I do not shop at Wally World...

• is there a store you will not shop - in no matter what?
  • I wouldn't spend so much as a penny... sm - GLF
    • I didn't know you could still buy puppies & kittens - sm
  • Walmart fired my daughter... - UTMT
  • abercrombie and fitch - ls - WA
    • Oh, good one! I despise that store! And the funny thing is.. - MQer
    • AMEN. I agree 100%. Shocking ads. - Hideous staff.
  • Target - sm
    • Agree, not to mention those weird looking Christmas trees they have - having from the ceilings (sm)
  • No Walmart monies from me. NOT MATTER WHAT. They are disgusting. - i agree
    • WalMart sell homosexual books & videos. I won't shop at any store - that condones homosexual behavior, (sm)
      • Why is it okay to leave this post up, but - TM
        • Because the rest of the thread was compromised & only the OP - was able to remain. Administrator nm
          • I don't mean to be disrespectful or - TM
            • All I did was replace the original post. - Administrator (nm)
      • Would like to share - I'm a Christian... by Maya Angelou
        • Amen. Well said...whoever wrote this. thx. nm - ks
          • Yes, but keep in mind ks that Christian's follow EVERY word of the Holy Bible - INCLUDING what is written about homosexuality. nm
            • sm - ks
              • Where did you get that I was judging anyone? - sm
                • sm - KS
                  • Again, God put us on this Earth to do His work through us. You need to get more in - tune with scripture. End of debate. nm
                    • and you had better read that part again..sm - ks
                  • AMEN - SISTER
                    • sm - ks
            • not ALL of them.................. - I know plenty..........n/m
              • And, so do I. - nm
    • I do not shop at Wally World... - l
    • OK. I have to stick up for Wal Mart and here is why: sm - Me
      • Great post! You are right on it! - Thanks
      • oh puhleeze - an employee gets hurt at Walmart - Walmart disputes all their workers comp cases! nm
        • Oh really, because I knew of a guy who threw his back out on the job at Wally World and got full sm - Really?
          • ok I should've said "some of their workers"..sm - Walmart disputes all their workers comp cases! nm
          • Sorry. Don't mean to be picky... sm - GLF
            • LOL! I did not know that! Thanks for the info!! nm - op
              • It was called workman's comp for many years. - sm
          • WalMart also contracts out companies they know hire illegals. There was - a big thing about it made public (sm)
    • What have they done?? I heard no health insurance for employees, but what else? - nm
      • Wal-Mart does offer health insurance to their workers. Wal-Mart pays part and the employee SM - Not me
      • well just this year they opened 15 stores in...nm - CHINA!
      • Oh, just a few things : ) - SM
        • I really didn't know all of this. - nm
    • Same here. - Will not set foot in a Wal-Mart
      • Have both worked at and shopped at Wal-Mart - Unhappy Camper
        • The "big whoop" is generally... - sm
          • What negative impact? - Unhappy Camper
            • Since you asked. - Here's the info
      • Ditto!!!! - nm
  • wherever customer service is deplorable!...nm - bad customer service? won't shop there again.

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i too am guilty of shopping at wal-mart and have caught LOTS of grief about it from friends of mine who....make more money!!! and who aren't single moms and don't have kids. but i totally get the person who posted about cutting off your nose to spite your face and the consequences of poor work conditions shown by the tacit approval of patronizing the store, as well as the posting about what many MTSOs have done to MTs (although i see that climate changing in a positive direction too, albeit excruciatingly slowly!).

on the other hand, there is such a thing as "change from within." it also seems there's room for the big mega-giant conglomerates like wal-mart, as well as the mom&pop stores - overall, neither will go out of business, though many smaller communities have sadly seen the demise of the latter with their very quaint and charming main streets. i don't think the issue is black and white, and it seems some stores are much worse offenders in some states than others. i'm hoping the employees in litigation win, that justice prevails, and that, hopefully, this will carry through to how all wal-mart employees are treated.

my particular gripe is how many very productive workers and contributing citizens have no insurance because they're part-time employed. seems to me if insurance is offered to all employed individuals (and unemployed, for that matter, but i digress), then you ultimately increase the bottom line by having more energetic, happier, HEALTHIER, saner workers willing to give 100%, as well as rewarding others for thinking outside the wage-slave, 9-5 box and enabling them to work a couple part-time jobs (i myself would LOVE to do this), or to embark on starting up their own businesses. regarding MT, with its sedentary and physically repetitive work environment, i personally find it unhealthy to expect anything more than 35-36 hours to be full time, preferably 32. i work about 28 now, some in split shifts, and am a single mom of a 6yo and couldn't lead the very full and rewarding life that i do were i forced by circumstances to do this full-time. i'd be miserable, and life is too short for that, even if i have to go through it without health insurance!

