Target as Bad as Wal-Mart? You Decide

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Target as Bad as Wal-Mart? You Decide

 

By Kari Lydersen, CorpWatch. Posted May 1, 2006.

 

 

 

When it comes to wages, working conditions and effect on communities,

the two big box stores are eerily similar.

 

 

Shopping in a Target store, you know you're not in Wal-Mart. But the

differences may be mostly skin deep.

 

Targets are spaciously laid out and full of attractive displays and

promotions. While many people associate Wal-Mart with low-income,

rural communities perhaps dominated by a prison or power plant,

life-size photos throughout Target stores remind you that their

customers are a lively, beautiful cast of multi-cultural hipsters.

 

" Their image is more upscale, more urban and sophisticated, sort of a

wannabe Pottery Barn, " said Victoria Cervantes, a hospital

administrator and documentary-maker in Chicago who regularly shops at

Target. " I'm not sure if their customers really are more upscale. But

that's the image they're going for. They have a very good PR campaign. "

 

In contrast to this image, however, critics say that in terms of wages

and benefits, working conditions, sweatshop-style foreign suppliers,

and effects on local retail communities, big box Target stores are

very much like Wal-Mart, just in a prettier package.

 

Of more than 1,400 Target stores employing more than 300,000 people

nationwide, not one has a union. Employees at various stores say an

anti-union message and video is part of the new-employee orientation.

At stores in the Twin Cities, where Target is headquartered, the

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union Local 789 has been

trying for several years to help Target employees organize, with

little luck.

 

" People ask what the difference between Wal-Mart and Target is, " said

UFCW organizer Bernie Hesse. " Nothing, except that Wal-Mart is six

times bigger. The wages start at $7.25 to $7.50 an hour [at Target].

They'll say that's a competitive wage, but they can't say it's a

living wage. We know a lot of their managers are telling people, 'If

we find out you're involved in organizing a union you'll get fired.' "

 

Wal-Mart has about 3,800 stores nationwide and another 2,600

worldwide, employing about 1.6 million people. Target plans to open at

least 600 more stores by 2010, for a total of about 2,000 in 47

states. Like Wal-Mart, a typical Target sells a wide range of consumer

goods including clothing, household items, office supplies, toys,

sports equipment, furniture, art, and electronics; and the stores

often have photo laboratories and pharmacies. About 160 SuperTargets

nationwide also sell " upscale " groceries, as the company's website

describes them, and often contain banks, Starbucks, and Pizza Hut

Express outlets. Total revenue was up 12.3 percent in 2005 - $52.6

billion compared to $46.8 billion in 2004.

 

Wage Slaves

 

A survey by the UFCW found that starting wages are similar in Targets

and Wal-Marts -- possibly higher overall at Wal-Marts - and that

Target benefits packages are often harder to qualify for and less

comprehensive. (Target's media relations department refused to comment

on its wages and benefits policies; individual wages and benefits

policies are not included in their annual report.)

 

" We know that Target and Wal-Mart are constantly checking each other

out and seeing how cheap they can get by, " says a UFCW statement on

the website Targetunion.org, urging Target employees around the

country to post their wages.

 

A Target employee who asked that his name and store location be kept

secret said he can barely make ends meet on his salary of $8.40 an hour.

 

" After three years, I have received less than $1 an hour in raises. I

started at $7.65, " said the worker, adding that he does love his job

because of camaraderie with his co-workers. " We are never compensated

and rarely even recognized for meeting our goals. "

 

The starting wage he describes would put a single parent with two kids

working full time at Target just slightly above the poverty line;

someone with more children or working fewer hours would fall below the

poverty line.

 

Compare that to Target CEO Robert Ulrich, who earned $23.1 million in

2005, according to Forbes, making him the second-highest paid CEO in

the retail sector. That's more than 1300 times as much as the worker

we spoke to.

 

Sweat on the Racks?

 

Meanwhile a glance at labels on a few racks of stylish $20 cardigans

and capri pants shows that, like Wal-Mart and most major clothing

retailers, Target itself sources its products in India, Indonesia,

Guatemala, Mexico, Bangladesh, Kenya, Sri Lanka, the Philippines,

Vietnam, Cambodia and other low-wage, developing countries.

 

In October 2005 representatives of a Mexican labor federation

protested outside a Bronx Target to call attention to alleged child

labor and illegal worker lockouts at a Mexican factory that supplies

the store's Halloween costumes.

 

" The way the global garment industry is, there are so few factories

that respect workers' rights that there is no way Target gets its

clothes from workplaces where workers' rights are being respected, "

said Allie Robbins, national organizer of the group United Students

Against Sweatshops.

