Trader Joe’s Rejects Walmart Strategy

[DiamondDave]

For you Neo-Cons who think that a company can only get by if it screws its workers....this one's for you!!

We’ve watched as places like Walmart, Papa John’s, Target, Applebee’s and other businesses continue to pay sub-par wages while claiming their only option for profit, given the economy and their being “forced” to provide employees with insurance, is to either cut employees’ hours and/or their wages. This miserly strategy is justified and implemented despite the fact that research shows that raising wages would actually “benefit workers, the industry and the overall economy".

Many employers believe that one of the best ways to raise their profit margin is to cut labor costs. But companies like QuikTrip, the grocery-store chain Trader Joe’s, and Costco Wholesale are proving that the decision to offer low wages is a choice, not an economic necessity. All three are low-cost retailers, a sector that is traditionally known for relying on part-time, low-paid employees. Yet these companies have all found that the act of valuing workers can pay off in the form of increased sales and productivity

Rejecting Walmart Strategy, Trader Joe?s Pays Employees A Living Wage And Wins | Addicting Info

I don't shop at Walmart or buy pizza from Papa Johns. Their merchandise and food sucks and they treat their employees like shit.

.

I would like to see where that was said about all companies in all instances... I do remember standing up for the freedom for the company to make that choice

 

[DiamondDave]

I have been to a Trader Joe's once or twice. Shitty produce selections and no butcher.

I guess if you want to live on frozen prepackaged crap it's OK.

Only thing worth it was 2 Buck Chuck

 

[clevergirl]

For you Neo-Cons who think that a company can only get by if it screws its workers....this one's for you!!





Rejecting Walmart Strategy, Trader Joe?s Pays Employees A Living Wage And Wins | Addicting Info

I don't shop at Walmart or buy pizza from Papa Johns. Their merchandise and food sucks and they treat their employees like shit.

.

These are not "low cost retailers". The business model of Costco is unique in the food and perishables industries- buying warehouses full of manufactured goods and being their own distribution center allows them to sell at reduced costs. But what most consumers really do? They spend more than they normally would shopping at a traditional market-thereby increasing sales volumes. Costco has negatively impacted the retail channel that supplies other small business.

Trader Joe's is another unique business model that caters to what I call the "oozy-groovy" crowd. What they offer is specialized foods and wines appealing to the health conscious crowd- THAT is where their success is built in. Their wages are a-typical- not unique for a specialty retailer.

Below are the "averaged" hourly wages from these two retailers. What averages cannot consider is that these two retailers are located only in areas where growth and condensed populations exist. Walmart's go everywhere- including into rural areas, bringing their averages down.


Cashier Assistant (Front End Assistant) - Hourly 64 Costco Wholesale Salaries $11.84/hr
Stocker - Hourly 43 Costco Wholesale Salaries $12.61/hr
Costco Wholesale Salaries | Glassdoor

Crew Member 125 Trader Joe's Salaries $13.00
Crew74 Trader Joe's Salaries $12.58
Trader Joe's Hourly Pay | Glassdoor

HEY!!!! Don't ARGUE with FACTS because hyperbole is the ONLY thing most of these people understand!
THANKS for your input!

Also... Suggestion! Don't forget that the Employers are paying 13% on top of that wage and that concept needs greater awareness even by people as
adept as you!
Most Americans do NOT know that their employer matches the employees' SS/Medicare AND that employer pays the taxes that pay unemployment!
As a result using the minimum wage argument of $7.25 is fallacious especially when the idiots advocate $9.00 like Obama did!
You and the rest of us continually must explain that this 13% additional payment adds to the minimum wage discussion and as a result what it does do
is stymies employment growth!

The average minimum wage actually paid by an employer for each employee is 15.00 to 20.00 dollars an hour when including all costs depending on state of residency.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Why am I supposed to care? Ive never even heard of them.

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Why am I supposed to care? Ive never even heard of them.

Where's the kompassion, Gramps? You're supposed to start weeping profusely.

 

[Meister]

Haven't been long in this country have you

Haven't been smart in this country have you?



Is that why you haven't been able to dispute anything I've posted?

Hard to distinguish you from the tail end of a horse.

We have enough of our home grown rightwing kooks here


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZRIO5PwG-E]The Beatles - Get Back (With Lyrics) - YouTube[/ame]

Sounds like you're inferring some racism.