I was never close, especially with T and J and their massive line counts.  I was hoping this would work so I could catch up with some great friends.  I have no clue who you are yet, so I guess you may have to give me some more clues.  You probably already know who I am by the long entries I write, and of course Shaggy. 

Yeah I bet everybody reading this is wondering what I'm smokin!  HAAA! HAAA!  I'll never tell.    

I know for some here they've said it's Walmart.

There's a chain of stores here in NJ, not sure if they're anywhere else though. It's calles SixthAvenue Electronics. We had a bad experience with them many years ago (they sold us a reconditioned piece of electronics without telling us it wasn't new) and to this day I won't even look at their flyers. I just throw them away.

Where won't you shop?

I am one of those st**pid women with little dogs and they are better company than someone like you, I am sure. They go where we go including nice hotels where they are welcome.  No one has ever complained.  They are clean and groomed, don't bark, and are gentle and loving.  Stores cater to me because I spend money there.  Are you?  Or, are you just walking around looking?  Maybe they don't cater to you because of your not so nice comments to their good customers.

Edited by Moderator for content. 

Mare stare has a whole boatload of farms that offer live cams in easy to navigate list format.  Usually in the spring these cams are trained in on mares who are about to give birth--which is incredibly cool (and sometimes scary!) to watch. 

http://www.marestare.com/Cams.htm

Against the Wal
A class-action lawsuit in Dakota County could strike a costly blow to the world’s largest private employer
by MARGARET NELSON BRINKHAUS

In July 2001, Nancy Braun was watching television with a friend when a commercial caught her attention. The ad was soliciting litigants for a potential lawsuit against Wal-Mart, the Arkansas-based retailing giant, for allegedly cheating employees out of wages they were rightfully owed.

A single mother of two—and grandmother of four—Braun had started working for Wal-Mart in 1997. At the time, she lived in Slidell, Louisiana, where she had previously worked for a grocery store. She considered Wal-Mart a step-up. “I liked shopping there,” she says. “I thought I’d like working there too.”

And she did enjoy it, at least for a while. She liked the people, the work, the sense of solidarity among employees. But in 2000, homesick for her family, she moved back to Minnesota and transferred to the Wal-Mart in Apple Valley, where she was assigned to run the Radio Grill, the outlet’s now-defunct in-store restaurant. There, Braun quickly became disenchanted with the company, especially after a supervisor repeatedly prohibited her from taking breaks—even after she had surgery that required frequent trips to the bathroom. She soon quit.

Braun’s friend encouraged her to call the number mentioned in the advertisement to see if she qualified for the suit, but Braun was hesitant. She didn’t relish the prospect of reliving that period in her life. Yet she remembered how her mother, a longtime switchboard operator at Carleton College, had always encouraged her to speak up, to do the right thing when confronted with an injustice, big or small. “You can’t allow yourself to be treated like an animal,” she says. “I’m sure Mr. Walton would agree with me on that.”

One morning this past October, six years after she first saw that television ad, Braun sat inside a Dakota County courtroom in Hastings, her striped shirt and beige pants—bought from Wal-Mart—in marked contrast to dark suits, leather briefcases, BlackBerrys, and laptops sported by the army of attorneys in the room. “I’m a Plain Jane kind of gal, nothing fancy,” she said. “But I know what’s right. What Wal-Mart did to me wasn’t right.”

That sense of determination is one of the reasons why Braun found herself in Hastings, taking on the country’s largest corporation. She’s one of four lead plaintiffs in a massive, class-action lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart, a case that could affect 56,000 people who worked at Wal-Mart in Minnesota between 1998 and 2004. The suit alleges that over that period, the discount retailer systematically avoided paying wages earned by employees for overtime work and missed or shortened meal and break periods. And though the case is not the first of its kind—workers have won victories in similar cases in California and Pennsylvania—it may end up being one of the most significant. If Judge Robert King Jr. rules against Wal-Mart in this phase of the trial, the company would likely have to pay up to $500 for each employee, which could mean a payout in the tens of millions. More significantly, a ruling against Wal-Mart in this first part of the trial would also mean that the case would move to a jury to assess whether punitive damages are in order. If that happens, Wal-Mart could be on the hook for not only millions, but billions.

