Always the Lowest Price at Wal-Mart Over the past 20 years, the nature of the American retailing market has changed dramatically, going from Mom and Pop's boutiques to mega retail stores like Wal-Mart. Especially in the last decade, Sam Walton's discount stores have proliferated in almost every city across the United States and Canada. But the opinions about the effects of Wal-Mart in small towns divide the rural population in two groups. Through economic, cultural and social arguments, the anti-Wal-Mart activists and the advocates defend their point of view about the expansion of the store in small communities. The anti-Wal-Mart activists believe that the creation of giant discount stores in the rural regions of the United States will lead to their economic and cultural destruction. With economic impact studies, they show that Wal-Mart's incredible gains are in fact taken from other local merchants, whom finally run out of business. According to Sarah Anderson, an economic analyst with an anti Wal-Mart stance, the establishment of a new store near a small town destroys more jobs in independent businesses than it actually creates in hiring local workers (1994). Moreover, a Wal-Mart funded community impact study in Greenfield, Massachusetts demonstrated that the construction of a new mega store would create 274 jobs. But in long terms, the community projects to lost about the same amount in the locally owned competing businesses (Sarah Anderson, 1994). The anti Wal-Mart activists are also concerned by the return of the profits in its adoptive community. The economic spin-off of the money spent in local business is largely superior than with the discount store. But almost all the profits made in a Wal-Mart are returned... ... middle of paper ... ...change with their time. The Wal-Mart conflict is deeper and more important than a simple competition among retail stores. The choices made by the population will determine the future of the economy, culture and way of life of the American rural communities. In fact, the anti-Wal-Mart activists and the advocates represent continuity and change in small towns. The mega discount store is only the firing element of an already existing questioning. Bibliography: References Anderson, Sarah. (1994). Wal-Mart's War on Main Street. Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum (pp.216-222) Longman. Johnston, Jo-Ann. (1995). Who's Really the Villain? Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum (pp. 222-225). Longman. Norman, Albert. (1994). Eight Ways to Stop the Store. Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum (pp.207-209). Longman.
In his article “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” Sebastian Mallaby argues that Wal-Mart’s $50 billion in discounted gains is helping the well being of American shoppers. Malay concludes with “If critics prevent the firm from opening new branches, they will prevent ordinary families from sharing in those gains. Poor Americans will be chief among the casualties”(623). Mallaby is arguing if critics don't allow Wal-Mart to open new branches poor Americans won’t be able to share in gains like savings, jobs, and better local economy. Wal-Mart might have all these gains for the American shopper, but he doesn't talk about the negatives. For every gain there’s a loss. I disagree with Mallaby’s argument; Poor Americans, including Wal-Mart employees, are excluded from sharing in those gains because they work unpaid hours, and the inability to get health care coverage. Wal-Mart keeps these employees from sharing in these gains by keeping them in scared and in poverty. Ever since I started working at a market I then realized not only Wal-Mart excludes its employees and the poor from sharing in gains. The low paid employees at Wal-Mart will never share in gains as long as they work at Wal-Mart.
I don't see Wal-Mart as a huge retailer trying to take over the world with cheap prices. I see Wal-Mart as business that has played their cards the way they were dealt. Our economy is poor right now; banks are hurting because people a...
Within an excerpt from, “The United States of Wal-Mart,” John Dicker explains that Wal-Mart is a troubling corporation. Dicker begins his article by discussing why the store is so popular within the news in an age of global terrorism, coming to the conclusion that Wal-Mart has a huge scope in the United States and that it has more scandals, lawsuits, and stories than any other supercenter. Continually, he goes on to explain that Wal-Mart outsources jobs and their companies demands makes it hard for employees to have livable wages and good working conditions. Furthermore, Dicker addresses the claim that Wal-Mart provides good jobs, by destroying this perception with statistics showing how employees live in poverty and that their union scene
Wal-Mart has been praised for providing cheap diverse products close to home, while providing hundreds of jobs. The leading discount retail store got its title by selling its items at a lower cost than other competing stores. Whereas competing grocery store Winn Dixie sells a steak for twenty dollars, Wal-Mart sells it for seventeen dollars. This price difference may not seem like much, but when Wal-Mart’s overall prices average differs from Winn Dixie’s by a few dollars, it begins to add up. Wal-Mart has allowed for low income families to buy products for a reasonable price. Along with its low prices, Wal-Mart has been known to sell wide variety of products. While some stores such as Winn Dixie, Kroger, and Publix only sell food items, Wal-Mart sells food items along with electronics, clothes, and toys.
In order to gain the success it has had, Wal-Mart has no doubt affected small businesses. But in the place of small business Wal-Mart has been able to do far more for Americans than small businesses could. It provides consumers inexpensive necessities for life, it provides work for those who would otherwise have none, and it has a stake in the global economy that benefits our own with trading. Wal_mart
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 dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad." (The Nation, March 4th 2002 www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower).
Wal-Mart has had a significant economic impact on the US, as well as the economies of countries that have relations with the US. Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest company of any kind, with 80 percent of the households in America purchasing something from the superstore; it is the nation’s largest retailer. Wal-Mart’s continuing price reduction has given Americans the advantage of being able to afford 15 to 20 percent more than they previously could. (Hansen) In a world governed by globalization and greed, competition has become rigid; as a result firms like Wal-Mart have utilized advanced marketing strategies to insure that they are on the ‘neck’ of competition, and are the core deciders of the market. (Ortega) However, Wal-Mart made decisions that were of a disadvantage to aspects of the economy, including the depletion on a small scale of Small Town USA.
