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Walmart says it will kill plans to build 3 new stores if DC wage bill passes

On the contrary. The alternative to a lower minimum wage is not necessarily a higher minimum wage, but rather unemployment and no wage. If your labor does not return greater value added than the cost of hiring, training, and maintaining you as an employee, then you will remain unhired and effectively unhireable.

All the more reason to upskill!
 
How do you feel about Target? Best Buy? Macy's? Starbucks? Apple Store? KMart? Sears? JC Pennys?

lots of people that hate walmart love netflix and amazon. Me, personally, I never saw the inherent advantage of "ma and pop" stores. Maybe because I once lived in a community dominated by them and noticed 1) they tended to pay the same ****ty wages as walmart, 2) charge more, 3) offer a lower selection on items.


PS no, that doesn't mean I have no issues with walmart or their business models. it means I see no inherent benefit from something simply being a small retail business
 
I must say, I love Wal*Mart. A great American success story. Worth billions. Selling at low prices so that people can afford products that they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. Supporing the military. Employing people that would otherwise not be able to find a job, thus lowering the cost to tax payers.

And my favorite thing is a Wal*Mart thread on a message board, the most entertaining thread there is. Brings out all the backward, hateful, low intelligence arguments by the left. Such great laughs, and proof of how wrong "they" are.

I have my doubts whether Walmart offers lower prices as others in the business. I was in the Walmart in Newport, OR two years ago and the prices were high and the selections in food were not very good. The Fred Meyer store (a div of Kroger) across highway 101 was by far a better store.

California To Wal-Mart: Enough! No More Taxpayer Subsidized Profits For You - Forbes
 
And if Walmart pouts and decides to stay away, it's a goooood thing..... ;)

But that still doesn't change the fact that Walmart isn't a job creator, just a job exchanger and a small business killer. A poor neighbor in most neighborhoods, temp jobs for permanent ones and and end to most Main Street stores....

Seems to me you should have a bigger ax to grind with Walmart customers instead of Walmart, that is pretending to accept what you wrote as the whole truth. Because it's clear they do a real good job at meeting their customers wants.
 
I have my doubts whether Walmart offers lower prices as others in the business. I was in the Walmart in Newport, OR two years ago and the prices were high and the selections in food were not very good. The Fred Meyer store (a div of Kroger) across highway 101 was by far a better store.

California To Wal-Mart: Enough! No More Taxpayer Subsidized Profits For You - Forbes

It really depends on region.

Walmart certainly beats out "mom & pop" stores as far as price, but I don't think there is much difference in price between a Big-K, Walmart or Target etc....
 
It worked that way for Henry Ford. He paid enough so his employees could afford to buy and it worked.

To be fair, he raised wages to $5.00 to deal with turnover problems. It is however notable to mention that his selling point was right on the mark. If you pay higher wages on the front end you will get more on the back end.
 
I find it funny how some people are worried about "ethics" in a **** hole city like Washington DC. That city is about the most unethical, ghetto ridden hole-in-the-wall place that this country has to offer.
 
I find it funny how some people are worried about "ethics" in a **** hole city like Washington DC. That city is about the most unethical, ghetto ridden hole-in-the-wall place that this country has to offer.

I think Chicago has DC. beat - just by a little tho.
 
Greeters are an inefficient use of resources. In essence, it is taxable charity.
Not just the greeters, although they are the most striking example. I have had conversations with other employees and they seemed like nice enough people, but they just didn't have the mental capacity to do anything past the simplest of tasks.

Real question: What is the alternative to a living wage?

For all the disregard it seems to be held in, I consider the current minimum wage to be just about right.

Demanding that any one individual be provided "a living wage" is subjectivity trying to be objectivity. Circumstances vary wildly. What might be presumed a living wage in NV probably would not be a living wage in NY.

Equally elusive is the definition of "living".

Does this wage need to be adequate to pay for food, transportation and shelter?
Does this wage need to cover a furnished room, 1 bedroom apartment? A villa on the Mediterranean?
Does this wage need to provide for a bus pass, a bicycle, a car?
Does this wage need to provide 3 meals a day at home, at MacDonalds, at a restaurant?
Is this person single. married, have children? Do they live with family and if so, what circumstances are the family in? An18 year old can live in a 6 story walk-up, a 70 year old, not so much.
Are we dealing with city or rural?
Does the person need "nice clothes" for their job or can they make do with raggedy clothes?
Does a "living wage" include movie theater tickets? Tobacco? Beer? Condoms?

So, really, every "living wage" would have to be factored by zip code, age, area, family and a lot of etceteras.and this means that unless you put this "living wage" at a very high mark, say about $25 an hour, you'd have a million versions of the "living wage" or you'd price the "living wage" beyond reasonable economics.

I'm presuming we are discussing the Federal Minimum Wage. This is currently $7.25 per hour. Many cities and maybe some states, have higher minimum wages. When IU was last in San Francisco, it was around $9.50. The particular case we're discussing from the OP is Washington DCs minimum wage. Not their "living wage", just their minimum wage.

To summarize, we can have a minimum wage but that minimum wage can not be a "living wage". Some can live for less than the minimum wage and some can not. It is not plausible to establish a "living wage".

I hope I have answered your question.

Let me reminisce. In 1960 I worked 40 hours a week clerking at Street & Smith (later bought by Conde Nast), publishers of Analog, Mademoiselle and other well known magazines. I was paid $1.00 per hour and I lived in Greenwich village. I rented a furnished room for $8 a week, the bathroom was shared with the other 5 rooms but I had a sink and a 2 burner stove. My subway fare was 30¢ a day. My meal budget was 15¢ which got me baked beans and coffee. Basically, I took home $36.00 and I lived on $16 and put $20 in the bank. So, certainly, the minimum wage was enough for me although I quickly improved my income without upgrading my lifestyle. So, theoretically, my "living wage" was only 40¢ an hour.
 
I think Chicago has DC. beat - just by a little tho.

I'd put Chicago second. Chicago, politics aside, does have some nice things. There is absolutely nothing nice in Washington DC at all.
 
If you need to work minimum wage jobs because you don't have the skills to do better, then you need to have one or more roommates to share the bills. You can afford a few hundred dollars a month for rent and utilities and still buy the necessities of life. If you want more than that, you have to find a job that pays more and, most likely demands more from you.
 
I'd put Chicago second. Chicago, politics aside, does have some nice things. There is absolutely nothing nice in Washington DC at all.

I'm from Chicago, this city is crooked.

This city is politically corrupt and out of control... We just had our 1,000th person shot the other day. Not only that but 70 people were shot over the 4th of July weekend (99% gang related)...

Chicago is corrupt and dangerous....
 
What aspect of this are you pleased with and what aspect are you unhappy with?

Walmart has ended the Mom & Pop Shop decades ago. It's very sad. But we can't live in the past.

If you "aren't losing sleep" over this, are you advocating that Walmart not open these stores? Do you think their decision to build fewer stores will result in a Mom & Pop revival? Do you think Mom & Pop will hire the kind of people who Walmart accepts or will they hold out for thin, attractive white girls?

I'm not losing any sleep either. I'm just recognizing that Walmart and other big box stores do make an economic contribution and that creating an impractical environment will do far more harm than good. I seriously doubt there are any "independent store owners" to be happy about this.



And put a lot of smaller family owned shops out of business. I ain't losing any sleep over this one. I bet plenty of independent store owners that have been a part of the community for a long time are happy about it.
 
I say call their bluff and do it! Wal-mart will make up for it when the company shows the employees how to get food stamps while they take the time off their taxes for showing gainfully employed people how that is done. :roll:

There are tons of Wal Marts here in WA State and we have the highest minimum wage in the US. Call their bull**** what it is.
 
Baloney. I shop at Costco and they have lower prices than Wal Mart. Same with Krogers.

Costco treats their employees really well. Wal Mart treats them like ****.
 
There are tons of Wal Marts here in WA State and we have the highest minimum wage in the US. Call their bull**** what it is.

The big difference is that the minimum wage in WA state applies equally to all, not in a selective manner as DC is proposing to do...
 
There are tons of Wal Marts here in WA State and we have the highest minimum wage in the US. Call their bull**** what it is.

1) the geographic limitations of not operating within city limits is different than a state

2) I doubt your MM system is linked to store size as we have here
 
Costco treats their employees really well. Wal Mart treats them like ****.

I'm not surprised to hear you have first hand experience working at both.
 
Your minimum wage is $9.19, not $12.50.




There are tons of Wal Marts here in WA State and we have the highest minimum wage in the US. Call their bull**** what it is.
 
quick read and I see that the CostCo to Walmart comparison has come up.

Here's a bit more

Walmart vs. Costco: How Do They Really Compare?

So how do the country's two biggest retailers really fare head-to-head? Check out the breakdown below.
Average Cashier Salary
Walmart: $8.53 [Glassdoor]
Costco: $15.60 [Glassdoor]

Average Pay For Low-Level Managerial Position
Walmart: $44,774 [Glassdoor]
Costco: $53,956 [Glassdoor]

Number Of Employees Receiving Health Insurance Coverage
Walmart: "more than half" of employees [Businessweek]
Costco: 88% of employees [Businessweek]


The 'fun' difference is down towards the bottom of the linked article
Most Recent Quarterly Year Over Year Earnings
Walmart: Up 1.1% [Wall Street Journal]
Costco: Up 19% [NBC News]
 
i will use the favorite pro abortion argument "if you don't want abortion done have one"

If you don't like Walmart wages don't work there
If you don't like Walmart don't shop there

Exactly if Walmart doesn't want to pay the min wage they don't have to. No one is forcing them to.
 
quick read and I see that the CostCo to Walmart comparison has come up.

Here's a bit more

Walmart vs. Costco: How Do They Really Compare?




The 'fun' difference is down towards the bottom of the linked article

I'm always skeptical of these non-academic surveys, given how minor details could have a huge effect on the comparison. One that immediately jumps to mind is where stores are located and the total number s of stores. Clearly walmart has a higher number of stores, and from my experience cost co is still limited to certain markets and seemingly completely absent from rural america.

These will generally have huge effects on how much one pays their employees on average
 
Leave it up to a RW extremist to make **** up.

Wait!? Are you saying you were stating how each company treats its employees as a factual statement without any firsthand experience? That's "making **** up", you know.
 
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