Walmart Employees Demand Discount On Food
Walmart employees recently received higher wages and fair hours from the company, but now they have another demand of achieving more discounts in food from the company.
Walmart increased the wages of its employees after hitting headlines for a very long time regarding the inhumane treatments for employees and their low income. The company decided to increase wages of the workforce with the hope of getting better output and efficiency from them. Apparently, this was not enough.
According to financial post, the employees have another demand on the table, a discount on food, which will cost an additional $400 million to the company. Walmart stores Inc. has provided the workforce with a 10% discount on all purchases they make but not food; some specific items can be purchased from the stocked Walmart stores.
The employees are now demanding more discounts so that they can buy groceries from where they work at better prices and convenience, as other rivals of the retail giant offer discounts to their employees on all categories of food, such as Whole Food Market and Target Corp. An employee of the company, Janet Sparks, said, “It is ridiculous, you can get a 10% discount on cat food, but if I buy tuna or chicken, I get no discount.”
Some of the employees have started a petition on the internet to achieve the public and the company’s attention, and ask it to offer more discounts. Almost 12,600 signatures have been attained through the petition so far, and the group, who has started this petition, has the support of United Food Commercial Workers International Union. The signed petition is going to be presented to the management of the company within this month.
Walmart wholesale would face defeat in profits if it decides to grant this discount to the workforce because of its large size. It has a huge workforce, which is estimated to be 1.4 million and providing them all with day-to-day or monthly grocery on a discount result in a major loss in terms of annual income. It might lose $420 million per year from this development, if it happens.
The retailer’s profit margin is 1.7%. It has not shown any signs as to whether it will consider providing discounts and has declined to make any comments. It offered its workforce $500 million from discounts previous year and reviewed many employees via surveys and research on what they desire from the company, according to a spokesman, Lundberg.
Walmart keeps the demands of its employees in mind and fulfills them to an extent by raising wages and work hours. Now, the discount demand being on the table, the next move of the company cannot be predicted.
Walmart stock closed at $57.58 on November 11.