An economic virus, Wal-mart moves into an area, crushes all of its competition, concentrates and then exports the wealth to billionaire heiress Alice Walton who owns the majority of Walmart, and replaces all of the local jobs lost by their presence with poverty pay work at Wal-mart. Lets take a look at how this works...
Lossing Jobs to Wal-Mart
Optimistic at First
It might sound great at first that a strong company like Walmart is coming to your town creating Jobs and Opportunity, and access to the super low prices. Have you ever heard the phrase "you can't get something for nothing" ? Wal-marts arrival to an area has tremendous costs that the tax payers end up paying for. They move one of their big box stores in and crush all of the local competition. Dozens of smaller local retail stores experience dramatic losses in sales, more than half of which end up going bankrupt after a couple of years of sustained losses. Locally, Wal-mart spelled the end of Mervyns and Kmart where I live. The empty shells of these former retail locations sit as hollow reminders of the stark inequity created by the installation of a Wal-mart.
The Reality Is Different
The reality is far more disappointing then what we optimistically hope for when a Wal-mart first arrives. When a Wal-mart moves in, other local businesses are crushed, their fair paying jobs are lost, and these people become the working poor at Wal-mart. The working poor make less than $21K per year, and even the ones working full time with health care, have a $4400 deductible, meaning they have to spend almost %25 of their income before Wal-Marts health care pays for anything. Furthermore Wal-mart store managers engage in illegal manipulation of workers time slots. If a person works 42 hours, manages will go in and change this to 38 in order to cheat the employee out of full time benefits. Unfortunately this practice is the kind of corporate unethical norms that are standard practice at Wal-Mart.
Times Sure Have Changed
The Wal-mart that Sam Walton created was nothing like the imperialist retail virus that Wal-mart has become. He promoted fair pay and buying goods made in America. The modern Wal-mart does exactly the opposite, working extra hard to roll back wages and benefits for its employees, filling their shelves with flimsy, cheap, poorly made products that are the result of unfair trade with developing nations.
Increasing Income Inequity
Wal-mart replaces diversified retail competition with sector consolidation and monopolization. When we consider the size and scale of Wal-marts business, they are clearly a primary driving force in the rising income inequity that is punishing millions of hardworking Americans
Conglomerating
Businesses competition is the foundation of the US economy. Competition fosters innovation and progress. Sector consolidation and monopolization is bad for consumers and the overall economy because it stifles innovation and progress. Wal-mart is the strongest monopolizing force in the retail sector, exerting tremendously negative effects on our economy. Wal-marts negative impacts are not limited to the United State. Wal-mart unethically operates over 8500 retail stores under 55 different names in 15 different countries.
Bad For Cities
With distributed economic activity, a given city derives greater tax revenue, and its citizens enjoy greater wealth. With Wal-mart and their consolidation of local retail, the revenue stream for the city is reduced and the citizens suffer income reductions. Wal-mart not only under-compensates their employees, they also divert revenue away from the cities, counties and states in which they operate. This revenue is piped to a central source where it enhances the wealth of Alice Walton and a handful of other Wal-mart beneficiaries.
Lobby Bribing ^
If Wal-Mart was an ethical company, they would not be ramping up their lobbying budget the way they have done over the last decade. Wal-Mart went from spending around a million dollars a year in the early 2000’s to more than six million dollars a year in the last few year on political lobbying. Why the increased lobby expenditures? Perhaps they want something from the Government... perhaps they want to keep congress from stepping in and breaking up the retail monopoly that Wal-Mart is clearly trying to create.
Killing Jobs
Wal-Mart store openings kill three local jobs for every two jobs they create, reducing retail employment by an average of 2.7 percent in every county they enter. This is exactly what we do not want to happening across America. The proper function of economy depends on competition. Wal-Mart specializes at destroying competition with price manipulation that is only possible because of the tremendous financial resources that Wal-mart commands. Wal-Mart’s entry into a new market has a strongly negative effect on existing retailers. Supermarkets & variety stores are the most adversely affected sectors, suffering sales declines of 10 - 40% after Wal-Mart moves in. This Job loss process is not immediate, it takes as much as few years for Wal-marts local competition to go bankrupt after a Wal-mart store moves into an area.
