Competitive Analysis of Business Cycles

Karen Olsson believes that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer company, under pays their employees for the amount of work they do daily. They do not offer good working conditions for their employees or enough medical benefits to support themselves and their families. Sebastian Mallaby says that Wal-Mart is not wrong for the way that they run their business; he feels as though Wal-Mart does their consumers a favor by keeping the wages low and offering “low prices” (620). It’s just business! They have to do what it takes to remain the world’s top retailer and continue to, “enrich shareholders, and put rivals out of business” (620). Karen Olsson and Sebastian Mallaby both address the topic of big

Wal-Mart being one of the big company get its supplies cheaply and in a large quantity. This disables other supermarkets to compete with Wal-Mart. Where ever a Wal-Mart opens, many other stores close down because all their customers have been stolen by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart doesn’t pay its employees enough money to support their families’ because the wages are not designed to support a family. Even though, it can afford wage increases they still don’t do it.

According to Raj Patel (2010), Wal-Mart employs “2.1 million greeters, stock clerks, and logistics officers working at its 8,416 stores ... [and] ranks among the largest employers worldwide--only China's army has more people on its payroll.” (para. 1). That is 2.1 million people who chose to work for the company, who were employed despite whatever setbacks there were holding them back from a “real” job. While Wal-Mart is definitely not the dream job, it is better than no job, and in fact does not pay that much below the retail average of $11.86/hour (EAE Alberta, 2011, p. 4). In this economy, it is unrealistic to believe that any retail job will lead a new fancy car every year, or pay much further than the necessities. The high cost of living with a low minimum wage goes beyond Wal-Mart’s business structure. However, it is a job that is helpful in employing students who need to pay for their education, and in assisting in immigrants making money when they first move to North America. It employs those hard to employ people and gives them the experience needed to move on to a better job with higher pay. Also missed in Parmar’s article is the fact that when employing two million people, there is a much higher chance of the company having an issue with employees. Due to its immense amount of employees, it is 5,500% more likely that a bad event will happen at Wal-Mart as opposed to smaller companies such

Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue (approximately four hundred and eighty billion dollars) and the largest private employer in the world with two point three million employees. Walmart is also one of the world's most valuable companies by market value, and is also the largest grocery retailer in the U.S. “One Nation Under Walmart” is a case about how Walmart has taken over the retail business and the effects of their market domination. The case also shows statistics of how much percentage Walmart is of many suppliers’ sales. According to the case Walmart has a 30% market share of all household items. Twenty-eight percent of Dial’s business and twenty-four percent of Del Monte’s business go through Walmart stores. It is also worth noting that Walmart imports ten percent of all United States imports from China. The case states that Walmart is able to offer cheaper prices because they put so much pressure on their suppliers to lower their prices. The case, “One Nation Under Walmart”, explains the problems that some people have with the massive retailer. One of these problems is how Walmart has forced numerous local businesses to close their doors through their extremely competitive pricing. They are able to purchase bulk goods at such low prices and thus pass the savings onto customers. As a result of these lew costs, rivals are driven out of business which results in a loss of jobs. Jobs are vital to the success of a community and with Walmart causing job

As stated on the corporate website (2017), “Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, where 2.3 million associates meet the needs of more than 260 million customers every week.” These numbers are huge, and with so many locations around the globe, they have had allegations been made by employees regarding their dissatisfaction about poor work conditions, gender discrimination, low wages, poor benefits, and inadequate health care. Walmart has been criticized for its policies against labor unions and this issue has prompted public outrage, (Johansson, 2005) which is of great concern for the market. The company has also faced criticism for being anti-union, but it has claimed that it is rather pro-associate, whereby employees

In the United States Walmart effects negatively retail worker wages as well as retail employment. In addition, University of California researchers found that workers in Walmart earn on average 12.4 % less than retail workers as a whole (UNI Global Union, 2012). Walmart’s workers demonstrated thier dissatisfaction with working conditions and low wages by protesting on Black Friday 2012, which is the day the company is making the biggest profit. Walmart workers stood up and more than 1,000 demonstrations in a hundreds encouraging Walmart to act ethicaly towards them. For workers protesting it was a huge risk as they are oficially not protected by any labour union (Progress, 2012). Another evidence that Walmart treats its employees unfairly are discrimination claims. Women workers in California pursue discrimination claims saying that Walmart systematically treats them unfairly. According to women workers retail giant denied to pay raises and promotions due to gender bias (Levine & Gupta, 2011).

