was. The bottom line is that there is ZERO reason for the policy Walmart has in place in the state of Missouri. It is wasteful and sloppy and needs to be changed. I look forward to Walmarts announcement later this week. Thank you for taking the time to cover a topic so important and relevant.


Typical Wal-mart crap. They wouldn't help their own mother if she lay dying of hunger. Their employees can't afford health insurance, and now they throw-away perfectly good food. The world's largest retailer wants us to help them line their pockets, but do they help us??? NO. Protest them--don't shop there...


This is typical of Wal-Mart.They drive the small business out then sit back as consumers run to them. It's a shame that they try to justify what they do and how they do it. If Wal-Mart was about giving back so much why do they refuse to go union? It is really sad they way they do business and they should reevaluate their practice.


My family and I have had a very, very difficult time putting food on the table to the rot gut insurance companies not paying claims for our love one who is fighting cancer - I would absolutely LOVE to have some of this food they are throwing away!

LISSA’S: More Texoma holiday spirit

Okay.. this actually happened to me last night while shopping in a very busy Gainesville Wal Mart (since there is really no where else to shop in this 1/2 horse town). The electronics are very busy, only 1 register running, and the line streching back into the middle of action alley (the big main isle in front of electronics). Anyways, I was with my 10 year old step son down the video game isle to get him a game. Well the associate had me and this other kid to get games for. This kid looked like he was in his mid teens. The associate got both of our games and took them to the registers. The only register running at that moment was the one with the hellacious line. So the teen, me and my step son went all the way to the back of the line. Then another cashier appeared at the other register, and of course it filled up, but not as fast. The teen in front of us ran over to the other register. I just stayed there. The teen, still waiting in line, waived over to me to come over to that line. So I did. Yes, that was very nice, I do agree, but what happened after that is what killed it all. When the teen stepped up to buy his game, the register prompted the cashier to check the customer's ID. Turns out, the game he wanted, you had to be 17 years or older. Of course the teen didn't have any ID. He looked at the cashier like he was crazy, asked him if he was serious, then without skipping a beat, turned and looked at me and said, "Mom will you buy this game for me?" I thought you stupid ass Texomite....... I just gave him a look like he was crazy and shook my head "no". The teen gave up and walked away from the register. I told that cashier that kid was nuts! I don't even know him. The cashier looked suprised. What I would like to have known is where the hell his real parents were?!? Losers..............

Ahh, Texoma youth...................................

LISSA’S: The Grinch Stocks Wal-Mart

Have you been watching the way Wal-Mart Sherman has been running? For those of you too busy in the holiday season, let me tell you what is going on.

Let's go back to just before Halloween. The week before Halloween, the Anderson vendor, who is responsible for books, movies and music in the store, set the Christmas music section in cds. Over the next week, more Christmas cd stations were put out in different locations, including in front of cosmetics, by the registers, and in the holiday section (otherwise known as Lawn and Garden). In less than two weeks after Halloween, around November 13th, management decided that there was too much Christmas music available to the public and ordered 25% of all Christmas music to be pulled off the floor, boxed up and stored in the back room until after Christmas when it will be sent back to the distributor.

Less than two weeks later, around November 27th, management struck again. Another 25% of the music was ordered to be boxed up and set in the back to be sent back to the distributor without you being able to purchase. Also included in the back are movies left over from the BLITZ, the entire collection of the television series "24" (which is good since season 6 came out this week, they didn't figure anyone would be interested in the prior 5 seasons for less than $20 a pop), the entire collection of the "Sopranos" (with the last part of Season 6 now on the new release, no one would be interested in the previous seasons), special editions of "Shrek the Third" and the new "Transformers" that are not available on the shelf and are only $14.96, and many other movies that are running out on the shelf, but they have a few hundred copies of each in the back waiting to go back to the distributor.

So, are you following the pattern? I hope so, because Friday, December 14, 2007, the management figured that you would not want much more. And with only a couple of weeks before Christmas ordered the Electronics section in the Holiday Section shut down a week early. And they also decided to take away another 25% of the Christmas music. Now only allowing customers just 25% of the selection they originally had of the Christmas music. Only a few copies of the Wal-Mart exclusives are available on the floor now, so if you want some, you had better hurry.

And just to drive the point home. Those of you keeping up with my blog will remember that Wal-Mart just had their annual Christmas party. In the past, managers tried to make sure everyone had something for Christmas. It might not have been something big, but even a box of broken cookies, or decorations from the Christmas party table, or even a Poinsettia used to decorate the room. Just something so everyone had something for Christmas. This year was just the opposite. There were several gifts given out, but not enough to even cover most of the employees. Go figure, out of all my family members who work for this Wal-Mart, none of them came away with anything. It is the running joke in our family that management made sure their names were taken out of the pot before the drawing because we are the square pegs trying to fit in the round holes.

The Awards ceremony was just as I predicted. Even the winners said it was a popularity contest. No one I have talked to was satisfied in the outcome. But then again, it shows how things are. Sales floor Associate of the Year went to a person who has been in continual trouble with management, was terminated and rehired, and walked away with the award. This was a vote from the people he worked with. And while I agree with the outcome in his instance, overall it is just, as another person said, a game that should have ended in high school.

And if enough is not enough, the employees are now being forced to re-live the events. A majority of the Christmas Party was the Store Manager, Bryan Lambert standing on a stage and talking into a microphone. A television and VCR has been set up in the break room for the continuous playback of the Party. This way no one can get away from the Store Manager being full of himself. But as it played, I have heard that jokes about the man were being told throughout the breakroom. Many comments about how he wouldn't shut up.

Then look at employee appreciation. Two years ago, the Store Manager took the time to get Wal-Mart Christmas Tree pins that the employees could wear on their smocks. She mailed a personally signed Christmas card to the house of each employee. This took time, and showed great appreciation. The next year, the next Store Manager still sent a Christmas Card to each employee. No pin, but hey, you couldn't fault him for trying. This year, Bryan Lambert made one Christmas Card. They took that card to One-Hour Photo and made a 5x7 copy for each employee, and then stapled it to each of their paystub. So, now appreciation is passing it to other people to do the job for you. And morale shows the appreciation.

And so does Christmas. I went into the surrounding Wal-Marts in Denison and Gainesville, but when I went into the Sherman Wal-Mart I immediately realized what was missing. Has anyone else noticed that the Wal-Mart radio in this store is shut off? This is a District Store. The store that is supposed to set the example, and they are not playing any Christmas music. Just so everyone knows, Mr. Lambert obviously wants to tell everyone, "Bah, Humbug, spend your money and get out!" Way to go FAKE BOY!

LISSA’S: Wal-Mart Profits from Taxpayers

When Wal-Mart comes to town, consumers often pay more than they save. Not only does Wal-Mart ask taxpayers to subsidize the building of its giant retail stores, Wal-Mart pays its workers so little they regularly are forced to use emergency rooms and public services—at taxpayer expense.

First, the company usually asks for massive public tax subsidies and exemptions to build one of its big-box stores. Over the past 20 years, taxpayers have contributed at least $1 billion in subsidies to Wal-Mart stores and distribution centers, as well as to developers of shopping centers anchored by Wal-Mart stores, according to Good Jobs First, a nonprofit research group.
A 2001 study commissioned by the city of Barnstable, Mass., found big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart annually depleted the town's revenues by $794 per 1,000 square feet due to higher road maintenance costs and greater demand for public safety services.

Elected officials in Cathedral City, Calif., gave Wal-Mart $1.8 million in tax rebates 10 years ago. Last year, when the city finally began getting its full $800,000 in annual sales taxes from the two stores, Wal-Mart decided to close them in 2005 and build a new supercenter in nearby Palm Desert. Cathedral City officials learned Wal-Mart was moving out after reading about it in the newspaper—at a time when the city already had a $3 million deficit.

Next, Wal-Mart makes taxpayers pick up the health care tab for its employees. While 66 percent of workers at large U.S. firms get health coverage on the job, fewer than half of Wal-Mart workers do, an October 2003 AFL-CIO report finds. As a result, Wal-Mart workers are forced to use emergency rooms and public services for their health care needs.

The average Wal-Mart costs taxpayers an estimated $108,000 a year for its workers' children who are enrolled in state children's health insurance programs, according to Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart.