The Working Poor
Wal-Mart’s average annual pay of $20,774 is below the Federal Poverty Level for a family of four. On average, general merchandise workers made 17.4% more and large general merchandise workers made 25.6% more than the Wal-Mart average for similar employees.
The Facts are Clear
A study of a nationwide dataset of Wal-Mart’s effect on previously existing retailers found that roughly half of smaller retailers closed after Wal-Mart’s arrival in a given community. Wal-mart reduces business competition and replaces living wages with employee poverty. Wal-Mart’s workforce can largely be classified as the working poor.
Its Everywhere
Countless examples across the US show empty vacant buildings that were once vibrant retail locations. These empty ghost buildings sit unused, business victim’s of Wal-marts retail conglomerating force. If we expand our scope slightly to examine the larger economic picture, it might become more obviously that Walmart has put thousands of business all across the US out of business, adding an untold number of people to the unemployment problem.
A Film About Wal-Mart
The High Cost of Low Prices is a documentary film about Wal-Mart and its negative effect on communities and people. Have a look for yourself.
http://www.walmartmovie.com/
Why Do I Care?
I care about keeping Wal-mart out of my city because I thoroughly understand their toxic business model. I want America to enjoy a thriving robust economy with competition that fosters innovation and progress. My desire to see America thrive via these mechanisms is exactly the opposite of Wal-marts corporate objectives.
I think if Sam Walton were alive today, he would understand the nature of my critiques and opposition of Wal-mart. The company that he created looked nothing like the Wal-mart that I oppose. I strongly advocate buying locally made goods that support American Jobs just like Sam Walton did.
If we want to get out of this recession and become a vibrant thriving global economic leader again, then we need American's to have have jobs with living wages, not the low wage slavery that is standard at Wal-Mart.
I dislike companies that mistreat their employees. I am a tireless advocate of common sense and reasonable ethics. Love is the guiding motivations in my heart. The kind of inequities created by companies like Wal-mart bother me because I love other people.
I love all of Gods beautiful creation. If Wal-mart paid their employees fairly, gave their customers access to American Made goods/ fair trade goods, and organic foods, then I would not be a vocal critic in opposing Wal-mart.
I sincerely hope that my words and actions help to shed light on these issues for others so that they may understand the truth about the high cost of low prices at Wal-mart. I equally hope that Wal-mart sobers up and realizes that their current mode of operation is bad for America; I hope they decide to pay their employees fairly and to withdraw from areas where their retail stores function as an effective local monopoly. I hope that Wal-mart starts offering more "Made in America", fair-trade goods and organic foods in their stores. I will support Wal-mart and withdraw all of my critical comments if they change from the imperialist competition destroying retail monopolizing force of today into a reasonable ethical company in the future.
http://frugaldad.com/2011/12/01/weight-of-walmart-infographic/
Increasing Income Inequity
Wal-mart replaces diversified retail competition with sector consolidation and monopolization. When we consider the size and scale of Wal-marts business, they are clearly a primary driving force in the rising income inequity that is punishing millions of hardworking Americans
Conglomerating
Businesses competition is the foundation of the US economy. Competition fosters innovation and progress. Sector consolidation and monopolization is bad for consumers and the overall economy because it stifles innovation and progress. Wal-mart is the strongest monopolizing force in the retail sector, exerting tremendously negative effects on our economy. Wal-marts negative impacts are not limited to the United State. Wal-mart unethically operates over 8500 retail stores under 55 different names in 15 different countries.
Bad For Cities
With distributed economic activity, a given city derives greater tax revenue, and its citizens enjoy greater wealth. With Wal-mart and their consolidation of local retail, the revenue stream for the city is reduced and the citizens suffer income reductions. Wal-mart not only under-compensates their employees, they also divert revenue away from the cities, counties and states in which they operate. This revenue is piped to a central source where it enhances the wealth of Alice Walton and a handful of other Wal-mart beneficiaries.
Lobby Bribing ^
If Wal-Mart was an ethical company, they would not be ramping up their lobbying budget the way they have done over the last decade. Wal-Mart went from spending around a million dollars a year in the early 2000’s to more than six million dollars a year in the last few year on political lobbying. Why the increased lobby expenditures? Perhaps they want something from the Government... perhaps they want to keep congress from stepping in and breaking up the retail monopoly that Wal-Mart is clearly trying to create.
