For untold millions, Walmart is not simply a place to shop, but the place. Considering that the quintessential big-box retailer claims to, and often does, offer just about every conventional item necessary for the family at an affordable price, this should be none too surprising. However, at what cost does this convenience come, and in the grander scheme of things, is what Walmart has to offer really convenience at all? The company’s ownership would most definitely say so, as would throngs of eager consumers. Many economists, social scientists, and former employees, though, have a strikingly different opinion. While one can choose to believe whichever side of the argument he or she likes best, where do the facts lie?
First and foremost, it should be known that every single American taxpayer is essentially footing the bill for Walmart’s mere existence. According to Reuters, this is because, as a study published last year by the City University of New York’s Hunter College Center for Community Planning showed, company employees receive inadequate health insurance coverage and in turn are left with few other options than to apply for public assistance. Beyond providing a lack of medical benefits, Walmart’s presence in most regions, says the study, "Depresses area wages....pushes out more retail jobs than it creates, and results in more retail vacancies."
Across New York City, especially in the borough of Brooklyn, a groundswell of activism has resulted in widespread hostility toward any Walmarts breaking ground. Such a pressing issue has accomplished a rare feat: putting businesses, public officeholders and private citizens on the same side of an argument.
Speaking to Reuters, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has referred to the opening of a Walmart as being a "Trojan horse." He went on to say that though Walmart is, "Appealing to a lot of families who are hurting....it turns into a big problem in the long term because of the net elimination of jobs." Mark Tanis, the proprietor of a local shopping center, is more blunt, "[Walmart] would be a disaster. It would have a detrimental impact on our area." Walmart spokesman Steve Restivo questioned the validity of their concerns, claiming that the establishment of Walmarts around New York City would bring economic revival and better opportunities for grocery shopping. The Walmart corporate apparatus believes that the Center for Community Planning report which lent credence to many New Yorkers' fears is based upon "randomly selected statements from....flawed studies."
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dr Joseph S Maresca
We really need to make considerable investments in the electronic infrastructure so that workers can utilize the internet as an income producing source. We are not there yet although the technology is becoming more affordable with every passing day.
With regard to health care, we are still in the disease management mode rather than the health and wellness mode. This country simply will not take the required steps to get rid of junk food in order to create a cheaper health care system for all.
2 - MomShopsElsewhere
Please stop shopping at this monster. Continue to spread the word about how dangerous it is to allow it to ruin America.
3 - Mark
I worked for WalMart for a period of time a long time ago. In fact, it's been 10 years since I left the company. Not so long ago I was back in the store I had worked at and was talking to one of the few employees that was still there from my time there. She tells me that WalMart is pushing to make everyone they can part time and is finding any way to push out full time people -- only so they don't have to provide benefits. She tells they fired a number of full time people in the weeks prior finding any reason they could to fire them.
This doesn't surprise me in the least. The company does not care at all about the people who work for them. Instead it's focus is on the bottom dollar and the bottom dollar only. The company doesn't seem the people who work for them as people -- they see them as replaceable.
Everyone needs to do themselves a favor and NOT shop at WalMart.
4 - PushBackNow
Reuters and the liberal denagrate agrat corporation with pure unadulterated lies and garbage. God bless WalMart they have done FAR more good for America than the unprincipled demagogic unions are doing now.
5 - MittRomney
Smoke weed everyday
6 - ghostbuddy
So walmart can provide identical services in a region with fewer employees, and thats seen as a bad thing? By that logic the agricultural revolution or any revolution in society for that matter was a bad thing , because the increased efficiency (temporarily) displaced workers. The only thing more despicable than the belief that employers have an unavoidable responsibility to pay for their employees healthcare, is the belief that workers should depend on their boss to provide them with healthcare. Thats the ironic part, you talk about workers rights but your suggesting bosses have more power over their employees. If you want you fight the
7 - Brian Macker
Stop voting for idiot politicians that make taxpayers pay for other people's problems and you've solved the issue. It's not Walmart's fault the government likes to redistribute income.
8 - Robert
Communities have every right to control what type of stores they have locally -- they can keep out Walmart and the "big box" stores.
Of course, the result will be people will leave the local area and go to the Walmart in the next town, taking revenue out of the local economy and injecting it into a neighboring one.
Also, understand that there is a far greater number of shoppers than employees -- making all these shoppers pay an extra 10 bucks per trip is far more harmful to the local economy.
Efficiency can be hard to deal with -- people had issues with the Agricultural Revolution -- people had problems with the Industrial Revolution ... both where considered dehumanizing at some level (and rightfully so)...
Yet, the dumbest thing we could possibly do as a country already falling behind on the world stage is to try to encourage inefficiency and waste.
9 - Edward
Local governments should make any store over 50,000sqft and over 100 employees have medical facilities including a doctor and nurse, and open to the public if they haven't provided medical insurance for their employees.
10 - ghostbuddy
*you're
If you want to fight for wider access to healthcare services go after the patent system , and the 19th century education system that is responsible for a healthcare professional bottleneck. I can get access to more university lectures, textbooks, and far more interactive educational material on the internet for free than I could ever find in an actual university. Why can't I jump through some hoops to prove I know what I know, inorder to get accredited? The question shouldn't be why does Walmart pay its employees so little, but why do employees continue to work for walmart despite low wages ? A lack of alternative jobs, rising tuition costs, barriers to entry preventing them from starting their own buisness, etc. Those are the real problems, solve those and you'll stop wages from depreciating. If jobs are scarce and the unemployed are abundant, worker bargining power decreases, and wages decline. This Walmart witch hunt has to stop, at its worst it is a clear, visible, symptom of a far larger problem. At its best it is one of the most economically efficient retailers in the world, that gives its customers a huge consumer surplus.
11 - Jack W
Ghostbuddy,
Your education problems aside, a big part of the problem with Wal-Mart is the market in which they operate. A few regulations, like the kind that helped America move away from a robber baron economy into a more middle class based one, could be implemented to level the playing field without hurting Wal-Mart's bottom line too much. The Walton family has multiple billionaires all of whom are adding to their outrageous personal net worth year after year on the backs of those at the bottom of their chain who they rely on but endlessly squeeze.
We can't "punish success" with taxes, so why should the successful be allowed to punish their workers by holding their rights hostage, closing stores at the mention of unions, better wages, healthcare, etc?
Labor rights need to make a strong comeback in this country or we are doomed to a repeat of 1920-30's style recession, where people truly are starving/grifting/conning and we have bread lines and riots.
It's great to be successful, but when you hoard wealth to the point of obscenity while denying wages/healthcare/benefits just because you can, well, you become an easy target. Just read the article, CostCo *does* the things WalMart can and should do, it's not some unreachable goal for them. The Walton family is just disgustingly unfair with their policies, and people are starting to notice. Nemesis has taken flight and cast his shadow over anti-egalitarian capitalism.
12 - Jack W
*her shadow.
13 - Dr Dreadful
I shop at Wal-Mart as seldom as possible because, no matter how low the prices are, I always come away feeling as if I need to take a shower.
The people who shop there can be a source of amusement, but the people who work there often seem miserable. I can see why, but I don't need a shopping experience like that.
14 - PAULA CLOAT
And the majority of their items are made in China...not America...just remember, you get what you pay for!!!
15 - Glenn Contrarian
Doc -
Me too. I deliberately choose to shop at Lowe's and Fred Meyers and the Navy Exchange even though I know I'm going to pay more and even though the first two are not much better...but I avoid Wal-Mart whenever I can.
16 - Glenn Contrarian
And it's interesting that this article has brought quite a few whose names I don't recognize. Good to see!
17 - Zen Munster
Sorry but seriously, this is what capitalism is. You asked for it and you got it. You can't cry about Walmart screwing other businesses because they offer the same products for cheaper.