“Companies like Wal-Mart are not run by saints” Mallaby asserts, putting forward one graceful negative before another, “They can treat workers and competitors roughly. They may even be poor stewards of the environment.” However, he continues, the company is large, global and it is only expected for critics to emerge to question its

Walmart employees, customers, and suppliers have seen their fair share of Walmart’s bad side. While Walmart’s founder, Sam Walton, claims to make their employees feel like they “are working for them” and that they care Walmart has done such a horrific job with the way they treat their employees that one day, the workers decided to walk out and go on strike. They walked out on the grounds that they “were emblazoned with the workers’ grievances: poverty wages, miserly benefits, dignity denied” (Eidelson 1). They felt like they weren’t only taking a stand against Walmart, but also taking a stand for the younger generations to come. Walmart’s employees are getting treated unfairly and are underpaid. The CEO’s, Michael Duke, annual salary gives him more money in an hour than an employee who works full-time would make in an entire year. In Bangladesh, over 100 workers “died in a factory without outdoor fire escapes, NGOs blame Walmart for pushing deadly shortcuts” (Eidelson 1). Not only are the employees being poorly paid by Walmart, but they are paying their life to Walmart just to make enough money to barely get by. Walmart even made a pregnant employee work around chemicals that eventually made her ill. After a trip to the doctor, Walmart allowed her to be put on a lighter duty, so they made her a door greeter; however, they

Next you look at inhumane working condition in those Walmart stores vs. happy and healthy employees in family business stores. Even though, the small family businesses are not union they are taking care of employees and their families despite Walmart that is union and they are not fighting for employee’s rights and benefits. The bottom line of this corporations is how to make

Those actions have eliminated good paying jobs and lowered labor standards throughout the entire company. Walmart could afford to take the right approach and encourage great manufacturing jobs with better wages and paying its own employees, but choose not to.

In this paper, I will explain the roles and importance of the Business cycle Dating committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research. I will also explain how the NBER defines and dates recessions. Finally I will explain the important aspects and effects of the last recession.

“Up Against Wal-Mart” by Karen Olsson, a senior editor at Texas Monthly and who’s article appeared in Mother Jones, introduces her article through the perspective of a Wal-Mart worker. She focuses on the negatives of Wal-Mart by telling the real life struggles of different Wal-Mart employees. “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” by Sebastian Mallaby, a columnist for the Washington Post, focuses his article on what Wal-Mart critics say and attempts to defend Wal-Mart by comparing Wal-Mart to other retailers. Even though Karen Olsson and Sebastian Mallaby both examine the negative effects of Wal-Mart, Olsson berates Wal-Mart’s unfair treatment towards employees and the unlivable wages that the world’s largest retailer provides while Mallaby

Please read Barbara Ehrenreich's recent book, Nickel and Dimed. In her brilliant book she reveals the misery of working for a big box retailer and the impossibility of living in America on poverty wages. She spent time working at Wal-Mart in St. Paul, Minnesota and struggled to survive. Read her account of the anti-union propaganda that Wal-Mart espouses. Wal-Mart is no friend to the working poor.

Being such a large company with many stores and employees Wal-Mart faces many issues. Some of the issues the retail giant faces are; wages, gender discrimination, and health benefits. It seems too many that Wal-Marts has lost its way. When the recession hit Wal-Mart laid off many of its employees and because of that consumers feel the shelves are not being restock and they can’t find what they are looking for. According to Bloomberg Business Week Wal-Mart went from having 343 employees in a store in 2008 to 301 employees in a store in 2013. Even though the employee cut seems logical it is costing the retail giant business. There is no man power to keep the shelves stock and give customers the great customer service that Sam Walton envisioned. (Bloomberbusinessweek)

While researching this topic, so many things were found to be eye opening. One in which is the way that Wal-Mart conducted themselves when they had to manage their employees. How they dealt with promoting them and demoting them. Last year Wal-Mart started a new management style and wanted to promote more family time and create a less workload on each of the managers and employees. Therefore, they changed the schedule to becoming 3 days on and 3 days off which created more room for managers to fall into the field. Managers would be thrown into the position of an area of the store they knew nothing about and expected to understand each thing and help customers find exactly what they