I really expected some shocking news in this one. A writer goes undercover to discover the ins and outs of Walmart culture and employees, but I feel like not much was really uncovered. It was an easy to follow and well written book. I enjoyed it for the most part but nothing really shocked me.

I guess it should go without saying that this would be a chronicle of a day in the life of an employee of Walmart, but honestly I expected more. There are a a few takeaways of this book about the culture of Walmart in comparison to the experiences of those in Canada, but this simply boiled down to a play by play of working in retail. Being someone who has done that through my teens and twenties during college, nothing really jumped out here that sets Walmart apart from many other retailers. Low pay for hard work.

The author, an immersive journalist, describes his experience working in a Canadian Walmart in Walmart: Diary of an Associate.

It is amazing how Walmart treats its associates like slow children. Rules are drummed into their heads, daily exercises and pep talks are given, and they are monitored extensively. If indoctrination into the Walmart “family” doesn’t motivate sufficiently, then hopefully, the annual April bonus will. And if not, there are plenty of desperately poor people willing to work hard for minimum wage pay.

In 2012 Canadian investigative journalist went undercover in a Walmart store to expose just how awful the company is etc. etc. There’s nothing new or revelatory here, as we are all far too familiar with big corporations abusing their workers and paying them peanuts. In fact, I don’t think Walmart came out of this particularly badly compared to other companies. Sadly, it has now become the norm. But those low prices are pretty irresistible and nothing is going to change unless consumers boycott en masse. Which I don’t see happening. So all I learnt from this rather supercilious and repetitious account is that Walmart is evil and that Meunier is good for exposing this – and that he’s also rather arrogant and far too good for the daily grind of those less well-off, less educated, and less intelligent than he is.

Meh. While this was a fairly accurate look at what a Wal-Mart employee’s life is like, as a former one myself, I see the gaps. I also didn’t care for his tone in a few places. It’s no Nickel and Dimed. What we need is a book by an actual associate, one who is working there because they need to, not as an experiment. We’d lose the often pretentious, better than thou tones then.

Hugo Meunier informs us that he is an ‘immersion journalist.’ This means – more or less – that in the event you are either a celebrity and/or a celebrity who is getting married, watch out for a mobile toting serious faced, tuxedoed individual (in this case, a man) who is not only trying his best to act serious behind a pair of cool looking shades, but is also trying to fool the security guards into gate-crashing the wedding. By the way, his tuxedo is invariably, rented.

Meunier in the introduction to his book, “Diary Of An Associate” confesses that he likes field reporting. He also educates us – with what reads like more than just a dollop of pretentiousness – that he leaves ‘mundanities’ such as the Lance Armstrong doping debacle to the reporting preserve of others. His preference is more towards the kid from Boucherville and the PointeCalumet beach who shoots steroids for seemingly no apparent reason. With the same element of impetuousness, he also provides us with a sample of illustrious events which he has successfully proceeded to invade – Justin Trudeau’s wedding and a party organized by Guy Laliberte, the ‘top dog’ of Cirque du solei, where the excesses were so exacerbated that international model Naomi Campbell and seven time Formula One Racing Champion Michael Schumacher, nonchalantly engaged in a conversation paying barely a hint of attention to two stark naked women acrobats perched next to them. As Meunier goes on to further amplify his prerogatives – “the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the famine in Niger, and the war in Iraq would have to wait.” A singularly stellar example of how best to prioritise alternatives in the order of their vitality and importance!

So it did not come as a complete surprise to his boss, Katie at La Presse, when Meunier proposed covertly immersing himself as a Walmart ‘Associate’ for a period of three months at store 3094 in the Saint-Leonard neighbourhood of Montreal. The reason for such an intrusion? A penchant to “live Walmart. To feel it, see it, rub shoulders with its customers, its bosses; to experience it physically and psychologically; to witness this reality; this is essentially what motivated my project.” Wow! Sounds great from a social, rational, metaphysical, cosmological and even an anthropological perspective! The ghost of Sam Walton would be shedding unconstrained tears of experiential bliss!

Muneir also takes the pain to educate us about a few jaw dropping facets that makes Walmart. “Since the 1990s, Walmart revenues represent 2.5% of America’s Gross National Product (“GNP”); according to Nelson Lichtenstein and Susan Strasser, Walmart’s success marked the end of the domination of American economy’s industrial sector; Gilles Biassette and Lysiane J. Baudu argue that ‘Walmartization’ of America consists of a conversion to an economic model based on importation, distribution and optimization of logistics chain, more than the industrial and manufacturing excellence that General Motors long symbolized.”

