Walmart pressing felony charges against employee who ate ‘multiple’ Oreo cookies
More folders for our "Neo-Dickensonian Evil files"
A Portage Police Department report obtained by The Smoking Gun on Thursday said that Penny Winters had been arrested after a Walmart investigation determined she was guilty of theft.
According to the report, Walmart Asset Protection Manager Kenneth Moreno told police that the company had reviewed surveillance video after an open bag of Oreo cookies was found in the store.
...
Winters’ son explained to WBBM that his mother could not afford to pay for the items because she only made a wage of $11.40 an hour after working for Walmart for eight years.
Winters is charged with one count of felony theft and could be sentenced to jail if found guilty.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/21/walmart-pressing-felony-charges-against-employee-who-ate-multiple-oreo-cookies/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Excellent post 142.
Did read your PM...will PM back in a bit
+Bazillion.
Feel free to use as you will!
Bake
it is considered a living wage. Perhaps the employer would do a little soul searching...
NO! Of course Walmart won't do that. It's a fekking evil place.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/10/1141724/-Walmart-fuels-inequality-epidemic-taking-advantage-of-our-safety-net
At over $446 billion per year, Walmart is the third highest revenue grossing corporation in the world. Walmart earns over $15 billion per year in pure profit and pays its executives handsomely. In 2011, Walmart CEO Mike Duke – already a millionaire a dozen times over – received an $18.1 million compensation package. The Walton family controlling over 48 percent of the corporation through stock ownership does even better. Together, members of the Walton family are worth in excess of $102 billion – which makes them one of the richest families in the world.
So instead of making the Walmart workplace a CEO paradise (aka hell for everybody else) perhaps if they paid their employees decently they would have this problem?
how many of their employees are on welfare, how the US taxpayer has to fund WM's stinginess and yet
neither time has this been addressed.
I could care less that WM is freaking out. They have created the mess that they are in by destroying communities, and now that the people in these communities have to cut back?
WM could blame whatever it likes while some will rush to its defense, but that still does not justify why they pay their employees so little that they have to resort to additional welfare or the theft of a few cookies.
Perhaps if their business model didn't rely on selling cheap imported Chinese plastic crap while crushing every competitor around them first they might have a consumer base that could spend a little more at their stores?
and the $11.40 an hour wage earner is the one that gets charged with a felony.
and it has something to do with Dante in my opinion. 
that capitalist has most of the rights. 
(I am familiar with Proudhon )
Perhaps a Paris Commune or Lyon Commune is in order?
Which has grown invasive and pervasive in American culture. I have family in France, and let me tell ya, no one protests like the French! In France, the government fears the people, here people fear the government.
I have read some of the threads that you've mentioned. I've also read the Drone Assassination apologia. Is there hope? I don't know. We're somewhere between Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World." The propaganda is so subtle, and so sophisticated that most people (those who haven't read Zinn) are not aware that they are not free. They are also so comforted by luxuries and other such diversions, that they acquiesce to what the government will do in our name, and to the new realities (the so called New Normal). It's frustrating. We, generally, have become so servile to authority, that we really have trouble thinking for ourselves (collectively and individually).
The American Dream is that of subservience and obedience - and it has been that way since the founding of this nation.
It's great to have this conversation with you. 
has always been better than ours.
In France, the government fears the people, here people fear the government.
That is so true, but don't tell the crazy gun nuts that, they think they are not afraid.
The Greeks do a fair job of protesting as do the Brits. Raise tuition and the kids took to the streets burning and looting. Here a bit of tear gas in the face and its all over. Sometimes I think it is due to the deification of Martin Luther King, Jr and Gandhi. Peaceful civil disobedience. But people forget that Gandhi was protesting an occupation by a foreign nation and King was protesting a government and society that saw Africans Americans as second class citizens. Peaceful protests were the only option available to them.
I'm enjoying it as well Fantastic Anarchist.
In the late 80s, I ran with a group of diverse hooligans; skinheads (non-racist SHARP Skins), mods, punks, etc. We would run around downtown attacking (I'm pro-peace but I am not a pacifist) Hammer Skins and WAR Skins and other garden-variety "boneheads" (a derogatory term used by skinhead subculture against racist skins). Would smash their property, get in fights and otherwise just make life miserable for them. This was in Dallas, and they were the minority. I do remember one time, out in the 'burbs' where they had identified a girl I hung out with, and they surrounded her house, were on the roof - everywhere. That was a pretty scary time, until my friends showed up. I'm talking huge scary looking SHARP skins. The boneheads suddenly didn't want any trouble. That and another time when my friend got stabbed in front of me, were pretty scary incidents.
It was interesting sometimes, because a few of the boneheads weren't even that committed to their racism. Whenever they weren't with their groups, sometimes they would actually hang out with us and have beers and listen to music. Some were converted. Some, well, some were just lost causes. Kind of like American History X types.
Ahhh, the memories.
As with the Greeks, when in Greece, do what the Greeks do!
