Sunday, January 02, 2005
Wal-Mart's women -- employees and customers -- in unhealthy relationship
Sunday, January 2, 2005
Wal-Mart's women -- employees and customers -- in unhealthy relationship
By LIZA FEATHERSTONE
GUEST COLUMNIST
On the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year, Wal-Mart's many progressive critics -- not to mention its business competitors -- finally enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude when the retailer had to admit to "disappointing" sales. The problem was quickly revealed: Wal-Mart hadn't been discounting aggressively enough. Without low prices, Wal-Mart just isn't Wal-Mart.
That's not a mistake the big-box behemoth is likely to make again. Wal-Mart knows its customers, and it knows how badly they need the discounts. Like Wal-Mart's workers, its customers are overwhelmingly female and struggling to make ends meet. Betty Dukes, the lead plaintiff in Dukes v. Wal-Mart, the landmark sex-discrimination case against the company, points out that Wal-Mart takes out ads in her local paper the same day the community's poorest citizens collect their welfare checks.
"They are promoting themselves to low-income people," she says. "That's who they lure. They don't lure the rich. ... They understand the economy of America. They know the haves and have-nots. They don't put Wal-Mart in Piedmonts. They don't put Wal-Mart in those high-end parts of the community. They plant themselves right in the middle of Poorville."
Read The Full Story Here
Wal-Mart's women -- employees and customers -- in unhealthy relationship
By LIZA FEATHERSTONE
GUEST COLUMNIST
On the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year, Wal-Mart's many progressive critics -- not to mention its business competitors -- finally enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude when the retailer had to admit to "disappointing" sales. The problem was quickly revealed: Wal-Mart hadn't been discounting aggressively enough. Without low prices, Wal-Mart just isn't Wal-Mart.
That's not a mistake the big-box behemoth is likely to make again. Wal-Mart knows its customers, and it knows how badly they need the discounts. Like Wal-Mart's workers, its customers are overwhelmingly female and struggling to make ends meet. Betty Dukes, the lead plaintiff in Dukes v. Wal-Mart, the landmark sex-discrimination case against the company, points out that Wal-Mart takes out ads in her local paper the same day the community's poorest citizens collect their welfare checks.
"They are promoting themselves to low-income people," she says. "That's who they lure. They don't lure the rich. ... They understand the economy of America. They know the haves and have-nots. They don't put Wal-Mart in Piedmonts. They don't put Wal-Mart in those high-end parts of the community. They plant themselves right in the middle of Poorville."
Read The Full Story Here
