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Walmart lies to customers about 'fake' sugar tax

by Jeffery Moss
21 replies
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Everyone knows about the Walmart, the retail giant, now dominating the online world too.

However, you might not have heard about this incident where Walmart employees were lying to store customers about a supposed 'sugar tax' on Coca-Cola. You would think such a big company could be exempt from this type of corruption.


Walmart Fined For Fake 'Sugar Tax' On Coca-Cola Sales - Forbes
#customers #fake #lies #sugar #tax #walmart
  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    Frankly, I think something is missing! WHY would Walmart lie about this? I don't know about NY, but since I was accused(WRONGFULLY) of a similar thing in California, I can tell you what CALIFORNIA does! They INSTANTLY schedule a court case and DEMAND you attend, or explain. If you don't attend, or explain, you likely will be fined, and end up behind bars. If you don't explain, and are not found "not guilty", you are fined, and can lose everything.

    NOW, ****IS**** this legit? IF, for example, coke charged them a tax, which is possible, knowing how NY may be, then WAL MART had a right to ask for it back. NY may have provided some notice or something to do it. If so, Walmart was legally required IN SPITE of the law!

    Was it LEGAL to presume me guilty? NO! But they DID it! Was it reasonable to change things, and not expect possible errors? NO! But they DID it! Was it reasonable to expect a company to NEVER sell a taxable item, and persecute them if they did? NO! But they DID expect it, and forced me to periodically sell to myself, to avoid a legal problem.

    SO, having seen such garbage in CA, and knowing that Walmart didn't have to do it and faced BIG problems if a mistake happened, I am more likely to believe this is NYs fault!

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
      Hmmm, does not Coca Cola only use High Fructose Corn Syrup to sweeten it's soda's anyway?

      Only in Mexico and a few other countries do they still use cane sugar.

      You can buy it in Texas in good old bottles at an inflated price. Really good until you come down from the high!
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      • Profile picture of the author seasoned
        Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

        Hmmm, does not Coca Cola not use High Fructose Corn Syrup to sweeten it's soda's anyway?

        Only in Mexico and a few other countries do they still use cane sugar.

        You can buy it in Texas in good old bottles at an inflated price. Really good until you come down from the high!
        Actually, they DO have a variant that uses "TABLE sugar", AKA sucrose. But SUGAR comes in various forms. One is called FRUCTOSE! hFcs, aka "high FRUCTOSE corn syrup" has FRUCTOSE in it!

        Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author ThomM
        In total, Walmart sold 66,000 12 packs of Coca-Cola products - or nearly 800,000 individual sodas - at the inflated price. That, says the Attorney General, was a violation of state law. As a result, the company is required to pay, as part of a settlement, over $66,000 in penalties and other costs. The company was also tasked with taking steps to improve the way that the respond to customer complaints about pricing. I would suggest, as a start, not lying about a tax that doesn't exist.
        The state made out really good with this one.
        Instead of making walmart refund any one with a receipt or having the store run a sale for the same item (and time) at say 2.50. The state instead fines the company twice as much as they made. Typical of NY. Walmart screws the people, the state screws walmart (for doing what the state normally does) and in the end the people who bought the coke are still screwed.
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        • Profile picture of the author MikeAmbrosio
          Originally Posted by ThomM View Post

          The state made out really good with this one.
          Instead of making walmart refund any one with a receipt or having the store run a sale for the same item (and time) at say 2.50. The state instead fines the company twice as much as they made. Typical of NY. Walmart screws the people, the state screws walmart (for doing what the state normally does) and in the end the people who bought the coke are still screwed.
          Welcome to New York, where you have the privilege of paying a LOT more to get a LOT less.
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    I thought that NY was going to impose a sugar tax, so just presumed it was a legal tax. Guess they didn't get that one over, huh?

    Walmart is a plague. I wish people would stop shopping there and working for them. I don't go there anymore, and I can't afford to pay higher prices. Conversely - the one item I used to go there for I finally found at another store for a cheaper price.
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    Sal
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    • Profile picture of the author ThomM
      Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

      I thought that NY was going to impose a sugar tax, so just presumed it was a legal tax. Guess they didn't get that one over, huh?

