A lot of my posts here pertain to corporate responsibility-- most specifically and most often, with the halting attempts of America's largest retailer to fully grasp and embrace the meaning of that term, especially as it pertains to its employees, here in Texas and around the country.
This is because of my association with Wake-Up Wal-Mart and my dedication to the group's agenda.
Generally in this pursuit, I oscillate between a tone of detached snark and one of outraged derision toward the company, so I've been fairly described as having "an axe to grind."
But I've been speechless since Black Friday. No snark, and it's hard to even muster outrage. There was a great thread on Daily Kos on the events of that day, and since that point we've learned that the name of the brave deceased worker is Jdimytai Damour.
It's been a week, and I still don't know what to say, but Meghan Scott of Wake-Up Wal-Mart has issued the following statement:
Supposedly, the company is specifically focused on facilitating the needs of mothers.
Walmart's silly, pandering, new "Eleven Moms" campaign-- consisting, no kidding, of 19 rather than 11 bargain-hunting, values-beaming women bloggers-- will probably serve its intended purpose of buoying the brand through the upcoming holiday season.
But to peel back the facile PR facade-- to examine real real stories of women's experiences at Walmart's stores-- is to see something else entirely:
Heather Silvis says she felt bullied when Wal-Mart associates told her she could not breastfeed her baby in the store on Two Notch Road.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s share price posted the biggest jump in 20 years, surging 11 percent to $55.17, after the world's largest retailer forecast "low-single" digit same-store sales growth on a percentage basis going into 2009. The company plans to increase international capital spending in emerging markets as it scales back U.S. expenditures.
So to keep track: as we experience the most devastating blow to our economy in 20 years (measured in terms of Dow percentage) Walmart experiences its largest gain.
Al Norman's got an interesting piece on the pace of Walmart growth, over at Huffington Post:
Wal-Mart holds a Wall St. analyst's meeting every October---right before Halloween---to announce its growth projection plans for the year. Wal-Mart opponents applauded the company's announcement this week that it would continue to slow down the production of new stores.
Even the Bentonville Behemoth's cheering section, aka the Murdoch Street Journal, notes this trend in financial-speak:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) sees fiscal-year capital spending at the low end of its reduced expectations and said such expenditures might not increase next year. The retail giant continues to ratchet back its once-breakneck growth and focus on nurturing existing stores.
Remember the stories just a few months ago about Walmart executives sitting all their employees down and sternly warning them to vote Republican? Because if they didn't, the evil unions would take over the world, and then there would be no jobs?
Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal reported that Wal-Mart, fearful of mandatory labor laws, is politically bullying its employees to vote Republican in this year's election.
...
Wal-Mart strongly opposes the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which supports unionization and seeks to establish higher penalties for violations of employee rights. The EFCA would likely be passed under a democratic leadership, so Wal-Mart educates its employees about its strong rejection of the bill, but doesn't tell them how to vote, according to David Tovar, Wal-Mart's spokesman. With the EFCA still dormant, the company's managers are told to call a special hotline prepared to swiftly diffuse any type of situation that may involve potential employee organization.
Well... Walmart's now flexing its muscles to indicate its preparedness to back up its ugly threats. Details below the fold.
As our economy continues to stagger and gasp along with record market failures-- and the failure of our paralytic government to do a single thing about it-- a lot of people are searching for explanations.
Take, for example, Michelle Malkin and Mark Krikorian. Yes, they're searching-- one might even say they are grasping at straws.
Malkin's subtle theory is that the whole thing is a natural consequence of letting too many Mexicans across the border, through Texas and other border states:
The Mother of All Bailouts has many fathers...But there's one giant paternal elephant in the room that has slipped notice: how illegal immigration, crime-enabling banks, and open-borders Bush policies fueled the mortgage crisis.
Yes, I wish I was satirizing poor Michelle-- but her feeble little brain actually did come up with that statement in all apparent seriousness.
