Walmart’s lower prices mean cutting corners

While Wal-mart has been doing their best to make sure that their prices are the lowest, which they are not always the lowest, they have been cutting corners to do so in come cases, and this in result is actually hurting their costumers. This is hurting their costumers because when they lower the price they are not necessarily giving you the safest product. Because they want their prices the lowest, Wal-mart pressures some of their manufacturers into cutting corners, which is sometimes unethical. An example of this is when Wal-mart sells products consisting of lead and other dangerous materials.

The state of California found several products containing lead in them and asked Wal-mart to get rid of them. A few, but not limited to were Kids Poncho and MSY Faded Glory Rebecca Shoes. These low prices that they bribe you with to come and use Wal-mart as your department store are not always worth it, they may end up hurting you in the end.

 

http://walmartwatch.com/blog

Walton’s Walmart

Originally, Mr. Walton started a company in a town in Arkansas in the 1950′s which lead to a national store today. Walton had originally intended his store to sell American goods and to employ Americans (had been claimed that they have even hired illegal immigrants recently, however Wal-mart claims they had no idea). However when Mr. Walton died in 1992, everything that he built his company to stand for, fell apart and the company is no longer what he had intended for.

Once again, I am going to talk about healthcare, however this time it is about how America’s tax payers are actually the ones paying for the healthcare of the employees of Wal-mart. I have recently read that “1,558,000,000 is the price tax payers pay to support Wal-mart employees, a multi-billion dollar company.” This to me is absolutely ridiculous because in the same text there is also information presented in what Wal-mart DOES spend their money on, which is also absolutely ridiculous. They spend $7,137,000 plus on just anti-union things. They also pay off law suits that are filed against them.

Also since Mr. Walton has died, his catch phrase and motto for buy more for less has gotten a new meaning, in more than one way. The customer can buy things cheaper because as mentioned in previous blogs, the products are not made in America. Another way that this motto has changed is that while Wal-mart is decreasing the price on a majority of things, they are also increasing the price on many things to make up for the loss that they get by making products cheaper. Wal-mart sneakily makes the costumers believe that their products cost less,so they believe that EVERYTHING costs less, while this in fact is no true, some actually cost more than they would in similar stores.

Since Walton has passed away, the family, CEO’s and others in charge of Wal-mart have turned it around into something which Mr. Walton did not stand for and probably would not approve of.

 

http://cbear27.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=44&message=6

Wal-mart is unethical

Wal-mart is unethical for many reasons, one being the pay that they give their employees, fool costumers and refuse to be a part of a union.

Because Wal-mart is not part of a union, they start paying their employees at under the union wages. They prohibit their employees to talk to any union representatives and do not take complaints within the corporation. The majority of Wal-mart workers end up quitting within their first year of working because the company is so unethical and wrong in their pay wages, forbidding any associations with unions and bribing them out of unions.

It is also shown that Wal-mart pays their women employees differently then the men and that they do not give them equal chance in promotions and job training. They have been charged with not providing equal employment for women. They need to stop discriminating against women.

Since they are not in a union, Wal-mart is not paying their employees fairly considering how successful of a company they are I do not think that it would hurt them. The adverage worker get $12,000-17,000 a year, and that is not enough to support a family, and a majority of their employees have children. That amount is also below the poverty line. The company’s reasoning is “Wal-Mart’s ultimate defense is that it offers lower prices and somehow that justifies all sins.” So by giving low prices, that results in a pay cut for their workers? i think not, they are buying their products unethically as well because they promote that they buy american manufactured goods, when in fact they are outsourcing and buying all their goods from China. Wal-mart is doing this because it is cheaper, so if its cheaper then why cant they increase the employees’ pay with all the profit that they make?

http://www.freeonlineresearchpapers.com/walmart-unethical-business-practices

Walmart Cleanliness and Safety

This is  recap on a blog stating that Target is better than Walmart becuase many people feel safer when shopping at Target. The state of the Target stores tend to be cleaner and remain cleaner as long as they are staying in business. Many of the Walmarts on the other hand tend to go down hill from the moment from which they open. Many people find that the people working in Target are more friendly and willing to help the costumers while those working at Wal-mart arent so much, they are looking more at the clock. Customers also found the bathroom conditions to be rather nasty where as Target’s re up-kept and clean. Back to the customers, many felt that as they a for help in Wal-mart, the employee wasnt even sure of where the products were kept. There is a lacking of knowledge and mannorisms shown in Wal-mart when compared to Target. When surveyed, people also associated crime with Wal-mart more than Target, resulting in a safer feeling shown towards Target.