California taxpayers pay $86 million annually for such public programs as health care and subsidized housing that low-wage Wal-Mart workers rely on, according to an August 2004 report from the Institute for Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley.
A growing list of states—Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Washington, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Connecticut—report Wal-Mart as the 1 beneficiary or among the top corporate beneficiaries of its public health program for children's health care. Currently, 12 states have introduced legislation to require states to disclose which employers are shifting health care costs to taxpayers and another 27 have, or plan to introduce, such legislation. Championed by members of the National Labor Caucus of State Legislators, the legislation is designed to help measure the costs to state health care programs when large and profitable employers such as Wal-Mart skimp on coverage.

Wal-Mart has a health plan. But because few workers can afford it on the wages Wal-Mart pays, the company instead encourages its workers to apply for public assistance.

Recognizing the huge costs taxpayers bear when Wal-Mart moves into an area, communities have begun standing up to the giant retailer. In Franklin, Wis., a coalition of union, consumer and environmental activists in July 2004 won passage of a size ordinance covering retail stores that stopped development of a proposed 184,000-square-foot Wal-Mart supercenter selling groceries as well as other goods. In Los Angeles, activists won passage of a city ordinance in August 2004 requiring retailers such as Wal-Mart to pay for economic analyses showing whether proposed supercenters would eliminate community jobs, depress wages or harm neighborhood businesses.

"They are not good neighbors. Their low-wage jobs have no health care," says Cathedral City Mayor Pro Tem Greg Pettis. He advises other local leaders letting Wal-Marts in their community is "the biggest mistake" they can make with public money.

source aflcio.org

LISSA’S: Workers and Communities Suffer When Wal-Mart Moves in

With annual sales of more than $288 billion, Wal-Mart netted $10.3 billion in 2004 profits, more than twice the profits of its leading retail competitors combined, according to the company's most recent annual reports. Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott's salary and stock soared to $23 million in 2004. But many of his 1.3 million Wal-Mart employees are paid so poorly they can't even afford health insurance.

Wal-Mart's employees—more than 70 percent of them women—are paid an average $9.64 an hour if they are full-time employees, according to Business Week. Yet full-time workers, who comprise only about two-thirds of Wal-Mart's workforce, may be scheduled for as few as 34 hours weekly. Even at $9.64 hourly, working 34 hours a week, a Wal-Mart employee earns only $17,043 annually, well under the $18,850 federal poverty guideline for a family of four in 2004.
While 66 percent of workers at large U.S. firms get health coverage on the job, fewer than half of Wal-Mart workers do, an October 2003 AFL-CIO report finds.

Wal-Mart's virulent anti-union policies prevent workers from winning family-supportive wages and benefits. Unionized workers in the retail food industry make more than 30 percent more in hourly wages than their nonunion counterparts, according to a 2002 report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Yet when new employees start at Wal-Mart, they must first watch a video warning them against joining a union, according to author Barbara Ehrenreich, who chronicled her experience working at Wal-Mart in Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.

By keeping its workers in poverty, Wal-Mart also impoverishes entire communities: When many residents have less to spend on goods and services, they can't support community merchants—and everyone's income and spending eventually drops.

Big-box retailers and supercenters such as Wal-Mart transform family-supporting, middle-class retail jobs into lower-paying jobs that often leave workers unable to pay bills.

With big-box retailers and supercenters tending to convert communities' union-scale retail jobs to fewer, lower-paying retail jobs, the difference in overall compensation, including wages and benefits, is "as much as $8 an hour," according to an October 2003 report prepared for the city of Los Angeles.

For every $1 wage cut, the local economy loses a total $2.08 as less money circulates through the local economy. If union grocery workers' wages were slashed to match the wages of Wal-Mart workers, their communities would lose between $1.6 billion and $3 billion annually.
If Wal-Mart paid each employee $1 an hour more, it could maintain its profitability level by increasing prices a mere half penny per dollar.

source aflcio.org

LISSA’S: Wal-Mart’s Costs to Taxpayers

Wal-Mart's low prices don't come cheap. In fact, each Wal-Mart store employing 200 people costs taxpayers approximately $420,750 annually in public social services used by Wal-Mart workers whose low wages and unaffordable health insurance mean most of them are among the working poor. That's the finding of Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart, a report by the minority staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Education and the Workforce Committee.



If there's a Wal-Mart in your area, chances are your taxes are paying:





source: aflcio.org

LISSA’S: Wal-Mart Workers Say They Need a Fair Shake at the Workplace

Chances are, you know someone who works at Wal-Mart. Not only is Wal-Mart not a good neighbor, its corporate practices are less than friendly. In fact, millions of current and former Wal-Mart workers currently are seeking to win back their rights in court.

