Why Wal-Mart Does Not Strengthen Our Economy

[Joanne98]

by David Nassar
It’s tax rebate time, and no one is hungrier for the tax rebate checks arriving in mailboxes today than Wal-Mart. The retailer is advertising tax-rebate sales and has offered to cash the checks for free — all in hopes that consumers will spend their newfound money at Wal-Mart stores. But spending your tax rebate at Wal-Mart won’t stimulate the economy — and here’s why:

Despite bringing in over $378 billion last year, Wal-Mart repeatedly underpays its American workforce. More than 80 wage & hour lawsuits, including a recently certified class action lawsuit in California, are currently pending against the company. Plus, it faces more than 200 discrimination lawsuits for unfair promotion practices, pay discrepancies and other issues, including the nation’s largest workplace gender discrimination lawsuit. By failing to fairly compensate its employees, Wal-Mart cheats states out of income tax revenues.
Wal-Mart also pays poorly. While the company seeks to benefit from the government’s rebate payout, Wal-Mart’s low wages means store employees have little or no disposable income to spend to stimulate the economy. Think about what even a small raise for Wal-Mart’s 1 million+ workers would mean nationally, or what it would mean to your city or town if everyone at your local Wal-Mart got a raise.
Wal-Mart sources the vast majority of its products from countries overseas, meaning most of the cost of a given Wal-Mart product doesn’t go into the U.S. economy. Rather than boosting the U.S. economy, Wal-Mart has played a major role in exporting U.S. manufacturing jobs to countries with low labor and environmental standards. Meanwhile, the company has embraced unions in its Chinese stores and has negotiated with them to raise Chinese salaries. Apparently, what is good enough for China is not good enough here at home.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/01/8645/

[jojo54]

1. Cheap shit from China, is what I always say in regards to Wal-Mart.

And they do get you price wise, on some things. Just went there with my unemployed, pregnant daughter so she could get some food; the milk was $4.35 for 2%, higher for whole milk. There's stores here in Jersey called Wawa (convenience stores now, mind you) that sell all their milk for $3.99.

It's a damn shame that they are making a killing with this whole economy in the toilet crap going on right now. I would love to see their great dynasty go down the toilet, too.

[AndyA]

2. People: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT Wal-Mart!

And that includes Sam's Club and Murphy Oil.

They DO NOT support American jobs, and do little to support the American economy. Most of their employees are at the low end of the job scale, have low wages, and minimal if any benefits.

Wal-Mart forces American manufacturers to lower prices where they make almost no profit, but must comply if they want Wal-Mart to sell their items. Most of Wal-Mart's merchandise comes from overseas where job conditions are horrific. American manufacturers cannot compete fairly due to the wide gap in protections that must be provided here in America, and which are not considerations overseas.

Wal-Mart is responsible for many small family-owned businesses closing their doors. This collectively puts many out on the street without a job.

You are not saving money by shopping at Wal-Mart, you are putting American workers out of jobs, and you are pouring cash into China's economy, where they compete with us for oil, increasing demand and raising the cost we pay at the pump.

Supporting Wal-Mart is about as un-American as anything I can think of.