Community Chat

[TY]

@Kachina624 

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@Kachina624 wrote:

@TY.  A question just occured to me, in Canada do you call Indians Native Americans (for North America) or Native Canadians?

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In print and on TV, most people use the term aboriginal or indigenous for North Americans Indians and usually people would identify them in the media with what band they belong to. It's not cut and dry though.

Also Canada has a large population of people who are from the India subcontinent and usually in print they are called south asian rather than the country that they came from as you have south asian people who are from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Fiji, Kenya, and Uganda.

[Kachina624]

@TY.   Here in New Mexico, we have a large population of Native Americans and they mostly seem to call themselves Indians.  We don't have the population from India to confuse matters.  I tend to use both terms.  Our Indians seem to mix among "tribes" or pueblos and live in whichever is most comfortable for them.  There's also a lot of intermarriage with the Hispanics.  We are an interesting state.

[GraceLady]

@Kachina624 I know you don't approve of this young man's mother advocating for him, hence your statement, "I hope other workers who don't have pushy moms and have a real financial need for their jobs are as fortunate."  I really must take exception to this.  If you had a special needs child, you would understand just how lucky this young man is.  

Not all special needs adults have someone willing to fight for them or help them succeed.  Not all disabled kids have been gifted with parents that are such positive influences and have told that they have value and can be somebody.  You can't imagine the sense of pride when that disabled child with an unknown future reaches a point when all the years of specialized education, therapies, training, and medical procedures pay off.  That young man put more time and effort throughout his entire life preparing for the day he got his greeters job than than people put into getting their doctorates.  Unless you were there everyday, for every step of his journey, you can't imagine where his mother is coming from.  She is protecting the years of hard work he has put into making his life as functional as it can be.  She also probably had a real fear that he would not find another job he enjoyed and was as good at as the one he had.  Accommodations can be made for an employee, but they must be reasonable.  The new position Walmart looked into for him was no guarantee that he would have a long term job with Walmart in the end and still isn't.  It only works if he is able to successfully do his job.

As for "a real financial need", I don't understand what you mean by that.  Adults with special needs have expenses.  Having SDI is not having enough money to live on comfortably.  At some point, they will not live with their parents and SDI will have to cover all their expenses.  Most end up in group homes that become the designated payee for their SDI payment.  A small allowance is given each month to each "consumer" (what they are called in my state), and the home keeps the rest for expenses.  Some may attend a day program for adults with special needs, many of which are like glorified babysitting, or the higher functioning may have a job (sometimes at Goodwill or at a job training program).  That job provides much needed money for them to buy clothes and toiletries.  If they have an interest, such as video games or art, they will have a little money to enjoy their hobby.  

My son has chosen to live at home so he can have a better life (and a dog).  We supplement his expenses.  He is lucky because we are happy to have him as long as he wants to be here.  Some parents send them away as early as 18 due to the time and expenses of taking care of them.  Many of the consumers my son has known over the years are in group homes or assisted living.  My son has a part time job, and has been working toward some goals, including some college courses.  He doesn't want to live like the other consumers he knows.  He has a goal of being independent with minimal supervision.  He will never be able to have full control of his own money because he receives SDI with a designated payee, and any inheritance he receives will need to be in a special needs trust.  The fact that he is so willing to work and earn his own way is admirable.  His work ethic exceeds that of so many his age that are not disabled.  Every dollar he earns is well earned because his body has had to work harder than someone without physical limitations.  Please believe me when I tell you that the money he earns is very much a necessity.  He has the satisfaction of buying some things with his own earnings, and even greater, he knows he is a contributing member of society.  Once he decides to live away from home, that extra money is a necessity unless he has family helping him financially.  It is expensive to live here.

[Kachina624]

@GraceLady.  Thank you for your very eloquent description of your position on this issue.  I understand where you're coming from and why you feel as you do.  Obviously, there are many viewpoints on this situation.

My Walmart store has just had a couple of obviously disabled people in the greeter position since they opened about 12 years ago.  Most are seniors who have been in their jobs since the beginning.  I have concerns about their welfare should they be laid off.  Fortunately, they appear to be capable of performing other duties.  We'll see what happens.

This whole discussion has been interesting with many viewpoints described and a lot of participation.  It looks like the situation is resolved for the time being so I'm ready to move on to something else.  Thanks for posting.  I hope the new job works out for the young man.

[Harvard99]

@GraceLady  I really appreciated reading your very interesting, personal and heartwarming prospective. It's a shame that every disabled worker doesn't have an advocate like you or the mother of the disabled young man at Walmart. Thank you for sharing.

[Harvard99]

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@pigletsmom wrote:

@Harvard99 I'm not sure what kind of facts you're looking for. Glad you have the facts about the Amherst Walmart. I live right by the worlds biggest Walmart here in Albany.

Yes people shoplift. Are you disputing that shoplifting and crime are connected to lower income people as a percentage of crimes? And how is Walmart supposed to stop all of this stuff? Have you worked in a store? Walmart has pretty tough surveillance in theirs but even then you have to be very careful of who you try to stop in the act. I worked in another store and we pretty much had to just let people go to avoid lawsuits. You have to see what people take, where they hide it and watch them walk out the door and never lose sight of them in case they dropped it on the way out.