Current and former female Wal-Mart workers say the company has discriminated against them in pay and promotion policies because of their gender. In 2004, a U.S. District Court in San Francisco gave class-action status to their lawsuit against Wal-Mart, making it the largest class-action lawsuit in U.S. history representing 1.6 million women who have worked at Wal-Mart since 1998.

For the same job classification, women earn from 5 percent to 15 percent less than men, according to a February 2003 report by Richard Drogin, professor emeritus of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2001, this equated to nearly 40 cents less per hour for hourly workers or nearly $5,000 less annually for female managers, according to Drogin.
Wal-Mart balks at paying even the poverty-level wages workers have earned: In April 2004, the California Supreme Court declined to block class certification in a lawsuit alleging Wal-Mart Stores Inc. required some 250,000 employees to work off the clock. Workers say managers required employees to finish their work before going home and that Wal-Mart understaffed stores to make off-the-clock work mandatory for all practical purposes.

In June 2003, a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge found Wal-Mart violated federal labor laws in 2000 by refusing to bargain over job changes it imposed on meat cutters in a Jacksonville, Texas, store after they voted for a voice at work with the United Food and Commercial Workers. After they sought to join a union, the skilled meat cutters were suddenly demoted to "sales associates" and all Wal-Mart stores eventually shifted to selling pre-cut meat.

When Wal-Mart interferes with its workers' freedom to form unions in order to keep wages and benefits down, it encourages other employers to follow suit. Such efforts have real and significant consequences. According to a report prepared for the city of Los Angeles, grocery chains cited "the labor polices of nonunion superstore retailers" as a factor in their demanding wage and benefit cuts from UFCW grocery workers who struck and were locked out in 2003 . And according to a 2002 report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, unionized workers in the retail food industry make more than 30 percent more in hourly wages than their nonunion counterparts.

Undocumented workers have been exploited at Wal-Mart. On Oct. 23, 2003, federal agents raided 61 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states and arrested 245 nightshift janitors who were undocumented workers employed by cleaning contractors. In an Oct. 25, 2003, New York Times story, one undocumented janitor said he had worked every night except Christmas and New Year's Eve for 16 months and made approximately $6.25 an hour with no benefits. Following the October raids, nine Mexican immigrants who worked as janitors in New Jersey sued Wal-Mart alleging that it, as well as the contractors, failed to pay overtime, withhold taxes and make required workers' compensation contributions. No federal charges were filed against Wal-Mart, but the company agreed to pay $11 million to settle claims stemming from the federal investigation. The settlement, announced March 18, 2005, also calls for $4 million in criminal forfeitures by 12 firms the retail giant hired to provide janitorial services.

source: aflcio.org

LISSA’S: Reply to blog: The living wage ordinance rears its head

This is a reply I got from my friend "Mr. Moondog" on my blog "The Living Wage Ordinance Rears Its Head" I just love his take on issues! LOL!

Like they give a shit... and anyway they have plenty of applications people at our end of the work scale have no leverage, wm emps can not say well I wont work for less that 9 an hour, wm will find 10 who will, when your broke and they are turning the lights out or gee it would be nice to have some bread, now if we had a shanty town we all could live in like china, tin and cardboard, and wouldn't be thrown in jail for vagrancy, a few people might just start saying, heck I just won't work for that. Kick back in their boxes, and there would be less pressure on the low pay jobs and there would be a little more leverage..

someone needs a new perspective.. take lawns, if people grew corn in their yards instead of grass, how much would corn cost at the store?> Would there be pot dealers if anyone could grow it in their yard? if everyone had pet chickens and spent dog food and cat food money on chicken food,,, how much would chicken meat cost.?

When knowing how to grow some food, and raise a few animals started being lost, and when ordinances against chickens and goats in your yard started popping up,, most people who had any sense said,, "There goes our freedom".,, and moved to somewhere they could do it.. Catching fish, shootin quail, etc etc alot of people could make it pretty near without uncle sammy and wallyworld nannie...

LISSA’S: I found the PERFECT example of a Wal Mart manager

LISSA’S: You Know You’re From Houston....

My mother-in-law sent me this. All of my AWESOME in-laws live in Houston, and they love it! I cannot wait to become a Houstonian.. Houston is calling my heart..... *SIGH*

You know you're from Houston when...

