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TechnoratiThousands of Unpaid Teens Bag Groceries for Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart prides itself on cutting costs at home and abroad, and its Mexican operations are no exception. That approach has helped the Arkansas-based retail giant set a track record of spectacular success in the 16 years since it entered Mexico as a partner of the country's then-leading retail-store chain. But some of the company's practices have aroused concern among some officials and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that Wal-Mart is taking advantage of local customs to pinch pennies at a time when its Mexican operations have never been more profitable.
Wal-Mart is Mexico's largest private-sector employer in the nation today, with nearly 150,000 local residents on its payroll. An additional 19,000 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 work after school in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores, mostly as grocery baggers, throughout Mexico-and none of them receives a red cent in wages or fringe benefits. The company doesn't try to conceal this practice: its 62 Superama supermarkets display blue signs with white letters that tell shoppers: OUR VOLUNTEER PACKERS COLLECT NO SALARY, ONLY THE GRATUITY THAT YOU GIVE THEM. SUPERAMA THANKS YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING. The use of unsalaried youths is legal in Mexico because the kids are said to be "volunteering" their services to Wal-Mart and are therefore not subject to the requirements and regulations that would otherwise apply under the country's labor laws. But some officials south of the U.S. border nonetheless view the practice as regrettable, if not downright exploitative. "These kids should receive a salary," says Labor Undersecretary Patricia Espinosa Torres. "If you ask me, I don't think these kids should be working, but there are cultural and social circumstances [in Mexico] rooted in poverty and scarcity."
In a country where nearly half of the population scrapes by on less than $4 a day, any income source is welcome in millions of households, even if it hinges on the goodwill of a tipping customer. And Wal-Mart did not invent the bagger program that, as a written statement from the company notes, pre-dates the firm's arrival in Mexico, nor is it alone within the country's retail sector in benefiting from the toil of unpaid adolescents. But in Mexico City, for example, the 4,300 teenagers who work in Wal-Mart's retail stores free of charge dwarf similar numbers laboring unpaid for Mexican competitors like Comercial Mexicana (715) and Gigante (427). Although Wal-Mart's worldwide code of ethics expressly forbids any "associate" from working without compensation, the company's Mexican subsidiary asserts that the grocery baggers "cannot be considered workers." The Mexico City government's top labor official dismisses that contention as so much corporate hogwash. "To my mind, that is not an accurate description because the bagger is providing a service on the store's premises that benefits the company by serving the customer better," argues Federal District Labor Secretary Benito Mirón Lince. "In economic terms, Wal-Mart does have the capability to pay the minimum wage [of less than $5 a day], and this represents an injustice."
Certainly, Wal-Mart's bottom line is healthy. Wal-Mart de Mexico reported net earnings of $1.148 billion in 2006 and $280 million in profits in the second quarter of this year, a 7 percent increase in real terms over the same period last year. Buoyed by the handsome bottom-line results of the preceding 12 months, Wal-Mart de Mexico Chief Executive Eduardo Solórzano announced plans in February to add 125 new stores and restaurants to its existing network of 893 retail establishments during the course of 2007. That ambitious expansion plan will represent new investment totaling nearly a billion dollars, according to company spokesmen.
And in its defense, Wal-Mart says it fully complies with a 1999 agreement covering the teenaged baggers that the Mexico City municipal government negotiated with the Supermarkets and Department Stores Association of Mexico. The company also says it goes beyond the obligations of that accord, awarding bonuses twice a year to baggers who maintain high grades in school and also providing accident insurance that covers the kids not only when they are on duty, but also when they are en route between home and workplace. The company's written statement cited a study conducted by the Mexican government and a U.N. agency that found that teenagers participating in the baggers' program were less likely to use illegal drugs than peers who panhandled or hawked merchandise on city streets.
Wal-Mart says the bagger program was designed "in accordance with the International Labor Organization's (ILO) guidelines." That's questionable: Article 2 of the ILO's Convention 138 specifically prohibits the employment of 14-year-old children. (When asked by NEWSWEEK specifically about this clause, a Wal-Mart spokesman said in a written response: "With respect to your questions about the ILO, I repeat that we subscribe to an agreement signed between the Supermarkets and Department Stores Association of Mexico and Mexican labor officials. I suggest you share your doubts with Mexican authorities as to whether the [1999] accord [with the Mexico City municipal government] is in line with ILO guidelines.") A study conducted by three student researchers at the Autonomous University of Mexico documented violations of the 1999 agreement at a Wal-Mart Supercenter store in southern Mexico City. These included inadequate training and forcing youngsters to work a double shift, thereby exceeding the six-hour limit per day established by the accord. Then again, things could be a lot worse. In February 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay the U.S. Labor Department $135,540 in civil money penalties to settle charges of 24 child-labor violations. Some of the accusations involved minors who operated forklifts, chain saws and other potentially dangerous equipment. Stuffing groceries into plastic bags would seem considerably less hazardous.
© 2007 MSNBC.com
56 Comments so far
Show AllBottom line:WAL-MART has something to gain by the practice,maybe is makes the line move quicker,who knows?
The United States has invaded Mexico again without the use of the Army. WAL-MART will be instrumental in bringing/keeping Mexico to/on it's knees...The same invasion is happening in India as we speak and who knows where else.....!!BOYCOTT WAL-MART!!!...DO IT FOR THE LITTLE GUY!!!!
Here's something I just thought of.
Most of if not a good chunk of the people shopping at Wal-Mart are lower-income.
How can those people afford to tip baggers? They barely have enough money to spend on themselves and their families.
WalMart is so generous. Next you know they will be allowing children to hawk peanuts and chewing gum on their premises, too. Both in Mexico and the US.
"Peace Warrior", eh? Ironic handle for someone who writes such bile-filled nonsense.
Waldomart could adhere to its own policy of all its workers get paid, or kick them out as loiterers.
Or, we could just revoke WalMart's corporate charter.
poclad.org
Revoke wlamart's corporate charter.
Something we always could do throughout US history
In the Mexican context of things,
Walmart is definitely not doing anything to end poverty.
This is for sure. Just perpetuate the system. Exploit the poor. That is all it is doing. Just taking advantage of the Mexican system
A bagger is looked at in the same way you would look at some kid in the US who is cutting grass or shoveling snow for money...
Good point!
The gringo author of this piece must live in some tony US suburb and has done little travelling.
As far as I'm concerned even if (or especially if) the family is rich, the kid should be getting out and doing odd jobs for money or tips - and in some parts of the country kids still do this stuff. If your are near any poor neighborhood in Pittsburgh, you can't use a self service type car wash without a poor black kid offering to wash the car for you. But I'm sure that after a lot of people tell them to get lost, they opt instead for the far more remuneritive drug business. With few other opportunities, they'd be fools not to.
Kudo to Wal-Mart owners. Thanks for earning billions from us all, while exporting all the jobs overseas.
I would agree that this is exploitation. What else can one expect from Wal-Mart? This is why I don't shop there and feel bad for anyone that has to work there.
Volunteers? For a huge dept. store chain? These kids should volunteer at a non-profit hospital instead.
I don't blame the kids though. We forget that youth are among the most vulnerable in a capitalist society.
It's funny. I used to work at a Hills Dept. Store (now defunct as a chain) back in the mid 90's, and I remember that we were not allowed to accept tips if we helped a customer take a purchase out to their car. Y'know, big items, layaways, etc. I always pocketed the dough anyway though. :)
Hey, I was making 4.75 an hour.
Bottom line, Wal-Mart must die. And I'm not joking about that.
All you carnivores who pay lip service to WAL-MART make me sick.
Correction, from my earlier post. The government website for the North American Union would be "www.spp.gov".
Read up! It's our future!
Believe it or not, this exists in the United States as well.
While aboard the "32ND STREET NAVAL STATION" in San Diego, California, you'll find the exact same practice at the Commissary. That's where people go for groceries and what not.
The baggers there are usually elderly and work for tips. You are not allowed (supposedly) to take your groceries to your car. They bag the groceries and place them on 'their' cart. They then follow you out to your vehicle. At that point you would then give the a tip for their efforts. The baggers receive no salary or paycheck.
So the young "volunteers" in Mexico are not the only ones. In fact, just about every grocery store I've been to in Mexico is like this. That's how Walmart can say, "we follow local customs!" I'm sure if they had it their way, the customs would be the same up here.
Don't worry Americans! Once the North American Union (www.spp.org) comes into effect, don't be surprised to see this more often. As I don't see equalization between nations raising the standards of Mexicans. Expect to see the standards in America being lowered.
How about we send the Walton kids down there to bag.
Maybe send Mom and Dad also.
Maybe we should change the children labor laws in America to help Walmart increase their profit here too.
