Walmart
Title
Walmart
Identifier
WALMART
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"From time to time I get a phone call asking if I would care to participate in a survey."
Date
2015-02-17
Coverage
2015
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Text
WALMART
From time to time I get a phone call asking if I would care to participate in a survey. I always say yes. I want my liberal, labor position recorded. Sometimes it is Gallup, sometimes, another polling organization. Around election time, it is usually an outfit that is hired by a candidate, and the questions are obvious. Occasionally, there is a live person at the other end; at other times, it is a recording, asking me to press a number on the phone key pad for my response: press 1 for yes; press 2 for no. Or press 1 for the most and 5 for the least. For years, I have been handing out leaflets, carrying placards, making phone calls, ringing doorbells. For a change, someone is coming to me to ask me about my position.
Some time in mid-February, I received a call asking me if I shopped at “big box” stores, like Best Buy, or Costco or Walmart. Press 1 for yes, press 2 for never, press 3 for sometimes. I pressed 3 for sometimes. Then, some more questions, which I believe were about service or price. Then a bunch of questions which were focused on Walmart. Aha! So that is where they were heading.
Do I shop at Walmart? Press 1 for yes, press 2 for never, press 3 for sometimes. I pressed 2 for never. I believe there followed a series of questions about whether the store’s social policies and its treatment of its workers influenced my decision. I pressed 1 for yes. Whatever question gave me the opportunity to be critical of Walmart’s employment policy, I took it. The last questions dealt with my sex, age, education, income etc. I hung up, rather pleased with myself.
I have been upset by Walmart for a long time. By its anti-union policies; by its emphasis on part-time workers; by the way it has driven out retail stores wherever it opened up, resulting in a loss of jobs; by its ability to force manufacturers to move overseas for cheap labor; by its being the biggest damned private employer in the world, making more money than I can comprehend, and paying low wages. For the past two Black Fridays, I picketed Walmart, schlepping out to Quincy, protesting the exploitation of their workers.
A week after responding to the survey, Walmart announced that it was raising the wages of its workers, first to $9 an hour, and then to $10. That is going to benefit a half million workers! The fact is, lots of Walmart workers, part of Our Walmart, have been calling for $15 an hour. Many unions and progressive organizations, have demanded that Walmart pay their workers decent salaries. Newspaper editorials have been calling for wage increases. Nothing happened. Could be that it was my answer to the survey questions, along with other people who responded as I did, that did the trick.
Next time you receive a phone call asking you to answer a few questions, do it. You never know whom you may be helping.
2-17-15
From time to time I get a phone call asking if I would care to participate in a survey. I always say yes. I want my liberal, labor position recorded. Sometimes it is Gallup, sometimes, another polling organization. Around election time, it is usually an outfit that is hired by a candidate, and the questions are obvious. Occasionally, there is a live person at the other end; at other times, it is a recording, asking me to press a number on the phone key pad for my response: press 1 for yes; press 2 for no. Or press 1 for the most and 5 for the least. For years, I have been handing out leaflets, carrying placards, making phone calls, ringing doorbells. For a change, someone is coming to me to ask me about my position.
Some time in mid-February, I received a call asking me if I shopped at “big box” stores, like Best Buy, or Costco or Walmart. Press 1 for yes, press 2 for never, press 3 for sometimes. I pressed 3 for sometimes. Then, some more questions, which I believe were about service or price. Then a bunch of questions which were focused on Walmart. Aha! So that is where they were heading.
Do I shop at Walmart? Press 1 for yes, press 2 for never, press 3 for sometimes. I pressed 2 for never. I believe there followed a series of questions about whether the store’s social policies and its treatment of its workers influenced my decision. I pressed 1 for yes. Whatever question gave me the opportunity to be critical of Walmart’s employment policy, I took it. The last questions dealt with my sex, age, education, income etc. I hung up, rather pleased with myself.
I have been upset by Walmart for a long time. By its anti-union policies; by its emphasis on part-time workers; by the way it has driven out retail stores wherever it opened up, resulting in a loss of jobs; by its ability to force manufacturers to move overseas for cheap labor; by its being the biggest damned private employer in the world, making more money than I can comprehend, and paying low wages. For the past two Black Fridays, I picketed Walmart, schlepping out to Quincy, protesting the exploitation of their workers.
A week after responding to the survey, Walmart announced that it was raising the wages of its workers, first to $9 an hour, and then to $10. That is going to benefit a half million workers! The fact is, lots of Walmart workers, part of Our Walmart, have been calling for $15 an hour. Many unions and progressive organizations, have demanded that Walmart pay their workers decent salaries. Newspaper editorials have been calling for wage increases. Nothing happened. Could be that it was my answer to the survey questions, along with other people who responded as I did, that did the trick.
Next time you receive a phone call asking you to answer a few questions, do it. You never know whom you may be helping.
2-17-15
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “Walmart,” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed April 23, 2025, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/367.