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Cam LewisWal-Mart9/27/08 Many people love to cry out and complain about Wal-Mart and all the evil thingsit does to communities. The truth, however, is that there are both winners and losers everytime a Wal-Mart opens its doors. The job of a community is to weigh the pros and consand, based on their current situation, decide whether to cheer or complain when Wal-Martcomes to town.The first group that is most obviously affected by a Wal-Mart opening is theconsumers. This group has its feet in both camps though. On one hand, the consumers arewinners; Wal-Mart brings low prices and the convenience of shopping at one place for everything on the shopping list. As Robert Guell puts it, some people “are attracted tothem (Wal-Mart) because they can do grocery shopping, have their pharmacy needs met,and pick up a power tool and a new-release DVD all in one location” (Guell 466). This iscertainly a benefit for consumers who find their schedules crowded for time and need aquick and easy solution to the time consuming task of shopping. The low prices make thisoption even more enticing. According to some reports, Wal-Mart’s prices are somewhere between 15% and 22% less expensive than the market price (Guell 467). And who canargue with prices like that?This brings in the second hand of the consumers. How does Wal-Mart keep its prices so low? It is becoming increasingly apparent that as Wal-Mart products drop in price they also drop in quality. Wal-Mart’s suppliers are forced to find cheaper ways to produce goods as Wal-Mart lowers their prices. This happens because if Wal-Mart
 
charges less; they, in turn, need to buy for less. Wal-Mart is the largest buyer of many of its suppliers and can therefore coerce them to sell for less. If a supplier won’t lower its prices, Wal-Mart simply stops buying from them and this results in the supplier losinghuge amounts of revenue. Therefore, many suppliers lower their quality standards inorder to produce goods more cheaply so that they can sell them to Wal-Mart at lower  prices. So consumers in the short run benefit from lower prices, but in the long run suffer from lower quality goods. When quality doesn’t suffer it is because the supplier outsources its labor to foreign countries or lowers worker wages and benefits. This bringsup the next group, workers.Do workers benefit from a Wal-Mart opening? As stated above, the workers of Wal-Mart’s suppliers often suffer from losing their job altogether due to outsourcing or else they suffer from pay and benefit cuts. The same type of thing can happen with Wal-Mart employees too. In a New York Times article, Michael Barbaro points out that, “Wal-Mart has been associated with low wages, skimpy health insurance and poor treatment of workers…” (Barbaro). In order to balance out the low prices, Wal-Mart provides lower wages and benefits. According to Robert Guell, “Wal-Mart’s pay is $5 to $10 less per hour (including benefits) than the typically unionized grocery store it is challenging”(Guell 468).Granted, when a Wal-Mart opens it does bring new jobs to a community. Wal-Mart’s competitive prices, however, can drive local businesses under and cause the lossof previously available jobs. These jobs may or may not be made up for by Wal-Mart’semployment. Another aspect of this, however, is that in a community with little or nocommerce in the first place, Wal-Mart could be just the thing to jumpstart the dead
 
economy. Wal-Mart can draw in other big-box retailers as well as fast food restaurants(Guell 469). The only problem with this perspective is that the chances of Wal-Martmoving into an economically decrepit area are miniscule. This is generally due tocorporate greed. After all, what money is there to be made in a poor slum where theeconomy is stagnant?Wal-Mart also causes a community social loss. Wal-Mart is generally a veryimpersonal environment. The mom and pop stores that Wal-Mart generally runs out of  business are, in general, much friendlier and personal in their services. The loss of thissocial aspect of shopping can be detrimental to the interconnectivity of a community andcan lead to a community that is no longer bonded together as it once was.It would seem then that most people either only suffer from Wal-Mart opening or suffer a little but gain a little as well. Perhaps the only group that only wins when a Wal-Mart opens up is the corporate level employees and the higher ups such as the CEO andCFO. Each new Wal-Mart means more revenue which in turn means more benefits and a bigger paycheck. This is again tied into corporate greed. Despite the detrimental effect oneveryone else, these executives push for more and more Wal-Mart stores knowing that itwill make them richer and better off. In such a case greed is not helping but hurting people.So the ultimate question is, do we complain or cheer when Wal-Mart comes totown? As we have seen, it largely depends on who you are. As a Wal-Mart corporateexecutive you would absolutely cheer. As the owner of another business that would benefit from a Wal-Mart’s attraction of people, such as fast-food or another retailer such
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