Anyone else watching CNBC?Follow

Just surfing through the TV guide I happened upon channel 208 - CNBC. And right now they are running the program "The NEW Age of Wal-Mart."

It's all about how Wal-Mart has changed throughout the years and is rethinking their entire chain to bring in more customers and refurbish their image. I'm sure everyone noticed the recent absence of the smiley face logo and the new Sun-oriented design scheme, that's an example. Also, their motto changed.

What does everyone think about Wal-Mart? Does this economic machine do more harm than help? Should workers unionize against the supposed 'tyranny' of the company?

I used to do this all the time way way back... those were the days, I guess.

These days I avoid Wal-Mart. It may not be this way at every Wal-Mart, but every time I go to one these days it's like I've walked into a circus side-show. The last time I went to one, I was being followed around the isles by a man who appeared to be an obese man in his 50s. He was wearing a skin-tight white shirt that looked like it had more than one day's worth of food stains, a pair on bright blurple daisy duke shorts, high heels and enough makeup to make a clown wretch.

He seriously was following me around the store, staying about half an isle behind me and trying hard to not make eye contact. Hanging out in the sports goods section checking out ammunition for an unreasonably long time seemed to put him off and he left me along after that.

I still made sure to take the long way home and kept an eye in my rear-view to make sure the guy wasn't there. Still creeps me out just thinking about that guy.

So yeah, I've shopped at Target ever since that day.

I do almost all my shopping at Wal-Mart

It just happens to be a short drive from my work, and right on the way home. So it's easy to get to, and relatively cheap. We have a Meijer store as well, but they are much more expensive. There is also a Shop-n-Save, but they have a very bad habit of leaving expired food on the shelves, and they are also more expensive.

We avoid Wal-Mart unless there is something we absolutely cannot find anywhere else and we don't have time to order it. For example, they are the last place in town to carry Canon color printer ink cartridge #41. Even Office Max and Office Depot didn't have it any more.

I never go to Walmart. Target and Walmart are in the same plaza here and Walmart is a tad bit closer but I will go on pass. The prices are good, I won't complain, but it's the parkinglot. At any time day or night that stupid parkinglot is crowded like there's no tomorrow. I haven't shopped at Walmart going on almost 6 years besides for the one time while I was pregnant and I really wanted the Walmart Wheat Bread.

I had the unfortunate experience of working at Walmart for a few months last year due to a hiring freeze at the company I was going to work for. The way they treat many of their employees is flat out illegal. Forced, non paid overtime at the threat of your job is just one of many examples. Ok, it's not forced overtime but if you don't do it, you get coached. And you can take the overtime pay but if you do, you get coached. Your other option is to take an extended lunch at the end of the week but if your extended lunch interferes with their lack of proper scheduling, you get coached. The first coaching isn't much. The second coaching and you have to beg to keep your job, literally. The third coaching, your fired. The funny part is that in most cases, if you're fired for coachings and it's nothing serious, they tell you to come back in six months and they will rehire you. What they don't tell you is that it's at a complete loss of benefits and a major cut in pay, usually cut down to minimum wage.

What makes it even more of a nightmare is the insane number of managers, most of which just make up policies and rules as they go. After being reprimanded for doing something I was specifically told to do by a manager, I got sick of the constantly changing rules and asked them for a list of procedures and policies so I knew what I was and wasn't supposed to do. Even though I managed to do it without being a smartass, my job was still threatened for it and I never received the list I asked for.

The final kick for me was my three month review. After being fed the 'if we had bothered to check your references or qualifications, we would have made you a manager' crap, I wasn't even given a raise, which I was promised. In fact, about a week after my review, they realized the amount they had been paying me, which was the amount agreed to when I was hired, was more than what they were supposed to be paying me. I was forced to sign paperwork stating my pay would be reduced and they were going to deduct the overpay I had received out of my next couple of checks. On top of that, a coaching was going on my record for not reporting the overpayment, which eliminated me from the management position they were supposedly trying to push me into. If I didn't sign the paperwork, my employment would have been terminated for theft.

In the five months I was there I've seen upper management humiliate and berate associates on the sales floor, I've seen lower management reprimand and insult associates in the lunch room in front of other associates and I've seen a manager flat out fire a new associate for not knowing how to work in a department they had never been assigned to. All of this was at one of the top stores in Illinois and I believe one of the top stores nationwide.

From what I understand, Walmart used to be a good company to work for. After the old man died it started going down hill and when his wife died, it spiraled into the cesspool that it is now. I'm mixed on Unions and I think it depends a lot on how a company is run. Usually I'm against Unions, but in this case they are desperately needed.