http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/19/walmart-canton-collections/3636729/

Synopsis: So, I saw this article and thought it might provoke some good discussion in CD. Basically, Walmart asks employees to donate food to less fortunate employees who won't be able to afford a Thanksgiving meal of their own.

My opinion: Now, on the surface, this sounds like a warm hearted idea. But for those not in the know, Walmart is a billion dollar store chain. They say the reason they are doing this is because 'They see employees as family and they should look out for each other', but a lot of people say Walmart pay is meager as is. Why should a multi-billion dollar chain have the money to bribe in Mexico, buy up land and so on, yet it doesn't have the money to set up an internal program to for less fortunate employees to sign up for a 'basic Thanksgiving meal' with things like turkey, a bag of potatoes and carrots and so on? I'm aware this is a business and out for profit, but the employee is a key asset to producing capital, starving employees don't exactly make for productive ones.

Anywho, how do you feel about reading this article CDers?

It kind of reminds me of when TESCO was advertising jobs as being paid "Jobseekers Allowance and travel expenses" i.e. a fifth of the minimum wage, which won't come out of their pocket anyway.

I'm guessing that didn't go over very well in Britain?

Just from the title I'm going to call Walmart stupid selfish pricks.

"Hey, I own this supermarket that sells tons upon tons of food each day, and I'm here to ask you, my faithful run-into-the-ground employee to use your already scarce amount of cash to buy food and give it to the even less fortunate. But don't think we're not helping those people too! We're paying your wages, remember? So in spirit, we're feeding those less fortunate than you.

Simply we cannot give our food to the needy because as much as we like to make a yearly profit, we also like to make an even bigger profit from last year. So you see, it's simply not feasible for us to give to the poor, someone must work to help them.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. dikeinmyson Jnr BS x"

I tried making three different posts that explained why I loath charity events like these when they're started by big companies like Walmart, but in each one I ended up coming off as a dike. So I guess I'll shut up.

Reread the article, didn't realize that Walmart is specifically asking their own employees to help their other employees, when I thought it was something for random people to do. This is worse. [censored] Walmart logic. Walmart isn't showing much enthusiasm with their whole "family" thing if they have to get other "family" members to help instead of doing it themselves. [censored] lords.

Yeah. All that "man up and get a job" crap is complete BS is they're not going to pay you enough to live on.

Stop being a coward, dammit, the poor need useful criticism to help their events!

Mr. dikeinmyson Jnr BS is ready for anything you put on his desk.

No, I make more money being a baby generator for the scum in our society! At least one of these rats is going to make it big, surely

The less fortunet? BA HUMBUG! If the less fortunet are going to starve they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population!

LOL My wife works for Walmart. They don't see their employees as family. They see them as property. My wife and I put up with a lot of [censored] from Walmart they are terrible as a company, they treat their employees like garbage.

If Walmart wants to really help then they should just start paying their employees better and treating them better.

why doesn't walmart give their employees the free food... scumbags

[censored] about how everyone is a 'family' bla bla.... companies like john lewis and the co-op can say that since they are worker-owned businesses. not walmart.

Walmart is infamous for treating their employees terrible. So, I'm not surprised about this story at all.

Walmart to encourage employees to apply for food stamps.

So Walmart is basically saying "Some of our employees are going hungry because we don't pay them enough". Smooth PR.

To give you guys some more perspective on how Walmart treats their employees. My wife got hurt at work which resulted in her requiring surgery. It also meant that for six weeks she'd be out on disability while the wounds from her surgery healed. Two days before she was to go out for the surgery her manager walks up to her and says, 'I just wanted to let you know that you are REALLY SCREWING us here.'

My wife annoyed at her manager just apologized because she fears her manager. When she came home and told me I was fit to be tied and was about to hop in my truck drive to her store and put her manager's throat under my boot until she realized that it was their terrible working conditions and that kind of attitude that landed my wife in the hospital in the first place. I have 0 sympathy for Walmart.

Blind leading the blind?

That's terrible, man. I hope your wife is doing much better. Walmart tactics makes Microsoft look like a debutante.

Walmart's a multi-billion dowa corporation. Maybe they should get off their fat greedy asses and give a little to the people already working for them at minimum wage rather than expecting other low-paid employees to do it for them.

Sorry, but if you're sitting on a golden throne wiping your ass with $100 notes then you should be the one helping the needy.

Well, just like all families, they have a Passive Aggressive way of working out their guilt.

Sounds like greed to me. "It's our fault that some of out employees can't afford a Thanksgiving dinner, and it's your jobs, fellow workers, to use your lousy pay to help them."

I mean, what the hell? Of course it sounds like a kindhearted idea, but once you realize that they should've been more charitable to begin it it feels as if they're exploiting their own employees to solve a problem they're too selfish to do themselves.

Thanks, she is. In fact she if getting ready to return to the prison that is Walmart tonight. If we could afford it I'd just have her quit and tell Walmart to go [censored] themselves.

From a company that has a division specifically dedicated to getting their employees welfare as opposed to paying a "living wage" this does not surprise me at all.

Screw it, people say that fighting/ conflict never solves anything are wrong. Can it be avoided 90% of the time? Of course. In this instance, if I was in your shoes, Tallest, I'd have left the man in the parking lot calling for an ambulance. That man is scum, I hope you take some course of action on this.

Yes, but the problem is while her pay is terrible at Walmart it is above average and she won't be able to find another job in retail that will pay her what she is getting now. She's tried and has actually been openly laughed at by prospective employers.

Crowdsourcing paychecks? Capitalism, baby!