Walmart : The Biggest Retail Chain Of America

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

Walmart is bad for America, as some say. The Globalization essay that was handed out in class had many good points. It states that Walmart puts many smaller businesses out of service. A recent study by

Walmart impacts local businesses negatively by competing prices. People like to shop in Walmart because the products in Walmart are usually cheaper than other retail stores such as Target. Once consumers have figured out that Walmart can help them save more money than other stores, they would like to shop at Walmart more often. The article, “The New Way That Walmart Is Ruining America's Small Towns” explains, “Whenever the mom-and-pop supermarket cut prices, the Walmart would match or undercut them. The store finally succumbed to the inevitable last October, closing entirely." Walmart uses the price reduction method to compete with other local businesses, which affected the economy significantly. As Walmart continues to lower the prices on their products, many local businesses are forced to close because they cannot compete with Walmart. Not to mention, Walmart is a chain store, so it has its capabilities and money to lower the prices on products in order to attract more consumers. Therefore, when Walmart lower their product’s prices, local businesses are eventually forced to be close.

According to UNI report (2012) the presence of Walmart stores in local communities has a devastating impact. Large retailers like Walmart force smaller businesses to close up as they

Wal-Mart, a "Big-Box Retailer" employs more than 2.1 million associates worldwide and has two-thousand seven-hundred stores in the United States with many more in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Central America, Chile, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom, making Wal-Mart the largest retailer in the world. "Wal-Mart accounts for upward of 30 percent of U.S. sales, and plans to more than double its sales within the next five years" (Lynn 29-36). Why is Wal-Mart so successful, and is Wal-Mart actually bad for America?

In fact, small businesses are affected by Wal-Mart in an upsetting way. Wal-Mart destroys competitors with

Walmart is the go-to shopping center for most Americans, but are they fully aware of the negative impact Walmart has caused America? Many people shop where they can find everything at once and is in a decent distance from their home, but most shoppers don’t realize what they are really purchasing or the truth about the stores they buy from. If more Americans knew what they were really getting out of their shopping trips at Walmart they probably wouldn’t come back. Walmart has a privative effect on America more than people realize. The people they hurt in the process of trying to “Save money” and “Live Better” are the backbone of the business, the products they sell might as well be used, and their crime rate escalates more and more, and

Wal-Mart, the largest retail companies in the world (Farfan), plays a crucial role in American economics. No matter, I am at home or on campus, even when I was traveling in other states in America, there is always a Wal-Mart market nearby my location. Due to the super big market power Wal-Mart has, and people’s negative impression of large enterprises, there is always a debate about whether Wal-Mart is good for America or not. Some people believe Wal-Mart makes the small retailers fail, and its workers have low wages and benefits; while others argue that Wal-Mart creates more jobs to the local, provides lower prices to consumers, and encourage American economic growth. Inspired by an article about whether Wal-Mart is a monopoly I read in my economics class, I am curious about the economic impact of Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is good for the economy because of their low prices, every dollar saved by consumers that shop at Walmart lets them buy other items. When prices are lower the consumers’ needs can be more fulfilled rather than when prices are higher. Wal-Marts’ size proves the success of their strategy and also benefits the economy. With Walmart growing into the largest business on the planet it shows that it is accurately fulfilling consumer needs and efficiency. Wal-Mart helps people get more for what they pay for and provides jobs for people willing to work. “It is making suppliers want to achieve greater economies in manufacturing”.

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.

They like the convenience and the cheap prices. They don’t bother to ask where the products come from or what’s going on behind the scenes to get the items in the stores. An analysis of this situation shows that Walmart is controlling the consumers habits and patterns because the ability to buy so much at such little costs is too much to resist. Small “Mom and Pop” business suffer and people lose their jobs. Buchanan said, “people don’t care about the folks down the street, the folks in the towns they come from.” Consumers don’t know who to ask when they have a problem and every time they need to fix something or address an issue no one can find the answer because no one seems willing to take responsibility. Part of this is placelessness, because there is no one who claims responsibility. This robs areas of their differing culture and what makes cultures unique. Instead, big box companies like Walmart keep expanding and growing. Globalization tends to wipe out local culture and create placelessness so every street and every store and every restaurant will become a chain. When they finally do find someone from Walmart to answer questions, they realize that Walmart reflects the consumer and what they want. The downside is that even when consumers realize what the problem is, they keep repeating it. They stamp out one Walmart and another big box chain pops up because they support

As you read through this article you can see Walmart functioning in the social movement theory specifically the resource mobilization theory. “Resource Mobilization Theory works very nicely to explain social movements because it explains the actions of individuals by just looking at selfish behavior and does not some sort of deviant, unexplained mechanism to force individuals to behave altruistically.” (Crawford) In this article re see Walmart mobilizing resources that would be beneficial to the workers but not so beneficial to Walmart. Walmart is the governing structure of its over 4,000 plus stores. (side note. I believe Walmart is

     When you talk about Wal-Mart the first thing that you have to remember is that they are the largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart employs more people in the United States than any other company and is second only to the federal government in the number of employees that they have on the payroll. These are important facts to consider in that due to their tremendous size, Wal-Mart has an enormous

“It is when Wal-Mart comes into town, reshapes shopping habits, and drains the viability of traditional local shopping areas or mom-and-pop shops. It is the relentless downward pressure on the prices of everyday necessities that a single vast retailer can exert on behalf of customers. It is the suburbanization of shopping; the downward pressure on wages at all kinds of stores trying to compete with Wal-Mart; the relentless scrutiny of unnecessary costs that allows companies to survive on thinner profits; the success of large business at the expense of its rivals and the way in which that success builds on itself” (Fishman, 2006).

By reading all the articles, there are facts that Wal-Mart does and does not have effects on small mom-and-pop shops. The articles I read about Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes has forced the mom-and-pop shops to close. For example the two big hardware stores have not put Ace, or even True Value out of business, they still exist throughout the United States. The only thing I can see is that people are misled; Wal-Mart has low prices. I believe it has to do with our economy. Also remember Bradlees, Building Square, Ames, Anne Hope, all based in New England. They are like Wal-Mart and Target, but they are