Arizona woman discovers note from 'Chinese prisoner' in purse bought at Walmart

a reply to: okrian

You lie! Doesn't matter where you "buy". You buy from China now. .. Cold hard fact! Now if you're man/American enough to admit it....another story.

Walmart should at least do an investigation, here is why, their rep as it is is not good, most ppl do not want to know their shirts are being made with slave labor, the potential of a boycott is high risk that will affect the bottom line, at the very least the Chinese central gov't. will tell the local to knock it off we are being scrutinized.

This is interesting, in country with a population of 1.4 billion souls, the population in prison seems low.

at mid-2015 (via Asian and Pacific Conference of Correctional Administrators - sentenced prisoners in Ministry of Justice prisons only, excluding pre-trial detainees and those held in administrative detention). The Deputy Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate reported in 2009 that, in addition to the sentenced prisoners, more than 650,000 were held in detention centres In China. If this was still correct in mid-2015 the total prison population in China was at least 2,300,000.

Now that is compare to the US that have the most inmates in prison in comparison to the rest of the world.

www.prisonstudies.org...

US with a population of around 322.3 million at end of 2015 have 2,217,947 or more.

www.prisonstudies.org...

I guess China prisons are not for profits

But US are, the more imamates the more money the privateers in human prison trafficking makes.

I think two important issues are brought up by this thread;

1) The story has merit. There are a great many factories in China where the working conditions are the same as American slaves endured back in the day;



2) Walmart is far from the only company who, perhaps without knowledge have purchased inventory from companies who work their staff like this.

In another doco on factories they interview the owner of a toy factory and ask him why he works his staff so hard and why he only employs women. The answers were very interesting;

He works the staff so hard because he will give a unit price of say 50 cents per item to a western buyer. The western buyer will then say I am not paying more than 40 cents and you will deliver 5,000,000 in 6 weeks. Both of the westerner's demands are unreasonable, because the 50 cent price is what you get when you work the staff at the usual 40 hour week (as is agreed in supply contracts with the west) and the lead time for deliver is actually 3 months on that amount of goods. So the staff end up working 7 days a week, 18 hours a day with no extra pay, because you can get away with that in China.

When asked why he only employed women, the answer was chilling in light of the above. He simply said 'Women are easier to manage , because they are more compliant' ie the slaves will not revolt if they are all female.

Something to bear in mind next time one purchases a bargain priced item made in China really.....

a reply to: Spider879

No boycott of Walmart will be effective. In major cities, Walmart represents the only affordable outlet store for many people and in rural America Walmart drove out all competition years ago. Scruples don't put food on working America's table or shoes on working America's children feet.

Taken as a whole, we don't care.

Sounds brutal, but it's the truth and arguably defensible in the grand scheme of things. China took our manufacturing jobs, if that didn't push the majority of Americans to buy American, why in the hell should the plight of a handful of Chinese criminals motivate any of us to change our ways?

Side note: This is the opinion of someone who DOES NOT shop in Walmart. I average less than 1 visit per year to Walmart.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Is other stores taking over and growing, General Dollars and or Dollar store are sprouting all over cities, competing with the groceries giants.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: Spider879

No boycott of Walmart will be effective. In major cities, Walmart represents the only affordable outlet store for many people and in rural America Walmart drove out all competition years ago. Scruples don't put food on working America's table or shoes on working America's children feet.

Taken as a whole, we don't care.

Sounds brutal, but it's the truth and arguably defensible in the grand scheme of things. China took our manufacturing jobs, if that didn't push the majority of Americans to buy American, why in the hell should the plight of a handful of Chinese criminals motivate any of us to change our ways?

Side note: This is the opinion of someone who DOES NOT shop in Walmart. I average less than 1 visit per year to Walmart.

Wal-Mart sucks. It will never be anything by the lowest common denominator shopper. Sad that nobody cares about quality anymore...just gimme gimme gimme..

