Black Man Black Woman

Tag: store

  • Tom Joyner Morning Show, Roland Martin, Money and Power

    This morning I had the great pleasure of having a conversation with my respected colleagues, Tom Joyner and Roland S. Martin. I have always loved the Tom Joyner Morning Show. My respect for Tom came when I found out that he once commuted daily between Chicago and Dallas in order to host shows in both cities. I appreciate anyone willing to sacrifice to reach their goals. Roland Martin has an equally compelling story about how he was forced into bankruptcy in order to become successful.

    The truth is that there are a whole bunch of people who want success, but they usually want it for free. These brothers understand that you usually have to pay a high price to get what you want.

    We were discussing the case of Heather Ellis. Heather Ellis is a 24-year old college student now facing 15-years in prison after being accused of cutting line at a Walmart. We are planning a rally for Heather in Kennett, MO on November 16, with thousands coming from around the nation in order to save her life. Tom Joyner, Roland Martin, and Michael Baisden are just a few of the names of brothers and sisters around the nation willing to step up to tell Heather’s story to the public.

    After the show was done, I called my assistant and confidant Shauntay, in order to talk about the events planned for the day. Shauntay is a stern reminder to me that you are only as good as the people who work for you, and she is the greatest assistant on Earth. During our conversation, Shauntay asked me, “Did you notice how they seemed to get nervous and rush you off at the end?”

    I said, “Yeah, I noticed that. But I don’t blame them, I might have done the same thing.”

    Why was I rushed off at the end of the segment? It all has to do with Walmart being one of the key corporate sponsors for the Tom Joyner Morning Show. During the interview, I first mentioned that it was reported as far away as Memphis that Walmart employees were being asked not to discuss the Heather Ellis incident. Tom started to deflect the conversation away from the merchant.

    “Well, that could have happened in any store, right?” said Tom.

    I then went on to explain that, while it could have happened in any store, there was no getting away from the fact that it happened in Walmart: A Walmart employee was the one who chose not to serve Heather after accusing her of cutting line, the family reports that nearly every Walmart employee involved in the incident has been transferred to another store, and there are Walmart employees on the affidavits filed after the incident took place. There is no way to disconnect Walmart from this incident.

    Unlike our supporters in Detroit, who are ready to boycott Walmart and stage a complete “black out” of the store, I have not asked for such a thing. Instead, I’ve only requested that Walmart use its influence to help Heather during her trial. I honestly believe that one sincere phone call from the right executive can make this situation go away. A daughter of a pastor, in college, with no criminal record is hardly the kind of thug that should be rotting away in the penitentiary. Anyone can understand that.

    This discussion of The Tom Joyner Morning Show is not a negative reflection on the righteousness of Tom Joyner or his choice of having Walmart as a corporate sponsor (if it were Wells Fargo, then we might have an issue). The incident is reflective of how the power of media is driven by corporate sponsorship. Given that corporate sponsors controlled by the descendants of the historical oppressors of black people are financing most African-American media, the ability to pursue true and meaningful activism is sometimes muted. In other words, nobody disrespects their daddy, especially if their daddy is the one putting food on the table. The life of one black woman is not, to some, worth the loss of millions of dollars in corporate money (I do not agree with this assessment). One of the limitations of capitalism is that it forces us to put a dollar value on human life. I personally think human life has infinite value, and that is why I am fighting for Heather.

  • Layaway Plans – 2009

    Filed under: ,

    It’s that time again when the stores will be crowded with thousands of consumers all vying for the same toy, special sweater, hottest electronic device. How do you plan to purchase it?

    The current crumbling economy has sparked interest in a form of retail purchasing that became popular in the early 1900s, that of Lay Away. How does it work? It’s simple. You, the consumer would like to buy something but don’t have the money. All you do is make installment payments on the merchandise. The merchant stocks your item away until your last payment. You receive it once your tab is paid in full. Of course this is different than a credit card purchase which allows you to take home your intended product and make payments while using it.Although stores like Walmart did away with this form of procurement years ago, Kmart stayed in the game. Stores currently offering layaway plans are:

    • Burlington Coat Factory
    • Kmart
    • Marshalls (at select locations)
    • TJ Maxx (at select locations)
    • Benny’s (New England)
    • Sears ( through December 23)
    • Cato – (offering 30-day plans)
    • Men’s Wearhouse
    • Boscov’s
    • Value City Furniture Stores
    • Footlocker (at select locations)
    • Best Buy
    • Toys-R-Us

    Plan on taking advantage of this service? Be sure to READ THE FINE PRINT.

