by bintangkecil on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 | Business, News | No Comments

A Walmart store announcer tells black people to leave the store. The company apologized to the upset customers.

A male voice came over the public-address system Sunday evening at a store in Washington Township, in southern New Jersey, and calmly announced: “Attention, Walmart customers: All black people, leave the store now.”

Shoppers in the store at the time said a manager quickly got on the public-address system and apologized for the remark. Many customers expressed their anger to store management.

“I want to know why such statements are being made, because it flies in the face of what we teach our children about tolerance for all,” said Sheila Ellington, who was in the store at the time with a friend.

Officials with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., said that the announcement was “unacceptable” and that they’re trying to determine who made it and how it happened.

“We are just as appalled by this incident as our customers,” the company said in a statement. “Whoever did this is just wrong and acted in an inappropriate manner. Clearly, this is completely unacceptable to us and to our customers.”

This is not the first time the retailer has faced such problems.

There have been several past instances of black customers claiming they were treated unfairly at Walmart stores, and the company faced lawsuits alleging that women were passed over in favor of men for pay raises and promotions.

In February 2009, the retailer paid $17.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in its hiring of truck drivers.

And the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the company in May 2009, claiming some Hispanic employees at a Sam’s Club subsidiary in California were subjected to a hostile work environment. That suit alleges managers failed to stop repeated verbal harassment, including the use of derogatory words, against employees of Mexican descent.

However, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has said the company has worked hard in recent years to show it cares about diversity.

Bill Mitchell, a former Walmart employee who was shopping Wednesday at the store, said that he was saddened to hear about the announcement but that “as a black man, I’ve heard worse things.”

As customer Sharon Osbourne, of Williamstown, left the store Wednesday, she called the announcement “appalling, stupid and sad.”

Tags: Wal-Mart, wal-mart incident, wal-mart incident black people, wal-mart racial, wal-mart racial incident, walmart, walmart black people incident, walmart incident, walmart incidents, walmart lawsuit, walmart racial, walmart racial incident, walmart stores

by wildcherry on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 | Deals, Events | No Comments

Wal-Mart Black Friday 2009 sales, Kohl Black Friday 2009 Sales Best Buy Black Friday 2009 sales.

Black Friday ads for retail majors like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Staples and Kohl have surfaced ahead of the November 27.

Click here to see Target Black Friday Ads!

A year after a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death by a massive crowd of bargain-hunting shoppers, the retail giant is implementing new crowd control measures to handle the crush that typically accompanies the day after Thanksgiving – Black Friday.

Among the measures:

• Most Wal-Mart stores will stay open from Thanksgiving night into Black Friday. In the past, the store closed Thanksgiving and opened its doors in the early morning hours Friday, leading to a huge crowd buildup outside its doors. The store hopes the extra hours will ease the crowd flow.

• To avoid the mad dash toward popular items, the store will have customers line up at product displays and treat them on a first come, first serve basis.

• Since Wal-Mart stores only have one entrance, making crowd control more difficult, workers will be stationed at the front of the store directing customers to the appropriate places.

All the Wal-Mart’s stores will be open day and night on the eve and all the toys will be available for $10 each plus 97 cent for shipping.
Staples have unmasked their offers through online ads. Its online store offers discounts for a range of gadgets like computers, LCD monitors, digital cameras, GPS units and USB flash drives. 21.5’’ monitor for $90 and 3.5” GPS unit for $ 69.99 are on the offer.

Kohl’s Black Friday ads detail the various discount patters it offers for clothes. Buyers can expect 33-60 % off for shirts, coats, and sweaters while lingerie and slippers will be sold with 50-60% off. Big reduction on sterling silver and diamonds are also worth waiting for.

Tags: 2009 Walmart Black Friday, air bed, apex, best buy black friday 2009, black friday, black friday 2009, Black Friday 2009 Deals, black friday 2009 sales, Black Friday 2009 Walmart, black friday walmart 2009, Black Friday Walmart Crowd Strategy, blanket, Books Movies & Music, Calming The Black Friday Crowds Comments, camcorder, casio, chi, Clothing Shoes & Accessories, comforter, Cookware, Crowd Control, deal, Deals, Digital Picture Frame, DVD Players, first act, Garmin, GE, GPS, hard drive, HDMI cable, health & beauty, iPod & Accessories, Jewelry & Watches, Kodak, lego, lexar, luggage, mattel, Memorex, MP3 Player, Nikon, Norelco, philips, picture frame, Point & Shoot, Polaroid, Power & Hand Tools, RCA, Secure Digital Card, sheets, Shopping, small appliances, sony, Target, target black friday 2009, television, Tomtom, Toys, USB Accessories, video games, walmart, walmart black friday, walmart black friday 2009, walmart black friday 2009 sales, Walmart Handles Black Friday, Western Digital

by bintangkecil on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 | Business, News, Weird | No Comments

The world’s largest retailer wants to keep its customers even after they die.