Honestly you could likely level every Wal-Mart on black Friday and the economy would skyrocket because of it.

originally posted by: marg6043
This is interesting, in country with a population of 1.4 billion souls, the population in prison seems low.

at mid-2015 (via Asian and Pacific Conference of Correctional Administrators - sentenced prisoners in Ministry of Justice prisons only, excluding pre-trial detainees and those held in administrative detention). The Deputy Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate reported in 2009 that, in addition to the sentenced prisoners, more than 650,000 were held in detention centres In China. If this was still correct in mid-2015 the total prison population in China was at least 2,300,000.

Now that is compare to the US that have the most inmates in prison in comparison to the rest of the world.

www.prisonstudies.org...

US with a population of around 322.3 million at end of 2015 have 2,217,947 or more.

www.prisonstudies.org...

I guess China prisons are not for profits

But US are, the more imamates the more money the privateers in human prison trafficking makes.

Yes. And that is why we protest "Privatized Prisons" and would rather have "public rehabilitation centers."

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
2000 Yuan is $290 a week, $15,000 a year. US poverty line is $12,082 a year. These prisoners (assuming this is not a fake letter) don't have to pay for their food and board... They're making more money than a minimum wage US worker makes with less expenses plus they've committed some manner of crimes under Chinese law. What's the issue here?

ETA. Crap, misread. That's $290 a month, not per week. I'll leave the original and wear the egg on my face over it.

Yeah, a month but it goes a lot farther there than in the US.

Free room and board on top, well that's just some good pocket money.

lol. I have friends that can eat for $100hk a week. Which is $88 cny.

Lots of rice and vegetarian meals, meat or fish a couple times a week.

It won't make rent here, tho.

I call hoax on the note.

originally posted by: markosity1973
I think two important issues are brought up by this thread;

1) The story has merit. There are a great many factories in China where the working conditions are the same as American slaves endured back in the day;

2) Walmart is far from the only company who, perhaps without knowledge have purchased inventory from companies who work their staff like this.

In another doco on factories they interview the owner of a toy factory and ask him why he works his staff so hard and why he only employs women. The answers were very interesting;

He works the staff so hard because he will give a unit price of say 50 cents per item to a western buyer. The western buyer will then say I am not paying more than 40 cents and you will deliver 5,000,000 in 6 weeks. Both of the westerner's demands are unreasonable, because the 50 cent price is what you get when you work the staff at the usual 40 hour week (as is agreed in supply contracts with the west) and the lead time for deliver is actually 3 months on that amount of goods. So the staff end up working 7 days a week, 18 hours a day with no extra pay, because you can get away with that in China.

When asked why he only employed women, the answer was chilling in light of the above. He simply said 'Women are easier to manage , because they are more compliant' ie the slaves will not revolt if they are all female.

Something to bear in mind next time one purchases a bargain priced item made in China really.....

Well that is not normal and against the law.

So aren't places making high end knock offs.

I believe china gets 10 days holiday at Chinese New Year plus there are a bunch of other public holidays. Which are paid or traded off if you have to work them.

6 day work weeks are the norm anyway. 54 hrs a week, min. Split shifts are a pain in the ass too and that's here in HK!

I'm not defending anything but the workers. It's a bitchin work week, especially for piece workers, where the number of items assembled is tied to pay/bonuses.

The chinese people are making lots of money, tho, I see it here. They are pushing property prices sky high buy buying it up and charging huge rents. Commercial and private.

And don't care if the property sits empty. Anyway.....

I don't like it but what can ya do? At least they do execute unscrupulous bosses. Unlike lots of other countries, lol.

I'm a Wal Mart fan, btw.

I miss it. lol.

Did Ivanka beat her personally? Or use diplomats?

a reply to: Vasa Croe

How do we know the note wasn't put in place after the merchandise was shipped? I am sure there are bad conditions, as far as that goes, but unless they can prove the origin of the note, I don't see how it's evidence. Proving it would seem likely to place the workers in danger, too, if real. The real solution is to refuse to buy "made in China" products.

originally posted by: burgerbuddy

originally posted by: markosity1973
I think two important issues are brought up by this thread;

1) The story has merit. There are a great many factories in China where the working conditions are the same as American slaves endured back in the day;

2) Walmart is far from the only company who, perhaps without knowledge have purchased inventory from companies who work their staff like this.

