Wal Mart Is A Monopoly

Wal-Mart, the multi-billion company and the second largest employer in the world, is the most controversial corporation in the world. Wal-Mart is a global powerhouse and affects many people around the world. Wal-Mart is constantly getting attacked from unions, human rights groups, small towns and small businesses. Wal-Mart is accused of treating their workers poorly and driving small businesses out of business. But however these accusations are false or over exaggerated. Wal-Mart offers families and low income people quality products. Also, they pay their workers competitive wages and treat them with respect. Wal-Mart opens their stores in rural and under developed areas. Wal-Mart improves the lives of the people who live rural area and

Some may claim a Walmarts’ arrival in a community is helpful to improve the growth and development in the community, but others tell a different story. Many claim that a Walmart is great way to create new jobs in the community. They are partially right, between construction and development, plenty of jobs are created. Also, about 300 retail jobs are created based on the amount needed to run a Walmart super center twenty fours a day, seven days a week. However, Kenneth Stone, a professor of economics at Iowa State University, conducted a study in which two Super Walmart centers in two different states were evaluated. The study lasted about two years and showed that for every one job Walmart had created, 1.4 jobs were lost in local communities (Davidson 1). Walmarts’ low prices come with additional costs that we are

Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue (approximately four hundred and eighty billion dollars) and the largest private employer in the world with two point three million employees. Walmart is also one of the world's most valuable companies by market value, and is also the largest grocery retailer in the U.S. “One Nation Under Walmart” is a case about how Walmart has taken over the retail business and the effects of their market domination. The case also shows statistics of how much percentage Walmart is of many suppliers’ sales. According to the case Walmart has a 30% market share of all household items. Twenty-eight percent of Dial’s business and twenty-four percent of Del Monte’s business go through Walmart stores. It is also worth noting that Walmart imports ten percent of all United States imports from China. The case states that Walmart is able to offer cheaper prices because they put so much pressure on their suppliers to lower their prices. The case, “One Nation Under Walmart”, explains the problems that some people have with the massive retailer. One of these problems is how Walmart has forced numerous local businesses to close their doors through their extremely competitive pricing. They are able to purchase bulk goods at such low prices and thus pass the savings onto customers. As a result of these lew costs, rivals are driven out of business which results in a loss of jobs. Jobs are vital to the success of a community and with Walmart causing job

Wal-Mart, a "Big-Box Retailer" employs more than 2.1 million associates worldwide and has two-thousand seven-hundred stores in the United States with many more in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Central America, Chile, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom, making Wal-Mart the largest retailer in the world. "Wal-Mart accounts for upward of 30 percent of U.S. sales, and plans to more than double its sales within the next five years" (Lynn 29-36). Why is Wal-Mart so successful, and is Wal-Mart actually bad for America?

During the last 20 years, Wal-Mart has moved into many areas wiping out all the stores around causing people to loose jobs, slashing the tax base and causing many more disturbing problems to neighborhoods so people should stop supporting Wal-Mart for many of these reasons. Always low prices, does this sound familiar? Well this would be the slogan of the world’s most controlling company; Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart grew over the years into a 256 billion dollar company after making its name across the world in 1915. The major problem with Wal-Mart is that it maintains its own mini-economy. Some people believe Wal-Mart supports the American economy while most others hold that Wal-Mart’s global outsourcing will and has

Wal-Mart is an American company that was founded in the year 1962 by Sam Walton. The company operates in the retail industry. Notably, the company operates various chains of stores in the entire world which has made the venture a big success in the retail industry. The efficiency and the effectiveness of the company’s operations have seen it ranked the second largest public company in the world (Copeland & Labuski, 2013). The company has over two million workers which makes the leading private corporation employer in the world. Notably, despite the fact that the company is traded publicly, Wal-Mart is more of a family company since Walton’s family still controls over fifty percent of the company’s shares. The company has expanded its business through venturing into external markets such as China, the United Kingdom, North Korea, South Korea, North America, and so forth. However, these markets have produced mixed results in terms of the level of success and profitability. For instance, the German market and the South Korean markets have turned out to be less favorable for the company.

Wal-Mart is now the largest grocer, largest retailer, largest corporation in the world. "If Wal-Mart was a nation, it would have a bigger economy than 80 percent of the world's countries"(Singer and Mason). About "138 million people go to one of Wal-Mart's 5,000 stores in the United States and nine other countries", and purchase more than $300 billion every year (Singer and Mason). With a 1.6 million global workforce, Wal-Mart has become the biggest private employer "in the United States, as well as in Mexico and Canada"(Singer and Mason). "Wal-Mart already has 11 percent of all U.S. Grocery store sales," and "by 2013 that figure is likely to rise to 21 percent"(Singer and

Wal-Mart knew that in the United States it would need to give the American workers more benefits which could lead to more costs. So, Wal-Mart decided to expand to China, which brought lots of success. Although Wal-Mart can create products and sell them for a low price, this has affected American job seekers looking for Employment. Wal-Mart is expanding throughout the world by created factories which could lead to the production of goods for low prices. For example, “it is noted for highly sophisticated global inventory management as it brings to foreign markets quintessential American values—Darwinian competition, every widening consumer choice, and increasing shareholder value” (Garten 24). Mostly, the people who are benefiting from Wal-Mart’s expansion throughout the world is only the customers and shareholders. The employees are suffering due to Wal-Mart cutting the jobs in America and relying on other countries to do their production for them. Not only is Wal-Mart cutting jobs in America, they are treating their employees in other countries harsh. For instance, “the Chinese garment workers are mainly migrants from farms, where earnings are even worse than at Wal-Mart’s subcontractors and where the labor is more grueling” (Mallaby 622). Wal-Mart is abusing other people from different countries based on how the countries don’t have enforced labor laws. Explains why Wal-Mart prefers to expand globally and move their production facilities to other countries rather than the United

