The info in that article seems about in line with most retail mega giants. Ill first state that where I work, we have wonderful benefits, cheap health care, 401k, preferred stock options, and some other stuff, but they also say it's a great place to start and enjoy a long career with plentiful opportunity for advancement... blah blah blah. In my 7 years I have seen more outside managers brought in to run stores than promoted from within. I could go on and on about how when this happens, the new store managers have never worked in our type of environment and everything suffers (inventory, labor and sales) and it sucks inevitably for 6 months to a year at least until they are fully trained. These places keep the minions down, because we know how to do our jobs and well, so its easier to keep us working by teasing us with carrots (performance based bull-shit raises and promotions to store management) and bring in people who dont know shit about what we do but can write a schedule and type in an order. Crap like this, and the stuff in the article are part of the reason I have decided to get away and do something on my own. Rant over, Walmart and every other place that cares more about money than people can get fucked.