At Walmart Academy, Training Better Managers. But With a Better Future?
“In contrast to only increasing wages,” Ms. McLaughlin said in an email, “we believe investing in people
and developing their skills gives them access to more choice of jobs that reflect their particular talents and passions.”
About a month ago, Ashley VanHorn was stocking shelves in the Fulton store when she overheard
two little girls tell their father they wanted to work at Walmart one day.
“I think what everyone misses most,” said Geoff Raponi, manager of the Fulton Walmart Supercenter, “is the smell.”
They also miss the jobs — more than 1,500 of them when the factory was booming in the mid-1980s, according to Mayor Woodward.
And even with more skills, many retail workers may never be able to earn what factory
workers made in places like Fulton, a faded manufacturing hub near Syracuse.
Walmart has spent $2.7 billion on training and raising wages for 1.2 million of its store workers over the past two years — an investment
that reflects the pressures the company faces in the retail industry.
“You could graduate from high school, work at a place like Nestlé, buy a car and send your kids to college,” Mr. Woodward said.
“But they aren’t all going to run the store.”
Mr. Woodward, a former maintenance supervisor at Nestlé who made $89,000 a year,
says he was one of the last two workers to leave the plant when it closed.