    1. Get a copy of the store’s layaway policies
    2. Understand ALL of the policies – schedule of payments, rules regarding late fees, refund and exchange policies, markdowns on sale items, etc.
    3. Keep a good record and all receipts of payments (in case there are any disputes later).

    Until you make all the payments, the store has your merchandise AND your money. For this reason, I prefer to use cash, debit or credit cards OVER layaway, any day. Assuming I can pay off the balance in a short period of time. It’s true, credit card companies charge interest, therefore depending on the length of time it takes you to pay off the debt and the interest charged, your purchase which was originally on sale could potentially cost you much more in the end. However, I just can’t bear the thought of someone using MY money while I have nothing to show for it. Also, sad to say in these critical times retailers are closing doors for good, left and right. If you have something on layaway, on which you’ve been faithfully making payments and the store closes, you’re out your goods as well as your cash. Of course the choice is yours.

    If you know of other stores, please let us know in your comments.

     

    Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  • FedEx May Be Sued for Labor Violations by Three States

    Filed under:

    I think of FedEx as an employee-friendly company. For example, the entire company closes on Christmas to ensure that all employees can enjoy the holiday. Thus, it was surprising to learn that FedEx may be sued by the three states of New York, Montanta and New Jersey for intentionally denying 1,000 contractors the benefits they should receive as full employees. I guess they only commit (alleged) labor violations against non-employees.

    Reuters reports: “Three U.S. states said on Tuesday they plan to sue FedEx Corp, accusing the second-largest U.S. package delivery company of violating labor laws by illegally classifying drivers as independent contractors rather than employees to save money.”

    Now to be fair, FedEx claims their contractors operate more like the owners of a franchise, who use the FedEx brand, but in essence operate their own small businesses, so there are no labor violations. In fact, FedEx released a statement promising to “vigorously defend the right of FedEx Ground independent contractors to own and operate their businesses.” So why may FedEx being getting sued? By not one but THREE states?

    FedEx does not give contractors benefits like worker’s compensation protection, but still charges them high fees to use its equipment. This would be fine, except that the company strictly manages drivers with detailed rules regarding hours and uniforms, among other areas. Honestly, something in the milk ain’t clean. It’s clear that FedEx is in fact controlling these drivers like full-time employees, while making them take on the risk and expenses of an owner. I hope FedEx goes down on this one.

    The three states of New York, Montanta and New Jersey have given FedEx until October 27 to prove that these allegations are false. Then the law suit against FedEx will proceed, hopefully empowering these workers to receive fair compensation for their labor.

    http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,localizationConfig,entry&id=753104&pid=753103&uts=1256143994
    http://www.aolcdn.com/ke/media_gallery/v1/ke_media_gallery_wrapper.swf
    Gotcha Moments of Retail Shame
    Store: Midas
    Accusation:California filed a $222 million lawsuit against the owner of 22 Midas Muffler shops after uncover agents discovered in which consumers were charged for unneeded repairs, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced. Click through to see more stores that got caught cheating.
    jupiterimages
    Touchstone Pictures

    Gotcha Moments of Retail Shame

      Store: Midas
      Accusation:California filed a $222 million lawsuit against the owner of 22 Midas Muffler shops after uncover agents discovered in which consumers were charged for unneeded repairs, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced. Click through to see more stores that got caught cheating.

      Store: CVS
      Accusation:California caught the chain with expired merchandise on the shelf. The result? CVS must give $2 coupons to anyone finding more expired items. This isn’t the first store caught doing something shady (or even the first time CVS was caught doing the same thing). See more Gotcha Moments by clicking through.

      Store: Kmart
      Accusation:Marketed paper products as biodegradable that aren’t actually biodegradable. The result? Kmart settled the case with the Federal Trade commission. This isn’t the first time KMart was caught.

      AFP/Getty Images

      KMart’s Previous Gotcha:Kmart, Ashley, and World Market< were accused of deceptive furniture labeling — wood that wasn”t wood and leather that wasn”t leather — in an on-camera investigation by Good Morning America The result? Kmart said full product descriptions were available online, Ashley defended its wording as a description of color only, and World Market acknowledged that a quarter of its supposedly leather chairs were actually synthetic, and it pulled them from sale.

      Sears Holdings Management Corp., the parent company of Sears and Kmart, settled a case to stop enticing customers to sign up for a software that spies on them. It must also instruct customers how to uninstall the software that monitored their spending across the web, even on sites that are supposed to be secure, and destroy the data that was collected. The Federal Trade Commission brought the case against the Sears Holdings.

