Case For Wal-Mart

The Case for Wal-Mart

In today's world whenever Wal-Mart comes up in general talk it usually brings mixed emotions to many. There are two sides to the debate over what is liked and disliked about Wal-Mart. There are those who are for Wal-Mart and those who detest Wal-Mart and all it stands for. Wal-Mart strikes a nerve with many and the accusations against them are numerous, and seem to be growing daily. The arguments against Wal-Mart include paying relatively low wages compared with other corporations, not paying part-time workers benefits, discriminating against women, not giving back to the community as well as driving small town shops out of business because they can't compete with Wal-Mart. Those are just some of the topics worth debate in the case for Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart's slogan is "Always Low Prices" and it has been true for years. Wal-Mart has kept their prices low and that slogan is exactly what people want to hear. People like to save as much money as they can and buying something at Wal-Mart can sometimes save people a lot of money, rather than spending more at some other retail store. But this usually fuels the debate against Wal-Mart for the fact they have low prices. Many feel Wal-Mart comes into small town markets where they build their huge stores and run most small town shops right out of business. The argument is that those small town shops can't compete with Wal-Mart's low prices. This has an obvious affect because naturally if people can pay less for an item they probably will. The problem is that most of Wal-Mart's critics think they come into these towns with prices so low that it drives out their competition. Once they are successful in doing that Wal-Mart will gradually raise their prices. There is truth to that statement but only half of it. Wal-Mart's prices are low and it sometimes does drive smaller businesses out but Wal-Mart has never raised prices after the fact. Wal-Mart's slogan again "Always Low Prices;" they do not need to raise their prices with the volume of business they do.

With that being said, many people still refuse to shop at Wal-Mart but here's an example of the savings it can bring. Say that some product is needed almost daily and Wal-Mart has it at a significantly lower price than the competitor. By buying that product from Wal-Mart just think of the difference in price between the two stores and calculate the savings, then multiply that out yearly. Just think of all that money saved on just one little item and how much money could be saved to spend on other things. Maybe low prices aren't such a bad thing.

Another reason for Wal-Mart is they have everything. Where else can you go to a hardware, grocery, and novelty store all in one building? Sad thing about that statement is that is only some of major departments covered by Wal-Mart. They also deal with gardening, sporting goods, electronics and entertainment departments. Many new Wal-Marts are called Supercenters, partly because they took the old Wal-Mart department store and added a grocery store to it. They also have been expanding with new stores opening almost daily around the world. With all of what Wal-Mart offers, no wonder its one of the largest companies worldwide. It has gotten that large because people can do in one store what normally would take them three to four different stores to accomplish. If that isn't enough think of the time it saves people by being able to get everything in one store rather than driving around town to many different stores to get what they need. Wal-Mart is convenience.

There are so many things about Wal-Mart that one would think people would enjoy but still people come with accusations against them. One example is that Wal-Mart doesn't pay benefits to part-time employees. Well, what about other large retail stores where full time employees don't receive benefits? What makes Wal-Mart the bad guy? Wal-Mart isn't the only employer looking to get higher profits and pay employees less, just look at all the job cuts nationwide due to outsourcing jobs to other countries. Why pay employees a high salary when the same job can be done for half the cost and the same work gets done. This is nothing new, this has been going on for years but Wal-Mart always gets the negative attention.