In another doco on factories they interview the owner of a toy factory and ask him why he works his staff so hard and why he only employs women. The answers were very interesting;

He works the staff so hard because he will give a unit price of say 50 cents per item to a western buyer. The western buyer will then say I am not paying more than 40 cents and you will deliver 5,000,000 in 6 weeks. Both of the westerner's demands are unreasonable, because the 50 cent price is what you get when you work the staff at the usual 40 hour week (as is agreed in supply contracts with the west) and the lead time for deliver is actually 3 months on that amount of goods. So the staff end up working 7 days a week, 18 hours a day with no extra pay, because you can get away with that in China.

When asked why he only employed women, the answer was chilling in light of the above. He simply said 'Women are easier to manage , because they are more compliant' ie the slaves will not revolt if they are all female.

Something to bear in mind next time one purchases a bargain priced item made in China really.....

Well that is not normal and against the law.

But it DOES happen. A lot.

So aren't places making high end knock offs.

I was referring to Western name brand products manufactured there. The cheaper the price, the worse the quality of the end product and often the worse conditions the people work in.

I believe china gets 10 days holiday at Chinese New Year plus there are a bunch of other public holidays. Which are paid or traded off if you have to work them.

6 day work weeks are the norm anyway. 54 hrs a week, min. Split shifts are a pain in the ass too and that's here in HK!

But 18 hours a day, falling asleep at your desk is not the norm. These factories also provide 'dormitories' for their workers because they do not earn enough to live offsite.

I'm not defending anything but the workers. It's a bitchin work week, especially for piece workers, where the number of items assembled is tied to pay/bonuses.

The chinese people are making lots of money, tho, I see it here. They are pushing property prices sky high buy buying it up and charging huge rents. Commercial and private.

And don't care if the property sits empty. Anyway.....

We know ALL about their money and their greedy real estate habits where I come from. The rich few make their money off both the back of slave labour at home and gullible consumers in the west.

I don't like it but what can ya do? At least they do execute unscrupulous bosses. Unlike lots of other countries, lol.

I'm a Wal Mart fan, btw.

I miss it. lol.

Yeah, well a few more bosses need a firing squad, believe you me.

a reply to: neo96

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

Wallace had a Chinese-speaking person translate the note to English. The letter read:

"Inmates in the Yingshan Prison in Guangxi, China are working 14 hours daily with no break/rest at noon, continue working overtime until 12 midnight, and whoever doesn't finish his work will be beaten. Their meals are without oil and salt. Every month, the boss pays the inmate 2000 yuan, any additional dishes will be finished by the police. If the inmates are sick and need medicine, the cost will be deducted from the salary. Prison in China is unlike prison in America, horse cow goat pig dog (literally, means inhumane treatment)."

Two other people translated the note to make sure the message was accurate, Wallace added.

Arizona woman discovers note from 'Chinese prisoner' in purse bought at Walmart

So this is an odd story and one that has happened in the past. I do wonder if anyone ever really looks into these things as I can imagine they are true. I can also imagine that if whomever put this note in was caught, they would have quite the beating or possibly be killed because of it. The Chinese culture wants to put a "good foot forward" in the face of those they export to and make sure to keep up appearances.

What does this say about Walmart? Should they have to do an investigation into the practices of this manufacturer, or just let it go as business as usual? I think that the fact this note made it in a shipment to a Walmart here in the US is pretty miraculous. Obviously whomever did QC for the manufacturer missed one as I would think these types of notes are likely commonplace.

That said, how does one combat this other than banning the company from business in the US?

WTF do we REALLY need their products to the point that we feel the need to ignore ridiculous working conditions just so we can have them? time we took some responsibility here. if we stop buying their #, if we say "NO" they are FINISHED.

I used to work in a potpourri factory. I was young and bored and a little evil. I used to pay my neighbor's kids a quarter a note to write little letters with fake names in kids handwriting. Stuff to the effect of, "My little brother and I are being forced to work here and put these smelly pine cones in boxes. They give us bread and water and I haven't seen my mommy or daddy in a real long time. Help us."

Next day, I dropped the notes in random packages on the packing line.

So, I do have to admit that I'm skeptical, but being written in a different language lends a bit more credence than my old sick jokes.

a reply to: Bobaganoosh

ROFLMAO - evil minds think alike

i spend a grim 4 months as maintainence engineer at a catalogue parcelling depot - and regularly slipped " help notes " - i am little orphan timmy - and i have to work here 20 hours a day - with no rest packing your boxes - please help me . typ notes into the system

complaints were recieved - and it was " investigated " - but all focus was on the packers loading the boxes - as we had access to the entire place - we were never suspected

i hated that job - the entire place was chock with idiots

a reply to: ignorant_ape

I did it partially because the day after I got hired they had a meeting saying that they were going out of business in a month. I was pissed because it took me a month to even find that job. By the time people got their packages, and if anybody followed up, they found an abandoned warehouse that stank of cinnamon and clove. Imagine....

originally posted by: markosity1973

originally posted by: burgerbuddy

originally posted by: markosity1973
I think two important issues are brought up by this thread;

1) The story has merit. There are a great many factories in China where the working conditions are the same as American slaves endured back in the day;

2) Walmart is far from the only company who, perhaps without knowledge have purchased inventory from companies who work their staff like this.

In another doco on factories they interview the owner of a toy factory and ask him why he works his staff so hard and why he only employs women. The answers were very interesting;

He works the staff so hard because he will give a unit price of say 50 cents per item to a western buyer. The western buyer will then say I am not paying more than 40 cents and you will deliver 5,000,000 in 6 weeks. Both of the westerner's demands are unreasonable, because the 50 cent price is what you get when you work the staff at the usual 40 hour week (as is agreed in supply contracts with the west) and the lead time for deliver is actually 3 months on that amount of goods. So the staff end up working 7 days a week, 18 hours a day with no extra pay, because you can get away with that in China.

When asked why he only employed women, the answer was chilling in light of the above. He simply said 'Women are easier to manage , because they are more compliant' ie the slaves will not revolt if they are all female.

Something to bear in mind next time one purchases a bargain priced item made in China really.....

Well that is not normal and against the law.

But it DOES happen. A lot.

So aren't places making high end knock offs.

I was referring to Western name brand products manufactured there. The cheaper the price, the worse the quality of the end product and often the worse conditions the people work in.

I believe china gets 10 days holiday at Chinese New Year plus there are a bunch of other public holidays. Which are paid or traded off if you have to work them.

6 day work weeks are the norm anyway. 54 hrs a week, min. Split shifts are a pain in the ass too and that's here in HK!

But 18 hours a day, falling asleep at your desk is not the norm. These factories also provide 'dormitories' for their workers because they do not earn enough to live offsite.

I'm not defending anything but the workers. It's a bitchin work week, especially for piece workers, where the number of items assembled is tied to pay/bonuses.

The chinese people are making lots of money, tho, I see it here. They are pushing property prices sky high buy buying it up and charging huge rents. Commercial and private.

And don't care if the property sits empty. Anyway.....

We know ALL about their money and their greedy real estate habits where I come from. The rich few make their money off both the back of slave labour at home and gullible consumers in the west.

I don't like it but what can ya do? At least they do execute unscrupulous bosses. Unlike lots of other countries, lol.

I'm a Wal Mart fan, btw.

I miss it. lol.

Yeah, well a few more bosses need a firing squad, believe you me.

My wife is in Guangdong now for 5 days, shooting a commercial for a big factory there.

They make little bitty parts for the iphone, like the sim card holder.

She was up there last week on a recon/site survey and she said the owners are making serious bank.

I'll be asking her about the place, as this thread has got me interested in it.

Don't get me started on the damn iphones, we each have one but what a rip for repairs!

originally posted by: Peeple
a reply to: Vasa Croe

I can absolutely see that this is legitimate. Xpatnation.com says the same thing about prisons in China.

Just don't buy at Walmart. Buy fair, even if it means you buy less. But garbage is also a problem sooooooo...

I can't remember the last time I shopped at Walmart. It has to do mostly with quality and selection, but it seems to me they are a cheap store and those who shop there are looking for cheap, not good. I can go to other places and get a much better selection of what I'm looking for and much higher quality.