the high cost of low price
I watched a documentary tonight that had been skipped over in favor of final exams. It's called "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price", and it's directed by Robert Greenwald. Although it is entirely geared to Americans and plays a bit too strongly on both nationalism and christianity for my liking, it raises some valid points about the business practices of the world's largest corporation and dominant retail giant. In short: they ain't good. Of course, the documentary tells only one side of the story.
According to the film: full-time Wal-Mart associates make less than living wage, benefits packages are inadequate and the company actively encourages employees to seek state aid in lieu of corporate insurance, there is systematic exploitation and discrimination from the top levels of the corporation, their environmental policies are either abysmal or simply don't exist, and the company actively and aggressively quashes any inkling of a union at the first sign of its inception.
According to Wal-Mart: associates make higher-than-average wages for the industry, their benefits packages are generous by industry standards, Wal-Mart is an award-winning employer in terms of diversity and worker treatment, they care deeply about the environment, and unions are only out to bilk workers for dues anyway.
The truth is undoubtedly somewhere in the middle. But even Wal-Mart can't deny that the (many, many) people in the documentary are in fact ex-employees, did in fact experience the things they're talking about, and the company is in fact fighting off more tax evasion, fraud, and wage-related lawsuits than you can shake a stick at.
You should check it out. Buy it here, or get the torrent here. I don't shop at Wal-Mart often, but I think that frequency just got reduced to absolutely 0.
According to the film: full-time Wal-Mart associates make less than living wage, benefits packages are inadequate and the company actively encourages employees to seek state aid in lieu of corporate insurance, there is systematic exploitation and discrimination from the top levels of the corporation, their environmental policies are either abysmal or simply don't exist, and the company actively and aggressively quashes any inkling of a union at the first sign of its inception.
According to Wal-Mart: associates make higher-than-average wages for the industry, their benefits packages are generous by industry standards, Wal-Mart is an award-winning employer in terms of diversity and worker treatment, they care deeply about the environment, and unions are only out to bilk workers for dues anyway.
The truth is undoubtedly somewhere in the middle. But even Wal-Mart can't deny that the (many, many) people in the documentary are in fact ex-employees, did in fact experience the things they're talking about, and the company is in fact fighting off more tax evasion, fraud, and wage-related lawsuits than you can shake a stick at.
You should check it out. Buy it here, or get the torrent here. I don't shop at Wal-Mart often, but I think that frequency just got reduced to absolutely 0.