MetalDog
You make me sick
You've got a very tiny brain
and even smaller heart
How pathetic you are. Do you feel justified now that you got to spread your hate.... you piece of nothing
I hear that Wal-Mart in Mexico has the same prices as stores in the U.S.
I wonder if their employees pay equals pay in the states?
At our Wal-Mart nobody automatically takes your stuff to the car, you have to ask and then a regular employee helps. It was the same when I worked at J.C. Penny in Hialeah; we were both paid by the store and received tips for taking out purchases. (1971)
How well are these kids tipped and what percentage of people tips, in other words, how much can they make? I need to know these answers.
Governments are allowed to employ unpaid volunteers. Private employers aren't. Class action suit.
To those put off by my first comment: I agree that the practice is slimy and that Wal-Mart is willfully exploiting these kids. It's just that in the context of everything Wal-Mart does, this volunteer bag-boy thing is a relatively small matter. I wasn't trivializing the plight of the poor. I simply think that when you consider the active union-busting that Wal-Mart does, along with forced, unpaid overtime, rampant discrimination against women, and so on and so on, to make a fuss about these exploited volunteers is like criticizing Bush for wearing an ugly tie.
Oh -- and I apologize for calling the kids stupid. I think that tainted the spirit of my message.
The Department of Defense commissary system, known as Defense Commissary Agency (DECA) also uses volunteer grocery baggers who work for tips only. This system is used at every military commissary in the US and at overseas bases...
A corporation is a person, according to the Supreme Court.
A corporation is owned by persons.
Being owned by a person is slavery.
Slavery is unConstitutional.
It is unConstitutional for corporations to be owned by persons.
Free the slaves.
Like I wrote, volunteer bag boys, often working for tips was a common sight at small-town US grocery stores into the 1970's. Of course, their parents had secure, often union jobs in those days, so the kid was just earning pocket money. Whay matters is if they are actually volunteers or not. If they are doing it under the supevision of the store (such as under a schedule), they are legally employed and the law states they must be paid minimum wage.
So, this leads to the other situation - having to pay the store owner for the privlege of doing tip-work. I presume this is only legal if the store owner actually owns the property you are standing on when you are doing the work. In this case, you are an "independent business" and the fee is analogous to the rent you would pay for office or shop space. Yes, a few of the particularly shrewd or ruthless will earn their Horatio Alger degree, but for most, it is race to the bottom.
Here in the tipping-culture of the western hemisphere (excuse my cultural ignorance, but is restaurant tipping done in Canada?) Tip work can be pretty remunerative. Just ask any waiter/tress at an expensive restaurant. But personally I like the European approach of abolishing tipping altogether and paying and strictly enforcing a living minimum wage. But we are along way from that here.
I had tried to keep an open mind toward corporations, but it is closing. I guess they all end up competing towards the worst possible practices.
Scumbag organization!
Cheap, toxic plastic crap from China bagged for free by young Mexicans.
Don't blame the corporation. Blame the everyday shareholder and yourself if choose to consume Walmart's cheap but ill-got goods.
Your power to choose is being eroded by this 'Walmart Doctrine'.
This is the kind of asinine shit that happens when a society allows unregulated free-market capitalism to run rampant. If we would have held this behemoth company accountable for its actions and the adverse effects to society of those actions, they would not have the money behind them necessary to go into Mexico and anywhere else they want to go and co-opt the economies there in. Ask why WalMart ain't doing so hot in Germany.
Time to wake up from our long nap.
I grew up in the late '40s and early '50s. I worked for Andy, the local vegetable monger up the street in my Bronx neighborhood. I delivered grocery boxes and got tips from the customers, tips that were spending money to me. Andy didn't make a swell income from selling fruit and vegetables but he was fairly happy.
My father was a NYC fireman. We were a large family, seven of us children. My mother was able to keep clothing on our backs and food on the table and us in parochial schools because my father had a union job and was paid reasonably well. All that we got through his income made it possible for us not to have to depend on the handout tips I got from deliveries and for me to have a little extra spending money. We did not have to depend on the whims and charitable inclinations of others to make ends meet. That's the difference between pre 20th Century economies and the more civilized ones we live in today, or at least the more civilized ones that Europeans live in today. I learned in my youth to respect the concept of a decent wage for a decent day's work and the value of organized labor.
Rudyard Kipling wrote a little school primer toward the end of the last century that presented English school children with a condensed history of their glorious empire. In it he characterized the serving classes of the Caribbean Islands (black, whatever was left of the original indigenous people, and those of mixed race) as perfectly content with their lives and the few bananas a day they needed to sustain them.
