Wal-Mart builds zombie army
Discount retailer the focus of consumer culture debate
Wal-Mart has arrived on the Internet, promising the service and prices that have made it a giant in discount retail. The Wal-Mart counter-culture was already there, waiting for it. The store Sam Walton spread across North America like a weed has become a focus in the all-too-quiet debate about the cult of consumerism.
The latest event in this debate is a civil action lawsuit by Wal-Mart employees in Davenport, Iowa. They want to be paid for the extra hours they worked because Wal-Mart brainwashed them into working unpaid overtime to achieve unrealistic goals their managers knew would take extra time.
The lawsuit is just one of the two to five lawsuits filed against the chain each day, according to the Wal-Mart Litigation Project, but it is a bittersweet moment for the American labour movement. Instead of organized labour negotiating the rights of workers, Wal-Mart employees must turn to civil litigation.
It is one of the few positives to the litigious nature of American culture. The courts that have so carefully removed themselves from the fight between organized labour and the retail giant are now being asked to make the kind of decision a healthy labour-employer relationship is meant to produce.
It is appropriate on so many levels that Wal-Mart should be the subject of what could be a new form of judicially enforced corporate responsibility – the company has achieved sector-leading profits in low-end retail by preventing its workforce from asserting its rights.
This became obvious during Wal-Mart’s failed expansion into the more labour-friendly environment of Germany. The workforce there refused to accept the company’s employment practices, and it has failed to produce the profit margins that make it the top discount retailer in North America.
According to Associated Press, part of the lawsuit brought forward by former employee Taylor Vogue and others is based on the cult-like atmosphere created by Wal-Mart. They believe Wal-Mart associates are "brainwashed to work mindlessly for mother Wal-Mart."
The rage that sits just below the surface of civil society comes closest to the skin at the front lines of retail. Retail rage is a suitable media tag for the tension that lives and breathes at the checkout line. To Wal-Mart haters, the company represents the empty, soulless pit of consumer culture. To supporters, it's a great place to shop – it brings the family together – and an icon of progress and modern society.
It is a front line where the Internet actually achieves the promise Web-culture folks hoped it could before the corporate invasion began: a place where you can tour a series of unique personal perspectives and form your own relationship to an issue.
The starting place on this tour is a Web site that has become famous for the deathly dull nature of its content. Derek’s big Web site of Wal-Mart purchase receipts was created by a man with too much time on his hands, a box full of Wall-Mart receipts and a desire to practice Web programming. It takes you on a meaningful tour of the consumer routine that is at the heart of Wal-Mart’s $800-million-plus annual profit. The site also has a wonderful series of links divided into pro- and anti-Wal-Mart listings.
From there, you can begin your trip into the world of the Wal-Mart dichotomy. Discover the computer programmer who goes to bizarre lengths to record his shopping cart travels with a camcorder and a laptop, or the venerable Phone Losers of America, who have dedicated a Web page to all the fun and destructive activities (broken down by department) available at your local Wal-Mart.
Be sure to check out some of the pro-Wal-Mart links and the Unofficial Wal-Mart associates’ page. Here the strange ambivalence that revolves around Wal-Mart finds a focus. A current employee of Wal-Mart hopes to help other employees deal with the nasty activities that Wal-Mart uses to produce its profit margin – be sure to check his two cents worth on the hiring practices.
The final stop does not appear on Derek’s list of links, but it is must for anyone who has worked for criminal wages to serve the zombies produced by consumer culture. Truth or fiction, Diary of a Wal-Mart employee appears as a personal documentary of retail rage. Started as an effort to catalogue the strange happenings at Wal-Mart, the diary becomes an outlet for its author to deal with the deep bitterness he develops for the company and its customers.
He updates us on his bitterness factor with comments ranging from the dark – "Do you know that warm fuzzy feeling you get inside when you help someone and it makes their entire day? I know I don't" – to the uplifting – "My bitterness is improving." In between, he discovers an appreciation for mullets and communism, and tells us the stories of Rob "dilly bar" and band camp girl.
The sites
http://www.wal-martlitigation.com/99verdic.htm – 99 examples of lawsuits against Wal-Mart
http://lightning.prohosting.com/~receipts/ – Derek’s big Web site of Wal-Mart purchase receipts
www.phonelosers.org – Do you want at red box?
www.geocities.com/SoHo/4933/walmart.html – Stockman Dale rants about Wal-Mart and ends up dealing with the FBI
www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Breakers/6420/frames.htm – Wal-Mart Associates Page
www.geocities.com/saveourcows/walmart.html – The anonymous customer service manager tells his tale |