 

Race to the Bottom

 

Target doesn't differ from most major clothing vendors; you usually

have to seek out small specialty companies to find union-made,

American-made textiles. But as one of the country's major retailers,

Target is an industry leader, fostering and profiting from the U.S.'s

general culture of consumerism: We buy, buy, buy at ever lower prices

in a market system sustained by very low-paid, non-union workforces in

impoverished countries.

 

Even as American consumerism thrives, however, there is growing public

awareness and critique of the problems it spawns. Wal-Mart is becoming

a lightning rod for the public's increasing dissatisfaction and

animosity. A recent study by the University of Massachusetts at Lowell

showed that 63 percent of people would oppose a Wal-Mart opening in

their community. Groups such as Wal-Mart Watch, several documentarians

have harshly critiqued Wal-Mart's working conditions and its effects

on communities and international labor standards.

 

But somehow, perhaps because of its relative small size compared to

Wal-Mart, Target has largely avoided negative publicity.

 

In fact, it benefits from anti-Wal-Mart anger, a fact that isn't lost

on company officials.

 

Media reports describe Target executives booing and hissing at a

Wal-Mart logo during sales meetings and calling it the " evil empire. "

While communities often fight tooth and nail against new Wal-Marts,

residents usually welcome Targets, as local governments offer the

corporation generous tax breaks and subsidies to locate in their area.

 

That is what happened last fall in West St. Paul, Minn., where a new

Target reaped $731,000 in local tax breaks, while 30 miles away, Ham

Lake was fighting Wal-Mart's efforts to open a superstore. The Target

in downtown Minneapolis received $68 million in public subsidies,

according to the Star Tribune newspaper. In Chicago in 2004, a

city-wide coalition formed to oppose two proposed Wal-Marts and the

fight roiled the city council for months. Meanwhile at least three new

Target stores have been built in the metro area in the last several years.

 

Target definitely works hard on its image. Last summer it became the

first company to sponsor an entire issue of The New Yorker, with 17

pages of ads. With a 2005 advertising budget of $1.028 billion, it

regularly takes out full page ads in major daily papers and magazines,

promoting the company's products, and sophisticated image as well as

its charity work. The company's website says that 96 percent of

Americans recognize the Target logo, " more than the Swoosh or Apple. "

Unlike Wal-Mart's low-budget, cluttered decor, Target sports artsy,

larger-than-life photos of everything from cleaning products to

desserts to women in lingerie. It is the exclusive marketer of

specialty items such as the Roots " retro-futurism " official gear for

the 2006 Winter Olympics. Target's website notes that its average

consumer has a median household income of $55,000, and 43 percent have

completed college.

 

" It's like they're trying to be Marshall Fields or something, " said

Chicago high school student Stephanie Evans, shopping for a bikini for

spring break. " But it's really the same things as at Wal-Mart, just at

higher prices. "

 

The first Target discount store opened in Roseville, Minnesota, a

suburb of St. Paul, in 1962. It was run by the Dayton Company, which

originated in 1902 with a retail store called Goodfellows owned by

George Dayton in Minneapolis. Along with the discount stores, Target

Corp. runs Target Financial Services, which manages the Target REDcard

credit card.

 

Target: We Train the FBI

 

Perhaps Target's oddest singularity is the fact that it boasts one of

the nation's top forensics labs at its company headquarters. A product

of its efforts to stop shoplifting and property destruction at its

stores, its mastery of surveillance and investigative technology and

strategy is now eagerly d to by law enforcement agencies

nationwide, including the FBI. The company provides training for

police and federal agents on investigation and prevention of

everything from arson and robbery to smuggling.

 

Target does more proportionately for the community in the form of

community grants and charity than Wal-Mart does, and spends

considerably less boating about it. According to the company website,

which says Target donates more than $2 million a week to local and

national non-profit organizations. The company gives grants of $1,000

to $3,000 to community organizations, and shoppers can donate 1

percent of Target REDcard charges to a local school. The website says

more than $154 million has been donated to schools since 1997. The

company also runs Target House, a luxury residential facility in

Memphis where families can stay while their seriously ill children are

treated at a nearby medical center.

 

In comparison, Wal-Mart, with revenue of $288 billion in 2005, donated

$200 million (or 7/100ths of a percent) to charities and organizations

in 2005, according to its web site.

 

While many customers and employees praise Target's charity efforts,

critics counter that the company would have more positive impact on

communities by providing living wage, stable jobs to local residents.

 

Following the general trend in retail and the U.S. job market as a

whole, Target relies on part-time workers. This schedule may work well

for some students and retired people, but it contributes to a dearth

of full-time, fully benefitted, stable employment - especially in

communities reeling from the store's impact on small local businesses.