That is the kind of ignorance and condescension displayed in the attitudes of too many folks here in the US. There can be no excuse for and should be no tolerance of the exploitation of peoples labor in a healthy economic system. One should be able to distinguish between making extra pocket change in tips on the one hand and the use of slave labor or of an impoverished and exploited labor force on the other.
As far as Hillary is concerned, I think she's a robot programmed to play an impeccably astute political game. As far as the family who own Wal-Mart is concerned, I think they are inhuman raptors.
The bottom line is that Wal-Mart is taken advantage of bad situation and making it worse by not paying these children a living wage.
Leave it to corporate America to find way to return to a form of slavery and make it sound like they are doing everyone a favor.
I also would like to say that if it such a good idea why aren't they doing in the U.S.?
Oh, that's right we have labor laws that protect our children to some extent from being exploited.
This is an interesting debate. I find it interesting that many people here are defending Wal-Mart. It shows that some liberals are open to considering conservative ideas, especially economic ideas. Perhaps this means that we can find a basis for mutual understanding between these two political extremes.
I myself find the arguement that other grocery stores in Mexico and, historically, American supermarkets have similar practices of not paying the baggers to be unconvincing. In questions of justice we should not use injustice as the standard. Justice and human rights, including workers rights, are universal concepts, not dependent on local conditions. Of course justice cannot always be served, but it is essential to maintain our ideals. Finally, American companies are our unofficial national embassadors, they should be striving to spread our ideals of fair compensation for labor to countries where this concept is not yet promoted.
Wa-Mart does not exist. I don't patronize, invest or see them. Eventually people will begin realize that Wal-Mart is a parasite in every community they latch onto, sucking them dry and then moving to another host.
I wonder how much Hillary contributed to Wal-Mart's business practices while she was on the board?
A great article to forward to all my acquaintances that dont understand why I never shop at Walmart.
Walmart just makes me so sick.
As posted above, this is common in Mexico. Curiously, this practice predates NAFTA, the de la Madrid presidency (When "neo-liberalism" allegedly started), and Walmart's presence in Mexico. Go into almost ANY market in Mexico, big chain or little corner store, and there will be someone bagging your groceries. For a tip. And nothing else. Go into a bar and use the mens room, and you are likely to see a little sign saying "I keep this place clean for you, and your tips are my only salary. What can you say, it is a job. Blaming it on Walmart, Capitalism, outsourcing, etc seems to be rather ignorant. And, I would rather a kid be in Walmart than hustling chicles or breathing fire on some unsafe street corner.
There is about as much volunteer involved in this as there is in the wounds a drowning man would get if offered the blade of a sword to grab to save themselves.
Walmart (and other corporations), the Mexican government, U.S. trade policy, etc. are creating people so desperate that their choices are limited to a series of lethal options some just slower forms of death than other choices like crime.
Although I dislike WalMart with a passion, in Mexico I suppose they are just going with the flow. Anyway, unpaid bag boys are an American tradition going as far back as at least 1940. As a 17-year old I worked for Piggly Wiggly Markets in Coatsville,PA, as a bag boy strictly for tips. And you were lucky to get the job. I was on my own and it was a living. We did OK. The alternative was not very good!
It's nothing short of disgusting.
Egads.
Hilary Clinton recently pointed out to Lou Dobbs, in defense of her association with the Indian outsource giant, Tata, that outsourcing works both ways. That WE can be the outsourcing nation rather than India, if we're just willing to get down to it and compete. I love this statement. I do. And it combines BRILLIANTLY with this article. HERE is what we have to do to get down to it and compete. We have to work for four dollars a day. Before we can GET the benefit of working for four dollars a day, we have to VOLUNTEER our labor to prove that we will be, when we grow up, worthy of that four dollars. We have to billing to live at a standard of living so low that "volunteering" our labor will sound great to us. And, of course, Hilary is one of the more rational, humanistic Republicans.
Labor issues are global. We can't look at what Wal-Mart does in Mexico and laugh it off as cultural, or beyond what a Mexican youth SHOULD expect. This culture, thanks to FREE TRADE policies, is competing, head to head, with US workers. Already, we have posters on this thread remembering the days when kids volunteered their labor for local grocers. Of course, the grocers WERE local, often offering life-long employment to locals, often supporting local kids who wanted to go to college, and the money they made stayed in the community: All things not true of Wal-Mart. But, that aside, these ideas are also from a different era. A different economy. A time when owners were in the neighborhood and subject to shame and direct confrontation.