With its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart was commissioned in the hands of its founder Sam Walton. Generally, the Wal-Mart effect is structured in a manner that it aids economic experts to evaluate attached global and local economic effects to the famous Wal-Mart retail. The term Wal-Mart effect is often employed by analysts to refer to the wide variety of both negative and positive influences of the retail business (Hiltzik 1). Evaluation of the retail’s effects is significant as the business is not only a key figure is the world’s economy but also it is arguably the most performing private economic retail. Briefly, Wal-Mart has conventionally caught the eyes of consumers since it not only boosts their experience by suburbanizing local shopping but also it avails low commodity prices for necessities (Neumark, Junfu, and Stephen 406).
Wal-Mart Inc has done a great job at bringing together what is local to the area and what isn’t and bringing to many small towns. So when a Wal-Mart stands up, it isn’t just Wal-Mart Inc who benefit, but the community.
During the last 20 years, Wal-Mart has moved into many areas wiping out all the stores around causing people to loose jobs, slashing the tax base and causing many more disturbing problems to neighborhoods so people should stop supporting Wal-Mart for many of these reasons. Always low prices, does this sound familiar? Well this would be the slogan of the world’s most controlling company; Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart grew over the years into a 256 billion dollar company after making its name across the world in 1915. The major problem with Wal-Mart is that it maintains its own mini-economy. Some people believe Wal-Mart supports the American economy while most others hold that Wal-Mart’s global outsourcing will and has damaged the economy over time. When comparing these two opposite points, Wal-Mart has and is continuing to be more destructive than constructive to our economy. It has left employees with little to even no healthcare at all, destroyed more jobs then it has even created and it has also dishonored our environment. The second most common job, cashiers, are suppose to earn just about $7.92 per hour and work 29 hours a week which was said in a 2003 analysis. This only brings in yearly wages of only $11,948 (Wal-Mart Wages and Worker Rights 1). It is incredible that their employees can support themselves with making such low wages."With its low price focus, Wal-Mart may appear to help the U.S. economy. But, the reality is that with its poor wages and benefits, massive China sourcing and tax avoidance, Wal-Mart makes its workers and the communities where it operates poorer."-David Nassar.
In a world scattered with millions upon millions of Walmart locations, one might ask the question-how can one small, insignificant Walmart affect me? The answer is-a lot! Perhaps the most impacting consequence of society's acceptance of a Walmart within their community lies within the drainage and leeching of the economy. Take the San Francisco Bay for instance, the prolonged construction costs alone, cost the city 256 million dollars in additional costs, not to mention the insane amount of fuel consumed by consumers commuting to the new store location. As if that weren't bad enough, that very same Walmart that caused such tedious amounts of grief, tedious amounts of extra time, money and fuel was relocated outside of the area within 2 years-leaving the surrounding land destroyed and devoid of life. But what about the Walmart's within the community that aren't being relocated? How are they hazardous then? Well, the answer is the same type of concept as a lion guarding its' kill from the surrounding wildl...
Walmart has had a long-standing presence in America society since the middle of the 20th century, seen as a place to get everything done, Walmart has become a fixation in our society. From grocery shopping, to changing your oil and even filing your annual tax returns, Walmart is always there, everyday. Started by Sam Walton in 1962, it began as a small operation catering to a small Arkansas community. It was started on principles very similar to small local businesses in small towns. Today Walmart has gotten a different, darker reputation. On the surface, Walmart may seem like the solution to everyday issues. Low-income families are attracted to the low prices, and people who work odd hours benefit greatly from the 24 hours a day that many Walmarts are open. Lately, Walmart has also managed to be publicly recognized as a store that sells many of today’s green products, including organic food, environmental conscious cleaning products, as well as, paper products made from recycled paper. However, underneath all this, Walmart has a different side. Exploitation of its workers is widespread amongst Walmarts who do not belong to a union, especially in the United States. Wal...
Walmart has some the worst business polices. It has been said that Walmart is the worst retailer in America. When Walmart moves into a town they usually drive out the small retail and food stores, in reality all Walmart’s presence does is little to boost the economy of the local communities. In a study done by the Los Angeles City Council in 2013, when Walmart moves into a community there is net loss. Retailers like Walmart has been estimated to cost another $9. Million in state health care costs and loss in benefits like retirement, and pensions. When this happens, this increases public assistance, has to step in and pick up the shortfall’s. (Ostendorf, 2015).
When Sam Walton died in 1992, some industry insiders doubted that the Wal – Mart chain that he had founded some 30 years earlier would retain its prominence as a discount retailer. Lost for good they feared, would be the “magic spark” that Walton used to light fires under the chain’s 1.3 million associates. And, as Wal – Mart stock failed to enjoy the same bull – market growth as many other companies in the mid – 1990s, the pundits appeared to be correct. Today, however, with stores in all 50 U.S. states and nine other countries, Wal – mart has rebounded, leading the pack of discount stores with record earnings. In fact, with $218 billion in annual sales and 100 million customers per week, Wal – Mart is the world’s largest retailer and was named “Retailer of the Century” by Discount Store News.
Wal-Mart is required to pay for the transportation of the product from one area to its distribution center areas. One issue regarding Wal-Mart is that the company needed to find enough workers that could be used to fill the various positions in the company. The company had already been seen as an “antiunion company,” which is known as American’s largest private employer that is privately blamed for its “sorry state in retail wages in America,” (Anonymous, 2008, paragraph 3). Some people opposed the development of the towns that are around the Wal-Mart. In response to the increase in demand for Wal-Mart products and services, Wal-Mart had expanded its list of businesses locations.