      Walmart is a plague. I wish people would stop shopping there and working for them. I don't go there anymore, and I can't afford to pay higher prices. Conversely - the one item I used to go there for I finally found at another store for a cheaper price.
      I don't remember if that was the city or the state Sal.
      I still don't get all the walmart hate. I still shop there and still know people that work there. Funny I never hear them complaining about working for walmart. All I ever hear is the normal complaints everyone who has a job has.
      I know they don't pay well, but nobody in retail around here does.
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      • Profile picture of the author HeySal
        Originally Posted by ThomM View Post

        I don't remember if that was the city or the state Sal.
        I still don't get all the walmart hate. I still shop there and still know people that work there. Funny I never hear them complaining about working for walmart. All I ever hear is the normal complaints everyone who has a job has.
        I know they don't pay well, but nobody in retail around here does.
        The complaint is that they actually force themselves into areas that don't want them, then kill the local economy. The majority of their stock is import. Just think if we didn't have big box stores importing every little thing we buy and we had to start making that stuff here again. Just think if it were local towns getting the benefits of that money instead of some filthy rich transcontinental family and global stockholders.

        We have to bring business back to more local sources to have a sustainable society/economy again. We're being extracted at all levels and that's what my main beef is about Walmart - little imput, extreme extraction.

        PS -- I'm sure that the people you know who work there that get any benefits aren't happy about having their health care dropped.
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        Sal
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        • Profile picture of the author ThomM
          Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

          The complaint is that they actually force themselves into areas that don't want them, then kill the local economy. The majority of their stock is import. Just think if we didn't have big box stores importing every little thing we buy and we had to start making that stuff here again. Just think if it were local towns getting the benefits of that money instead of some filthy rich transcontinental family and global stockholders.

          We have to bring business back to more local sources to have a sustainable society/economy again. We're being extracted at all levels and that's what my main beef is about Walmart - little imput, extreme extraction.

          PS -- I'm sure that the people you know who work there that get any benefits aren't happy about having their health care dropped.
          How do they force themselves into areas they're not wanted?
          If they're not wanted how do they stay in business in those areas?
          Isn't killing an areas economy counter productive to them making money?
          The majority of most retailers stock is imports, blame that on the consumers who buy it.
          Local towns they go into do benefit from revenue generated through taxes and from employment for the locals who may not otherwise have a job.
          For the most part walmart and the other large box stores are following the laws, so it's more governments fault then theirs. They also follow the law of supply and demand
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        • Profile picture of the author seasoned
          Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

          The complaint is that they actually force themselves into areas that don't want them, then kill the local economy. The majority of their stock is import. Just think if we didn't have big box stores importing every little thing we buy and we had to start making that stuff here again. Just think if it were local towns getting the benefits of that money instead of some filthy rich transcontinental family and global stockholders.

          We have to bring business back to more local sources to have a sustainable society/economy again. We're being extracted at all levels and that's what my main beef is about Walmart - little imput, extreme extraction.

          PS -- I'm sure that the people you know who work there that get any benefits aren't happy about having their health care dropped.
          Heysal,

          I could write an expos'e that might shock MANY here, perhaps ALL! It is SO entrenched that unless I became independently wealthy or something, it would be STUPID to breath a word of it.

          Anyway, part of this means our unemployment is INTENTIONALLY inflated in a way that will increase geometrically even if the whole thing were stopped NOW! They WON'T stop it though. And that is just ONE thing! DECADES ago, they did various things to facilitate moving companies elsewhere. NOW, things are so complicated that, well...., it is NOT as easy to "start making that stuff here again" as you think. Not NEARLY!

          And the MYTHS that have been created, and the level at which they have been accepted, is AMAZING! I have seen people expressing them HERE!

          BTW all this garbage is expressed and codified by the UN, and adopted by many countries. Frankly the UN is the EPITOME of that which so many said we should have a UN to PREVENT! We created them to solve a minor perceived problem, and they have made the problem a very real one!

          Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author whateverpedia
    Originally Posted by Jeffery Moss View Post

    You would think such a big company could be exempt from this type of corruption.
    You'd think that in order for a company to get so big, it's been corrupt from the get-go.
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    I'm not clear on all of it, Thom - but I've seen Walmart build in areas that the community fights against them and they don't care. It goes into legal battles here and there and the Walmart wins. That's all I can tell you on that one. And to me it's kinda nasty that the communities actually fight them, then go shopping there, or take jobs there. What is wrong with that picture? Serious.

    The area that I'm living in now had very few big box stores until recently. They were beautiful small towns with a fairly stable economy. A lot of what was sold in this area was local produce (state local, anyway). Then national corporate chains rolled in. Still not a lot of effect - then came the global corps and there went the local economy. Almost any job available here now is min wage, part time. Literally (oh crap there's that word again). Unless you are in gov (and most gov jobs here are full time, but temporary unless they are extreme high level), IT Tech, and one or two other high level designation, you are working min wage or very slightly over it. The money is now being extracted not only from the local economy, but now from the entire US as well.

