Retail Employees Will Never Improve Their Lot As Long As You Want Really Cheap Stuff and Big Sales

It is interesting that the left-leaning Huffington Post breathlessly rages against Walmart and others for long hours, underpaid workers and what they say are bad health care offerings, and yet also tells readers (almost as breathlessly) where to find the cheapest prices on a wide variety of goods . . . turkeys, Christmas decorations, electronics and the like.

So . . . umm . . . anyone see an issue with this?

Simply, if we want the lowest possible prices, how can we expect workers to be better paid, have better company-sponsored health insurance and not work holidays (when millions of people push away from the table and storm the big boxes for ground-breaking deals)?

It can’t work that way.

That $899 big screen TV you bought last week was a great deal. Nobody had a better price. You checked. You don’t care if the store that sold it to you made any money because you got a great deal. But you saw the same TV on sale at another store for $988, still a good deal, but not the best. Like everyone else, it’s the pre-holiday bargain that counts.

In the end, you really don’t care too much about what store workers make, whether or not they are full-time or part-time or whether they have health insurance. You want the best prices before you spend your own hard-earned money.  And millions of shoppers agree with you.

But if you give workers a $2-an hour raise and pay for at least part of their health insurance, that $899 TV disappears. It may now be a $950 TV, and if another store has a better price, you’re going there.

If the average Walmart employee makes somewhere just north of $9 an hour, and let’s say there are 1.4 million workers, a $2 an hour raise for everyone would equal some $2.8 million a day in wage increases, and around $12 million or so each week (assuming five working days) and $624 million in increased wages a year.

So how can a Walmart (which, as the country’s largest employer, is the biggest target for such discussions . . . no pun intended), add those costs while still maintaining its “low price guarantee?” You tell me. And we haven’t even added health care costs, overtime, or ongoing raises. I also just threw out the $2 an hour increase. I’m sure that would be considered a low number by many, given that $11 an hour certainly doesn’t seem to be a huge improvement over the $9 base, though I’m also sure such a bump would be more than welcomed by those currently struggling to make end meet.

While I haven’t seen any real info on what the bottom line number is on the “we want better pay” scale, I also haven’t seen anyone write about how retail outlets can maintain their pricing edge while boosting employee pay and benefits. Trust me, if one company increases its costs, another one will undercut it somehow.

It’s all well and good to rant about how companies only care about making money, and not about employees, that really doesn’t say much. Of course companies are in business to make money. Of course retail can suck. And maybe smaller businesses that do well are better able to recycle those profits back into the business as well as improved employee pay and benefits.

But until someone shows me how, on a large scale, a retail company like Walmart, Target, Sears or Kmart can keep the rock bottom prices you want while at the same time increasing employee costs, I’m at a loss, as are millions of hard working American workers.