Walmart Foreclosures

Wal-Mart’s Low Wages and Surrounding Business Closures

Since the first Wal-Mart store opened in 1962, the company has grown globally. Today, the company runs 11,500 stores and manage the website which makes about $500 billion of sales. In 2016, more than 260 million customers visited Wal-Mart (American). As this result shows, many people need Wal-Mart to buy goods reasonably. Therefore, some people say that Wal-mart helps families by offering lower-priced items. Other people say, however, Wal-Mart is not helping the community. The reasons why these people think are its low wages and effect. Most of the Walmart employees get paid almost minimum wages, and its business style causes closures of small neighborhood businesses.

Walmart runs the “warehouse-style”

An article in Forbes.Com claims that “A majority of Walmart associates in the United States are paid less than $25,000 per year” (Walmart). It is about $13 an hour wage if a worker works 8 hours a day for 20 days a month for a year. Monthly income is about $2,083 without tax withholding. It is almost at the Federal Poverty Level for four household size in 2017. With this level of income, Wal-Mart workers can’t afford to live modestly without welfare. A long-time employee in Chicago speaks to the audience at the 2013 Wal-Mart annual meeting that “she can’t afford to provide for her family on Walmart wages” (Walmart). In fact, Los Angeles Times writes because of Wal-Mart’s lower wages, many workers need the public assistance based on one study in Wisconsin (Lazo). The study finds that “Wal-Mart was first on the list of 3,216 employees enrolled in BadgerCare, the state’s Medical program” (Lazo). Many Wal-Mart workers are paid poorly that results in more

Because of its lower prices and convenience, customers prefer to go to Wal-Mart. Then, small family-owned businesses lose customers. In fact, according to the Washington Post’s survey, local businesses “closer to Wal-Mart are more likely to close than similar size businesses farther away” (Merriman). In this survey, 82 out of 306 businesses within four miles of a new Wal-Mart had closed after two years since it’s opened (Merriman). Local businesses affect the local employment, too. A recent study by David Neumark and two associates has found that retail employment results in fall after a new Wal-Mart opens (Krugman). Many people lose their jobs due to the business closures in the neighborhood. One Wal-Mart store is large enough to make longtime stores shut