Make sure to bookmark this page, as most of our class materials will be linked to this site.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
When Walmart Comes to Town
What are your thoughts on the Walmart debate? Is it good for communities? Does it suck the life out of them? Be sure to cite some specific examples from The New Age of Walmart to receive full credit.
After viewing "The New Age of Walmart," I believe that although Walmart offers many benefits to communities and its employees, it sucks the life out of them and overtakes entire towns and families. First off, when a Walmart super center is built in a town or community, it ruins the chances for small businesses and merchants to thrive in that area. The guaranteed low prices at Walmart beat the prices of small businesses in the community, causing the customers who previously shopped there to turn their attention towards Walmart. Everyone tries to save money, but the businesses in towns cannot compete with Walmart's low prices, causing a sharp decline in sales, and in some cases, they go out of business. Also, Walmart buys its products from large factories overseas in areas like China. Their products are made quickly and at a tremendously fast pace. This brings into question the quality of the goods being sold. A small business may have higher prices, but they also may have a much higher quality product than could be found at Walmart. Also, the workers at Walmart may have a job, but the benefits they receive are slim to none. The pay is just over minimum wage, causing part time and full time employees to be paid under the poverty level. Those who need to support themselves or a family simply cannot cover the cost of living with a wage this low. Also, Walmart employees do not receive proper healthcare benefits, which they are in the process of fighting. While Walmart offers jobs to those in need, the damage caused by its appearance outweigh the benefits by far.
After watching "new age of Walmart" I feel that although Walmart can be good for communities by creating jobs and offering people cheaper merchandise to people, it has a more negative than positive impact, not just on communities but on the whole economy. For example, Walmart is largest retailer in the world. They became this by eliminating smaller business's corporations, by offering merchandise to consumers at wholesale prices. I feel that this has a negative impact on the economy because small business's and corporations are the backbone of America and when they fail the Economy struggles. I also believe that Walmart needs to sell more American goods rather than importing more than 80% of there merchandise from china. If Walmart did this they could help the Economy because it would create more manufacturing jobs in America and it would also help Walmart by reducing the costs of shipping goods from foreign country's.
I don't think Walmart is for communities what they make of it. If small retailers like the lady who owned a clothing store in the video say, "There's no way I can compete with Walmart" and give up, then complain that they lose their job, it's partially their own fault. No one is going to shop at Walmart 24/7/365, so there is still definitely a place for smaller retailers if they redesign themselves to fit a niche that Walmart doesn't. Further, it seems like Walmart offers lots of opportunities to its employees. Both the manager of the new store and the director of Walmart International said that they started with the company in their teens being a cashier or unloading trucks; and now they're both in high-paying and well-respected corporate jobs. So, I think if the citizens of a community take advantage of the opportunities that a Walmart in their area presents to them, then it can prove to be very beneficial. My only criticism is that I think the company could stand to compromise for the sake of its employees and customers by either hiring more US manufacturers, or by paying more fair wages. The man in the video asked only a few more dollars an hour which Walmart could easily afford to take out of its bottom line, but refuses to based on greed. I don't think that's right.
While watching “The New Age of Wal-Mart,” my outlook on the retailer had changed for the worse. At first I thought Wal-Mart was great because of the low prices and convenience, but seeing how is has impacted is numerous workers and communities I have a less than positive outlook. It was mentioned that the employees there were not making enough money to provide for themselves and their families. After asking for a raise, which seemed reasonable for Wal-Mart, they couldn’t afford to pay $1-2 more. How it is that Wal-Mart has these huge parties for their CEO’s and stock holders, yet they cannot find it in their budget to pay their hard working employees more. Wal-Mart stated that if they increased the pay on a few salaries that they would have to raise their already low prices and would not be able to keep their stores up and running. When Wal-Mart decided to add another supercenter, I noticed that a lot of the towns have changed. For example, after putting up the huge store, the traffic lights, road lines and traffic flow had changed dramatically. Extra money was spent to fix this and it made it more inconvenient rather than beneficial. Another point to be made is that all the small businesses has been hurt by their low prices. In “The New Age of Wal-Mart,” a few convenient stores had to close because they kept lowering their prices to keep up with the superstore and then closed. All these negative outcomes had resulted from Wal-Mart when they were added to a nice community.
After viewing "The New Age of Wal-Mart" my perspective on Wal-Mart has changed dramatically. I believe that it does in fact benefit communities providing many jobs but I also believe that it sucks the life out of the communities. First off, it destroys the chances for small businesses that have been around for so long to keep running. I feel as if Wal-Mart is close to a monopoly because it is brought to a community, it has lower prices than all of the surrounding businesses and it drives them out. The thing that bothered me the most in this video segment was the working and living conditions of the people that make the products in China. I can only wonder what goes on at the factories when there is not a camera around. I also question the quality of the products that are made in the factories. They are assembled extremely fast and when I think about it, the products that I have purchased at Wal-Mart tend to not last very long. The way I see it after viewing this video is that Wal-Mart is a power hungry corporation that plants its buildings wherever it can fit to take over the sales of just about everything in an area. On top of this, the company is manipulating the population in need of jobs that they are there to help but in reality they do not provide good benefits as well as very low wages. I work part time and I make more money than the standard Wal-Mart employee and I am only 17. That raises a red flag to me about the quality and honesty of this company.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart" in class over the last couple of days, my views on Walmart have changed completely. Before seeing this video, I saw Walmart as this happy place where everything was cheap. After seeing this video, I now realize how negative and horrible Walmart actually is. Due to its large corperate size, Walmart is able to lower its prices drastically, causing all neighboring stores to go out of business. This causes customers to switch from their previous shopping center over to Walmart for its huge bargins and deals. The people interviewed in this film that owned their own local business said there was no way that they could compete with Walmarts prices. While most people think they're saving a lot of money while shopping at Walmart, they are actually doing more harm by doing so since all the other business in town are struggling to stay open. Walmart damages communities terribly with its low prices and forces all local business to close. In the end, Walmart is the only thriving business in small communities because it has wiped out all other competitors. Although Walmart does offer tremendous deals to customers and provides many jobs as well, it still has more of a negative consequence from its presence. It destroys many more jobs than it creates, most of those being the local and hard working townspeople in the area. Walmart is a terrible corperation that is destroying the lives of many hard working citizens around the world.
After having seen "The New Age of Walmart" in class, I have come to the conclusion that while unethical, Walmart seems necessary for economic growth in the U.S. I have seen the ins and outs, and how much protest revolves around Big Box marts such as Walmart, but have reached the afforementioned conclusion. Walmart is a prime example of the American dream, to take something quaint and turn it into a thriving multi national business that is a recognized icon around the world. Walmart kicks other competitors to the curb with their impossible-to-beat prices and down right dirty business techniques, but in the cut throat world of economics, business ethics comes last on the list. What Walmart does is bad for small businesses, but who said small businesses are a good thing? Nobody ever seems to acknowledge that to grow and evolve as a country, we should embrace our big businesses and forget smaller ones. By stimulating big business, we could eliminate unemployment almost entirely because these huge companies provide stable jobs for people that need little to no qualification at all. It may make me sound cold hearted, but in the long run I think our best choice is to accept the inevitable: "Big Box Marts" will take over the world. You know what they say; if you can't beat em' join em', well it is certain that nobody can beat these corporations, so just give in already. They provide relatively good quality products, and even a lot of name brand products for cheap prices which is what everyone loves, so in the long run they may do more good than bad for our country.
