Essay On John Updike's Up Against Wal-Mart

The short story "A and P" wrote by John Updike and the article "Up Against Wal-Mart" wrote by Karen Olsson both share ideas on human existence in the work place. Such as the disrespect workers face, the lack of better career prospects and low wages. Workers are also made to change into what the company wants them to be and prevented from speaking their minds.
People that work in businesses like Walmart and A and P, retail stores, are expected to behave and appear in whichever way the company sees fit. They are considered to represent the business and that means changing the way they dress and sometimes companies can even try to change the way their employees think. In each texts described it is seen that they both put emphasis on how the workers

were made to change their appearance or behavior in some way for the sake of the business are employed at.

This can be seen in the story "A and P" when the young worker removes his apron and bow tie and states that the bow tie was the stores. "I fold the apron, "Sammy" stitched in red on the pocket, and put it on the counter, and drop the bow tie on top of it. The bow tie is theirs, if you've ever wondered." (A&P, John Updike) This shows that he does not see the bow tie as something that characterizes him, just as an image the store wanted him to appear as. This also seen in the article in multiple ways. Walmart campaigns strongly against unionization in their stores, they go as far as preventing associates from wearing clothing that may advocate unions and give employees who oppose unions buttons that are "pro-associate". "Employees opposed to the union were given "pro-associate" buttons to wear, while managers amended the dress code to exclude T-shirts with any kind of writing on

them, apparently to prevent workers from wearing union shirts." (Mother Jones article "Up Against Walmart" Karen Olsson). This is Walmart's way of trying to change the way their employees think and preventing them from speaking their mind to the public and co-workers about unionizing the store. "They are trying to change the people to be what they want them to be."
A second common element between the two written works is lack of job prospects which is what cause people to choose to work minimum wage in jobs such as retail. The lives of many people employed at retail stores are endowed with poverty. With the low wages paid to workers in retail many people need more than one job in order to make enough income to afford food and rent. Yet these are the jobs that are available to those that could not get a proper education. These jobs need to be done yet the people that do this work cannot afford to live on the wages provided by them. In some places these are some of the only jobs that are available and getting careers that are above this pay grade can be near impossible. In the short story the young worker states after he quit his job that life would be very hard for him, this is because he is a youth of nineteen with no secondary education and his career prospects are minimal, especially for the reason that he quit one of the only jobs he could possibly obtain. He will be looked down upon by society as the young boy that quit his job and therefore cannot be seen as a responsible adult. "...my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." (A&P, John Updike) This is the story's way of stating about the lack of work for young people and those with no secondary schooling. There is also another cashier in the short story mentioned who is married with two children and works at the A and P to be able to feed his children. The article "Up Against Wal-Mart" also integrates lack of occupational prospects into it's writing. Many Walmart employees were interviewed for this article and many spoke of how they were forced to occupy these positions of work because there were no other jobs available. Without these jobs they would not have any way of providing for their families. One interviewee stated just this. "'People ain't got no other place to go,' he says. "There's no other jobs to be had.'" (Mother Jones article "Up Against Walmart" Karen Olsson).
Another shared aspect is the maltreatment of employees by foremen and the companies themselves.

Many foremen in a workplace will try to belittle workers of lower standard in order to get what they want from them, and over work their employees in order to save money on hiring more staff. Many times it is not only the managers that mistreat the workers but the customers do as well. At the beginning of the short story by John Updike, the young cashier was targeted by a customer when he accidently scanned an item twice, this cause a ruckus from the customer, "I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not. I ring it up again and the customer starts giving me hell…By the time I got her feathers smoothed and her goodies into a bag -- she gives me alittle snort in passing…". (A&P, John Updike) Many cashiers are disrespect on a daily bases and are looked down upon for the job they do. Disrespect directed at this cashier is also seen by his manager, in the sentence paired with the context of the story, "'Did you say something, Sammy?'". (A&P, John Updike) Maltreatment of staff can also be seen in the article by Karen Olsson, Walmart goes out of its way to make the wages of their associates as long as possible by cutting their hours and coercing managers to force employees to work overtime without extra pay. This was told by a former manager at Walmart who was interviewed, "In the Oregon wage-and-hour case, a former personnel manager

named Carolyn Thiebes testified that supervisors, pressured by company headquarters to keep payroll low, regularly deleted hours from time records and reprimanded employees who claimed overtime." (Mother Jones article "Up Against Walmart" Karen Olsson). Walmart also goes as far as firing union supporters who try to unionize Walmart stores. Walmart has less female managers then many other retail stores and they also mistreats women associates by not paying them equal pay to men who work the same job. "The company insists it adequately trains and promotes female managers. But in 2001, a Wal-Mart executive conducted an internal study that showed the company pays female store managers less than men in the same position". (Mother Jones article "Up Against Walmart" Karen Olsson)
In comparison, both the short story, "A and P" by John Updike, and the article, "Up Against Wal-Mart" by Karen Olsson, share common thoughts on the way of life for personnel of business places such as Walmart and the A and P, retail stores. Both writings put emphasis on the mistreatment of staff from fellow workers, supervisors, customers and the company being worked for. The poor career prospects which brings many people to work in these places for such low wages, and lastly the way staff can be made to dress and act in ways to better represent the company, even against their personal interests.