A Death at Walmart
January 24, 2024 12:33 PM Subscribe
Janikka Perry never made it home from her shift at the bakery of a supercenter in Arkansas. At age 38, Janikka Perry died of a heart attack at work, on her bakery shift at Walmart in North Little Rock, Arkansas, but you will not find her death recorded by OSHA as workplace-related. The New Republic‘s investigation has revealed that while Walmart touts an enlightened approach to time off, it expects associates to work while sick, or in Perry’s case, deathly ill. “The store was short-staffed, and her manager allegedly told her to ‘pull herself together.’”
I was just going to post this! I finished reading it an hour ago and just heartbroken for her family, and the families that continue to be broken under the WalMart wheel.
posted by Kitteh at 1:09 PM on January 24 [4 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 1:09 PM on January 24 [4 favorites]
Is OSHA one the the agencies that will be utterly fucked if SCOTUS overturns Chevron? Because as toothless as they are in Arkansas, holy shit without being worried about OSHA imagine how much worse it will get.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:16 PM on January 24 [14 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:16 PM on January 24 [14 favorites]
I have lots of thoughts on Walmart. Mostly bad, but a few good things. Actually putting them into words that could be understood by anyone without the gift of omniscience is too heavy a lift at the moment, so I won't bother trying.
I can say, however, that Benton County, where Bentonville is located, has always been a shithole. The cronyism wasn't always that much worse than is found anywhere, but it has always been populated by a bunch of goddamned fascists and the Sheriff has always reflected that aspect of the place. It looks a lot nicer than it did 20 years ago thanks to all the Walton money, but it's just lipstick on a pig.
Also, the situation in Arkansas makes me very sad. As the political center of the state has moved from Little Rock up into the northwest corner of the state it's gone from being a government of mostly benign neglect with the occasional glimmer of humanity and progress to being just plain mean. In that sense it's not at all unique, but I grew up there, so it hurts me more.
posted by wierdo at 1:29 PM on January 24 [11 favorites]
I can say, however, that Benton County, where Bentonville is located, has always been a shithole. The cronyism wasn't always that much worse than is found anywhere, but it has always been populated by a bunch of goddamned fascists and the Sheriff has always reflected that aspect of the place. It looks a lot nicer than it did 20 years ago thanks to all the Walton money, but it's just lipstick on a pig.
Also, the situation in Arkansas makes me very sad. As the political center of the state has moved from Little Rock up into the northwest corner of the state it's gone from being a government of mostly benign neglect with the occasional glimmer of humanity and progress to being just plain mean. In that sense it's not at all unique, but I grew up there, so it hurts me more.
posted by wierdo at 1:29 PM on January 24 [11 favorites]
We try to avoid Wal-Mart at all costs. But on the handful of times we've been in our local, it's largely immigrant folks and it really pains me to see us onboarding people right into the shittiest parts of US capitalism.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:10 PM on January 24 [3 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:10 PM on January 24 [3 favorites]
I think we all realize there are places where avoiding Wal-Mart is prohibitively difficult, no need to try and "gotcha" folks for trying not to shop there when they do have options.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 2:34 PM on January 24 [18 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 2:34 PM on January 24 [18 favorites]
Selena777: "Where do you go for groceries instead, DirtyOldTown?"
Primarily, we shop at Mariano's, which is now a Kroger subsidiary. I don't love the Kroger connection, but they're still union (881UFCW) and they pay an okay living with benefits.
I completely and fully understand why people shop at Wal-Mart, as it's cheaper, and times are hard. But I can afford not to, so I don't. There are days where I'd rather pay a buck less for a box of Cheez-Its or whatever, but I like supporting the union place. I can definitely recall days in my life where I didn't have that choice. My mom doesn't, really.
We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese: "I think we all realize there are places where avoiding Wal-Mart is prohibitively difficult, no need to try and "gotcha" folks for trying not to shop there when they do have options."