Walmart is a very productive company and has continued its growth for many years. There are people who believe that the company hurts or destroys communities that it enters, while others believe that the company is a savior to communities in financial difficulty. I can see both sides of this as, when a new Walmart store is built in a town, business might be taken from other smaller businesses that were already in the town. A new Walmart store can also help the economy of a community. With a new store comes new jobs as well as cheaper products. These would give more opportunities to the people in the town as well as give them the ability to buy more goods. This could potentially improve the economic situation of the town. The situation in each town would very likely lead to a different result from a new Walmart store. If a community was in a very difficult economic situation, then a large store like Walmart would not have as much of the negative effects because the community was already hurting. This would mean that the overall result of a new store would be positive. If the community was small but had successful businesses, then a new Walmart store would have a larger negative effect because the small businesses would have lower income because of the larger, cheaper Walmart store. The town that was in the video would more likely be negatively impacted by the Walmart store because it relied so rabidly on the small business in the community and the loss of income by these small stores would outweigh the gain in jobs and lower priced a new store would bring.
After watching the Walmart video, I did learn more about the situation regarding Walmart’s ability to be good and bad for communities. I am still, however, ambivalent as to whether or not Walmart is beneficial for a community. There is, without a doubt, a benefit to Walmart for consumers, since the prices of Walmart are extremely low. This would allow lower income families to purchase their necessities at a lower price. On the flip side of this, establishing a Walmart would most likely force smaller, local businesses to fail. Walmart’s competitive prices are too low for the small businesses to handle, and they would eventual go bankrupt. Also, Walmart’s employees are clearly not satisfied, with most of them leaving before one full year of employment. The goods that Walmart sells are most likely imported, which takes away jobs and money from the US economy. These major factors make Walmart seem bad for communities. To minimize the damaging effects of Walmart, I think that Walmart should only be set up in communities that are urban in nature. For example, having a Walmart in New York City will not be more harmful to the local community than if one was set up here in Cheshire. All in all, it is up to the communities themselves to decide whether or not a Walmart would be beneficial. It is understandable that certain things must be done in order for them to keep their prices so low, and many other trade-offs.
I think Walmart is pushing it too far. They're inconsiderate of other businesses who are trying to "make it". People keep going to Walmart because of the convenience of having almost everything in one store, but if Walmart keeps expanding at the rate it's currently going, it's going to monopolize America, and even possibly the whole world, just like Buy n Large in the Disney movie Wall-E, as they had already begun to dominate over great countries like China. A more acceptable setting would be to have at least one Walmart in the big cities or maybe even several in major ones, not build one in any nook they can find. However there's always something good with the bad. A single Walmart creates job opportunities for hundreds of people, and even if the pay is not that good, it's better than nothing. Walmart is one of the biggest companies in the world, and they are absolutely capable of improving the salary and benefits they give to their workers. This shouldn't even be an issue at all; tycoons are just afraid they might lose several million dollars worth of pocket change.
All throughout my life i have shopped at Walmart with my parents. Their cheap prices and wide variety of products are extremely convenient for the customers and always had us coming back. However, watching "The New Age of Walmart" gave me a different perspective on this superstore. Small communities held packed town hall meetings debating the addition of a Walmart. Small business owners were petrified of the idea. Their dominating position in the business industry sucks all business from local shops and stores, causing them close down. Although Walmart stores provide many jobs for the community, they pay only slightly more than minimum wage. In addition, many workers that receive positions end up leaving after a few months, unhappy with the job. This video exposed the harsh labor conditions in the workshops that make products bought by Walmart stores. By supporting the production of these products, i believe it would be encouraging the unfair treatment of these workers. Lastly, Walmart is expanding all over the world, with stores in the US, Japan, China, and a growing list. There is no need to install such a popular and competitive in small communities where local businesses are thriving.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart" I now have a much different view on what Walmart really does. I first thought that Walmart really helps a lot of people with getting jobs and low prices. I have realized that Walmart has a much more negative affect than positive. Whenever a Walmart is built in a small town or city with a lot of smaller stores it will only turn out to be a negative for that town. With all of Walmart's bargins and low prices smaller stores are not able to even compete with them. Walmart also buys and sells to foreign countries which also takes away a lot of money. Walmart destroys many jobs of the hardworking town people. Walmart needs to stay out of small communities.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart" I strongly believe that walmart is good for a community. Small business' focus on quality, and not quantity. Walmart focuses its business on quantity and good prices. Smaller business cannot blame walmart for failing, they have to develop a niche that walmart doesn't fit. Although the union disagrees and Walmart does provide a good opportunity for their workers. The international CEO, and a regional manager both started out at walmart as teens. They started as cashiers and baggers and ended up in charge of entire stores and an entire empire of stores in different countries. Walmart tries to be as fair as possible to their workers, and they create as many jobs as they can for a community. All in all Walmart is good for a community.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart," I realize now that Walmart is not as good as it seems. In this video, it showed that many people were extremely worried and upset even before Walmart was built in their town. Some were grateful for the job opportunities and cheap merchandise. But for others, they knew that their small businesses couldn't compete. One entrepreneur knew that once Walmart came, she would have to go. Walmart also does more harm than good on a larger scale. Because it is the largest retailer in the world, Walmart has a lot more power than it should. Walmart buys most of its merchandise from China when really, Walmart should be buying American goods. Maybe not completely, but it would help our economy grow. It's a little scary how successful Walmart has become. You would think that since Walmart has been a growing success, that it could spare giving their employees a raise. Employees are not even asking for much, in fact, one of the workers even said just a couple dollars would make a difference. I think it's great that Walmart changed it's look and gave the stores all makeovers. However, they should use the benefits that their making from being the largest retailer in the world and help the little people. Walmart destroys jobs, mostly imports goods from China instead of from America, and doesn't even help out their fellow employees. This is not a store that I will be shopping at any time soon.
I always liked Walmart and their affordable prices. It is the type of store a person walks into and will find just about anything they need/ want. After watching "The New Age of Walmart" I understand the reasoning behind how they get their low prices and how it affects the economy. I think that it is a great thing that Walmart brings in new jobs. From constructing the actual store, to maintenance, and the cashiers; just about anyone in need of a job can apply for one. Though, I think that providing jobs is the only good thing about big box marts likes Walmart. Stores like Walmart only benefit a small part of the country. They provide affordable prices, their merchandise is cheap ( hence the saying- you get what you pay for). Walmart also imports a majority of their goods from other countries; which hurts our economy. One of the bigger issues is that Walmart takes away from local businesses, which hurts the community. Because a person can buy almost the same product for a few dollars less at Walmart than their local hardware store; they will most likely choose the cheaper price. I also believe Walmart is not as good as it makes people think because their workers barely get any benefits. You cannot make an honest living out of being an employee at Walmart because the health benefits and pay are not good. If Walmart bumps up their wages, creates better benefits for their employees, and makes a greater amount of goods in The U.S., than I would fully support it. Though, at this point in time, the cons to Walmart definitely outweigh the pros when it comes to our economy and future.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart" I learned that Walmart as a huge global retailer has its advantages and disatvages when it comes to the economy and community. First thing, we all love low prices and variety of products, and Walmart has been providing us with those every day. Today Walmart has provided jobs for about 1.5 millions Americans. In the other hand,almost every product comes from overseas, providing places like China with a great economy growth. All and all I beleive Walmart has been providing America with great prices, despise the high imports that walmart does.
