In survey class, we have gotten two contradicting views on Walmart. I'm not sure which one to believe anymore. The first source we got about Walmart was the movie. The movie portrayed Walmart as a corporate giant that's ruining lives and ruining our economy. In the movie, the employees and managers of Walmart told us how this great big company treats them. According to employees, Walmart suggested that the employees use government help for money, instead of just giving raises when appropriate or giving appropriate wages to begin with. They chased away employees to get help elsewhere. They made employees stay over time without the overtime pay, they hired immigrants to clean the entire store at nights, they got rid of smaller "mom and pop" businesses. In this movie Walmart was portrayed as the enemy. It didn't just seem to hurt Walmart employees though, all these employees getting help from the government is really just money from us. Our taxes get used to help these people, when there company and employer could just treat them fairly from the start.
Then we got an article in class titled "Wal-mart is Good For You"
Whoa, completely different idea right? According to this article, a recent study said that Wal-mart benefits our economy. "Wal-mart accounts for almost 6% of retail and food sales in the U.S." And despite being ever viewed as the enemy in manys eyes, still five out of six americans shopped there and 81% of people said it was a good place to shop. These people believe that Wal-mart benefits the economy because it 'awakened' the industry to work just as hard to serve lower prices to consumers. It also says that about 90% of its employees are on a health care plan, completely opposite from what the movie stated.
Which side are you taking?
