That Well-Hated Company

Well, you have to admire Peter Schiff—as someone who has tried to engage in debate about gun control, I know that what he was trying to do in a Wal-Mart parking lot wasn’t easy.

And what, you ask, was he doing?

Only asking two questions: did they support higher wages for Wal-Mart workers? If so, would they pay 15% of what they had spent at the store today? He promised to give the money to the workers at the end of the afternoon. Oh, and good try—saying you had no cash! He took plastic.

Understandably, he didn’t get many people to donate….

Well, he comes right out and says it—we love those low prices, but most of us have no idea how tricky the retail business is. The iPad you bought at Wal-Mart? The company didn’t make a dime on it. In fact, Wal-Mart and everybody else makes no money on electronics; for Black Friday, they’re bleeding money, and people in the stores are begging customers to buy the cables, the stands, the insurance for the gadgets. That’s where the money is.

Think that’s bad? Wal-Mart is also the leading grocer in the USA, and that business is even worse. You’ve got perishables, for one thing, and the margin is miniscule. So despite the huge sales, the actual profit is—comparatively—small. So I believe Schiff when he says:

A raise to a $15 hourly minimum would increase its $26 billion annual payroll of hourly workers by 50%, or $13 billion per year. This is approximately 80% of the company’s total operating profit of $16 billion. Taking those increases from profits would devastate the company’s finances, place it a serious disadvantage to its competitors, and force a dramatic restructuring.  

So what is it that Wal-Mart does that is a red cape to so many liberal bulls? Sure, they pay miserably, but guess what? The supermarket next to me pays just as little, and has just as many part-timers, if not more. And I used to ask people who hated Wal-Mart which job they’d prefer: Wal-Mart or McDonalds? Trust me, not a lot of people chose McDonalds.

Still don’t think that Wal-Mart arouses deep passions? Here’s what Schiff wrote about the reaction from the Left.

The reaction I have seen online leads me to believe that the left wing of the political spectrum is home to some of the most intolerant, hypocritical, vindictive, and judgmental people in the country.  In the comments on my Facebook and YouTube pages I have been called some of the most vulgar names imaginable.  I, and all members of my family, have been wished slow and painful deaths, with some even inferring that they would be willing to hasten the process themselves.  Others did not think I should actually forfeit my life, just my liberty, as they thought I should be thrown in jail.  Many on the religious left have even offered prayers that my soul could find a special place in hell where my torment could surpass the anguish of the commonly damned.

The insults were not limited to me, but extended to woman who appeared in the video with me. She did not utter a single word, but merely stood by my side holding a sign.  Yet many made extremely rude comments about her physical appearance.   I thought liberals didn’t do that?

People often charge that Wal-Mart drives everybody out of business, an argument I find a little strange. Look, guys, this is business, remember? This is about competing for customers, who are driven by (mostly) price, service, and very marginally loyalty. And competition means there winners and losers—and what happens when you lose in business?

Is it the fact that Wal-Mart is and was an essentially southern company? Is that what’s bugging all the (mostly) northern liberals?

It’s true that Wal-Mart is rigidly, adamantly anti-union. And also true that at the first hint that employees are organizing, management calls a hotline, and a TEAM flies out to the store. At that point, the manager loses all control—the anti-union is calling the shots. And yes, as a former part of management at Wal-Mart, I had to go through the famous training on what to say—and not to say—to non-management employees.

It’s also true that this morning’s edition of The New York Times had an article about the Local 1 of the stagehand union. Here’s the headline:

Hey, Stars, Be Nice to the Stagehands. You Might Need a Loan.

Here’s a quote from the article:

Five stagehands at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center were each paid more in total compensation in 2011 than the highest-paid dancer at New York City Ballet, filings showed. And, in 2010, “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” paid its stagehands a total of $138,000 a week, while the principals and members of the ensemble earned slightly less than $100,000 put together, according to documents submitted to the state attorney general’s office.

Look—there’s something screwy when a stagehand can earn than the highest paid dancer at City Ballet.

So what is it about Wal-Mart that we hate? Let’s be honest: too many of us are living lives completely dedicated to possessions, to consuming, to have more and more for which we have to work harder and harder at jobs we hate. We’ve become junkies.

And Wal-Mart?

Our pushers.