Preview

Wal-Mart Good or Bad for America

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
6224 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Wal-Mart Good or Bad for America
Is Wal-Mart Good For America?

Introduction
We all want to do what is best for our families, our friends, ourselves and our country. However, our nation’s number one corporation is under constant ridicule for being a negative part of the American way. Wal-Mart is the overall number one on the fortune 500, over taking Exxon Mobile after a one year slip to the number 2 spot. However Wal-Mart is constantly being ridiculed by media and everyday citizens, its employees included. These opinions are often brought forth because of four major issues; the pay and benefits packages of Wal-Mart employees, the quality and buying of their goods from China, big box corporation killing local businesses ,and Wal-Mart taking jobs away and not creating new, stronger jobs .To answer each question I will use research from many different mediums, financial statements, and my personal experience as a three year Wal-Mart employee, and present facts and numbers that would be crucial in making an educated decision, following this information I will present what I believe is strong and weak about Wal-Marts current way of doing business, and then offer my solutions to answer these questions and answer the big question. Is Wal-Mart good or bad for America?
Does Wal-Mart Treat Their Employees Right? As a Wal-Mart employee, I have gotten to see how things are ran, how we receive the goods, how they are taken to the floor, how it is stocked, and cleaned. I have been an overnight stocker at one of the larger stores in Eastern Kentucky since November of 2010. I, like many, started working there just to make some money until I could find something else, or in my case, graduate college. I heard more than one employee admit they had only planned on being there for six months or less, and now have been working there for over ten years. This would lead one to believe that they are happy in their job; they are being paid a respectable wage, and feel respected and have a sense of accomplishment

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In “Up Against Wal-Mart” by Karen Olsson, she finds the truth about how Wal-Mart treats its customers and more importantly how the million dollar company treats its employees. In this essay, Olsson strongly believes that Wal-Mart keeps its stores understaffed and their employees overworked and underpaid, with minimal options for reasonable benefits.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. The U.S. is in a shrinking economy. Many plants are closed and many people are unemployed. The big retailers change their suppliers from U.S. manufactures to the developing countries’ manufactures, which cost much less. The competition between the suppliers( manufactures) is more intensive. The supplier has less prower is retail business. The market is shift from supplier dependence to buyer dependence, which means the buyer/ retailer has more prower. They very know their customers’ needs and wants, and they determine what the manufactures should produce, including the specific product, the schedule, the quality, and the price. Retailers are now more powerful than manufacturers, and they are forcing the decision to move production offshore.2…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good 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
  • 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

    Wal-Mart 's army of around 3,400 stores has created some job opportunities, but think of all the jobs lost due to choking out small locally owned businesses as well as the thousands of factory jobs lost due to Wal-Mart 's low production demands. Wal-Mart 's size, convenience, as well as its variety of over 120,000 items makes Wal-Mart a fierce competitor to any business. Due to Wal-Mart being built in the majority of cities and towns no matter the social status, many striving small businesses cannot compete with Wal-Mart 's unbeatably low prices and convenience and are forced to terminate their business. This may be an example of "survival of the fittest", but this process is hurting the economy. Eighty percent of Wal-Mart 's suppliers are from China and that means the more Wal-Mart 's there are, the more foreign products floating around, and less American made production (Is Wal-Mart Good for America). This lack of American production is what causes American factories to shut down leaving their employees without jobs. Even if these employees decided to work with Wal-Mart, they would make around half of their normal salary, as well as no pension, health care, or the job security benefits that have been the norm in factory work. "A…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My views on Wal-mart and the company's effect on the standard of living within the United States varies drastically. I do not think that it is possible to say definitively whether or not their practices are positive or negative when it comes to the effect they have on the standard of living, however, we can measure their effect based on what has been seen in the time they have been open and attempt to foresee a trend.…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frontline offers two harshly contrasting images: one of Circleville, Ohio, where the local TV manufacturing plant has closed down; the other -- a sea of high rises in the South China, Shenzhen. For Wal-Mart, China has become the cheapest, most reliable production platform in the world, the source of up to $25 billion in annual imports that help the company deliver everyday low prices to 100 million customers a week. But while some economists credit Wal-Mart's single-minded focus on low costs with helping contain U.S. inflation, others charge that the company is the main force driving the massive overseas shift to China in the production of American consumer goods, resulting in hundreds of thousands of lost jobs and a lower standard of living here at home…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wal-Mart gives their customers more advantages than disadvantages, when those customers receive low income. As the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, they include low prices, a variety of goods, and jobs that people are willing to work for. These attributes that Wal-Mart possesses are often overlooked but cannot be denied once shown. It gives people an option to fall back on when in need, and is able to grant a more enjoyable way of living. Despite all of the controversy, Wal-Mart is good for…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In 1988 Sam Walton founder of the greatest discount store of all time was awarded a title. Walton’s name was found in Times Magazine as most influential person to have lived in the 20th century. The founder of Walmart’s goal was to achieve having a store that provided“ a one stop shopping center, with an unlimited supply of product at unbeatable prices”. What Walton failed to foresee, was the destruction and, negative effects that his business would bring all over the globe. Is it possible that the biggest company in the world could bring harm to there own employees? The answer is yes; they would and continue to do so. They come into cities affecting a large amount of members in the communities; right after settling in they do a great deal of damage. Walmart is a supermarket that changed the industry of retail, though it ended up ruining the lives of thousands of hard working citizens. These people are Americans who want to keep a job but have to endure inexcusable treatment from Walmart. Employees have been treated so poorly that lawsuits and protestors around the world have come to stand outside of the nearest Walmart in town to protest. The negative affect of these huge supermarkets led to the spiral of many great pharmacy’s, clothing, hardware stores etc. These types of stores went down the drain as soon as “Big Walmart” came into town. Since the existence of Walmart it has challenged communities big or small to stay open and keep there employee’s wages down and there cost of merchandise down, leaving the other store owners with no profit forcing them to close down. This is the only way Walmart has operated and that’s lowering cost and making sure all other surrounding competitors shut down. Some do not speak up because as a consumer, they do not see a reason to why they should complain if what they are buying is a complete bargain. That way of thinking keeps many unemployed and many Walmart workers receiving the same…

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As a customer, I think that Wal-Mart is bad for the America, because the Wal-Mart company hurts the local communities. Most people know that when Wal-Mart comes to town, the company outsources small businesses and shops. Wal-Mart does not rely affect small businesses, but it is a competition to other big department store. For example, in the film, “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price,” the documentary discusses that Wal-Mart is the largest company in America and it can put out other businesses like Target, Sears, or any other businesses. For these reasons, many business owners are worried that they may lose businesses because of Wal-Mart.…

    • 207 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Despite what Lindsey said, I believe that Wal-Mart is contributing to the damage of this economy. By making the prices so low, Wal-Mart has to lower the salaries of its workers to make a profit. The employee has to work more hours for less money. That’s why I believe that Wal-Mart is not good for America.…

    • 56 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Walmart being good for America is a controversial subject for many people. In my opinion, Walmart is more good for America in several ways. But in some ways it is also bad for America. It is good for the economy. Walmart is one of the biggest companies in America and it brings in a 35 thousand dollar profit.…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory 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
  • Good Essays

    Media tends to portray business in more of a negative light than a positive light. This is evident by the video about “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” that was published by PBS. This video mainly described the negatives about Wal-Mart and rarely talked about the positives like saving people money. Most of the negative portrayal business receives from media is based on how some businesses actually do their business. Thus, for Wal-Mart to save people money, Wal-Mart has to demand and pressure suppliers into lower prices every year. To do this suppliers have to outsource their production overseas and this is where the video really hit hard on the impact outsourcing has had on retail stores (businesses) and factory workers. Outsourcing greatly…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays