#walmartelves

                               ATTENTION WALMART SHOPPERS!

Walmart has stopped using ICANN to seize control of walmartelves.com and has relinquished the #WalmartElves trademark.

We're on Twitter at @LowWages, @SweatShopElves, and other accounts, and we're free!

You can click HERE to read the long history of Walmart hiring lawyers to censor and remove #WalmartElves on strike from the Internet.

This QR code takes people to this blog! Print and put places! Free free to make your own! We made ours here: http://www.qrcode-monkey.com This code takes you to the #WalmartElves Twitter search. If people keep tweeting about the injustices of Walmart Workers, whoever goes to this search will see all the tweets! All the #WalmartElvesMaterials to #RebrandWalmart in 1 link HERE These were made by a supporter of WalmartStrikers and if you search Twitter for #WalmartElvesMaterials you will find many more. http://www.here They are in PDF form. Here are some examples!

#WalmartElves are concerned with behavior of Joshua Nicholson and  Brandon Evano from Associates Who Love Walmart. They are trying to sell Walmart friendly apparel to Walmart workers and bully anyone who objects.

Evano protected his Twitter account @brandonevano yesterday after posting the following:

His account is now unprotected and he has included the following in his bio:

I work for the greatest company in the world. I've also saved my money to buy a nice car. Name-callers, spammers, and union trolls shall be blocked.

We WalmartElves @WalmartElvesLOL replied as you can see above.

Joshua's LinkedIn Profile lists his current job as: Assistant Manager at Walmart

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joshua-nicholson/37/39b/858?trk=pub-pbmap

Brandon is currently a Customer Service Manager at Walmart

http://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonevano

Together they use the internet to complain about Our Walmart and Unions and anyone who does not love Walmart. If their point was simply to share the love of Walmart that many Walmart Associates supposedly feel, their presence would not be so troubling. They are entitled to their opinions, however poisonous they may be,  and to their Facebook communities.

However,  AWLW  does more than try to connect happy Walmart workers.

Not only is Brandon Evano trying to raise money via indiegogo to create AWLW propaganda, Associates Who Love Walmart (run by Brandon Evano) is advertising gear that will be sold to, well, Walmart Associates.

AWLW GEAR NOW AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE! Support your Walmart and wear AWLW with pride! http://awlw.spreadshirt.com/

They advertise these products on their Facebook page too. Apparently, Joshua is planning to buy these products, but they conveniently delete any comments that express criticism or dissent.

#WalmartElves know these are not items the average Walmart Worker can afford or should have to buy to avoid intimidation at Walmart.

indiegogo:

http://www.indiegogo.com/awlw

Hello,

My name is Brandon Evano, and I run and operate the organization, AWLW –Associates Who Love Walmart. AWLW currently has near 12,000 “likes” on Facebook and is continually growing. Unlike the UNION backed group "OurWalmart", AWLW doesn't receive outside funding. As a matter of fact, all expenses that are contributed to AWLW come from my own wallet. 

Let me take a moment to describe to you what AWLW is; AWLW is comprised of thousands of associates who not only love where they work, but love the work that they're doing because they know there is a simple reward in the end - changing the world for the better. Founded in 2011 by Joshua Nicholson, AWLW has grown to reach out to thousands of associates who love working at Walmart. When you work at Walmart, you are not simply joining a company, but a family, and that itself is truly rewarding because when you've got 2.1 million family members pushing you strong, there are no tasks that cannot be achieved. We are the driving force behind changing the world for the better. One community at a time, Walmart associates are making the difference. It's when we pull together that enables us to achieve more and AWLW was founded to help everyone remember that. Worldwide, there are thousands of Walmart associates who are proud of the company Sam Walton built and feel the empowerment and opportunities that this company offers.

Now, AWLW has grown larger than ever before. We’re a very large group of Walmart associates who support our company. My objective and hope is for you to please help me and increase awareness of Walmart associates who disagree with the uprising of unions, and their consistent distortion of how Walmart associates truly feel. There has been continual, one-sided, coverage of Walmart in regards to its treatment of employees and working conditions. It is my intent to make sure that America and the rest of the world can see that 86% of Walmart associates do love their job and are treated with respect and are offered amazing career opportunities.

