“I’m going Walmartin’, Walmartin’, going Walmatin’ today.” This cute little ditty describes the place Americans spend $36 million every hour, and a family of four spends $4000 of their “cold hard cash” per year. Most Americans can speed to a Walmart within 15 minutes of where they live. Is this not convenient (Weishar, 2013)? But what causes American shoppers to spend a portion of their income to help support this American Icon located in Bentonville, Arkansas? The following causes may explain American's fixation with Walmart. The first cause is a social one: Walmart is a gathering place especially for the senior citizens. Many seniors citizens such as Wilma and Fred go to Walmart just to see who they can see, and while …show more content…
Walmart tends to carry more “specialty” items over the local grocery. Usually, these items are new products a company is touting, for example, Coca Cola’s Fairlife milk. Usually, new products advertised can be found at Walmart because companies are willing to greatly discount their items in order to get their items on Walmart shelves (R.S. Clark, personal communication, March 18, 2016). Sometimes, these cut-rate discounts are not financially feasible for the “mom and pop” grocery. Also, Walmart is able to offer “more of the same” such as yogurt. A yogurt connoisseur has a vast selection from which to choose--from Zero to Great Value Greek yogurt plus all those in between. The connoisseur can also choose just as many flavors to tingle his or her taste buds such as vanilla bean, key lime pie, lemon meringue, raspberry with chocolate bits. The vast availability of items is a second cause why shoppers drop their nickels and dimes into Walmart’s …show more content…
Gone are the local dry goods store which sold blue jeans and khaki pants for school or work. Some local specialty shops may sell items like the Southern t-shirts or designer sweaters; some may sell “designer-like” skirts or pants. However, the dry goods store finds it very difficult to compete; a small town which may have had four clothiers no longer has one. Where does this leave Fred and Wilma to shop? Their choice is to shop at a non-locally owned store. Hence, Fred and Wilma are back at Walmart looking for a pair of jeans for Fred to wear while mowing the yard. (Wilma’s love affair with Walmart’s deli help to increase Fred’s waist!) Many local hardwares no longer sell lawnmowers. The answer is clear: people would rather pay greatly discounted price at Walmart for a Murray push mower. Saving nickels and dimes is important to most American consumers. Patio
Is Wal-Mart ruining the local businesses in America? Most professional business men can agree that Wal-Mart affects the United States economy in many different ways. Wal-Mart is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the world's largest public corporation by revenue according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. However this corporation has contraverisal issues about how they do their sales and the long term affects they put in the economy. Professionals will agree that Wal-Mart has hurt many community businesses as Wal-Mart open in areas around them. There have been common statistics for when a Wal-Mart
On the other hand, Sebastian Mallaby cares for the customer and the profits of the company, rather than the worker and their working conditions and wages. He suggests that Wal-Mart actually saves people money and is “a progressive story” (620). Their discount on food alone increases the welfare of the shoppers by fifty billion dollars a year. If you were to count all of Wal-Mart’s products into that same estimate, it would increase ten times. “This is very good news for poor and middle class families,” says Mallaby, because in this situation the customer really comes first. Even though the workers are not treated the best, they still have an advantage over the shoppers. They have less pay, but receive discounts on all of Wal-Mart’s merchandise whenever they shop there, which should be a plus for them. Compared to most companies Wal-Mart
The first Walmart was opened on July 2, 1962 in Rogers Arkansas. Walmart has now spread to 27 different countries outside the United States. Walmart has had problems in their business. One of the major problems Walmart has, is it’s low wages to their employees. Another problem is Walmart has violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which has caused them to pay millions of dollars. Last of all, in recent studies it has shown that were a Walmart is build have a correlation with crimes. Walmart has had questionable ethical business practices in their stores.
The safety audit will be performed at a Walmart location in Orangeville, Ontario. It is the biggest retail store worldwide with $482.1 billion in revenue and has 2.3 million associates. As I have worked there for the summer holding an instock position in the back room unloading trucks, I have gained knowledge and understanding on the safety issues and standards that exist within the company.
One only needs to look out on the American landscape to see Wal-Mart 's overwhelming presence. For many people, a world without Wal-Mart seems almost incomprehensible. It begs the question: how did this happen? What makes Wal-Mart so central to modern America? Copeland and Labuski lay it out in terms of a very particular process of
In 2005, Robert Greenwald released Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, a motion picture that divulges how Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., a wholesale department store established by Sam Walton in 1962, absconded from its chasten inaugurations, to ultimately progress and develop into a principal vendor of America, and soon afterwards the vastest transnational conglomerate on the planet, once one grounds their statistics on revenue. However, Greenwald undoubtedly affirms that the policies Wal-Mart has emplaced have not solely been detrimental to the already austere American economy, but also to the welfare of their personnel. Furthermore, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price congregates on various sociopolitical disputes that validate how Wal-Mart
On July 2, 1962, Sam Walton opened the first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas. Walmart’s story is the story of American capitalism. According to a 2012 study, more than 140 million Americans shop at Walmart each week. That’s more than how many people were at the 2012 Super Bowl. But there’s more to Walmart than what is on the surface. In this essay, I want to talk about and present the company’s actions.
