Scary! Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. — and Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. — hosted a two-day public relations event this week near their corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, and this nation’s biggest private employer, has been widely criticized for skimping on employee wages, healthcare and other benefits. The Los Angeles Times reports that, asked about providing a so-called livable wage,
“Scott said Wal-Mart and other retailers don’t have the kind of profit margins that allow them to bring workers into the middle class the way that manufacturing jobs did for earlier generations. ‘Retail does not perform that role anywhere in the world,’ he said.”
Talk about the “bottom line!” If you have loved-ones in retail it may be time to encourage them to consider another occupation. But they probably already know that…
