Why are people so negative towards Wal-Mart?

Question

Is this because they are a big corporation? Do people know that most retailers only pay a little above minimum wage and that minimum wage has nothing to do with Wal-Mart?

Answer 1

Yes but wal mart is a MULTI BILLION dollar company and they don't pay their workers living wages. Also they ruin small business that peeple have worked to build their whole lives.. AND they use cheap labor in China..those people work for less than a dollar a day.

Answer 2

It's not about minimum wage. The issue is about how such a global company can destroy manufacturing jobs in the USA by importing from other countries, and how the volume of demand for cheap products in an affluent country affects the lives of those who are producing them.

When a Wal-Mart moves into a small town, many of the local businesses go under.

It's a complicated problem and target is nearly as much to blame as Wal-Mart is. For the big picture on this issue, do a search for:

The High Cost on Low Price

Answer 3

I've had a good friend and family members employed by Wal-Mart and none of them have had good experience. They are notorious for low wages, and I happen to know from seeing with my own eyes how awful their employee health insurance plans are. The employees are paying so much more out of their pocket than in places where people make more money. It's really sad. And when there are problems between employees, Wal-Mart managers look to the wrong person to blame and are not fair. They do not handle things in an appropriate matter, and I am talking about several stores here. Every Wal-Mart store that I have known someone to work at has had certain employees of varying ranks that are unprofessional, tattle tales, liars and backstabbers, and Wal-Mart does nothing to them. But the hard working person that those people decide to target gets to stay. Sam Walton would be turning in his grave if he could see all the corruption. On top of all that, Sam Walton said Wal-Mart would never be open on Sundays so families could go to church/spend time with their families. I think they should do that, so the employees could have a guaranteed weekend day off.

Answer 4

I work at Wal-Mart. I've been there for six years and have held various positions. Wal-Mart may be a great place to shop but it's an awful place to work. Sure they may have low prices, but at what cost? They do pay their employees as little as possible to keep their costs down. I've seen them do all that they can to get long standing workers to quit or take a demotion so they can cut payroll. Wal-Mart's philosophy has always been to do whatever it takes to save a dime. If that means screwing your employees, so be it. If one guy can do the same amount of work that two people can, then fire the other guy and let the one guy work twice as hard with no greater compensation. Wal-Mart is the most profitable company in the world. They make billions and billions of dollars a year. You'd think they'd share some of that company pie with the workers that have made them so successful, but you won't see that happen. The only person Wal-Mart looks out for is itself.

Answer 5

The big issue that I have with Wal-Mart is two-fold.

One, their economic practices lead to American dependance on cheap goods from China and other low-laborcost countries. This also means that our money is not being put back into our own economy. Notice all these recent layoffs these past years? I'm not saying it's all Wal-Mart's fault, but they did start a dangerous trend that has America addicted to cheap foreign goods.

Two, they drive out local competitors. This means specialty retailers, many of them mom & pop type stores, are being driven out of business. Why is this a bad thing? While some may not care too much about it, remember that this country was built upon entrepreneurial spirit. Instead of the money that could be reinvested into the local economy and thus back into the hands of the local consumers, it's going into the hands of very very rich executives and stockholders. Looking at the way the middle and lower class is doing, do we really need this happening?

Answer 6

People are against Wal-Mart because they do not give fair wages to their employees. It is no coincidence that a VERY high percentage of their employees are also receiving government assistance. Also, our local Wal-Mart just cut all full-time employees hours back to part-time hours. This includes people who have been working for the company for more than ten years. However, I don't believe that any sane person would be negative towards Wal-Mart for supporting anyone's rights.

Answer 7

There are many reasons, some of which I agree with and some of which I disagree with.

I'll try to list as many as come right off the top of my head:

(1) Wal-Mart started (under founder Sam Walton) as an all-American company, proudly featuring only (or at least mostly) made-in-America goods, which is good for the American worker and good for the American economy. Over time they changed, carrying mainly goods from abroad, so many US Labor Union members feel that Wal-Mart sold them out.

(2) Wal-Mart is a huge company, with LOTS of money at stake, that makes them an easy target for people who want to make a political name for themselves.

(3) Wal-mart carries an extreme variety of goods in one location, at very low prices. When a Wal-Mart moves into an area, many f not all of the smaller mom-and-pop or simply local shops lose customers to the Wal-Mart, and many of them then go out of business. This reduces the ability to find ALTERNATIVES to the line of merchandise carried by Wal-Mart.

(4) Wal-Mart is a mega-master of bottom lining a product. Wal-Mart always wants to pay far less for their goods than the compettition, so that Wal-Mart can sell them for less and still make more profit. This really puts manufacturers in a bind -- because Wal-Mart is such a huge retail outlet, it is almost marketting suicide to tell Wal-Mart "No, you pay the same price as everyone else" -- half your sales can disappear instantly. But if you bow to their pricing demands, your profit is cut in half. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Answer 8

Wal-Mart has a very negative history with the way they treat their workers. They expect them to work during their breaks, work overtime without paying them overtime, the list goes on and on. Several people in my family, including myself, have worked for them. While working at Wal-Mart we learned that if you are only given a certain amount of time, and a specific time for your break. If a customer needs your help you HAVE to stop and help them. That's fine except that Wal-Mart doesn't care that you didn't get to your break because you were helping a customer. If you are entitled to a 15 minute break, and you spend 14 of those 15 minutes helping a customer..guess what? you only get a 1 minute break. Wal-Mart does not really care about their employees, and in all reality do not care that much about their customers. It's all about profit. There have been many many many lawsuits against Wal-Mart over the way they treat their workers.

Answer 9

There is a movie out that will help summarize all the answers here for you and you can make your own decision it is called Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price . It is a documentary and is one sided but at least you get the other view and like a said can form a opinion for yourself.

Answer 10

they treat their employess like crap (not only their american workers but their overseas workers also)and pay them poverty wages even though they are a multi billion dollar company

they brag about bringing new jobs but what they don't tell you is that for every one job they create, 1.5 jobs are sent overseas many of them are good paying manufacturing jobs, which are being replaced by crappy 6 dollar/hour walmart jobs

they move into a new town and destroy all the small shops by lowering prices until the competition goes out of business then they can jack up thier prices however high they want, I've seen this happen several times around where I live

they use strong arm tactics with vendors and suppliers to get everything as cheap as possible, ripping them off and scamming them (they'll say the merchandise was damaged even though it wasn't so they dont have to pay for it, and whatever doesnt sell the suppliers have to buy it back)in the process, some of them won't even do businees with walmart anymore

many people think they are saving a few dollars by shopping at walmart but this isn't true, think of all their tax money that is going to walmart workers in the form of welfare, and healthcare, and assistance because they can't afford it, they are helping to ruin our economy by sending all those good jobs overseas

look at all these lawsuits against walmart, and all the millions of dollars they have to pay out in fines and settlements, trust me there is a reason for this

they dont care about their customers, thier employes, this country or anything else, all they care about is the bottom line, and that is the bottom line

read the book "how walmart is destroying america" and see the movie "walmart high cost of low prices" lost of good info there