It should be pointed out that Wal-Mart ALSO expects free labor from US employees. They convince people who want to go into management that they need to show their value to Wal-Mart by working above and beyond the call of duty (and rate of pay). They demand that managers and manager wannabees work hours for free in order to meet labor goals, with the promise that this is how rewards are won from Wal-Mart. You show that you're true blue Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart will pay you back with their loyalty...as long as you don't get seriously sick, in which case you're on your own. Or you have a crisis and cannot work for a day or a week. Then you are fired. There is no laughing off of Wal-Mart. They are perhaps the worst idea America has had this century, and this idea is spreading at an unprecedented rate. I am reminded of the lake in Texas that has a weed growing at a rate so out of control, that it will kill every living thing in the lake, and even the lake itself, if drastic measures are not taken. They should call it the Wal-Mart weed.
www.unknown-arts.org/politics
And? For the past 50 years (at least) all military commissaries (grocery stores) have never paid their baggers.
Baggers work for tips only. Large signs to this effect are posted in all commissaries.
Where's the outrage at these US military policies?
Retired AF Vet.
.....
They don't have to Doll, but I wish I earned as much as they do. That is really not quite the same as the Wal-Mart Corporation.
You know, if one ever gets injured, or injures a customer while on the job, Wal-Mart could be sued silly. They could likey afford it, but I doubt if their insurers would foot the legal bills or any settlements. The owners could not hide behind the coporation and could be in jeapordy of losing personel assets.
The baggers at the US commissaries work for tips only.
Escravo, you shouldn't have written that, Wal-Mart doesn't need that kind of idea.
Calling what these kids do 'voluntary' is a perversion of the word's meaning. One is not free to do something unless one has viable options to do otherwise. Doing without, is not a viable option. Such options don't exist in our Third World neighbor. The clever capitolists of WalMart understand this completely. That they choose to immorally exploit the weak and unfortunate simply to fatten their own coffers is shameful and it bodes ill for America and the rest of the fortunate First World. Karma is a cosmic principle as dependable as gravity. What you put out will return to you, magnified. The day approaches when the Third World runs out of tolerance for such heartless abuse. When that day arrives, everyone who stood idly by and watched the harm be done will pay. The time to act is now. Boycott WalMart until it pays these baggers a fair wage; pressure congress to force these Fat Cats to do the right thing.
Insure that what the law of karma returns to you personally is the result of your efforts to insure justice for those who cannot demand it for themselves.
In the next 10 to 30 years we will transform the world so that man's basic needs (for food, shelter, healthcare and education) become the guaranteed rights of everyone in the human family.
The new beneficient developments (of the last 100 years) are going to make it easy for us to build a genuine civilization without poverty, hunger or war. I know that's impossible for most people to to believe at the present time, but you will see. Keep fighting for human rights, truth and justice!
———————
"Man must change or die.
There is no other course."
Maitreya, The World Teacher
http://www.Share-International.org
EVERY Mexican supermarket does this. It is by no means unique to Walmart. Walmart at least does not CHARGE them to work; the Calimax supermarket near my house in Tijuana has guys in the parking lot who carry your groceries to your car for you; they are CHARGED a fee for the privelege of working that parking lot.
I don't know that I have been quite THIS disgusted for a long, long time. It almost makes me wish that I DID shop at WalMart: SO I COULD STOP.
This family should be completely disgusted with themselves. how the hell DARE they do this? Anyone ELSE need an example of where the class war we're in ourselves is leading?
This family makes over a hundred BILLION dollars a year. With THAT much money, they can't pay freaking BAGGERS? My God, I am so disgusted I can't see straight.
May this whole family rot in hell. They deserve nothing less, and nothing more.
Well, if they are truly volunteers, they should be able to come, collect some "propinas" and go, whenever they wish. So like metaldog mentioned,this would be much ado about nothing. I'm old enough to recall tips-only bag boys working like this at grocery stores here in the US.
But I suspct it doesn't work that way - they do the work only with the permission and supervison of Wal Mart and on a schedule of the manager's choosing. So, this is legally an employer-employee relationship, and here in the US (and probably in Mexico if they would enforce their labor laws) Wal Mart has an obligation to pay them at least minimum wage.
yeah frank...
(in america, it's called internship)
in america, if you're living on $4 per day, you'd laugh at the very notion of an internship.
just because you live in america, doesn't make it great.
and yes... walmart SHOULD step up to the plate on this one.
you cannot, in good conscience, agree that multi-billionaires shouldn't have to pay their employees. (though that's what they want you to think. lovely how that works out for THEM and not US)
Do the Waltons provide slave quarters for these children?
