Is Walmart good for America? For someone who works in retail, it is a very tricky question to answer. I have never worked in Walmart, however I have many friends who do, and they have different opinions regarding whether Walmart is a good or bad place to work, or what is their influence within their communities. Walmart was founded in 1962, by retail worker Sam Walton. Today, Walmart is the world's largest retailer and corporation, with more than 6000 stores around the world, half of which are located in the U.S. With that, can we establish whether Walmart is good or bad for America?
Many people argue it is bad. Its low prices and high sales mean, for many, low cost of living and low salaries. Many of my friends who work at Walmart argue that because it's prices are so low, it encourages low wage labor and low quality of living. Many also argue that it causes its workers to have to work more hours in order to meet demanding expectations. According to Frontline's documentary, Walmart also has a certain power upon manufacturers, causing costs of goods to go down. Walmart is argued to have taken the power out of manufacturers and into retailers' hands.
Many people argue that Walmart is bad for America, however I somewhat disagree. Many other stores pay minimum wage to their employees, and many of them have low retail prices. Walmart is targeted because of its popularity. Walmart's annual revenues are of more than a quarter of a trillion dollars, and have 1.5 million employees worldwide, more than 1 million of whom are in the United States. This shows that Walmart not only brings millions of jobs, which are more than needed in our economy, it also brings money to our government. Walmart is the largest private employer in the United States, which is obviously a beneficial thing.
Many people argue that Walmart lowers standards of living, hurts retail trade, and due to its popularity,disrupts some communities. Many others on the other hand, can see that although Walmart drives cost of goods to be lower and low wage labor to be higher, it is the largest employer in this country. Walmart drives employment opportunity and activity in the economy, and in my opinion it is beneficial to America.
I agree and disagree. I agree with almost everything. I agree that they are the largest employer in this country, but is it at the expense of other companies or because they employ the most people, including the people that lost their jobs due to the competitive manuevers? It seems kind of like closing down a school due to lack of funding and then placing the children into new schools where their grades fall because they can't get as much individualized attention...
ReplyDeleteI lived in Northwest Iowa, and we had just gotten our first Walmart in 2002. It resulted in many small businesses going bankrupt. Some people were angry about the loss of the "Mom and Pop" businesses. Others, however, were very satisfied with how cheap merchandise and food were at Walmart. Many communities are having the same debate. Cordially, Richard Bobys
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