The Ethics of Wal-Mart “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.” Those were the words spoken by Wal-Mart’s late founder Sam Walton. He believed that he could build a great business by offering low prices and great service. His goal was to target was the small rural areas in America and offer great deals on products, but is competitors thought his ideas would never work. They were wrong Wal-Mart stores grew rapidly all across the country. Mr. Walton credited a lot of Wal-Mart’s success to the associates because they provided customers with a great shopping experience that kept them coming back. Since Wal-Mart became so successful Sam Walton created other stores …show more content…
The question is how did Wal-Mart become the world’s largest company? How was this retail empire built behind the scenes? Has Wal-Mart always abided by a code of ethics? According to its employees, state representatives, the Department of Labor and others they have not built up this retail giant with strong ethics. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer and employs the most people in the United States. In 2013 Wal-Mart had an operating income of 26.5 billion dollars. Since the largest retailer in the world is doing so well the employees are getting paid well right? Wrong!!! Over half of their employees that are paid hourly make less than $25,000 a year. Wal-Mart associates only average $8.81 an hour which is not enough to support a family (Traub, Not Made In America: Top 10 Ways Wal-Mart Destroys U.S. Manufacturing Jobs). Even if an employee makes $25,000 a year that still isn’t enough to take care of a family. It’s only roughly $2,000 a month and that’s before taxes. Last Thanksgiving a Wal-Mart in Canton, Ohio collected food donations for other employees that could not afford to buy Thanksgiving dinner. Most of Wal-Mart’s employees still need Medicad and
Walmart was founded on the belief stated above by its founder Sam Walton in 1962. “Saving people money, so they can live better,” was the main objective when Sam Walton opened the doors to the first Walmart (“History”). Today, Walmart is the world’s largest retailer and corporation in the United States and have been awarded and recognized by various organizations for being the best employer throughout United States and other countries. By the Fortune magazine, it is listed as one of the most admired
Wal-Mart founded in 1962 by Sam Walton is now the largest American retail corporation. With thousands of chains of stores and warehouses Wal-Mart monopolized the American retail industry. In addition, Wal-Mart is the second largest retail corporation in the world employing of two million employees world-wide. As one of the most valuable corporations in the world Wal-Mart continues to improve their sales annually while offering some of the lowest prices available. Wal-Mart’s famous low price guarantee, come at a high expense of the environment, the small businesses, education, the rights and safety of the consumer, but most importantly their employees. Although Wal-Mart has plays a dominate role in American economy, this “American”
Sam Walton emerged on the retail scene from humble beginnings. Before opening Walmart, Walton was experienced in the retail business, as he had successfully implemented a new type of strategy among his earlier store Walton’s Five & Dime. Walton hadn’t been seeing the returns that he had hoped for, and sought after a new strategy to
Wal-Mart is currently the largest corporation in America. Currently, it drags in about 288.189 billion dollars yearly with sales, up 11% since 2003, and expected to reach an even higher level this year with people looking for “great” deals during this struggling economy. Wal-Mart also employs about 1.3 million people in America and 1.8 million overseas. Makes sense doesn’t it? Large company, large sales, large workforce; the big three needed for a successful business platform. But, hold the phone, what’s this? Wal-Mart needs to have expenditures to pay for new building sites, pay wages, and give benefits to its employees. How can they complete that big three and still turn a large profit to be in the Fortune 500 number one spot for the
If Wal-Mart has such little regard for their own employees, it would make it difficult for a company to have minimal regard to where their merchandise is coming from. On the documentary, The High Price of Low Cost, informs of the countries and Wal-Mart’s effects on these countries, including its presence for manufacturing in China. The workers work in conditions of extreme temperatures from morning until dawn and provided boarding, which is shared with several others and lined with bunk beds. The board and utilities are deducted from their wages even if the workers choose not to stay on the facilities the board is still deducted from their pay. These workers that are looking for employment to make a better future for their families are
The Board is of the opinion that while an engineer clearly has an ethical obligation to act as a faithful agent and trustee for the benefit of a client, avoid deceptive acts, be objective and truthful, avoid conflicts, etc., such obligations would not compel an engineer to automatically disclose that a complaint had been filed against the engineer with the state engineering licensure board. A complaint is a mere allegation and does not amount to a finding of fact or conclusion of law. No engineer should be compelled to disclose potentially damaging allegations about his professional practice -- allegations that could be false, baseless, and motivated by some malicious intent. Instead, Engineer A should weigh all factors and, depending upon
Save money, live better this philosophy transformed an idea into a lucrative multinational corporation, Sam Walton’s vision, “To be the best retailer in the hearts and minds of consumers and employees” is the foundation of the Wal-Mart we know today. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fostered on a vision with authentic leadership, paramount innovation, and the everyday consumer in mind began as a single discount store in a small town; today it has grown into the world's largest one stop shop retailer. Wal-Mart surpassed its competition in the retail industry, increasing its revenues of over 480 billion dollars. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. operates over 11,000 stores and warehouses worldwide; they house over 2 million employees, generating over 900,000 customers
With more than 6,000 stores around the world, and more than two million people employed worldwide it is safe to say that Wal-Mart has got it 's foothold in the world 's economy. With eleven percent of all imports from China to the United States from the years of 2001 through 2006 , Wal-Mart obviously takes up a good chunk of total imports and employs one percent of all of America 's workforce. Now taking all that into account in the early 2000 's a series of accusations arose about the nation 's largest private employer, those accusations being that Wal-Mart uses sweat shop labor and is discriminatory against women and minorities. Now almost 15 years after these initial reports, Wal-Mart 's success has only grown. According to Charles Fishman, the author of "The Wal-Mart Effect", "Wal-Mart isn 't just a store, or a huge company, or a phenomenon anymore. Wal-Mart shapes where we shop, the products we buy, and the prices we pay-even for people who never shop there. . . ."(Fishman 2006.) Now with the aforementioned subjects, this only adds relevance to the question posed above. While on one hand Wal-Mart brings multiple jobs to communities that otherwise would see an uneven distribution of wealth, there are so many reasons why Wal-Mart is bad, bad for the economy in the long run, bad for the environment, and most of all bad for the furtherance of Modern Human Morality. Now with 1.5 million employees being employed in America, a country that has been in economic stagnation
Wal-Mart as we know it today evolved from Sam Walton’s goals for great value and great customer service. “Mr.Sam”, as he was known, who believed in
Wal-Mart, the big giant, the place where a lot of people usually do their shopping for the low prices and the variety of products were founded by Sam Walton. Walton was an entrepreneur with an innovative vision started his own company and made it into the leader in discount retailing that it is today. In fact, Wal-Mart is considered to be the biggest company in the U.S. and it has stores worldwide. According to PBS, “Wal-Mart employs more people than any other company in the United States outside of the Federal government, yet the majority of its employees with children live below the poverty line.”(www.pbs.org) In addition, Wal-Mart likes to portray itself as a seller of U.S. manufactured goods
Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, which is the biggest retailer in the world, had coined the famous saying ‘individuals don’t win, teams do’. There are several characteristics of Sam Walton that enabled him to be successful in his life and business dealings. Sam Walton could do anything he put his mind to. This can be witnessed in his ability to transform a small town store into a 25 billion-dollar industry at the time of his death. Also, Walton difficult childhood gave him something to strive towards later on in his life.
Sam Walton started Wal-Mart with one vision in mind, “The lowest prices anytime, anywhere” (Our history, n.d.). According to Wal-Mart’s website, Mr. Sam’s legacy lives on by expanding business, improving communities, and delivering service and value to customers (Our history, n.d.).
Walmart is one of the largest retail companies in the world, and the largest retail company in the United States of America. It has been ranked number one on the Fortune 500 Index by Fortune Magazine. The founder of Walmart is Sam Walton, who opened the first Walmart store in 1962, in Rogers, Arkansas. As of 2007, Walmart obtains a store counting of about 6,700 units worldwide. Walmart provides general merchandize, such as health and beauty aids, family apparel, electronics, household essentials, toys, jewelry, fabrics, and also includes a pharmacy department. After Sam Walton opened his first store in 1962, he continued to make good profit due to a high sales volume of products. This eventually led to opening of 24 more stores by 1967. Walmart’s main competitor at that point of time was K-mart which had more stores than that of Walmart. However, the main USP of Walmart was to provide goods to consumers at low prices, which worked in their favor even when the economy faced a downturn, in the 1970’s. “Wal-Mart sales growth continued into the 1980s. In 1983 the company opened its first three Sam 's Wholesale Clubs and began its expansion into bigger city markets. Business at the 100,000-square-foot cash-and-carry discount membership warehouses proved to be good. The company had 148 such clubs by 1991, by which time the name had been shortened to Sam 's Clubs.” (International Directory of Company Histories. Ed. Jay P. Pederson. Vol. 141. Detroit: St.
The founder of Walmart, Sam Walton, opened the first Walmart store in 1962 in Arkansas. Walton had a simple, yet innovative, strategy: to sell merchandise at the lowest prices possible at any given time (Walmart Corporate). His main initiative towards achieving that was to find American producers who could supply products at price low enough that Walmart would be able to successfully rival the foreign competitors of his day (ANBHF). What also prompted the
According to Loria M. (2009) when Sam Walton founded Walmart in 1962, his mission was to save people money so they could live better. This itself creates tremendous social good. The company is committed to engaging all their stakeholder to become the most responsible and sustainable company they can be. By listening and partnering to their associates, shareholders, customers, government and NGO’s they claim to save customers money for good.