Did you think that was what I was doing? It wasn't.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:38 PM on January 24 [8 favorites]
Primarily, we shop at Mariano's, which is now a Kroger subsidiary. I don't love the Kroger connection, but they're still union (881UFCW) and they pay an okay living with benefits.
I completely and fully understand why people shop at Wal-Mart, as it's cheaper, and times are hard. But I can afford not to, so I don't. There are days where I'd rather pay a buck less for a box of Cheez-Its or whatever, but I like supporting the union place. I can definitely recall days in my life where I didn't have that choice. My mom doesn't, really.
We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese: "I think we all realize there are places where avoiding Wal-Mart is prohibitively difficult, no need to try and "gotcha" folks for trying not to shop there when they do have options."
Did you think that was what I was doing? It wasn't.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:38 PM on January 24 [8 favorites]
Really Selena777?
Do you have no other options? That would say something right there. We go to our (still) local grocery, (union shop), and the PCC (not great on the labor issues), and another local grocery. Occasionally one of the Kroger brands, (QFC or FM). But big city, more options.
I don't even know where the nearest Wal-Mart is from me. Hang on... One in Bellevue, two up in Lynnwood/Alderwood. Think the Alderwood was the one I went into last, about a decade ago, and why, I can't say. Also went to one once in Murfreesboro IIRC. Think those are the only two times I've been in one.
And having driven to my college roomate's parents place that he inherited outside of Fayetteville... Wow. Yes. NW Arkansas is something else. Bentonville, whew. Yeah, lipstick...
posted by Windopaene at 2:40 PM on January 24 [3 favorites]
Do you have no other options? That would say something right there. We go to our (still) local grocery, (union shop), and the PCC (not great on the labor issues), and another local grocery. Occasionally one of the Kroger brands, (QFC or FM). But big city, more options.
I don't even know where the nearest Wal-Mart is from me. Hang on... One in Bellevue, two up in Lynnwood/Alderwood. Think the Alderwood was the one I went into last, about a decade ago, and why, I can't say. Also went to one once in Murfreesboro IIRC. Think those are the only two times I've been in one.
And having driven to my college roomate's parents place that he inherited outside of Fayetteville... Wow. Yes. NW Arkansas is something else. Bentonville, whew. Yeah, lipstick...
posted by Windopaene at 2:40 PM on January 24 [3 favorites]
being in a major city in not-arkansas it is trivial for me to avoid shopping at wal-mart — i'm not certain where the nearest one is — but i feel compelled to remind myself that one can only really be happy about being disconnected from the wal-mart machine if one has also disconnected oneself from the amazon machine. amazon just as bad. like, amazon is to wal-mart as ghost kitchens are to restaurants.
god i need to wean myself off of that hideous maw-mouth of a company i feel awful every time i buy anything from them but feeling awful never keeps me from putting in the order anyway.
we return you to your regularly scheduled discussion of what the post is actually about
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 2:50 PM on January 24 [13 favorites]
god i need to wean myself off of that hideous maw-mouth of a company i feel awful every time i buy anything from them but feeling awful never keeps me from putting in the order anyway.
we return you to your regularly scheduled discussion of what the post is actually about
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 2:50 PM on January 24 [13 favorites]
I was just curious because many areas are dominated by groups of “big box” stores with similarly exploitative labor practices and wanted to know if the options were qualitatively better or one of those. That being said, I live in a “right to work” state.
posted by Selena777 at 2:53 PM on January 24 [2 favorites]
posted by Selena777 at 2:53 PM on January 24 [2 favorites]
I've actually been thinking a lot about the ongoing problem with hourly wage jobs of people being forced to work when they're sick. Is this anywhere as bad in countries other than the US?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:56 PM on January 24 [3 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:56 PM on January 24 [3 favorites]
Did you think that was what I was doing? It wasn't.
