Is Wal-Mart Bad for America?

Wal-Mart, a "Big-Box Retailer" employs more than 2.1 million associates worldwide and has two-thousand seven-hundred stores in the United States with many more in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Central America, Chile, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom, making Wal-Mart the largest retailer in the world. "Wal-Mart accounts for upward of 30 percent of U.S. sales, and plans to more than double its sales within the next five years" (Lynn 29-36). Why is Wal-Mart so successful, and is Wal-Mart actually bad for America?

"Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world's largest retailer, with $285.2 billion in sales in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2005. The company employs 1.6 million associates

Walmart is bad for America, as some say. The Globalization essay that was handed out in class had many good points. It states that Walmart puts many smaller businesses out of service. A recent study by

Wal-Mart is now the largest grocer, largest retailer, largest corporation in the world. "If Wal-Mart was a nation, it would have a bigger economy than 80 percent of the world's countries"(Singer and Mason). About "138 million people go to one of Wal-Mart's 5,000 stores in the United States and nine other countries", and purchase more than $300 billion every year (Singer and Mason). With a 1.6 million global workforce, Wal-Mart has become the biggest private employer "in the United States, as well as in Mexico and Canada"(Singer and Mason). "Wal-Mart already has 11 percent of all U.S. Grocery store sales," and "by 2013 that figure is likely to rise to 21 percent"(Singer and

First off I would like to start by agreeing that Walmart is powerful but creating bad jobs for many, people working here have horrible

Wal-Mart is a bad thing for this economy. Our country is based off an economy that supports small business and entrepreneurs. Wal-Mart stunts and doesn’t allow the growth of any small companies, because of their unbeatable prices. How are other people supposed to become business owners? Wal-Mart is also bad for the economy because it doesn’t provide adequate wages or healthcare. With employees being paid so little they won’t be able to spend as much which negatively effects the economy.

Walmart is good for America because, they give higher pay, they have the best prices for everyone, and reach out globally to make better offers. They take much care of their craft. Personal experiences with Walmart have been positive. Seldom has a problem not been solved within minutes, a price not satisfying, or a cheaper option overseas not taken. They know what they’re doing, and we benefit because of that. It’s excellent to have such a widely available system that so many people can

Wal-Mart’s sheer size gives it unrestrained economic power which allows it to drive down costs in the retail and manufacturing sectors and to enact its own standards with regards to its work force.

Wal-Mart, the multi-billion company and the second largest employer in the world, is the most controversial corporation in the world. Wal-Mart is a global powerhouse and affects many people around the world. Wal-Mart is constantly getting attacked from unions, human rights groups, small towns and small businesses. Wal-Mart is accused of treating their workers poorly and driving small businesses out of business. But however these accusations are false or over exaggerated. Wal-Mart offers families and low income people quality products. Also, they pay their workers competitive wages and treat them with respect. Wal-Mart opens their stores in rural and under developed areas. Wal-Mart improves the lives of the people who live rural area and

Currently Wal-Mart has 4,227 stores in the U.S and 3,210 internationally. Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. In 2004 Wal-Mart accounted for 6.5 percent of the retail sales. In 2004 Wal-Mart had 1.3 million employees (Emek Basker). Sam Walton, a former JC Penney employee, started a small store named Walton’s in Bentonville, Arkansas in 1945. It grew into a multi-million dollar retail company known as Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has done great things for consumers by keeping their prices low and affordable. They helped China create a middle class in their economy because most of the goods sold at Wal-Mart are manufactured in China. Although those things are good, they come at a price. They have

Keeping prices low keeps Wal-Mart from offering the high wages, high position or high benefits to all their employees. The records showed a lot of Wal-Mart employees were only paid minimum wage and children of workers were on state free insurance or uninsured. “Wal-Mart Stores Inc is cutting health insurance for another 30,000 part-time workers and raising premiums for its other employees, as U.S. corporations push to contain costs in the wake of the federal health-care law”. However, a lot of the jobs at Wal-mart do not need a special degree or special training so minimum wage or a little more is good enough. Plus with such low prices the store has plenty business which is job security and plenty of work at all hours which is a good thing even for the employees which hold low rank positions. However some of these low price item seem to have come from sweatshops oversea and four worker’s in California, ``Investigation after investigation of Wal-Mart's operations and suppliers reveal that Wal-Mart is an unrepentant and recidivist violator of human rights,''( Reuter,2005). There were also several cases during 2003-2005 where illegal immigrants in the United States were used to clean Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Mart also does not have a union which for the stakeholders could be a bad

Walmart is a multinational corporation with 11,000 retail locations located in 27 countries and is the largest retailer in the world. With over 2.2 million employees, Walmart is the also largest employer in United States the world. The history of Walmart dates back to 1962 when founder Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas. By the late 1960s, total sales were over $12 million with 24 Walmart stores spread across Arkansas (Riffel, 2014). “By the end of the 1970s, Wal-Mart had expanded into a number of different services in its stores—selling pharmaceuticals, adding auto service centers, and introducing jewelry divisions.

With every company there come strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and Wal-mart is no exception. Wal-mart sits at the number one spot when it comes to retail businesses but they have had many issues; in particular labor law violations because they did not allow their employees to take required lunch and meal breaks.

They turned a small company into one of the largest corporations in the entire world. They have completely redefined what it means to be a big business, and have had many good impacts on society. While this is true, Wal-Mart has not always had the best business practices, receiving many different criticisms over the years. Some criticisms include its relations with people and businesses outside the United States, its role within local communities, and its labor policies and practices. Wal-Mart has always been the superstore that prides itself on lower prices, so much so that it has looked to manufacture in other countries for the cheap labor. Wal-Mart has become so big, that it has stores and plants all over the world. Wal-Mart even does most of its business overseas. “Chinese suppliers, or “partners,” reportedly provide Walmart with about 70 percent of the nearly $420 billion worth of goods that it sells globally each year” (SCHELL). Wal-Mart has even gone as far as to move one of its headquarters to China. Wal-Mart is helping China, and China is helping Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is bringing in lots of jobs and products for the Chinese people to buy, while China is providing everything Walmart needs to keep growing as rapidly as they are. Wal-Mart is one of the worst offenders of the global sweatshop problem, and because of this they had lots of criticism of their labor policies and practices. Wal-Mart is not a

Walmart, the giant utopia, the place where a lot of people usually do their shopping for the low prices and the variety of products was founded by Sam Walton. Walton was an entrepreneur a very different and innovative vision than with what was the norm at the time. He started his own company and made it into the leader in discount retailing that it is today. In fact, Walmart is considered to be the biggest company in the U.S. and it has stores worldwide. A lot of controversy orbits this huge company, however. According to PBS, “Walmart employs more people than any other company in the United States outside of the Federal government, yet the majority of its employees with children live below the poverty line.” Also, Walmart likes to portray itself as a seller of U.S. manufactured goods, but in reality the company has thousands of products contained in its many stores throughout the U.S. made in foreign countries in sweatshops with horrible conditions for their employees. It would seem that Walmart encourages “made in the USA” but is a flat out lie. Walmart encourages products made outside the USA. This stubborn need for Walmart to outsource in order to reap the benefits of cheap labor in poorer countries is really hurting the small businesses of the United States and definitely takes its toll on our economy. It is for this reason the big giant is facing a significant amount of controversy for unethical business practices.