Approach any random stranger in America and ask them where they can get their groceries, clothes, appliances, and electronics from at a cheap price and they will most likely say Wal-Mart. A pioneer of the “one-stop-shop”, Wal-Mart has evolved from a small, wholesome shopping mart into a world renown corporation. America has not seen a complete domination of the market in this manner, since the mid 1900’s with General Motors. Wal-Mart has revolutionized the American culture of saving money. With all of the successes, there are also many consequences and controversies that flood the corporation’s name, making it also one of the most infamous and negatively viewed businesses in the world. The unethical working conditions, wages, and lack of benefits combine with the undeniable truth of Wal-Mart’s monopoly of the variety store genre has deemed the company “evil” among many Americans. However, there is a reason as to why Wal-Mart is still exponentially growing in net worth every single day. It is the success story that gives millions hope and strive to achieve. People may look down upon Wal-Mart, but it is a great asset to America as it provides jobs for millions of Americans, offers necessities at the lowest price possible, and is the physical embodiment of the American dream.
Wal-Mart has branded stores in all 50 states and in over 27 countries. Wal-Mart started with humble roots in 1962 by Sam Walton in the small town of Bentonville, Arkansas. Within thirty years, the small local discount retailer grew to one of the largest retail companies in the United States of America. Now it stands as the largest retailer in the world. As the largest retailer, Wal-Mart has gained many detractors. In "The Case for Wal-Mart," Karen De Coster and Brad Edmonds recognize how people “like to attack bigness” (632). Many believe Wal-Mart offers low wage jobs with few employee benefits, discriminates against women, and among many other issues, doesn’t give back to the community (631). In contrast to the constant barrage
The Northwest community research group figured that over a 20 year period Walmart will decrease a community's economic output by 13 million dollars. This has a very negative effect on small businesses. Most communities are looking to expand economically not to diminish. Losing this much money within the community can lead to economic decline and business failure.
From the beginning, Wal-Mart intended to combine, mix, and meld perceptions of the family with perceptions of the store. The roles of women in Wal-Mart production and consumption became a key facet of this conglomeration of household and workspace. Indeed, employment at Wal-Mart appealed to the “white, native-born mothers” of the Ozarks. Healthcare coverage and benefits might be negligible, but the trade-off for women was palpable. By working for the chain, women could stay at home, work reasonable hours, and secure their family’s income beyond the finances of a sole breadwinner. This dedication to the benefits of working at Wal-Mart allowed women—and by extension, Wal-Mart—the unique opportunity to “integrate work and family” (a core tenet of Wal-Mart’s new model for business). Simply put, Wal-Mart began a process of “adapting…domestic labor to the retail store” in order to capitalize on the economical, often overlooked benefits of a female labor force content to engage in decent work with a “savage time deficit” in order to effectively and continually care for their families. Accustomed to long hours working on the
Concerning Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., this organization is for-profit with a mission to “save people money so they can live better." It was founded in 1950 by Sam and Helen Walton as a 5 & 10 store in Bentonville, Arkansas. In 1962, Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas and became incorporated in 1969 as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. As Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton (1992) stated during his Presidential Medal of Freedom speech, “If we work together, we'll lower the cost of living for everyone...we'll give the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save and have a better life”(Walton, 1992). Sam Walton passed away in 1992, a few months after his speech but, his legacy lives on and in 2000, Walmart.com was founded. As of today,
Walmart is a huge retail chain in the United States. It is giving consumers more choices than its competitors at a relatively low prices. Prior to its arrival the other retail business k-mart, target, and other small retail stores in United States especially in small towns and cities were serving communities. After Walmart arrival the chain prevailed everywhere, as it is said about it, it came, it conquer. About Walmart, mostly people I met, have positive and negative thoughts. People think that Walmart ruined other businesses, other say, that Walmart become a kind of habit for them.
America, land of the free and birthplace to the largest discount retailer in the world. After its start up in 1962, Wal-Mart Supercenter has since become a household name in the United States and many other countries across the world (Frank, 1). The corporation’s biggest appeal is its low prices and large number of products compared to those of competing stores, such as Target and Fred Meyers. Due to this fame, the Walmart name tends to be surrounded by a lot of press coverage and controversy. This fact seems to be no different for magazines like, The Economist, which recently published an article examining the company 's decision to raise wages and how it will affect the rest of society, as well as what it means for the future of Walmart. While the conclusion of the article is legitimate, the author 's lack of reliable sources, confusing subject changing and missing information, diminish its value as a reputable source of information.
As of 1994, Wal-Mart had 2,504 stores across the U.S. and was expected to open 125 more that year (Ortega 205). Wal-Mart stores do over $67 billion dollars in annual sales (Norman 207). A Wal-Mart store in Iowa, after being open for two years and building its base, can generate $10 million a year in sales. A Wal-Mart store planned for Greenfield, Mass. would have employed 274 people (Anderson 218) or 240 people (Johnston 222), depending on which source you read. Discount stores like Wal-Mart allow small to medium towns with little population growth to hold customers to the local shopping area by cutting down on trips by locals to bigger urban areas with lower prices (Stone 210). With all of these benefits, why would anyone be upset about a Wal-Mart store opening in their town?