LISSA: Christmas Gifts

This is a quick list of gifts we got for Christmas:

Melissa:
Lucille Ball barbie
Santa Ricky
celebrate disco barbie
Enya cd - And Winter Came
Xbox 360
Tomb raider underworld for xbox360
beautiful katamari for xbox360
sunbeam fleece electric warm throw
2 fairytopia magic of the rainbow dolls
Indian doll
pink scarf
mardi gras scarf
2 i love lucy porcelain babies

Bill:
star trek pez collection
battlestar galactica season 3 dvd
survivor all stars dvd
new get smart dvd
heroes season 2 dvd
hellraiser collector's edition dvd
iron man dvd
Batman: The Dark Knight dvd
thrive mix cd
star trek ship book
2 hallmark star trek ornaments
star trek the complete animated series dvd


both:
hp printer w/paper
hd stereo
bamboo plant
2 Chinese decorative tiles

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: 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.

BILL'S: Texoma Christmas Spirit

Just had a friend post a blog about the wonders of the Christmas Spirit, talking about how a woman bought a gift certificate and gave it to a stranger. It really surprised me that a story like this would come from this area. Let me tell you about my examples of the Christmas Spirit in Texoma, and maybe you too will wonder how long one good apple can survive in a barrel of rotten ones.

My first Christmas after I moved into the area was in the year 2000. My first memories are of the Christmas parade. Granted I live outside of town in Whitesboro, and about three miles from the designated parade route. I was standing outside in my front yard. All of the sudden, I heard sirens and yells coming down the street. I stopped my yard work to figure out what was all the clatter. Come to find out, no one showed up for the Christmas Parade, and the city decided to take it's three vehicle parade to everyone, so they were driving through the city streets and countryside making up for the fact no one came to their party.

A couple of years later, I was working for Dr. Pepper and went into the Sherman, TX Wal-Mart to finish for the day. I worked until the store began closing at 6pm on Christmas Eve. As I was walking out, this lady storms passed me, yelling at how Wal-Mart didn't have what she needed. She jumped in her car, started it up, threw it into reverse and pulled out. Hitting my cart at the time. Wedging my cart under her car, missing me by inches. This is a great example of the Texoma Christmas Spirit.

The next year, I came face to face with another lady who just yelled and cursed. Blamed everyone for not having chopped broccoli when she needed it.

The next couple of years came with more yelling, more anger, and more of "me, me, me". This is the time people get so conceited, and so worried about themselves, or what their image will be presented. They have to "one-up" everyone in their lives.

Last year, one couple came up to me and needed some help. They bought their son over $650 worth of Electronics - from game systems to games to accessories. They were debating on another $175 of games and accessories, but decided to wait on them. They informed me that they would be better for his 8th birthday which is the week after Christmas. Hey, son, what does Christmas mean to you? Playstation or Nintendo?

This year, I can see the same starting. My family is going under fast. I don't even have enough to give my kids a great Christmas, but I will make the most of what I can. But a couple of weeks ago, I went to the Christmas Angel tree up at the front of Wal-Mart and found a child's angel. He was asking for a $25 IPOD giftcard. And it made me wonder. Here I am, I can't afford an IPOD. Our Christmas is only one gift for each person in the family. And here is this child looking for charity for a $25 giftcard. To some it might not mean much, but it tells me that this person can afford an IPOD, his parents can afford the highspeed internet connection necessary to download the songs and add to your ITunes playlist. Here I am struggling to keep the electricity on, trying to put food on the table, and the one asking for the free gifts is someone with the money. Again, a Texoma tradition.

Last night I watched the story about the United Way Plane Pull where United Way members from all over pull an airplane 30 yards to see who could do it faster. The whole thing is charity. I told Melissa, they should really test themselves and see who can pull it fast enough to get it off the ground. The first one to get their plane one foot off the ground wins all the money. She told me that it would be impossible. I informed her that that is only because the contest was held in Florida. If it was held here, Texomites would pull that plane forever trying to get it off the ground.

Christmas Spirit, hmmmm, who around here really understands the meaning? I see more Scrooges than warmth. There is more ice in the hearts of people around here than there is blood. Christmas around here would make the Grinch proud. Now all we need is the big tree with the hospital logo for the star...... Or is it already up, the bah humbug nature of the people here have already desensitized me to the season.

LISSA'S: Favoritism and Black Friday Revisited.

Thinking back on my notes about Favoritism, I forgot to mention a couple of items. Every month, the company celebrates anniversaries of it's associates. It doesn't matter if you have worked there one year or 25 years, your anniversary is put in the monthly newsletter from the store. Also, on your anniversary day, you are brought to the attention of everyone in the which are held three times a day. Well, that is the way it is supposed to happen. And in most stores it does happen that way. But here at the Sherman Wal-Mart, where favoritism rules, things are run differently. If you are popular, you will be in the newsletter and recognized at the meetings. But just in the past couple of months, I know for a fact that at least two people were not recognized. Again, not the popular ones. One person has only been there for a year, so it is understandable. One has worked for the company for over twenty years and was ignored.

And to hit on the Black Friday fiasco. I have talked to many people and they have all agreed that this was the most unorganized Black Friday in the history of the store. For those of you who missed out, just know that some items that they ran out of during the Blitz (such as the video game rocker), they found two more pallets later that night. And then there were the blatant lies. Yes, you got lied to. Some of Wal-Mart's competition had good prices on their items. And yes, Wal-Mart does do comparison pricing on any competitor's ad. But did you know that if Wal-Mart does not want to give that price, they will pull the item from their shelf and tell their associates to tell everyone that they are sold out. I have seen this done from groceries to Hardware. I have seen them have vendors pull items out of the store because another store has a sale on the items. It's not that Coke, Pepsi or Dr. Pepper has run out of a certain item, because they are willing to deliver to this store at any time, any day of week, any holiday. They can get it there. No, it is because the store manager, Bryan Lambert, or some of his minions chose not to have it for the ad. So, if you noticed some things out of stock, chances are it wasn't because it wasn't in the store. They either had lost it or had pulled it off the shelves.

But for fun, ask the management if they got some of those pulled items at the other stores amount..... Yes, the managers would not give it to the public for that price, but yes, they did buy it themselves at that price. I guess they can chose what you can and can't buy, but they will make sure they get it.

If you read my first post about the Blitz Day Blunders, then prepare yourself. They are setting up the same predicament for Christmas. All the department managers are getting pulled again to work in Christmas or toys for hours a day. Funny, grocery doesn't have to come over to help after all the help they got for Thanksgiving.