Should I Shop at Walmart?
Walmart is a multi billion dollar retail industry and has the largest revenue among other companies with an extensive revenue of 485.65 billion dollars a year. The corporation has been accused of racial and gender discrimination, foreign product sourcing, treatment of products, environmental issues, security and much more. Today, we are looking at three factors in determining whether we consumers should still continue shopping at Walmart; the impact on the economy, treatment of employees and personal interest.
IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY:
In a documentary published in 2005 titled : Walmart: The Cost of Low Price,” stated that local government and town planners believe that when a new Walmart store is opened it will drive
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According to a report by Clare O'Connor of Forbes Magazine published in 2014 “ Walmart's low-wage workers cost US taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing.
Americans for Tax Fairness also reported “It found that a single Walmart Supercenter cost taxpayers between $904,542 and & 1.75 million per year due to low income which often force workers to rely on various public assistance programs.”
Unfortunately the treatment of employees are not the greatest as large number of Walmart employees are now on government aide. Pay is at minimum wage which is way too low that leaves an employee unable to afford insurances. Allegations against the business giant about spying to ensure that a union will not occur and trying to manipulate employees to believing that unions are worthless are all correct and confirmed. Employees that speak about a union will be fired which is against labor law.
For a billion dollar-earner company, I think that these unfair treatment to employees should
Wal-mart has made buying essentials cost much less money, even for people who don’t shop at Wal-mart as other companies attempt to match their prices. “Walmart ... offers foods at prices considerably lower than those at traditional supermarkets--as much as 25 percent lower.” (Kenny, Charles. 2013. Para 4). Raising the wages of employees or offering more benefits could take away from these lower prices, causing families below the poverty line to not be able to afford the products they need. It is important to those living under the poverty line that the company provides their products for such a low price. Wal-Mart conducted a study in 2008 that concluded that the company saves the average American family $2,500 a year (Hall, Randy. 2008. Para 1). People in poverty now have much more access to goods than they have in the past, simply because their money goes
Today I will be trying to convince you to invest in the Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. What makes this stock great you may ask is that it has more than 5,000 stores and clubs nationwide. The stock cost $71.67 per share and the stock has gone up $1.59. Walmart first opened common stock to the public in 1970 and began trading on NYSE on August 25,1972. Walmart has emphasized the importance of keeping its merchandise in stock for shoppers. The company’s stock have risen about 15% this year. Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer. The employees are more evident as Wal-Mart becomes a more pleasant place to shop. Walmart has said it will invest billions in lowering
Wal-Mart is an American multinational retail corporation and one of the leading discount department retail stores (Wikipedia). It is the highest- grossing company in the United States (Fortune 2008a), and is by far one of the most successful companies worldwide. Wal-Mart offers a place to buy the majority of our goods under one roof like electronics, furniture, clothing, pharmacy, sports, food, books etc. Wal-Mart sells good at lower price than the others and this is even shown by its slogan “save money, live better”. It drives out smaller and sometimes even the expensive stores out of business due to its lower prices. Wal-Mart provides jobs for thousands of
rose or fell ... But it's clear that average wages fell. (Found off of a website on Google) Walmart workers do not get paid enough money either. The wages that Walmart employers are paid ranges from $7.50-$9.00, and that's even when people have been working there for quite a while. (Found on Google) Wal-Mart wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices to its customers. At Wal-Mart, that goal is never reached. The retailer has a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000 suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas. So yes, Walmart is bad for America.
Wal-Mart is now the largest grocer, largest retailer, largest corporation in the world. "If Wal-Mart was a nation, it would have a bigger economy than 80 percent of the world's countries"(Singer and Mason). About "138 million people go to one of Wal-Mart's 5,000 stores in the United States and nine other countries", and purchase more than $300 billion every year (Singer and Mason). With a 1.6 million global workforce, Wal-Mart has become the biggest private employer "in the United States, as well as in Mexico and Canada"(Singer and Mason). "Wal-Mart already has 11 percent of all U.S. Grocery store sales," and "by 2013 that figure is likely to rise to 21 percent"(Singer and
A corporation as wealthy and powerful as Wal-Mart should invest in the communities and environments that it inhabits, but because it isn’t profitable for them Wal-Mart, the company that claims to be in the interest of the American people, neglects them.
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
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
Many reports have been written documenting the economic and eventual social and environmental degradation which occurs when Wal-Mart “comes to town”.
“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
Wal-Mart, the multi-billion company and the second largest employer in the world, is the most controversial corporation in the world. Wal-Mart is a global powerhouse and affects many people around the world. Wal-Mart is constantly getting attacked from unions, human rights groups, small towns and small businesses. Wal-Mart is accused of treating their workers poorly and driving small businesses out of business. But however these accusations are false or over exaggerated. Wal-Mart offers families and low income people quality products. Also, they pay their workers competitive wages and treat them with respect. Wal-Mart opens their stores in rural and under developed areas. Wal-Mart improves the lives of the people who live rural area and
Not only does Walmart directly affect the economical situation of your community, it also puts significant strain upon the environment we live and depend on. In October of 2004, North America sued Walmart for violating the Clean Water Act CWA in nine states, causing a huge uproar both from the defensive Walmart corporation and more so from the targeted communities. Relying upon a communities oblivion, Walmart takes advantage of the situation in which it's presented, posing a threat to all nearby water supplies because of all the toxins and pesticides literally oozing from Walmart facilities worldwide. Much more costly towards the environment than the tinkling of spare change resounding in our pockets. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that a single Walmart location expends countless amounts of energy to maintain,
Some may claim a Walmarts’ arrival in a community is helpful to improve the growth and development in the community, but others tell a different story. Many claim that a Walmart is great way to create new jobs in the community. They are partially right, between construction and development, plenty of jobs are created. Also, about 300 retail jobs are created based on the amount needed to run a Walmart super center twenty fours a day, seven days a week. However, Kenneth Stone, a professor of economics at Iowa State University, conducted a study in which two Super Walmart centers in two different states were evaluated. The study lasted about two years and showed that for every one job Walmart had created, 1.4 jobs were lost in local communities (Davidson 1). Walmarts’ low prices come with additional costs that we are
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 contrast, many people and organizations have argued that Walmart is not holding true to their original sustainable commitments. According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Walmart's greenhouse gas emissions have continued to grow over the last 10 years, and it’s percentage of renewable energy is inadequate compared to other major corporations. Stacy Mitchell, the author of the report and a senior researcher at the Institute believes that the core issue behind Walmart’s lack of action is that they will not change their unsustainable business model to make sustainable advancements. She says that, "Walmart has a highly unsustainable business model, built on shipping goods long distances, selling mountains of very short-lived products,