Brett Clark
Dr Watkins
College Composition and Research
Feb 20, 2016
It is a widely known fact that the chain of retail stores known as Walmart can help its customers “save money”, but does Walmart let its employees “live better”? There have been all kinds of arguments that can claim Walmart is the best store ever, while many others believe that it takes the “American Dream” and throws it out with the garbage. I believe that Walmart, even though it offers low prices, cuts legal corners, treat its employees like garbage, and ruins the “American Dream” for thousands of family businesses a year.
Over the past decade or so there have been many instances where Walmart has been caught bribing federal officials, and caught using anti-union tactics on their employees. According to Rana Foroohar, there was a case in Mexico where Walmart was caught paying over $24 million in bribes to Mexican officials (Foroohar par. 1). Walmart was caught bribing officials so they could underpay workers, overwork workers, and evade certain taxes. I believe that if Walmart was caught bribing officials in Mexico, they are most likely cutting legality corners in all of their locations. Walmart has also been summoned to court over 10 times due to their anti-union policies. For example, Karen Olsson refers to managers intentionally overworking, interrogating, and in some cases firing any employees with affiliations to a workers union (609). Bullying employees because of worker unions is highly illegal in the United States; if Walmart breaks laws like this in the US, what are they doing in other countries with leaner business laws.
On top of blatantly breaking the law, Walmart also has a long history of not treating any of its employees fairly. Olsson talks in her article about how when she worked for Walmart she would be consistently asked to work overtime without pay (613). Olsson’s point is that if the employee refuses to work an unpaid overtime, they would be fired. It is also illegal to not only fire workers for not working overtime and to not pay them for it. Not only does Walmart force its employees to work overtime, but they are extremely underpaid too. Walmart always pays its entry level employees minimum-wage, while supervisors and departmental managers are normally expected to be paid more. While it is true that the employees often get a “promotion” in their job description, in does not mean that they get a raise in pay (615). Walmart actually “promotes” its employees giving them double the work, but does not give them even a cent for a raise. Unlike my previous points, this is not break in the law but simply an extreme lack of ethics.
Walmart’s evils spread much further than just their own walls. Walmart has crushed many small, family business in its path to becoming what it is now. Throughout all of Brandon Kings article, “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?”, he talks about how the American Dream is very hard because of the Great Recession. Throughout the article King talks about how things would be so much easier if the gap between the upper and lower classes could be narrowed (572-578). Contrary to King’s view, in addition to the recession Walmart runs most of its small business competition bankrupt. Since Walmart has such a high turnover rate, it can offer price reductions around 25 to 30 percent compared to small businesses.
Even though Walmart has a lot of bad things, it is able to offer great prices to struggling, low-class families. According to Sebastian Mallaby, the average Walmart customer makes a yearly salary of $35,000 a year. If it were not for Walmart being able to offer the low prices it does, I feel some of those families would have a very hard time making ends-meat. However, the way Walmart cuts the corners to save money and ultimately offer lower prices I feel is not worth it. I would prefer to pay more and know I got the price I did through a good, ethical business.
In conclusion, I do not feel anyone should shop at Walmart because they constantly break the law, treat their employees bad, and intentionally run small businesses bankrupt. Is it really worth it to save $20 a trip if thousands of people a year suffer to save its customers those few bucks? I say no.
Works Cited
Foroohar, Rana. "Walmart's Discounted Ethics." Ebscohost. Time Magazine, 5 July 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2016
King, Brandon. "The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold." They Say I Say With Readings. By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Ed. Russel Durst. 2E ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 572-579. Print.
Mallaby, Sebastian. "Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.." They Say I Say With Readings. By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Ed. Russel Durst. 2E ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 620-623. Print.
Olsson, Karen. "Up Against Wal-Mart." They Say I Say With Readings. By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Ed. Russel Durst. 2E ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 606-619. Print.
Dr Watkins
College Composition and Research
Feb 20, 2016
It is a widely known fact that the chain of retail stores known as Walmart can help its customers “save money”, but does Walmart let its employees “live better”? There have been all kinds of arguments that can claim Walmart is the best store ever, while many others believe that it takes the “American Dream” and throws it out with the garbage. I believe that Walmart, even though it offers low prices, cuts legal corners, treat its employees like garbage, and ruins the “American Dream” for thousands of family businesses a year.
Over the past decade or so there have been many instances where Walmart has been caught bribing federal officials, and caught using anti-union tactics on their employees. According to Rana Foroohar, there was a case in Mexico where Walmart was caught paying over $24 million in bribes to Mexican officials (Foroohar par. 1). Walmart was caught bribing officials so they could underpay workers, overwork workers, and evade certain taxes. I believe that if Walmart was caught bribing officials in Mexico, they are most likely cutting legality corners in all of their locations. Walmart has also been summoned to court over 10 times due to their anti-union policies. For example, Karen Olsson refers to managers intentionally overworking, interrogating, and in some cases firing any employees with affiliations to a workers union (609). Bullying employees because of worker unions is highly illegal in the United States; if Walmart breaks laws like this in the US, what are they doing in other countries with leaner business laws.
On top of blatantly breaking the law, Walmart also has a long history of not treating any of its employees fairly. Olsson talks in her article about how when she worked for Walmart she would be consistently asked to work overtime without pay (613). Olsson’s point is that if the employee refuses to work an unpaid overtime, they would be fired. It is also illegal to not only fire workers for not working overtime and to not pay them for it. Not only does Walmart force its employees to work overtime, but they are extremely underpaid too. Walmart always pays its entry level employees minimum-wage, while supervisors and departmental managers are normally expected to be paid more. While it is true that the employees often get a “promotion” in their job description, in does not mean that they get a raise in pay (615). Walmart actually “promotes” its employees giving them double the work, but does not give them even a cent for a raise. Unlike my previous points, this is not break in the law but simply an extreme lack of ethics.
Walmart’s evils spread much further than just their own walls. Walmart has crushed many small, family business in its path to becoming what it is now. Throughout all of Brandon Kings article, “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?”, he talks about how the American Dream is very hard because of the Great Recession. Throughout the article King talks about how things would be so much easier if the gap between the upper and lower classes could be narrowed (572-578). Contrary to King’s view, in addition to the recession Walmart runs most of its small business competition bankrupt. Since Walmart has such a high turnover rate, it can offer price reductions around 25 to 30 percent compared to small businesses.
Even though Walmart has a lot of bad things, it is able to offer great prices to struggling, low-class families. According to Sebastian Mallaby, the average Walmart customer makes a yearly salary of $35,000 a year. If it were not for Walmart being able to offer the low prices it does, I feel some of those families would have a very hard time making ends-meat. However, the way Walmart cuts the corners to save money and ultimately offer lower prices I feel is not worth it. I would prefer to pay more and know I got the price I did through a good, ethical business.
In conclusion, I do not feel anyone should shop at Walmart because they constantly break the law, treat their employees bad, and intentionally run small businesses bankrupt. Is it really worth it to save $20 a trip if thousands of people a year suffer to save its customers those few bucks? I say no.
Works Cited
Foroohar, Rana. "Walmart's Discounted Ethics." Ebscohost. Time Magazine, 5 July 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2016
King, Brandon. "The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold." They Say I Say With Readings. By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Ed. Russel Durst. 2E ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 572-579. Print.
Mallaby, Sebastian. "Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.." They Say I Say With Readings. By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Ed. Russel Durst. 2E ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 620-623. Print.
Olsson, Karen. "Up Against Wal-Mart." They Say I Say With Readings. By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Ed. Russel Durst. 2E ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 606-619. Print.