Wal-Mart says their customers are 'running out of money'

I used to be part of the once a month crowd. I would go to Walmart and stock up on all my canned and dry goods, lots of frozen stuff too. Then throughout the month I would hit my local supermarket for fresh meats and produce. That changed for me this past winter. Suddenly, I saw a big rise in prices, and many of the products I used were no longer there. It was very sudden too. I mean from one month to the next. It only took me one visit and I decided I could do better stretching my limited cash and newly awarded allotment of foodstamps at my two local supermarkets, as long as I shopped with the sale flyer in hand. I haven't been back to Walmart since for groceries.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.

"We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact."

Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.

Lately, they're "running out of money" at a faster clip, he said.

"Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year," Duke said. "This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.

Full article from CNN Money at link:

http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/27/news/companies/walmart_ceo_consumers_under_pressure/index.htm

Get a job you f@@kin' bum!

That's what I hear all the time. That's the answer to America's financial woes. That's the answer when I complain about how difficult it has been to live on food stamps the past few months. Get a fuckin' job. Well let me tell you folks, I am one of the long-term unemployed for reasons that go well beyond my resume skills. I got my first real job when I was 14, I have some college, two professional licenses, and a wide variety of work experience from labor, to service, to management. Yet I have not worked full-time in almost three years now. I even dumped five grand on re-training. What a fuckin waste that was. I have filled out thousands of applications, made thousands of phone calls, forwarded my resume thousands of times. Not once, not even once did I get a call to come in for an interview. The handful of calls I did get were courtesy calls from companies basically telling me to stop bothering them because they were not going to hire me.

The other day I had some jagoff get wise with me and said that McDonald's was hiring. In fact they were. A huge hiring blitz. They intended to add a whopping 50,000 people to their national 400,000 person strong workforce. I was one of more than a 1,000,000 people who applied. Hoping, praying, that I would be one of the lucky ones who would get hired part time to scrub tables and mop out the toilets for a wage that won't even pay for the car insurance to get to and from that job. And like so many others, I did not get the job.

You can check out how Bloomberg reported on it at this link:

McDonald’s Hires 62,000 in U.S. Event, 24% More Than Planned

Also see:

Half of new jobs last month came from McD's hiring blitz

Homeless woman faces 20 years for enrolling her kid in school

A Connecticut mother who says she wanted to give her son a better education will be arraigned on Wednesday on charges for enrolling the 6-year-old in another town, sparking outrage and support from people nationwide.

Tanya McDowell, a 33-year-old homeless woman whose last known address was in Bridgeport, Conn, is scheduled to be arraigned on charges of larceny and conspiracy to commit larceny for allegedly stealing $15,686 from Norwalk schools. Prosecutors allege that figure is the value of her son's education at Norwalk's Brookside Elementary School between the time he was illegally enrolled in January and McDowell's arrest on April 14. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/25/arrest-homeless-connecticut-woman-enrolling-son-school-illegally-sparks-debate/#ixzz1KftASGcM

Poverty USA

Happy and Sad

This is actually factual. Wrote it a few years ago when I was living out of my car and the occasional motel room.

Happy and Sad

I am happy,

But I'm also sad

I got some food,

But it was bad

My pants had holes,

But I got them patched

Then someone stole them,

And the shirt that matched

I have no home,

But I do have a car,

Too bad without fuel

I won't get very far

Had a 4.0 in college,

Even made the front page

Gee I wish I had a job,

Making minimum wage

At least I've got my health,

Well just about

Had two strokes,

And my teeth ripped out

Got a free tube of toothpaste,

To keep the keepers white

Too bad I ate the whole tube,

For dinner last night

A new bar of soap,

Scrub a dub dub

I use the sink at the gas station,

Instead of a tub

They say to be thankful,

For all that you have,

I guess that's why,

I'm both happy and sad

Police storm neighborhood with snipers and a tank to evict old lady

Details are still emerging, but so far, it appears that the hours long standoff began this morning when a 62-year old woman refused to be ejected from the home she had owned and paid taxes on for more than 20 years. Word has it that her child died many years ago, and that her husband left more recently. Last year the home was sold at auction for delinquent taxes. So basically, what we saw today, was the henchman swarm in on a little old lady who couldn't afford to pay her “protection” fee any longer. God fuckin bless America.

Police standoff in Hyde Park ends, woman in custody

HYDE PARK — A five-hour standoff between police and a woman inside a house on Morris Drive has come to an end with the woman in custody, police said.

The ordeal began shortly after 9 a.m. when deputies from the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office attempted to serve an eviction order to 62-year-old Constance Palmer. According to police, Palmer refused to come out and pointed a weapon through a window.

Palmer peacefully surrendered to police at 2:44 p.m. A BB gun was recovered at the home. No one was injured in the standoff.

Palmer was charged with menacing a police officer, a felony. She was sent to Dutchess County Jail on $25,000 cash bail or $50,000 bond. She was scheduled to appear in Town of Hyde Park Court at a later date.

Story continues at link:

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110419/NEWS05/110419008/Police-standoff-Hyde-Park-ends-woman-custody?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|News|p


This story also reminded me of an event back in 2009 when a Missouri grandmother was unlawfully evicted from a home she owned outright, and charged with trespassing on her own property...