Great! Now that we have armed ourselves with information more than adequate, sufficient and relevant for 3 months of undercover employment, let us rub our hands with unfettered glee and begin without much ado! Time to do the hard yards.

What follows however is a repetitive description that has at its core a never ending shifting of pallets, an interminable stocking – and restocking of – shelves, punctuated by lines of slapstick humour and funny analogies. Yes, the famous Walmart pep talk does exist as does a highly confidential internal document unimaginatively titled, “A Manager’s Toolbox to Remaining Union Free.” Walmart’s allergy towards the act of Unionization is a phenomenon well known and absorbed across the globe. Unionization to the retailer is what the rays of the sun are to a vampire. Yes, the salaries are Walmart are so abysmal that at $11.05 per hour, a $1 signing bonus, the entry level pay translates to a meagre and abominable annual income of around $18,000. Bill Quinn’s “How Walmart is Destroying America (and the World) and What You can do about it” provides the whole ghastly lowdown about the pay (or the lack of it) at Walmart.

As is the case with any, or at least, many of the supermarkets, Walmart also has its share of abusive customers, who have an issue with looks, race, intelligence, stupidity, empty shelves, re-order levels of stock and most importantly, sealed and unopened products stacked upon racks. “A young woman came up to ask, very seriously if the five-by-eight-foot patterned carpet on sale for $30 would look nice in her dining room. “Difficult to help you madame, as I have never been to your place,” I candidly replied…….”I should really unroll one of them!” she finally cried, in a quasi-trance. Without waiting for my answer, she seized a carpet, ripped off the packaging with the enthusiasm of a child recognizing Lego through wrapping paper, handed one end to me and backed down the aisle to unroll it.”

The incredulous comparison of revenues generated every day with the revenues generated on the same day a year ago, the even more incredulous commuting habits of associates who leave home at 3.00 A.M to keep both their jobs and the timing of the bus, makes for some poignant, albeit expected reading. Allegiance to the three uncompromising maxims of Respect for the Individual, Service to the Customer and Striving for excellence is a given and this principle is absolutely non-negotiable. As is the famous “three meter” rule: the associate must smile at all times and when a customer is within three meters, the associate must greet the customer, ask if they need help, and if necessary, escort them to the products.”A description of the Crystal Bridge Museum inaugurated in Bentonville, the Headquarters of the behemoth in 2012 courtesy Sam Walton’s eccentric daughter Alice also gets a mention by Meunier.

Meunier wax eloquent and witty on his shifts and schedules, on his colleagues’ shifts and schedules and on the physically taxing nature of such shifts and schedules, when he is not calling the swathe of customers, Walking Dead that is. The only part of the book that makes for some seriously interesting reading deals with the harrowing experiences of two former Walmart employees, Patrice Bergeron and Gaetan Plourde who succeeded in unionizing the Walmart Store in Jonquiere before a scathingly swift response from Walmart led to the closing of the store.

Finally, we are all euphoric to know that Meunier donated the total sum of $4150 net earned at Walmart during his three months of infiltration to two Montreal organisations. (Applause).

While you would not regret reading “Diary of an Associate”, you would not repent not having had an opportunity to digest it either.

This book was great, because it reaffirmed why no one should shop at Walmart. It’s sad how awful employees are treated. Very eye opening.

I find books about any copperations to be shocking but Walmart always takes my breath away. Love this story.

Thank you to netgalley and the published/author for this arc in exchange for my honest review.


I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting of this story. Ultimately, I would have preferred the humorous style I THOUGHT this was going to be. Nonetheless; I can confirm that a lot of employees of this awful store have similar stories/experiences.

I truly thought this was going to be a funny and humorous book about the sightings we all see on a trip to Walmart...or the funny meme that are all out there. This book was far from that! This book was a hard look into the employees and all that they endure on the job, They are constantly monitored. Rules, rules, and even more rules.
This was a very well written, insightful book and it forever changed how I view this company. Every time I step into a Walmart, I know I will be thinking about the words that were inside this book.

This book was an interesting look at a career I never wanted to have. Reading some of the behind the scenes info, it's no wonder why so many of their associates look incredibly miserable on the rare occasion I find myself in a Walmart. I think my patrons will enjoy the expose, so I have ordered a couple copies. Thank you.

What can I say about this gigantic, soul snatching, awful place? Journalist Hugo Meunière went undercover as a employee for Walmart for 3 months in St. Leonard in Canada. Within these 3 months Hugo gives us an inside look of the tragedy that is working at Walmart. The constant talks about numbers in the morning meetings, the disrespectful customers who treated the employees like crap, the constant fear of retaliation if someone said something they were unhappy with. I can attest to these claims. I myself worked at Walmart for four years and it was the worst four years of my life. I started off as a back room associate and decided to go for an opened position of department manager for the men’s department and boy did they give me grief for that. They really made me feel like I couldn’t do it; they doubted me before I could even get a chance to prove myself. I finally got the position and they basically threw me into two departments without any training, didn’t explain anything to me. I had to rely on one of my co-workers who was a department manager to help me understand our normal 9am paper work that was printed for us. Everyday I would come in to see my department tossed around with everything plugged from the overnight associates not doing their jobs. I myself have had the displeasure of working months and months overnight to help prepare for the super center to open for our store and it was exhausting. Honestly, working with a company that’s a bunch of leeches that wouldn’t care about you if you dropped dead. Such was the case one Black Friday. If you’ve heard about Black Fridays tragedies, I’m sure you’ve heard of the one where an employee got trampled on and died because of it….yep…that was my store. And that was a couple years before I started working there, to that day they still hadn’t settled anything with the victims family. This is only the tip of the iceberg here. There was also a girl who committed suicide that worked there because she couldn’t take the pressure of her life and work. A cashier once had an epileptic attack and they didn’t call an ambulance until half hour later….one other example is a girl that was 8 months pregnant and they wanted her to stand her whole shift to answer phones. A few co-workers and myself went off on management because of this. Overall, I enjoyed this book because in reality he’s not lying about what he wrote, and there’s a lot of people out there that are skeptic of what people say about Walmart…if it’s true…and I’m here to say…yes…it’s true.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review of the book.

The author, an immersive journalist, describes his experience working in a Canadian Walmart in Walmart: Diary of an Associate.

It is amazing how Walmart treats its associates like slow children. Rules are drummed into their heads, daily exercises and pep talks are given, and they are monitored extensively. If indoctrination into the Walmart “family” doesn’t motivate sufficiently, then hopefully, the annual April bonus will. And if not, there are plenty of desperately poor people willing to work hard for minimum wage pay.

Everyone who is thinking about applying for a Walmart job should read this book first. While some of the practices are familiar from other sources, I found many new scenarios within the book too. 3 stars.

Note: I read that US Walmart local route truck drivers start at $87,000 per year. Obviously, a trip to a truck driving school may be worth paying back student loans over 20 years compared to minimum wage and annual raises of less than a dollar.

Thanks to Fernwood Publishing and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I know a few people who work at Wal-mart, and this lined up with a lot of their complaints. This was an interesting read, especially if you have never worked retail and want a glimpse into its horrors, or want to see the other side of your local Wal-mart.

thank you to Netgalley and Fernwood Publishing for the ARC for my unbiased review

In 2012, journalist Hugo Meunier went undercover as a Walmart employee for three months in St. Leonard, Quebec, just north of Montreal.

In great detail, Meunier charts the daily life of an impoverished Walmart worker, referring to his shifts at the box store giant as “somewhere between the army and Walt Disney.” Each shift began with a daily chant before bowing to customer demands and the constant pressure to sell.

Interesting book, having visited a few walmarts in the USA on holiday it was very thought provoking to see the OTHER side of the brand and store

I fancied reading something non-fiction for a change and I came across this book. Having worked in retail myself for quite a few (lot of) years I love reading these “tell all” type of books. The front cover depicts a large smiling face/logo as its main focus. I’m not sure if it is a logo linked to Walmart or maybe a logo that’s on a name badge or piece of uniform. (I am from the UK so though we have “Walmart” our stores are called “Asda”)



The book is about a journalist called Hugo Meunier and is written from his sole point of view. Hugo is used to the extremes of journalism such as sneaking into high class parties, to posing as a homeless man. This sort of job is apparently referred to as “immersion journalism” Hugo’s latest journalism job is to apply for and gain employment at Walmart and do a kind of exposé of what it is really like to work there. This book is set in the St Leonard Walmart Store, which is in Quebec just north of Montreal.



So to begin with Hugo goes into store to enquire about a job and is told to go home and apply online. Then there’s a telephone interview and then finally an “in person” interview described as a one to one. For this last part of the Interview, applicants are told it will take 2 hours! A woman called Caroline had been brought from headquarters in Toronto to conduct this part of the Interview. Caroline initially hands them all a name sticker and everyone sits in a circle. Then a list of questions is handed round but you don’t fill in your own answers you find out the details of the person next to you and stand up and introduce them to the rest of the group. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of this part of the Interviewing process that Hugo underwent before being offered a job. The whole group scenario was very familiar as it was so similar to my own group interview at WHSmiths about 19yrs ago it was eery! The purpose of the group is to act out scenarios you may come across within the store. Caroline instructs the group on how you could sell a mobile phone to an older person by saying it would be ideal to take photos of her grandchildren with!