    This is a subject that you and I aren't really going to get to the meat of, or any compromise or agreement over without pulling up the armchairs and passing a fattie for a night of discussion, I don't think.
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    Sal
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  • Profile picture of the author TLTheLiberator
    Originally Posted by Jeffery Moss View Post

    Everyone knows about the Walmart, the retail giant, now dominating the online world too.

    However, you might not have heard about this incident where Walmart employees were lying to store customers about a supposed 'sugar tax' on Coca-Cola. You would think such a big company could be exempt from this type of corruption.


    Walmart Fined For Fake 'Sugar Tax' On Coca-Cola Sales - Forbes
    Also...


    Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance - Forbes
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    • Profile picture of the author ThomM
      This is a subject that you and I aren't really going to get to the meat of, or any compromise or agreement over without pulling up the armchairs and passing a fattie for a night of discussion, I don't think.
      Honestly Sal Walmart is so trivial to me that I wouldn't waste the fattie or armchair on it
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      • Profile picture of the author HeySal
        Originally Posted by ThomM View Post

        Honestly Sal Walmart is so trivial to me that I wouldn't waste the fattie or armchair on it
        Fine by me, Thom. It was the OP so I stuck with the topic. LOL. I don't give a rip either way either, actually. If people want to work for them or shop there, there's not much my 2 cents is going to do about it. Guess when I get back into town sometime, we'll just have to find other things to talk about. If I remember your idea of "fatties", I'll just be in the john praying to the porcelain anyhow.
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        Sal
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    • Profile picture of the author garyv
      Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator View Post


      It's funny that progressives complain and fight to get the public assistance bar raised, so that more people can get it - and then they complain because people are getting it.

      By the way, that headline shouldn't be "Walmart Workers" Cost Taxpayers. It should be "Liberal welfare bills" Cost Taxpayers...
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      • Profile picture of the author TLTheLiberator
        Originally Posted by garyv View Post

        It's funny that progressives complain and fight to get the public assistance bar raised, so that more people can get it - and then they complain because people are getting it.

        By the way, that headline shouldn't be "Walmart Workers" Cost Taxpayers. It should be "Liberal welfare bills" Cost Taxpayers...

        Those standards were relaxed as a response to the great recession...

        ... not that you would give one hoot even if Americans were falling out in the streets from hunger like Ethiopians in the middle of one of their famines...

        ... and of course in the world of a corpolite - like yourself, it will never be the issue of an extra greedy corporation costing taxpayers money while it make billions.
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        • Profile picture of the author garyv
          Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator View Post

          ... not that you would give one hoot even if Americans were falling out in the streets from hunger like Ethiopians in the middle of one of their famines...
          I'm sorry TL - but no Walmart workers have ever been falling out in the street hungry like Ethiopians LOL - Sometimes you just have to ratchet down the rhetoric and realize that not everyone in the world needs a handout.

          I'm a "teach people to fish" kind of guy. Giving public assistance to Walmart workers is like handing out fish to people already fishing. Of course they'll take the free fish, but it's not a wise way to spend our tax dollars.
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    OK, let's play "USE THEIR WORDS AGAINST THEM"!

    “Walmart told analysts last year that the company has captured 18 percent of the SNAP market,” it reads. “Using that figure, we estimate that the company accounted for $13.5 billion out of $76 billion in food stamp sales in 2013.”

    Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove described this week’s report as “inaccurate and misleading,” referring to its use of extrapolated data and adding that public assistance program eligibility requirements vary from state to state.

    “More than 99 percent of our associates earn above minimum wage,” he said. “In fact, the average hourly wage for our associates, both full and part-time, is an average of $11.83 per hour.”
    OK, the 13.5billion is with only ONE percent of their workers! The average hourly wage is $11.83! That kills a LOT of complaints against them!

    Yum Brands came in at a distant number two, with its Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC subsidiaries costing $648 million in benefits programs for workers each year.
    OK, do you KNOW what YUM BRANDS does? If not, a look at the subsidiaries gives a clue. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT for pay?

    So these are clearly "adults" working at kids jobs and want to be paid MORE simply because they may have kids, want a home, etc....

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author TLTheLiberator
      Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

      OK, let's play "USE THEIR WORDS AGAINST THEM"!



      OK, the 13.5billion is with only ONE percent of their workers! The average hourly wage is $11.83! That kills a LOT of complaints against them!



      OK, do you KNOW what YUM BRANDS does? If not, a look at the subsidiaries gives a clue. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT for pay?