 

[Two Thumbs]

just wondering

Is it just me and the other conservatives that look at jobs in walmart, TJ, costco, etc, has jobs for kids, adults between jobs and something easy to do when your older and not as a career choice?


Seriously, t-pok said costco cashiers get $40k after 5 years. What kind of person could do such a job for 5 fucking years?

 

[Skull Pilot]

just wondering

Is it just me and the other conservatives that look at jobs in walmart, TJ, costco, etc, has jobs for kids, adults between jobs and something easy to do when your older and not as a career choice?


Seriously, t-pok said costco cashiers get $40k after 5 years. What kind of person could do such a job for 5 fucking years?

The wacko progressives think that every job from burger flipping to sweeping floors should pay enough for someone to raise a family and send 4 kids to college.

 

[DaGoose]

I'm not familiar with QuicTrip, but Trader Joes is more expensive than most grocery stores, so the higher wages and better service comes with a price tag.

Costco Wholesale charges a membership fee, sells bulk-size items which they buy at wholesale rate, sell at closer to retail rate and guarantee quantity sales by product size.

So Trader Joes has a different customer base and market and Costco has a different business model and market.

Add on that you do get better productivity and can certainly be more profitable with higher wages if those wages are comparitavely higher than competitors..

Example: 5 grocery stores pay at or near minimum wage ($7.25/hr). Store 6 pays $12.00/hr. Potential workers are indifferent between stores 1-5 but are more interested in Store 6, which benefits from the competition of workers to get a job and can be more selective. Once a worker is in a job, if a worker in stores 1 is less than competent or takes a lot of time off and is fired, s/he can still find a job working the same salary at stores 2-5. Not so a worker at Store 6.

Henry Ford demonstrated all this a century ago when he cut absenteeism and increased productivity of workers by paying significantly above the average wage.

But again, that only works in comparison.

Walmart pays $7.25/hr. Their productivity and service is no greater than when they were paying $5.25/hr. Increasing wages only works if your competitors don't (or you have a market niche).

Costco's average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Sam's Club (owned by the Walton family, which owns Wal-Mart). And Costco's health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish. Costco's workers pay just 8 percent of their health care costs, when the retail average is 25 percent.

[Wal-Mart workers, meanwhile, make around $8.75 an hour about $18,000 a year. Wal-Mart Stores Inc's just announced that U.S. employees will pay between 8 and 36 percent more in premiums for its medical coverage in 2013, prompting some of the 1.4 million workers at the nation's largest private employer to say they will forego coverage altogether. - Source: Reuters]

Costco's stock price has risen more than 10 percent in the last 12 months, while Wal-Mart's has slipped 5 percent. Costco shares sell for almost 23 times expected earnings; at Wal-Mart the multiple is about 19. Mr. Dreher said Costco's share price was so high because so many people love the company. "It's a cult stock," he said.

Despite Costco's impressive record, Jim Sinegal's (chief executive of Costco) salary is just $350,000, although he also received a $200,000 bonus last year. That puts him at less than 10 percent of many other chief executives, though Costco ranks 29th in revenue among all American companies.

[S. Robson Walton, Wal-Mart chairman, has a net worth of about $19.7 billion . And he's only number 9 on the list of 2010's top 20 richest Americans.]

Costco also has not shut out unions, as some of its rivals have. The Teamsters union, for example, represents 14,000 of Costco's 113,000 employees. "They gave us the best agreement of any retailer in the country," said Rome Aloise, the union's chief negotiator with Costco. The contract guarantees employees at least 25 hours of work a week, he said, and requires that at least half of a store's workers be full time.

[No Wal-Mart stores in the US are unionized.]

Capitalist Analysts to Costco: Stop treating your employees so well

Analysts to Costco: Stop treating your employees so well

The above link pretty much sums it up. From the link.........

“He has been too benevolent,” she said. “He’s right that a happy employee is a productive long-term employee, but he could force employees to pick up a little more of the burden.”

It’s time that investors and stock analysts realized this and started demanding of companies, that they make their employees happy. This not only increases profits, it’s one of the best and most efficient ways to do so.

Fortunately the tendency still holds and Costco still treat their people better AND outperform Walmart on the stock market.

