Wal-Mart's Role in the Community

Wal-Mart is one of the largest corporations in the world, and leads the pack of American retail stores in terms of size and sales income. The size of Wal-Mart allows the store to provide consumers with lower prices than most other retail chains, and much lower prices than small, "mom and pop" stores. Because of these reasons, is Wal-Mart a help or a hindrance; should Wal-Mart be given special consideration (i.e. tax breaks, location decisions); and should Wal-Mart be held responsible for improving economic and social conditions in communities in which it operates?

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.

Some people raise a concern about employment practices with Wal-Mart. There are definitely two sides to this argument. Wal-Mart has been sued recently for allegedly making employees work overtime, off the clock, in order save money in payroll expenses. There has also been concern of the amount of money that Wal-Mart pays employees. Many employees have complained of being paid only minimum wage for extended periods of time. On the other hand, Wal-Mart has created thousands of jobs in small communities when stores open up. This has helped many communities that struggle with high unemployment rates. Another thing that Wal-Mart has done is allow anyone displaced by hurricane Katrina to be placed in a job at any other Wal-Mart in the country. One other questionable employment practice that has been brought up by employees is discrimination. Wal-Mart has been the plaintiff in many discrimination law suits in recent years, claiming that Wal-Mart discriminates in many ways against women and minorities. I guess the employment practices of Wal-Mart could be looked at as favorable or unfavorable depending on how you look at it. However, one has to wonder if Wal-Mart creates programs like the hurricane Katrina program just in order to create positive publicity.