You can leave your house, head out of town, and an hour later you still haven't left the city limits. (During rush hour, you haven't left your neighborhood.)

Spring is not the season, Katy is not the lady, and 1960 is not the year.

The "farm-to-market" roads have seven lanes.

If you want to be a snob about your grocery shopping, you can go to Randall's Flagship, Rice Epicurean Market or a Kroger's Signature.

You have to turn on the air conditioning in January, two days after a low of 29 degrees.

When you see your neighbor dancing around the front yard, you know he just stepped in a fire ant bed.

You know that the Astrodome will always be the Eighth Wonder of the World.

You come to work in short-sleeves and walk out at noon to find that a cold front has blown through, and the temperature has dropped 40 degrees in a matter of minutes.

You wander into a section of town where you can't read the street signs but you don't care because you can get great prices on fake designer merchandise there.

You go to an art festival on Westheimer and you're almost run down by two cross-dressers on roller blades, holding hands.

You hear everything but English spoken when you go to the Galleria to window-shop.

You know that "Dad gummit" has nothing to do with your father's failure to practice good dental hygiene.

You think "Y'all" is perfectly good usage if you're referring to more than one person.

You've never seen I-45 in any condition other than under-construction --and you've lived here for 20-30 years.

If the humidity is below 90 percent, it's a good hair day.

The only real Mexican food is Tex-Mex.

You know that while saving you money, "Mattress Mac" has amassed more than the U.S. Treasury has.

You see nothing unusual about an 80-something former sheriff's deputy who wears a white toupee and blue sunglasses, mispronounces names, allows televising of his frequent plastic surgeries, seems unnaturally obsessed with slime in the ice machine, and screams, "MAR-VIN ZIND-ler, EYE-witness news" into a television camera every night.

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Houston

LISSA’S: If Men Wrote Advice Columns

LISSA'S: Sweatshop Workers Made Wal-Mart Ornaments

Christmas ornaments made in a factory in China and sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. were produced in sweatshop conditions, a report by a labor advocacy group said.

The National Labor Committee based its allegations on smuggled videotapes, documents, and interviews with workers from the Guangzhou Huanya Gift Ltd. Co. in Guangdong province. The group said employees included children who were forced to work 16-hour shifts and were paid below the Chinese minimum wage. Wal-Mart monitors its suppliers and will investigate the allegations, a spokesman for the company, Richard Coyle, said in an e-mail.

The photos of the child workers prompted one lawmaker to renew a push for legislation that would prohibit imports of goods from factories that fail to provide workers with basic labor protections. "There is nothing in the law that prohibits against imports of products made from sweatshop labor, and I think that needs to change," Senator Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, said at a press conference. Mr. Dorgan held up an ornament pictured in the Chinese factory, which he said was purchased at Wal-Mart.

The New York-based National Labor Committee has investigated labor abuses in Central America, Jordan, and other countries in recent years. Yesterday's report on the Christmas ornaments accused Wal-Mart and other retailers in America of failing to police their production facilities overseas.

LISSA’S: Wal-Mart Yanks Pink ’Credit Card’ Panties Off Racks

The panties, which were sold in the juniors department, seemed to suggest that girls don't need money, they just need a sugar daddy — in this case Santa Claus.





The hipster briefs — carrying the slogan "Who needs credit cards ..." on the front and "When you have Santa" on the derriere — caused an uproar among parents, who called for the $2.96 drawers to be pulled off the racks.

"We have directed our stores to remove this merchandise from our shelves," Linda Brown Blakely, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, told FOXNews.com Wednesday.

The undergarments had caused a stir on some blogs prior to Wednesday's announcement. Scarlett, a reader of Feministing.com, alerted the blog to the holiday-inspired undies, which she found on a rack in the juniors department of a Wal-Mart in Cary, N.C.

"There's nothing quite like telling adolescent girls that they don't need to worry about finances since they have their very own moneypot between their legs," Jessica Valenti, the executive editor of Feministing.com, wrote on the panty blog post.

Scarlett was so incensed by the message on the front of the panties, she didn't even see the Santa kicker in the rear, she wrote on the blog.

"I still think that the entire thing is messed up. This isn't just a cute T-shirt that says 'Just ask Santa,'" she wrote. "This is a pair of panties. Exactly how nice to Santa would the girl have to be in order to get stuff?"

LISSA'S: The Living Wage Ordinance Rears Its Head

LISSA’S: The Living Wage Ordinance Rears Its Head
By: Brian White

A "Black Sheep" when it comes to Wal-Mart's employee pay policy -- the "Living Wage," as it's been called.

This is the wage that would significantly up the amount of pay many Wal-Mart employees would see in their pockets while not affecting pricing very much from the consumer standpoint. Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? Any slight upward movement in pricing would be seen by Wal-Mart's price-savvy customers, yet the retailer is constantly bombarded by accusations of low pay. How can it mesh the two for a solution?

Wal-Mart's pay scale could be improved, right?

One of Wal-Mart's largest public relations nightmares in the past ten years or so has been the lower pay and substandard benefits it provides the majority of its workers. Wal-Mart, though, is not alone here -- many retailers pay at the same level as Wal-Mart and most likely provide comparable benefit levels. But. Wal-Mart is the most visible retailer in the world -- and as such, it is the largest target by far. Just like Microsoft in the computer industry, the largest elephant in the room always attracts the most arrows.

But, could Wal-Mart really raise wages for many employees -- taking its own "minimum wage" to no less than $10 per hour -- and not cause any price increases for its customer base? That is the ticket -- Wal-Mart's customer base is the most price sensitive of any other retailer in any industry. Raise prices by a few cents on many items and many customers will recognize. Or, will they?

In a study by the University of California at Berkeley, the university's center for Labor Research and Education concluded that the world's largest retailer could increase its minimum wage to $10 per hour and greatly boost the well-being of its low-income workers with little financial impact on most shoppers. Sounds like a win-win solution, doesn't it?

What the research is:

The UoC's research, the implementation of a "big box living wage" ordinance would give many Wal-Mart workers a significant upgrade in pay and benefits (raising their standard of living) by spreading costs to the Wal-Mart customer base in such a way that consumer segments in multiple income spectra would share those costs in small, incremental ways. It's akin to implementing a small fee on your home phone bill somewhere in the call detail, but without affecting most home phone subscribers more than pocket change.

That may be a bad analogy, but it's appropriate. Would you notice if your home phone bill went up by $0.28 ever month? Probably not. Now, multiply that amount by over a hundred million home phone subscribers and what do you get? If you do the math, you'll get the idea pretty fast.
But then again, a Chicago city ordinance last year suggested and implemented what it called the "living wage ordinance" that would have required big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart to pay a $10 per hour minimum wage. The ordinance was eventually vetoed and was not put into effect after complaints from just about every big-box retailer (including Target). Going from an estimated average of $7 to $8 per hour for a basic Wal-Mart wage to at least $10 would have surely bankrupted the retail giant, right? Not quite.

What the research concluded:

In the UoC's labor center study, the overall conclusion was that Wal-Mart could indeed raise its own minimum wage to $10 per hour by passing on those overall costs fully to its consumer base. Want a number figure? The researchers suggested that the overall shopping bill increase most Wal-Mart customers would see would be in the area of 0.9%. As an example, you buy $250 worth of groceries, and your applicable increase based on that level would be $2.25. Would you notice such a small increase? Here's another: Buy a $1,300 flat-screen TV and you'd see $11.70 tacked on. Make a large difference to you?

Here are some facts released in the study:

*Increasing Wal-Mart's minimum wage wages to $10 per hour would contribute to a payroll of $2.38 billion a year, a 9.3 percent increase over the retailers' current payroll.

*Poor and low-income Wal-Mart workers could expect to earn an additional $1,020 to $4,640 a year in pre-tax income, depending on what they earn now and whether they work part-time or full-time.

*If Wal-Mart shoppers were asked to absorb all of the wage increase, the average impact would be a price increase equivalent to 36 cents per shopping trip or $9.70 per year, for the store's average consumer, who spends $1,088 per year at Wal-Mart.

*High-spending Wal-Mart shoppers, (the 12.5 percent of store customers who account for 54 percent of all Wal-Mart sales and average expenditures of $9,775 per year) would see an additional cost of $1.47 per shopping trip, or up to $87.98 a year. The study estimates that 3.4 percent of Wal-Mart shoppers are both high-spending and low-income.