“Up Against Wal-Mart” by Karen Olsson, a senior editor at Texas Monthly and who’s article appeared in Mother Jones, introduces her article through the perspective of a Wal-Mart worker. She focuses on the negatives of Wal-Mart by telling the real life struggles of different Wal-Mart employees. “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” by Sebastian Mallaby, a columnist for the Washington Post, focuses his article on what Wal-Mart critics say and attempts to defend Wal-Mart by comparing Wal-Mart to other retailers. Even though Karen Olsson and Sebastian Mallaby both examine the negative effects of Wal-Mart, Olsson berates Wal-Mart’s unfair treatment towards employees and the unlivable wages that the world’s largest retailer provides while Mallaby

In The Wal-Mart effect: Poison or Antidote for Local Communities author Terry J. Fitzgerald attempts to submerge to the bottom of the issues people have with Wal-Mart. He does so by using results from Wal-Mart’s effect by entering non Wal-Mart counties economy’s. He uses the research to show that Wal-Mart doesn’t affect a community as much as most think. However, no matter what side of the issue you fall on, it still affects your community in a good or bad manner.

Chapter 8 opens with the question “Is Walmart a good or bad thing for America,” as the author sums up the influence that the corporation has injected and shaped the modern economic structure with worker, consumer, government and competitors. (Lichtenstein 302-03). The United Food and Commercial Workers Union lost critical battles as supermarkets like Kroger, Safeway and local California markets Vons and Ralph locked out employees and forced them to except reductions in wages, health care and pension benefits. (Lichtenstein

America, land of the free and birthplace to the largest discount retailer in the world. After its start up in 1962, Wal-Mart Supercenter has since become a household name in the United States and many other countries across the world (Frank, 1). The corporation’s biggest appeal is its low prices and large number of products compared to those of competing stores, such as Target and Fred Meyers. Due to this fame, the Walmart name tends to be surrounded by a lot of press coverage and controversy. This fact seems to be no different for magazines like, The Economist, which recently published an article examining the company 's decision to raise wages and how it will affect the rest of society, as well as what it means for the future of Walmart. While the conclusion of the article is legitimate, the author 's lack of reliable sources, confusing subject changing and missing information, diminish its value as a reputable source of information.

Walmart, the giant utopia, the place where a lot of people usually do their shopping for the low prices and the variety of products was founded by Sam Walton. Walton was an entrepreneur a very different and innovative vision than with what was the norm at the time. He started his own company and made it into the leader in discount retailing that it is today. In fact, Walmart is considered to be the biggest company in the U.S. and it has stores worldwide. A lot of controversy orbits this huge company, however. According to PBS, “Walmart employs more people than any other company in the United States outside of the Federal government, yet the majority of its employees with children live below the poverty line.” Also, Walmart likes to portray itself as a seller of U.S. manufactured goods, but in reality the company has thousands of products contained in its many stores throughout the U.S. made in foreign countries in sweatshops with horrible conditions for their employees. It would seem that Walmart encourages “made in the USA” but is a flat out lie. Walmart encourages products made outside the USA. This stubborn need for Walmart to outsource in order to reap the benefits of cheap labor in poorer countries is really hurting the small businesses of the United States and definitely takes its toll on our economy. It is for this reason the big giant is facing a significant amount of controversy for unethical business practices.

I think it’s fair to assume that the majority of the people reading this paper have been to a Walmart store at least once in their lives. The corporation has dominated the American market for years, and currently holds the number one position at the top Fortune 500 companies of 2014 (Fortune, 2014). As Walmart holds such a pivotal position across America, I think it’s a good idea to devote an investigation into its benefits and drawbacks over several different areas. With that being said, the areas that we’ll be looking into within this paper:

Wal-Mart has had immense success since its inception in the early1960s, having been able to expand globally by offering a large selection of products at low prices. While Wal-Mart has enjoyed this success, many independently owned businesses have been unable to compete with the retail giant’s economies of scale. Local businesses, such as grocery stores, pharmacies, pet stores and flower shops, have suffered from the creation of a Wal-Mart in many cities across the United States. According to a report released by Wal-Mart Watch back in 2005, Wal-Mart’s expansion in Iowa is “solely responsible for the extensive closings of mom-and-pop stores, including 555 grocery stores, 298 hardware stores, 293 building suppliers, 161 variety shops, 158 women’s stores, and 116 pharmacies” (Sobel). Then there is also the Chicago area WalMart that casued “82 of 306 small businesses in the surrounding neighborhood” to shutter their doors “within 18 month’s” (Casey). Its because of events like this that New York City has fought hard to keep Walmart out of its city and shows how a Wal-Mart in the Houston Heights will be no different. Closures of small businesses will cause a ripple effect, causing suppliers and supporting businesses to close and consequently cause pains that may be felt for years to come in the