Braun’s troubles began after she returned to Minnesota. At the Apple Valley Wal-Mart, she worked in several different departments before running the Radio Grill. At first, she enjoyed the work. “I treated that place like my own kitchen,” she says. “I did it all willingly. I’m not afraid of work…never have been.” Not long after she started in Apple Valley, Braun had learned she needed to have gallbladder surgery. After the procedure, Braun suffered some relatively common side effects that required her to take frequent bathroom breaks. Braun’s supervisors initially said they would accommodate her needs, but that’s not what happened. “I’d get in a pinch, be there all alone, and soil myself, ruin my clothes,” Braun recalled. “I’d feel so degraded. Sometimes I wouldn’t have clothes with me, and the manager would say ‘We have clothes here for sale. Get your purse and go buy yourself some.’ They didn’t care.”

Putting up with an insufferable boss is, of course, an unavoidable part of a job for many people. Yet Braun’s treatment, argue the plaintiffs’ attorneys, wasn’t unique among Wal-Mart employees. Another lead plaintiff, Debbie Simonson, 59, started working as a cashier at the Wal-Mart in Brooklyn Park in April 2000. As a single mother of two children, she needed the money. And, like Braun, Simonson was often told by her supervisor not to take bathroom breaks. “He’d say ‘Skip the bathroom and get your butt out here,’ and I’d do it,” she explained in court. “It was an order. Your boss tells you to do something, you do it.” She quit after 13 months.

According to Justin Perl, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, the denial of breaks was standard operating procedure at Wal-Mart. As part of the case, he and his colleagues combed through Wal-Mart’s own records to find workplace violations. They identified millions of missed bathroom and rest breaks, as well as millions of shortened rest breaks, along with thousands of missed meal breaks. “It’s the Wal-Mart way,” says Perl. “They nickel-and-dime the lowest- paid workers so they can improve their own bottom line.”

Wal-Mart sees it differently. A spokesman, John Simley, says the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation, but in other cases the company has denied it encourages employees to miss breaks or work off the clock. Wal-Mart, company officials maintain, tries to ensure compliance with company policies and state laws, but has no control over individual choices workers make.

Yet those individual choices are often informed by pressure from the company, argues Perl. According to testimony in other wage cases, Wal-Mart compensates its managers largely via bonuses that are tied to profits—and the easiest way to increase profits is by cutting expenses. “They do it by erasing everyone else’s salary,” says Perl. “It’s not a hard job. They cut staffing. They shave breaks. They make their profit goals. It’s the only basis for how they compensate their managers.”

Pamela Reinert, 54, saw for herself how that pressure was brought to bear. A petite, soft-spoken mother of seven from Maplewood who has a PhD in psychology, she joined Sam’s Club—a Wal-Mart subsidiary—in 1997, after she was laid off from another job. Like Braun and Simonson, Reinert liked the work, and was good at it. She made it into the management-training program shortly after joining the company. As a manager, she would sometimes try to intercede on behalf of workers who weren’t getting their breaks. Eventually, though, she was told to stop making trouble. She eventually quit after a supervisor threatened to write her up for insubordination—for trying to take her complaints up the chain of command.

A ruling on the case is expected sometime this month. But no matter how it turns out, Nancy Braun says she will always miss Wal-Mart. “I wish I could have stayed working there,” she says. She enjoyed the other employees, the customers, and the idea “that there was always something to do, always a way to keep busy. I worked my way up—that was a big deal for me. When I quit, I felt defeated.”

Now living in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and selling insurance at a cell phone company, she tries to attend the trial whenever possible. When she’s in Hastings, she occasionally makes a stop across the street from the courthouse to do some shopping—at Wal-Mart.

Margaret Nelson Brinkhaus is a Minnesota-based writer.

