Is Walmart really so bad as everyone claims it to be?

Answer 1

Walmart is not "BAD" !
Walmart is a very shrewd business that utilizes their size in sales to monoplize the market.
Their prices are lower than almost everyone else because of the volume of business that they do.
The margins they get are less than that of other retailers but if you base it on a "$$KAZILIION$$" dollars in sales they do very well.
The volume also gives them huge pricing concessions with suppliers because again the volume is an attractive feature. Once you get into business with Walmart as a supplier they very much squeeze the margins so low, and due to the volume of sales you can't afford "not" to be a supplier because your enterprise has grown huge just to support them.

Pennies on a thousand dollars of sales may not seem like much but pennies on a million is still a lot of dough.
The contrast is $10.00 vs $10,000.00.

Their distribution system is the best in the world and their purchasing clout is huge. They are very efficient!

The issue now becomes when they move into small towns the local businesses cannot compete.
Soon the patrons that supported the small shops go to Walmart and then the small merchants cannot absorb the costs because sales and narrow margins can't cover the expenses.
Soon they close shop and now you have to buy at Walmart.

This is the dilema!

In ten years you will have to shop at Walmart to get what you need.
With little or no competition from other shops, who establishes the price?
Who can you take your business to when you are no longer satisfied with Walmart?
So now you are controlled by a large conglomerate for food, clothing, medication and essentials.
Who else can you work for in retail unless you work for Walmart? They hire a lot of people.
Who will structure your pay based on what their desired outcome is?
Who will determine what benefits you will receive or not?

Walmart!

This is the premise of unionizing a large company such as Walmart, however when they do get unionized or are close they simply close or move or hire big lawyers to fight the movement or intimidate employees not to jooin.

Classic example of the "tail wagging the dog"

Answer 2

Yes...Walmart really is that bad!! They are so big that they move into towns and completely take over. They put the smaller businesses out of business. Most everything they carry is made outside the USA. I've been told by a very good source that they don't give their employees health insurance, so a lot of them end up having to go on medicaid. They are so big that they could have their own health insurance!! I also read awhile back about lawsuits being brought against them because men and white men/women were getting promoted before women or african american men/women. The few times that I have shopped there, it has been SO packed and the lines SO long that I could not wait to leave that place. If I spend a few more dollars to shop at my neighborhood grocery store where they know my name and I know the products they carry are from the USA, I'll settle for that...=)

Answer 3

Bad is a relative term and a judgment. The reason people claim Wal-Mart is 'bad' is because they pay their workers minimum wage, there-by contributing to making the poor, poorer. They suck the life out of any competing business that is around them because those businesses can not compete in price. They get their goods from countries that have lower moral values (IE like in Taiwan where the workers are practically slaves working for literally cents per hour,where a six year olds have jobs in the factory, and where there is no unions or protection for the average worker so if you get injured on it you are as good as dead because you can not collect money anymore)
Also because Walmart, even though they say otherwise, does very little for the community besides ALLOWING charitable groups into the store (IE Girl Scott's), which by the way just makes the store look better without it costing anything.

Answer 4

It is a complex issue. I think it is a lot more on perception than reality. Walmart is a public company. That means the stock holders, like like you and I, own the company. We demand high profit for our investments. At the same time, Walmart's customers demand cheap prices. Again, these customers are just like you and I. However, we the general public also resent Walmart going abroad to get products because we are losing jobs to overseas manufacturers. So we bash them on one hand but continue to shop there because we are tired of being ripped off by our domestic manufacturers. As an example, my co-pay for my prescription at the drug store is $25 dollars plus my insurance company's portion which is another $25. Walmart sells the same drug for $4. However, it does not help when some moron at CNN keeps bashing away about the exporting of America for 3 solid years.

The truth of the matter is that we lost our competitive edge in the low tech, high volume sectors of the global economy where only the low cost manufacturers can survive. Yet in the US, our living standard keeps going up and we demand higher pay scales. Therefore, we are losing domestic jobs to foreign companies and we don't like it. As a result, Walmart, being one of the largest importers, becomes the lightening rod of what is wrong with America. From then on, whatever Walmart does or don't do is another negative. It is a public image nightmare for that company.

Answer 5

It's not WalMart that's bad, it's the American consumer selling out to WalMart and buying the cheaply made products! Walk into a WalMart store and find anything made in the USA.....bet it won't happen.....

Answer 6

If Wal-Mart were really bad, would Americans support it so heavily? Oh, wait - they supported Dubya, didn't they? Maybe their minds are programmed to turn off whenever they see a W. ;-)

Answer 7

After ten, spooky people hang out there *shivers* XD