Trader Joe’s Rejects Walmart Strategy

[DaGoose]

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.

.

 

[Political Junky]

Trader Joe's has great stores, great merchandise, great service, and I do know that they treat their employees extremely well. Good healthcare and good wages.
One just opened close to me ... walking distance. I've shopped with them for years.

 

[MeBelle]

$10-$12 an hour is a living wage in California?

 

[healthmyths]

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 am always amazed at the idiocy of people you who have NO concept of the difference between markets!


Trader Joe's:
gross revenue: $8.5 billion
Employees 10,000
Locations: 395
revenue per employee:$850,000
Revenue per location: $21,518,987
Employees/location: 26
Trader Joe's - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walmart
gross revenue: $446 billion
Employees : 2,200,000
Locations: 8,970
Revenue per employee:$220,000
Revenue per location $46 million
Employees/location:245

Different markets

While you and your pompous butts praise the Costco,Trader Joes... HOW MANY PEOPLE DO they employee compared to Walmart?
Walmart sends to the Federal government on behalf of their 2,200,000 employees a minimum of $6 billion on behalf of employees!
You idiots NEVER consider that the employer PAYS on top of wages 13% on behalf of employee: Social Security,Medicare,Unemp. Tax, workmans comp!

So Walmart employees 220 times people pays them $45 billion in wages, and $6 billion in FICA/FUTA..etc directly to Federal govt tax revenue!
Trader Joes ave. hrly $13 for 10,000 employees pays $270 million in wages, $35 MILLION in Fica/futA
HOw many Walmart employees per store support the local community compared to Trader Joes?? 10 times! Pumping 10 times into local community.
Hiring 10 times what Trader Joe's hires!

which company is supporting MORE EMPLOYEES?
Which company's employees contribution to GDP is greater?
Finally which company Paid $6 billion or 169 times in FEDERAL EMPLOYEE TAXES????

Unbelievable you idiots hold these pious butts who pompously tout their higher wages when they have LESS revenue, pay less wages and have less people!
DIFFERENT MARKETS demand different employees!

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

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 am always amazed at the idiocy of people you who have NO concept of the difference between markets!


Trader Joe's:
gross revenue: $8.5 billion
Employees 10,000
Locations: 395
revenue per employee:$850,000
Revenue per location: $21,518,987
Employees/location: 26
Trader Joe's - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walmart
gross revenue: $446 billion
Employees : 2,200,000
Locations: 8,970
Revenue per employee:$220,000
Revenue per location $46 million
Employees/location:245

Different markets

While you and your pompous butts praise the Costco,Trader Joes... HOW MANY PEOPLE DO they employee compared to Walmart?
Walmart sends to the Federal government on behalf of their 2,200,000 employees a minimum of $6 billion on behalf of employees!
You idiots NEVER consider that the employer PAYS on top of wages 13% on behalf of employee: Social Security,Medicare,Unemp. Tax, workmans comp!

So Walmart employees 220 times people pays them $45 billion in wages, and $6 billion in FICA/FUTA..etc directly to Federal govt tax revenue!
Trader Joes ave. hrly $13 for 10,000 employees pays $270 million in wages, $35 MILLION in Fica/futA
HOw many Walmart employees per store support the local community compared to Trader Joes?? 10 times! Pumping 10 times into local community.
Hiring 10 times what Trader Joe's hires!

which company is supporting MORE EMPLOYEES?
Which company's employees contribution to GDP is greater?
Finally which company Paid $6 billion or 169 times in FEDERAL EMPLOYEE TAXES????

Unbelievable you idiots hold these pious butts who pompously tout their higher wages when they have LESS revenue, pay less wages and have less people!
DIFFERENT MARKETS demand different employees!

They, like Obama, thinks things just happen because you mandate it so.... it's quite amazing to me.

 

[martybegan]

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.

.

and that is thier CHOICE. If a business can figure out how to do it, more power to them, and you have every right to cater your shopping habits based upon your opinion of the company.

What I have an issue is government trying to force EVERY company to behave like this. If it is so good for the company, then they will do it naturally. If they keep thier sub par wages, they will get sub par employees.

 

[auditor0007]

Trader Joe's has great stores, great merchandise, great service, and I do know that they treat their employees extremely well. Good healthcare and good wages.
One just opened close to me ... walking distance. I've shopped with them for years.

I wish they would open one close to me. The closest one now is an hour away.

 

[uscitizen]

How much money does wal Mart pump into China's economy vs the US economy?

 

[BillyV]

It’s the customers who decide what a store should pay its employees. It is entirely true that for some retailers, paying more for employees is well worth it. I’m not usually a Walmart shopper, even though I am aware that prices for many things are lower there than at my supermarket of choice. Why am I willing to pay more? Walmart offers a horrible shopping experience. I don’t like the stores and the service is terrible; there is always a long line to check out as well. I’m willing to pay something more to shop where the employees are invariably cheerful, where I see the same ones week after week, and the stores are bright and clean.

However, I have the luxury to make that choice because I’m not struggling financially; those who need a lower cost retailer like Walmart benefit from its existence. You see, because a retailer like Walmart pays less for their employees, they don’t get the best or happiest people; that’s how labor markets work, the better employees seek (and find) a higher wage. But as a result they can cut a few cents off the price of everything, and that draws customer traffic. If consumers were concerned with either the overall compensation of the employees or the condition of the store, they would go somewhere that charged more and get what they wanted. That isn’t what a Walmart shopper is looking for; they’re looking for a deal, plain and simple. So the next time you shop at Walmart or other retailer just on the basis of price, you can complain to yourself that it’s your own fault these poor employees aren’t earning a “living wage”.

