Open Letter to Sam's Club Management

Dear Bentonville,

We are the little people.

We are the people who take care of your members each and every day. We are the people who run your registers, stock your shelves, push your carts, cut your meat, work your snack bar, put on your tires, receive your stock, sweep your floors, fit your eyeglasses, unload your trucks, drive your trucks, stock your produce, field your complaints, fill your pr-scrip-ions, and do all of the other things at store level that fills your cash registers with the money that pays not only our paychecks, but yours as well.

We work mornings, evenings, weekends, and holidays. We miss our children's first steps, ball games, piano recitals, and school presentations. We miss family meals, church services, birthday celebrations, and weekend get-togethers. We do this, year after year, to make sure that the business is properly maintained and our members' needs are met so that they can continue to pay our bills. And yours.

We gave you our dedication, our time, and our loyalty, and you used to return the favor.
Why did you suddenly decide to abandon us? Why did you abandon the 3 basic corporate beliefs?

1) Service to our customers. This one used to matter to you. Did you just decide that it was too expensive to staff our clubs sufficiently to satisfy this one? Did you decide it was too inconvenient to pay the people who worked so hard for so long to ensure our corporate success?

2) Respect for the Individual. This one doesn't even deserve lip service from you in the era of corporate policy to abandon, terminate, or "displace" all of our legacy associates.

3) Striving for excellence. If excellence only means maximizing profits for the present quarter by any means possible then you might still own this one. However, if it means providing value and quality service to our members and associates alike in the long term then this one lies on the bottom floor of the outhouse alongside Respect for the Individual.

A value is only a value if you stick to it and honor it even when it is not convenient.. It is a value if you still believe it and practice it even when it hurts a little bit to do so.

Why did you abandon our values so easily? Why???

We are the little people.

Comment! It's anonymous!

17 replies (most recent on top)

How true this is,great writing!!

@2ckh.. sadly they have already turned over and over at HO so all of those are non existent at the higher echelons of the company MM on up. We are on our own if following those beliefs these days. Especially the one on integrity oh, and service to our members of course.

Absolutely Perfectly said 👍👍

Only the Long term (boomers) will understand The Basic Beliefs and Values.. Because it is not a big deal anymore. If they get rid of enough long term associates, they can make those Beliefs go away. And let the new (millennial) associates do what they want.

They only follow the core values plus integrity or any policy when it suits and benefits them.

So sad but true and only a handful of people will read this

Copy this wonderful comment and post it on your club's website for customer comments. They'll get the message.

Why don't we all print this out and send it to big news stations over and over again. Not much will happen, but eventually they will look into the company and hopefully there could be some news reports that go around. That will scare HO a bit. I'm willing to take that little bit. It'll make me feel good.

What happened? Wall Street happened. The 3 Basic Beliefs that this company touts are only for show. They went the way of the infamous Earl Scheib paint job. They only exist on paper and not the kind that really matters. Any job held at this company - and pretty much any company - is just a job. Those at the corporate level have zero emotional connection to any of the people at the hourly wage level. In fact, the same goes for anyone who doesn't occupy a seat on the executive board. That being said, it is best for all of us to adopt the very same amount of emotional attachment in return because any of us could have our positions removed at any time. At some point, everyone here will have to come to terms with the fact that we are not important beyond whatever it is we able to provide from one moment to the next. We could clock out after working our rear ends off for eight hours, knowing we did a good job, and return the next day to nothing and it could happen at any time with no warning whatsoever. That is the reality we must face. It's not personal to them, it's only business. It's all about money and the moment they feel our positions can be removed, in favor of a cheaper, more efficient method of doing things, we're gone.

My hero!

Wonderful letter, thank you to the person who composed it. Sadly the people at the top do not care about the "little people".

Home office does not care about us. Simple as that. We are the expendable.

Well said. Print it and send to all sams club and HO.

They have forgotten what it was like to be a little person! Thank You poster for expressing our thoughts ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!

Well said 👍

I couldn’t have said it better ! Wish I could post a copy of this next to the time clock but I am afraid I would be terminated for it.

Amen!!!

Thread regarding Sam's Club layoffs

Open Letter to Sam's Club Management

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