Walmart says it will ramp up safety conditions at more than 2,800 of its stores scattered across the United States, after inspectors say they found “repeat” and serious” health and safety violations at one store under investigation. The mega chain has also agreed to pay a $190,000 fine under the terms of a deal with the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), because of “unacceptable” safety hazards facing employees a that store. [More]
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Walmart To Improve Safety Conditions At 2,800 Stores, Pay $190K Fine For Repeat Violations
By 8.8.13
Police And Walmart Investigate Alleged Homophobic Assault On Toddler Boy In Fabulous Headband
By 8.7.13
It was the kind of galling story that prompts the Internet into action: a toddler boy really, really wanted to wear a hot pink ruffled headband out shopping with his mom. So he did. Then a burly fellow shopper snatched the accessory off his head and called him an anti-gay slur. “You’ll thank me later, little man,” the dude allegedly said. [More]
Straight Talk Users Sue Walmart And TracFone Over Throttling Of Unlimited Data Plans
By 7.30.13
Once again, a lawsuit calls into question the definition of “unlimited” when it refers to smartphone data plans. This time, the plaintiff claims that Straight Talk Wireless (a partnership between TracFone and Walmart) is effectively putting monthly data caps in place by throttling data speeds for users once they use a certain amount of data. Furthermore, alleges the complaint, users aren’t being told about the throttling until it’s too late. [More]
Walmart Employee Accused Of Helping Himself To $106K In Bogus Money Orders
By 7.29.13
An employee at a New Mexico Walmart apparently thought he’d found a loophole in the store’s MoneyGram service that would allow him to print out bogus money orders without being detected. He was wrong, though he did manage to scam the retailer out of $106,000 before being arrested. [More]
Lawsuit Accuses Walmart Of Overcharging Taxes On Coupon Purchases
By 7.25.13
A Pennsylvania man’s purchase of two cans of shaving cream at Walmart has ballooned into a lawsuits against the nation’s largest retailer, which stands accused of not taking coupons into account when calculating sales tax. [More]
Make Your Walmart Cashier’s Life Better: Wear Some Underwear
By 7.24.13
Sure, the People of Internet like to gawk at the site People of Walmart, but that’s probably because they don’t work at a Walmart store. Reader C. works as a Walmart cashier, and does. He wants us to know: he’s not going to bag our groceries with our rat poison, and for gosh sakes, wear ripped pants or go commando, but please not both. [More]
D.C. Lawmakers Pass Minimum Wage Mandate Despite Walmart’s Threats To Pull Stores
By 7.11.13
Walmart’s efforts Tuesday to deter Washington D.C’s city council from passing a bill that would require certain large retailers to pay their employees at least $12.50 — a significant bump above the city’s minimum wage of $8.25 — didn’t work. Despite the big box company telling lawmakers it’d scrap plans for three stores in the area and take a close look at the three already underway, council members passed the bill by a vote of 8 to 5 yesterday. [More]
Ex Walmart Worker Says She Was Fired For Telling Police About Dog Stuck In Hot Truck
By 7.11.13
A woman in Ontario, Canada, says she was fired from her job at Walmart earlier this week because she called the police on a customer who had left his dog in a hot car with the windows rolled up — and after she told her boss she’d do it again. [More]
Walmart Tells D.C. Lawmakers It’ll Pull 3 Stores If City Passes Minimum Wage Bill
By 7.10.13
Walmart officials warned Washington, D.C. lawmakers yesterday that if the city council passes a new super-minimum-wage proposal, it’ll pull at least three stores planned for the area. Executives and lobbyists delivered the news in person to council members yesterday, less than 24 hours before a vote was scheduled on the legislation. [More]
Don’t Try To Saw Through Ceiling Of Walmart Cash Room While Employee Is Present
By 7.9.13
We in no way condone robbery, but if you’re going to go through the effort of crawling through a Walmart ceiling to steal from the store’s cash room, you should at least make sure that room is empty when you saw through the ceiling. [More]
New York Attorney General Investigating Walmart, Home Depot, Others Over Prepaid Payroll Cards
By 7.3.13
Though it’s been a point of concern with employee-rights advocates for years, the use of prepaid debit cards as a substitute for traditional payroll checks is finally getting attention from the powers that be, with the New York state attorney general’s office investigating the practice at some of the nation’s largest employers. [More]
Walmart Erroneously Labels Me ‘Credit Risk,’ Won’t Send Data Plan Code
By 6.28.13
Kirk shops online a lot, but has never made a purchase from Walmart before. Apparently, this is some kind of crime, and has held up his online order of an activation code for his new T-Mobile prepaid plan. Walmart customer service calls him a “credit risk,” but T-Mobile thinks that his credit is peachy keen. [More]
Walmart “Will Not Place New Orders” For Paula Deen Products
By 6.26.13
Paula Deen’s business deals are sliding away faster than a pat of butter on a pile of hot cakes: Joining Caesars Entertainment, Smithfield Foods and the Food Network, Walmart has announced that it’s cutting ties to the southern chef. QVC also said earlier this week that it had “concerns” over the recent controversy involving Deen’s use of racial epithets. [More]
At Least Three People Shot By Gunman Outside North Carolina Walmart
By 6.21.13
There’s tragic news coming out of Greenville, NC, this afternoon. A man has been taken into custody after opening fire outside an area law firm and then in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart, shooting at least four people. [More]
Walmart Has No One To Blame But Itself For Being An E-Commerce Also-Ran
By 6.20.13
Walmart is by far the nation’s largest retailer, with more than 4,000 stores in the U.S. alone and annual sales of nearly half a trillion dollars. And yet, when it somes to online retail, the company is only bringing in a fraction of what market leader Amazon earns. While it’s possible that this is all due to Amazon simply being better at e-tailing than Walmart, some say it’s because Big W continues to make boneheaded decisions about its online future. [More]
Walmart Employees Defy Own Coupon Policy, Basic Logic
By 6.19.13
Walmart has a coupon policy, but doesn’t do a very good job of educating its employees about it. That, or the employees don’t do a very good job of remembering how it’s supposed to work. Shelly has been at war with her local Walmart since January over four air fresheners and a relatively small amount of money, but it’s the principle. [More]
Want Only The Best Toilet Papers? Go To Walmart, Apparently
By 6.18.13
Toilet paper: almost everyone uses it, but do you put much thought into which brands you buy? Do you have a brand preference, or just pick up the biggest and cheapest package available at Walmart or Costco? Our colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports put on their 2-ply lab coats and got to work stirring, pulling, and caressing various brands of toilet paper to find out which brands really are the best. [More]
Amazon Expands Grocery Delivery Service, To Offer $299 ‘Prime Fresh’ Subscriptions
By 6.10.13
After several years of testing grocery delivery service in Seattle, the online retailer has expanded its AmazonFresh program to Los Angeles. Customers in the L.A. area will also be able to try out Amazon’s new “Prime Fresh” plan that offers same-day or overnight service of groceries and other items. [More]