No, I thought it was what the response to you was doing, but that also seems not to be the case. It's a derail that comes up a lot in conversations about consumer choices.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 3:25 PM on January 24 [7 favorites]
No, I thought it was what the response to you was doing, but that also seems not to be the case. It's a derail that comes up a lot in conversations about consumer choices.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 3:25 PM on January 24 [7 favorites]
I've actually been thinking a lot about the ongoing problem with hourly wage jobs of people being forced to work when they're sick. Is this anywhere as bad in countries other than the US?
Speaking for my part of Ontario, yes it is, even with universal healthcare. The COL is high that so many people go into work sick because they can't afford not to. If you're lucky, you find the kind of job that gives you vacation or sick days, but other than that? You work because you have to. The bills won't get paid any other way.
posted by Kitteh at 3:50 PM on January 24 [5 favorites]
Speaking for my part of Ontario, yes it is, even with universal healthcare. The COL is high that so many people go into work sick because they can't afford not to. If you're lucky, you find the kind of job that gives you vacation or sick days, but other than that? You work because you have to. The bills won't get paid any other way.
posted by Kitteh at 3:50 PM on January 24 [5 favorites]
I used to work at Walmart, two terms of service (so to speak), both times as a cashier. First time, I didn't even qualify for benefits until I was there for a year my first time working there, and this was 1999-2000. I had to leave due to complications with my pregnancy with my daughter (she's fine now, just had her 23rd birthday) and my manager was super mad about me asking to sit down because my blood pressure was climbing the day I quit.
The second time I went back was in 2007, after she was in school, and I could get a more regular schedule. Stayed until April 2014, left due to stress/burnout. I was getting migraines up to twice a week, and couldn't sleep longer than four hours at a time, even with proper sleep hygiene. I was at least full time as a customer service desk associate. I didn't even crack $10/hr after 6.5 years. Now my husband made enough that with watching the budget, I could stay home, and I've done that. Took me four years to get better about the migraines, and sleep issues.
My mom, legally stepmother, but she's my mom in every other sense of the word except blood, has Alzheimer's and worked at Walmart, the same store I worked at until I moved to the new store in the county for nearly 20 years, until she quit after her manager yelled at her about forgetting something and struck her upside the head. We could have gone to court about it, but with Mom's health, it would have been too much stress for her and my dad.
I still shop at Walmart, but at the new one in town. It was the only close place I could get groceries at during the lockdowns because of their grocery pickup, and I still use the service.
I have all sorts of tales of theft by the managers, and other utter ridiculousness done by people who enjoyed having some power over others.
posted by tlwright at 4:09 PM on January 24 [12 favorites]
The second time I went back was in 2007, after she was in school, and I could get a more regular schedule. Stayed until April 2014, left due to stress/burnout. I was getting migraines up to twice a week, and couldn't sleep longer than four hours at a time, even with proper sleep hygiene. I was at least full time as a customer service desk associate. I didn't even crack $10/hr after 6.5 years. Now my husband made enough that with watching the budget, I could stay home, and I've done that. Took me four years to get better about the migraines, and sleep issues.
My mom, legally stepmother, but she's my mom in every other sense of the word except blood, has Alzheimer's and worked at Walmart, the same store I worked at until I moved to the new store in the county for nearly 20 years, until she quit after her manager yelled at her about forgetting something and struck her upside the head. We could have gone to court about it, but with Mom's health, it would have been too much stress for her and my dad.
I still shop at Walmart, but at the new one in town. It was the only close place I could get groceries at during the lockdowns because of their grocery pickup, and I still use the service.
I have all sorts of tales of theft by the managers, and other utter ridiculousness done by people who enjoyed having some power over others.
posted by tlwright at 4:09 PM on January 24 [12 favorites]
My uncle was injured on the job at Walmart and pressured into not going to the doctor afterward or even reporting the accident. He really needed the job and didn’t feel he could push back. I’ll never forgive them for creating this fear in him. I’ll never shop at Walmart, though no judgment for folks without other options.
posted by Suedeltica at 4:21 PM on January 24 [13 favorites]
posted by Suedeltica at 4:21 PM on January 24 [13 favorites]
The title of this post, made me wonder, how many people die at Walmart? Not just workers, but customers who have heart attacks or strokes or get stabbed and die at Walmart every day? Has to be a bunch. Bet you I can't get a good google answer to that.
posted by Windopaene at 6:17 PM on January 24
posted by Windopaene at 6:17 PM on January 24
Nope. Only people who die in the parking lot and are found weeks later when the stench arrives...
posted by Windopaene at 6:43 PM on January 24
posted by Windopaene at 6:43 PM on January 24
The title of this post, made me wonder, how many people die at Walmart? Not just workers, but customers who have heart attacks or strokes or get stabbed and die at Walmart every day?
I spent my summers in university working at a steel mill, possibly a more physically hazardous environment than a Wal-Mart. The understanding we had (possibly urban myth, possibly True Fact) was that no sudden death had ever occurred at the factory. People sometimes died in the ambulance en route to the hospital, but the mill itself… well, I reckon it somehow managed to stabilize a few people who’d been dismembered, lest they die onsite and drive up the insurance premiums.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:58 PM on January 24
I spent my summers in university working at a steel mill, possibly a more physically hazardous environment than a Wal-Mart. The understanding we had (possibly urban myth, possibly True Fact) was that no sudden death had ever occurred at the factory. People sometimes died in the ambulance en route to the hospital, but the mill itself… well, I reckon it somehow managed to stabilize a few people who’d been dismembered, lest they die onsite and drive up the insurance premiums.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:58 PM on January 24
There are indeed many places in this country where Walmart is the only reasonable option for buying food, much less anything else. Sometimes it's their fault the grocery store and hardware store went out of business, but many times they were already gone before Walmart came to town and the new Walmart saves people from having to drive an hour into some other nearby city.
Thankfully, they have gotten better over the past decade or two about food quality. Time was you pretty much couldn't reliably buy fresh food there because it was already nearly rotten by the time it made it to the store. I don't go there frequently or anything (basically all my groceries come from Kroger delivery these days), but when I have been in recent years it's much, much better.
Also, I'm not certain exactly how much of their mistreatment of employees, beyond the resistance to unionization and the payscales, are really intentional on the part of the home office. I get the sense that it has more to do with not giving the least bit of a shit than actively trying to create an unsafe work environment. Store managers are given a long leash, so long as they're hitting their numbers and customers aren't complaining en masse.
That's not to say that it's OK that they don't give a shit about working conditions, just that I think that it's something that could be changed with enough pressure, unlike the anti-union stance. The hatred for unions is very much an intentional choice and ideological point of view they would be highly resistant to changing even if it would improve the bottom line. I'm pretty sure they'd shut the whole business down before accepting widespread union activity in their facilities.
posted by wierdo at 10:33 AM on January 25
Thankfully, they have gotten better over the past decade or two about food quality. Time was you pretty much couldn't reliably buy fresh food there because it was already nearly rotten by the time it made it to the store. I don't go there frequently or anything (basically all my groceries come from Kroger delivery these days), but when I have been in recent years it's much, much better.
Also, I'm not certain exactly how much of their mistreatment of employees, beyond the resistance to unionization and the payscales, are really intentional on the part of the home office. I get the sense that it has more to do with not giving the least bit of a shit than actively trying to create an unsafe work environment. Store managers are given a long leash, so long as they're hitting their numbers and customers aren't complaining en masse.
That's not to say that it's OK that they don't give a shit about working conditions, just that I think that it's something that could be changed with enough pressure, unlike the anti-union stance. The hatred for unions is very much an intentional choice and ideological point of view they would be highly resistant to changing even if it would improve the bottom line. I'm pretty sure they'd shut the whole business down before accepting widespread union activity in their facilities.
posted by wierdo at 10:33 AM on January 25
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Walmart and McDonald’s are among the top employers of beneficiaries of federal aid programs like Medicaid and food stamps, according to a 2020 study by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:47 PM on January 24 [9 favorites]