My thoughts for today August 15, 2007

2007-08-15T00:28:00.000-04:00

Today, I am thinking of the job market and how unfair it seems to be to those who are smart and want to work.

I, for one, am a smart person who went to business school. Do you think that business school has helped me have any kind of advantage in the job market? The answer is "No".

I land jobs that are the ones that even the people without a high school diploma do not want. They have the worst hours and the worst management that I have ever seen. When a manager throws away all company procedures and documentation and does it their way, there is definitely something wrong.

The last job that I left had me train at one location and then sent me to another location which did everything different than I learned. When I questioned them about it, they informed me that it was "their" way of doing things. Needless to say, I found out why that company has a hard time keeping people once they send them to that location.

Mind you, I was a shift manager....sounds great doesn't it......WRONG!
I worked so hard to learn the proper ways that the company wanted things done and then going somewhere that does exactly the opposite of what the company wants done is just outrageous.

Calling the district manager and asking for a transfer helped me in absolutely no way because I was told that there are no other openings (even for a regular employee), which was a lie. I talked to the manager at the place where I was trained and although she had no opening for shift managers, she did have employee spots open.

Alas, the company is a mess and I left it.

My thoughts for today April 11, 2007

2007-04-11T21:25:00.000-04:00

Have you tried to get a car insurance quote lately?

I have and let me tell you that it is not an enjoyable experience! All I wanted was a car insurance quote, not three or more hours of waiting for agents to call me back. This is very frustrating. I finally got an agent that gave me my car insurance quote right away without a second thought. Come to find out that this insurance agent had the best deal going and I got my insurance through him.

Have you had any similar experiences? Please feel free to leave a comment and share.

My opinion for today April 5, 2007

2007-04-05T18:19:00.000-04:00

When I hear someone say that they would do something nice for an elderly person, I do not think that they are discriminating against anyone. Apparently there are those that would not agree with me.
I was in a forum today reading discussions when I came across one where a person was saying that they would slow down if following an elderly person walking down the street that was moving slower than they were. They felt that it was disrespectful to pass them.
While I do not think that it is disrespectful if you pass them, I do not think that the person was discriminating. I think that the person was just respecting their elders and being considerate of other peoples feelings.
The person who started this discussion was accused of discrimination by a person in their 40's. This person, literally was commenting negatively about everything this kind person had to say.
How do you feel about it? Do you think that the kind person was discriminating or do you think that the kind person just has a good heart?
I look forward to hearing your views.

Our First Topic Will Be "WalMart" Give Your Opinion

2007-03-23T23:20:00.003-04:00

I will begin with some history of Sam Walton and how WalMart came to be. I will then pose some questions to help you get started. You are free to leave your comments, but please keep it clean so that your post will be seen.

Sam Walton (1918-1992)

Sam Walton was a man who took chances and kept fighting the odds. He was like no other man in this world. All through his life he has fought an up hill battle and in the end he won. Sam Walton was a leader not a follower. He grew up during the depression and knew that hard work and being thrifty were a way of life. He was described as industrious, always trying to get the most out of money and had the burning desire to succeed. You could see all of this by how he carried his family through the depression, started his own business from nothing and how he changed the field of management.

Sam Walton attended the University of Missouri where he majored in Economics. He could not really afford to attend school and he worked extra hard to get the money. He waited tables in exchange for meals, lifeguarded at the school pool and also delivered newspapers. While he was not doing that, he was either at his fraternity in which he was an officer or at a student government meeting since he was a member of the student senate or fulfilling his duties as an ROTC Officer and then on Sundays he was President of a Sunday School Class in which many of his fellow classmates attended. While doing all of this he was also in the National Honor Society. When Sam Walton graduated in 1940 he was voted the permanent President of his class. Three days after graduation he entered the retail world working at JcPenney's in Des Moines, Iowa as a management trainee earning a salary of $75.00 a month.

As Sam grew up, anyone could see how determined he was to succeed and as time passed he went from being a poor town boy to the richest man in the world. He gained experience at Penney's but, in early 1942 he resigned to wait to be inducted into the military services for World War II. While waiting, he took a job in a Du Pont munitions plant near Tulsa, Oklahoma. While working and living near Tulsa, he met his future wife Helen Robson. She lived in a little town called Claremore where she attended Claremore High School and graduated valedictorian of her class and went on to attend college at the University of Oklahoma at Norman and graduated with a degree in business. They met in April of 1942 and were married on February 14, 1943. In 1944 they had their first son, Samuel Robson (Rob), John Thomas, born in 1946, James Carr (Jim), born in 1948, and Alice born in 1949. Her father was L.S. Robson, a prosperous banker and rancher who would go on to help Sam start his first store.

Soon after they were married, Sam went to serve in the US Army intelligence corps in the United States supervising security at aircraft plants and prisoner of war camps. By the time he was discharged from the war he was ranked as captain and decided he wanted to own his own department store. This dream came a reality in the fall of 1945 when he purchased a store in Newport with the help of his father-in-law. He borrowed $20,000.00 from his father-in-law and had $5,000 he saved from the military.

Sam's store was a franchisee of the Butler Brothers, who consisted of two chains. One chain was the Federated department stores, which were small department stores and then the Ben Franklin variety stores. His store was going to a variety store and with the assistance of the Butler Brothers, his store led in sales and profits in the six-state region. Sam made this possible by properly stocking all the shelves with a wide range of goods with very low prices. He kept his store centrally located so it was easily accessible to many customers, stayed open later than most stores, especially during Christmas seasons and experimented with discount merchandising. He bought straight from the wholesaler which enable him to lower his price per item and then was able to sell a greater quantity of goods and thereby increasing his sales volume and profits. All these were ideas were new to businesses but Sam caught on fast and was able to use them to his advantage. Since his store was such a success everyone wanted a piece of the action. With this in mind, when his lease was up his landlord would not renew the lease because he wanted the business for his son. Sam sold the store and made a profit over $50,000.00. This deal was complete in January 1951 and the new owner then took possession of the store. This did not stop Sam from continuing with his dream. Before the sale was even finalized between him and his landlord, Sam started looking for a new place in town, but he would have no such luck. In 1950 he purchased a store in Bentonville, Arkansas, which ended up being called Walton's 5 & 10. This store was also a member of the Butler Brothers' Ben Franklin chain. Before this store opened it needed many improvements but that was no problem for Sam. He was never discouraged for a second. To introduce his store to the new town in July 1950, he staged his first sales promotion called the "remodeling sale" and then the following March he had the grand opening. During this time Sam operated both stores the one in Newport and the one in Bentonville. In 1951 after his landlord took over the Newport store he and his family moved to Bentonville and settled in. They became quite involved with town activities, such as Sam serving as president of Rotary Club and the chamber of commerce. He was elected to the city council and served on the hospital board and in 1954 he launched a Little League baseball program in town. This is only to name a few of his activities and accomplishments in the community.

Most people would not have time to do anything else but Sam did! He decided to start a second store in Fayetteville, located about 20 mile south of Bentonville. This was also named Walton 5 & 10 but it was not a Ben Franklin franchise but it was just as successful as the other one. Walton knew though he needed a qualified manager to run the store so it would be as successful as his other store. So, he said, " I did something that I would do for the rest of my run in the retail business, without any shame or embarrassment whatsoever: nose around other people's stores searching for good talent". With this search he hired Willard Walker, the manager of a TG&Y variety store in Tulsa. He attracted Walker by offering him a percentage of the store's profits, now known as profit sharing. Even with this new manager Sam did not neglect the new store. He visited once a week to make sure everything was running smoothly and once a month he examined the store's books and compiled a profit-and-loss statement.

To keep his stores running in tip top shape Sam was always trying to find new ideas to improve business. The next new thing he found was a concept known as self-service. This is that the cash registers that were located at the counters throughout the store would be replaced by checkouts located in the front of the store where customers would pay for everything at one time. The cashier would unload the new light weight baskets, ring the goods up, put them in bags and then the customer was ready to exit the store. Some other customs Sam had to keep customers happy were: he had a wide assortment of goods, had special promotions, kept the place well lighted and clean, demanded that the staff be loyal and did this by sharing a percentage of the profits with the employees.

As time passed Sam opened more stores with the help of his brother, father-in-law and brother-in-law. In 1954 he opened a store with his brother in Ruskin Heights, a suburb near Kansas City in a shopping center. This store was quite profitable, too. He decided to take this idea to Arkansas, but it was not quite as successful as his other stores. At that time Sam decided to go back and just concentrate on retail business instead of the shopping center business. Sam opened larger stores which were called Walton's Family Center. To keep management on their toes and on top of the game, Sam offered them the opportunity to become limited partners if they would invest in the store they were to oversee and then invest a maximum of $1000.00 in new outlets as they opened. This kept the managers always trying to keep profits at a maximum and kept them improving their manager skills. His ways were proven to be successful because by 1962 Sam and his brother Bud owned 16 variety stores in Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas. With all these ideas and new management techniques, that is how WalMart got it's start and that is why they are different from any other store today.

Walmart first opened in 1962 and became the world's number one retailer. WalMart's success has also given many people today an opportunity for a bigger job market. More than 600,000 Americans work at WalMart. The reason for its popular success it still follows Sam Walton's values: by hometown identity, each person is welcomed personally by People Greeters, each store honors a graduating high school senior with a college scholarship, bake sales to benefit a local charity, associates determine where charitable funds are donated, the prices are low and customers do not have to wait for a sale to see savings. This is only to name a few of the things that WalMart does for the community. WalMart goes according to what Sam Walton believed, "Each WalMart store should reflect the values of its customers and support the vision they hold for their community". With this saying always in mind the WalMart community outreach programs are steered by local associates who grew up in the area and understand its needs.

Sam Walton always made quite an impression on everyone. He has done so much for the retail world. He has gone beyond what any other owner or manager has ever done or will ever do and was honored for all his hard work in March of 1992 when he received the Medal of Freedom from President George Bush in which he said,

"We're all working together; that's the secret. And we'll lower the cost of living for everyone, not just in America, but we'll give the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save and have a better lifestyle, a better life for all. We're proud of what we've accomplished ; we've just begun."

The Questions

How do you think Sam Walton would feel about his stores now?
What have been your experiences with WalMart? Good or Bad, we want to know!
Have you been employed by WalMart and what has been your experience?
Do you like the new Supercenters or do you prefer the old stores?

You can take it from there. This is a place for you to give your opinion, good or bad. Just keep it tasteful. The comment section is open!

The Opinion Stop

My thoughts for today August 15, 2007

My thoughts for today April 11, 2007

My opinion for today April 5, 2007

Our First Topic Will Be "WalMart" Give Your Opinion

I will begin with some history of Sam Walton and how WalMart came to be. I will then pose some questions to help you get started. You are free to leave your comments, but please keep it clean so that your post will be seen.