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.…
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.…
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…
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.…
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.…
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.…
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.…
"Always low prices, always", does this sound familiar? Well this is the slogan of the world 's most powerful company, WalMart. Making its mark in 1915 as the five and dime store, WalMart 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 WalMart '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.…
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.…
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.…
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…
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…
As the largest retailer in America, Walmart has been called “one of the most impactful organizations in the history of humanity” (Roberts 1); however, we must ask ourselves what type of impact Walmart is making. Because they are such a large corporation, Walmart has the power and ability to greatly influence our society either for the good or for the bad, and most people agree that their impression on our current society is a negative one. There is lots of controversy over the ethical and economic repercussions our country faces because of Walmart. It is evident to most people that Walmart negatively impacts communities, treats employees unfairly, and facilitates child labor in American and abroad.…
In The Wal-Mart effect: Poison or Antidote for Local Communities author Terry J. Fitzgerald attempts to submerge to the bottom of the issues people have with Wal-Mart. He does so by using results from Wal-Mart’s effect by entering non Wal-Mart counties economy’s. He uses the research to show that Wal-Mart doesn’t affect a community as much as most think. However, no matter what side of the issue you fall on, it still affects your community in a good or bad manner.…
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…