Before watching "The New Age of Walmart" I thought that Walmart was a positive influence on our communities. After watching this video, I now believe that Walmart is not as good as it seems to be. Although Walmart has low prices and is affordable for a lot of people, Walmart is becoming over populated. Towns are building Walmarts and the people of the towns do not even want the store in their area. In the video, it showed that because Walmart was going to be built, the local store owners of the town believe that they will be forced to close due to Walmart's low prices. Some people were happy to see that they could have an opportunity to get work and buy at low prices from Walmart. Walmart only hires people for minimum wage which in this economy is not helpful at all with people trying to support a family. Watching this video made me gain a whole other perspective of Walmart. I believe that the only good communities gain from Walmart is jobs and low prices, but many will have to close their stores and many workers are unhappy after only a few months working there. I was surprised that a man on the video asked for only a couple more dollars and Walmart did nothing to help him. With all the money the company of Walmart makes, I believe that they should be giving more than minimum wage to their employees. Walmart is negative and I will not be shopping there anytime soon.
"The New Age of Walmart" has made it clear to me that Walmart sucks the life out of the communities in which they are built. Walmart super centers may create a couple hundred jobs but those jobs come with the lowest wages possible and almost no employee benefits. This causes many of its employees to live in poverty. When the stores employees become impoverished, the town in which they live becomes rundown as well. Because Walmart has everything a person needs at low prices, the impoverished people will shop there to save some money. However, by buying their goods at Walmart, the small businesses in the town tend to go out of business, causing even more people to live in poverty. Another reason that small businesses are put out of work by Walmart is the fact that Walmart buys from wholesalers overseas at very low prices. Small businesses cannot afford to do this and they have to buy these same items at a much higher cost which is the reason their prices are higher than Walmarts. The creation of a Walmart in a town causes nothing but trouble for the town in which it is built.
The debate on Walmart poses a very controversial question to our modern day society. Should we have to sacrifice the lifestyles of countless employees, both overseas in manufacturing and at home in the retail stores, as well as the state of the hundreds of small businesses that fuel our economy, all for the promise of the lowest price possible for the consumer? Yes, it is important to provide customers with affordable prices, but Walmart has gone too far to ensure that they have the best bargains against their competition. Not only does Walmart pay very low wages and has withheld proper healthcare for many of its employees, but it also sucks the life out of towns. How are small, “mom-and-pop” businesses expected to survive when Walmart comes to town? The entrepreneurs who run these stores cannot afford to drop their prices to the exceedingly low level of those found at Walmart. In the special “The New Age of Walmart”, for example, many businesses in a town in which the building of a Walmart had been proposed knew that they would not stand a chance against the retail giant. One woman predicted that she would be forced to close her clothing store within months of the opening of the new Walmart, saying that she would not be able to drop her prices low enough to compete with the multi-million dollar corporation. Our economy in America depends on these small businesses, and having them overpowered by a corporate retailer like Walmart can be harmful to the country’s financial system. Also, the methods Walmart uses to achieve their promise of the lowest prices is unfair and wrong. The company takes advantage of thousands of foreign workers, especially in China, to manufacture their goods for as little money as possible, turning a blind eye to the mistreatment of these laborers. Though Walmart does create jobs for many people, both overseas and in America, it is overall not a beneficial part of society.
The video segment "The New Age of Walmart" had an interesting take on the position that Walmart takes in our community. Personally, I don't see a problem with Walmart being as large of a distributer as it is. In fact I think that Walmart strengthens the community in many ways. It allows consumers to buy certain items that are necessary at low prices. Although it may seem that it hurts the market for smaller business, the end outcome results in fair prices for the consumer. If a small business can't compete with the prices of Walmart, they should consider moving on to different distribution or other areas of work. Walmart also opens up the job market to a large variety of people all over the nation. An open job market in this economy is influential to the growth of our economy. Also, it isn't as if Walmart completely over took every small business. There is still opportunities for certain small business to make it in this country. Overall, the Walmart community hasn't killed small business, it has opened up jobs for many people and is influential to our nation and world.
"The New Age of Walmart" completely altered my feelings towards Walmart. Previously I had been completely impartial towards it thinking that it was a normal store that was completely acceptable in all ways. However, now I have witnessed the money-getting giant that it really is. The things that really stood out to me and made me dislike how Walmart did things was their low wages and terrible benefits, their literal and non-literal destruction of communities, and their extreme desire to always be expanding and growing. First off, if Walmart wants to be so large and provide jobs for so many in need, then they need to evaluate their benefits and wages. This is because they pay terribly despite the huge sums of money they take in every single day. People cannot provide for a family on the salary they have at Walmart, and that is not okay. Also, a healthcare plan is offered, but as shown in the video most employees are not eligible for it. I find this to be outrageous. Next, whenever a new Walmart is introduced into a community, it does not do only good things. They destroy local stores who cannot compete with Walmart's prices and therefore ruin those peoples jobs as well as seen in the small town that was "invaded" by Walmart. This would be the non-literal destruction of communities, but they also literally destroy whole properties to construct a new store site, and go further to alter the roads in the area to better fit Walmart's specific view. Lastly, it seems that the only thing on the minds of the people who run the Walmart empire is expanding into new areas and countries and making lots and lots of money consistently and constantly. All over the world now new Walmart stores are appearing in the thousands. For this one company to expand that significantly is incredible, but in a bad way. In the video they mentioned that Walmart would be the 24th most productive country if it was a country, and would be ahead of Switzerland. For one company to produce such an unheard of and unbelievable amount of money is mind-boggling. I did not mention any benefits of Walmart because those are obvious. I mentioned only negative aspects because it is clear that all these aspects overwhelm the benefits.
As a long time Walmart shopper, seeing "The New Age of Walmart" was quite an eye opening experience. I didn't realize how much walmart controlled the economics of not just the area around its store locations, but throughout the world. I didn't realize how easy it is for walmart to manipulate its wholesalers to get items for such low prices that other businesses can't even compete. This is detrimental to local businesses, but a blessing to those who have trouble affording even basic needs. When money is tight, Walmart is the most appealing option to anyone. It just makes sense to buy something for the least you can. So even thought Walmart sucks the life out of its surroundings, it is necessary to society all the same. I guess it would be fair to say you can't live with it, but you can live without it.
After witnessing the death-cult that which is Walmart first hand in ”The New Age of Walmart”, I’ve never had stronger feelings about a retail store conducting business in a residential area. Next to small pox and famine I couldn’t imagine something occurring that is more devastating to a community than a Walmart opening its doors. Sure, I love being able to save 4 minutes out of my day by just heading over to the nearest Walmart instead of the family run, hard working small business a few miles down the road just as much as the next guy; but at some point there is a thin line between convenience and brutal destruction of lives within a community. When Walmart comes to town, competing businesses in the surrounding area cannot compete with their low and very much affordable prices; prices that are directly correlated to insufficient employee benefits and wages. But in this day and age ripping off your workers is perfectly acceptable because “…it is all part of a balance that requires some downfalls.” The majority of the workers who start at Walmart leave after one year; and yet Bigbox mart is still going strong. This cult of a business strives on ruthlessly driving out competitors from their markets while simultaneously underpaying those competitors that they ruthlessly drove out that they now employ. It’s a vicious cycle. And not only is Walmart detrimental to the communities it invades, its destructive to our nation’s struggle for employment. Walmart outsources to cheap foreign laborers who are even told what to say when an inspector comes snooping around their workplace. Straight baloney. Walmart = death of us all.
