Week 8 - Walmart

MSN's homepage today featured an article about Walmart and stated why we should love and why we should hate the franchise superstore. I had to read it because I shop at Walmart quite a bit. Walmart's been criticized for putting locally-owned small town businesses out of businesses by offering very cheap prices. They do this by, according to the article, bullying vendors into cutting profits to the bone and of course by ordering in bulk. I actually kind of liked reading this article because it concluded with this statement: "In short, Wal-Mart is one of the few corporate giants still standing using the same strategy upon which it was founded: It sells discount goods at a fair price" (Macke, 2009). A lot of people think that Walmart shouldn't be allowed in certain towns, such as Valley City, because it would put other businesses out of business. It probably would because Walmart is a corporation that knows how to do business and does it well. I'm not saying that I wouldn't shop at a locally-owned over-priced business before Walmart, but I think some shop owners can learn a valuable lesson from Walmart.

On the other hand, this article tells us why we should hate Walmart. I didn't necessarily agree with everything in this article. The author argues that she hates Walmart because it usually offers its employees poverty wages (which I'm assuming she means minimum wage because otherwise it would be illegal). What's wrong with that? I worked at a grocery store for two years making just above minimum wage. It was a low skill level job that didn't require enough work to be paid more than what I was making. Sure, I thought minimum wage was too low at the time, but I wasn't expecting to make the big bucks by stocking shelves and checking grocerices. She also argues that Walmart doesn't offer its employees health insurance. To me, Walmart doesn't seem like the type of company that would offer health insurance except for maybe to its managers. She also doesn't like that Walmart insists on lowering its prices. Their low prices are what makes them so popular! If other businesses are suffering because of this, maybe they should lower their prices or offer some sort of benefit.

I do have to argue, though, that small town locally-owned businesses can't just offer as low of prices as Walmart does. I understand that Walmart is a huge corporation with plenty of resources. But, in my opinion, local shops can do other things to attract business, like for instance, keeping their shelves stocked. I'm not trying to demean Pamida or anyone who works there, but it seems like every time I go in there for something, it's not there or it is ridiculously over-priced. I would shop there a lot more if they had something more to offer me because I really do believe in supporting my local economy. I also think local businesses have the huge opportunity of being able to be personable and friendly towards its customers.

That's just my opinion on Walmart; I'm curious to here yours! Do you love or hate Walmart? Should it be allowed in Valley City?