Preview

Wal-Fail (Effects of Walmart on the Economy)

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
602 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Wal-Fail (Effects of Walmart on the Economy)
Wal-Fail Wal-Mart does not benefit the American economy. It is a privately owned business that was established in 1962 by Mr. Sam Walton in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walton opened Wal-Mart as a one-stop shop providing services at unbeatably low prices. Wal-Mart has opened many stores, and its development dominating most parts of the American society. Arguments have been raised on the implications of these low prices to the U.S economy and its communities. Film maker Robert Greenwald highlights the impacts of Wal-Mart on small American societies in the film, "Wal-Mart: The high cost of low price." Greenwald has covered different aspects of Wal-Mart in the film like increasing government spending, eliminating small business and abuse of workers. According to Greenwald, overreliance on Wal-Mart has negatively impacted the American economy and society, both locally and internationally. The film makes use of firsthand information from interviews conducted by Greenwald on individuals that have faced the impact of Wal-Mart’s reign. Since its establishment, Watson had promised customers and workers great services by offering goods at low prices. According to the film, Wal-Mart has established its retail business in local areas where large retailers are not available to avoid competition. As a result, they drew attention of many small community consumers because of their cheaper prices and variety of differentiated products. This has caused havoc to small business, which have been wiped out because they lack the potential to compete with this retail giant. Lack of competition has enabled Wal-Mart to dominate its business at low prices because they have captured all customers (Fishman 23). The film captures employees from Wal-Mart who are denied most of their rights. They are dissatisfied with the mechanisms of operation at Wal-Mart like low wages. As a result, they have been forced to rely on programs funded by the government like Medicaid because their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Cited: Olsson, Karen. “Up Against Wal-Mart.” They Say/I Say, with Readings. 2nd ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. New York: Norton, 2012. 606-619. Print.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the unstable society that we live in today, Wal-Marts’ affordable prices are eye-catching to the middle class in the United States. One of the biggest debates that come up when discussing Wal-Mart, a global supercenter, is if it really is as friendly and appealing as it appears. In Karen Olssons’ article “Up Against Wal-Mart,” she emphasizes her perception of the poor treatment that the employees receive at Wal-Mart and emphasizes the struggle that the everyday Wal-Mart supercenter employee goes through. Olsson, a senior editor at Texas Monthly, who has written for Slate, the Washington Post, and the New York Times Magazine, opposes the actions of Wal-Mart. In contrast to Olsson, Sebastian Mallaby, a columnist for…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The essays “Up Against Wal-Mart” by Karen Olsson and “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really” by Sebastian Mallaby portray Wal-Mart to two completely different lights. Olsson shames Wal-Mart for its poor health benefits, the meager pay Wal-Mart employees receive, and the managers who purposely fail to schedule enough workers. Mallaby, on the other hand, commends Wal-Mart on how much money the franchise saves customers.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When you hear the words low prices it is hard not to think of Wal-Mart. The company that revolutionized discount shopping. But what happens behind the scenes? How is it that the world’s largest retail chain can offer so many deals? In the last 20 years the anti-Walmart campaign seems to continuously be on the minds of many. Sebastian Mallaby and Karen Olsson share radically different views on the ethics of the Wal-Mart Corporation. In “Up Against Wal-Mart” we are forced to believe that Wal mart is a vicious company that shows no remorse when firing employees and cutting their benefits. The author produces factual information and eyewitness accounts pointing to these horrible deeds that the large corporation run by money hungry businessmen have cheated many employees out of proper wages, proper benefits and even their jobs. While Sebastian Mallaby depicts Wal-Mart like the average American company. In his article “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” He states that while Wal-Mart is responsible for many questionable deeds, they are merely doing what they have to in order to survive.…

    • 1238 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Why Wal-Mart is good” Steve Maich makes a number of statements supporting Walmart and its expansion, while Liza Featherstone disagrees with “Down and Out in Discount America” and supports her own statements citing Walmart’s various evils. The authors primary disagree not only over the various values that are key to the Walmart debates, but also of important factual information.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Logan, J. (2014). The mounting Guerilla War against the Reign of Walmart. New Labor Forum (Sage Publications Inc.), 23(1), 22-29. doi:10.1177/1095796013513435.…

    • 836 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Up against Wal-Mart

    • 1555 Words
    • 7 Pages

    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 business in today’s economy, but I find Karen Olsson’s argument to be the most persuasive because she has more information and quotes to support her opinion and views of the way that Wal-Mart treats their workers, while Sebastian Mallaby’s article is quite the opposite. Their opinions are very different but they share common interests which are: Wal-Mart, their customers, and their workers.…