That's why I don't wear Trojans.
more information than I need. 
surely it will be thrown out...
Walmart
Worst Company Ever
The Walton family steals billions upon billions and uses that to pay lobbyists and buy politicians who work for their benefit while screwing over their workforce. And now they have the balls to charge a woman eating a snack she couldn't afford on her measily salary with felony theft? Where do we get the pitchforks and torches again?? 
...yet. Some information is in the article, some in the video associated with the article.
Disclaimer: I have no desire to change anybody's opinion of Walmart. The opinions so far expressed are very consistent with mine. I have three inviolable goals in life: 1.To never own a suit, 2.To never enter a Walmart, and 3. To never eat at McDonalds again (yeah, I screwed up in my youth).
As many people have pointed out on this thread, the truly tragic aspect is that too many people don't earn living wages, and this employee is just such a person. Ms. Winters has worked at Walmart for 15 years (7 in AZ, 8 in IN) as a 'maintenance' worker.
So, she 'allegedly confessed' to being a 'repeat' offender, apparently without getting legal counsel (possibly because she was embarrassed by getting caught). No indication that she was not read her Miranda rights... Evidently her transgressions were all similar - chips, cookies, jerky - while she was working nights as a janitor.
The other part of the story is that Walmart has been and continues to be aggressively concerned about 'inventory shrinkage' - ie. shoplifting, by customers and employees. The company claims to be losing ~$3 billion per year. The widespread use of surveillance video is part of this campaign to reduce the loss. There are lots of articles on this topic - here's a random example: Shoplifting Is On The Rise At Wal-Mart
Industry wide, shoplifting rates have been in decline as retailers have implemented more security systems such as closed circuit TV and other anti-theft devices that are encoded into products. Even so, over the last few years, apparently, shoplifting is on the rise at Wal-Mart. So much so, that Wal-Mart has actually disclosed publicly that it is seeing an increase in shrinkage. No, not the kind George from Seinfeld experienced after swimming in cold water. Shrinkage is the industry term for inventory losses. Securities regulations require companies to alert shareholders to significant corporate developments that could affect the value of their holdings. Has inventory shrinkage become that bad at Wal-Mart?
<snip>
Many believe employee theft is on the rise. Several months back, Wal-Mart announced that they were changing the way employees were scheduled to accommodate peak shopping times. The concept also uses more part-time employees. While this sounds good for shoppers, it was not that good for employees. Rather than working a normal 8 hour shift, an employee may work only 4 hours to cover peak times on one day and/or maybe more hours on a Saturday to cover the busy weekend.
The end result that is being speculated is that employees are getting the shaft and are more prone to feel entitled to a free item or two when they leave the store for the day. If you were a full-time person who depending on what little pay you received and now it has been cut, you might feel entitled to pick up a few items. I am in no way condoning this, I am merely pointing out what may be happening.
The second reason is that has employees have become more discontent, they are more apt to NOT pursue other shoplifters. The general thought is that since the company does not care enough to treat me well, the heck with trying to stop that person who is stealing that item. Seriously, ask yourself, how many times have you seen someone walking out the door and the shoplifting detection system has gone off? I do not know about you, but I see it all the time. People just keep on walking and no one from Wal-Mart seems to care or check to see if a theft has just occurred.
The third reason is likely due to Wal-Mart cutting back on security. It has been widely reported that Wal-Mart has cut back on security when it went to the revised scheduling systems. With less people watching the front or back of the store, apparently, it must be easier to steal from Wal-Mart. The latest estimates put the Wal-Mart Inventory shrinkage at $3 billion a year. Yes, that is $3 billion with a B. When compared to the billions in sales Wal-Mart makes, the percentage is small, and again, is below industry norms. Still, $3 billion is a HUGE number. The question to ask, is it cheaper to hire staff to prevent shoplifting or is it cheaper to allow a certain percentage to occur as long as it remains at an acceptable level. That would be quite a study to undertake.
The final reason I believe shoplifting is on the rise is a decision Wal-Mart made to NOT prosecute smaller shoplifting claims. You may have seen the signs that say "we prosecute all shoplifters". This has often been used as a deterrent to say that no matter how small, we will prosecute all shoplifting offenses. Well, I guess that is no longer the case.
Around June of 2006, several media sources reported that Wal-mart had implemented a new shoplifting policy which in effect said that they would no longer prosecute anyone caught taking merchandise under $25. Previously, the policy was to prosecute anybody who took at $3 in goods. No doubt Wal-Mart would have liked to keep this new policy quite, but much like anything the big behemoth retailer does, sooner or later, it gets leaked.
Anyway, Ms. Winters' story is sad, but it does provide some cautionary details for anyone considering putting their hand in the cookie jar inappropriately.
The story also, of course, reinforces that fundamental principle of American business and justice:
Steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and they make you king.
a small minority perpetrates a con on the rest of the populace which costs people large chunks of their retirement money and their homes, while the small minority makes billions.
