Wal-Mart’s Low Prices
“Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the nation and the world’s largest retailer. With 1.6 million workers, 1.3 million in the United States and 300,000 offshore” (Miller, 2006). Thousands of Wal-Mart stores across the United States of America are best known for their slogan of save money live better. Wal-Mart retailers are regarded by the American public for the place to go to find everything from fishing gear to groceries at the lowest prices. However, to obtain these low prices, Wal-Mart must cut expenses, which it does across the board, including the pay and benefits to its workers in the United States. Wal-Mart 's low prices have often saved consumers money at the counter when they purchase goods, as
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Wal-Mart clearly is able to outdo small retailers, such as local stores, by sheer size in quantity. Since Wal-Mart uses its low prices to decrease its competition, it continues to sell its product less than other retailers, which inevitably leads them to close their business. This type of pricing that is used to intentionally reduce competition “antitrust economists refer to the anti-competitive practice of which Wal-Mart is accused as predatory pricing”(Dukes, 2003). To be accused of predatory pricing the business must be selling the products in question below the price of the good paid for by the business. However, Wal- Mart is able to sell its goods at a low rate through a “ highly efficient distribution system and retailing expertise give Wal-Mart a cost advantage that enables it to price its products below the competition and still make a profit”(Dukes, 2003). Since Wal- Mart is not blatantly engaging in predatory pricing and is still making a profit, Wal -Mart is considered to be engaged in normal market competition. Wal -Mart still needs to make a profit on the goods it sells at extremely low prices so it must obtain its goods at a lower cost. Wal-Mart is a mega retailer and with its buying power is able to have an influence that relatively smaller stores may not have. According to the Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission, Wal-Mart is able to use its power of large …show more content…
While Wal-Mart continues to dominate the market and provide low cost goods to consumers, it does so at a high cost. Wal-Mart 's millions of employees pay is not reflective with its subsequent profits, leaving families with financial instability. With Wal-Mart 's engagement in price discrimination and its power of the market to receive substandard low cost goods it continues to make enormous profits. The ability to obtain products at a low price not only has helped Wal-Mart keeps costs down but maintain them as an inferior good. Since Wal-Mart is inelastic, it has no incentive to raise its prices, or the price it is willing to pay to producers. Wal-Marts low price guarantee is really a guarantee of its economic stronghold over the
The success of Wal-Mart is so great, that many people believe that Wal-Mart is becoming a monopsony . Suppliers are forced to deal with Wal-Mart because of the large percentage of sales at Wal-Mart cash registers. As such, Wal-Mart also has the ability to dictate prices of the goods it receives from the suppliers. Every day, more and more retail stores close their doors for good because Wal-Mart controls such a huge margin of the retail sector.
Mallaby admits Wal-Mart can treat their employees and other retailers unfairly, but as a result everyone can share in the 50 billion in savings that American shoppers consume annually. The pay that employees get is the price they must pay for low priced merchandise. Because of the minimal pay to employees, Wal-Mart strengthens its’ consumer buying power. Giving the American shoppers the savings they need, Wal-Mart’s has ultimately been them successful. Wal-Mart has potentially wiped out the middle class as an employer, but the employees can now work and ...
Wal-Mart has been praised for providing cheap diverse products close to home, while providing hundreds of jobs. The leading discount retail store got its title by selling its items at a lower cost than other competing stores. Whereas competing grocery store Winn Dixie sells a steak for twenty dollars, Wal-Mart sells it for seventeen dollars. This price difference may not seem like much, but when Wal-Mart’s overall prices average differs from Winn Dixie’s by a few dollars, it begins to add up. Wal-Mart has allowed for low income families to buy products for a reasonable price. Along with its low prices, Wal-Mart has been known to sell wide variety of products. While some stores such as Winn Dixie, Kroger, and Publix only sell food items, Wal-Mart sells food items along with electronics, clothes, and toys.
Walmart is bad for America, as some say. The Globalization essay that was handed out in class had many good points. It states that Walmart puts many smaller businesses out of service. A recent study by David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine and two associates at the Public Policy Institute of California, "The Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets," uses sophisticated statistical analysis to estimate the effects on jobs and wages as Wal-Mart spread out from its original center in Arkansas. The authors find that retail employmen...
