The Wallingford Wal-Mart Men's Room On Palm Sunday 2011 At 8pm
Corporate Greed Is Out Of Control
We sincerely prefer reporting good rather than bad news. This is a bad news report, unfortunately. Wal-Mart of Wallingford, under the dubious direction of local Store Manager Doug Yeakey, and ultimately led by CEO and world top-20 billionaire S. Robson Walton (who moved in as CEO only 2 days following his father Sam Walton’s death in 1992, even before all the funeral ceremonies were complete) and his brother, another top-20 billionaire James Carr Walton, is a routinely unsanitary, neglectful and unresponsive facility. Several weeks ago at Examiner.com we reported on abuses of employee relations, understaffing, failure to provide adequate handicapped access, the sale of bottled beverages when bottle redemption, as required by Connecticut law, was not enabled by Wallingford Wal-Mart, deceptive and inappropriate pricing schemes and more.
It Was Hard Watching A Little Kid Trying To Walk Around The Filth In This Bathroom
While An Unsuspecting Mom Waited Right Outside The Door For Her Beloved Son
Assuming The Store Manager and Wal-Mart Inc. Was Responsible and Humane Enough
To Ensure A Safe And Disease-Free Environment.
:'(
The photographs in the accompanying slide show are from approximately 8pm at Wallingford Wal-Mart last evening, Sunday night April 18th, 2011. The Men’s room was filthy, unhealthy and unsanitary beyond description. A young child with her unsuspecting Mom waiting outside the bathroom was attempting to navigate the facilities trying to avoid the scummy debris as he walked across the floor, the Mom not able to accompany her boy into the Men’s room unfortunately unwittingly subjecting her grade school son to potential severe health hazards and disease! Thank you Store Manager Doug Yeakey! The toilets clogged, the floor littered with toilet paper and paper towels, the trash bin overflowing by 2 to 3 feet! It was evident that it had gone neglected by the Wal-Mart management for most of the busy shopping day, one Sunday before Easter, a big retail shopping day. It took a long time to get this bad, and understaffing is the obvious reason, as we’ve reported in earlier published articles. These photos will be provided to the Wallingford Health Department this Monday morning, and follow-up reporting will be done here.
The Public Bottle Redemption Area.
Sad.
Very Sad.
We went to the service desk and offered our complaint, and the head cashier was clearly offended and took as immediate action as she could, but no maintenance person was apparently available, and she went on her dinner break, as scheduled and appropriately following acting upon my complaint. I went about my brief business within the store, and found the bathroom still untouched by maintenance when I finished my shopping and spoke with a man who said he was a manager. He, too, said he’d follow up, saying “I’m only hourly, not salary” and denying personal responsibility for the condition of the bathroom which was no more than 20 feet from his station and within eyesight as we spoke. He was aware of my earlier complaint before I spoke with him, and I gave him my contact information and requested a phone call back from the store manager today. I have yet to hear back from the store.
The bottle redemption area was horrific again last evening as well, as in prior visits. Only one can machine was operable, glass and plastic could not be redeemed. Wallingford Wal-Mart routinely keeps the bins full for reasons of their obviously intentional policy of cutting corners on maintenance and cleaning (as well as customer service) staff for profit motive. The area was, as usual filthy, the garbage overflowing and a health hazard and disease-fest for anyone daring to enter the facility. Torn and open crushed dirty empties from the machines lay on the floor, the floor had obviously not been recently mopped and it was a cesspool of potential viral infection. This is typical of this redemption area at Wallingford Wal-Mart.
It is rarely possible to redeem bottles and cans because of Wal-Mart's short
staffing policy for profit.
By cutting back so severely, the Wallingford Community's health is now severely compromised.
The Store Manager responsible for these deplorable conditions refuses to answer questions,
saying "Call Arkansas." His name is Doug Yeakey.
The primary owners of Wal-Mart are world top-20 billionaires
S. Robson Walton, CEO and his brother James Carr Walton.
Corporate greed at all levels stinks Mr. Walton, Mr. Walton and Mr. Yeakey!
You couldn't redeem all your bottles and cans last night, a routine situation in violation
of Connecticut law. It saves the store money galore.
It also creates a filthy environment and makes people wait forever
for a bin to be emptied if they are assertive enough, healthy enough and
comprehend how to get a maintenance person out to do it, if one is even on
duty at all! And yet, Mr. Yeakey and his defensive
Wal-Mart management 'team' have the nerve to fail to
provide adequate redemption facilities as required by law while
selling full beverage bottles and cans galore for huge profits!
The nerve!
We’ve asked Doug Yeakey, Wallingford Wal-Mart Store Manager to hear our complaints and answer questions, but he’s refused as reported in an earlier article. The last time we attempted to speak with Mr. Yeakey we did succeed in speaking with him briefly by phone after several in-person and phone attempts, and at that time he abruptly and rudely refused any comment, referring all questions regarding Wallingford Wal-Mart’s relationship to the Wallingford community, including the general health and welfare of the people—especially the kids—of this wonderful little New England small city—to an office in Arkansas. Our repeated calls to the number provided by Yeakey in Arkansas, including several messages left with our contact information provided, have gone totally unanswered.
We will once again provide Mr. Yeakey with this documentation today and the opportunity to address these matters. We will once again phone Arkansas, the number provided was 800-331-0085, and attempt to solicit a response. And we will visit the Wallingford Health Department and inform them of conditions at Wal-Mart last evening, as well as visit Wallingford Wal-Mart to see if conditions have improved at all since last evening. Stay tuned, we will keep you posted on developments on this health danger to the community that is Wallingford Wal-Mart.
3 comments:
Very interesting indeed. I think you've hit the nail on the head... corporate greed. Not enough staff saves them money... everyone suffers except the ones in charge. This is great investigative journalism!
Hello there. I am writing to you not to put you down or agree or disagree with your many opinions about the Wallingford, Walmart. I would just like to say that although the bathroom did not look clean, did it ever occur to you that it's the customers (like you, yes even you!) that contribute to this? It's humanly impossible for every fallen piece of toilet paper or every splatter to be cleaned as soon as it occurs. Especially at Walmart, a place that more then 2,000 people enter in an hour. The maintenance crew has many duties to attend to. Do you want them to stand in the bathroom at all times cleaning up after the customers like at the casino because that is the only way to avoid this. And even when they do clean the bathrooms the customers yell and curse at them because they need to use them. I think you should write a blog on how inconsiderate and uncompassionate the customers are. Honestly not even trying to be funny or witty here. The customers throw EVERYTHING on the floor, they steal left and right, and completely destroy the store and the bathrooms amoung many other things. Please write a blog about the customers. I would appreciate it. Thanks.
@Geneva: The Health Director and Wallingford's Health Department disagreed. They had ridiculously inadequate maintenance. If you've been to this store, and since you know the comings and goings of Wallingford Walmart so well, I assume you do, in fact I suspect you work there and are on the "Management" team, and if you had kids or even were sanitary yourself in your personal hygiene, you'd comment differently and NEVER use a Walmart bathroom. You obviously did not read my article, I've documented this over time and proven that hours and shifts go by without any attempt to clean these filthy vile facilities at all until the town's Health Director, thanks to my repeated complaints, compelled Store Manager Doug Yeakey to keep a log and report to her how often these vile facilities are cleaned. You allege that customers "yell and curse" at maintenance employees, that they are "inconsiderate and uncompassionate" and that "The customers throw EVERYTHING on the floor, they steal left and right, and completely destroy the store and the bathrooms amoung many other things." You obviously have sour grapes for some reason, and I certainly believe its because you're stuck working there on this pathetic "management team."
Post a Comment