Walmart At 50: Website Serves As A Forum For Critics Of All Stripes

It's like YouTube, if every video were about Walmart.

Nearly three weeks after Walmart was accused of bribing government officials in Mexico, a new website, Walmart at 50, is airing all manner of grievances about the company. Launched by labor groups Making Change at Walmart and Our Walmart in connection with the company's 50th anniversary, the site allows anyone with access to a computer to share their own photos, videos and Walmart-related stories. "Change Walmart to Rebuild America!" the site declares.

But while most of the testimonials are what one would expect on a labor organization's site (Walmart workers and union members deride the company's low pay and lack of benefits), the site is also peppered with commentary from shoppers griping about prices and critics of goods made overseas -- plus plenty of photos of pets and flowers.

"I am old enough to remember the original creator of the Walmart stores," wrote Beverly Smith of Cottonwood, Ariz., apparently referring to Walmart founder Sam Walton, who died in 1992. "He was fair and NOT GREEDY. And now we MISS HIM."

Allan Chamberlin of Joplin, Mo., was more concerned about store prices. "It seams like every time I go to WalMart the same thing that I got 2 [or] 3 days before has gone up A little," he complained. "But they say no it did not."

The new site has even captured the praise of one Walmart supporter: "I worked for Wal-Mart for three and a half years," wrote Jackalynn Bair of Houston, not afraid to go against the grain. "I loved working with my fellow workers, and working with the customers."

This is more in keeping with the types of comments that one can find on the company's own 50th anniversary site, named simply Walmart50.com, which also invites testimonials by workers.

But Making Change at Walmart's director, Daniel Schlademan, says a diverse group of commenters is exactly what his group is hoping its new website will attract. "Walmart's impact is so dramatic," he said. "There are so many people with stories about Walmart."

"We're often accused of being Walmart bashers but the reality is we're trying to make Walmart a better company," Schlademan said.

Some of the testimonies were collected by a team of Making Change at Walmart representatives who since mid-April have been driving a Dodge Nitro SUV across the country to hold meetings and interview Walmart shoppers and sales associates from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh -- and everywhere in between. The trip began before the bribery scandal became news.

As America's largest retailer and private employer with 3,878 stores in the United States alone, Walmart has long been the subject of a wide range of folklore, ranging from the ordinary to the extreme and wacky, as reporters have chronicled. Over the years, there's been a viral booty-shaking video from Louisiana about picking up women in Walmart, a news report of a woman's discovery of teeth in a wallet for sale, and more recently a tale of a customer in Marshall County, Tenn., spotting a gopher rat in a store's bread aisle.

Since The New York Times first published in late April its report about the company's alleged bribing of Mexican officials, Walmart has become a magnet for a wide array of criticism. Everyone from union members to pension fund officials, and city officials to congressmen have decried various aspects of the company's business practices, often drawing parallels between their concerns and the alleged activities in Mexico.

Although the activists launched the Walmart at 50 website and the road trip before word of the bribery allegations broke, "[The scandal] affirmed the project in our mind," Schlademan said.

Along the way, team members have stopped to project their collected videos on the sides of Walmart buildings for as long as store officials have allowed. This weekend, they will work with activist group Walmart Free NYC to broadcast them on the sides of prominent buildings in New York City's five boroughs. The road trip will hit several more cities before concluding next month in Bentonville, Ark., where Walmart will hold its shareholder meeting.

Comments

[Daniel Kauwe]

12:03 AM on 11/25/2012

hmm. i had no idea Walmart has been around for so long...weird. i wonder if it's just in the last few decades that they've skyrocketed in notoriety.

[Joseph LeCompte]

05:27 PM on 05/13/2012

When you save money at a big box store don't be surprised when your taxes go up and your wages go down. Walmart prices force manufacturers to cut pay and force local govts to provide welfare for its workforce did you really think some miracle happened? Shop local and buy American.

[Dwight Robertson]

08:44 PM on 05/13/2012

After reading your post, there is nothing I can add

[fortressfountain]

10:20 AM on 05/13/2012

Did you knowtice stores are getting smaller. This is so they do not have to pay labor and overhead. They may also have other plans such as education, infastructure, food aide and medical etc. Wow, what a monopoly.
All prices are traded back and forth amoung stores so they stay about the same. You have to shop the sales.

[ranchero42]

09:48 PM on 05/12/2012

The first time I saw THIS movie segment -- I had no idea what a 'Walmart' was. (sigh) fond memories indeed…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaKByOtCWy4

[den1953]

05:17 PM on 05/12/2012

After WalMart is pacing the American middle class to shop at there stores as they use China and other overseas factories to make most of their products for middle class and poor people to buy, the least they could do is answer complaints and raise their employees wages and benefits after all the years of cheating workers. Just think of the impact Americans could make if all of a sudden they didn't want to purchase cheap Chinese made goods WalMart relies on. What would happen if Americans started a push for WalMart to sell more Made In America goods or no one will shop there anymore? How long would they stay in business, so in reality the customers writing to the company shouldn't go as threatening it should be used to help WalMart restore their patriotism and thanks to their customers for shopping at their stores...........The best thing that could happen to WalMart is get out of ALEC and break away from corporate black mail from the Koch Brothers!