Wal-Mart has started selling caskets on its Web site at prices that undercut many funeral homes, long the major seller of caskets. Wal-Mart quietly put up about 15 caskets and dozens of urns on its Web site last week.

Beginning at $999 for lower-end models, all 27 caskets in the Wal-Mart online inventory cost less than $2,000, except the “Sienna Bronze Casket,” which sells for $3,199. The caskets come from Star Legacy Funeral Network, Inc., of McHenry, Ill., and ship within 48 hours.

Star Legacy Funeral Network, Inc. sells the same caskets for about the same price – some less – on its site, along with many others.

Tags: Caskets At Walmart, Caskets Walmart, Funeral Homes, Shopping, star legacy funeral network, Wal Mart Casket, Wal Mart Caskets, Wal-Mart Sells Caskets Online, Wal-Mart Stores, walmart, Walmart Casket, walmart caskets, Walmart Caskets For Sale Online, Walmart Inventory, Walmart Online, Walmart Selling Caskets Online

by wildcherry on Saturday, December 27th, 2008 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Wirefly - After Christmas Blowout Sale! Coolest Phones + Hottest Accessories = Biggest FREE Deals of the Year + Free FedEx Shipping on all new accounts. Ends Dec. 31 at midnight!

Wirefly: Get the BlackBerry Storm from Verizon Wireless: Special Introductory Price!

Wal-Mart confirmed Friday what everyone who follows Apple already knew: that it will begin selling Apple’s iPhone 3G at nearly 2,500 Wal-Mart stores starting Sunday Dec. 28 — three days after Christmas.

Wal-Mart will sell the red-hot mobile device for $197 for the 8GB model and $297 for the 16GB model, or $2 off their current prices. There had been rumors that Wal-Mart would sell a $99 iPhone. (See Anatomy of a rumor: Wal-Mart’s $99 iPhone.)

Wal-Mart, however, appears to be giving individual store managers some wiggle room on prices. According to the press release, the company’s price match policy will allow stores to “match the price of any local competitor’s advertised store price on the same item within the same promotional period.” Best Buy is offering the iPhone for $190 for the 8GB and $290 for the 16GB models.

Getting the iPhone into Wal-Mart (WMT) is something of a coup for Apple (AAPL). Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retail chain — by far — with more than 7,000 mega-stores around the world and some 2.1 million employees. It finished its last fiscal year with nearly $380 billion in sales — earning it the No. 1 slot in the Fortune 500.

The move represents the fourth major expansion of the iPhone’s retail presence outside Apple’s own 200-plus stores. The phone was sold first at AT&T’s (T) 2,000 retail outlets, then at nearly 1,000 Best Buy (BBY) outlets (see here), and then at the tens of thousands of points of sale (many of them no more than mom-and-pop kiosks) that carry iPhones for Apple’s overseas partners.

Source:CNN

Tags: 3g, cell phone, free cell phone, iphone, itouch, mobile, mobile phones, new, new iphone, phones, unlocked cell phone, walmart

by wildcherry on Friday, November 28th, 2008 | News | 6 Comments

Two people were killed in a shooting at a Palm Desert, California, Toys “R” Us store on Friday.

Three violent deaths in two stores marred the opening of the Christmas shopping season Friday.

In the first, a temporary Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in a rush of thousands of early morning shoppers as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York, store at 5 a.m., police said.

Here’s a cell phone video that captured the man after being trampled:

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=7aUwmsi6Wc0

In the second violent incident on what is historically one of the year’s busiest shopping days, two men were shot dead in a Toys “R” Us in Palm Desert, California, after they argued in the store, police said.

The Wal-Mart worker, whom authorities did not identify, was 34 and lived in Queens, said Nassau County police Detective Lt. Michael Fleming.

“This was utter chaos as these men tried to open the door this morning,” Fleming said.

The California shootings occurred about 11:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. ET), authorities said.

By the time police arrived, two men were dead from gunshot wounds, Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez said. He said authorities are not seeking any other suspects.

Gutierrez said that the men did not appear to be store employees and that the dispute appeared unrelated to shopping.

“There was a confrontation inside of the store. But over a toy? I don’t think that is accurate,” he said.

In a written statement, Toys “R” Us spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh said the shooting appeared unrelated to the heavy shopping day.

“Our understanding is that this act seems to have been the result of a personal dispute between the individuals involved,” she said.

She said company officials were “outraged” by the shooting and were working with authorities to find out what happened.

Gutierrez said no one else in the store was injured. The store remained closed Friday afternoon as homicide investigators studied the scene.

Full story: Walmart death,2 Dies at ToysRus Palm dessert

Tags: black friday accidents, black friday death, black friday deaths, black friday fights, black friday injuries, black friday news, palm desert shooting, shooting at toys r us, stampede, toys r us palm desert, toys r us shooting, walmart, walmart death, walmart employee dead, walmart employee trampled, walmart news, walmart stampede, walmart stampede video, walmart trample, walmart trampling