Wal-Mart represents the sickness of capitalism at its almost fully evolved state. As Jim Hightower said, "Why single out Wal-Mart? Because it's a hog. Despite the homespun image it cultivates in its ads, it operates with an arrogance and avarice that would make Enron blush and John D. Rockefeller envious. It's the world's biggest retail corporation and America's largest private employer; Sam Robson Walton, a member of the ruling family, is one of the richest people on earth. Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way: by roughing people up. Their low, low prices are the product of two ruthless commandments: Extract the last penny possible from human toil and squeeze the last dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad." (The Nation, March 4th 2002 www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower).
Wal-Mart has become a household name with many positive attributes but they have been riddled with a large amount of negatives. Their motto of “Always low prices, always” have created soaring profits at the expense of their employees. Most Americans loves the convenience and low prices offered by Wal-Mart. Do Americans know what it actually costs for Wal-Mart to keep prices so low? With thousands of lawsuits filed each year it is a wonder why Wal-Mart refuses to change its practices. It is fairly safe to say that Sam Walton would not approve of how his company has been completely changed from its original intent by such a large margin. Employees are no longer happy working at Wal-Mart and to make matters worse the employees can no longer afford to work there. The average Wal-Mart associate earns about $1000 less t...
and 2000 for a spokesperson had publicly mentioned that more than two thirds of our people are not trying to support a family that 's why our jobs are designed for, and yet it seems that they 're low wages and 2000 for a spokesperson had publicly mentioned that more than two thirds of our people are not trying to support a family that 's why our jobs are designed for, and yet it seems that they 're low wages don 't even support those who aren 't trying to support a family. So who do they help? Walmart doesn 't provide adequate healthcare, the healthcare isn 't just for the family it is for everyone who would like good health. But while Walmart has its downs it also has a few pros, like their genius inventions such as the Telon, And their ingenuity have helped make and bring Walmart to the top. They have intelligently used their barcodes on products to bring about information, such as how many our soul, how many are expected to be sold, prices and even discounts. Then Walmart brilliantly patented the idea so if other competitors want to stay in the game, they have to buy this idea from Walmart just to keep up with Walmart. It 's pretty brilliant when you think about it. They also use a open price system where you are drawn into a department by the low prices they stick in front and you stay because you assume that other products in this department will have similar low prices, when in reality they might be more expensive than other
Walmart is one of the most successful franchises of all time and continues to take fire from multiple angles, whether it’s about the costing of jobs, the wages, the health insurance, the small business destruction, or the environmental impact, but can always back itself up by negating those claims with facts that proves that it is beneficial to the community.
During the last 20 years, Wal-Mart has moved into many areas wiping out all the stores around causing people to loose jobs, slashing the tax base and causing many more disturbing problems to neighborhoods so people should stop supporting Wal-Mart for many of these reasons. Always low prices, does this sound familiar? Well this would be the slogan of the world’s most controlling company; Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart grew over the years into a 256 billion dollar company after making its name across the world in 1915. The major problem with Wal-Mart is that it maintains its own mini-economy. Some people believe Wal-Mart supports the American economy while most others hold that Wal-Mart’s global outsourcing will and has damaged the economy over time. When comparing these two opposite points, Wal-Mart has and is continuing to be more destructive than constructive to our economy. It has left employees with little to even no healthcare at all, destroyed more jobs then it has even created and it has also dishonored our environment. The second most common job, cashiers, are suppose to earn just about $7.92 per hour and work 29 hours a week which was said in a 2003 analysis. This only brings in yearly wages of only $11,948 (Wal-Mart Wages and Worker Rights 1). It is incredible that their employees can support themselves with making such low wages."With its low price focus, Wal-Mart may appear to help the U.S. economy. But, the reality is that with its poor wages and benefits, massive China sourcing and tax avoidance, Wal-Mart makes its workers and the communities where it operates poorer."-David Nassar.
The Wal-Mart Corporation is a multi-billion dollar low-cost retail organization, consisting of 6400 stores and 1.8 million sales associates worldwide. Wal-Mart’s influence on the retail world and the enormity of their corporate size is unparalleled. Wal-Mart can easily report sales of $312.4 billion dollars per fiscal quarter and net profits of $3.8 billion dollars. Wal-Mart promises her customers "Always low prices. Always!" and upholds this motto by providing low prices to her customers and high return on investment to her stockholders. One way that Wal-Mart has managed to maintain a competitive edge over other low cost retail giants and provide low prices is by cutting wages and by not offering too many company benefits to their employees. Full-time employee working at Wal-Mart only make $8 an hour, while only 45% of the workers can afford to be covered by health insurance. Wal-Mart also increase part time employees from 20 percent to 40 percent so that they do not have to cover all of their employees for health insurance . Although Wal-Mart may not provide excellent benefits to her employees, it successfully performs as a legitimate business operating in a capitalistic society. Wal-Mart upholds the primary fiduciary duty to satisfy her stockholder and follows free the market libertarianism model, which states that a business should not interfering with the free market. In a free market Wal-Mart has a direct responsibility to her primary stockholders rather than the employees of a company.
Dicker brings up valid statistics that help give an understanding of just how powerful Wal-Mart actually is including that Wal-Mart employs one out of every 115 American Workers and the business is four times the size of its largest rival (790). He also goes into great detail about many of the issues with Wal-Mart. He talks about not only the many lawsuits filed against Wal-Mart but also the feelings of the workers about their jobs (791-795). Dicker’s article brings up many valid points about the negative aspects of Wal-Mart, however he overlooks the details of how the business manages to stay powerful despite all of the terrible things that are going on and fails to include any benefits that come from
Wal-Mart, along with Sam’s Club, which first opened its doors in 1983, lowered their prices to help people purchase quality items at a low cost. At least, that’s was what Wal-Mart told people. In reality, Sam Walton created a giant superstore that keeps prices low by obtaining almost everything from foreign countries for an extremely low price. Seen in Robert Greenwald’s film, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices, Chinese workers can make a product for about $0.18. Wal-Mart will resell this item for about $14.96. True, Walton’s “Buy American” movement saved some American jobs from going overseas and helped struggling companies get back on their feet, but this movement eventually died because Mr. Sam was only willing to work with companies if they changed in order to “fill our requirements” (Hornblower). Furthermore, Wal-Mart stores have a tendency to store their herbicides, pesticides, and other toxic materials outdoors in their parking lots. When it rains all of the toxic chemicals get washed away into a storm drain, which eventually makes it way to the ocean, or flows directly into a nearby river, which is used for drinking. Wal-Mart was fined $3.1 million, the largest fine ever made for a retailing business, for violating the Clean Water Act in 2004 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in nine states (Greenwald). Mr. Walton also created the Critical Need Fund, where associates of Wal-Mart can donate some of their paycheck to help other associates during a time of need. In 2004, Wal-Mart associates gave over $5 million to the fund, while the Walton family gave only $6,000 (Greenwald). To some, the Wal-Mart legacy is great: allowing people buy quality products at a low price and employing people of other nationalities and races that other companies won’t employ. But to others this low price and availability comes at a cost: environmental and economic problems are truly at the heart of the Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart’s competitive environment is quite unique. Although Wal-Mart’s primary competition comes from general merchandise retailers, warehouse clubs and supermarket retailers also present competitive pressure. The discount retail industry is substantial in size and is constantly experiencing growth and change. The top competitors compete both nationally and internationally. There is extensive competition on pricing, location, store size, layout and environment, merchandise mix, technology and innovation, and overall image. The market is definitely characterized by economies of scale. Top retailers vertically integrate many functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, advertising, and shipping. Large scale functions such as these give the top competitors a significant cost advantage over small-scale competition.
Besides all the points that I have stated, Wal-Mart has had to pay fines due to breaking Child Labor laws and Illegal Immigrant laws; fines up to $11.5 million for just those two types of laws. Wal-Mart is not good for this economy, for the people, and the company, in a whole, is criminal. If the people let Wal-Mart stay on the track it is on, the United States will not have anything but Wal-Marts. Wal-Mart will become a monopoly and put everyone, who started with something more than greed, out-of-business.
Walmart has had a long-standing presence in America society since the middle of the 20th century, seen as a place to get everything done, Walmart has become a fixation in our society. From grocery shopping, to changing your oil and even filing your annual tax returns, Walmart is always there, everyday. Started by Sam Walton in 1962, it began as a small operation catering to a small Arkansas community. It was started on principles very similar to small local businesses in small towns. Today Walmart has gotten a different, darker reputation. On the surface, Walmart may seem like the solution to everyday issues. Low-income families are attracted to the low prices, and people who work odd hours benefit greatly from the 24 hours a day that many Walmarts are open. Lately, Walmart has also managed to be publicly recognized as a store that sells many of today’s green products, including organic food, environmental conscious cleaning products, as well as, paper products made from recycled paper. However, underneath all this, Walmart has a different side. Exploitation of its workers is widespread amongst Walmarts who do not belong to a union, especially in the United States. Wal...