My Experience at Wal-Mart

 I am not afraid of this corporate giant and will let you know at the time of writing this I am still owed for 24 hours of work. I recently quit due to this but the problems didn't start there. I will start from the begining of my anti-walmart campaign.

Pre-working at Wal-Mart

I was about 14 years old when I came to know this monster. I went and started my first job working at Winn-Dixie. Great first job, I spent a little over three years at this company then it hit. The local Wal-Mart in my small town of Eden, NC decided it wasn't big enough. They had to build a new Super WalMart. Less then three month's later I lost my job. The reason was they couldn't compete with WalMart's prices. I will say from a consumers view that's a good thing. Truth is how can you shop at a store if you have no job. During the year before and after another store opened in the town of Reidsville, NC and the even smaller town of Madison, NC which has a population of about 2,200 people. All three of these stores could be reached from my town within about 10 minutes or less. The thing that made me mad was the Madison, NC Walmart had a gas station. This location was right off the highway and there was already another gas station that had been there since before I could remember. WalMart tried to run them out of business by undercutting the price by .10-.15 cents a gallon +.03 cents off with a gift card. The other gas store was a small privately owned location that didn't have the pockets WalMart had to compete. Though they tried. I know what Walmart was doing for a fact that the other WalMart in Eden was about .08-.10 more a gallon. Why be cheaper on the side of the highway? Morale of the story is the mom and pop gas station went out of business and WalMart jumped it's prices back up by .15 cents since it had no competition for gas in the area.

By now I am 16 year's old, I won a trip to the Legislative Institute in Arlington, VA. It provided training on starting grassroot movements and some politics. Here I was introduced to my Congresswoman Elizabeth Dole at the time. She asked what can she do to improve our communities back home. My response to her was "close WalMart." Her reply was that they provide a service to the community, and offer low cost products to families. A year later I was awarded with my Eagle Scout badge from the BoyScout's of America. A dinner was hosted in my honor and Senator Richard Burr of NC attended. Again I was asked what could we do to improve our city. Again my response was "close Walmart there are no jobs left." His response to this was to name two places that were to open within the next year that created about 40 specialized jobs. As a side note both closed within 2 years.

At 18 years old living on my own I had to leave my hometown in which I grew up in to find a job. Is it right to have to leave home to find work? I was born there Walmart invaded it, they should be the ones to leave. I moved to Bangor, Maine great place, opportunity everywhere only a small NON SUPER walmart. At this point I put my concerns about WalMart behind me moved on in life. However WalMart came knocking again.

Working FOR WalMart

"NOW HIRING!" the sign read. At the time I was between jobs and figured I would get an inside look at WalMart firsthand. What a mistake that was, I got a firsthand look alright about all the reasons not to work there. Earlier this year I was hired on as a temp worker to set up the new SuperWalMart. The starting pay 8.10 an hour "ouch" a fortune 500 company paying only .60 cents more then state minimum. It was a temp job however so I continued on. Day 1 showing up for my orientation. Started at 7 am WalMart representatives didn't show up til 7:30 they were late because they were getting Dunkin Donught's Coffee. We were asked to be there 15 minutes early. So here I sat for 45 minutes til they showed up. During the orientation we watched some video's on safety and procedures while half the group slept through it. Was the WalMart representatives even concerned? No, at least they didn't show it. Isn't Safety important for WalMart? Also I learned that some people had been hired for the same position for 10.10 an hour. Moving on to day two showing up for computer training. This was scheduled to be between 4 to 6 hours depending on how fast we went through it. Well fine and dandy it meant possibly more pay for me. After 3 hours of sitting there working away at all the reptitious safety concerns and procedures and what not I had to ask if I could take a break to use the bathroom and stretch. I was told to go and come straight back. No 15 minutes to grab a smoke and the fact that I had to ask for it kinda pissed me off. Moving on to day three the first real day on the job. I showed up to the new location no training pertaining to setting up a new store and left feeling the same way that day. While I was there that day I was told by my supervisor that we would not be allowed to request days off and work when they scheduled us as they needed us.