To do this, I rely on my own personal finances. I create all digital media content for AWLW. From our website, to our Facebook page, all content is genuinely created from my personal time and personal expenses. Unfortunately, I’m not supported by very large organizations, such as the UFCW, which have helped build and support Anti-Walmart propaganda. For this reason, I truly would appreciate ANY support, financially or through word-of-mouth, to help build AWLW into a stronger voice for Walmart associates.

I would also like to make clear, Walmart Stores Inc. is not in any way affiliated with AWLW and does not financially support the organization.

I thank you for your time, and of course, if you would like to learn more about AWLW, please take a moment to visit our website, www.awlw.info and as well as our Facebook, www.facebook.com/welovewalmart and if you wish to contact me directly, feel free to email me at [email protected]

Thank you

We have included a screen shot in case Evano deletes his campaign.

Brandon Evano is known for deleting his Facebook posts and tweets. Earlier on the week of December 9, #WalmartElves noticed Brandon Evano's Facebook profile displayed some photographs of a new Volvo and information about his employment history at Walmart. He has since then changed his privacy settings or removed the images.

Brandon Evano https://www.facebook.com/brandonevano

We were outraged by his request for donations and new car.  We posted the image below on Facebook and Twitter and received much backlash!

Our Caption: "#WalmartElves do not believe Brandon Evano of #AWLW can afford new Volvo on average Walmart wages"

Tags: Free The Walmartelves

An interesting comment was posted beneath our image (the image has since been deleted).

Chad Lower Apparently #WalmartElves can't do math... So the average worker in Pennsylvania makes $12.53 per hour. (http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/locations/united-states#/united-states/pennsylvania) I will try to make this as simple as possible for you -- the AVERAGE is a measure of the "middle," meaning that there are people who make more, and people who make less. In most businesses, there are fewer managers than non-management employees, and management tends to make more due to the added responsibilities. At the time the purchase was made, it appears Brandon was an Inventory Management System Supervisor according to his facebook page.(https://www.facebook.com/brandonevano/timeline/story?ut=32&wstart=1293868800&wend=1296547199&hash=10150138138593146&pagefilter=3) As a result, I would guess that he made more than $12.52/hr, but I do not know for sure. However, to make things easy, let's assume that he made the average. So $12.53 per hour times 40 hours per week means he earns a little over $500 per week before taxes. Multiply that my 52 (the number of weeks in a year), and he earns roughly $26k per year, or roughly $2170 per average month. I don't know what he paid for his car, but according to his facebook page, he bought a Volvo XC90 (https://www.facebook.com/brandonevano/timeline/story?ut=32&wstart=1330588800&wend=1333263599&hash=10150866734418146&pagefilter=3&ustart=1) in March 2012. Looking at Volvo's website today, you can purchase a 2013 XC90 for $39,700 MSRP. I would guess that a 2012 would cost less than that, and being sold in March, he could have possibly received a better deal than that. But again, for simplicity sake, I will assume that he purchased for $39,700. Volvo's website also has a Payment Estimator (http://www.volvocars.com/us/all-cars/volvo-xc90/tools/pages/paymentestimator.aspx). If he financed the base package through Volvo with no money down, according to Volvo, his payments would be $590/month. If he went with a local bank or credit union, he may have received a better deal. A $590 payment on a $26k wage means the car payment is approximately 27% of his income. According to Bank of America (http://learn.bankofamerica.com/articles/managing-credit/keeping-your-debt-load-manageable.html), "The preferred maximum [debt-to-income ratio] varies from lender to lender, but it's often around 36%." Again, for simplicity case, I am assuming a lot of things I don't believe to be true (his wage, cost of car, no down-payment), but if any of these things work to his favor, then his debt would be smaller than the 27% calculated--still a far cry from the 36% most lenders consider to be the max. (As a point of reference, my wife and I saved and put around $8000 towards a van a few years ago. Savings is not dead.)

Joshua (@TexasGuyinNy) then used Twitter to report accounts with whom he disagreed regarding #AWLW. We can only assume the "personal photos" Joshua Nicholson refers to are a reference to Evano's car in the photograph above, although he did not respond to requests regarding which photos were posted. The photos were on a public Facebook profile.

We posted the following on our Facebook page and were threatened by Joshua Nicholson.

Apparently the "B" Joshua refers to below is "Brandon."

Somehow, Joshua and Brandon remain convinced that the #WalmartElves on Walmart Strike are working with OurWalmart or are harassing Walmart associates on behalf of Unions. 

