Walmart: Using local people for shipping

I find this too risky. Using local people to deliver packages in order to get a discount at Walmart??
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/28/us-retail-walmart-delivery-idUSBRE92R03820130328
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What do you find so risky about it?
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Very interesting. I wonder how successful it'll be.
Can't be much worse than the post office. Might even be better.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Insurance and liability?
I hope they do background checks on the people involved.
They've stated that they'll be dealing with that stuff. You'll have to give your name/address as they'll be looking to have customers drop things on their way home; which also ensures that if something goes wrong they can properly investigate. And since many states require a couriers license and or other licenses in order to be permitted by law to be a courier, giving false information should not be a significant issue.
It'll still be a few years before they bring this out, if they even will. Certainly worth keeping an eye on though.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Well lets see Wall Mart be as decent as COSTCO. But that is as likely as God scraping the concept of hell.
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COSTCO's business model is to have fewer high quality employees than Walmart. Walmarts' business is to have more employees but have lower standards for whom they hire. Costco offers more employee benefits but it is also harder for low skill/low experience people to get hired there. So if companies are forced to pay benefits as does Costco, they'll hire a lot few employees.
So the bottom line is if companies behave more like Costco, they'll be a lot fewer jobs for those that need a job the most. Plus how are the poor supposed to afford the membership fee at Costco? Costco does this because they only target the middle class and rich. They don't want to service the poor as customers as does Walmart.
So where do you suggest these people that would loose there job go? Are you going to pay their bills? Do you ever consider the unintended consequences of your political positions?
Costco: 97.062 billion Revenue, 174,000 Employees. 1793 Employees/Billion in revenue.
Walmart: 446.95 Billion revenue, 2.2 million Employes. 4922 Employees/Billion in revenue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
I don't see how it is any different than any other delivery service such as Pizza delivery, which has similar issues. I am not certain that their model of reimbursement will be sufficient to attract enough people to be able to provide consistent service, but maybe it is.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
Don't know how it is in Canada, but the US Post Office.....SUCKS
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
Not much better, if at all. I have extremely limited experience with the US postal service though, so I could be completely off.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Big difference from delivering a big screen TV from a pizza.
I don't think they have any intention of using this method of delivery for big screen tvs. You do know that Walmart carries a lot of small stuff? This is meant to supplement/replace UPS and Fedex for all their small packages- you know the ones that come in the small truck and a single carrier brings it to your door. I imagine for the big stuff like tvs and furniture, they will continue to use their truck freight where you set up an appointment and you pay extra if you want the driver to even take it out of the truck, more if you want it brought inside your house and more if you want it carried upstairs.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
One would think that is logical, but look at some of the fuckwads running the world today... you never know.
I don't think tv's would be an issue. If Walmart is anything like most electronics stores then they already have a service for delivery and instalation, with instalation being the prime focus (Most tvs are extremely light these days. Only plasmas really have weight to them, and plasmas suck ass).
I can't see them going with untrained customers being sent into other customers homes. That's a whole new level of liability.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.