The study also found that close to half of the wage income gain by Wal-Mart implementing a $10 per hour minimum wage -- or 46.3% -- would accrue to workers living below 200% of the federal poverty level. In other words, customer price increased would be used to basically subsidize living for those living at or near the poverty line. At least, an argument can be made for that point of view.

But then again, workers at Wal-Mart choose to work there and are choosing to accept the lower pay amounts the retailer gives. It's a free country where any worker can apply to and work for any company he or she chooses. The antithesis of that statement comes from liberal types, who argue that low-income and near-poverty workers have no choice than to work for Wal-Mart (or another low-paying company), and therefore that company should be required to pay a wage that brings a majority of workers out of living in or close to poverty.

Does government fiddling with private industry seem appropriate in a capitalistic society? According to conservative types, absolutely not.

LISSA’S: A $10 Minimum Wage At Wal-Mart? Better Wish For Two Front Teeth..

By: Al Norman

The UC Berkeley Labor Center has been producing research since 1964, but this week the research team released not one---but two---studies, neither of which you will find under Wal-Mart's Christmas Tree.

According to the first report, "A Downward Push: The Impact of Wal-Mart Stores on Retail Wage and Benefits," researchers found that employees at Wal-Mart earn lower average wages and receive less generous benefits than workers employed by many other large retailers. "Our research finds that Wal-Mart store openings lead to the replacement of better paying jobs with jobs that pay less," the Labor Center reports. "Wal-Mart's entry also drives wages down for workers in competing industry segments such as grocery stores."

The study examined Wal-Mart store openings for the 8 year period 1992 to 2000, and found that the opening of a single Wal-Mart store in a county lowered average retail wages in that county by between 0.5 and 0.9 percent. "In the general merchandise sector, wages fell by 1% for each new Wal-Mart. And for grocery store employees, the effect of a single new Wal-Mart was a 1.5% reduction in earnings," the study concludes. With an average of 50 Wal-Mart stores per state, the average wages for retail workers were 10% lower, and their job-based health coverage rate was 5 percentage points less than they would have been without Wal-Mart's presence. "Nationally, the retail wage bill in 2000 was estimated to be $4.5 billion less in nominal terms due to Wal-Mart's presence." This suggests that workers in 2000 would have taken home $4.5 billion more in their total paycheck if Wal-Mart had not been around.

"Overall," the researchers say, "the results strongly support the hypothesis that Wal-Mart entry lowers wages and benefits of retail workers." With more than 1.3 million American workers, Wal-Mart accounts for 55% of all general merchandise workers. In the area of large general merchandise companies with more than 1,000 employees, Wal-Mart workers earned 25% less than workers at competitor stores. Wal-Mart's impact on grocery store workers is especially dramatic. Wages of unionized supermarket workers are 27% higher than their non-union counterparts.

The UC study also found no evidence of job gains when a Wal-Mart opens. "Our study demonstrates that the opening of new Wal-Mart stores produces a decline not just in average wages," researchers explain, "but in the total wage bill of a county." As for health care benefits, the new study reports that 10 new Wal-Mart stores in a state caused a 1 percentage point drop in the proportion of retail workers getting health insurance from their workers.

The second study, "Living Wage Policies and Wal-Mart: How a Higher Wage Standard Would Impact Wal-Mart Workers and Shoppers," concludes that Wal-Mart could increase its minimum wage to $10 per hour and greatly boost the well-being of its low-income workers with little financial impact on most shoppers. Even if Wal-Mart passed on to consumers the entire cost of raising its wage floor to $10 per hour, the average impact on a Wal-Mart shopper would be higher product prices of less than 1% (0.9%). On the other hand, almost half (46.3%) of the wage income gain would go to workers living below 200% of the federal poverty level.

Less than 1 in 3 (29.3%) of shoppers with incomes below 200% of the poverty level would be impacted by the small price increase from raising wages. Giving Wal-Mart workers a more livable wage, it turns out, would literally be a 'small price to pay' for consumers. The study estimates that the average Wal-Mart shopper would have to pay an extra 36 cents per shopping trip, or less than $10 a year. Wal-Mart workers would gain $2.38 billion more in wages---a 9.3% increase in Wal-Mart's current payroll. For the lowest income Wal-Mart workers, a $10 minimum wage at Wal-Mart would translate into $1,020 to $4,640 more a year in pre-tax income. The Wal-Mart workers would notice the increase in their paycheck, but the average Wal-Mart shopper wouldn't even notice a change.