Against the Wal
A class-action lawsuit in Dakota County could strike a costly blow to the world’s largest private employer
by MARGARET NELSON BRINKHAUS

In July 2001, Nancy Braun was watching television with a friend when a commercial caught her attention. The ad was soliciting litigants for a potential lawsuit against Wal-Mart, the Arkansas-based retailing giant, for allegedly cheating employees out of wages they were rightfully owed.

A single mother of two—and grandmother of four—Braun had started working for Wal-Mart in 1997. At the time, she lived in Slidell, Louisiana, where she had previously worked for a grocery store. She considered Wal-Mart a step-up. “I liked shopping there,” she says. “I thought I’d like working there too.”

And she did enjoy it, at least for a while. She liked the people, the work, the sense of solidarity among employees. But in 2000, homesick for her family, she moved back to Minnesota and transferred to the Wal-Mart in Apple Valley, where she was assigned to run the Radio Grill, the outlet’s now-defunct in-store restaurant. There, Braun quickly became disenchanted with the company, especially after a supervisor repeatedly prohibited her from taking breaks—even after she had surgery that required frequent trips to the bathroom. She soon quit.

Braun’s friend encouraged her to call the number mentioned in the advertisement to see if she qualified for the suit, but Braun was hesitant. She didn’t relish the prospect of reliving that period in her life. Yet she remembered how her mother, a longtime switchboard operator at Carleton College, had always encouraged her to speak up, to do the right thing when confronted with an injustice, big or small. “You can’t allow yourself to be treated like an animal,” she says. “I’m sure Mr. Walton would agree with me on that.”

One morning this past October, six years after she first saw that television ad, Braun sat inside a Dakota County courtroom in Hastings, her striped shirt and beige pants—bought from Wal-Mart—in marked contrast to dark suits, leather briefcases, BlackBerrys, and laptops sported by the army of attorneys in the room. “I’m a Plain Jane kind of gal, nothing fancy,” she said. “But I know what’s right. What Wal-Mart did to me wasn’t right.”

That sense of determination is one of the reasons why Braun found herself in Hastings, taking on the country’s largest corporation. She’s one of four lead plaintiffs in a massive, class-action lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart, a case that could affect 56,000 people who worked at Wal-Mart in Minnesota between 1998 and 2004. The suit alleges that over that period, the discount retailer systematically avoided paying wages earned by employees for overtime work and missed or shortened meal and break periods. And though the case is not the first of its kind—workers have won victories in similar cases in California and Pennsylvania—it may end up being one of the most significant. If Judge Robert King Jr. rules against Wal-Mart in this phase of the trial, the company would likely have to pay up to $500 for each employee, which could mean a payout in the tens of millions. More significantly, a ruling against Wal-Mart in this first part of the trial would also mean that the case would move to a jury to assess whether punitive damages are in order. If that happens, Wal-Mart could be on the hook for not only millions, but billions.

Braun’s troubles began after she returned to Minnesota. At the Apple Valley Wal-Mart, she worked in several different departments before running the Radio Grill. At first, she enjoyed the work. “I treated that place like my own kitchen,” she says. “I did it all willingly. I’m not afraid of work…never have been.” Not long after she started in Apple Valley, Braun had learned she needed to have gallbladder surgery. After the procedure, Braun suffered some relatively common side effects that required her to take frequent bathroom breaks. Braun’s supervisors initially said they would accommodate her needs, but that’s not what happened. “I’d get in a pinch, be there all alone, and soil myself, ruin my clothes,” Braun recalled. “I’d feel so degraded. Sometimes I wouldn’t have clothes with me, and the manager would say ‘We have clothes here for sale. Get your purse and go buy yourself some.’ They didn’t care.”

Putting up with an insufferable boss is, of course, an unavoidable part of a job for many people. Yet Braun’s treatment, argue the plaintiffs’ attorneys, wasn’t unique among Wal-Mart employees. Another lead plaintiff, Debbie Simonson, 59, started working as a cashier at the Wal-Mart in Brooklyn Park in April 2000. As a single mother of two children, she needed the money. And, like Braun, Simonson was often told by her supervisor not to take bathroom breaks. “He’d say ‘Skip the bathroom and get your butt out here,’ and I’d do it,” she explained in court. “It was an order. Your boss tells you to do something, you do it.” She quit after 13 months.

