1 As a retiree, I am forced to work part-time due to my odd fondness for eating, and a beer once a week, or so. Likewise, my doctor prefers to not accept my monthly visits on a charity basis. I worked for Wal-Mart during the '05 Christmas season, to help make ends meet.

Customers HATED and were very vocal about Wal-Mart's insistance on celebrating "Happy Holidays," instead of the traditional "Merry Christmas." Many announced their intent to do all their shopping at Target, instead (we employees were later told that sales were very much lower than anticipated). The "Happy Holidays" signs and fliers were often found torn down. A fair number of customers made sarcastic remarks in the nature of, "Well, just what 'holiday' is it, anyway?"

As employees, we found ourselves in the position of having to defend the company's stance, while agreeing with the customer.

Since old Sam died, the company has been effectively leaderless, insofar as being completely out-of-touch with either the customers or the employees. Within the store at which I worked, the workers were like a big family, looking after each other, for the most part, caring, and helping each other. By contrast, the upper management acted as though they were proud to wear the swastika! Wal-Mart has been weeding out a lot of the competent, productive employees. This is not to infer that the remaining employees are all incompetent. Many have nowhere else to go, some are too old to change easily, some just like the environment.

Wal-Mart seems to be approaching critical mass. I notice they ridding themselves of the German stores that allowed unions, and have closed stores that have voted to unionize. They dropped the pay raise they used to give to those most productive. Also. they now evaluate very critically, so that they can severely reduce the annual 40 or 55 cent per hour raise that used to be the incentive for those who were average to better-then-average workers. They have taken out many of the lower management, and made them hourly employees. Most insulting, there is now a pay-cap on all hourly employees that resulted in some employees seeing a reduction in their pay.

In short, there are a lot of problems at Wally-World. On the other hand, this is still the only place I know of, which accepts returns on most things up to 90 days after purchase. If there is something you don't like at your local Wal-Mart, tell the manager. If he/she seems uninterested, go up the chain. The names and phone numbers are posted in the customer service center. Wal-Mart's problems will NOT fix themselves. We customers will have to play an active part in pointing out problems. Were Wal-Mart to go under, there would be little incentive for most other stores to keep their own prices down. Therefore, we, as consumers, need a Wal-Mart, or something very much like it.

Now, if only there were a "Wal-Mart" of medical insurance...