2008 Woodie Awards
Point-Counterpoint
Does retail giant Wal-Mart hurt families or save them money?
Issue date: 2/9/06 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Misconceptions and overblown perceptions rule opinions of Wal-Mart
Christina Voss, Managing Editor
Allow me to begin by stating that any views that you have about Wal-Mart are probably mistaken and completely stereotypical. Any person who views Wal-Mart as a economical monster that is trying to take over the retail industry by making prices too low or by driving competitors out of business is completely wrong.
Wal-Mart may be the leading retailer in the world but they didn't get there by being sneaky and underhanded; Wal-Mart made it by holding to its values and seeing to customer needs. Wal-Mart's motto is "Every Day Low Prices," yet people even seem to have a problem with that. At what point would a person ever complain that prices are too low on anything? The fact is, people use excuses like that to blame Wal-Mart for the mishaps in the retail world also use that as their reason for not liking Wal-Mart and being gullible enough to go to Target or some other retailer and pay twice as much for the same products.
People think Wal-Mart's prices are too low for the manufacturers to make a profit. If that were the case then why would they keep their products stocked on Wal-Mart's shelves? Manufacturers make a profit with Wal-Mart; it's just not a high profit that they may see with another store. When a person looks at it this way all they see is the price though. Sure, Wal-Mart may sell a product for less but they are also selling several times the amount of that product than what other stores do. That is why manufacturers keep their products in the Wal-Mart stores, because no matter what the price whether high or low it sells at Wal-Mart.
It is the human reaction for people to be stereotypical but nothing bothers me more than when a person steps into one Wal-Mart store, has a bad experience and uses that to describe every Wal-Mart out there. Many larger cities have two or more Wal-Mart's located within them and everyone has the one that they like to go to better, yet other people may walk into one think it is awful and just assume the others will be too. I am here to say that is completely untrue.
I sat through a whole semester of a class, principles of advertising, that did nothing but bash Wal-Mart and everything within it, from the store itself, to its ideas, to the shoppers and even the employees. As a loyal customer and associate of Wal-Mart in Tipton, I found their uninformed comments about Wal-Mart offensive.
Wal-Mart is a family-started business with wholesome values that treats both their customers and their employees with respect and courtesy. Wal-Mart is not a place for the single mother on welfare to work, or where the redneck, mullet wearing, NASCAR fan goes to shop. I have seen every type of person come into Wal-Mart to shop and the average worker at Wal-Mart is the husband or wife with two to three children and a nice home.
People say Wal-Mart does not treat their employees right and that they don't pay them enough or give them enough benefits. You can find that with almost any job. No employer has perfect benefits and no one gets paid enough.
You hear people complain all the time when a new Wal-Mart store comes to their town. Iowa City residents are currently doing this. Yet, as soon as that store opens those complaining people will most likely be found shopping there along with the 100 million other people in American who shop at Wal-Mart's 3,400 stores every week.
Every retail business has its faults that people love to exploit. Wal-Mart started from a simple Ben Franklin store in Bentonville, Ark. with the beliefs and values of one man and his family. Sam Walton succeeded by sticking to what he believed in. You may not agree with some of his ideas or actions that have become the Wal-Mart philosophy but when it comes time to buy those 64 rolls of toilet paper you know where you're going.
Wal-Mart's family values don't include taking care of families
Andrea Furlong, Feature Editor
Wal-Mart didn't become the leading retailer in the world for no reason. It's secured that position for 15 years (according to PBS) because Americans love bargains. Americans are cheap and will take advantage of the chance to save a few pennies regardless of their financial needs.
The many Web sites and organizations formed in opposition to Wal-mart did not appear simply to complain about low prices. People working for these organizations love a good bargain as much any other American except when the cost of saving a few pennies means contributing to the outsourcing of American jobs and supporting inadequate employee health care benefits.
In 2004, over 727,000 American jobs were exported to China, according to the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. It would be unreasonable to say that Wal-Mart is responsible for all 727,000 of these lost jobs, since it's not the only company expanding its number of overseas manufacturing plants. However, as the leading business in the retail industry, which imports over 50 of its products, according to Retail Forward, Wal-Mart is instrumental in exporting American jobs to China.
Wal-Mart realizes that in order to continue to provide low prices, they must cut manufacturing costs. It solves this problem by not just by bullying suppliers to sell at lower prices but by advising them to try new approaches to maintain their profits - bluntly put, to move their manufacturing plants overseas.
Wal-Mart's Vice President for Federal & International Public Affairs Ray Bracy even admits that suppliers' accounts of being pressured by Wal-Mart to move up to 30 percent of their production overseas has some truth to them.
"I suspect that this is a legitimate occurrence that you're citing and there may be some validity to that," Bracy said when asked to confirm suppliers' reports of pressure to move manufacturing overseas in the Frontline film, "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?"
In addition to the number of American jobs Wal-Mart has knowingly sent overseas to maintain low prices, this retail giant is also a problem because while cutting costs to give its customers a better price and itself a larger profit, Wal-Mart is neglecting to share the wealth with its employees.
Americans saving nickels and dimes by shopping at Wal-Mart end up paying them back plus more in the form of governmental health care assistance.
One has to wonder, if Wal-Mart is really a chain built on family values, as it claims, then why doesn't it provide the families of its employees with adequate health care benefits?
In Bentonville, Ark., the birthplace of Wal-Mart, the retail giant built on "family values" tops the list of companies in the state with employees or their children on Medicaid, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Arkansas is not alone - Massachusetts, Connecticut, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virgina, Wisconsin and Washington also report a high number of Wal-Mart employees on public assistance, particularly when it comes to health care programs, according to a 2005 article published by the AFL-CIO.
Wal-Mart and its supporters defend the situation, saying some of their competitors' employees are probably on public assistance, too. This would be a fair argument if it weren't for the fact that Wal-Mart's competitors don't even come close to sharing in the profits or the title of number one retailer in the world.
It seems illogical that Wal-Mart can hold this title and yet not make enough profit to provide substantial benefits - Wal-Mart's employees can be eligible for government health care but not eligible for adequate health care from the leading retailer in the industry.
In order for Wal-Mart to practice the family values it preaches, it needs to start by providing for the families of its employees. If by doing so the retail mogul really believes it needs to increase prices a few pennies, those of us who love bargains will understand because we recognize a good deal when we see one.
Christina Voss, Managing Editor
Allow me to begin by stating that any views that you have about Wal-Mart are probably mistaken and completely stereotypical. Any person who views Wal-Mart as a economical monster that is trying to take over the retail industry by making prices too low or by driving competitors out of business is completely wrong.
Wal-Mart may be the leading retailer in the world but they didn't get there by being sneaky and underhanded; Wal-Mart made it by holding to its values and seeing to customer needs. Wal-Mart's motto is "Every Day Low Prices," yet people even seem to have a problem with that. At what point would a person ever complain that prices are too low on anything? The fact is, people use excuses like that to blame Wal-Mart for the mishaps in the retail world also use that as their reason for not liking Wal-Mart and being gullible enough to go to Target or some other retailer and pay twice as much for the same products.
People think Wal-Mart's prices are too low for the manufacturers to make a profit. If that were the case then why would they keep their products stocked on Wal-Mart's shelves? Manufacturers make a profit with Wal-Mart; it's just not a high profit that they may see with another store. When a person looks at it this way all they see is the price though. Sure, Wal-Mart may sell a product for less but they are also selling several times the amount of that product than what other stores do. That is why manufacturers keep their products in the Wal-Mart stores, because no matter what the price whether high or low it sells at Wal-Mart.
It is the human reaction for people to be stereotypical but nothing bothers me more than when a person steps into one Wal-Mart store, has a bad experience and uses that to describe every Wal-Mart out there. Many larger cities have two or more Wal-Mart's located within them and everyone has the one that they like to go to better, yet other people may walk into one think it is awful and just assume the others will be too. I am here to say that is completely untrue.
I sat through a whole semester of a class, principles of advertising, that did nothing but bash Wal-Mart and everything within it, from the store itself, to its ideas, to the shoppers and even the employees. As a loyal customer and associate of Wal-Mart in Tipton, I found their uninformed comments about Wal-Mart offensive.