[ScorpioTop]

04:30 PM on 05/12/2012

Walmart supported ALEC and their deadly SYG laws.

[LightShadow62]

03:41 PM on 05/12/2012

If there were an afterlife, Sam Walton would be coming back from it to knock some sense into his descendants. This Walmart is not this one he built.

[from Idaho]

08:18 PM on 05/12/2012

Or he could come back as a she and have to rely on the store's low pay and benefits and cheap Chinese products to support her family. Karma.

[InvectiveMouth]

03:38 PM on 05/12/2012

While 'people of Red states' are so patriotic, christians and whites who have low level of education and never traveled outside of their town (or country) and marry virgin, never divorce...majority of them shop at the wally world aka walmart (walmart is the biggest import of china made goods). AND these people are against national health care, any government assistant programs. the unfortunate contrary is 'these' states have the highest enrollment for gov't assistance (welfare system)...go figure. fortunately there are more people living in the end of both coastal states (not including southern states).

[writer014961]

11:33 PM on 05/12/2012

I hate to disagree with you, but during times of high unemployment, low wages, and bad economies, people tend to cut cost whatever ways they can to make ends meet. Up to now, Walmart has offered their customers low priced items that they can afford. All types of people shop at Walmart, even some wealthy ones, all looking for special prices so they can spend their savings on other things like education, bills,etc. Walmart has stores in smaller cities and towns. Workers in these locations are paid less in wages than their counterparts in larger cities. It is unfair to stereotype people who shop at Walmart just like it is unfair to stereotype people shopping at other stores. Walmart prides itself on giving people a chance who normally wouldn't get a chance elsewhere. It also hires people of all races and nationality. It is true that Walmart buys a lot of products from China and Mexico, but nowadays you can't go into many stores that don't carry products with Chinese and Mexican labels on them.

[suvariboy]

07:41 AM on 05/13/2012

Walmart also bullies its way into smaller markets, offers prices that are too low for local businesses to compete with and once-proud business owners end up having to shutter their shops and end up being forced to take a part-time greeter position at Walmart.

[Sean Laine]

03:18 PM on 05/13/2012

I do not shop at Walmart because of there greediness and all the jobs lost in this country because of Walmart. They can shove there outsourced garbage where the sun does not shine

[cahstick]

03:37 PM on 05/12/2012

You gotta love the 3 goggles for the logo. Go CATS!!!

[OldTulsan]

03:11 PM on 05/12/2012

Two clerics speak out against the greed of the Walton heirs in the first 90 seconds of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcCfkKziWa8
Wal-Mart greedy Walton family exposed + undergroun­d bunker! - YouTube

The two clerics are:

Rabbi Steven Jacobs, Temple Kol Tikvah

Rev. James Lawson, Pastor Emeritus, Holman United Methodist Church

[cimmereo]

02:55 PM on 05/12/2012

Walmart is a perfect example of poor corporate citizenship. Loophole finding, price cutting paranoia is not what managers of the future should emulate.

[g9]

02:55 PM on 05/12/2012

the good news is nobody here has to shop there.....I do not,,,,,
...I would rather pay that penny or two & support my neighbor...the small bussiness down the street needs us to support their family

[Hank007]

05:15 PM on 05/12/2012

Where I live, Walmart hired the city council as 'consultants' to essentially bribe them into allowing a store in our neighborhood, against the wishes of the community. They effectively destroyed the small businesses down the street.

[g9]

01:11 PM on 05/13/2012

thats why I call walmart "THE DEVIL STORE"....wwjs (where would jesus shop)

[g9]

06:14 PM on 05/13/2012

sounds like it is time to get the TAR & FEATHERS out ....or maybe jail time is in order...

[itstimetotakeitback]

02:55 PM on 05/12/2012

SlaveMart sucks.. Shop local.. Support your community.. Not Companies that claim to be American.. There's nothing American about SlaveMart, other than it's Founder.. And he would be sad to see how his company turned out..

[flacon]

02:45 PM on 05/12/2012

Big deal. It's just unions wanting a toehold in a large company. Also some jealousy over their success.

Walmart is a leader and some people just like to throw stones at number 1.

[telebob59]

02:50 PM on 05/12/2012

And then again, some people are gullible, clueless egomaniacs.

[jhuffington]

04:31 PM on 05/12/2012

If Walmart has the freedom to pay low wages and poor benefits, why shouldn't the employees have the freedom to complain and start a union? What's wrong with that?

[Blackwing]

02:43 PM on 05/12/2012

Without Walmart America's landfills and junk piles would be very lonely.

[cimmereo]

02:56 PM on 05/12/2012

Let's toss some Wall Street investment bankers in to keep Walmart company.