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Wal-Mart + sustainability
Walmart impact on economy and community
Wal-Mart + sustainability
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Essay #4: The Greening of Walmart
Supplying eco-friendly products has been on the Walmart agenda since the early 1990s. After a failed first attempt and much criticism, the company decided to try again. In a speech made in October of 2005, CEO of Walmart, H. Lee Scott Jr., declared Walmart would devise a “business sustainable strategy” to reduce the environmental impact the company had. Walmart could not pull this off alone. If they only focused on the confines of themselves, rather than all that they were involved with, it was estimated that they’d only reduce their impact by about 10%. To reach that goal of 100%, Walmart had to involve stakeholders to make networks which achieve sustainability. These networks proved to be vital in not only Walmart’s goal in minimizing its environmental impact, but recovering their reputation, avoiding criticism, saving money, raising awareness, improving customer satisfaction, and creating incentive for other businesses to work towards sustainability.
Walmart recognized several areas with the greatest environmental impact and began working towards sustainability in each of those areas. One area
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Walmart will lose costumers if the company does not meet the demand to stock innovative and desirable product at the cost of violating the new sustainability policies. The company therefore needs to find the right balance of eco-friendly products and conventional ones. Walmart should be able to continue this in the long term. They may release information on the harmfulness of the conventional products they sell in order to keep them on the shelves. This way the company can raise awareness and still meet the demands of consumers. Walmart wants to be considered an environmentally friendly and sustainable company, but the right balance of conventional product is necessary to keep such a company in
According to Smithson, Walmart can expand its markets to new and emerging markets especially in the third world countries, which can significantly increase its revenues. Secondly, the company can reform is employment practices and improve the quality standard and in doing so, attract more customers and improve its brand image. On the other hand, the company faces threats such as the rising healthy lifestyle trend I that the company in most cases does not provide customers with healthy goods. At the same time, the company can capitalize on this aspect and increase its revenues. Aggressive competition from other discount retailers such as Target creates a great threat to the company (Smithson, 2015).
With forward movement in society, it is important to consider not just what will propel most toward success, but also what will help to sustain the environment along the way. What may have been considered appropriate decades ago, may no longer be socially acceptable due to the changes observed in both the business world and the environment (Fiske, 2010). Therefore, it is important for organizations thriving in today?s economy to consider how they may capitalize most effectively from their product or service of choice while minimizing or eliminating any damages along the way (Knoke, 2012).
However, many news articles including trustworthy sites such as “the guardian” state that Walmart still have a long way to go in terms of their environmental efforts. The authors claim of the company eliminating 28.2 metric tons of greenhouse possessions is true, in fact even exceeding their initial goal of 20 metric tons. Although, given the pure size of the company, the reduction of greenhouse possessions is far from enough to make a drastic impact. The company’s partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) was a massive boost to the company’s reputation regarding the environment. Walmart had invested a lot of their money towards the NFWF and correlated the amount of land preserved with every acre developed by Walmart. This meaning that due to this partnership, approximately 100 acres of land was preserved in Walmart’s name. When hearing this, all does seem perfect regarding the company’s environmental concerns. However, for a company the size of Walmart, it is very difficult to keep the company running completely “Green”. This can be supported as there are many articles regarding the company’s drawbacks towards the environment. An article from usnews.com states that one Walmart supercenter alone uses the same amount of energy as 1,095 US homes do in one day. In addition, the
The Wal-Mart Corporation is a multi-billion dollar low-cost retail organization, consisting of 6400 stores and 1.8 million sales associates worldwide. Wal-Mart’s influence on the retail world and the enormity of their corporate size is unparalleled. Wal-Mart can easily report sales of $312.4 billion dollars per fiscal quarter and net profits of $3.8 billion dollars. Wal-Mart promises her customers "Always low prices. Always!" and upholds this motto by providing low prices to her customers and high return on investment to her stockholders. One way that Wal-Mart has managed to maintain a competitive edge over other low cost retail giants and provide low prices is by cutting wages and by not offering too many company benefits to their employees. Full-time employee working at Wal-Mart only make $8 an hour, while only 45% of the workers can afford to be covered by health insurance. Wal-Mart also increase part time employees from 20 percent to 40 percent so that they do not have to cover all of their employees for health insurance . Although Wal-Mart may not provide excellent benefits to her employees, it successfully performs as a legitimate business operating in a capitalistic society. Wal-Mart upholds the primary fiduciary duty to satisfy her stockholder and follows free the market libertarianism model, which states that a business should not interfering with the free market. In a free market Wal-Mart has a direct responsibility to her primary stockholders rather than the employees of a company.
The main criticisms of Wal-Mart involve: low labor compensation, loss of jobs, impact on competitors and communities, contributing to the trade deficit, as well as insensitivity to the environment. Wal-Mart has been publically accused for its mistreatment of workers, these claims mainly including low wages and lack of benefits. Critics argue that these force Wal-Mart employees to rely on public assistance programs, making the local economy worse off than before. It is also argued that this carries over to other stores who are forced to compete with Wal-Mart and lower their own worker’s wages and benefits in response, thus making the impact even larger. Another major criticism of the Wal-Mart superstores is that they cause local companies to go out of business because they do not have the necessary resources to be able to compete with Wal-Mart’s everyday low prices. As a result, the workers that were employed by these local companies become unemployed, thus having a negative affect on the particular local economy in which the Wal-Mart moves into. In addition, Wal-Mart opposers state that since Wal-Mart imports a lot of the goods in which it sells, that they are directly contributing to the cou...
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 is one of the largest supermarket chains in America. They have mastered the technique of how to get customers to buy their products once in their store. Walmart has an abundance of products ranging from groceries to gardening to automotive. Walmart’s easy flow and strategic placement of an abundance of products entices customers to buy more than the customer anticipated.
Sam Walton, who first purchased a branch of the Ben Franklin Stores from the Butler Brothers, founded Wal-Mart. When he took over this franchise, his marketing strategy was the same and remains the same: selling products at low prices. By selling products at low prices, he is able to get higher-volume sales at a lower-profit margin. To make the lowest prices possible, he found suppliers that charged a lower price than the other stores nearby. This continues to be a primary strategy that induced Wal-Mart to currently being the largest retailer in the world. In effort to maintain their status as one of world’s most valuable companies, Wal-Mart has been exploiting employees and impoverished nations, ruining competition, and placing pressure on the U.S. government.
In the United States and all over the world, the entry and operations of big retailers like Wal-Mart into a small town sparks great controversy within the community. The fact that people contemplate on the fact that the policies and actions of Wal-Mart are destructive to a small town’s economy is not new. Most small town’s economies are run by subsistence and self-reliant traders. With time, the traders embrace the division of labor and specialization of skills in accordance with the trade, production and manufacturing needs of the community. In such a market, a simple move like a decision by the producers to sell directly to the consumers may spark
While keeping in mind they are a business which rely on profits. Walmart is a popular company that is known for their low prices. This corporation is also known for giving back to communities by making charitable contributions of 100,000 grants annually, as well providing disaster relief to various countries burdened by disasters and donated $100 million dollars to neighborhoods and law enforcement agencies. They also provide employees with college grants to obtain a two or four year college degree, Walmart is investing in their employees by giving them an advantage in their future. Walmart has also found ways to reduce waste by creating materials that are nontoxic and are recyclable friendly. With the use of sustainability, strategic philanthropy, causing marketing, shared values and stakeholder that is why this company was ranked number one by Forbes list in
The primary goal of The Walt Disney Company is to become one of the world’s leading producers and providers of not only entertainment, but also information (The Walt Disney Company, 2014). The company aims to achieve this by utilizing its immense brand portfolio so as to differentiate services, content, and consumer products. While this is the overall goal, there exist other innate milestones that essentially touch on socially responsible business in enhancing sustainability. They include, but are not limited to; zero net greenhouse gas emissions, whereby the company aims to have reduced net greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2020; zero waste, whereby Walt Disney hopes to achieve a 60% reduction in waste from
Stuart Hart, in a business article, discusses the tough task for companies to make a sustainable global ec...
Wal-mart has a reputation for caring for its customers, of course their employees, and for the prospective public. So Wal-Mart can be an industrial leader for the world of shoppers with an eye for lower affordable prices, company decision makers would continue it's systematic strategies that it's founder and president established years ago. Sam Walton believed in three guiding principles in his strategy planning they were to provide the customer with good value and service, to have a good relationship with its associates, and to be involved with the community.
Sustainable operation management is a management approach that involves planning, implementation and control of business operations that translate available resources into the required product or service. It is the management of business practices, traditions and operations to promote the highest level of efficiency, smooth workflow, and increased productivity in an organization. This management strategy ensures that the available labour force and materials are changed into products or services in a cost effective way to increase the company’s returns (Corbett, 2009). It also involves production waste management, food waste reduction, creating new opportunities, environment protection, and improving customer health. Sustainable operation management in the retail industry around the world has gained momentum in the recent years, in the face of customer pressure and media interest. It is particularly linked to the concepts of corporate social responsibility and global warming (Morrison, 2013).
Important companies like Shell, DuPont, BP have been reorganised to generate profits from this green market of goods and services. In this sense, it may sound altruistic, "the sustainability", the logic of profitability and competition is what will determine the ability of companies of the future to meet the changing needs of consumers. This premise of "sustainability" as a necessary quality to be competitive, falls short, according to Bryan Walsh of Time magazine. In a 2007 article, the expert shows how "sustainable" is helping to drive out competition, given the approach taken by companies to become more efficient, flexible and cutting waste, which helps them provide better products and reduce costs. Companies that refuse to accept that they will face a strict and demanding environment.