Hillary Clinton did a great deal of good for the employees of Wal-Mart and also for wemon's rights with that corporation.
Check out her board voting record. After she left that position, things began to slide down hill. I don't wish to see her as our president, but a lot of people knock her for being on the Wal-Mart board and any negative comments in that respect are not fair at all.
MetalDog: wake up.
Poor kids take these "volunteer" jobs and work for tips because Wal-Mart refuses to pay workers to perform those jobs. That the kids take the jobs is proof of how desperate their families are for any income, no matter how meager. That Wal-Mart refuses to hire workers for these jobs shows how far they will go to exploit workers and drive down wages.
Of course, that workers accept this kind of treatment shows just how far the labor movement has retreated.
Since it appears that MetalDog can read (although comprehension may be lacking), may I suggest a reading of "The Tortilla Curtain" by T. Coraghessan Boyle. Although fictional, like most good fiction it provides some perspective -- in this case on the life/outlook of some Mexicans living in poverty.
frank: so, by your logic we should all be working for gratuities if greedy corporations are willing to be straighforward about it. Man, your thinking is more scary than this article and corporate America's unscrupulous behavior. You're the perfect example of what every coporate CEO is hoping we'll all be dumbed down to in the near future. Don't worry, frank, it's coming. Sooner than later we'll all be trying to compete for dinner scraps for the simple reason that people like you and metaldog exist and have the right to vote in this country.
it is simply slimey, greedy, exploitation.
MetalDog: You're daft. Reread the opening line of the third paragraph: "In a country where nearly half of the population scrapes by on less than $4 a day, any income source is welcome in millions of households, even if it hinges on the goodwill of a tipping customer."
It's often difficult for overprivileged Americans to conceive of the desperate circumstances those in developing countries find themselves in, or the lengths to which people in these countries are forced to go in order to scrape by. U.S. trade policy and heinous unemployment rates have created situations in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America that most Americans simply cannot conceive of. Many just assume, in a typically arrogant, uninformed, racist way, that the people involved are too stupid to make better choices, and refuse to realize that they are taking advantage of every "choice" they have.
In America, it's called an "internship." Every Hollywood studio, production company, agency, etc has literally hundreds of "unpaid" kids doing the grunt work, all with the hope that someone will "like" them and offer them a future. No gratuity, just a few college credits. Nearly every corporation and law practice and whatever offer high school and college kids the same free work opportunity.
There are parking valet jobs in Vegas and NY where applicants not only work for free, they actually have to pay just to get the job. We pay service staffs peanuts and encourage a minimum 15 percent tip, without which they would all starve.
At least Wal Mart, in this case, is being straight with it's staff and the public. Which is not a reason to not boycott Wal Mart, or to not support HRC, the new queen of the corporate paymasters and nutjob David Brooks' favorite Dem.
Sorry -- did I miss something? Am I supposed to feel bad for these kids who VOLUNTARILY bag groceries for gratuities? Am I daft, or would Wal-Mart be forced to hire baggers in these stores if they didn't have volunteers?
You can blame Wal-Mart for all kinds of nasty stuff, but not for the stupidity of these kids.
I guess right here would be a good time to mention that throughout the 1980s as WalMart was ripping small town America a new a-hole, Hillary was a WalMart lawyer and then was on their board of directors.
Hillary Walmart Clinton
Using campaign spending limits to get America better politicians is the only way to solve America's problems enough.
Can I get get a job bagging for Wal-Mart, I'm not a Mexican or a teenager, but I'm very old and unemloyed? And if I do get one, will I have to declaree my tips to the IRS?
Never mind.
Here's the kicker line:
"OUR VOLUNTEER PACKERS COLLECT NO SALARY, ONLY THE GRATUITY THAT YOU GIVE THEM. SUPERAMA THANKS YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING."
This tells me that Walmart is toying with, taking advantage of, the poverty that prompts teens to seek work, hoping for a tip if not pay.
Walmart puts the blame on us ("...only the gratuity that YOU give them...).
Perhaps Walmart is tinkering with the idea of forming an all-volunteer workforce, period. Volunteer shelf-stockers, cashiers, truck drivers, janitors...all dependent on YOUR gratuity. It's YOUR fault if they don't get paid.
Walmart is corporate cancer. I refuse to shop there.