They deleted all comments WalmartElves made on the AWLW Facebook page, including our inquiry regarding whether Walmart Associates would have to pay for this AWLW gear.

Before:

Now, Free The Walmartelves' comment has been deleted.

Both Twitter accounts @86WalmartElves and @walmart_elves were suspended on the night of December 13-14. This happened while @86WalmartElves were mentioning   @brandonevano (who had blocked them).

Also, a the Twitter account of a young woman @Daisy504 was suspended with no explanation. When her account was restored it displayed disagreements with Nicholson.

Twitter doesn't encourage users to report anyone whose tweets they don't like.

Twitter Help suggests that when dealing with "abusive behavior" users should "Block and ignore"

When you receive unwanted communication from another Twitter user, it is recommend that you block the user and end any communication. Specifically this will prevent that person from following or replying to you. Abusive users often lose interest once they realize that you will not respond. This Twitter Support article shows you how to block other users.

Twitter only removes profiles that are in violation of the Twitter Rules and Terms of Service.  Please remember that Twitter is a communications platform rather than a content provider, we do not mediate disputes between users.

However, both accounts were suspended before a Global Day of Solidarity with Walmart Strikers. @86WalmartElves had to file 2 Twitter Support tickets to have the account restored. This is oddly reminiscent of @WalmartElvesLOL first week on Twitter.

They were suspended twice, despite the fact that they identified as a parody account who were disgusted with Walmart's unsolicited spam tweets. 

The @Walmart Twitter account is not being suspended for what is obviously spam and violation of Twitter rules. Walmart has been paying people some crappy wage to violate Twitter’s rules to tweet to people to try to get them to buy Walmart product. According to Twitter Support, the following behavior is evidence of spam “If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies or mentions in an attempt to spam a service or link”https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311-the-twitter-rules# Examples of @Walmart tweets with #WalmartElves hashtag that are SPAM https://twitter.com/Walmart/status/274198367502991361 https://twitter.com/Walmart/status/274168581321785346 https://twitter.com/Walmart/status/274128163859206144 Elves don’t exist! Supporters of Walmart Strikers and Walmart Workers are disgusted with Walmart’s marketing campaign. The workers, who deserve a living wage, are not elves.

Our Tweets

Walmart's unsolicited tweets:

All the information below is offered as evidence that Joshua Nicholson and Brandon Evano are not average Walmart Associates. These images were publicly posted on the internet and #WalmartElves are simply posting the info here to spread awareness about the fact that these "Associates" who love Walmart make a lot of money at Walmart and seem to be trying to sell products to hourly associates for either their own profit of Walmart's.

We are not doing anything wrong by sharing information that is already public.

We would like help investigating who will benefit financially from this AWLW campaign.

Pictures of Brandon at Walmart Shareholders' meetings and other fancy Walmart places.

Evano's Blurb Book

We think it's weird that this guy either loves Walmart so much that he wrote a book about it or gets PAID to pretend he loves Walmart.

Finally, we do not know what Core Exports, Arkansas, is, but Nicholson was a CEO there!

These men have bullied Walmart Elves on the internet and are bullying anyone who disagrees with them on the internet, especially on their Facebook page.

Please help WalmartElves stand up to some horrible bullies and do not let them try to punish our own elf friends' Twitter accounts!

Walmart is obviously trying to bully social networking sites to censor those who support Walmart Strike.

Sincerely,

@86WalmartElves

@walmart_elves

@WalmartElvesLOL

@86WalmartElves_

What are the #WalmartElves doing on the Internet?

Daily Kos has a good explanation to how the WalmartElves hashtag began being used on Twitter.

#WalmartElves having a bad day

Walmart thought they'd use social media to "help" people plan for the sales on Friday, so they created a new hash tag: #WalmartElves, and launched an aggressive Twitter campaign!

Walmart did not create a Twitter account specifically for the Walmart Elves, and only used its main Twitter account @Walmart. The corporation Walmart has been using the #WalmartElves hashtag but does not have an account that is named “The Walmart Elves.” Walmart is paying employees who use the @Walmart Twitter account to tweet to individuals who are not even asking Walmart for shopping advice on Twitter.

Many tweets from the Walmart using the hashtag #WalmartElves are in clear violation of Twitter’s Terms of Service for unsolicited tweets and spam.

