Wal-Mart Bad For America

BAD-Mart

Everyday many Americans shop at the retail giant Wal-mart. They sell everything from food for the refigerator to toys for children to furniture for your home. This retail monster saves many Americans money on day-to-day basics. "Always Low Prices" id the slogan for Wal-mart and they deliver the promise but at what cost? While charging low prices comes with consumer benefits, mounting evidence from across the country indicates that these benefits come at a steep price for American workers, U.S labor laws, and community living standards. (Miller, 1)

The company pushes its employees and suppliers to find ways to sell the product for low and at the same time make money for the company. But the only problem is they cannot keep any vendor to be loyal to them because if the vendor cannot or will not meet their demands, then Wal-mart goes out and finds somebody that will. They prefer a vendor that will be more productive and efficient. The Manufacturer then has to take drastic measure to continue to cut cost. Between 2001-2006, it is estimated that the impact of wal-mart imports from china alone cost nearly 200,000 jobs. (Miller, 3) They also drive down wages for retail worker and manufacturing employees. In order to keep jobs in the U.S., they have to either have less employees or lower pay.

The retail giant also drives out local competitors. Once Wal-mart moves in town, this means big competition for small mom and pop business in the affected community. For local competitors, this can be too much to handle, especially ones without big money. Now a once successful business of the community will eventually have to shut down and their current employees lose their jobs.

The company today that is anti-union and they will personally fight against any group effort to negotiate with them. (Coleman,1) By keeping unions down, it keeps it wages low. The average supermarket employee makes, on average,