Walmart does what they do best and draws people in. That Walmart smile makes everything seem all happy and good when in reality it is not. The only reason their prices can be so low is because they pay the store workers so little. What they offer is just not enough to raise a family. The sad thing is the factory laborers over seas don’t even get payed half of what they do to run the Walmarts in the United States. With Walmart’s ability to replace any worker at any time, it forces a competition for people to keep their jobs. These workers have the life sucked out of them for on average eleven dollars an hour or less. Walmart says they are bettering the town with jobs and are trying not to compete with small businesses by locating them selves on the boarders of towns. In reality Walmart is strategically mapping out these locations because they have good traffic flow from multiple towns. This means your competing for a job with people in multiple towns and more then just one town has small businesses are affected. It just isn’t right when such a major company can make so much money yet pay so little of it to the employees.
After watching the video “the New Age of Walmart”, I have formed some new opinions regarding Walmart. As stated in the movie, the wages for Walmart’s employees is very low, such as $9.75 an hour for Pharmacy Advisors. I believe with Walmart’s success all over the world, they should increase the wages and still be able to maintain success with it’s customers and investors. Also, I think Walmart is the reason for many local businesses closing because people like purchasing less expensive products. They like saving money. However, many local shops stock better quality products that are worth paying a little extra for. I think having a Walmart is good for communities because they sell a wide variety of products for low prices. I also think, however, that Walmart’s expansion ideas are getting out of control. There is no need for a Walmart in every town. WIth all the success that Walmart is having, all over the world, they don’t need to worry about the local business taking over, but they should worry about their poor reputation with employees and customers
Walmart can be good and bad in specific situations. If an area is dying because they have no available jobs the 400 employment opportunities that Walmart offers can help to change the need for jobs. On the other hand Walmart can severely hurt small businesses with their ability to sell their goods at such low prices it is nearly impossible for any small business to compete. From "The New Age of Walmart" an interview was done with a small business owner where a possible new Walmart was opening she said that she might have to close her business in situations like this Walmart is bad for communities and make it hard for people to survive. But we have seen first hand that walmart isn't damaging right down the road from us in Wallingford is a Walmart super center where a large number of people shop. It hasn't hurt Wallingford people have different businesses that don't try and compete with Walmart and even down the road there is a shop right that sells produce just like Walmart and they have been able to exist side by side for years. I believe that the specific situation decides whether or not Walmart is a good choice or a bad choice not each individuals opinions of the retailer and their what seems to be endless power.
For as long as I remember, I have always loved Walmart not just because of the cheap prices, but also because of its sheer size and convenience. They have everything you could ever want/need! However, after viewing "The New Age of Walmart," I saw this large corporation in another light. Despite the convenience that Walmart offers, I personally believe that it is not beneficial for communities. As stated in the "The New Age of Walmart," when a Walmart super center opens, the nearby small businesses are affected. Walmart, being one of the largest buyers, has the ability to buy items in bulk at prices lower than most stores can sell. This leaves small businesses unable to compete and forces them to close. These owners are then forced to find jobs elsewhere. Even though Walmart is a large employer (employs one of three people in the US), the jobs it offers are not the best. Employees of Walmart become members of a cult that are subject to low wages and unaffordable healthcare (not affordable to a majority of employees) in order to keep the corporations profits high and their costs low. Additionally, Walmart is thirsty for growth and takes over communities with ruthless efficiency. With its sheer size and current growth rate, Walmart has the potential to monopolize many industries and put several other companies out of business. However, the most dangerous aspect of Walmart is its public appeal. All consumers are on the hunt for low prices. Even if they saw this video, they would still probably continue to shop at Walmart. In this respect, Walmart is grows, supported by many people, even including the small business owners who would be driven out by Walmart in the first place.
Opinions have always been polarized towards Walmart, the international retailer who sells almost half a trillion dollars in products in any given year. Some love their "everyday low prices" but others argue that Walmart ultimately hurts a community. I personally fall in the camp that feels that Walmart detracts from a given community more than it can help it. Walmart doesn't truly provide anything other stores can't; the only advantage Walmart has is its low prices. However, with these prices Walmart will often drive out of business these unique, small, boutique stores that can potentially define a town. Imagine Cheshire stripped of every non-chain store; it would be a very difference place indeed. Not only that, but Walmart buys its goods through Chinese manufacturers which subject their workers to truly questionable conditions. Day long shifts and low wages are just a few of the "benefits" that Walmart manufacturers provide to their workers. Walmart also is a large cause of pollution, with the largest trucking fleet. Despite their claims of going green, Walmart's yearly emissions of carbon have only been on the rise. Walmart is simply a corporation that craves expansion and money over all else. Therefore, it is my belief that Walmarts are negative influences to communities and the world at large.
My thoughts on Walmart are changed after watching clip "The New Age Of Walmart". I've thought that Walmart is such a good store because it allows customers to buy products at lowest price. People could get opportynity to save money by Walmart policy. Now I became aware of affects that Walmart brings to community by viewing this clip and i think that Walmart sucks the life out of communities. What Walmart do is actually killing local business. While Walmart is attracting customers with its cheap price, other small stores are falling into poverty. Small businesses just have to close their market because they are not able to compete with Walmart that has control over whole region. Thus, it breaks the balance of business activity and i think it is not beneficial for community. Walmart sucks the life out of not only owners of local businesses but also Walmar workers. Walmart workers' hourly wage was slighly over $10 which is commensurate with average hourly wage of stores in America. But Walmrt earned $11.3 billion in 1 year. Compared to Walmart's income for 1 year, Walmart employees' wage is so low and unreasonable. Walmart workers are not even able to afford Walmart insurance and still suffering from poverty. Also, the quality of Walmart products is dubious. Walmart imports most products from China, India at low prices. Work conditions especially in China was not good. The quality of products which came from bad work condition can not be secured. Overall, Walmart does not guarantee the equal opportunity of businesses to earn money, workers' benefit and quality of products. Therefore,i think Walmart sucks the life out of communities.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart" I have a different opinion on waltmart stores. I Never realized how walmart killed towns economies by putting local business' out of business. Local business have no chance of competing with walmarts rock bottom pricing and because of this they lose business and cant survive, and when the small business' fail the community fails because walmart doesn't put money back into the community around it it sends profits to arkansas and drains the community. If there was no walmart local business' would put money back in the community by buying clothing and going out to eat and so on. this creates a cycle that is benifical to everyone in the community.I have realized that overall Walmart has a much more of a negative impact than positive one.
From seeing the Walmart debate, it shows that it can be both good and bad for communities. It's good for communities because it offers good prices for those who are struggling with their incomes at work or if people are looking to save money. Also as one of the biggest companies in the world, Walmart hires one in 300 people, there fore having over one million employees nation wide. On the other hand, it is also harmful to communities based on the word of the people who are against Walmart. There are also some employees that are going against the company as well. There is one employee that struggles to support himself and his family with his $10/hour pay. He can't even afford to pay for insurance by Walmart. Another employee at first saw Walmart as a sort of opportunity that can help her out. Within a few shorts months she had to quit because she couldn't handle the low pay and the distance from her home. It wasn't worth it to her. Also there are many companies that have gone out of business because of Walmart. Because of their low prices, many companies competing to sell items that would be sold in Walmart had to go out of business. When business close down, it leaves behind hard working people jobless. In conclusion, it's debatable as to whether or not life would be better or worse without Walmart. It does help because people are able to afford items there in comparison to other places where the same items are more expensive. But on the other hand, Walmart has caused a good amount of problems. Business have closed down, they take in billions of dollars worth of imports from other countries, and they underpay their employees. The CEO of Walmart says that Walmart is a big family to him while his employees think differently.
