Walmart employees are asking for their grocery and merchandise discounts to be expanded to cover more food options, on top of the existing 10 percent discount. This demand sprouted after their successful effort in "pressuring the company to raise wages for more or less a hundred thousand employees in June.
Competitors like Target and Whole Foods give employees an across-the-board discount on all groceries sold and pruchased in the store, but Walmart allows its workers a 10% discount only on produce and certain snacks, and then only if they’re not on sale.
Currently, the retailing company workers get a 10% discount on purchases in the store, with the exception of most grocery items and basic food products. Calling for more food items to be added into their existing employee benefit, labor activists have begun their steps towards the attainment of their objectives.
Started by a group of workers, an online petition demanding for an extended discount on all food has over 12,900 signatures, needing only a few more to reach the 15K-signature goal. Reports said that they plan to take the petition to store managers and executives this month.
When asked as to how this would also benefit the supermarket giant, Walmart associate Nancy Reynolds said that extending the discount would encourage employees to spend more money at Walmart as well as produce healthier workers.
However, Walmart tells Bloomberg that its company surveys show an extension of the employee discount has been mentioned by workers but is not their highest priority, ranking below increased wages and better, more regular scheduling.
A Walmart spokesman neither confirmed nor denied the company's stand on this discount expansion appeal. Thus, it is also reiterated that the world's largest retailer is "always reviewing benefits".