On the other hand Walmart is a big help to low income people. Low prices for lots of basics. And yes I know how Walmart treats suppliers. I used to work for one. Most companies really really want to be in Walmart. If you can't get your prices down where they want them then you need maybe work with other stores. Most companies want to be in Walmart because it gets them in every state plus the volume. But it's up to the suppliers if they can meet the agreement.

So the only way Walmart "brings crime" is if you live in a really nice area that rarely has crime and is basically middle class to affluent. We do have a town like that here. The people complain all the time about the Walmart and the poor overworked police. Well considering all they normally do is give you a ticket for driving 35 in a 30 they get to broaden their horizons. And I say that as someone that is very pro cop. My city cops are dealing with crime all the time so if it's shoplifting at Walmart or shoplifting at a corner store downtown it's all the same. Although the downtown shoplifting is probably a more dangerous situation.

@pigletsmom  That's one monster store in Albany.  I'm absolutely certain many families there and other Upstate towns need those Walmart jobs. I'm aware of that since we have family in and around Amsterdam, small world isn't it?  I know that most cities and towns in northern NY have had struggling economies for years and years, having to survive the ups and downs since the textile mills left many decades ago. I wish many Upstate towns now had better jobs for everyone.

I think people from all different levels of wealth shoplift, the poorest to the wealthiest. Yes, all retailers have the challenge of deterring theft but some are better at it than others. But I truly believe that criminals target the stores where they know they have the least chance of getting caught and /or prosecuted

I have worked in retail and my husband has worked in both retail and loss prevention. I'm glad we can agree that Walmart is not fair to suppliers.  What bothers me is that Walmart wants all the profit for themselves, they could give a cr-p if a supplier starves or not.

On a side note, I had a friend who tried to get her product into QVC and she told them forget it, they wanted to keep almost all the profit also.

I don't agree that Walmart only hurts affluent places and only wealthy people dislike Walmart. I'm not wealthy at all, just the opposite in fact.  We had a life changing family event 11 years ago that was.....life changing in every aspect, financially too. I have to watch every single penny.  I shop at Ross and TJ Maxx, Aldi's and I clip coupons and look for bogo's.

Did you know that Walmart also charges more for merchandise in communities where there's little to no competition?  These customers are plain stuck paying whatever Walmart chooses to charge and they also can't find a higher paying job either. Not fair.

Walmart charges less in affluent areas where there's an abundance of stores. I'm not saying Walmart is the only store to do this, but this is a part of their business model. It's not fair, hurting those who can't get ahead, living paycheck to paycheck and then helping the rich get richer.

I don't think the cops should have to be the unsubsidized  loss prevention department for any store, not in a poor neighborhood or a rich one.  No difference.

I just happen to view Walmart as an "equal opportunity" bad company, for a bunch of reasons. I hope you can maybe see that I'm not against poor people. I'll always be on the side of the underdog, I'm an activist and advocate that way, and always have been.

Maybe we can peacefully agree to disagree.

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[Tinkrbl44]

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@pigletsmom wrote:

Now Walmart is bad because they bring crime to the community? Um what. Do they invite them? Oh wait maybe you mean they bring in low income people which in some cases may mean a not great element along with them. Maybe these can all be replaced with a Whole Foods. No crime then I guess. But of course poor people can't afford to shop there.

So now that the Walmart greeters are saved even though they didn't seem to be in a lot of danger of losing their jobs, who's next? Maybe everyone should gang up on Target for not having greeters. Or maybe shopping networks?

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@pigletsmom 

Didn't make any sense to me, either.

[Tinkrbl44]

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@Harvard99 wrote:

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@songbird wrote:

I don't shop at Wal Mart, but my husband does.  He buys prescription medicine there.  He says the store has never had any greeters of any kind.  It's not small, a super store with groceries in it.  Even  when leaving, they don't swarm over you like they do in the local Costco. 

@songbird   Costco checks everone's receipt, solely to minimize theft and to keep their prices low.  They do not "swarm" over anyone.  Walmart checks receipts also, in their stores where shoplifting is high.

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@Harvard99 

????    So ......    if someone stuffs a laptop or camera in their pants before checking out, how is checking a receipt going to prevent that?

[Harvard99]

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@Tinkrbl44 wrote:

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@Harvard99 wrote:

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@songbird wrote:

I don't shop at Wal Mart, but my husband does.  He buys prescription medicine there.  He says the store has never had any greeters of any kind.  It's not small, a super store with groceries in it.  Even  when leaving, they don't swarm over you like they do in the local Costco. 

@songbird   Costco checks everone's receipt, solely to minimize theft and to keep their prices low.  They do not "swarm" over anyone.  Walmart checks receipts also, in their stores where shoplifting is high.

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@Harvard99 

????    So ......    if someone stuffs a laptop or camera in their pants before checking out, how is checking a receipt going to prevent that?

@Tinkrbl44   I am not a Loss Prevention Officer so cannot answer that question.  Check with one I suppose.   I'm all done with this thread.

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