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Menino to Wal-Mart: You're welcome if you provide good wages, benefits
By adamg on Wed, 02/09/2011 - 6:34am
The Herald reports on Menino's opening public salvo in negotiations with Wal-Mart over opening stores within city limits.
Compare to New York, where the megachain has launched a marketing campaign against the city council, which opposes it.
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Comments
No way they'll ever pay "good wages", and benefits
They make the same promise everywhere; good wages and benefits for full-time employees. Then Walmart schedules full-time employees for just under the benefits limit, and don't pay enough for someone to survive. We need a public hearing on this.
Walmart may move in though, the Hyatt fired all of their housekeepers, and we still let them stay in Boston.
Even in areas they don't
They have a policy of 35.5 hour work weeks, to make sure you don't hit or go over 40.
Well, at least the competently managed stores that aren't forcing their employees to work off the clock that is.
As for the question of Walmart, count in me as one who doesn't see the big deal. Smaller CVS's on every corner in this city killed most mom and pop stores long ago, then jacked up their prices. Walmart isn't going to do anything that already hasn't been done, and will offer a cheap solution to many people that are living on the edge, trying to get by.
I know many people who would make regular monthly trips to Quincy or Lynn for Wallyworld runs, because it was cheaper then target, including the gas to get there.
Their policies are useless
Their policies are really just empty promises. Walmart will never offer a quality job, promising career, decent pay, or decent benefits. What they print, and what they follow are two different things. Walmart has had to fight multiple lawsuits (including here in MA) regarding labor practices, and even completely shut out butchers who wanted to start a union in other states.
There are already Walmart stores in the area, people can simply go to those ones. As a resident of Boston, I will never support a Walmart in our city.
Bleh Wal Mart
It is a pack of lies from them. They *always* make good promises, and will when the store opens, but give it a few months after the city council has turned their head, and they'll fire employees to hire cheaper staff, and cut people's hours back to conform with their crappy policy. The city council should say unions must be required in their store.. that'll stop Walmart in their tracks from opening a store (WalMart is a union buster and will fire anyone for even thinking about one)
I'm not to worried about local business in boston, although Walmart has destroyed many small towns by opening up a store. But they may force some overpriced folks out just on sheer prices. However people think Walmart is known for its cheap prices, yeah *some* stuff is cheaper, but its a ploy to get you into the store to buy stuff that isn't cheaper or about the same price as any other store. Plus many products at Walmart are manufactured for WalMart and are less quality than you would find anywhere else. (this is a known fact). Just compare TVs with BestBuy or Sears. The models are slightly different and lack certain features. This is what makes them cheaper.
I find it funny that WalMart is pushing a new store in NYC and people are out fighting it in full force.
I'm not a Walmart shopper, and I boycott WalMart, so I won't be affected. Walmart destroyed my hometown. There's nothing downtown anymore, there was a 5 and 10, a locally owned grocery store, and several 'boutique' stores. Now its mostly junk stores and "For Lease" signs.
I highly suggest people watch "WalMart: The Cost of Low Prices". It's valiance on Netflix Streaming. Some folks may think of this as a propaganda film but I did fact checks and many of the facts are correct. Its a good watch and gives you an inside of what WalMart is really like.
Check out the frontline program on Walmart as well
I have heard it is better than "WalMart: The Cost of Low Prices", but I have not seen that one yet.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walm...
I don't know if . . .
. . . it is just Walmart- but a lot of stuff these days seems almost designed to fail after a year of use or so- from one cup coffee makers to vacuum cleaners- if it is "cheap" it is so for a reason has been my experience.
I went through a phase once where I bought a "Dust Devil" vacuum cleaner every year or so. They are tempting to buy because many of them are like 80 to 100 bucks- but they just poop out on you in a matter of months. So much stuff is like that these days.
Well, no wonder
Had you bought an actual Dirt Devil instead of some knockoff from the truck that sells Jonsport backpacks and Roobok shoes, you might be singing a different tune!
(We've had a $100-ish DD for about 10 years. It's a standardly made, warranteed product with replaceable belts and all that good stuff.)
I bought a "dirt devil" . . .
. . . and the electrical cord actually caught fire- scorched the floor. And I had it less than six months.
I'm a Dyson owner now. Love it. Spent nearly 500 on it- top of the line- had it now for 5 years.
But- to be fair- I can't remember if it was an actual "dirt devil" or some clever knock off name- you might be right about that now that I think about it. The cord was not a modern cord - almost like it was wrapped in plastic coated cloth - something that you would have seen on an appliance from the 30's.
Considering how the Menino
Considering how the Menino administration itself is union-busting and privatizing, it may as well have Wal-Mart operate the schools system and the library.
More seriously, this is why this city needs an actual democracy. This is literally the mayor's decision, and he has been duped before by transparently bad promises that intersected with his SimCity dreams. See the Filene's site.