      Quizno’s Sub Shop has an online video ad showing two girls simulating a porn video by sharing a sub sandwich. The online ad, “2 Girls, 1 Sub,” takes its name from a notoriously heinous movie trailer, for a fetish film, which shows women eating their own feces. Critics have pointed out that the Quiznos video, starring Playboy Playmate Hiromi Oshima, is basically comparing the sandwiches to “poop.”
      This is Quizno’s second porn-themed ad to come out in recent months.

      If you are dining out — and many of us still are these days, despite the economy — make sure to check your bill carefully for extra charges that might creep on there.
      Call it the airline a la carte approach, as many restaurants are apparently sneaking in charges for bread, tap water, takeout boxes and mandatory tips. The New York Post found all of these items added to bills on an investigative mission that the paper undertook recently.

      For more on advertisers caught misleading consumers, click through our gallery of Gotcha Moments of Retail Shame.

      Blockbuster was found guilty of charging customers higher than the advertised prices on scanned items by district attorneys of Los Angeles and San Diego counties. Blockbuster owes $237,750 in penalties, and $62,250 in costs, and is further prohibited from charging amounts greater than the advertised price.

      A regulatory organization for the advertising industry demanded that Wrigley change its misleading packaging and advertising for Eclipse gum. The ads for Eclipse say that the gum’s natural ingredient – magnolia bark extract – kills germs that cause bad breath. This has not been proven and the National Advertising Division Council of Better Business Bureaus asks that Wrigley clarify this in its ads.

      Store:Chase Bank

      Accusation: In late March, the bank rescinded a $10 monthly fee it had imposed for several months on hundreds of thousands of credit card accounts, after New York’s attorney general decried the practice as a bait-and-switch for customers seeking low interest rates.

      Results:The settlement could save customers $22 million over the next year.

      Amy Sancetta, AP

     

    Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

  • KKK Threatens Woman after Walmart Incident: Was Walmart to Blame?

    Filed under:

    I mentioned the story before about Heather Ellis, the young woman who was threatened by the KKK after protesting about her arrest that took place in a Walmart store. The story was quite interesting in that Ellis now faces 15 years in prison for effectively cutting line at a Walmart. The unfortunate events occurred when Ellis was shopping with a cousin in Kennett, Missouri.

    Heather and her cousin went to separate lines and when her cousin found the shorter line, Heather joined him. Ellis was then accused of cutting line by the person checking out customers, which led to an altercation. When Ellis was asked to leave the store, she argued with the managers, which led to the police being called. Ellis was eventually charged with disturbing the peace, resisting arrest and two counts of assaulting a police officer.

    Ellis, a college student on her way to medical school, argues that the charges were not appropriate, particularly since she doesn’t have a history of this kind of behavior. She now faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Ellis has publicly protested the DA’s decision to push the case forward, which has led to her receiving threats from the Ku Klux Klan. The African American community is working to help Heather now, as a website has been set up for an online protest and petition fighting to support Heather’s case.

    The question here, from a business standpoint is whether or not Walmart could have done something to avoid this situation. Some people think so.

    Dr. Towanna Freeman, a management consultant, argues that Walmart could have avoided the entire problem by paying greater attention to customer service.

    “Regardless of a person’s ethnicity, gender, or sexual preference, this case started when the cashier failed to convey at least one of the core beliefs and values of Sam Walton: ‘Customers are the reason we’re in business, so we should treat them that way.’,” says Dr. Freeman. “With that said, the cashier could have easily interjected and calmed the angry crowd by saying something like, ‘Excuse me, although we don’t promote cutting lines, please allow me to assist this customer now. This will only take a few minutes. Thank you, for your patience.’”

    The case for Heather Ellis is heating up. I’ve made some calls around the country and it appears that the case might finally get the attention it deserves. Also, the Your Black World Coalition is going to get involved, along with the National Action Network, to ensure that this young lady’s case is carefully analyzed. The bottom line, however, is that this incident should never have happened and Walmart has engaged in bad business by allowing its stores to be the center of such a racially-charged controversy.

    There is the added reality that Kennett, Missouri is Rush Limbaugh country. Respect for African Americans in the legal system of this town is not what it should be, and the more emails I receive about past indiscretions in this region, the more I am starting to wonder if Heather was going to be treated fairly in the first place. The presence of the KKK doesn’t help their case and only serves to remind us that we do not live in a “post racial America.”

    Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and the 2007 Black Speaker of the Year. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. To follow Dr. Boyce on Twitter, click here. If you wish to find out more about the case of Heather Ellis, please visit www.SaveHeatherEllis.com.

     

    Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments