Wal-Mart: The High Cost of a Low Price
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 products are not less expensive due to virtuosity. The "misguided hippie punk" seems to labor under the delusion that Wal-Mart and other big box retailers are somehow the savior of middle and lower class Americans. The low priced products are produced in foreign countries under horrible working conditions and are sold by workers at Wal-Mart stores that are paid poverty wages. For more info go to the National Labour Committee website and read up on Wal-Mart (www.nlcne...
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.
Wal-Mart was not always the superstore that it is today. In the late 1940’s, Sam Walton took up the ownership of a Ben Franklin’s store in Newport, Arkansas. Even during the time before Wal-Mart, Walton was all about keeping prices low. It is every business’s objective to find the right balance between the prices of an item to meet the demands of the consumer in order to maximize revenue. How could Walton still make a profit while keeping the prices low for the consumer? Even while still operating the Ben Franklin’s store, he would purchase products from wholesalers and minimally markup the price. Where most retailers would rely on markup prices to gain profit, Walton would rely on pure volume in order to make up for the low prices (Frank, 2006). This was a smart decision on his part because it makes sense that if a consumer can get the same product for a lower price then they will purchase the cheaper product. It was not until 1962 that Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store, also in Arkan...
Quinn, Bill. How Walmart Is Destroying America (and the world), And What You Can Do About It. Third Edition. Ten Speed Press, 2005. Print.
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 ...
To this day, when I walk into Wal-Mart and come face to face with a manager I once worked under they give me dirty looks. People report that managers will trash talk you to another job that applied for if that job contacts Wal-Mart about you. Wal-Mart has unrealistic workloads for some overnight stockers, their managers aren’t the best in the world, and their policies are harsh. This is why I constantly call Wal-Mart a communist regime; not because it shares the ideals but because it is just bad for everyone in general. Hopefully one day a high positioned power will restore the order and peace that once was Wal-Mart according to the history they teach you in training and that their policies and workloads may become more realistic and doable.
...al-Mart’s methods to keeping these prices down have been immoral. In addition, they have taken advantage of town resources for example, subsidies, employee benefits and exploitation of cheap labor. Even though they have surpassed significantly in attracting customers all over the nation, they failed to do so ethically. This has created losses to competitors, and the battle for profit is an ongoing one. Therefore, I believe that Wal-Mart has become an economical disaster to competitors and the US as a whole. This is due to the exporting of huge amounts of funds to Asian countries, which in turn reduced the funds in the US due to continuous import costs.
A prior market firm used by Wal-mart (GSD&M) warned Wal-mart of the public image issues they were facing and had not addressed, even though they had been advised of them for over two years. GSD&M wrote in one review to the company that “sadly, after two years of empty rhetoric and ineffective publicity stunts, we now know that Wal-Mart has not only needlessly hurt its Associates and their families, but has pointlessly hurt the image and success that Sam Walton built.” (wakeupWalMart.com, 2007). Wal-mart has acted in a manner that blends with the theory of egoism. This theory “sets as its goal the benefit, pleasure, or greatest good of the oneself alone.” (wofford.edu, 1997). “Egoist use personal advantage…as the standard for measuring an action’s rightness.” (Shaw, 2008, p. 45). Clearly Wal-mart today is acting with interests geared toward their personal advantage and not considering the wreckage it is leaving all around them.
Wal-Mart is, to some extent, a values-based corporation. The Wal-Mart Corporation takes a strong, direct stance on many issues. This can be seen in many items in which they refuse to sell, such as; music and games with explicit content, adult magazines, and the morning after pill. This shows character in the company because they are foregoing potential profits in order to enforce values that they believe in. Wal-Mart is probably making some people very happy by this moral stance that they have undertaken, and it gives a message to the public that Wal-Mart is not a heartless corporation like many others.
A Macro-Sized Microcosm describes how Wal-Mart is a ‘macro-sized microcosm’ for America’s socioeconomic problems. New technology in the marketplace has created a conflict between labor and capital. This is ruining the U.S. manufacturing base. This reading states that Wal-Mart benefits by relying on suppliers and subcontractors. Wal-Mart buyers demand the lowest price possible, making it competitive with their suppliers. A way they do this is by adding cost efficiencies. These demands make it difficult for suppliers to provide employees with decent wages and suitable working conditions. The government endorses these circumstances. The federal and state governments support Wal-Mart with about $4 billion. This includes “free or reduced price land, tax breaks, sales tax rebates, state corporate income tax” et cetera. Most Wal-Marts in the U.S. receive government subsidy. This makes the price of commodities low and keeps them ahead of the
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.
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
With Wal-Mart being so outrageously huge in this short of time, I believe that it has not yet settled into their customers why Wal-Mart is so cheap. Wal-Mart will replace higher wage jobs with lower wage jobs and require taxpayer assistance to keep Wal-Mart employees out of poverty. Numerous studies reveal that, contrary to the company's PR, Wal-Mart does not create new jobs when it comes to town. Wal-Mart simply replaces higher paying retail jobs with lower paying ones and, due to its adverse impact upon local businesses, may actually cause a net decrease in job numbers. The factories in China supply their employees with a whopping three dollar...
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