34 comments:
After viewing "The New Age of Walmart," I believe that although Walmart offers many benefits to communities and its employees, it sucks the life out of them and overtakes entire towns and families. First off, when a Walmart super center is built in a town or community, it ruins the chances for small businesses and merchants to thrive in that area. The guaranteed low prices at Walmart beat the prices of small businesses in the community, causing the customers who previously shopped there to turn their attention towards Walmart. Everyone tries to save money, but the businesses in towns cannot compete with Walmart's low prices, causing a sharp decline in sales, and in some cases, they go out of business. Also, Walmart buys its products from large factories overseas in areas like China. Their products are made quickly and at a tremendously fast pace. This brings into question the quality of the goods being sold. A small business may have higher prices, but they also may have a much higher quality product than could be found at Walmart. Also, the workers at Walmart may have a job, but the benefits they receive are slim to none. The pay is just over minimum wage, causing part time and full time employees to be paid under the poverty level. Those who need to support themselves or a family simply cannot cover the cost of living with a wage this low. Also, Walmart employees do not receive proper healthcare benefits, which they are in the process of fighting. While Walmart offers jobs to those in need, the damage caused by its appearance outweigh the benefits by far.
After watching "new age of Walmart" I feel that although Walmart can be good for communities by creating jobs and offering people cheaper merchandise to people, it has a more negative than positive impact, not just on communities but on the whole economy. For example, Walmart is largest retailer in the world. They became this by eliminating smaller business's corporations, by offering merchandise to consumers at wholesale prices. I feel that this has a negative impact on the economy because small business's and corporations are the backbone of America and when they fail the Economy struggles. I also believe that Walmart needs to sell more American goods rather than importing more than 80% of there merchandise from china. If Walmart did this they could help the Economy because it would create more manufacturing jobs in America and it would also help Walmart by reducing the costs of shipping goods from foreign country's.
I don't think Walmart is for communities what they make of it. If small retailers like the lady who owned a clothing store in the video say, "There's no way I can compete with Walmart" and give up, then complain that they lose their job, it's partially their own fault. No one is going to shop at Walmart 24/7/365, so there is still definitely a place for smaller retailers if they redesign themselves to fit a niche that Walmart doesn't. Further, it seems like Walmart offers lots of opportunities to its employees. Both the manager of the new store and the director of Walmart International said that they started with the company in their teens being a cashier or unloading trucks; and now they're both in high-paying and well-respected corporate jobs. So, I think if the citizens of a community take advantage of the opportunities that a Walmart in their area presents to them, then it can prove to be very beneficial. My only criticism is that I think the company could stand to compromise for the sake of its employees and customers by either hiring more US manufacturers, or by paying more fair wages. The man in the video asked only a few more dollars an hour which Walmart could easily afford to take out of its bottom line, but refuses to based on greed. I don't think that's right.
While watching “The New Age of Wal-Mart,” my outlook on the retailer had changed for the worse. At first I thought Wal-Mart was great because of the low prices and convenience, but seeing how is has impacted is numerous workers and communities I have a less than positive outlook. It was mentioned that the employees there were not making enough money to provide for themselves and their families. After asking for a raise, which seemed reasonable for Wal-Mart, they couldn’t afford to pay $1-2 more. How it is that Wal-Mart has these huge parties for their CEO’s and stock holders, yet they cannot find it in their budget to pay their hard working employees more. Wal-Mart stated that if they increased the pay on a few salaries that they would have to raise their already low prices and would not be able to keep their stores up and running. When Wal-Mart decided to add another supercenter, I noticed that a lot of the towns have changed. For example, after putting up the huge store, the traffic lights, road lines and traffic flow had changed dramatically. Extra money was spent to fix this and it made it more inconvenient rather than beneficial. Another point to be made is that all the small businesses has been hurt by their low prices. In “The New Age of Wal-Mart,” a few convenient stores had to close because they kept lowering their prices to keep up with the superstore and then closed. All these negative outcomes had resulted from Wal-Mart when they were added to a nice community.
After viewing "The New Age of Wal-Mart" my perspective on Wal-Mart has changed dramatically. I believe that it does in fact benefit communities providing many jobs but I also believe that it sucks the life out of the communities. First off, it destroys the chances for small businesses that have been around for so long to keep running. I feel as if Wal-Mart is close to a monopoly because it is brought to a community, it has lower prices than all of the surrounding businesses and it drives them out. The thing that bothered me the most in this video segment was the working and living conditions of the people that make the products in China. I can only wonder what goes on at the factories when there is not a camera around. I also question the quality of the products that are made in the factories. They are assembled extremely fast and when I think about it, the products that I have purchased at Wal-Mart tend to not last very long. The way I see it after viewing this video is that Wal-Mart is a power hungry corporation that plants its buildings wherever it can fit to take over the sales of just about everything in an area. On top of this, the company is manipulating the population in need of jobs that they are there to help but in reality they do not provide good benefits as well as very low wages. I work part time and I make more money than the standard Wal-Mart employee and I am only 17. That raises a red flag to me about the quality and honesty of this company.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart" in class over the last couple of days, my views on Walmart have changed completely. Before seeing this video, I saw Walmart as this happy place where everything was cheap. After seeing this video, I now realize how negative and horrible Walmart actually is. Due to its large corperate size, Walmart is able to lower its prices drastically, causing all neighboring stores to go out of business. This causes customers to switch from their previous shopping center over to Walmart for its huge bargins and deals. The people interviewed in this film that owned their own local business said there was no way that they could compete with Walmarts prices. While most people think they're saving a lot of money while shopping at Walmart, they are actually doing more harm by doing so since all the other business in town are struggling to stay open. Walmart damages communities terribly with its low prices and forces all local business to close. In the end, Walmart is the only thriving business in small communities because it has wiped out all other competitors. Although Walmart does offer tremendous deals to customers and provides many jobs as well, it still has more of a negative consequence from its presence. It destroys many more jobs than it creates, most of those being the local and hard working townspeople in the area. Walmart is a terrible corperation that is destroying the lives of many hard working citizens around the world.
After having seen "The New Age of Walmart" in class, I have come to the conclusion that while unethical, Walmart seems necessary for economic growth in the U.S. I have seen the ins and outs, and how much protest revolves around Big Box marts such as Walmart, but have reached the afforementioned conclusion. Walmart is a prime example of the American dream, to take something quaint and turn it into a thriving multi national business that is a recognized icon around the world. Walmart kicks other competitors to the curb with their impossible-to-beat prices and down right dirty business techniques, but in the cut throat world of economics, business ethics comes last on the list. What Walmart does is bad for small businesses, but who said small businesses are a good thing? Nobody ever seems to acknowledge that to grow and evolve as a country, we should embrace our big businesses and forget smaller ones. By stimulating big business, we could eliminate unemployment almost entirely because these huge companies provide stable jobs for people that need little to no qualification at all. It may make me sound cold hearted, but in the long run I think our best choice is to accept the inevitable: "Big Box Marts" will take over the world. You know what they say; if you can't beat em' join em', well it is certain that nobody can beat these corporations, so just give in already. They provide relatively good quality products, and even a lot of name brand products for cheap prices which is what everyone loves, so in the long run they may do more good than bad for our country.
Walmart is a very productive company and has continued its growth for many years. There are people who believe that the company hurts or destroys communities that it enters, while others believe that the company is a savior to communities in financial difficulty. I can see both sides of this as, when a new Walmart store is built in a town, business might be taken from other smaller businesses that were already in the town. A new Walmart store can also help the economy of a community. With a new store comes new jobs as well as cheaper products. These would give more opportunities to the people in the town as well as give them the ability to buy more goods. This could potentially improve the economic situation of the town.
The situation in each town would very likely lead to a different result from a new Walmart store. If a community was in a very difficult economic situation, then a large store like Walmart would not have as much of the negative effects because the community was already hurting. This would mean that the overall result of a new store would be positive. If the community was small but had successful businesses, then a new Walmart store would have a larger negative effect because the small businesses would have lower income because of the larger, cheaper Walmart store. The town that was in the video would more likely be negatively impacted by the Walmart store because it relied so rabidly on the small business in the community and the loss of income by these small stores would outweigh the gain in jobs and lower priced a new store would bring.
After watching the Walmart video, I did learn more about the situation regarding Walmart’s ability to be good and bad for communities. I am still, however, ambivalent as to whether or not Walmart is beneficial for a community. There is, without a doubt, a benefit to Walmart for consumers, since the prices of Walmart are extremely low. This would allow lower income families to purchase their necessities at a lower price. On the flip side of this, establishing a Walmart would most likely force smaller, local businesses to fail. Walmart’s competitive prices are too low for the small businesses to handle, and they would eventual go bankrupt. Also, Walmart’s employees are clearly not satisfied, with most of them leaving before one full year of employment. The goods that Walmart sells are most likely imported, which takes away jobs and money from the US economy. These major factors make Walmart seem bad for communities. To minimize the damaging effects of Walmart, I think that Walmart should only be set up in communities that are urban in nature. For example, having a Walmart in New York City will not be more harmful to the local community than if one was set up here in Cheshire. All in all, it is up to the communities themselves to decide whether or not a Walmart would be beneficial. It is understandable that certain things must be done in order for them to keep their prices so low, and many other trade-offs.
I think Walmart is pushing it too far. They're inconsiderate of other businesses who are trying to "make it". People keep going to Walmart because of the convenience of having almost everything in one store, but if Walmart keeps expanding at the rate it's currently going, it's going to monopolize America, and even possibly the whole world, just like Buy n Large in the Disney movie Wall-E, as they had already begun to dominate over great countries like China. A more acceptable setting would be to have at least one Walmart in the big cities or maybe even several in major ones, not build one in any nook they can find. However there's always something good with the bad. A single Walmart creates job opportunities for hundreds of people, and even if the pay is not that good, it's better than nothing. Walmart is one of the biggest companies in the world, and they are absolutely capable of improving the salary and benefits they give to their workers. This shouldn't even be an issue at all; tycoons are just afraid they might lose several million dollars worth of pocket change.
All throughout my life i have shopped at Walmart with my parents. Their cheap prices and wide variety of products are extremely convenient for the customers and always had us coming back. However, watching "The New Age of Walmart" gave me a different perspective on this superstore. Small communities held packed town hall meetings debating the addition of a Walmart. Small business owners were petrified of the idea. Their dominating position in the business industry sucks all business from local shops and stores, causing them close down. Although Walmart stores provide many jobs for the community, they pay only slightly more than minimum wage. In addition, many workers that receive positions end up leaving after a few months, unhappy with the job. This video exposed the harsh labor conditions in the workshops that make products bought by Walmart stores. By supporting the production of these products, i believe it would be encouraging the unfair treatment of these workers. Lastly, Walmart is expanding all over the world, with stores in the US, Japan, China, and a growing list. There is no need to install such a popular and competitive in small communities where local businesses are thriving.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart" I now have a much different view on what Walmart really does. I first thought that Walmart really helps a lot of people with getting jobs and low prices. I have realized that Walmart has a much more negative affect than positive. Whenever a Walmart is built in a small town or city with a lot of smaller stores it will only turn out to be a negative for that town. With all of Walmart's bargins and low prices smaller stores are not able to even compete with them. Walmart also buys and sells to foreign countries which also takes away a lot of money. Walmart destroys many jobs of the hardworking town people. Walmart needs to stay out of small communities.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart" I strongly believe that walmart is good for a community. Small business' focus on quality, and not quantity. Walmart focuses its business on quantity and good prices. Smaller business cannot blame walmart for failing, they have to develop a niche that walmart doesn't fit. Although the union disagrees and Walmart does provide a good opportunity for their workers. The international CEO, and a regional manager both started out at walmart as teens. They started as cashiers and baggers and ended up in charge of entire stores and an entire empire of stores in different countries. Walmart tries to be as fair as possible to their workers, and they create as many jobs as they can for a community. All in all Walmart is good for a community.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart," I realize now that Walmart is not as good as it seems. In this video, it showed that many people were extremely worried and upset even before Walmart was built in their town. Some were grateful for the job opportunities and cheap merchandise. But for others, they knew that their small businesses couldn't compete. One entrepreneur knew that once Walmart came, she would have to go. Walmart also does more harm than good on a larger scale. Because it is the largest retailer in the world, Walmart has a lot more power than it should. Walmart buys most of its merchandise from China when really, Walmart should be buying American goods. Maybe not completely, but it would help our economy grow. It's a little scary how successful Walmart has become. You would think that since Walmart has been a growing success, that it could spare giving their employees a raise. Employees are not even asking for much, in fact, one of the workers even said just a couple dollars would make a difference. I think it's great that Walmart changed it's look and gave the stores all makeovers. However, they should use the benefits that their making from being the largest retailer in the world and help the little people. Walmart destroys jobs, mostly imports goods from China instead of from America, and doesn't even help out their fellow employees. This is not a store that I will be shopping at any time soon.
I always liked Walmart and their affordable prices. It is the type of store a person walks into and will find just about anything they need/ want. After watching "The New Age of Walmart" I understand the reasoning behind how they get their low prices and how it affects the economy. I think that it is a great thing that Walmart brings in new jobs. From constructing the actual store, to maintenance, and the cashiers; just about anyone in need of a job can apply for one. Though, I think that providing jobs is the only good thing about big box marts likes Walmart.
Stores like Walmart only benefit a small part of the country. They provide affordable prices, their merchandise is cheap ( hence the saying- you get what you pay for). Walmart also imports a majority of their goods from other countries; which hurts our economy. One of the bigger issues is that Walmart takes away from local businesses, which hurts the community. Because a person can buy almost the same product for a few dollars less at Walmart than their local hardware store; they will most likely choose the cheaper price. I also believe Walmart is not as good as it makes people think because their workers barely get any benefits. You cannot make an honest living out of being an employee at Walmart because the health benefits and pay are not good. If Walmart bumps up their wages, creates better benefits for their employees, and makes a greater amount of goods in The U.S., than I would fully support it. Though, at this point in time, the cons to Walmart definitely outweigh the pros when it comes to our economy and future.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart" I learned that Walmart as a huge global retailer has its advantages and disatvages when it comes to the economy and community.
First thing, we all love low prices and variety of products, and Walmart has been providing us with those every day. Today Walmart has provided jobs for about 1.5 millions Americans.
In the other hand,almost every product comes from overseas, providing places like China with a great economy growth.
All and all I beleive Walmart has been providing America with great prices, despise the high imports that walmart does.
Before watching "The New Age of Walmart" I thought that Walmart was a positive influence on our communities. After watching this video, I now believe that Walmart is not as good as it seems to be. Although Walmart has low prices and is affordable for a lot of people, Walmart is becoming over populated. Towns are building Walmarts and the people of the towns do not even want the store in their area. In the video, it showed that because Walmart was going to be built, the local store owners of the town believe that they will be forced to close due to Walmart's low prices. Some people were happy to see that they could have an opportunity to get work and buy at low prices from Walmart. Walmart only hires people for minimum wage which in this economy is not helpful at all with people trying to support a family. Watching this video made me gain a whole other perspective of Walmart. I believe that the only good communities gain from Walmart is jobs and low prices, but many will have to close their stores and many workers are unhappy after only a few months working there. I was surprised that a man on the video asked for only a couple more dollars and Walmart did nothing to help him. With all the money the company of Walmart makes, I believe that they should be giving more than minimum wage to their employees. Walmart is negative and I will not be shopping there anytime soon.
"The New Age of Walmart" has made it clear to me that Walmart sucks the life out of the communities in which they are built. Walmart super centers may create a couple hundred jobs but those jobs come with the lowest wages possible and almost no employee benefits. This causes many of its employees to live in poverty. When the stores employees become impoverished, the town in which they live becomes rundown as well. Because Walmart has everything a person needs at low prices, the impoverished people will shop there to save some money. However, by buying their goods at Walmart, the small businesses in the town tend to go out of business, causing even more people to live in poverty. Another reason that small businesses are put out of work by Walmart is the fact that Walmart buys from wholesalers overseas at very low prices. Small businesses cannot afford to do this and they have to buy these same items at a much higher cost which is the reason their prices are higher than Walmarts. The creation of a Walmart in a town causes nothing but trouble for the town in which it is built.
The debate on Walmart poses a very controversial question to our modern day society. Should we have to sacrifice the lifestyles of countless employees, both overseas in manufacturing and at home in the retail stores, as well as the state of the hundreds of small businesses that fuel our economy, all for the promise of the lowest price possible for the consumer? Yes, it is important to provide customers with affordable prices, but Walmart has gone too far to ensure that they have the best bargains against their competition. Not only does Walmart pay very low wages and has withheld proper healthcare for many of its employees, but it also sucks the life out of towns. How are small, “mom-and-pop” businesses expected to survive when Walmart comes to town? The entrepreneurs who run these stores cannot afford to drop their prices to the exceedingly low level of those found at Walmart. In the special “The New Age of Walmart”, for example, many businesses in a town in which the building of a Walmart had been proposed knew that they would not stand a chance against the retail giant. One woman predicted that she would be forced to close her clothing store within months of the opening of the new Walmart, saying that she would not be able to drop her prices low enough to compete with the multi-million dollar corporation. Our economy in America depends on these small businesses, and having them overpowered by a corporate retailer like Walmart can be harmful to the country’s financial system. Also, the methods Walmart uses to achieve their promise of the lowest prices is unfair and wrong. The company takes advantage of thousands of foreign workers, especially in China, to manufacture their goods for as little money as possible, turning a blind eye to the mistreatment of these laborers. Though Walmart does create jobs for many people, both overseas and in America, it is overall not a beneficial part of society.
The video segment "The New Age of Walmart" had an interesting take on the position that Walmart takes in our community. Personally, I don't see a problem with Walmart being as large of a distributer as it is. In fact I think that Walmart strengthens the community in many ways. It allows consumers to buy certain items that are necessary at low prices. Although it may seem that it hurts the market for smaller business, the end outcome results in fair prices for the consumer. If a small business can't compete with the prices of Walmart, they should consider moving on to different distribution or other areas of work. Walmart also opens up the job market to a large variety of people all over the nation. An open job market in this economy is influential to the growth of our economy. Also, it isn't as if Walmart completely over took every small business. There is still opportunities for certain small business to make it in this country. Overall, the Walmart community hasn't killed small business, it has opened up jobs for many people and is influential to our nation and world.
"The New Age of Walmart" completely altered my feelings towards Walmart. Previously I had been completely impartial towards it thinking that it was a normal store that was completely acceptable in all ways. However, now I have witnessed the money-getting giant that it really is. The things that really stood out to me and made me dislike how Walmart did things was their low wages and terrible benefits, their literal and non-literal destruction of communities, and their extreme desire to always be expanding and growing. First off, if Walmart wants to be so large and provide jobs for so many in need, then they need to evaluate their benefits and wages. This is because they pay terribly despite the huge sums of money they take in every single day. People cannot provide for a family on the salary they have at Walmart, and that is not okay. Also, a healthcare plan is offered, but as shown in the video most employees are not eligible for it. I find this to be outrageous. Next, whenever a new Walmart is introduced into a community, it does not do only good things. They destroy local stores who cannot compete with Walmart's prices and therefore ruin those peoples jobs as well as seen in the small town that was "invaded" by Walmart. This would be the non-literal destruction of communities, but they also literally destroy whole properties to construct a new store site, and go further to alter the roads in the area to better fit Walmart's specific view. Lastly, it seems that the only thing on the minds of the people who run the Walmart empire is expanding into new areas and countries and making lots and lots of money consistently and constantly. All over the world now new Walmart stores are appearing in the thousands. For this one company to expand that significantly is incredible, but in a bad way. In the video they mentioned that Walmart would be the 24th most productive country if it was a country, and would be ahead of Switzerland. For one company to produce such an unheard of and unbelievable amount of money is mind-boggling. I did not mention any benefits of Walmart because those are obvious. I mentioned only negative aspects because it is clear that all these aspects overwhelm the benefits.
As a long time Walmart shopper, seeing "The New Age of Walmart" was quite an eye opening experience. I didn't realize how much walmart controlled the economics of not just the area around its store locations, but throughout the world. I didn't realize how easy it is for walmart to manipulate its wholesalers to get items for such low prices that other businesses can't even compete. This is detrimental to local businesses, but a blessing to those who have trouble affording even basic needs. When money is tight, Walmart is the most appealing option to anyone. It just makes sense to buy something for the least you can. So even thought Walmart sucks the life out of its surroundings, it is necessary to society all the same. I guess it would be fair to say you can't live with it, but you can live without it.
After witnessing the death-cult that which is Walmart first hand in ”The New Age of Walmart”, I’ve never had stronger feelings about a retail store conducting business in a residential area. Next to small pox and famine I couldn’t imagine something occurring that is more devastating to a community than a Walmart opening its doors. Sure, I love being able to save 4 minutes out of my day by just heading over to the nearest Walmart instead of the family run, hard working small business a few miles down the road just as much as the next guy; but at some point there is a thin line between convenience and brutal destruction of lives within a community. When Walmart comes to town, competing businesses in the surrounding area cannot compete with their low and very much affordable prices; prices that are directly correlated to insufficient employee benefits and wages. But in this day and age ripping off your workers is perfectly acceptable because “…it is all part of a balance that requires some downfalls.” The majority of the workers who start at Walmart leave after one year; and yet Bigbox mart is still going strong. This cult of a business strives on ruthlessly driving out competitors from their markets while simultaneously underpaying those competitors that they ruthlessly drove out that they now employ. It’s a vicious cycle. And not only is Walmart detrimental to the communities it invades, its destructive to our nation’s struggle for employment. Walmart outsources to cheap foreign laborers who are even told what to say when an inspector comes snooping around their workplace. Straight baloney. Walmart = death of us all.
