In the article Up Against Wal-Mart, Karen Olsson exposes the largest retailer in the world by listing many of the retailer’s flaws such as worker mistreatment and discrimination. Throughout the article, Olsson uses anecdotes from employees that have worked at the company and statistics to support her arguments. Ultimately Olsson’s piece serves to harshly criticize Wal-Mart due to low pay wages, unpaid overtime, and gender inequality. From the start, Olsson relies on actual employee interviews to support her arguments against Wal-Mart. By introducing Jennifer McLaughlin, a young woman who has been working for Wal-Mart for three years but makes under $17,000 a year, the author builds tension between the worker and the company.
Olsson’s article “Up Against Walt-Mart” is an investigative reporting. Wal-Mart say “We Sell for Less” and “Everyday Low Prices”. Wal-Mart managers push the employees to the limit; they just want to see how much they can get away with without having to hire someone else. The company is the world’s largest retailer, with 4220 billion in sales, and nation’s largest private employer, with 3,372 stores and more than 1 billion hourly workers. Its annual revenues account for 2 percent of America’s entire domestic products.
“Is Wal-Mart Good For America?” affords viewers a thoughtful analysis into the dubious ethical methodologies employed by the Wal-Mart Corporation. Unquestionably, Wal-Mart is not infallible and their strict adherence to low prices has pushed other companies out of business. For example, Rubbermaid, as mentioned in the documentary, fell into Wal-Mart’s paradoxical low pricing trap and forfeited into a merger with a competitor.
In the recent years Walmart has been far our performing its top two competitors; Costco and Target. With a market cap of 212,195,024, Walmart had beaten its competitors who remain at 65,969,279 for Costco and 43,701,237 Target (NASDAQ, Competitors). This means that for Walmart, the total market of all of their goods and services far surpasses its top two market competitors. As investors, you may ask why Costco is second to Walmart’s regarding sales. Well when we take a closer look, we see that “Walmart’s treatment of its customers and employees has not always been then best.
The Truth about Walmart Being the world’s fourth largest retailer Walmart still keeps growing, and Walmart CEO earns $1,034 more per year than the average Walmart worker (Kavoussi). Karen Olsson’s article “Up Against Walmart” suggest that the growth of Walmart does not help an individual due to many job problems that are present this is important because it can affect the future of the workers. The problem and the effect in Sebastian Mallaby’s article “Progressive Walmart. Really,” suggests that Walmart helps overcome all the negative criticism of a job company. On the controversy despite their different viewpoints, both articles mention minority discrimination, corporate abuses, and health care.
"Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" gives a provocative examination of the effect Wal-Mart has had on the U.S. economy. The documentary highlights the changing connection amongst makers and the purported "big box" retailers, exemplified by Wal-Mart, that has added to the insolvency of some American organizations and a developing unemployment rate. While Wal-Mart supporters tout the upsides of one-stop, ease shopping, others are frightened at both the outsourcing that has made these low costs conceivable and how extensive retailers influence littler, neighborhood organizations. Cutting edge inspects the champs and the failures as it archives how: Worldwide retailers are superceding makers in settling on choices about item quality, sort and cost.
Wal-Mart’s competition includes Target as well as Costco. While Target sells higher quality inventory in most cases than Wal-Mart with lower profit margin, Wal-Mart was able to sell regular quality items at a small profit with cheaper prices than Target but were able to generate more net profit than Target due to the quantity sold and minimal operating costs. As for Costco Whole sale, Wal-Mart was smart to introduce Sam’s Club to rival in the Whole sale Segment. While Sam’s Club is nowhere near Costco in terms of sales or profit, it did boost Wal-Mart’s share of the market and helped increase its profit to be altogether higher than Costco Whole sale. With the power that Wal-Mart has in the market and in selling products it was able to purchase
Wal-Mart is accepting control over the lives of Americans and the American economy. With more than 9,700 stores in 28 unmistakable countries, Wal-Mart is the most sizably voluminous retailer in the Coalesces States and is well ordered surmounting comprehensively. Wal-Mart was instigated in the desires of offering minimal expenses to purchasers and stocking the most-required stock. Wal-Mart makes sense of how to keep a low supply of their things and clear the racks inconceivably quick. Their arrangement of activity has transformed into the surge without limits of America, regardless, Wal-Mart is stripping America of its minute associations and driving families from jobs.