 

[Two Thumbs]

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.

.

Never heard of them.

Costco, yeah, but not Costco wholesale.

and costcos stuff sucks more than wal marts

 

[pinqy]

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).

 

[Antares]

Trader Joe's has the best Wine for the money bar none...amazingly priced.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

That's great! Free enterprise at work. See why, until Obama, America had the world's Number 1 economy?

 

[healthmyths]

How much money does wal Mart pump into China's economy vs the US economy?

Why don't you look it up LIKE I DID? Pretty simple google search idiot!

Wal Mart is China’s seventh largest export market.
WalMart bought $18 billion in goods from China in 2005 and $22 billion in 2006. [NOTE: that is 5% of Walmart's gross revenue!]
More than 12 percent of China’s exports to the United States end up at Wal Mart stores and trade with retailers accounts
for 1 percent of China’s GNP.

First Walmart's revenue includes this:
Wal-Mart had 353 stores in mainland China as of October 2011. The Economist reported in 2011: “Walmart entered China, five years before the country joined the World Trade Organisation and liberalised its retail sector. Yet despite starting early, it has advanced slowly. In 2006 it took over Taiwan’s Trust-Mart, which added more than 100 shops to its Chinese operations.
Today Walmart has shops in 124 Chinese cities, with 90,000 employees and annual sales of some $7 billion.
Not bad, but that amounts to less than 3 percent of its sales in America. Worldwide, Wal-Mart operates more than 10,000 retail stores under 69 different names. [Source: The Economist, May 19, 2011]
source:http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=2262catid=9
2ND.....
Why did companies buy from China? DUH! Lower wages!

"Take grass cutting. As defined by the current United Auto Worker contract negotiated with the "Big Five" (GM, Ford, Chrysler, and top parts makers Delphi and Visteon), an auto "production worker" is a job description that covers anything from mowing grass to cleaning the toilets. In the real world, these jobs would be outsourced to $8 an hour, no-benefit wage earners, but on Planet Big Five, these jobs get the same wages as any auto line-worker: an average $26 an hour ($60,000 a year) plus benefits that bring the company's total cost per worker to a staggering $65 an hour.
But at least the grass cutters are working for their pay. The UAW contract also guarantees that 12,000 autoworkers get full wage for doing nothing. On the heels of Miller's straight-talk, the Detroit News reported that "12,000 American autoworkers, instead of bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank." These aren't jobs. And they certainly aren't being "lost" to China.

- November 29, 2005, Labor Pains, Detroit needs to play by market rules. By Henry Payne
Source(s): The Indianapolis Star and the National Review

 

[t_polkow]

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.

.

Costco and Walmart: a good American employer vs. a shitty American employer

A cashier at Costco, after five years, makes about $40,000 a year. Health benefits are among the best in the industry, with workers paying only about 12 percent of their premiums out-of-pocket while Wal-Mart workers pay more than 40 percent.

Another theoretical benefit is that Costco employees, being better paid, are less likely to leave the company. Again, some data back that up: Greenhouse points to Costco's low turnover rate, which is 20 percent and, among employees who stay at least a year, 6 percent. Wal-Mart's is about 50 percent (no separate data for Sam's Club). But is this a business advantage for Costco? While some point to the costs of training and hiring new employees, a widely leaked 2005 memo from Wal-Mart offers a different perspective. In it, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of benefits argued that the company's turnover rate was too low. After all, she explains, long-term employees are more expensive and not necessarily any more productive. Such reasoning—though sinister—may actually help explain why Wal-Mart's profit margins are twice as high as Costco's (3.36 percent compared with 1.75 percent).

Costco's revenues per employee are about five times as high as Wal-Mart's. (No separate financials are available for Sam's Club.)

 

[Luddly Neddite]

I really miss Trader Joe's. Nearest one to either of our homes is more than an hour away and in a direction we never go!

What's really amazing about TJ's is that they offer really interesting food and wine at incredibly low prices and still manage to pay their employees a decent wage AND offer an excellent benefit package. They've been written up in the trade journals for their moral and ethical business practices.

 

[t_polkow]

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).

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.]

 

[Luddly Neddite]

That's great! Free enterprise at work. See why, until Obama, America had the world's Number 1 economy?

You could break your own nose with your knee jerking up like that.

How about you post some PROOF that Obama controls what TJ's and WM pay. And, how about you look a little further back - like to the Bush crash and the Bush recession.

Or, you could just go right on pretending its all Obama's fault.

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Whole Foods is better than TJ's.

 

[PoliticalChic]

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.

.

1. The diverse group of self-identified liberals are better educated than the country as a whole, less religious, more urban, less married and wealthier. They support abortion and gay rights, are unconcerned about pornography, and rarely own guns.
Edsall, “ Building Red America,” p. 18.

a. The group frequently finds themselves in disagreement with white, working-class voters, as outlined in the Pew survey of 2007, “Trends in Political Values.” One example:
two-thirds of working-class Democrats have a favorable view of Wal-Mart, while a majority of professional-class Democrats consider it to be something akin to evil incarnate. Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007 | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press