So, not everyone is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the opening of Sam Walton’s first store in Rogers, Arkansas 50 years ago today, but today is a good day to reflect on the damage done to our nation and its citizens by The Bentonvile Behemoth

Then there is the role Walmart has played in raising the middle class, in China.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

I so seldom get to post any news about Walmart that is even remotely positive, that I felt compeled to get this bit from Think Progress on the website. Yes, Walmart took its own good time taking action and it has done so for self-serving reasons, but that doesn’t necessarily negate taking the step.

The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, has become the nineteenth group to leave the American Legislative Exchange Council. Walmart’s departure from the right-wing legislation-crafting group is particularly salient because the big box chain is also the largest purveyor of firearms in the country.

Eighteen other groups have dropped ALEC since their ‘Stand Your Ground’ legislation came under scrutiny in the killing of Trayvon Martin. Walmart is now the largest company to do so.

Other large companies, including State Farm and Johnson and Johnson, have not yet withdrawn their membership.

Groups that have dropped ALEC include: Amazon.com, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft, Wendy’s, Mars, Inc., Arizona Public Service, the National Board for Professional Teaching StandardsScantron, The National Association of Charter School Authorizers, Kaplan, Procter & Gamble, Yum! Brands, five Pennsylvania legislators, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Reed Elsevier, American Traffic Solutions, Intuit, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

Somewhere there is a Walmart associate who has thought about, and possibly implemented this strategy to steal from his employer in a personal version of the Robin Hood paradigm (can there be anyone more rich than Walmart or more poor than a Walmart associate?).

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.Walmart,Wal-Mart,

At our most recent Socrates Café (7:30 p.m. ever second Tuesday of the month at the Phoenix Coffeehouse on Mayfield Road in South Euclid) we discussed the question: How much worse is it to do evil than to simply allow evil to occur?

In part for the sake of discussion, I took the contrarian position that not only was it not worse to allow evil to be done, but doing so was not bad at all.

I reasoned, that evening, that if we considered the potential evil we allowed whenever we made a choice with the potential to cause another human discomfort, distress or even bodily injury then we would become immobilized like the caterpillar considering which leg to move first. If we truly consider that our very act of drawing breath harms millions of our fellows – I’m not even considering the horrors we wreck on the rest of the inhabitants of our biosphere – then the only reasonable action is a quiet suicide deep in the forest where our molecules can be recycled. We are, however, selfish folk so the potential for humanity flinging itself into the sea in one last great act of selflessness ain’t going to happen. Fatalistically adopting the One Percent’s hedonism pretty much sucks as a universal strategy as well; living as a One Percenter requires there be a 99 Percent or the whole concepts fails.

How then do we live full, purposeful lives without sowing pain and suffering everywhere we go?

Very carefully.

Shaker Heights expatriate and Mother Jones writer Mac McClelland offers one meditation on the question in her most recent piece: I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave. When I was much younger, I worked in retail and spent my share of time in the stockrooms. My work was never the Dantean circle of hell described by McClelland in the Internet shipping warehouse fictionally named Amalgamated Product Giant Shipping Worldwide Inc. (I’m curious why McClelland – and Mother Jones – chose to not name the company, but that’s another story.)

I do not know how long I will be able to resist ordering anything on the Internet knowing that when I do so I force individuals desperate for $7.25 an hour in our America to suffer Dickensian working conditions (complete with repeated electric shocks) and supervisors who studied Emil Zola’s Germinal, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times for management tips. The cube farms of Scott Adams are heavenly bliss in comparison.

Of courser Walmart is there in the story, at No. 6, but so is No. 1 Amazon, No. 2 Staples, No. 3 Apple and 56 other companies with an online presence.

An early Internet meme involved a ubiquitous picture of a kitten with a gun to its head. In the real world it is not a kitten who dies when you click Place Order but a bit of a living, breathing human being like Brian.

In his Road To Wigan Pier, George Orwell asked his fellow Englishmen to consider how the glowing lumps of coal in their hearths were procured. Mclelland is not yet an Orwell, but her message is much the same: know and own the evil you do.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

I do love it when Walmart shows up in the most unusual places like this analogy concerning the now defeated Stop Online Piracy Act and the soon to be defeated Protect IP Act. Walmart is such a universal bad actor that it has become the villian of choice around the world.

From Julian Sanchez:

As a rough analogy, since antipiracy crusaders are fond of equating filesharing with shoplifting: suppose the CEO of Wal-Mart came to Congress demanding a $50 million program to deploy FBI agents to frisk suspicious-looking teens in towns near Wal-Marts. A lawmaker might, without for one instant doubting that shoplifiting is a bad thing, question whether this is really the optimal use of federal law enforcement resources. The CEO indignantly points out that shoplifting kills one million adorable towheaded orphans each year. The proof is right here in this study by the Wal-Mart Institute for Anti-Shoplifting Studies. The study sources this dramatic claim to a newspaper article, which quotes the CEO of Wal-Mart asserting (on the basis of private data you can’t see) that shoplifting kills hundreds of orphans annually. And as a footnote explains, it seemed prudent to round up to a million. I wish this were just a joke, but as readers of my previous post will recognize, that’s literally about the level of evidence we’re dealing with here.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

…I would definitely link to this. Then I’d quote the big story from the NYT today:

After trying to mollify its critics in recent years by offering better health care benefits to its employees, Wal-Mart is substantially rolling back coverage for part-time workers and significantly raising premiums for many full-time staff.

Citing rising costs, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, told its employees this week that all future part-time employees who work less than 24 hours a week on average will no longer qualify for any of the company’s health insurance plans.

In addition, any new employees who average 24 hours to 33 hours a week will no longer be able to include a spouse as part of their health care plan, although children can still be covered.