Walmart does what they do best and draws people in. That Walmart smile makes everything seem all happy and good when in reality it is not. The only reason their prices can be so low is because they pay the store workers so little. What they offer is just not enough to raise a family. The sad thing is the factory laborers over seas don’t even get payed half of what they do to run the Walmarts in the United States. With Walmart’s ability to replace any worker at any time, it forces a competition for people to keep their jobs. These workers have the life sucked out of them for on average eleven dollars an hour or less. Walmart says they are bettering the town with jobs and are trying not to compete with small businesses by locating them selves on the boarders of towns. In reality Walmart is strategically mapping out these locations because they have good traffic flow from multiple towns. This means your competing for a job with people in multiple towns and more then just one town has small businesses are affected. It just isn’t right when such a major company can make so much money yet pay so little of it to the employees.
After watching the video “the New Age of Walmart”, I have formed some new opinions regarding Walmart. As stated in the movie, the wages for Walmart’s employees is very low, such as $9.75 an hour for Pharmacy Advisors. I believe with Walmart’s success all over the world, they should increase the wages and still be able to maintain success with it’s customers and investors. Also, I think Walmart is the reason for many local businesses closing because people like purchasing less expensive products. They like saving money. However, many local shops stock better quality products that are worth paying a little extra for. I think having a Walmart is good for communities because they sell a wide variety of products for low prices. I also think, however, that Walmart’s expansion ideas are getting out of control. There is no need for a Walmart in every town. WIth all the success that Walmart is having, all over the world, they don’t need to worry about the local business taking over, but they should worry about their poor reputation with employees and customers
Walmart can be good and bad in specific situations. If an area is dying because they have no available jobs the 400 employment opportunities that Walmart offers can help to change the need for jobs. On the other hand Walmart can severely hurt small businesses with their ability to sell their goods at such low prices it is nearly impossible for any small business to compete. From "The New Age of Walmart" an interview was done with a small business owner where a possible new Walmart was opening she said that she might have to close her business in situations like this Walmart is bad for communities and make it hard for people to survive. But we have seen first hand that walmart isn't damaging right down the road from us in Wallingford is a Walmart super center where a large number of people shop. It hasn't hurt Wallingford people have different businesses that don't try and compete with Walmart and even down the road there is a shop right that sells produce just like Walmart and they have been able to exist side by side for years. I believe that the specific situation decides whether or not Walmart is a good choice or a bad choice not each individuals opinions of the retailer and their what seems to be endless power.
For as long as I remember, I have always loved Walmart not just because of the cheap prices, but also because of its sheer size and convenience. They have everything you could ever want/need! However, after viewing "The New Age of Walmart," I saw this large corporation in another light. Despite the convenience that Walmart offers, I personally believe that it is not beneficial for communities. As stated in the "The New Age of Walmart," when a Walmart super center opens, the nearby small businesses are affected. Walmart, being one of the largest buyers, has the ability to buy items in bulk at prices lower than most stores can sell. This leaves small businesses unable to compete and forces them to close. These owners are then forced to find jobs elsewhere. Even though Walmart is a large employer (employs one of three people in the US), the jobs it offers are not the best. Employees of Walmart become members of a cult that are subject to low wages and unaffordable healthcare (not affordable to a majority of employees) in order to keep the corporations profits high and their costs low. Additionally, Walmart is thirsty for growth and takes over communities with ruthless efficiency. With its sheer size and current growth rate, Walmart has the potential to monopolize many industries and put several other companies out of business. However, the most dangerous aspect of Walmart is its public appeal. All consumers are on the hunt for low prices. Even if they saw this video, they would still probably continue to shop at Walmart. In this respect, Walmart is grows, supported by many people, even including the small business owners who would be driven out by Walmart in the first place.
Opinions have always been polarized towards Walmart, the international retailer who sells almost half a trillion dollars in products in any given year. Some love their "everyday low prices" but others argue that Walmart ultimately hurts a community. I personally fall in the camp that feels that Walmart detracts from a given community more than it can help it. Walmart doesn't truly provide anything other stores can't; the only advantage Walmart has is its low prices. However, with these prices Walmart will often drive out of business these unique, small, boutique stores that can potentially define a town. Imagine Cheshire stripped of every non-chain store; it would be a very difference place indeed. Not only that, but Walmart buys its goods through Chinese manufacturers which subject their workers to truly questionable conditions. Day long shifts and low wages are just a few of the "benefits" that Walmart manufacturers provide to their workers. Walmart also is a large cause of pollution, with the largest trucking fleet. Despite their claims of going green, Walmart's yearly emissions of carbon have only been on the rise. Walmart is simply a corporation that craves expansion and money over all else. Therefore, it is my belief that Walmarts are negative influences to communities and the world at large.
My thoughts on Walmart are changed after watching clip "The New Age Of Walmart". I've thought that Walmart is such a good store because it allows customers to buy products at lowest price. People could get opportynity to save money by Walmart policy. Now I became aware of affects that Walmart brings to community by viewing this clip and i think that Walmart sucks the life out of communities. What Walmart do is actually killing local business. While Walmart is attracting customers with its cheap price, other small stores are falling into poverty. Small businesses just have to close their market because they are not able to compete with Walmart that has control over whole region. Thus, it breaks the balance of business activity and i think it is not beneficial for community. Walmart sucks the life out of not only owners of local businesses but also Walmar workers. Walmart workers' hourly wage was slighly over $10 which is commensurate with average hourly wage of stores in America. But Walmrt earned $11.3 billion in 1 year. Compared to Walmart's income for 1 year, Walmart employees' wage is so low and unreasonable. Walmart workers are not even able to afford Walmart insurance and still suffering from poverty. Also, the quality of Walmart products is dubious. Walmart imports most products from China, India at low prices. Work conditions especially in China was not good. The quality of products which came from bad work condition can not be secured. Overall, Walmart does not guarantee the equal opportunity of businesses to earn money, workers' benefit and quality of products. Therefore,i think Walmart sucks the life out of communities.
After watching "The New Age of Walmart" I have a different opinion on waltmart stores. I Never realized how walmart killed towns economies by putting local business' out of business. Local business have no chance of competing with walmarts rock bottom pricing and because of this they lose business and cant survive, and when the small business' fail the community fails because walmart doesn't put money back into the community around it it sends profits to arkansas and drains the community. If there was no walmart local business' would put money back in the community by buying clothing and going out to eat and so on. this creates a cycle that is benifical to everyone in the community.I have realized that overall Walmart has a much more of a negative impact than positive one.
Past me = Past Due!!!
From seeing the Walmart debate, it shows that it can be both good and bad for communities. It's good for communities because it offers good prices for those who are struggling with their incomes at work or if people are looking to save money. Also as one of the biggest companies in the world, Walmart hires one in 300 people, there fore having over one million employees nation wide. On the other hand, it is also harmful to communities based on the word of the people who are against Walmart. There are also some employees that are going against the company as well. There is one employee that struggles to support himself and his family with his $10/hour pay. He can't even afford to pay for insurance by Walmart. Another employee at first saw Walmart as a sort of opportunity that can help her out. Within a few shorts months she had to quit because she couldn't handle the low pay and the distance from her home. It wasn't worth it to her. Also there are many companies that have gone out of business because of Walmart. Because of their low prices, many companies competing to sell items that would be sold in Walmart had to go out of business. When business close down, it leaves behind hard working people jobless. In conclusion, it's debatable as to whether or not life would be better or worse without Walmart. It does help because people are able to afford items there in comparison to other places where the same items are more expensive. But on the other hand, Walmart has caused a good amount of problems. Business have closed down, they take in billions of dollars worth of imports from other countries, and they underpay their employees. The CEO of Walmart says that Walmart is a big family to him while his employees think differently.
Post a Comment