Killing Jobs
Wal-Mart store openings kill three local jobs for every two jobs they create, reducing retail employment by an average of 2.7 percent in every county they enter. This is exactly what we do not want to happening across America. The proper function of economy depends on competition. Wal-Mart specializes at destroying competition with price manipulation that is only possible because of the tremendous financial resources that Wal-mart commands. Wal-Mart’s entry into a new market has a strongly negative effect on existing retailers. Supermarkets & variety stores are the most adversely affected sectors, suffering sales declines of 10 - 40% after Wal-Mart moves in. This Job loss process is not immediate, it takes as much as few years for Wal-marts local competition to go bankrupt after a Wal-mart store moves into an area.
The Working Poor
Wal-Mart’s average annual pay of $20,774 is below the Federal Poverty Level for a family of four. On average, general merchandise workers made 17.4% more and large general merchandise workers made 25.6% more than the Wal-Mart average for similar employees.
The Facts are Clear
A study of a nationwide dataset of Wal-Mart’s effect on previously existing retailers found that roughly half of smaller retailers closed after Wal-Mart’s arrival in a given community. Wal-mart reduces business competition and replaces living wages with employee poverty. Wal-Mart’s workforce can largely be classified as the working poor.
Its Everywhere
Countless examples across the US show empty vacant buildings that were once vibrant retail locations. These empty ghost buildings sit unused, business victim’s of Wal-marts retail conglomerating force. If we expand our scope slightly to examine the larger economic picture, it might become more obviously that Walmart has put thousands of business all across the US out of business, adding an untold number of people to the unemployment problem.
A Film About Wal-Mart
The High Cost of Low Prices is a documentary film about Wal-Mart and its negative effect on communities and people. Have a look for yourself.
http://www.walmartmovie.com/
Why Do I Care?
I care about keeping Wal-mart out of my city because I thoroughly understand their toxic business model. I want America to enjoy a thriving robust economy with competition that fosters innovation and progress. My desire to see America thrive via these mechanisms is exactly the opposite of Wal-marts corporate objectives.
I think if Sam Walton were alive today, he would understand the nature of my critiques and opposition of Wal-mart. The company that he created looked nothing like the Wal-mart that I oppose. I strongly advocate buying locally made goods that support American Jobs just like Sam Walton did.
If we want to get out of this recession and become a vibrant thriving global economic leader again, then we need American's to have have jobs with living wages, not the low wage slavery that is standard at Wal-Mart.
I dislike companies that mistreat their employees. I am a tireless advocate of common sense and reasonable ethics. Love is the guiding motivations in my heart. The kind of inequities created by companies like Wal-mart bother me because I love other people.
I love all of Gods beautiful creation. If Wal-mart paid their employees fairly, gave their customers access to American Made goods/ fair trade goods, and organic foods, then I would not be a vocal critic in opposing Wal-mart.
I sincerely hope that my words and actions help to shed light on these issues for others so that they may understand the truth about the high cost of low prices at Wal-mart. I equally hope that Wal-mart sobers up and realizes that their current mode of operation is bad for America; I hope they decide to pay their employees fairly and to withdraw from areas where their retail stores function as an effective local monopoly. I hope that Wal-mart starts offering more "Made in America", fair-trade goods and organic foods in their stores. I will support Wal-mart and withdraw all of my critical comments if they change from the imperialist competition destroying retail monopolizing force of today into a reasonable ethical company in the future.
http://frugaldad.com/2011/12/01/weight-of-walmart-infographic/
Walmart is a sleazy company and a slogan they operate by is to, move in and "put locally owned businesses out of business", I Boycott this disgusting excuse for a company and hope they go bankrupt!
ReplyDeleteI agree: not monsanto, but Wal-Mart is sleazy and unethical in its own right!
DeleteIt does not have to be this way either: the Wal-mart corporation is made of people who can make choices to change the company from its currently unethical state into a fair, reasonable business. I wrote a new section "Why Do I Care" at the end of this post describing what I mean in more detail.
DeleteI whole-heartedly Agree Aaron!
Delete