Is Walmart Really Good for America?

Walmart currently has stores all across the Globe, and even amidst a recession, Walmart reported $401.2 billion in net sales, a gain of 7.2% from the previous year. With size and power like that, Walmart truly is a global superpower. Thought even Walmart isn’t perfect.

Walmart has been accused of being sexist towards women, having only 37% of its managers being female, a opposed to other comparable companies who boast about 57%. Walmart has also been accused of bad business practices by buying over 80% of their goods from China for cheaper than it can be made in the US. Walmart has also been known to “tell” companies what they want to buy their good for, instead of the regular “push” format where producers tell the retailers what they are going to buy, Walmart “pulls” the producers and tells them what the consumers want and what they will make accordingly. Even thought Walmart provides jobs to America, it techniques of corporate “bullying” are driving corporations over seas, and causing corporate downsizing.

Walmart buys most of it’s goods from China, and is also one of the world’s largest retail stores. This can only mean very stiff competition for American-based companies who now have to compete with Chinese companies who pay their employees 25 cents an hour, as opposed to N.J.’s 7,50$ an hr minimum wage. This enormous price difference lets Chinese companies sell their goods for lower prices than American companies can even manufacture them for, Forcing American companies over-seas to China. Every new Walmart destroys more jobs than it creates by running local businesses out of business, and in return the jobs that Walmart supplies are low pay, mostly part-time, and have little or no health benefits.

Walmart offers cheap goods to the consumers, but it comes at a grave cost-American jobs, and the loss good work conditions in retail stores. Walmart has been known to be sexist, only offer part time jobs, pressure employees to vote for certain politicians during nation elections, and “bully” companies into extremely low prices which causes downsizing-which means more job losses. Walmart seems too good to be true at a first look, and Walmart is no exception-If something seems too good to be true, it is.