 

[tjvh]

just wondering

Is it just me and the other conservatives that look at jobs in walmart, TJ, costco, etc, has jobs for kids, adults between jobs and something easy to do when your older and not as a career choice?


Seriously, t-pok said costco cashiers get $40k after 5 years. What kind of person could do such a job for 5 fucking years?

The wacko progressives think that every job from burger flipping to sweeping floors should pay enough for someone to raise a family and send 4 kids to college.

That's right. They don't believe they should have to work hard for their success, that it should simply be handed to them. They think it's OK that someone who succeeded should be forced to subsidize lazy bums content on banging away at cash registers as a career choice.

 

[Trajan]

For you Neo-Cons who think that a company can only get by if it screws its workers....this one's for you!!

We’ve watched as places like Walmart, Papa John’s, Target, Applebee’s and other businesses continue to pay sub-par wages while claiming their only option for profit, given the economy and their being “forced” to provide employees with insurance, is to either cut employees’ hours and/or their wages. This miserly strategy is justified and implemented despite the fact that research shows that raising wages would actually “benefit workers, the industry and the overall economy".

Many employers believe that one of the best ways to raise their profit margin is to cut labor costs. But companies like QuikTrip, the grocery-store chain Trader Joe’s, and Costco Wholesale are proving that the decision to offer low wages is a choice, not an economic necessity. All three are low-cost retailers, a sector that is traditionally known for relying on part-time, low-paid employees. Yet these companies have all found that the act of valuing workers can pay off in the form of increased sales and productivity

Rejecting Walmart Strategy, Trader Joe?s Pays Employees A Living Wage And Wins | Addicting Info

I don't shop at Walmart or buy pizza from Papa Johns. Their merchandise and food sucks and they treat their employees like shit.

.

sooo..., lets see; if there merchandise and food was better you'd shop there?




you're so full of shit.....



and why is this in politics?

just because you've been programed to see this as a political issue, doesn't mean everyone else has...

jump sheep, jump!!!

 

[Trajan]

just wondering

Is it just me and the other conservatives that look at jobs in walmart, TJ, costco, etc, has jobs for kids, adults between jobs and something easy to do when your older and not as a career choice?


Seriously, t-pok said costco cashiers get $40k after 5 years. What kind of person could do such a job for 5 fucking years?

*raises hand, waves wildly*


Da Goose?

 

[Trajan]

just wondering

Is it just me and the other conservatives that look at jobs in walmart, TJ, costco, etc, has jobs for kids, adults between jobs and something easy to do when your older and not as a career choice?


Seriously, t-pok said costco cashiers get $40k after 5 years. What kind of person could do such a job for 5 fucking years?

The wacko progressives think that every job from burger flipping to sweeping floors should pay enough for someone to raise a family and send 4 kids to college.

when Ur a slobbering union hack that hates excellence, initiative and lives on last in first out and federal subsidies, what would you expect?

When I was training for my Ergo. Certification I visited a few assembly lines.....I agree to an extent they deserve some decent pay, its a mind numbing and in imho demeaning work..... but they had guys there that loved it....why? they told me they got 'bank'....as pay, benes etc. and thats why they did it....see where I am coming from

 

[OKTexas]

I didn't know Quicktrip was still in business, haven't seen one in years. Don't know if there's a Trader Joes in my area, I haven't noticed one. Don't shop at COSTCO or Sams, I refuse to pay a business for the privilege of walking in their door. I do however love to see people try to judge business practices when they have never actually operated a business and had to make a payroll themselves. What looks good on paper doesn't always work in the real world.

 

[kwc57]

For you Neo-Cons who think that a company can only get by if it screws its workers....this one's for you!!

We’ve watched as places like Walmart, Papa John’s, Target, Applebee’s and other businesses continue to pay sub-par wages while claiming their only option for profit, given the economy and their being “forced” to provide employees with insurance, is to either cut employees’ hours and/or their wages. This miserly strategy is justified and implemented despite the fact that research shows that raising wages would actually “benefit workers, the industry and the overall economy".

