Black Friday - Walmart Strike?

[Christopher Robin]

Try to describe the ocean to a well frog.

 

[joviroxx]

I said it on another thread but heck, Ill say it again.(which is what led to my unfortunate episode with autocorrect and a completely wackadoodle tag LOL) While you are watching tv, are you thinking about the folks working the tv stations. How about those football games? Are you thinking about the football players, cheerleaders, referees, food vendors and all the rest of them that are away from their families?

Non essential workers have always worked on Thanksgiving. And I can bet there are a ton of folks without jobs that would LOVE to be working at ANY time during the holiday in order to provide for their families.

Does it suck to have to work on a holiday? Yep, Im sure it does. I just don't get the sudden outrage when people have always worked on Thanksgiving.

As far as losing touch with what holidays are all about, that's been going on for a long time. Just look at Christmas. Besides, holidays are what you make of them. Personally, I don't shop Black Friday or Thanksgiving. But with the economy the way it is, I don't blame people for wanting to find great deals. And really, I have seen families that make it a huge family event. They do it TOGETHER. Its a tradition and a different way to spend the holiday. Some go to football games, some will spend the day together shopping for themselves and other family members. Who is to say the only way to spend a family holiday is at home?

 

[happygirl]

The only reasons the stores are doing it, is because its what a good portion of the consumers want. Stop blaming the stores.

 

[VeganCupcake]

My Aunt works at Walmart so she could not be at Thanksgiving yesterday(she had to rest up for the big push). She was disappointed she wouldn't be with us, but happy for the extra pay..... until she found out her hours have been cut for this paycheck period so the paycheck will even out regardless. I'm not saying it is standard practice at every store, but for her it's pretty crappy, and she's been there 9 years. And she will do & say nothing about it because she is too scared to lose her job, because of "there are a bunch of people who would love your job" line that is shoved her & her coworkers faces anytime they complain about any of Walmart's practices. The icing on the cake is the chaotic way Walmart puts their employees at risk by not having some sort of ticket system in place for the "hot" items(just saw the other Disboards youtube thread). Just makes me upset.

 

[luvmy3]

I said it on another thread but heck, Ill say it again.(which is what led to my unfortunate episode with autocorrect and a completely wackadoodle tag LOL) While you are watching tv, are you thinking about the folks working the tv stations. How about those football games? Are you thinking about the football players, cheerleaders, referees, food vendors and all the rest of them that are away from their families?

Non essential workers have always worked on Thanksgiving. And I can bet there are a ton of folks without jobs that would LOVE to be working at ANY time during the holiday in order to provide for their families.

Does it suck to have to work on a holiday? Yep, Im sure it does. I just don't get the sudden outrage when people have always worked on Thanksgiving.

As far as losing touch with what holidays are all about, that's been going on for a long time. Just look at Christmas. Besides, holidays are what you make of them. Personally, I don't shop Black Friday or Thanksgiving. But with the economy the way it is, I don't blame people for wanting to find great deals. And really, I have seen families that make it a huge family event. They do it TOGETHER. Its a tradition and a different way to spend the holiday. Some go to football games, some will spend the day together shopping for themselves and other family members. Who is to say the only way to spend a family holiday is at home?

 

[Muushka]

There are certain things in this world that certain people promote hatred for.

Evil Walmart is one of them.

 

[Planogirl]

The evil Wal-Mart thing always gets me. Some of their practices may be questionable but not the fact that they open on Thanksgiving night. I tried to find any stores of interest that planned to actually wait until Black Friday and I saw very little. Wal-Mart is far from the only store doing this.

 

[Lionqueen2]

The whole Black Friday thing is ridiculous. I am doing my part. I REFUSE to shop on Black Friday, and I most certainly will not shop for Christmas presents on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is about being with your family. We have, unfortunately, forgotten the true meaning of the holidays and are all out trying our best to buy meaningless trinkets. Sad.
And, does anyone thing that those early shoppers are "winning" anything. I don't. The real winners are the stores....not the shoppers.

You are so right. It seems that the spirit of the season is lost when shoppers need to fight, push, and shove to get some more material things for themselves.

This season from Thanksgiving through New Years focuses on love and family and it does seem that the super attention to material things takes away from the feeling of the season.

I agree. It is sad.

