> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://thedailyeudemon.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Wal-Mart Wednesday
- URL: https://thedailyeudemon.com/10027/
- Published: 2009-06-17T06:41:50.000Z
- Updated: 2009-06-17T06:41:50.000Z
- Author: Eric Scheske
- Tags: Economics, #wpChunk

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ea/fd/eafdb338-c9b6-4f87-8363-78ab94cc3a18/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/wal-martonwallvu_t290.jpg "wal-martonwallvu_t290")

Employment at Wally World

Yesterday, the glory of managing a McDonald's. Today, the glory of working at Wal-Mart.

[EconTalk's podcast this week is an interview with Charles Platt, a journalist who "went undercover" and got a job at Wal-Mart](http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/06/platt%5Fon%5Fworkin.html?ref=thedailyeudemon.com). He wanted to see how bad it is. He found it isn't very bad at all. I've only listened to a third of the podcast, but the blurbs you can find at EconTalk are interesting. If you want to see his "book" on the topic, [check out the feature story he wrote for the *New York Post*](http://www.nypost.com/seven/02072009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/fly%5Fon%5Fthe%5Fwal%5F154007.htm?page=0&ref=thedailyeudemon.com). Excerpts:

First, the basics:

> The company states that its regular full-time hourly associates in the US average $10.86 per hour, while the mean hourly wage for retail sales associates in department stores generally is $8.67\. The federal minimum wage is $6.55 per hour. Also every Wal-Mart employee gets a 10% store discount, while an additional 4% of wages go into profit-sharing and 401(k) plans. . . .

Next, a dose of subsidiarity:

> My amiable, laid-back department supervisor had been doing this kind of thing for 15 years. When I asked him why, he took a moment to process the question. He had to think back to other employers he'd worked for in the distant past. None of them, he said, had treated him so well.

> What exactly did he mean by that?

> His answer lay in the structure of the store. "It's deceptive, because Wal-Mart isn't divided into separate stores like a mall," he said. "But really, that's how it works. Each section is separate. This is - my pet store! No one comes here and tells me how to run it. I could go for weeks without a supervisor asking any questions." Here was the unseen, unreported side of the corporate behemoth. Big as it was, it was smart enough to give employees a feeling of autonomy.

The interesting:

> We were given only a handful of outright prohibitions. No swearing in the store, for instance - not even the word "damn," because some people might be offended. No funny-colored hair or blatant skin piercings, because some people might be offended. In fact almost all the rules devolved to the sacred principle of never, ever offending a customer - or "guest," in Wal-Mart terminology.

> The reason was clearly articulated. On average, anyone walking into Wal-Mart is likely to spend more than $200,000 at the store during the rest of his life. Therefore, any clueless employee who alienates that customer will cost the store around a quarter-million dollars. "If we don't remember that our customers are in charge," our trainer warned us, "we turn into Kmart."

The political:

> You have to wonder, then, why the store has such a terrible reputation, and I have to tell you that so far as I can determine, trade unions have done most of the mudslinging. Web sites that serve as a source for negative stories are often affiliated with unions. Walmartwatch.com, for instance, is partnered with the Service Employees International Union; Wakeupwalmart.com is entirely owned by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. For years, now, they've campaigned against Wal-Mart, for reasons that may have more to do with money than compassion for the working poor. If more than one million Wal-Mart employees in the United States could be induced to join a union, by my calculation they'd be compelled to pay more than half-billion dollars each year in dues.