thoughts i had while working on some thing else

i'm currently staying with my parents in small town IL. one of the highest paying jobs in the area is Wal-Mart. every thing else is either factory work or lower pay. my mother has been there for several years now, and it seems to me that the company is bent upon self destruction. first, they forbad any employees from calling out a shoplifter, and fired all the security/ shop-lifting control personnel. then, they complained about an increase in "shrinkage" (loss of sales through illegal loss of merchandise). this led to further cut backs in staff. now, they have decided to make it easier for hold-ups by maintaining that no cashier can remain stationed at one register for too long; so every 4 hours, they have to stop what they're doing, wait for a CSM (essentially a floor manager) to come close out the register, and assign them to a new one. this recent measure is on top of the "advanced" system that logs the cashier out of the register about once every 10- 15 minutes. all of this, taken in to account with the employment cutbacks (so you can never find any one in the department you need, such as shoes, the fitting rooms, pets, et c.; nor is there any one there to clean the restrooms on a daily basis- some going as long as 2 or 3 weeks with out cleaning), seems to invite people to take their business else where. or maybe they feel that, since they've usually run out any other related business in small town areas, there will always be enough people in the more densely populated regions that will fall for the gimmicks, slogans, and convenience of the chain to be able to maintain the family (you know, the "stock holders" that were concerned about a loss in profits, also known as the family of the well know founder of the chain) will continue to be able to live in large mansions, with vacation homes in ideal locations, and drive any car, boat, or aeroplane they take a fancy to. in many ways it reminds me of the political situation of the nation at the moment. it just seems kind of sad when it's become an "old standby" to try to vote for the lesser of two evils. to top it off, i don't think there really is such a thing this year as a lesser; it's the same evil, they just come from different places.