      So these are clearly "adults" working at kids jobs and want to be paid MORE simply because they may have kids, want a home, etc....

      Steve

      Who wants to believe the dude from Walmart regarding their wages?

      Corpolites like yourself - that's who.

      Saying 99% of their employees make more than the min wages isn't saying much since the national min wage is still only $7.25 per hour.

      If true, the average quoted by the WM spokesman of $11.83 per hour surely includes middle and upper management which would pull the number upward.

      One would think a so-called deficit hawk like yourself would rail against a company making billions while many of its employees are also forced to accept public assistance...

      But...

      You go right ahead and continue with your hearty support of this oh so wonderful corporate citizen in all that they do - since it fits perfectly with your economic philosophy.

      (which has never worked in America except for the already wealthy and large corps)
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      • Profile picture of the author seasoned
        Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator View Post

        Who wants to believe the dude from Walmart regarding their wages?

        Corpolites like yourself - that's who.

        Saying 99% of their employees make more than the min wages isn't saying much since the national min wage is still only $7.25 per hour.
        AW, SO predictable! I should have just written my retort THERE. You ARE right, the minimum wage IS too high!

        If true, the average quoted by the WM spokesman of $11.83 per hour surely includes middle and upper management which would pull the number upward.
        YEP, but the higher levels have family to support, lives to live, etc... They are also VERY MUCH in the MINORITY! IMAGINE if they had 1000 minimum wage employees for every higher level employee. Every higher level employee would have to make $1000 to counter an average $1 increase. As for all the millionares and billionares of wallmart? A LOT of that is STOCK! Higher priced stock is actually GOOD for the employees, as the money came from outside sources and went to the company to help with things like salaries. Money from stock is about the ONLY case where this is the case! SALES require an initial outlay, and RISK! BONDS must be paid back!

        BESIDES, to hear YOU, Walmart DOES NOT GIVE OUT MONEY!

        One would think a so-called deficit hawk like yourself would rail against a company making billions while many of its employees are also forced to accept public assistance...
        NOPE! If a person wants to flip hamburgers all their life, and complains that minimum wage is too low, or a person goes on public assistance to get a new large state of the art TV set, I will rail against THAT!

        You go right ahead and continue with your hearty support of this oh so wonderful corporate citizen in all that they do - since it fits perfectly with your economic philosophy.
        ACTUALLY, I wish the government didn't institute all their garbage to drive our prices up, and keep foreign prices low, to encourage unemployment and buying of imported goods!

        (which has never worked in America except for the already wealthy and large corps)
        On WHAT planet? It worked fine for almost 200 years! MEANWHILE, you would be hardpressed to mention a SINGLE country that has consistently done what YOU want. HECK, you tried it in 2007, and it FAILED! A whole bunch of rules were passed DECADES ago, and now they are almost meaningless. They WOULD be meaningless if not for the horrendous taxes that have been added. You had full control for YEARS after 2008, and were so slow to do so much because it was GARBAGE.

        And you LOVE saying things like claiming that I had subpar insurance, or just want such a thing to fail. I would LOVE to be able to trust the government. When I was a kid, I was actually OPTIMISTIC! TODAY, I am not optimistic AT ALL! They keep making stupid laws. I have seen people work for years and years and years to pass rules and, when they pass the law, they take credit for it. I think CAN'T BE, shake my head, and point to a law that was passed maybe over 100 years earlier that was the SAME!

        And NOW so many are trying to laws similar to a treaty that, if it worked, would have brought peace to a region after 1919. WHAT did it do? WELL, it has gotten credit for starting WWII! AW, you say, I thought HITLER did! NOPE! The law created the environment, the supporters, the NSDAP, later called the NAZIs, and hitler HIMSELF! If the law were reasonable, hitler might have gone down as an obscure Austrian painter. That was once a courier in WWI. Hitler might have even enjoyed his life, giving pleasure to so many.

        Look at a lot of the WWII propaganda. It is even spouted TODAY! The PALESTINIANS like using it. OH, it IS anti jew(I can't say antisemite because most of the most violent are semites!), but the rhetoric all comes down to ONE message! It is ALSO the reason for krystalnacht! The message? "THEY make too much, and DON'T PAY THIER FAIR SHARE! THEY are WHY WE ARE POOR!"!

        BTW I am going to have to check on this! This article says the first name of the NAZI party was, in English, "Free Workers' Committee for a fair Peace"! That is SO telling, but also points to that treaty, as it bankrupted Germany, in the name of peace. But HEY, I guess YOU would like them, since they were for "workers rights" and "wanted all to pay their fair share".

        Steve
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