    • 1555 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Always low prices, always", does this sound familiar? Well this is the slogan of the world 's most powerful company, Wal–Mart. Making its mark in 1915 as the five and dime store, Wal–Mart expanded and grew over the years into a 256 billion dollar company. Over the recent years of Wal-Mart 's growth, some people believe that Wal-Mart supports and builds the American economy while others hold that Wal–Mart 's global outsourcing will damage the American economy over time. When comparing the two opposing points, Wal-Mart has been more destructive than constructive to our economy in that it has destroyed more jobs then it has created, the employees receive little to no healthcare, and Wal-Mart has also degraded our environment.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wal-Mart is a nationwide company and is a household term almost everyone knows. Some people find it as a store that tends to help the less wealthy, while others find it to be the complete opposite in aiding underprivileged families. Wal-Mart has different attributes to show that it is a good source of assistance for our society. Those services consist of low prices, a variety of goods, and it provides jobs. These details might be over looked when not observed closely, preventing people from truly appreciating what Wal-Mart is doing for our society. Despite all of the controversy, Wal-Mart is good for America.…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    reserch paer on wal-mart

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages

    According to Robert B. Reich, the former labor secretary and a professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University,” Wal-Mart is the logical end point and the future of the economy in a society whose preeminent value is getting the best deal”(Reich). As…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even though we might all agree that Wal-Mart is very efficient to shop at there are some big downs to one of our most infamous superstores. Wal-Mart has continually used illegal tactics in order to maintain their large market power and the huge impact they have on our economy. In several cases Wal-Mart has been accused of discrimination in many ways. Also because of Wal-Mart many retailers have been put out of business. All of these facts lead to the answer; Wal-Mart is not good for America.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is full of unequal divisions, and we are in constant completions for Power, Wealth and Prestige at the expense of others. As seen in the documentary shown during class, Frontline explores the relationship between U.S. job losses and the American consumer's insatiable desire for bargains in "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" Through interviews with retail executives, product manufacturers, economists, and trade experts, correspondent Hedrick Smith examines the growing controversy over the Wal-Mart way of doing business and asks whether a single retail leader has changed the American economy. "Wal-Mart's power and influence are awesome," Smith says. "By figuring out how to exploit two powerful forces that converged in the 1990s -- the rise of information technology and the explosion of the global economy -- Wal-Mart has dramatically changed the balance of power in the world of business. Retailers are now more powerful than manufacturers, and they are forcing the decision to move production offshore." Wal-Mart destroys more jobs than it creates. With its low prices and huge collection of foreign good drives local businesses to the ground. Simply because they cant compete with Wal-Mart's competitive prices. A new Wal-Mart destroys jobs by putting local merchants out of…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Walmart is the largest retailer in the universe and has the most jobs in the private sector currently. They presently have more than 2.2 million people employed worldwide. With a large amount of money, stores, and influence, they have been part of thousands of legal issues. Over the past 10 years, Walmart has put out of business a number of individuals by having the same products at a lower price. They have not only shut down a number of businesses due to the undercutting of competitor prices but they also made a great deal of people lose higher paying jobs during their expansion to pay their employees very low wages with marginal benefits (Logan 2014). Walmart has seen a great deal of external social pressures however we will focus on the external social pressures they have encountered due to their direct effect on the economy. Since Walmart is a big factor in regards to the economy a number of people look to them for assistance in acquiring a job. Nonetheless, Walmart has impacted the economy by not offering well-paying jobs to employees and having very…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    July 2nd, 1962 Sam Walton opened the first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas. Walmart is a name that is commonly known in every household across the United States of America. It’s right around the corner to nearly all Americans and a haven for bargain hunters, so people think. Walmart brings jobs and helps the economy when they move to the area. This is another misconception Walmart wants you to believe. Walmart actually is doing the exact opposite. Sure it creates jobs, poverty level paying jobs with less than forty hours a week and no benefits. People who own and operate their own businesses, who actually stimulate their local economy, are at risk for going bankrupt and losing everything they have. Why would people want to spend money when they can get a similar product at Walmart for half the cost? There’s a simple answer to that question, people don’t want to spend money they don’t have to. Millions of people in the United States are living paycheck to paycheck working minimum wage jobs. These people can’t afford to buy products from a local family run store. The only places they’re able to go and get everything they need is Walmart and other big box businesses who can offer cheap…

    • 1896 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays