guaranteed to inspire/offend/entertain/infuriate

it snowed today. i was under the impression that prescott=desert, therefore warm and not much snow. last year it didn't snow until the end of december, but this year october??? it's so cold and wet and not nice outside. grrr.
i became temporarily un-lazy and put links on the side. clickey clickey. and i finished my wal-mart essay. here it is, for your reading pleasure. don't shop there please.

Wal-Mart has been labeled an evil empire and a destroyer of local businesses. The corporation in question would have consumers believe it cares about the community, treats its employees fairly, and is a savior of small towns. Should consumers believe Wal-Mart, or the unions and organizations that actively campaign against its expansion? There are great exaggerations from both sides; Wal-Mart is not quite as horrible as some organizations would have consumers believe, but neither does it come close to being a paragon of virtue as Wal-Mart’s advertisements portray.
Every time Wal-Mart announces a new store location there are angry citizens, and every third store built faces strong community opposition (“Let Me Count the Ways”). People do not protest the building of Target, Best Buy, or Safeway stores very often, so why is the coming of Wal-Mart looked upon with such controversy? While Wal-Mart does create some jobs for the communities it inhabits, it also destroys many. Small family-owned businesses are often unable to compete with this retail giant; so many jobs are lost in that sector. Some studies even suggest that the community experiences a net loss of jobs when Wal-Mart moves in because some jobs lost from small businesses that go under are simply shifted to Wal-Mart, and others are lost altogether (PBS).
Unions complain that Wal-Mart is anti-union, while Wal-Mart insists that employees do not need a union if they work at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart employs over one million people (UFCW) in over 3000 stores in the United States, but has an extremely high employee turnover rate; over 70 percent of the employees leave every year. Wal-Mart was ranked as one of the 100 best corporations to work for by Forbes Magazine, a fact that is often shown as proof that employees are treated well; however, this survey only included executives’ opinions, not those of the common employee (PBS). Details on the average wages for non-supervisory employees are hard to find, as Wal-Mart is very secretive about the true salary, but wages appear to range from $6 to $9 an hour. The retail giant claims that employees receive quality health benefits, but the average worker would have to pay nearly one-fifth of their paycheck to receive coverage. Less than 1% of the $100 billion Walton fortune could provide health care for every employee (Forbes and UFCW). “In 1970, the country’s largest employer was General Motors… overwhelmingly union, they earned $17.50 an hour plus health, pension, and vacation benefits and cost-of-living increases. Today, the country’s largest employer is Wal-Mart… They earn an average hourly wage of $8.00, with no defined benefit pension, and inadequate health care,” reported United Food and Commercial Workers. It would seem reasonable, based on these facts, to assume that many employees would indeed want to join a union. However, charges have been leveled against Wal-Mart in 25 states, that managers intimidated, illegally fired, and denied bonuses to union members or workers who were interested in joining a union. (UFCW) In 2000 meat cutters at a Texas Wal-Mart voted for union representation, and the company suddenly phased out the meat cutting positions in favor of prepackaged meat (Business).
One company, Costco, has managed to have a very successful business while offering employees higher wages and better benefits than Sam’s Club, its direct competitor, or Wal-Mart. “Although Sam’s $11.52 hourly average wage for full-timers tops the wage earned by a typical Wal-Mart worker, it’s still nearly 40% less than Costco’s $15.97. Costco also shells out thousands more a year for workers’ health and retirement and includes more of them in its health care, 401 (k), and profit-sharing plans,” wrote Holmes and Zellner of Business Week. Although Costco employs one-third fewer workers than Sam’s Club, it has nearly equal profits, higher operating profits per hourly employee, and higher employee productivity. “Paying your employees well is not only the right thing to do but it makes for good business,” said Costco CEO James D. Sinegal (Business Week).
Women make up 65% of Wal-Mart’s workforce in the United States, but they earn an average of 37¢ less per hour than men. There are four female senior vice-presidents in Wal-Mart’s empire, and their average salary is $279,772 a year. However, the average of the male senior vice-president’s salaries was $419,435 a year. Women at Wal-Mart often have more seniority and experience than the men, but 90% of top store management positions and 2/3 of all management positions are occupied by men, who also earn more than their few women counterparts. Only 1/3 of all management positions are held by women at Wal-Mart, which is fewer than competitors had in management in 1975. Competitors had 41.6% of their management positions occupied by women in 1975, and 51.6% in 2003. In June of 2001, the largest gender discrimination lawsuit ever was filed against Wal-Mart; over one million current and former Wal-Mart employees participated, charging they were denied advancement opportunities and equal pay. Of course, Wal-Mart is no stranger to lawsuits, as they were sued 4,851 times in 2000 (UFCW).
Another complaint people have with Wal-Mart’s policies is its extremely high rate of expansion. They open a new store every two days, and expand into one new country every year (PBS). Small communities fear that if Wal-Mart moves in local businesses will be forced to close, forcing the community to depend on Wal-Mart for jobs. The corporation is not often considerate of where it builds it stores, as evidenced by its plans to build a store less than a mile from the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico City. The Mexican government stated that the store would not harm the ancient structures, but the view from the top of the Sun and Moon pyramids will be forever altered (Arizona Republic).
A few years ago, Wal-Mart ran a “Made in the USA” ad campaign. Of all industries in the United States, Wal-Mart is the largest importer of Chinese products. PBS surveyed several stores, and found that an average of 85% of the stores’ items were manufactured overseas, and further research found the suppliers to be sweatshops. Conditions in these factories are horrible, with wages as low as 13¢ and hour, enforced unpaid overtime, child labor, and sometimes corporal punishment. Many US companies suffered when Wal-Mart stopped buying their products and shifted business overseas (PBS).
Large communities can easily accommodate Wal-Mart, as they have a larger labor pool and more competition. In this case, Wal-Mart can be a solution, providing jobs in areas that may have high unemployment. Wal-Mart gave $150 million to charities in 2002, and customers were able to raise an additional $75 million with Wal-Mart’s assistance. Wal-Mart is also the number one corporate sponsor of the Children’s Miracle Network (Wal-Mart Foundation). Then again, $150 million is only .4% of Wal-Mart’s $8 billion profit. Most corporations in the United States give at least 1% of their total profit (PBS).
In a free enterprise economy, stores have the choice of which products to sell. However, Wal-Mart is often the only source of CDs in some areas. As the corporation often refuses to carry music with a warning label, artists are forced to edit their lyrics, song titles, and album art in order to be carried by Wal-Mart. Sheryl Crow released an album with the lyric “watch our children as they kill each other with a gun they bought at Wal-Mart,” and the corporation refused to stock the CD. This can be considered a form of censorship, as it forces smaller bands to compromise their artistic capabilities in order to reach a wider audience (PBS).
At first glance, Wal-Mart appears to be a caring company that assists charities and the communities it inhabits. Looking deeper, the picture is not so appealing. Low wages, poor health coverage, censorship, gender discrimination, and a majority of products manufactured in sweatshops are just a few of the problems that appear upon closer examination. With a profit of $8 billion, and a family fortune of over $100 billion, Wal-Mart can afford to treat its employees better and support American manufacturing companies.

Sources:
“2004 Billionaires List.” 26 February 2004. Forbes. 15 October 2004. http://www.forbes.com/maserati/billionaires2004/bill04land.html
“Wal-Mart to Build Near Mexican Ruins.” Arizona Republic. 10 October 2004: A17.
Holmes, Stanley and Wendy Zellner. “The Costco Way.” 12 April 2004. Business Week. 15 October 2004. http://www.businessweek.com/@@@RUbqYUQXr64CxgA/magazine/ content/04_15/b3878084_mz021.htm
PBS. “Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town.” 1999. PBS. 15 October 2004. http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars
Pride, William M., Robert J. Hughes, and Jack R. Kapoor. Business. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.
United Food and Commercial Workers. “Wal-Mart Quick Facts.” 2004. UFCW. 15 October 2004. http://www.ufcw.org/issues_and_actions/walmart_workers_campaign_info/index.cfm
Wal-Mart Foundation. “Good. Works.” 2002. Wal-Mart, Inc. 16 October 2004. http://www.walmartfoundation.org
Woolner, Ann. “Let Me Count the Ways People Don’t Love Wal-Mart.” 13 February 2004. Bloomberg. http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&sid=aJqMefuSApSY&refer=columnist_woolner