According to Justin Perl, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, the denial of breaks was standard operating procedure at Wal-Mart. As part of the case, he and his colleagues combed through Wal-Mart’s own records to find workplace violations. They identified millions of missed bathroom and rest breaks, as well as millions of shortened rest breaks, along with thousands of missed meal breaks. “It’s the Wal-Mart way,” says Perl. “They nickel-and-dime the lowest- paid workers so they can improve their own bottom line.”

Wal-Mart sees it differently. A spokesman, John Simley, says the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation, but in other cases the company has denied it encourages employees to miss breaks or work off the clock. Wal-Mart, company officials maintain, tries to ensure compliance with company policies and state laws, but has no control over individual choices workers make.

Yet those individual choices are often informed by pressure from the company, argues Perl. According to testimony in other wage cases, Wal-Mart compensates its managers largely via bonuses that are tied to profits—and the easiest way to increase profits is by cutting expenses. “They do it by erasing everyone else’s salary,” says Perl. “It’s not a hard job. They cut staffing. They shave breaks. They make their profit goals. It’s the only basis for how they compensate their managers.”

Pamela Reinert, 54, saw for herself how that pressure was brought to bear. A petite, soft-spoken mother of seven from Maplewood who has a PhD in psychology, she joined Sam’s Club—a Wal-Mart subsidiary—in 1997, after she was laid off from another job. Like Braun and Simonson, Reinert liked the work, and was good at it. She made it into the management-training program shortly after joining the company. As a manager, she would sometimes try to intercede on behalf of workers who weren’t getting their breaks. Eventually, though, she was told to stop making trouble. She eventually quit after a supervisor threatened to write her up for insubordination—for trying to take her complaints up the chain of command.

A ruling on the case is expected sometime this month. But no matter how it turns out, Nancy Braun says she will always miss Wal-Mart. “I wish I could have stayed working there,” she says. She enjoyed the other employees, the customers, and the idea “that there was always something to do, always a way to keep busy. I worked my way up—that was a big deal for me. When I quit, I felt defeated.”

Now living in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and selling insurance at a cell phone company, she tries to attend the trial whenever possible. When she’s in Hastings, she occasionally makes a stop across the street from the courthouse to do some shopping—at Wal-Mart.

Margaret Nelson Brinkhaus is a Minnesota-based writer.

I also like to watch my kids play ball or take them swimming.  Sometimes, I get with my friend and her kids and we take them to the movies.  We love to cook out on the weekends and invite friends over. 

I also like just cleaning my house, believe it or not, and rearranging the furniture, etc.  Last summer, I painted and stenciled a lot and I'm thinking about doing a few pieces this summer.  I also like to take care of my flower beds.  Lots to do.  Summer is my favorite time of year. 

and it's not because I'm judgemental of anyone. God will judge in the end. But, I have a right to shop at stores that do not sell such items.  And, for the poster who said homosexuals buy condoms...heterosexuals buy condoms, too!  For example, my brother and his wife use condoms because they don't want to have anymore children but also don't want to have surgery.  For the person who posted that the Bible was written by man, let me enlighten you.  The Bible was written by man through God. That means that, while man wrote the text, God was who gave man the words to write it.  This issue for me is not JUST about WalMart, it is about all businesses who sell homosexual material.

I am a news junkie.  I hope I don't tread on the political aura because that is not my intention.  I've been watching CNN regarding how one can cut back to survive in this ecomony.  Every tip is MY LIFE for the last 10, 20 or more years!!  So what does one do who HAS been living a frugal lifestyle and finds themselves STILL having to cut back? 

As a disclaimer, I am okay, as I have been living somewhat frugally, and have (for now anyhow) a good job.  I just worry about those who have lived as I have and then find themselves in a fix, with nothing else to shut off...

For some reason Adam's performance was not aired when I watched AI Tuesday night, unless I blinked and missed it somehow! I can't say I have liked every one of his performances, but he is ALWAYS memorable. He is the son of one of my high school classmates and I do hope he wins.  Does anyone know of a link I can go to watch it?

As far as the new judge, Kara?, I much prefer her over Paula Abdul any day.  At least she is coherent when she gives advice, etc to the contestants.

Sorry CrankyBeach,

This has nothing to do with what was posted, but what in the world is that in your picture????

The clue for your caller would have been when you said "hello"?  Don't ya' think?