In the land of Walmart, goods are cheap, low-wage jobs are plentiful and outrage is elsewhere
Carlton Clarington, barbershop owner. Steven Boone
11:10 am Feb. 15, 20125
WARNER ROBINS, Ga.—I couldn't get any Walmart employees to talk on tape about their experiences at the world's largest superstore, but the sentiment was unanimous. They're happy to have both a job and a cheap place to shop.
Well, sure. When I landed here after leaving New York, I went online to apply for a job as an associate, the entry-level position at Walmart.
But when I asked a friend for a reference, she was outraged.
Her email: "Oh Boone, applying to work at a Wal-mart? What's going on? Can't it at least be a Target where you will be treated like a human and get benefits? Wal-mart is the ultimate of what you stand against. Have you seen the docu The High Cost of Low Price?"
No, I'd somehow never gotten around to watching the 2005 documentary, but of course I knew all about Walmart's history of exploitation, pollution, racism, sexism, and anti-labor abuses.
But hadn't the company cleaned up its environmental act? Wasn't the plantation-style Walmart model dismantled over the past seven years? Wasn't it trying to get out of the obesity-and-diabetes racket?
Back in New York, I had relied upon the White Plains Walmart for Straight Talk prepaid phone cards. The store, which opened in 2006, was nothing to write home about, in terms of size, evildoing or spectacularly low prices. It struck me as a mediocre combo of the Astor Place Kmart and the downtown Brooklyn Target.
The Walmart in Warner Robins is a fortress. Inside a complex spacious enough to house a good portion of the local air squadron, there is everything one would require to survive and even flourish in the coming apocalypse. From home furnishings to hunting gear to fresh produce to $8 Blu-rays.
Still, after finally watching the Walmart doc at my friend's command, I put my application on hold. The film revealed little that I didn't already know, but I'd assumed the company had taken steps to make itself less terrible since then. How could they not without inciting a consumer-worker rebellion of Occupy proportions?
Carlton Clarington, who owns a barbershop in Warner Robins, told me I shouldn't sweat it.
"They have run into problems in the past, by running little mom-and-pop operations out of business, but they've also done some good for small companies that get into the Walmart network," he said. "They've blown up businesses that needed the sales in order to produce more jobs."
Does he shop there?
"Oh yeah, all the time. Prices, can't beat 'em."
He admits it has affected some local businesses.
"I guess your local sporting goods stores, bait and tackle ... But, as a whole, this is America, man. Only the strong survive. I feel for the mom-and-pop operations, but, hey, it is what it is."
Carlton is a black man standing about 6' 2", with short, neat, slightly graying dreadlocks and the general presence of a tough, friendly dock foreman.
"The story of Walmart is a success story in itself," he says, a bit of boyish enthusiasm brightening his tone. "I read Sam Walton's autobiography, how he came up, and it wasn't easy. He had the right idea. People wouldn't listen. Benjamin Franklin stores didn't listen from the early outgoing. So he proved 'em wrong. That's what America was built on, man." What about the accusations of institutional racism at Walmart? A grin crept across his face before I finished the question.
"All companies got that," he said. "You can't please everybody. And when you hire as many people as they do, you're gonna have issues like that. I don't see anybody not having issues like that."
I happened to be chatting with Carlton at the gas station down the street from my house. In the neighborhoods set back from the main boulevards, gas-station convenience stores are the only alternatives to the Walmarts, Targets, and dollar stores.
Roberta Micola works the register at this one. She is the sunniest convenience-store clerk on earth (imagine Kathy Bates playing an earth-mother sweetie), but she had a scowl ready for Walmart.
"Their impact has been huge here in Warner Robins," she said. "Every day of the week it's filled to capacity."
Her complaints are the usual ones, chiefly that Walmart undercuts local stores' prices.
"I try to shop at some of the smaller chains," she said. "I kinda feel bad because some of the ones I used to shop at, like Winn-Dixie and Food Lion, unfortunately went out."
"It has no effect on how I feel about them," said Carlton. "And I'm pretty much anti-union. I was manager at a trucking company for 23 years and we were unionized. The only way to keep costs down is to stay non-union. So I guess I'm with the corporations, man."
Micah Goguen recently moved to Warner Robins from Atlanta, where Walmart recently descended. Originally from Macon, he looks like a slim, stylish Brooklynite, and, but for the Middle Georgia twang, sounds like one: "This overall area is now dedicated to consumption. Stores back-to-back, so that's the dominating presence Walmart has here." Walmart landed in Atlanta after the city had fought it for a while, with Target paving the way for the bigger company's invasion.
Micah's sister-in-law Mandy, waiting for him in her S.U.V. in the convenience store parking lot, says she loves Walmart: "I think it's very convenient. It's right down the road. They have everything you need when you need it."
Has she heard about any of the protests over the company's practices over the years?
"Um, something about the women workers or something, being paid less than the men...?" What about the sweatshops and union-busting?
"No, I don't know anything about that."
Micah doesn't know much about Walmart's dark deeds, either. He just hates the atmosphere and the mentality that big box stores cultivate in a community.
An old friend and wife in S Ohio opened a nursery, for fun. People liked it, and demanded more. Soon they had a thriving store. Until Walmart opened up, 30 miles away. Their business closed a year later. The couldn't buy for what walmart was selling for.
And that is one of the problems. Not only do they clear away all smaller competition. They then squeeze the producers to sell for less. And they have cleared the aisles of different brands, concentrating on a few (like detergents), so they can concentrate their power.
And those aisles - we have a 'small' walmart near us (Atlanta), and they have converted it into a 'super'. The aisles are 3rd-world narrow. Two carts can't pass by!
Walmart is the worst, but the other big-box stores aren't much better.
I hope you find a job, and I hope it's better than the ones listed! (like there's much choice these days)
Steven, Nice realism , as an 8 year senior employee of Best Buy and about ,,,,,,,, well a 4 month milk cooler detail at Walmart. I saw first hand the employees and spoke candidly with them at both retail establishments about there positions.
A majority of Best Buy employees are disgruntled managers and supervisors that where let go or demoted during the so called (legal) re-structure of the company. Was this do to the housing or bank crisis ? Or maybe it was the fact that they were opening up stores like cans of soda for the last 5 years. Or is it there personal video production company that markets blue and yellow forever videos for the store meetings so they may better equip the sales associate to build repor with the customer like "oh I like your backpack" where did you get it and what brings you here to best buy"? Pretty soon they will just whack you in the back of the head and say, What wallet?
Needless to say capitalism has hit them hard after loosing Dick Shultz.
Now Walmart was an entirely new experience for me. The employees mostly told me that they had been there for around 5 years with no promotions, although Walmart prides itself of hiring in store for all there departments. Then I noticed that like "Best Buy" they hired out of store when it came to a majority of there managers. I suppose people who are continually bossed around and systematically critiqued on profit loss and Profit Gain throughout the years don't make very effective bosses themselves unless they have a vindictive streak in them. None the less The days of just showing up and working hard for a good wage are gone and have been replaced with standard operating platforms that seem to have a managers responsibility at a checkers wage.
I do have to say that at least with wal-mart you know where you stand "it is what it is" like Micah stated. You know you are there to work and that it. Instead of being cultured and Trained and having hundreds of thousands of dollars of training materials thrown at you to swallow just to be let go by margin and capitol tracking. I mean in my Grandpas day the general Managers had to worry about that stuff not the cashiers, and associates.
It is not about anything more than capitalism and people that are a fan of capitalism seem to be just as against the challenges we all face as a nation. Very fickle bunch of people in my generation for sure.
Workers of the world arise. You have nothing to loose but your chains.
Good writing. I'm with Micah; going to Walmart here in Toronto makes me dizzy. It's the place I go when I need a new 10-pack of white sports socks, made in USA (made in Canada is impossible to find nowadays). And it's all I ever buy there.I take the subway, walk a block to the store, go in, get out. I've noticed the quality has declined the last couple of times I bought them, I'm not sure what I will find next. I suspect this is partly due to Walmart's insistence on the lowest. price. period. from its suppliers.
Tricia, the Toronto Walmarts are easier to navigate, as I recall. Maybe it's that the staff is more helpful. I remember getting actual answers to questions in there, haha.