Question:
What Are The Problems That Walmart Has Faced And What Has The Company Done To Address Them?
Solution
This essay discusses the recent problems faced by Walmart and the steps taken to overcome these problems.
Problem faced by Walmart
Walmart is a well known American market leader in the renewable energy sector. But the company has to face a lot of challenges from various parties who criticized Wal-Mart in various contexts. Historically it has to face criticism for not treating employees and suppliers properly and for its environmental impacts. Various parties including labor union leaders, activists and feminists accused that Wal-Mart is engaged in misconduct for the sake of providing low price. Walmart is one of the world’s largest public companies. Thus it was always a constant challenge for Walmart to maintain careful relationship with the stakeholders. One of the big accusations against Wal-Mart is about its relationship with competitor stake holders. Many of its local competitors and small businesses have to shut down their business due to low price strategy of Walmart. However, Walmart has defended itself stating that its objective is to provide high quality product at low price to the customers.
Another accusation against Walmart is that it put pressure and cost burden on suppliers to achieve its lofty goals regarding low price (Bianco & Zellner, 2003). It forces the suppliers to improve efficiency and if they fail Walmart cease to do take the products from those suppliers as it easily find some other suppliers (Lohr, 2003). Walmart is also criticized for providing low wages and benefits to the employees. It was often accused for being production organization instead of being employee oriented organization. Moreover, it discourses labor unions. Walmart was also accused for discrimination in workplace and even it had to face class action law suits for such