Okay, I have set foot in a Wal-Mart once to get french fries, so I confess that my opinion in this matter may be secondhand, elitist, or otherwise prejudiced.
But no one who pays attention to corporate news (or South Park) can deny that Wal-Mart, for all its cheap goods, convenient hours, and winking happy faces, is pretty much evil.
For America's largest employer, it certainly has a lot of other un-American practices-- it cuts corners by outsourcing labor to China, exploiting illegal immigrants, and breaking child labor laws, not to mention its pending litigation for gender discrimination. (from wakeupwalmart.com) And what shocks me about all of this is how unabashedly little Wal-Mart does to correct its wrongs because of its profits and its exploitation of customers.
In the South Park episode about Wal-Mart, the main reason that the town can't get rid of the Wal-Mart is because no one wanted to pay a couple dollars more per item to only shop 9-5: it was irresistably convenient to shop at Wal-Mart. But when paying a few extra dollars is impossible, it's irresistably necessary to shop at Wal-Mart, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Call me a Marxist all you want, but I say Wal-Mart is exploiting the very impoverished it seeks to serve.
Anyway, Wal-Mart is in the news again, because it turns out that its prices aren't cheap enough or wages aren't high enough to keep people from shoplifting, especially since Wal-Mart cut yet another corner by relaxing both its security staffing and shoplifting prosecution policies. (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WAL_MART_THEFT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HO...) After poking around wakeupwalmart.com, I infer that Wal-Mart responded to complaints that small shoplifting charges were clogging law enforcement, but it lost a much bigger foothold in its claim to high employment by laying off security staff.
Now, if Wal-Mart could only channel that "cutting corners" strategy to sustainable business practices... I bet they could be the greenest corporation out there.
Wake up, Wal-Mart!
By kfed - Posted on June 14th, 2007
Tagged: corporate business
• current trends
• Employment practices
• news and society
• Broad prosperity
• Shared responsibility
• Better future
I really wish people would rate accordingly. This was not deserving of a one. It was well written.
Wal-Mart is crap, in my not so humble opinion. I worked there for a while as did my husband. They seriously informed us that we could be fired for discussing our pay rate with other employees. What?! I couldn't figure that one out until I realized they were paying cashiers a little higher than everyone else (5.65 an hour compared to 5.45 an hour). That was the only Wal-Mart in like a a 60 mile radius... you'd think they could afford to pay a little more than "right above minimum wage."
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Dr. Seuss
"I won't be your winter. And I won't be anyone's excuse to cry. We can be forgiven. And I will be here." Sister Hazel's "Your Winter"
But yeah, I seriously don't understand how they can get away with such gross negligence and blatant exploitation of employees, customers, and entire towns.
I guess since it's so big, the sheer quantity of violations is so daunting that lawyers barely want to touch it (except, of course, the largest child labor violation fines in the state of Maine, and a really big gender discrimination suit, etc. ...). Besides, like the alleged reason they stopped pressing charges on small-time shoplifters, the "smaller" or fewer types of injustices seem to fall through the cracks, unnoticed.
I wondered for a little while why there are so few Wal-Mart's in California, until I realized that California real estate is expensive to buy or lease, and minimum wage is higher overall in CA and individual cities are usually above that (like San Francisco, whose minimum wage is $9). Not to mention most people who can afford to live in the Bay Area can afford to buy nicer things than those at Wal-Mart.
Outsourcing is not at all 'anti-American.' Here's why:
America is the BEACON of capitalism and the relative promotion of laissez faire business...kinda sorta. It would be UN-American of the US to limit the outsourcing. Do you or your family want to pay 50 dollars for a normal pair of shoes? Well I don't. [Actually, I shop at Target, but you get the point.] Wal-Mart has been hailed as one of the most innovative and efficient countries in the world, and takes a large role in moving goods.
For another perspective, take a look at a blog entry by a friend of mine. I think you'll find it enlightening, or at least interesting.
http://www.progressiveu.org/224839-the-truth-about-wal-mart
Wal-Mart has been hailed as an innovative country?
"It is never too late to give up your prejudices." Henry David Thoreau
"In case of dissension, never dare to judge till you've heard the other side." Euripides
"one of the most innovative COMPANIES in the world" [the country thing came from how it has been compared to a country because of its great trade volumes.]
I'm a loser. Crap.
The un-American part is not the outsourcing itself, but that Wal-Mart, like many companies, is outsourcing in efforts to avoid American labor laws and to cut costs in materials.
On the one hand, Wal-Mart is just doing business, which is what America is all about. Blah blah blah, insert patriotic song and Eagle Scout flag salute. But on the other, Wal-Mart is cutting corners so they can slash prices, and their dog-eat-dog attitude about making profits at the expense of other businesses or humane treatment is downright tyrannical.
I'm glad to see one family business make it big, but in pursuing the American Dream, Wal-Mart seems to have lost the bigger picture of treating others well, which seems a far greater loss to Americanism.