Social Conflict Theory

Walmart can be studied using structure functional theory and social conflict theories. Social functional theory is the relationships among parts of society and how these parts are functional(have beneficial consequences) or dysfunctional (have negative consequences. Most Americans today love to shop at Walmart because they continue to give consumers the best prices on over 120,000 products and are one stop shopping.
By keeping their prices low, Walmart can easily pass that savings on to their customers and in return, their buyers are able to have a higher income and can spend their money on more products, preferably Walmart’s.
Another reason why thrifty and busy consumers love Walmart, is because they offer more than 5,000 locations all

over the world. This one stop shopping allows the customer to save their time, money and other resources while guaranteeing they are getting the best product for the lowest price.
Not only does Walmart benefit the consumers but also, the many companies and corporations.

In the late 1980’s, Walmart dramatically helped to increase the sell of Rubbermaid products, which lead to increase sells for Rubbermaid. This helped Rubbermaid to expand their company into a household name with dramatically increased sells. Walmart has a noticeably positive effect on the American population and economy but on many corporations.
But Walmart can negative effect that is felt but all of us. Social conflict theory is the relationships among the part of society; how the elites use their power to control the weaker groups. While many people believe that Walmart is great because they of their low prices, many people think that Walmart is hurtful to Americans and American corporations.
While Walmart gives jobs to Americans all over the world, Walmart also takes them overseas to China where labor is cheaper. In order to keep their prices low for their customers, Walmart demands that corporations keep their prices or they will drop the company’s products. When the price resin increased in the mid 1990’s, Rubbermaid was unable to keep production costs down, so they increased the price of their products. This lead to Walmart dropping their products for a few years and Rubbermaid selling their American production factory and moving to China. Which caused them to become

bankrupted.
A big way that Walmart keeps their prices low, is by importing cheap Chinese goods. Chinese factories use cheap materials and labor in their production that can’t be done in the US. Because many American competitors can’t keep their prices as low as their Chinese counterparts, they must find somewhere else to sells their products or move to China. This has caused the loss of over an million American jobs.
But what does that cheap Chinese product mean for the American consumers? Cheap, inferior products that break easily and can be deadly. Low cost Chinese products have been shown to contain traces of lead in products like baby toys and dog food. Which is very deadly for the consumer.
I think that the social conflict theory is better at describing Walmart because they use their power, wealth and prestige to bully American companies and corporations into keeping their prices low. If the American companies can’t do so, then Walmart jumps to their Chinese counterparts who are more than willing to give cost effective products but at the cost of their consumer's safety.
I believe that Walmart is a prime example of an elite company using their large number of resources to control smaller, weaker companies into giving what they want. If that company can’t do so, then many American loss their jobs, but find one at Walmart.