Today's New York Times reports on how Wal-Mart is looking to cut more employee benefits:

An internal memo sent to Wal-Mart's board of directors proposes numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits while seeking to minimize damage to the retailer's reputation. Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart.

Seems like another way to "minimize damage to the retailer's reputation" would be to stop screwing over the workers. Of course, that's not the Wal-Mart way.

The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefit costs because critics had attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Ms. Chambers acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.

That's not so bad! She's just advocating the "don't get sick" healthcare plan.

So how do they avoid unhealthy people? By redefining the work so that older folks and disabled workers can't do all the work:

The memo voices concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive.

To discourage unhealthy job applicants, Ms. Chambers suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering)."

And you really know something is strange when the business plan opposes employee retention:

Ms. Chambers's memo voiced concern that workers were staying with the company longer, pushing up wage costs, although she stopped short of calling for efforts to push out more senior workers.

She wrote that "the cost of an associate with seven years of tenure is almost 55 percent more than the cost of an associate with one year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity. Moreover, because we pay an associate more in salary and benefits as his or her tenure increases, we are pricing that associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart."

So what should we do? Simply hate Wal-Mart and move on? On Our Word, Bayprairie points out that those low prices really can help people who are on low incomes, and asks for an honest discussion.

First of all, do you see yourself primarily as a shopper/consumer? Or do you see yourself as a workingclass woman/man first? Differing answers to this question will affect how you feel about Wal-Mart and whether or not you shop there. Do you have a hard time making ends meet? Does Wal-Mart pricing help? Are there any other places near you where you can get good prices? Or do you live in a small town and they've driven everyone else out of business? Do you have any stories about Wal-Mart, good or bad, you would like to share? Have you ever worked at Wal-Mart?

There are some good comments there.

Me? I've never worked at Wal-Mart, but I have to say that I avoid it as much as possible -- not because of its anti-working class politics and policies, but because it's almost always a miserable shopping experience.

Let's face it. Wal-Mart stores (or at least the ones I've been to in, say, a couple dozen cities in 3 different states) are in general pretty dingy places. The floors are dirty. The shopping carts rattle and try to turn you ever left or right. The fluorescent lighting is green.

I can't say the workers have been rude, but they're about as helpful as you'd expect for adults taking home, what, $35/day? I wouldn't be too cheerful to be there, either.

But the contempt the management has for the customer is visible every time to go to check out. You'd think a retail store would make it easy to part you from your money. But not at Wal-Mart. At Wal-Mart, if you don't want to wait in some mile-long line, you do the check-out work yourself.

"Welcome Wal-Mart shopper! Please place your first item on the pad! I'm sorry! Please remove any extra items from the scanning area!..."

And even then, you get to wait in line for the pleasure of doing their checkout work just so you can fork over your hard-earned money. Kinda gives a whole new meaning to "customer service."

Up until last week, I preferred Target. Now I don't know.

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