Walmart Wants to Take Exploitation to the Next Level and Have Customers Deliver Orders

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/labor/walmart-wants-take-exploitation-next-level-and-have-customers-deliver-orders



No form of worker exploitation would exactly surprise me coming from Walmart, a company so dedicated to low-wage labor that many of its workers have to depend on food stamps and Medicaid. But doesn't it seem like there are just a few things that could go wrong with this idea?

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is considering a radical plan to have store customers deliver packages to online buyers, a new twist on speedier delivery services that the company hopes will enable it to better compete with Amazon.com Inc. [...]
Wal-Mart has millions of customers visiting its stores each week. Some of these shoppers could tell the retailer where they live and sign up to drop off packages for online customers who live on their route back home, Anderson explained.

Wal-Mart would offer a discount on the customers' shopping bill, effectively covering the cost of their gas in return for the delivery of packages, he added.

Paying for the delivery people's gas but not time—a novelist couldn't write a better next move for Walmart. There will be significant regulatory and legal challenges to the idea if Walmart moves forward with it, of course. Because even setting aside the free labor issue, the plan would entail handing people consumer goods and a stranger's address. What do you think is more likely?

[TheMastersNemesis]

1. What Bullshit To Have Strangers Deliver Packages - What Could Go Wrong With This Crazy Idea?

[MineralMan]

5. Very astute. People expect the brown truck, or the mail person,

or the FedEx delivery person to come to their door, not someone in a minivan or car. Lots of people are paranoid about people coming to their homes. I can envision some real problems with this Walmart plan.

[polly7]

2. Ok, that's just crazy. nt.

[99Forever]

3. The answer is amazingly simple.

Don't do it, in fact, don't ever set foot in a Walmart. Don't buy their products, don't use any service they are affiliated with.

Walmart, always slave wages and no benefits, ALWAYS.

[Sherman A1]

4. Precisely

solving so many problems. Granted not everyone can avoid shopping at Wal Mart, that said hopefully those that can, will do so.

[Oilwellian]

6. ROFL

This has to be an Onion piece. Imagine the Hatfields delivering a Walmart "package" to their neighbors. Where's Honey Boo Boo when we need her?

[SheilaT]

7. I have enough of a problem with

paid delivery people being unable to see my house number, which is clearly posted, and then giving my package to one of the neighbors on either side of me.

To top it off, every time this has happened the neighbors neither put the package at my door, nor let me know they've got it. I can just imagine some casual customer leaving my package somewhere in the same zipcode, but nowhere near my house.

On the other hand, since I never shop at WalMart this won't actually be an issue for me.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

8. I thought this was a good idea when I first heard it...

But it's just another creative way to mask slave labor.

[jsr]

9. Make customers run a couple of errands for Wal-Mart ON THEIR WAY to the store as well.

[Sheldon Cooper]

10. Well this is not something I'd ever sign up to do, but if I did,

you can be damn sure they'd have to pay me far more than just reimburse my gas mileage. What the hell is wrong with them?

[jsr]

11. I wanna make their cash deposits, for free.