Of Target’s main competitors, Walmart has been the most formidable Target seems to have taken a backstage to the mammoth, Walmart, but since Target has begun focusing on a few things, there are some distinct differences. Something that Target has done, that is really stepping up their foot traffic against other competitors like Walmart is remodeling their stores. Target is committed to giving the shoppers an enchanting, family experience as well as the freshest food they can (Wells, 2017). In many stores around the country, Target is revamping their store to show a more modern “hip” vibe. Another way that Target is competing with Walmart, is by offering local produce and more organic options (Wells, 2017).
I strongly agree with the author’s statement that Wal-Mart should not be allowed to build a new store in downtown Los Angeles for the following reasons: the small businesses would be forced to close down and more importantly, the wages that Wal-Mart pays are very low. I am convinced that in the present economic situation, small businesses can hardly survive from financial prices. More and more shops close their doors because of the “fierce” competition. Besides being a cause of the lessoning of the competition, the new Wal-Mart store would be an obstacle to small businesses that are trying to thrive. It is known that Wal-Mart is one of the most popular companies in the U.S.
YISHENG ZHANG MACROECONOMICS - WRITING ESSAY FEBRUARY 27, 2017 Walmart, as one of the world’s largest company it’s corporation contains grocery shopping, pharmacy, electronic sales, an outside garden etc. It is very convenient for people all around the world and low income families who are unable to afford other expensive goods made in the United States. Since Walmart is considered a world wide’s supermarket, it has investments outside of the United States such as in China, United Kingdom, and south America. When the prices are less, people are able to afford these products and throughout the century, it’s easy to tell that Walmart has made a huge impact in the United States economy.
‘Is Wal-Mart Good for America?’ On PBS Frontline, May 11, 2015 ‘Is Wal-Mart Good for America?’ is a documentary that examines the relationship between Wal-Mart’s rapid growth and its impact on the US economy ever since it blossomed in trade productivity in the mid 20th century. The documentary, published on February 2014 by PBS Frontline, conveys a deep understanding of how Wal-Mart changed the living standards of many Americans and took consumerism and retail logistics in the U.S. to another level; by cutting costs through offshore outsourcing to China and employing cheap Chinese labor. The documentary focuses on the changing relationship between big retailers and manufacturers and the transition in pricing and decision-making.
Furthermore, this paper will discuss some proposed solutions to the current ethical issues facing Walmart that could assist Walmart in its objective of continued growth in an ethical and sustainable manner. One of the major ways in which Walmart was able to grow and out compete its rivals was through its ability to provide retail goods to consumers at prices lower than competitors (Ferrell 407). Walmart ability to keep prices low is based on its ability to secure cheaply made goods from foreign manufacturers while also keeping the wages for its workforce low. The combination of cheaply made goods and a low paid retail staff means that Walmart can pass the savings to consumers which made it a popular retail shopping spot for lower to middle income Americans
Wal-Mart is a powerful and influential grocery store in America and even in the world. It has a good reputation in terms of convenience, variety and good value for money. The greatest strengths of Wal-Mart are “the consumer understanding of low prices, their market clout, their competence in information technology, and their wide store and distribution network” (Internal Analysis of Wal-Mart 2015). The company has built good reputation among consumers during several decades’
The New York Times article “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace,” written by Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld, employs effective use of multimodality to support their argument; which states: In order to achieve its lofty ambitions, Amazon maintains “unusually high standards” for its employees, resulting in a culture that puts work above all else—affectionately referred to as a “philosophy of work.” Kantor & Streitfeld primarily utilize the linguistic mode to make their argument to the reader; however, through subtle use of the other four modes, the argument is enhanced and made more effective at persuading the reader. The way in which Kantor & Streitfeld present the facts, or reasons, in a multimodal way contributes heavily in helping to explain how they have developed the