I continued on here til a short time after the new store opened. We were told by the news and WalMart when we were hired that WalMart would be offering over 300 new full time jobs. In 3 month's time I saw about 100 people go for various reasons and not replaced. These 100 people were there to serve WalMart's purpose to open that new store on time. To add onto this WalMart employs known convicts. Back on the day I did my computer training I was in the personnel office and I overheard a manager and a personnel assosciate discussing hiring someone that had committed a felon withing the past 7 years. The managers response was hire them unless it was due to theft. Many of the 100 people who were let go had criminal backgrounds and served the purpose of Walmart and were fired on the grounds of there background. I made friends while I was there so I know what I'm talking about.

After the new store was opened I was not immediately offered a "full time" position. I was asked to go with about 7 others to work M-F 7-4 at the closed store. The treatment I received here I have to say was a lot better. I was given a task to do every day to be completed by end of day, and if we finished early we could start another to be finished the next day. Provided water since the airconditioner was already off however it was uncomfortably hot. Breaks were clearly announced at the begining of the day and over the intercom. This was all contrary to working at the new store before opening. No water, no leadership to be found or provide goals throughout the day. At the begining of the day we were given maybe an hour long job, but after we had finished the supervisor was nowhere to be found and in many cases was at Dunkin Donuts again. Must have been why they choose a Dunkin Donut's in the store.

Paycheck time, I received a total of 5 paychecks during my time at WalMart and 4 of those were missing anywhere from 8 to 24 hours. That's 80 percent of my checks wrong with 10 to 30 percent missing from them. That's pretty bad for an employer and I wasn't the only one. I found out that a few other people were having the same problem. The one's having the problem were the one's who had to fill out the Time Adjustment Form. A paper trail and as I'm sure anyone knows they can disappear without a way to find it. The personnel manager never entered them into the computer. I'm sure she made sure she got paid, what about me? Obviously they didn't care about if I got paid or not. Four times I resubmitted Time Adjustments adding the missing times each time. I didn't get my missing hours from shortly after I started til over a month later and they only paid 8 of the 16 hours missing. Is it right to perform work and not get paid til a month after it was to be paid? How about WalMart schedule me to work today but I don't show up for a month but I expect to be paid for it today. I kinda like that idea but it isn't a good business practice nor is it the other way around. Every time I made a complaint about my missing times I was told that it was my fault and that I would have to submit another Time Adjustment. Truth is how is it my fault? I gave my Time Adjustment everyday at the end of the day to my supervisor like I was told to. I did my part from the moment I handed it over to my supervisor it became there responsibility. I however being smart checked the following day every day to make sure my time was being put in. If I noticed a time missing I immediately went to the personnel office to have it fixed. I was told it either hadn't been put in yet or submit that infamous disappearing paper trail again. Sign's WalMart was doing what it could to save money was one whole week they basically laid half the temp workers off and the next the other half. Only for a week but it showed me they were over budget and had to cut somehow.

After the store was opened I was offered a so called "full time" position in pets. I love animals and know quite a bit about them so I said sure. The following week I was hired for housewares which I didn't even select to work in nor knew much about. I had asked even before the store was open or full time positions filled that if I were hired to work in the Deli because I have a ServSafe certification and experience. When the store opened I was told that all positions in the deli were filled and that I would be hired for it when a position opened up. I was told this about 3 weeks before I eventually quit. Three weeks later while I was in the personnel office obviously trying to fix my pay again I noticed on the day's hiring board someone was getting a job offer for deli. For those of you who don't know you get a job offer after you go through 2 interview processes and drug screening. Takes alot less then a week to do and certainly doesn't take 3 weeks. So apperantly WalMart will openly lie to you to fill positions as they see fit.

Post Working at WalMart

I left WalMart about 2 weeks ago now still owed my last paycheck and 24 hours from previous paychecks dating back to work I did the first week of July. I am currently waiting to see if I even receive these. However I am not very optomistic and have decided to take up my Anti-Walmart campaign. I am asking you my reader to help prevent others from ending up with the same fate as I have.

 Contact your Senators here http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Contact your Congressmen/women here http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml

State Officials here http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/State_and_Territories.shtml

Send them my story and this fact sheet http://hubpages.com/hub/Anti-Walmart Title your letter or email: WalMart is not for US! Feel free to include your own reason's or petitions. This could potentially be you: http://walmartwatch.com/battlemart/archives/marion_nc_wal_mart_displaces_40_families_from_mobile_home_park/

-Thomas M.

A former WalMart employee