Preview

Walmart Is Bad For The Economy Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
568 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Walmart Is Bad For The Economy Essay
Walmart Bad For The Economy? Everyone loves Walmart, its cheap, it has just about anything anyone could need, and its very popular. However the super store is taking a huge toll on small business owners by running them into financial problems and damaging the local economy. “Wal-Mart store openings kill three local jobs for every two they create by reducing retail employment by an average of 2.7 percent in every county they enter.” (Popularresistance.org) Taking that into mind really shows what Walmart is doing to damage the economy but what they do to small business owners. After Walmart opened stores in Chicago, a quarter of the small businesses around the store closed due to financial woes. Having the store in small communities is terrible …show more content…
When people go shopping they’re more likely to just go to Walmart to get everything they need rather than stop at multiple stores. The fact that they even have a chain of smaller stores such as Sams Club makes competing with the store even more of a challenge. Although Walmart has many different policies to help small business owners in the economy. “To that end, Walmart has enacted policies actually designed to help small businesses: In Landover hills a DC suburb, the company has donated thousands of dollars to help small businesses advertise, and has offered free seminars and workshops for small business owners.” (intuit.com) Walmart is trying to help give back but the damage it does to the economy is already too much for small business owners to bounce back from. The effect Walmart has on small businesses has been negative for many reasons. A study was shown in 2008 that they took 3,000 random Walmart stores and found that each store caused a net decline of around 350 jobs. Given that statistic the audience can see that Walmarts are causing real life problems for business owners and the economy, many small businesses are being put out of business because they can’t afford the financial damage that the super store brings with it to a new

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Wal-Mart does not benefit the American economy. It is a privately owned business that was established in 1962 by Mr. Sam Walton in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walton opened Wal-Mart as a one-stop shop providing services at unbeatably low prices. Wal-Mart has opened many stores, and its development dominating most parts of the American society. Arguments have been raised on the implications of these low prices to the U.S economy and its communities. Film maker Robert Greenwald highlights the impacts of Wal-Mart on small American societies in the film, "Wal-Mart: The high cost of low price." Greenwald has covered different aspects of Wal-Mart in the film like increasing government spending, eliminating small business and abuse of workers. According to Greenwald, overreliance on Wal-Mart has negatively impacted the American economy and society, both locally and internationally.…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 1238 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good 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
  • Better Essays

    The reality of Wal-Mart's practices is fairly simple while at the same time it is wrong. They move into cities and drop their prices causing the clientele to shop at their store. As consumers start running to Wal-Mart instead of the Mom and Pop grocer down the road, the small businesses are forced into bankruptcy. As these small business owners are forced to liquidate their remaining stock and permanently close their doors, options are removed from the shopper's list. When the majority of competing stores have shut down, Wal-Mart immediately raises their prices to a level that wouldn't be considered a…

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wal-Mart preaches the fact that it possesses the lowest-priced goods. Though it may be true in most cases, it hurts local business.…

    • 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
  • Good Essays

    On the above date and time I was conducting traffic enforcement in the area of Richey Drive and Wilkins Street.…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good 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
  • Good Essays

    Labor relations are a part of our daily lives, whether we realize it or not. For those of us who work, it relates to our wages, the hours that we work and the way we are treated as an employee of an organization, no matter how large or small.…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    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…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better 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

    Its size, power, and low prices are what make Walmart so helpful to America. So why do some people think that Walmart is so bad for American people? (Found in Walmart Nation packet, which was given in class) Many people believe that this is a true debate. Everyone has his or her own point of view. If you think about it, is Walmart really good for America? Walmart has made many changes since it was first opened in 1962, by Sam Walton. By the end of 2003, there were 2,551 Walmart stores in the U.S. and this is all including supercenters, Sam's Club's and the famous neighboring markets.(Found in Walmart Nation packet, which was given out in class) After going over all the facts, Walmart is good for America.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 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
  • Powerful Essays

    American Dream

    • 1286 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Luke S.H. Wright in “The American Dream” has stated that large corporations such as Goldman Sachs are taking over the small businesses. This leaves owning one’s own business out of the picture. At the same time major retail chains are spreading to every corner, which in result, small business owners are being put out of business because of the convenience of large business chains. 7-Elevens are now replacing the family owned bodegas. Starbucks is now in every corner while local coffee shops are fighting to keep their small business open. Walmart has many small businesses within such as salons, key shops, arcades, and even their own McDonalds. This has caused family owned specialty shops to diminish. CBS Reporter has stated that Walmart, “Clearly, it puts a lot of smaller retailers out of business”…

    • 1286 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays