The Walker Agenda Is Still Working! Part CLXXX

Oconomowoc, which is in the middle of the reddest part of the state, are now getting to enjoy the rotten fruits of their support for Scott Walker:

The Pabst Farms development, once envisioned as a Midwestern upscale retail jewel destination in Oconomowoc, will soon be the home of a 151,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter store and a 136,000-square-foot Sam’s Club store.

Walmart and Pabst Farms Development Inc. announced their plans for the two stores today.

The stores are planned to be built northeast of Interstate 94 and Highway 67 in the Pabst Farms Town Centre area of the development.

Prior to the Great Recession, Pabst Farms developer Peter Bell planned to create an upscale regional mall in the Pabst Farms Town Centre. However, that project has not moved forward, and attempts by Pabst Farms to attract upscale national retail tenants have been unsuccessful so far.

The Walmart Supercenter and the Sam’s Club stores would be the first significant development at Pabst Farms in several years.

I cannot help but laugh at this whole situation. They made such a fuss in using taxpayer dollars to build up the area, including specially installed ramps to and from the highway. And now all they got to show for it is a Wally World and Sam's Club.

It should be interesting when it comes time to hire those supposed 400 people. I cannot imagine the people in the area want to work under Wally World conditions and I don't think they are going to like the "riff raff" that these stores draw.

The saddest part is that they cannot figure out that they did it to themselves.

Wally World: Screw The Poor!

I guess this means that Wally World can drop the "Live Better" part of their new slogan:

This week the New York Times reported a disheartening story about two of the largest retail chains. You see, instead of taking unsold items to sample sales or donating them to people in need, H&M and Wal-Mart have been throwing them out in giant trash bags. And in the case that someone may stumble on these bags and try to keep or re-sell the items, these companies have gone ahead and slashed up garments, cut off the sleeves of coats, and sliced holes in shoes so they are unwearable.

This unsettling discovery was made by graduate student Cynthia Magnus outside the back entrance of H&M on 35th street in New York City. Just a few doors down, she also found hundreds of Wal-Mart tagged items with holes made in them that were dumped by a contractor. On December 7, she spotted 20 bags of clothing outside of H&M including, "gloves with the fingers cut off, warm socks, cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor, men’s jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls.”

The bright side is that they were finally embarrassed into doing the right thing. I just wonder if their so-called shock at this behavior was because they couldn't believe their stores were doing this or simply because they got caught.

Big Brother Wally Is Watching

Wally World employees are fired after complaining about a security camera in a bathroom:

Seven former and current Walmart employees are suing the retail giant after one of its Pennsylvania stores installed a surveillance camera in a unisex bathroom used by employees and customers, according to ABC News.

The camera was allegedly installed by two employees in the company’s loss-prevention department, with the aim of monitoring employees for theft.

They installed the device in a bathroom–dressing room in the Tire and Lube center of a Walmart Supercenter in Easton, Pennsylvania. Workers discovered the camera in March 2008. It’s not known how long the camera was recording activity in the bathroom before it was found.

Las Vegas Dan better be careful.

Break Time's Over

Just for Nevada Dan:

Wally World And Government Run Health Care

Brewtown Gumshoe has the numbers, but as I have stated before, Wally World is the biggest beneficiary of government run health care with over 1600 people receiving tax-payer-funded health care benefits. This is in spite of, and partially contributing to, the fact that Wally World makes some of the largest profits in the country and the world.

Also of note is that Aurora Health Care also makes the top three in making their profits at our expense, twice over.

What Do Starbucks And Walmart Have In Common?

Learn how you can support the Employee Free Choice Act here.

Good News?

Wally World plans on creating 22,000 jobs across the country.

24 of these jobs will pay a sustainable wage, and three of those 24 will also include health care.

A Real Whopper, Alright

Here's a new slogan for them: Burger King - The WalMart of fast food

Wal Mart: Screwing People Around The World

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post at the flagship for liberal blogs, regarding the BS that WPRI was trying to spread. As can often happen, the comment thread took on a life of it's own, and I and commenter Dan, had a minor exchange about whether or not Wal Mart was a good thing.

I learned today that it is not only Americans that Wal Mart likes to give the shaft to. They like exploiting Canadians as well. From Open Left:

Yup, Saskatchewan, in better times when it had an NDP government, had its own EFCA, which allowed a Wal-Mart in a conservative part of a fairly conservative province to unionize. Now that it has a conservative government, bye bye card-check.

Anyway, the company's position seems to be "Since we fought to delay this so long that many of the original employees have moved on, we demand a new election under the new us-favouring rules." Nice. I wonder how many of those departing employees left voluntarily?

The town's mayor is worried Wal-Mart will close the store, which is a real risk, but unlike many other places, there doesn't seem to be a lot of other places they could put a Wal-Mart nearby. If they close, they're likely abandoning this region of the province (and of course other retailers could move in).

A sad follow up on the 8 lube-shop workers who unionized at a store in Québec, Wal-Mart closed the garage in that store, saying it was losing money. They apparently did keep the workers at least, though.

As for the Union (UFCW) they have pending cases with the Sask Labour Board to unionize two other stores in the Province. Strength in numbers. Wal-Mart can't close every store down.

In said comment thread, Dan argued that Wal Mart is really a liberal group, and offers many benefits tot he community. Well, they don't offer much to their employees.

As for the community, not so much there either. From the mulleted John Michlig:

As I noted in the BULLSEYE comment section: Color me unimpressed. $8,000? Not great, I'm afraid. Wal-Mart can find 8k under their fingernails at the end of a day. You do better if you're a politician with a blog: Wal-Mart gave Mary Lazich $1,000, and got for their money, among other favors, an ostensibly Lazich-authored blog entitled "Wal-Mart to the Rescue"(!)

Bottom line: 8k is certainly not compensation for the corporate socialism Wal-Mart extracts from the local and federal government.

And, to my friend Bryan Maersch (now blogging here) who commented: ""Right or Wrong, Walmart is a big part of our economy," I have to say just this:

Right or wrong? I don't care how "big" you are; I believe we should expect RIGHT in all cases.

Let's contrast Wal-Mart's, er, thriftyness with the generosity of Dave Hahn of the Greenfield Outback Steak House. He was honored last night by the Greenfield Chamber of Commerce as Business of the Year.

This is what Mr. Hahn does: Each year, he chooses ten charities and community groups to host a fundraiser. The fundraiser costs are set by the charity or organization, and what they collect they get to keep, free and clear. This year's beneficiaries were Greenfield Friends of Music, Greenfield Education Association, Wisconsin String Teachers, Downs Syndrome Association, National Campaign for Muscular Dystrophy/Friedrich Ataxia, and local churches.

Outback Steak House is a chain, but Dave Hahn is a local franchisee who recognizes his community's needs and takes positive, ongoing, focused action. His kind of giving takes an appreciable bite from his personal bottom line, but creates the kind of goodwill that gets people like me (and everyone I talk to for the next month or so) over to his restaurant for a dinner or two, or three.

See, there are good business people in the world. Wallyworld is just not one of them.