Last Thanksgiving, according to this article by John W. Cox of the Tampa Bay Times, 73-year-old Jan Sullivan of St. Petersburg, Florida, was fired from her job at Walmart.  The reason?  An impatient customer wanted to exit the store through the entrance door rather than walk through the checkout area where Ms. Sullivan, a greeter, was stationed.  The customer insisted on passing and pushed Ms. Sullivan on her way out.  To keep herself from falling, Ms. Sullivan says, she momentarily grabbed the woman’s sweater.

She was suspended that evening for violating a Walmart policy that forbids employees to touch customers.  Two days later, she was fired.  Walmart stated that Sullivan’s actions created “a bad experience for our customer.”

The incident was recorded by a store security camera.   Walmart will not release the tape.

Ms. Sullivan was not able to get a lawyer to plead her case.  She was denied unemployment compensation — because her dismissal was based on her own “misconduct” — and she lost her appeal.  Since she cannot find work, she has had to sell her house to make ends meet.

Walmart is a $240 billion company by market capitalization and it reported profits of over $15 billion this year.  This is how they make their money.  They may have low prices but you won’t find good values in their stores.

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Note: Updates to The 100 Billionth Person Blog

You may notice a few changes I have made to the navigation for this blog.  In the header, there is now a link that lists all of my posts, which you can sort by title or by date.  In the sidebar, I have added links for popular (Top Ten, no less!) search terms.  I have eliminated ads and added my current reading list.  Finally, I have reduced the number of categories for my posts.  It was pointless and silly to list eleven different varieties of “commentary” when it all comes from the same brain.

As always, thanks for reading and responding.