Whatever the ulterior motives of WalMart's lower drug prices, there is little question that people who could not afford them can buy them. Sad commentary other stores and products cannot follow WalMart's example of free enterprise.

Why Wal-Mart Does Not Strengthen Our Economy

It's tax rebate time, and no one is hungrier for the tax rebate checks arriving in mailboxes today than Wal-Mart. The retailer is advertising tax-rebate sales and has offered to cash the checks for free -- all in hopes that consumers will spend their newfound money at Wal-Mart stores. But spending your tax rebate at Wal-Mart won't stimulate the economy -- and here's why:

Despite bringing in over $378 billion last year, Wal-Mart repeatedly underpays its American workforce. More than 80 wage & hour lawsuits, including a recently certified class action lawsuit in California, are currently pending against the company. Plus, it faces more than 200 discrimination lawsuits for unfair promotion practices, pay discrepancies and other issues, including the nation's largest workplace gender discrimination lawsuit. By failing to fairly compensate its employees, Wal-Mart cheats states out of income tax revenues.

Wal-Mart sources the vast majority of its products from countries overseas, meaning most of the cost of a given Wal-Mart product doesn't go into the U.S. economy. Rather than boosting the U.S. economy, Wal-Mart has played a major role in exporting U.S. manufacturing jobs to countries with low labor and environmental standards. Meanwhile, the company has embraced unions in its Chinese stores and has negotiated with them to raise Chinese salaries. Apparently, what is good enough for China is not good enough here at home.

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I hated working at Wal-Mart. They treat workers like doo-doo and expected me to work off the clock. I'll never work there again (I'm probably not allowed to). But admittedly, I'm a sucker for the occassional savings I might get by shopping their if I can tolerate the long lines and bad service they provide in the Central Valley.

I get my prescriptions at WM and am paying less for them than I paied when I had an insurance co pay.  It costs me 10 bucks a month for all 3 of the meds that I take.  With insurance my co pay was 15.  Now that I don't have prescription insurance, WM is a blessing.

Jf..when I worked at the Rosedale WM I was making $10 an hour as a floor associate and was treated VERY well.  I had all Kinds of bennies and savings programs.

Since new management took over, most of the long time associates are gone..most fired.  It appears that the store manager wants to get rid of all the higher paid employees and the ones with benefits.  I still say Mr. and Mrs.  Walton would roll over in their graves if they could see what has happened to their stores.

Nancy...I'm glad you were treated very well...I can't say the same. People got wrote up for working over 40 hours (and I mean 40.01 hours to be exact). I saw people who would work off the clock for fear of going over the "dreaded 40". As a non-Walmart employee, I've enjoyed the savings and found the people and the experience to be really nice when not shopping at a CA one.

I read Sam Walton's book and it was very interesting. He was more socially responsible than I gave him credit for. The $4 prescription program falls in line with his philosophy of social responsibility but so does his firing of "higher paid employees". He would pay low wages and reward management for making huge profits. The philosophies are still the same.

If you read the book then you know it was Mrs. Waltons idea to make employees "shareholders" to help them feel like they were a part. of the whole business and to call them "associates" rather then "clerks."

I bought stock at cost, THEY paid into a 401K and gave me the money when I left..I never paid a dime into it.  I had sick leave, personal leave time and vacation time that accrued with my hours.  I was paid over the min wage when I started and earned merit raises.  For a job that requires little thinking, I thought I was treated quite well.  It didn't take a college degree to stock shelves and straighten mdse in cosmetics.  For an entry level job requiring no training or experience, WM was a great place for young folks..and not so bad for retirees either.   People were NOT fired for trumped up charges as they are now.  One gal had been with the company since she was 17 and probably capped out on earnings.  She was worth over a million bucks with the stock she had been buying since age 15.   She was fired over a trivial matter that would have been laughed at with the old management.

My experience with Walmart AT THAT TIME was that if you did your job and didn't goof off, you were treated VERY fairly.    I'm told times have changed in the last few years.

Yes, I read that. That was (is) a great idea. It's that whole "fired over a trivial matter" thing that I have a problem with. Mr. Walton was a very forward thinker and realistic in his business model. If one is willing to work hard and buy into the long term philosophy of a corporation (hard sell) one can be successful in a busness model like WM. The average "retail clerk" doesn't have the shareholder mindset (I didn't). Maybe I would've been willing to work off the clock since essentially that's what owners and managers do. Maybe all employees would have a different view of their job if they were sharholders (downsizing and layoffs wouldn't be such a bad thing).

Our store manager made it clear if we worked off the clock we would be fired.  He was VERY strict about us NOT working once we clocked out.  Just that simple. 

Trivial matters would include items on sale that an associate put back to pay for later...called understocking.  It was against the rules but everyone did it as long as no one went overboard.  It was overlooked for the most part in my time there but several "old timers" got fired for it under the new management.  There were other "trivial matters" that were  not firing offenses but more of a write up offense.

I've no doubt it's not just a store decision but rather a part of the new trend of hiring part time help to avoid any overtime or benefits.  Yes, Mr. Walton was a shrewd business man and hated by small business but he was good to his employees because he knew the value of loyalty to a company.

Our bonuses were based on the increase of the bottom line each year and the more we kept costs down, the bigger the bottom line and consequently, the larger our bonus.  I didn't buy into it getting bigger every year because if nothing else, I'm a realist.  Our first years were always an increase because it started from nothing and grew with the neighborhood.  When things stabilized  in the housing developments nearby, it became harder to get that increase over the previous year.  I started the year after it opened so it was a bonanza the first couple of years.