Up Against Walmart By Karen Olsson Summary

Disputes With the Wal
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
the Washington Post and the former Washington bureau chief for the Economist, discusses how Wal-Mart holds benefits and low prices for its employees to make up for the arguable low income in his article “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” because of their every day low prices. He opposes Olssons’ opinion on the treatment of Wal-Mart employees and they both have varying opinions on the subject of gender equality and status equality within the Wal-Mart Corporation. One dispute that comes up in the conversation about Wal-Mart is the low wages that Wal-Mart employees receive.
Olsson argues that Wal-Mart employees are underpaid and cannot survive with the paychecks they receive from the corporation. She points out that “[g]iven its staggering size and rapid expansion, Wal-Mart increasingly sets the standard for wages and benefits throughout the U.S. economy.” Olsson quotes Greg Denier who says, “Americans can’t live on a Wal-Mart paycheck,” (Olsson 608). The average paycheck for an hourly worker at Wal-Mart is under $20,000 while the corporation brings in over $6.5 billion in profits. Olsson suggests that the average employee of Wal-Mart struggles living on the hourly wages at Wal-Mart with very few benefits (608). On the other hand, Mallaby expresses that these same Wal-Mart employees that are receiving low wages are receiving Wal-Marts’ every day low prices as a benefit. He accompanies this idea by saying, “Retail workers may take home less pay, but their purchasing power probably still grows thanks to Wal-Mart’s low prices” (Mallaby 622). He agrees that Wal-Mart retail workers do make less money, but also points out the benefit of the low prices that Wal-Mart has to offer on a daily basis and says, “[t]hese gains are especially important to poor and moderate-income families” (Mallaby 621). Wal-Mart is a superstore that drives its prices down lower than its competitors in order to make the best deals on products for their consumers,
making these deals very appealing to low-income families. Another dispute that arises in topic with Wal-Mart is the treatment of their employees. According to Olsson, Wal-Mart routinely forces or asks its employees to work overtime with no pay and uses this overtime work as one of the only factors in moving up in the corporation. Olsson also asserts that all employees are treated the same. Olsson brings up overtime as a problem as she explains, “Wal-Mart blames unpaid overtime on individual department managers…It makes no business sense whatsoever to mistreat them…But Russell Lloyd…says the company “has a pattern throughout all stores of treating their workers the same way” (Olsson 613).
Olsson suggests that Wal-Mart employees are mistreated normally and it’s no different from one store to another store.
In opposition to this argument, Mallaby claims that critics of Wal-Mart are oblivious if they think Wal-Mart is the worst corporation when it comes to the way that employees are treated. He believes that it depends on what other corporations Wal-Mart is compared to and gives an example of this stating that “Wal-Mart opened a store in Glendale, Arizona, last year, it received 8,000applications for 525 jobs,” suggesting that not all people think that Wal-Mart mistreats its employees and that their benefits or wages do seem appealing to many (Mallaby 621). Though Mallaby does not discuss unions, Olsson targets this topic and mentions that Wal-Mart quickly rids of unions in order to keep opposition away. Commenting on the unions at Wal-Mart, Olsson says, “To protect the bottom line Wal-Mart is as aggressive at fighting off unions as it is at cutting costs” (Olsson 615). Wal-Mart has a main goal of fighting costs to make them lower than their competitors; therefore, fighting off unions is of utmost importance to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart does not want any opposition and does not want to lose to its competitors. Expanding the issue of working conditions to international relations, Mallaby shows how Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, the new anti-Wal-Mart movie circulating among activist groups, exploits the mistreatment of the Chinese workers that work for Wal-Mart.
He then argues, “[N]o study has shown whether Wal-Mart’s tactics actually do suppress wages in China or elsewhere, and suppression seem unlikely in poor countries” (Mallaby 622). Though it seems like these Chinese workers are working too hard for miniscule pay, Mallaby assures that they are being treated righteously according to their culture and economy. Again, a dispute that arises in the Wal-Mart Corporation is equality between men and women in the rankings of Wal-Mart employees. As Olsson puts it, “The Company insists it adequately trains and promotes female managers. But in 2001, a Wal-Mart executive conducted an internal study that showed the company pays female store managers less than men in the same position” (Olsson 614). Wal-Mart does everything in its power to cut costs and in return, women suffer the consequences of lower pay because of the inequality within the corporation. Mallaby agrees that Wal-Mart is not perfect in how it handles equality, just like every other firm and that it may treat employees unfairly at times. He comments, “Wal-Mart is at the center of the globalized, technology-driven economy that’s radically increased American inequality, so it’s not surprising that it has critics” (Mallaby 622-23). The very keys to progress are globalization and business innovation so it is not surprising that Wal-Mart takes these steps in order to progress as a corporation. They may be bias at times and may have characteristics of inequality, but these traits will succumb to the main goal of progress and achievement. Wal-Mart associates know that pleasing everyone is not a possibility and they understand that their main goal is to provide the lowest prices on quality products to their consumers. They target the lower to middle class since that group spends most of their paycheck on the cheap groceries on the shelves at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has tendencies of treating its employees poorly and has a lack of benefits, but Mallaby warns that “[i]f critics prevent the firm from opening new branches, they will prevent ordinary families from sharing in those gains. Poor Americans will be chief among the casualties” (Mallaby 623). To accompany Mallaby, Olsson believes that Wal-Mart could also benefit greatly in the future but states, “If employees succeed in improving wages and working conditions at the country’s largest employer, they could effectively set a new benchmark for service-sector jobs throughout the economy” (Olsson 618). Wal-Mart strives for the best when it comes to helping out their consumers.

Works Cited
Mallaby, Sebastian. “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” They Say, I Say: Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. Ed. Gerald Graff. 2nd ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2012. 620-623. Print.
Olsson Karen. “Up Against Wal-Mart.” They Say, I Say: Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. Ed. Gerald Graff. 2nd ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2012. 606-619. Print.