Why Is Walmart Controversial

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

Former bureau chief for the Economist, Sebastian Mallaby writes in defense of a large retailer in his essay, Progressive Wal-Mart. Really. Through his essay he explains that through the continual campaigns against the large corporation, Wal-Mart has been and still remains a benefit to working Americans seeking affordable goods. He elaborates on the crusade of Anti-Wal-Mart campaigns looking to paint the business as a detestable parasite, when all the company has done is keep costs low and earnings for its shareholders high while trying to defeat competitors, just as any company would.

In “Labouring the Wal-Mart Way”, Deenu Parmar discusses Wal-Mart’s poor business practices and mistreating of their employees. Parmar is biased in that she focuses primarily on the negative aspects of Wal-Mart and discusses mostly from the employees’ point of view. The essay attempts to sway people to stop shopping at Wal-Mart because the author portrays it as unethical by focusing on the poor wages, anti-unionization, and paying off charges instead of properly addressing the laws being broken. Parmar does point out that people will continue to shop at Wal-Mart, seemingly guilt-tripping those who do shop there. The whole article relies heavily on an emotional appeal, which forces the reader to sympathize for the employees of the company without

In a state analysis, the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services found that in 2003, Wal-Mart covered only 52% of total health care premium costs compared to K-Mart which covered 66%, Target which covered 68%, and Sears which covered 80%. Wal-Mart takes advantage of their employees and suckers them into their costly healthcare plans. But, if something happens to an employee, lets say two months after their hire date, they will not be covered by any healthcare plan whatsoever. "Part-timers—anybody below 34 hours a week – must wait 2 years before they can enroll. Moreover, part-time employees are ineligible for family health care coverage. Full-time hourly employees must

The largest corporation in America with $378,799 million in revenues and employing 2,055,000 employees, Wal-Mart has become one of the greatest success stories in American history, but also one of the most controversial stories since Standard Oil (Fortune). But with all big business comes critics. Today’s critics suggest Wal-Mart unfairly uses it power of size, which is goliath, to exploit employees and impoverish nations, ruin competition, and place undue pressure on the government. However, one item most critics fail to mention is that Wal-Mart creates consumer welfare. Throughout this paper, I will analyze each criticism of Wal-Mart and sufficiently cite evidence proving the greater good that is realized with

This article is written using an enlightened self-interest approach. The author describes Wal-Mart behaving in a way that increases its own benefits, with the outcome of their actions being the most important consideration. An example of this is the author’s notion that Wal-Mart’s low prices are due to “the exploitation of its workers” (McLachlan, 2009, pg. 289), “systematic use of ‘maquiladoras’ in conditions of extreme exploitation” (McLachlan, 2009, pg. 289), and Wal-Mart’s threat to move production to China to obtain lower prices. In this article, the author implies that Wal-Mart’s actions demonstrate that they are not concerned with finding the most ethical behaviour; they are merely interested in the action(s) that most closely achieve their goal to remain the “biggest chain of direct sales to the consumer in North America”. (McLachlan, 2009, pg. 289)

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”

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

“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

These areas are where people are uninsured or underinsured and an increase percentage of chronic diseases, limited access to healthcare, and areas with large numbers of employees. We must stay competitive with Target, Walgreens, and CVS that have their own healthcare clinic initiatives and develop expansion to other geographic location. Walmart would be sending a message of social responsibility by incorporating a strategy to include Healthcare clinics for customer and associate patients. By offering Walmart associates this company healthcare insurance could lower the overall company healthcare cost. The forecasted healthcare cost is over $500 million and this program would be a method for cost savings and cultivate healthy employees. There are other benefits that include increasing the traffic at Walmart Supercenters that could increase purchases. It is paramount that Walmart establish the retail price in the U.S. healthcare system because price leadership has always been a primary objective for this

Wal-Mart would rather bribe factories money to move on and brush it under the carpet instead of taking responsibility for their involvement. So, one would have to think this is not due to the lack of knowledge of the practices in the factories, but the choice to ignore and not care of these practices. In 2012, Wal-Mart choose to “make payments to Mexican officials of more than $24 million noted by The New York Times and in Asia there were 90 reports within a year and half period” (Sethi) to cover situations up demonstrating that money talks.

Walmart has faced heavy scrutiny in the past decade due to prevalent controversy surrounding their hiring practices and policies. Moreover, the company’s massive size and influence has disrupted the job market in more ways than one. They not only have forced small retailers out of business but also pressured manufactures to be more efficient causing a shift in manufacturing jobs to be done in other nations. Due to this, Walmart has become an easy target for public backlash. The media has pushed countless rumors and allegations against Walmart thus damaging their reputation and brand.

Over the years, Walmart has been at the center of controversies with regards, its low wages; overtime pay abuses, employee benefits, gender discrimination, negative impact on small business, immense dealings with China, tax avoidance and much more (Crofoot, 2012). Employees have been dissatisfied with these issues but seem as if they can’t voice it

There are sometimes consequences of trying to lower costs to the consumers. One such consequence is that Wal-Mart has been under fire for their employee treatment. They were criticized for low wages and lack of benefits. After it became public about the handling of employees, they suffered a severe decrease in their stocks. In 2006, to help improve relations, Wal-Mart raised pay tied to performance and expanded and improved their health benefits package. They have also been accused of not sticking to proper workplace conditions, discrimination and employing illegal immigrants. In these three cases, Wal-Mart instead of actively addressing these issues, responded by deflecting that they were at fault.