 

" If I needed a full time job I couldn't afford to work here, " said

" Rosa " a 57-year-old who works part time at a St. Paul Target near her

house. (Her name has been changed because she fears retribution.) " It

starts at $7.50 an hour and you only get a 50-cent raise once a year.

So how long will it take you to even get to $10 an hour! You can't

live on that. "

 

Diversity Dilemma

 

Target's website says diversity is a core value for employees and

customers. It says Target is above national averages in employing

minorities, both in the overall workforce (21 percent) and managerial

positions (38 percent).

 

But that may depend on the store. Hesse said that some of the many

Somalis refugees employed in the Twin Cities stores complain about

cultural insensitivity and discrimination.

 

" Entry level management people just don't know how to handle it, they

seem to be insensitive to immigrant workers, " said Hesse. " In one

store, there's a lot of friction between managers and Somali workers.

They hire these young white boys as managers, and then they run a crew

of Somalis with a very condescending attitude. "

 

An African-American employee at the flagship Roseville, Minn. store

(who asked that her name not be used for fear of retribution), said

she feels as if she constantly suffers racial discrimination. She said

there are no black supervisors on the overnight shift she works.

" There are a lot of Somalis working on the overnight shift, but no

Somali team leader. " She said she is tired of young white " team

leaders " repeatedly telling her to work faster or do things differently.

 

" It's the same conversation over and over, " said the middle-aged

woman. " They treat us like we're kids. And they'll approach you in

front of other crew members, not in the office or somewhere private. "

 

She thinks she was unfairly given a document from management saying

she needed to increase her work speed.

 

" I feel like I was discriminated against because I'm black, " she said.

" I talked to white co-workers who I was working side by side with, and

I could see I was working just as fast as them. I asked them if they

had to sign the paper [from management] saying they were too slow and

they did not. The majority who got the " guidance " slips were Somali or

African-American like myself. "

 

Beat the Clock

 

Workers generally complain about a pressurized and patronizing work

atmosphere where they are constantly pressed to work harder and faster

and at the same time to act cheery and invested in the store's

success. The company's website boasts that workers will respond with

" cheetah-like " speed within 60 seconds to customer calls on the red

phones throughout the store.

 

Rosa said employees are constantly exhorted to get shoppers to sign up

for Target REDcards; some stores have weekly quotas. " They'll have

little employee promotions, it's so ridiculous, you'll get candy or a

liter of pop if you get two people to sign up, " she said.

 

She said the store is generally understaffed and workers are expected

to do numerous jobs at the same time.

 

" You're running around, feeling like you're being pulled in every

direction, " she said. " There's never enough people on the sales floor.

You're getting calls to come up to the cash register, to do pulls [of

merchandise] in the back room, to deal with returns at guest services,

all at once. And the whole time you're constantly picking up and

folding stuff, getting things off the floor. At my age it's a really

hard day, on your feet the whole time on these linoleum floors. I'm

aching when I get home. I have to take Ibuprofen just to be able to

sleep. "

 

John Hayden had a similar experience working in a Target distribution

center near his home in Oconomowoc, Wisc. After quitting his Target

job in 2002, he was diagnosed with a hernia which he blames on lifting

up to 700 boxes a day.

 

" It was hard work, " said Hayden, who was in his late 50s at the time.

" We never produced enough to keep the middle managers happy. I think

they plan it that way - they always want more. "

 

Could it Be Different?

 

In today's market, could retail really be any different? Fair labor

advocates think so. Hesse notes that in several unionized grocery

stores in the Twin Cities, hourly wages hover around $13 to $17 an

hour, roughly double Target's. Now SuperTarget's sale of groceries

threatens the survival of union grocery stores.

 

Even other major big box retailers have managed to pay significantly

higher wages and achieve higher employee retention. The prices at

Costco Wholesale Corp., the nation's fifth largest retailer, are

competitive with those at Target and Wal-Mart, but it pays full-time

employees an average of around $16 an hour along with generous health

benefits.

 

Costco pulls this off by offering fewer brands of each item, keeping

infrastructure costs low and forgoing advertising; and the company

also benefits financially from low employee turnover. Labor advocates

also note that The Container Store is known for decent wages and good

working conditions.

 

" We've turned into a nation of consumers, not citizens, " said Hesse.

" We need to make retailers and employers bring back the old social

contract where if you work hard and give them full time, they have to

treat you with some degree of dignity and pay you enough that you

don't need to worry about your basic needs all the time. "

 

Kari Lydersen, a regular contributor to AlterNet, also writes for the

Washington Post and is an instructor for the Urban Youth International

Journalism Program in Chicago.