 

[tvguy]

I have crews at 3 local Walmarts with Pickets.

Most interesting, NONE of the picketers has anything to do with Walmart, or with any union trying to organizae at Walmart, they are all from other unions.

We'll see what happens in 30 minutes when they are supposed to walk out.

 

[arthuruscg]

There is nothing that I want from Walmart, that I can't get online.

Walmart is about low prices, but the internet beat Walmart's prices and it gets delivered to my door and I don't have to see the "interesting" people at Walmart.

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

 

[Planogirl]

Are they supposed to walk out still? I planned to stop at Wal-Mart today but I'm curious to see if the workers strike first.

 

[sam_gordon]

The latter folk are saving/protecting/defending lives?

Agreed. What about hotel workers, gas station attendants, tv workers, etc?

 

[donaldlovesdaisy]

Well hopefully this won't be another Twinkie gate of 2012. I don't know if I owned a business and the union was trying to bully me I might just shut the place down and walk away just to prove a point.

 

[RitaE]

I was completely baffled this morning watching these people on CNN.

First there was an interview with a picketing worker where she stated she expects she won't be fired tomorrow (after being shown on national tv picketing her employer on their most important event of the year) because she has Federal rights that protect her.

Since WHEN does she have a Federal Law protecting her right not to show up to work and then furthermore hampering her employers ability to conduct business? That is called being fired for cause.

Then they had an interview with a Walmart Executive and that Carol Whatshername from CNN was yelling at him because WalMart is not providing Middle Class wages and health care to all its employees. I cannot even imagine the ruckus that would ensue the day WalMart and all the other retailers raised their prices high enough to pay middle class wages to their part-time cashiers and stock people. There would be panic and protests from coast to coast if that happened.

 

[Kteacher]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/walmart-black-friday-strikes_b_2171524.html

 

[Chernabog#1fan]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/walmart-black-friday-strikes_b_2171524.html

I live in Orlando and I can only assume that everyone here knows who our largest employer is. The article above talks about the wages of Wal-Mart employees. $8.81 is more than most people who work in the parks make. However, this is with having unions, so I do not think unions have anything to do with it.

Disney makes a fortune and is one of the lowest paying companies I know. Our economy in Orlando would be much better if they raised their wages, even for the professional people they pay on the low end. I guess the one thing that Disney has over Wal-Mart is that you can at least go in the parks for free.

People who want to boycott Wal-Mart because of the way they treat their employees need to look at all of the companies. At least Wal-Mart is not trying to overcharge me for something and is in fact keeping prices lower for me on items, whereas Disney is always the first to raise their ticket prices and then the other theme parks follow suit. I am still willing to pay those prices because I love to go to Disney, but I am also willing to pay the lower prices at Wal-Mart on my retail items.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/walmart-black-friday-strikes_b_2171524.html

Ironic they would compare WalMart wages to GM - a company just out of bankruptcy which has recently negotiated a much lower wage for its employees.

 

[Albort]

Disney makes a fortune and is one of the lowest paying companies I know. Our economy in Orlando would be much better if they raised their wages, even for the professional people they pay on the low end. I guess the one thing that Disney has over Wal-Mart is that you can at least go in the parks for free.

It varies by location. Disneyland here in Anaheim do get paid a lot more than Orlando. Hence why everything gets sent to WDW and back... It really had to do with cost of living... i believe that applies to walmart too.

 

[tvguy]

It varies by location. Disneyland here in Anaheim do get paid a lot more than Orlando. Hence why everything gets sent to WDW and back... It really had to do with cost of living... i believe that applies to walmart too.

I do not have first hand knowledge of what the parks pay, however David Koenig, in his "Mouse Tales" series of books talks about pay at Disneyland being good enough that some castmembers take jobs there during college, and end up making Disney their career, and never leave.

 

[tvguy]

There is nothing that I want from Walmart, that I can't get online.

Walmart is about low prices, but the internet beat Walmart's prices and it gets delivered to my door and I don't have to see the "interesting" people at Walmart.

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

Well, we shop Walmart for price on perishible food items, so the internet doesn't factor into that. I understand their volume helps get lower prices on name brand items, but don't understand how Walmart can charge $1 a gallon less for milk than our local grocery store chain does.....since Walmart buys the milk from a middleman, and my local grocery store chain owns their own dairy.