Hugo does go into personal details about those who work with him. Such as the single mum who has to drop her child with a childminder and then rush to get to work on time. The young lads who messed about and got paid as much as the hard working older employees who worked hard every minute whilst at work.



I don't wish to go into detail or mention more specifics of the diary/book as it would reveal too much and be in my opinion too "spoilery".



One revelation that left me shocked a little was the active discouragement from having or being part of a union. The fact a large store such as Walmart did not like unions and you could actually be in danger of losing your job by talking about a union never mind forming a union!



My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were that though I had enjoyed reading most of the book it hadn't been as enjoyable as the supermarket checkout girl one I had read. Maybe because it was set in a different country, I'm not sure. I expected it to be a brilliantly funny read but it was a more serious book about a journalist going under cover to get the inside "dirt" on what it was like to work for Walmart.



To sum up the book was neither a funny diary, nor undercover diary/expose. I thought that the book ended a little bit abruptly at the end...personally I would have liked reactions or quotes from those workers mentioned/named in the book as to what they thought when Hugo was revealed as an undercover reporter.

It was a quick read, I enjoyed the book. . Although some of the content is common knowledge, I still learned more about the inside working of Walmart and personal side of retail. Also, I’m not familiar with some of the references but good nonetheless.

Hugo Meunier a journalist, worked undercover at a Walmart for a period of three months, and give an account of his days at Walmart, his coworker. He also provides an overview a passed court case involving Walmart in Jonquiere, Quebec that closed because of threats of becoming unionized.

I enjoyed the book, a fast read. Even though some of the content is common knowledge, I still learnt more about the inside working of Walmart. A lot references involve local news or events occurring around Montreal and the province of Quebec. A reader not familiar with the local Montreal scene might not grasp all of the analogies and details of the book.

Thank you Netgalley, for a copie of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book just reminded me of why I do not shop at Walmart. It was easy to read but it did not present me with anything I did not already know,

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!
Walmart is famous throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico for its low prices. However, they are also famous for low wages and demanding, wacky customers. (A glance at the site PeopleOfWalmart.com may tell you all you need to know). In this book, journalist Hugo Meunier goes undercover for 3 months as a Walmart associate, then emerges to tell us all about the good, the bad, and the ugly behind the scenes.
The corporation at the top is a warm, family-oriented company. At the store level, it is a place where low pay and hard work go hand in hand. There are stories of employees who cannot afford good food, despite the generous 10% off card they are given. There is an almost cultlike atmosphere in team meetings each morning (Give me a W! Give me an A! Give me an L …) and each associate is encouraged to tattle on those team members who “steal time”. Heavy, heavy emphasis is placed on the customer always being right, with posters in the break room exhorting staff to remember that “The most important person you will meet is your next customer”. Meunier portrays the clientele as brutish, demanding, and thankless. That sounds like most customers in retail – but to hear the author’s inner monologue as he complies with their demands is funny. This monologue will also be familiar to those who work in any service industry.
Something struck me amongst all the descriptions of hard work, lazy colleagues, clueless managers, and low pay. The author is someone with a good paying job and a high-end lifestyle – so the juxtaposition between his real job and his Walmart job is telling. He even notes that he misses sleeping in and not having to punch a clock. Perhaps the most elitist moment is when he notes the difference between Walmart’s and his newspaper’s holiday party. One is filled with wine, truffles and caviar…and the other is not. Can you guess which is which? His reassuring thoughts to himself are that soon he will be able to leave the world of Walmart behind and return to his normal, happy, financially secure life. As he described his fatigue, aching feet and lack of sleep I thought to myself, This is what most of the US consists of – perhaps there needs to be reform?
Speaking of reform, Walmart believes unions are anathema and supports the illegal practice of squashing union talk. On the surface they claim to be open-minded, yet there is a top secret procedure that managers need to follow immediately when they hear talk of organizing. The final chapters of the book describe a hard-fought battle between the retail giant and some employees who wanted to unionize. If most of the book did not depress you, this portion will.
Most of the blurbs that surround this book note that you will never think of Walmart in the same way again. I will say that I wasn’t that surprised at some of the things I learned, except for the way the store demands associates interact with customers. I have never been smiled at or addressed first at my local store – perhaps it is a kinder world in Canada.
Final thoughts – this book is a quick and easily digested read about the class difference and extreme profit seeking of a major corporation. I would have liked if the author followed up in 6 months with his former co-workers to provide a bit more closure to his readers. In any case, it will be interesting to see how/if Walmart responds to the book (despite the fact that it came out a while ago in Canada and was recently translated to English).