Wal-Mart claims that its average hourly wage is $10.11 an hour. But payroll data suggests that what workers get depends on their gender, race and job title. According to the wage study, 769,666 Wal-Mart workers are earning $9.02 or less per hour. There are 376,061 Wal-Mart full and part-time workers making less than $8 an hour. If all these workers were from the same city, they would equal the population of Minneapolis or Honolulu. If Wal-Mart raised the wages of its 238,872 full-time workers earning less than 8 an hour to $10, the average worker would take home an annual increase of $4,640. That's the definition of "live better" to the retailer's workforce.

According to the new wage report, as of January, 2007, Wal-Mart had sales exceeding $731 million every day, with around 18.1 million shoppers per day, and 127 million customers every week. The average shopper would pay $9.70 a year to give Wal-Mart workers a $6.52 million raise per day, or a total wage hike of $2.38 billion annually. This assumes that Wal-Mart absorbs none of this wage cost itself.

One of the best things Wal-Mart as a corporation could do to help low income families would be to provide its own "associates" with a decent wage hike. These two studies, seen in tandem, suggest that Wal-Mart currently is depressing wage rates in its industry, at a time when it could easily afford to give its workers a greater share of the pie. Wal-Mart could help hundreds of thousands of its own people to "live better," but instead has deliberately chosen to "save more" for the corporation---at the expense of the people who have helped the company make billions in profits.

What chance is there that Wal-Mart workers will find a $10 per hour minimum wage in their Xmas stocking? The "Associates" might as well be whistling through their two front teeth.
To view copies of the two reports released this week by the UC Labor Center, go to: http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/

Al Norman is the founder of Sprawl-Busters.com, and author of the book Slam Dunking Wal-Mart: How You Can Stop Superstore Sprawl In Your Hometown

LISSA’S: Wal-Mart: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t

Push has come to shove at the Sherman, TX Wal-Mart. If you have been keeping up with my blog, you know that Department Managers are being pulled from their departments to work in Toys and Grocery. Well, after all this time of not being in their department, now Management is getting upset because nothing is complete in the departments with no managers. Softline departments are weeks behind in getting items to the floor. And in the truest sense of the unofficial Wal-Mart logo "Doing More With Less", Department Managers are now being forced to work six to seven day weeks to get their departments back in shape..... But they still have to go over and work in Toys a few hours a day. Of course, Management is not helping in any department, they are just making the demands.

One Department Manager today went over the edge. Last night, something in the department did not get completed. Everything was left and not worked. So, instead of blaming the last person working the department, instead of blaming the second to last person working in the department, together with Assistant Manager Heather Fox, they decided to blame the third person to the last to leave the department. Why? It seems that he was the last one to actually work on the stuff that needed to be done, and when he asked for the last two to finish, it was the wrong thing to do. It was wrong for him to expect someone in the department to do their job..... No, that is not a misprint. He actually asked that question during the warning he was given. He is not supposed to expect anyone else in the department to do their job. And he is now responsible for this daily duty. Even though he is off two of the days he is responsible for, he is being held accountable for the way people who work on his days off do the job. This is NOT a member of management. This is a regular associate. Being held responsible for activities when he is not at work. Being held responsible for other people's actions when he is not there. Being held responsible for the daily deliveries. Where is the logic in that?

And now the "Do More With Less" motto now has the Christmas Spirit. Every year, Wal-Mart has given their employees a Christmas Party. Complete with renting out an outside place, getting food, giving presents. This year they decided on something different. The associates had to do a fund raiser this year to give themselves a Christmas Party. Seems Wal-Mart was too cheap to pay for their employees dinner. Or maybe the billions this company pulls in is just not enough to say thank you to the ones who bring the money in.

If you think it is over yet, well then hold on. Wal-Mart closes Christmas Eve at 6pm, is closed through Christmas Day, and opens at 6am the day after Christmas. During that time they hire guards to sit in the store and watch it. But it does get expensive to hire guards to work on the holidays. So this year, there is a new plan. They have broken the 36 hours the store is closed into 5 shifts and are asking their employees to come to work. Not to just watch the store, but to actually come in and work. The store will not be open, but there will be a staff inside actually working on Christmas. So much for the holidays.

What do you believe? How are your holidays spent? This is the company you are supporting. It is sad. Either way, because I know you will be back into this store.