The Costs Of WalMartization Of America

[CVX]

For the first time in history, demarcating the beginning of the 21st century, the biggest company in the world was not an oil concern or an automobile manufacturer, but Wal-Mart, a supermarket chain. The symbolic value of this fact weighs as much as its crushing implications: it is the "triumph" of the anonymous, the substitution of the traditional way of acquiring what we need to feed ourselves, take care of our houses, tools and even medicine, traditionally involving interpersonal relationships, for a new one which is standardized, "mercantilized", and where we know progressively less about who, where and how or under which conditions what we buy is produced. Now, we can theoretically buy everything under the same roof, and even though goods seem cheaper, which actually is an illusion, the whole paradigm can end up being very expensive. To buy today at Wal-Mart may mean losing one's own job or contributing to the loss of somebody else's in your family or community sometime down the line.



Wal-Mart's policy of low prices is maintained while there are other places to shop in the same community. When the other shops go under, not able to compete, nothing prevents Wal-Mart from raising their prices, which the company invariably ends up doing. Wal-Mart has had a devastating influence in those communities where it showed up, and according to Wal-Mart Watch, an organization of citizens affected by the company's policies, for every two jobs that are created when it moves into a community, three are lost.



Wal-Mart is 19th among the 100 most powerful economies in the world - only 49 of which are now countries. Sam Walton's widow and their four sons control 38 percent of its shares. In 2004 they were sixth among the richest people in the world, with about 20 billion dollars each. If Sam Walton was alive he would be twice as rich as Bill Gates, who is number one on the list with 46 billion. Both are a clear expression of the modern megamonopoly and the control that they exert over consumers. These monopolies are of course intent on increasing their control. Wal-Mart, it could be argued, has the biggest impact, as it sells such a wide range of products and it wields tremendous power over suppliers - and politicians.



It is the biggest chain of direct sales to the consumer in North America. In the US it has over three thousand Wal-Mart stores and 550 Sam's Club outfits. In Mexico it already possesses 54 percent of the market, with 687 stores in 71 cities, including Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Bodegas Aurrera, Superama and Suburbia, aside from the restaurant chains Vips, El Porton and Ragazzi. It already controls very large sectors of the market in Canada, Great Britain, Brazil, Germany and Puerto Rico, and its influence is on the rise in many others, Japan, for example.



It is the biggest private employer in the United States and Mexico. In the few decades it has been in existence it has accumulated an amazing history of being sued for many reasons, including illegally preventing the unionizing of its workers, and just about every other imaginable violation of workers' rights: discrimination against the disabled, sexual discrimination, child labor, lack of health care coverage, and unpaid overtime. In the US 38 percent of its workers are without health care, and the salaries it pays are, on average, 26 percent lower than the industry norm. In December 2003 there were 39 class action lawsuits pending against the company in 30 different states in the US for violations of overtime laws. In a round up in October, 2003 the government found 250 undocumented foreign workers, who of course were operating in even worse conditions. In June 2004 Wal-Mart lost the largest class action lawsuit in history, where 1,600,000 women proved that they suffered gender discrimination as employees of the company since 1998.



But the company's low prices are not based only in the exploitation of its workers in the countries where it operates directly. The prices are the direct result of the systematic use of "maquiladoras" in conditions of extreme exploitation. A worker in one of these, located in Bangladesh, told the Los Angeles Times in 2003 that her normal workday was from 8 am to 3 am, 10 or 15 days in a row. This is what it took to be able to survive given the wages she was getting paid. But in the same article, the manager of the plant complained that they had to become even more efficient, as Wal-Mart was threatening to move the production to China, where it could obtain lower prices.



Read more at: http://www.zmag.org/

[LottomagicZ4941]

They are going to start an advert campaign about how they pay their workers better.

I would like to see them go union.

One lady I knew who had a vitamine store could not even buy supplements as cheap as wal*Mart was selling them.

I do buy stuff at Wal*Mart but I do feal guilty when I do.

Still the item I bought last was $7 cheaper then anywhere else. I could always tip one of the poor workers a couple bucks.

Lotto

http://www.flalottomagic.net/cgi-local/ ... elcome-344

MagicZ4941A

[weeder]

I hate Walmart. Ive always known that their goal was to put all independant business owners under. I loathe the way many people consider going to Walmart,a form of entertainment. I also cringe at the idea of everyone having the same towels,same comforters,wearing the same clothes..... I feel terrible for the workers standing there in those red smocks..paid so little... The worst thing is when I hear people say theyve given up hope of finding a job..So "I guess Ill have to go to Walmart.espite everything I say..Ocassionally if I can deal with the

madness of the place.. Ill go in for toothpaste, or shampoo or items like that. I feel ashamed when I do, Mostly, I try to support small business owners who I rely on to support me. Lowes and Home Depot are pretty much the same concept.

[gmc]

We have similar issues except there is a monopolies commission to stop one retailer getting that kind of power. Asda/walmart were blocded from taking over a competitor.

http://www.firstandbest.co.uk/T1705samples.pdf

UK Supermarkets’ market share figures (January 2004)

Tesco 25.8%

Sainsbury’s 17.2%

Asda Wal-Mart 16.6%

Safeway 9.8%

Morrison’s 6.0%

The Competition Commission finally published its report in September. It blocked the bids

of the biggest three supermarkets, arguing that a takeover of Safeway by Tesco,

Sainsbury’s or Asda would be “against the public interest.” The Morrison’s deal was

judged to be acceptable, as long as Morrison’s sold 53 overlapping stores in certain

geographical locations. It was a result that effectively gave Sir Ken Morrison the green


http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/pages/ ... rmkts4.htm

Big issue here is food safety, wait till you have BSE and salmonella or you find out about hormones in your beef.



Business: The Company File

Supermarkets face monopolies probe


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/the ... 304237.stm

[Suresh Gupta]

I am consultant to a shoe manufacturer in India which supplies shoes to WalMart. WalMart local representatives talk high but settle for anything. The main problem is minimum wages and overtime. All the workers do not get minimum wages. Overtime inefficiency spiral does not worry Walmart. When I intervene, the owners tell me not to worry as WalMart are not worried.