Wal-Mart should not be a career goal! The people that work there should be the elderly, retired folks who want some extra money, college kids, 16yrs olds with their first job, etc... Wal-Mart should notbe what someone aspires to. I don't remember hearing anyone in my high school class that their ultimate life goal was to work at Wal-Mart.
For the record, Ive been working at walmart for the past 4 years. Started in grade 11. I started at $7.70/h and got a 30cent raise per year. I never worked 1 minute I was not being paid. I got 39 hours per week (they work you the MAX without having to pay you overtime, overtime is 41+ hours here). Working for walmart is great, they schedule around school, When I come back home from university they hire me over the summer, and even for 3 weeks over xmas break.
This is exactly what Wal-Mart is for.
There is a small rural area right outside Wilmington, NC called Leland. No one wanted to live here; no real businesses existed, very little in the "city". When people want to shop they had to drive the 20 - 30 minutes into Wilmington or 30 - 35 minutes to Southport, NC. Last year, Wal-Mart decided to build a store there (even though there were 2 in Wilmington and 1 in Southport). The city of Leland did everything possible to fight them building - including trying to rezone the property Wal-Mart bought and was already building on. This store is supposed to open in March. Since Wal-Mart has broken ground, there have been dozens of companies opening brand new stores, hiring more people and the home values in Leland have now soared. You can barely touch a property for under $200,000 in the area now. In this case, the Wal-Mart has been great for the local economy.