Wal-Mart is a family-started business with wholesome values that treats both their customers and their employees with respect and courtesy. Wal-Mart is not a place for the single mother on welfare to work, or where the redneck, mullet wearing, NASCAR fan goes to shop. I have seen every type of person come into Wal-Mart to shop and the average worker at Wal-Mart is the husband or wife with two to three children and a nice home.
People say Wal-Mart does not treat their employees right and that they don't pay them enough or give them enough benefits. You can find that with almost any job. No employer has perfect benefits and no one gets paid enough.
You hear people complain all the time when a new Wal-Mart store comes to their town. Iowa City residents are currently doing this. Yet, as soon as that store opens those complaining people will most likely be found shopping there along with the 100 million other people in American who shop at Wal-Mart's 3,400 stores every week.
Every retail business has its faults that people love to exploit. Wal-Mart started from a simple Ben Franklin store in Bentonville, Ark. with the beliefs and values of one man and his family. Sam Walton succeeded by sticking to what he believed in. You may not agree with some of his ideas or actions that have become the Wal-Mart philosophy but when it comes time to buy those 64 rolls of toilet paper you know where you're going.
Wal-Mart's family values don't include taking care of families
Andrea Furlong, Feature Editor
Wal-Mart didn't become the leading retailer in the world for no reason. It's secured that position for 15 years (according to PBS) because Americans love bargains. Americans are cheap and will take advantage of the chance to save a few pennies regardless of their financial needs.
The many Web sites and organizations formed in opposition to Wal-mart did not appear simply to complain about low prices. People working for these organizations love a good bargain as much any other American except when the cost of saving a few pennies means contributing to the outsourcing of American jobs and supporting inadequate employee health care benefits.
In 2004, over 727,000 American jobs were exported to China, according to the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. It would be unreasonable to say that Wal-Mart is responsible for all 727,000 of these lost jobs, since it's not the only company expanding its number of overseas manufacturing plants. However, as the leading business in the retail industry, which imports over 50 of its products, according to Retail Forward, Wal-Mart is instrumental in exporting American jobs to China.
Wal-Mart realizes that in order to continue to provide low prices, they must cut manufacturing costs. It solves this problem by not just by bullying suppliers to sell at lower prices but by advising them to try new approaches to maintain their profits - bluntly put, to move their manufacturing plants overseas.
Wal-Mart's Vice President for Federal & International Public Affairs Ray Bracy even admits that suppliers' accounts of being pressured by Wal-Mart to move up to 30 percent of their production overseas has some truth to them.
"I suspect that this is a legitimate occurrence that you're citing and there may be some validity to that," Bracy said when asked to confirm suppliers' reports of pressure to move manufacturing overseas in the Frontline film, "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?"
In addition to the number of American jobs Wal-Mart has knowingly sent overseas to maintain low prices, this retail giant is also a problem because while cutting costs to give its customers a better price and itself a larger profit, Wal-Mart is neglecting to share the wealth with its employees.
Americans saving nickels and dimes by shopping at Wal-Mart end up paying them back plus more in the form of governmental health care assistance.
One has to wonder, if Wal-Mart is really a chain built on family values, as it claims, then why doesn't it provide the families of its employees with adequate health care benefits?
In Bentonville, Ark., the birthplace of Wal-Mart, the retail giant built on "family values" tops the list of companies in the state with employees or their children on Medicaid, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Arkansas is not alone - Massachusetts, Connecticut, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virgina, Wisconsin and Washington also report a high number of Wal-Mart employees on public assistance, particularly when it comes to health care programs, according to a 2005 article published by the AFL-CIO.
Wal-Mart and its supporters defend the situation, saying some of their competitors' employees are probably on public assistance, too. This would be a fair argument if it weren't for the fact that Wal-Mart's competitors don't even come close to sharing in the profits or the title of number one retailer in the world.
It seems illogical that Wal-Mart can hold this title and yet not make enough profit to provide substantial benefits - Wal-Mart's employees can be eligible for government health care but not eligible for adequate health care from the leading retailer in the industry.
In order for Wal-Mart to practice the family values it preaches, it needs to start by providing for the families of its employees. If by doing so the retail mogul really believes it needs to increase prices a few pennies, those of us who love bargains will understand because we recognize a good deal when we see one.