Many employers believe that one of the best ways to raise their profit margin is to cut labor costs. But companies like QuikTrip, the grocery-store chain Trader Joe’s, and Costco Wholesale are proving that the decision to offer low wages is a choice, not an economic necessity. All three are low-cost retailers, a sector that is traditionally known for relying on part-time, low-paid employees. Yet these companies have all found that the act of valuing workers can pay off in the form of increased sales and productivity

Rejecting Walmart Strategy, Trader Joe?s Pays Employees A Living Wage And Wins | Addicting Info

I don't shop at Walmart or buy pizza from Papa Johns. Their merchandise and food sucks and they treat their employees like shit.

.

I've shopped at Trader Joe's before. They package crap to look fancy and sell it at inflated prices.

 

[Wicked Jester]

Whole Foods is better than TJ's.

True that....And they don't have the long history of recalls that TJ's has.

Problem with TJ's, is that much of their products, packaged under their name, are produced in countries that have little to no oversight regarding health standards and manufacturing quality.

I only buy wine and spices at TJ's....I don't trust their food quality standards, so I would never buy meat, poultry, seafood, nuts, or produce there.

 

[Political Junky]

For you Neo-Cons who think that a company can only get by if it screws its workers....this one's for you!!

We’ve watched as places like Walmart, Papa John’s, Target, Applebee’s and other businesses continue to pay sub-par wages while claiming their only option for profit, given the economy and their being “forced” to provide employees with insurance, is to either cut employees’ hours and/or their wages. This miserly strategy is justified and implemented despite the fact that research shows that raising wages would actually “benefit workers, the industry and the overall economy".

Many employers believe that one of the best ways to raise their profit margin is to cut labor costs. But companies like QuikTrip, the grocery-store chain Trader Joe’s, and Costco Wholesale are proving that the decision to offer low wages is a choice, not an economic necessity. All three are low-cost retailers, a sector that is traditionally known for relying on part-time, low-paid employees. Yet these companies have all found that the act of valuing workers can pay off in the form of increased sales and productivity

Rejecting Walmart Strategy, Trader Joe?s Pays Employees A Living Wage And Wins | Addicting Info

I don't shop at Walmart or buy pizza from Papa Johns. Their merchandise and food sucks and they treat their employees like shit.

.

I'm not familiar with QuicTrip, but Trader Joes is more expensive than most grocery stores, so the higher wages and better service comes with a price tag.

Costco Wholesale charges a membership fee, sells bulk-size items which they buy at wholesale rate, sell at closer to retail rate and guarantee quantity sales by product size.

So Trader Joes has a different customer base and market and Costco has a different business model and market.

Add on that you do get better productivity and can certainly be more profitable with higher wages if those wages are comparitavely higher than competitors..

Example: 5 grocery stores pay at or near minimum wage ($7.25/hr). Store 6 pays $12.00/hr. Potential workers are indifferent between stores 1-5 but are more interested in Store 6, which benefits from the competition of workers to get a job and can be more selective. Once a worker is in a job, if a worker in stores 1 is less than competent or takes a lot of time off and is fired, s/he can still find a job working the same salary at stores 2-5. Not so a worker at Store 6.

Henry Ford demonstrated all this a century ago when he cut absenteeism and increased productivity of workers by paying significantly above the average wage.

But again, that only works in comparison.

Walmart pays $7.25/hr. Their productivity and service is no greater than when they were paying $5.25/hr. Increasing wages only works if your competitors don't (or you have a market niche).

Trader Joe's is cheaper than Safeway, and way cheaper than Whole Foods.

 

[boedicca]

just wondering

Is it just me and the other conservatives that look at jobs in walmart, TJ, costco, etc, has jobs for kids, adults between jobs and something easy to do when your older and not as a career choice?


Seriously, t-pok said costco cashiers get $40k after 5 years. What kind of person could do such a job for 5 fucking years?

*raises hand, waves wildly*


Da Goose?

Nyeahhhhh...I doubt he has the work ethic to hold such a job for five years.

 

[EriktheRed]

I don't shop at Walmart or buy pizza from Papa Johns. Their merchandise and food sucks and they treat their employees like shit.

.

I once worked at a Papa J's many moons ago. I still think it's good for the kind of pizza it is. Nevertheless, I've dropped them and my local Wal Mart for the same reason you and others have.


It's my understanding Papa Murphy's pizza has a better attitude about the ACA...

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Let Dems run Walmart and within 5 years it will be bankrupt