AUGUST 6, 2019
Meyerson on TAP
Walmart and Guns. In the wake of the assault-weapon murders at El Paso’s mega Walmart, America’s number-one gun seller and largest private-sector employer has come under justifiable criticism for its gun policies. Roughly half of Walmart’s 4,750 stores sell guns, and the company announced on Monday that that policy would not change. It also announced that it wouldn’t adopt a no-open-carry policy for its stores, which means that anyone in a state that permits the open carry of firearms—like Texas—can sashay through a Walmart brandishing a gun.
Not surprisingly, some Walmart employees have voiced apprehensions about that policy in the aftermath of Monday’s mass murders. “I’m looking around the store, thinking, where can I hide if something happens,” a customer-service employee at a Los Angeles-area Walmart toldThe Washington Post. “We’re all afraid we’re going to die.”
Getting their employer to prohibit open carry in its stores would be just the sort of proposal Walmart workers could present to their bosses if they had a union. But Walmart’s position on unions was made clear when the butchers in one Texas store endeavored to form a union some years back. The company responded by shuttering its meat department in that store, in every store in Texas, and in every store in the states surrounding Texas.
The grievances that lead workers to seek a union have never been only economic; sometimes, they’re about their concern for life and limb. Such would likely be the case at Walmart today if our labor law actually allowed workers to organize. A timely reminder that American business’s rabid opposition to worker power not only has given us four decades of wage stagnation but that sometimes, it kills. ~ HAROLD MEYERSON
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Six Walton heirs have wealth equivalent to 40% of Americans combined. I don’t need anything badly enough that I will buy it at Walmart.
There is a Walmart near me but I would never shop there. I can’t stand the way employees are treated. The Waltons fund projects that are destroying education.
Why even go into such a store? I feel that their products are inferior and any place that sells guns is off limits to me. I do not want my money going to Walmarts or to the Trump building in Chicago.
Ewww.
“Why even go into such a store?”
Because in vast stretches of rural America, people don’t have a choice. There are few if any other choices. And even in parts of some urban areas where there may be other choices, people don’t have enough money to afford to shop elsewhere. Another aspect of poverty being profitable.
Beautifully put! First you help to impoverish people, then you capture them with a no-choice market. Make them dependent for the rest of their lives. Walmart is the drug dealer of cheap plastic merchandise.
However knew Alice Walton and guns are like peanut butter and jelly?
“Save money. Live better.” . . . . .
More like “Save the rich. Live impoverished.”
“Save the rich”. ..from the guillotines?
The reason there is nowhere else to shop is because Walmart undercut the local businesses and closed down Main Street.
Linda,
If there is any guillotining done, please let me know. I’ll make the popcorn.
Or you can do it a la Madame Defarge it if you prefer. I’ll buy one doily from you . . . .
Walmart destroyed the retail sector in many communities, and the downtown retail store were gone. Walmart was selling merchandise at retail, that costs less than what mom-and-pop shops were paying at wholesale.
Consequently, many communities have no alternative to Walmart (and other outlets like Target).
Walmart does not manufacture their goods. Most of their merchandise is made in China and other foreign nations. Walmart sells the same Chinese crap that other stores sell.
Walmart has no problem selling guns. After all what is done with the weapon is a matter of “personal responsibility.” These “good” Christians have no problem making money off the misery of others. After all, these are the “lessers” that deserve what they get. Now Walmart is letting go many “lessers” as they automate many functions of their stores. Most service lanes are self-service. It gives us some insights as what we can expect as Walmart promotes education. Millions of little “lessers” staring at screens all day which will result in millions of dollars in profit. That’s the Walmart way!
So, are Walmart employees allowed to carry guns even if they are not permitted to have unions? Probably not, but I do wonder what would happen if a worker showed up with a gun in plain sight. Here in Ohio not a single official has spoken against the sale of guns designed for use by the military, or other guns that can kill a dozen people in seconds.