Then I’d come up with something outraged to tie everything together at the end.

Jonathan and I have referred to Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, numerous times. The book is 10 years old now and Ehrenreich has written a afterward for the anniversary addition. This paragraph leapt out at me.

Ehrenreich writes:

In 2000, I had been able to walk into a number of jobs pretty much off the street. Less than a decade later, many of these jobs had disappeared and there was stiff competition for those that remained. It would have been impossible to repeat my Nickel and Dimed “experiment,” had I had been so inclined, because I would probably never have found a job.

What do people do do when they can’t even find shitty jobs? Here’s a hint.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

If you want to bury your story from the media, the best way to do it is to schedule an event on a Friday afternoon in Washington D.C., all but guaranteeing that everyone has gone home and that other stories will have popped up before Monday rolls around.

Making Change at Walmart and Jobs with Justice members to rally outside Walmart D.C. lobbying office, will deliver message to Walmart demanding “Pay what you say” as part of national conference.

WASHINGTON – Making Change at Walmart will rally outside Walmart’s lobbying office in Chinatown Friday afternoon as part of the national Jobs with Justice conference. Press is invited to attend this public event. Dyana Forester of One DC will MC, and scheduled speakers include Walmart associates, local Respect DC coalition members, faith leaders and other national groups that support Making Change at Walmart’s mission.

What: Hundreds rally from around the country at Walmart D.C. Lobbying Office to tell Walmart it doesn’t matter what it says, but what it does for communities

Who: Making Change at Walmart coalition members, including Jobs with Justice national conference attendees, Walmart associates, and Respect DC members.

When: 4:30 p.m., Friday, August 5, 2011

Where: Walmart Lobbying Office, 701 8th St NW, Washington, D.C.

Making Change at Walmart and Jobs with Justice stand for good jobs that allow workers to support a family and make communities strong. Walmart has a track record of poverty jobs and disrespect of employees, and of making verbal promises it doesn’t intend to keep. The company needs to pay its associates the hourly wages it promises, and put all its promises in writing.

Making Change at Walmart seeks to promote the American values of equality, dignity and respect in the workplace. The campaign is making change by working directly with Walmart associates to claim the respect on the job they deserve, holding Walmart corporate managers accountable to hourly employees and the public for their practices, and joining with community leaders in major cities across America to make sure that any new jobs offered by Walmart meet strong standards for healthy, growing communities.

Contact: Allison Fletcher Acosta, 202.365.2337

Learning that Walmart’s lobbying office in Washington is located in Chinatown gave me a good laugh this morning.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

How do you really feel about Walmart? Here’s your chance to express your true feelings — pro and con — about the world’s largest retailer. Write whatever you like in the comments section and engage your fellow readers in the conversation.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

Do you suppose the security guard saw a couple of furner lookin’ folks and just knew that they were up to no good? Or perhaps the guard was upset with all the cash the socialists in Washington were giving furners when he had to make do with a job as a Walmart security guard.

From The Courthouse News Service:

Newlywed shoppers claim Wal-Mart’s false accusation that they tried to steal $2.90 worth of chicken neck bones caused the wife to be falsely arrested and lose her job, her husband to be deported, and both to lose their car, all their possessions and their house – though Wal-Mart’s security video showed they had paid for the damn chicken bones.

Mary Hill Bonin sued Wal-Mart and several of its managers in Jefferson County Court.

Bonin says the imbroglio ensued when she went shopping at the Adamsville Wal-Mart on July 1, 2007, with her husband of 2 months, who was not yet a U.S. citizen.

They used the self-checkout counter to save time.

Bonin says the scanner would not register the $2.90 worth of chicken necks, so she asked a Wal-Mart employee for help. The employee checked the machine and told her “it’s okay,” according to the complaint.

The Bonins left and showed their receipt to the greeter and door guard, who accused them of stealing the neck bones. According to the complaint, things got out of hand pretty fast:

“Plaintiff told these employees to look again as the item was on the bottom of the receipt and therefore accounted for. The security guard started screaming and asked to see the identifications of the plaintiff and her husband. The security guard screamed at the plaintiff and her husband saying they were going to be deported.

Given all the comments we get here on buying meat at Walmart, passing up on the chicken necks seems like a smart move.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

How do you really feel about Walmart? Here’s your chance to express your true feelings — pro and con — about the world’s largest retailer. Write whatever you like in the comments section and engage your fellow readers in the conversation.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

It’s better than you think. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have temporarily resurrected this blog in order to post it.

[Update at 0707 on Friday, 24 June: REDACTED. Those of you who might have stopped in yesterday would have read a longer version of this post that involved an email from an intern who, it turns out, got ahead of himself and requested a takedown. I decided to redact the post, not because of any error on my part, but because it is the nature of interns to make mistakes and I have no desire to cost the budding journalist a summer job. In my response I repeated a rule taught to me when I was an undergraduate journalism major: everything, absolutely everything is on the record unless explicitly stated, and agreed to, otherwise.]

As Uncle Bob noted in his comment yesterday, we’re not around much anymore, and if either Jonathan or I were to make an appearance it would be because of the 9-0 decision in favor of Walmart in Dukes. Why do I focus on the 9-0 and not the 5-4 decision?

Because I think (and very well be the only journalist who does so) that is where the meat of the story is. I think the 9-0 decision first, provides cover for the justices on both sides of the 5-4 decision and second, demonstrates that the attorneys representing Walmart’s female employees, became too infatuatred with the cause and the fame they would garner as the legal minds that brought down Walmart and forgot their first duty to their clients.

In doing so they may have set the labor rights of workers decades.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

How do you really feel about Walmart? Here’s your chance to express your true feelings — pro and con — about the world’s largest retailer. Write whatever you like in the comments section and engage your fellow readers in the conversation.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.