For 3 years I was on an account team supporting Walmart as one of the main technology providers. They were demanding but rational, consistent and (sometimes confrontationally) interactive. I called it the “Ozark Learning Lab”. Their $12 an hour associate wage fascinates me. I have no judgement, no “good/bad”, “right/wrong” but just accept it as a data point.

For those who would judge Walmart associate starting wages I’d ask for context. The United States has exploitatively outsourced to other countries for work done for subsistence (or less) for what, 50+ years? What seeds did we think we were sowing? We, Americans, have underinvested in education and equalization of opportunity for decades — what outcome did we suppose would come from a “privileged” as well as an “under-class” regardless if the division was more one of neglect than deliberate? I now work with people whose dream of success is to be able to shop at Walmart. We, all of us, have complex and systemic challenges before us. I’ve put on my “armor” and went to work on site as a vendor day after day in Bentonville. My general assertion is that Walmart (“what would Sam do?”) is not malevolent but rather is (while tough) simply a reflection of the logistics and retail reflection of “made in America”. It’s not Walmart we most need to question, it’s our reflection in the mirror.