And the argument that they are not good employers is also hollow. If people don't like them and the benefits they provide, then don't to work for them. It's simple, this isn't bonded labor; just quit and go work for some other retail chain. You can't cry about there not being other jobs because then you should be happy that you have a job to begin with. It's all about supply and demand.
Free market forces and competitive advantage will decide who comes out on top and who is the government to say otherwise? Since when did America become a socialist country?
18 - Ronald
I shop at Wal-Mart as often as possible.
I also have worked for Wal-Mart between real jobs and have had a wonderful experience. Also, without union interference I was able to negotiate my pay as there was very few skilled people in my position. If you are wondering I worked in the Automotive Center.
Also, This article bring almost no proof of any of its claims. It makes 1 reference to a study done by City University of New York's Hunter College Center for Community Planning. A group who after looking at the website seems to be extremely biased just based on a few articles in the "Recent news" section.
Clearly, the problem isn't Wal-Mart its the government. You remove government from the equation and you will find that healthcare cost being burdened on taxpayers isn't the result of Wal-Marts corporate policy.
19 - J Henry
Just look at the employees dental condition and tell me you feel good shopping there
20 - Igor
I shop about every other month at Walmart but I actually buy almost nothing. Most people buy a lot of their food, but I buy almost nothing. Frankly, I can't even understand how people can make meals out of the Walmart products since they are all packaged, frozen, dryed, preserved and otherwise perverted. Walmart has NO basic appeal to me since I prepare fresh foods at home. Usually I take some of their trail mix, which is about as good as anyone elses, and a box of saltines, which will last a month.
There are two excellent neighborhood hardware stores nearby which always have what I want, and even a slightly elevated price doesn't matter.
Who needs walmart?
21 - Dana Everson
As a truck driver who has delivered to many a Walmart Distribution Center, I find you article a little lacking in fact and information. There are a lot more employees than just those that work in the stores. From warehouse people to their own fleet of trucks, Walmart employs many full time employees and the ones that I talked to at the Distribution centers are full time with good benefits and compensation. There has been and always will be young people that need a job. There are also the under educated that are not equipped to work anywhere except at the "big box" stores or fast food joints. Good benefits and pay are based on the job. They are not a right, they are earned. To condemn Walmart or any of the other big box stores for low wages and poor or non existent benefits is asinine. I don't think anyone is holding a gun to anyone's head and making them take the job.If you don't like the pay, find another job. Stop trying to justify the entitlement mentality of the left wing that thinks every employer has to pay a union scale wage with a cadillac benefit package. If you don't like entry level wages, get educated, get a better job, take responsibility for your own life and quit looking for someone else to take care of you.
22 - D. Senate
I don't know why the author of this article doesn't go to his local Walmart and hire one of it's employees full or part time, for a year, on whatever terms are mutually agreeable.
The author of this article may thereby start a revolution, a real competition for who will pay present Walmart employees the most for their work.
Then "first and foremost" because of this author's encouragement by example Walmart will no longer be able to rely on taxpayers for it's existence.
I look forward to the author's possible follow up article, don't you?
Posted by D.Senate
23 - Dr Dreadful
D. Senate, I didn't realize that in order to be critical of a corporation in this country one had to become its competitor.
Is this like when someone says it's thanks to the military that you have the freedom to criticize the war in Afghanistan, so you should shut up?
Next time we hear you bemoaning the poor form of a football team, can we expect you to buy out the contract of one of its players and start your own team?
24 - Rob
They can fall. The same was said about woolworths.
25 - D. Senate
Dr. Dreadful:
I'm sorry it's also easy not to realize I was suggesting it's lack of competitive demand for workers that is the primary economic principle responsible for the worker misery you alluded to in your comment above (#13).
It's also easy not to realize you don't have to become a Cosco or even a retailer to compete for Walmart's employees.
You just need to come up with something to help workers create more value by worker contribution . . . and then follow up on your approach.
But hey, now you've got me Dreadful of Walmart.
At least I'm still working on the FreedomIncomeTax.