The @Walmart Twitter account is not being suspended for what is obviously spam and violation of Twitter rules. Walmart has been paying people some crappy wage to violate Twitter’s rules to tweet to people to try to get them to buy Walmart product. According to Twitter Support, the following behavior is evidence of spam “If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies or mentions in an attempt to spam a service or link” https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311-the-twitter-rules# Examples of @Walmart tweets with #WalmartElves hashtag that are SPAM https://twitter.com/Walmart/status/274198367502991361 https://twitter.com/Walmart/status/274168581321785346 https://twitter.com/Walmart/status/274128163859206144 Elves don't exist! Supporters of Walmart Strikers and Walmart Workers are disgusted with Walmart's marketing campaign. The workers, who deserve a living wage, are not elves.

Since there was no Walmart Elves Twitter account run by Walmart, @TheWalmartElves was created. This Twitter account tweeted support for Walmart Strikers on November 26. It was then suspended and received an impersonation complaint even after changing its handle to @WalmartElvesLOL.

Here is our #WalmartElves reply to @Twitter @Support re impersonation claim. Dear Twitter, @TheWalmartElves is a parody account. Since elves are not real, it should be obvious that this Twitter account is not impersonating anyone. Moreover, there is no "Walmart Elves" account on Twitter for us to impersonate. We do not think any of the people reading our tweets have been mislead to believe that Elves are real and that Elves who were employed by Walmart are on strike. We are not pretending to impersonate @Walmart. Our bio location says we are Not at Walmart. We have never claimed to be Walmart or speak for them. We have simply created a parody of the #WalmartElves hashtag, which is not a Twitter account or an individual. We have made the following changes to comply with Twitter's Terms of Service: User Name: @WalmartElvesLOL Account Name: #WalmartElves LOL Bio: The #WalmartElves are on strike. Boycott Walmart! Solidarity #WalmartStrikers! (Parody account b/c Elves aren't real) Avatar: We are not displaying the Walmart Logo. We are displaying an image of elves holding "boycott Walmart" signs. We sincerely hope the "LOL" will make it clear that this is a parody account. Please let us know if there are any additional steps we need to take. Sincerely, The Parody Account for The Walmart Elves Hello, We've received a valid impersonation report regarding your account, @TheWalmartElves. Twitter firmly believes in the freedom of expression; however, impersonation that misleads, confuses, or deceives is against our Rules. If you had intended to create a parody, commentary or fan account, we need you to make it clearer in order to avoid confusion. We've provided guidelines for parody accounts here: http://help.twitter.com/entries/106373 In particular, please review and make changes to these aspects of your profile: Username Account name URL Bio Background/Avatar We're letting the reporter know that you've been asked to clarify your account. We need you to make these changes within 48 hours. Please reply to this email if you have any questions about the necessary changes. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience. Thanks, Twitter Trust & Safety Please note, we cannot accept email attachments at this time; please include all information in the body of your request.

Meanwhile, @walmart_elves joined Twitter in solidarity with their censored friends.

The @WalmartElvesLOL Twitter account received a great deal of support during its suspension and is grateful to everyone who asked Twitter to reinstate their Twitter account. This Tumblr was created during the suspension.

Even though @Walmart has not blocked @WalmartElvesLOL, they seem to have complained to Twitter about unsolicited tweets. @WalmartElvesLOL are following @Walmart but have not mentioned them or tweeted to them since being reinstated for fear of another suspension.

The hashtag, #WalmartElves, cannot be owned by Walmart. We #WalmartElves on #WalmartStrike are committed to reminding the public that Walmart is a corrupt corporation and that workers who deserve benefits, a living wage, the right to unionize, are doing the work these supposed "elves" are performing.

Walmart has no trademark on the #WalmartElves hashtag, and it should be available for supporters of the Walmart Strike to use.

The account @WalmartElvesLOL will tweet in support of Walmart Strikers to remind victims of Walmart’s spam that there are no elves. There are workers who don’t earn a living wage and people dying in fires because Walmart doesn’t care about its employees. Walmart has the nerve to imply there are elves doing all the work. The #WalmartElves understand that many people prefer Facebook to Twitter, so we have created a Facebook page: Free The Walmartelves, and our tweets will go to it.

However, our real work is on Twitter and on the streets, supporting Walmart Workers and Strikers. Expect us!

#FreeTheWalmartElves @WalmartElvesLOL

The Twitter account @TheWalmartElves has been suspended.