Wal Mart and other big business

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a communist or a socialist. I like the free market economy, honest. I don't have a problem with people making a profit for their efforts, wares, etc.

Many parts of the U.S. version of the free market economy baffle me though. Take Wal Mart.

Here you have a HUGE company. Now companies don't get this huge by chance or luck. This outfit employs more people than the United States government for crying out loud. So they must be doing something right, right?

Well...

Ask someone from a third world country where most of Wal Mart's brands of clothing and other products are made. Some might make a wage above their country's average for similar work, but that doesn't make it a good wage. Most can't afford to buy one of the products they make with a week's pay, should they luck into a vacation to the United States and shop at a Wal Mart. The folks at Dateline told us about this a while ago.

Ask someone who's worked for them and needed health care. There have been countless articles on this in the newspapers and online, for more info do a Google News search (try it with and without the space between Wal and Mart). Since I have first hand experience, let me explain it. FYI, I'm married, with a child, and was working for them full time starting almost two years ago.

WM gives new hires an option for an insurance plan that is generously considered major medical by some, and blasphemy by most. High deductible. No coverage for pre-existing conditions. And for this you get to pay... WAY TOO MUCH. I don't recollect the exact numbers, nor exactly how long until you could get this uselessness in effect from the date of hire, though I do think it's fairly soon after hire. This does not "cover" the employee's family either, nor can it (one could argue whether it usefully covers the employee themselves). If that don't float your health care boat, you have to wait SIX MONTHS before you can find out anything else, let alone GET IT.

So after six months of hoping for no major accidents or illnesses that couldn't be handled with a trip to a pharmacy, I was told that the monthly cost for family coverage would be, if I recall correctly, somewhere around 30% of my income. And since we were talking Wal Mart here, there weren't much income to be had to START WITH.

Now health care is not a right, nor is it required of employers in the United States to provide it. But hang on for a second; put your philosopher's hat on, I'm going to give you some good business advice for FREE. It's a business model followed by many successful companies, and closely adhered to by most of the ones always voted the best companies to work for. This advice works no matter the industry, sector, market, or location. 1) You have to keep your customers happy. 2) You can't do that as well as you might unless your employees are happy, thus enabling them to make your customers as happy as is possible. No, employees don't have to be given the ranch, or even the barn. They don't have to make $20 an hour to greet people walking into the store. They don't have to get back dated stock options at below market rates. They don't have to get Golden Parachutes (with more incentive to leave than stay, just ask the former CEOs of many companies).

Also, employees who aren't healthy aren't happy, and if they have to come to work ill or injured, they are less productive, not happy, and possibly making other employees (and customers) sick too, who are then unhappy, less productive, and less inclined to buy anything (in the case of customers). Besides which, how classy is it to buy a new Cel phone from someone with snot running down their nose, whiter than Dr. Lilith Sternin-Crane, and about to drop from exhaustion? Oh, and no extra charge for that new flu virus sir... its part of our service.

Just treat employees with respect, dignity, and fairness at all levels of your organization, give them above market rate wages and reasonable benefits (not what the company tight wads think is fair, what an actual, HONEST TO GOD, legitimate, professional survey of competitors shows). When in doubt, give the employees more than your first inclination.

Think about it. In a small company, if you, say, paid the lady taking phone calls an extra buck an hour, she can afford that expensive lip gloss she loves, those new shoes she "needs", that new leather jacket. When she has that, she feels good. This makes her happy. When she's happy, she's much more pleasant to talk to, much more willing to help callers, and that matters.

Total cost? $40 a week.

Total savings? Let's see, five customers didn't go to competitors because she wasn't snippy with them, six more got the service they needed because they didn't end up in Hold Hell, and one doubled his large order because she made him laugh on a rough day.

Depending on the business, the above scenario could be worth anything from a couple hundred bucks to many thousands.

Worth it? Nah, we need to rape every customer we have for every penny they have. This is America, land of the free, and home of the get rich quick.

What about... yeah, there are lot's of "what about"s on the side of businesses. I'm not saying that they can't make a profit. I'm not saying the employees deserve more of the profit than the owners. I'm not saying they deserve any proportion at all. I am saying if you find them useful; if they keep customers flowing through your business books, give them a fair shake.

And don't stop with the employees... treat those customers well too, and they'll return. Old man Binion figured out that when he gave people FREE BOOZE in his casino, they stayed longer and spent more. Sure the booze costs something. Good business exchange? You betcha! Fair? I think mostly yes, but that's another discussion for another posting.

Let's talk about two specific industries whose major players continually post record profits, year after year after year. Big oil and cable companies. Both increase prices all the freaking time. Both claim an increase in costs every single time. Both are extremely reluctant to roll back prices should those costs go DOWN though. Both blame market forces for the increases also.

Ever notice how "market forces" can increase the cost of the gas in a station's tanks by a few cents a day, even though it is the same old gas that was delivered last week AT LAST WEEK'S PRICE?!? At the HINT that crude oil prices might rise. When crude oil prices drop, have you noticed that the gas price doesn't drop for many WEEKS usually?

Isn't it grand when they keep adding all those shopping channels to your cable line up? All those reality TV networks. All those places that are cable incarnations of YouTube (showing any old crap any idiot with a camcorder can create). Ain't that extra ten bucks a month worth it so you can shop for some plastic crap that you local dollar store couldn't GIVE AWAY? Or watch your weekly religious service in some language you've never even heard of before, let alone able to understand or speak?

You know who this works for? Those that pocket the profits. Everyone else gets to pull their Wrangler's down, bend over, and is refused the privilege of Vaseline or KY Jelly.

Think about it, what is $.02 a gallon or $2 a month to companies like Exxon-Mobil and Comcast, respectively? Diddly freaking squat. Know what it means to someone on food stamps or welfare? Sometimes, it's the difference between having a roof and sleeping on a bench. Oh yeah, Bob the Bum, his wife Betty the Bimbo, and kids, Charlie the Cretin and Wanda the Wench, like sleeping outside in an alley at 5 degrees Fahrenheit and eating out of a dumpster just so some three piece suite turd (who hasn't done an honest day's work in at least a decade, if ever) in Miami can have a few extra apple martinis at the titty bar each night before driving home in his Mercedes convertible to his dozen acre estate, complete with iron gates, security people, butler, maid, cook, state of the art HVAC system, horny hot babe girl friend, high-def home theater suite, wine cellar the size of Rhode Island, and gourmet dinner. Know what the best part is? He never eats half of his dinner, throws the rest away every night, and has his trash locked up to keep the street people out. Know how he ended up with all this stuff? His freaking Masters in Basket Weaving degree!!! (See post about Job Search Sites)