http://steve-olson.com/10-reasons-target-is-better-than-wal-mart/

Walmart vs. Small Town

As often as you hear that Wal-mart is putting out small town family owned businesses, someone points out thats this is not necessarily true. Many of these small town family owned stores are not directly affected when a Wal-mart moves in and becomes the main shopping focus of the area. This was brought to my attention when and because many of the business’s are selling antiques and unique things similar. They are also soda shop type stores selling home made candies and such. The other general stores are also selling products, however like Wal-mart they are made in other countries, mostly China, so how much of a small town family store are they really? Can you really feel bad for them when their sales go to Wal-mart becuase people would rather make a “one stop shop”? Some of the sales are not lost at all becuase people from these small towns were making the long trips to distant places to purchase their necessities that they could not get form the small town stores anyways.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/165775/the_small_town_and_the_super_walmart.html?cat=3

Walmart exports business to China

As a comemrical just came on and said they save the average American family $3100 +  a year, I would like to objectify and point out that while they may be saving the American family money, they are also ruining America. They have moved their headquarters from America, to China, a nation which is becoming a very powerful nation rather quickly. While not just moving their headquarters there, Wal-mart is also purchasing over $10 billion of their products from China. So much for supporting America, it seems as thought they are supporting China more to me. The products that they are buying in China are much cheaper than those of America, which gives the company an even bigger profit off of the product. They are not using this larger profit to pay their employees or provide healthcare, so what is their point? Wal-mart could buy American products which would result in supporting the American economy with billions of dollars. With the American families jobs/ products that they produce, they would in an ideal situation, then be able to afford higher priced goods. Wal-mart could keep all of their business in America, resulting in a thriving economy, instead they are slowly taking everything out of the country and with it, America’s money.

WAL-MART DOES NOT SUPPORT AMERICA:

Over 80% of Wal-mart’s goods are bought out of the country

http://media.www.theonlinerocket.com/media/storage/paper601/news/2006/02/24/Opinion/WalMart.Ruining.American.Economy-1636506-page2.shtml

Walmart Healthcare

As i read an article stating the true facts about Wal-mart that people don’t know the truth about, i read the health care part and was not shocked at all, sadly. Wal-mart does not cover a majority of their employees who are working in the stores, the retail employees. The retail employees, who mentioned in my previous post, do not make a decent income, in fact they fall below the poverty line, however, the healthcare effects them the most because it either does not cover them, or they spend 20-50% of their below poverty income on their healthcare plan.

Wal-mart should be more committed to help supporting their employees, especially when they are doing extremely well in this poor economy. The company has a remarkable amount of money that they could use to help out these employees yet do not cover them. If the employees were covered then they could afford their day to day life.

Walmarts Underpay

As i looked up facts about Wal-mart I started to read about the pay they give their employees. Wal-mart’s retail employees do not get to work a full 40 hour week, instead they work 34 hours a week. This does not allow these employees to qualify for a full time job, so they do not receive the benefits of working full time. The employees are paid $10.84 an hour, which added up on their 34 hour weeks, puts them earning under the poverty mark for income in the United States. While these people are earning under the national poverty income, there are people in the headquarters and CEO’s earning several millions, MILLIONS.

There are billions of dollars out there that Wal-mart could add to the income of their retail-employees that would help increase their income, and because they are not doing this, it makes me personally not like their company. I think that it is awful that they as a corporation do  not let a majority of their workers work the full 40 hour week and make a livable incomes. If they are going to not allow the 40 hour work week then I think that they should increase the pay amount so that their income is still livable and that they can support themselves, let alone their family off of it. I think that the reason why i think that their pay is so unreasonable is because i know that they could, as a company, afford to increase the pay for the retail employees. Overall, Wal-mart is cheating their employees.

 

 

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/#anti-union

Walmart Vs. Target Audience

After reading the article below comparing Walmart to Target, if you had the proposed idea that Target and Walmart were similar in all ways, selling the same things and having similar audiences, this idea will we corrected. The article contrast the two stores.

Walmart tends to lean towards a different audience than Target. Walmart’s audience is more towards people who need the  necessities and are paying with cash, checks, or money orders. Target’s audience is aimed more towards homeowners, and people making their purchases with credit or debit cards. Many of Walmart’s customers are there for groceries while at Target, not so much. There are many differences based on their audience as to why the stores are different because of what the purchasers are buying. These are reasons why both are doing well in different areas.

http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/1916723#

Introduction

I chose to compare and contrast Walmart to other business’s in America that are similar; Target, Best Buy, Cosco… All that advertisements on the television, news paper, magazines and radio have you believe is that it saves an American several hundreds of dollars a year if you decided to make your purchases there because their prices are so low. However throughout my many post that I will be making i would like to continuously update viewers about how Walmart is actually doing more damage to America than it has you believing.