Walmart, a boomerang

Walmart, a boomerang:

The Neo-Industrial Revolution

Walmart is of great controversies all over the world, and we can easily feel the heat when we type in ‘Walmart’ in Google or Youtube. Some nearly worship Walmart as their saviour for bringing in a lot of industries and giving great positive impact to many communities, while others are infuriated by the brutality of the company. In some of Youtube videos, Walmart employees express their anger by fierce demonstrations and creating provocative videos criticizing Walmart. The truth is, both sides are right; Walmart serves a function of a boomerang, as it seems to benefit citizens, but then people soon realize that Walmart creates a viscious cycle.

At first, after watching a Youtube video < When Walmart Comes to Town: ASuccess Story >, I was persuaded to believe that Walmart actually improves the lives of people for a moment. The video showed the complaints that the citizens of Chicago were making on lack of places to buy fresh vegetables and other materials. People were shouting, "We want Walmart so that we can have something more than some dollar stores…", and they were actually demonstrating to demand the establishment of Walmart in their town. In 2006, Chicago finally got what it wanted, and Walmart successfully fulfilled the needs of town people right away. First of all, Walmart boosted employment rate in Chicago. According to the video, statistics showed that 726 jobs were created, 298 were lost, as a result gaining 428 jobs total after the bringing in Walmart. Not only that, but also, since Walmart came in, it brought in 22 new businesses to the area, including the Bank of America, Chase bank, CVS, and Menards. As more and more businesses were coming in, Chicago kept on moving towards more economic development, also creating new streets and leading more population to Chicago. All of these make it seem plausible to support Walmart chains, as these things actually happened.

Now here’s the reality; after such seemingly-positive effects on a society, Walmart in turn exacerbates people’s lives and infuriates the employees by horrible treatments. According to a news article from REUTERS, called < Wal-Marttrims some U.S. health coverage >, Wal-MartStores Incorporation decided to no longer offer health insurance to newpart-time U.S. employees who work fewer than 24 hours a week and charge workerswho use tobacco more for coverage as healthcare costs rise. Most American businesses provide healthcare system for their employees, especially huge retailers with global chain system. Plus, the system is vital for most people, particularly those who work in Walmart, with such poor income and having nowhere else to go to earn money. Walmart simply reduces funds that are put into health care system only to produce more yields, but in the employees’ perspective, just a small reduction of funds will greatly deteriorate people’s lives.

Walmart’s atrocious acts are not only about health care systems; in fact, there exists other companies that do the same things. In an article < Wal-Mart: Merchantof Shame >, National Organization for Women (NOW) received complaints regarding workplace environment and employment practices, which include the following: sex discrimination in pay,promotion and compensation, wage abuse, exclusion of contraceptive coverage ininsurance plans, violations of child labor laws and the Americans withDisabilities Act, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Reacting to Walmart’s discrimination against women, Dukes filed a lawsuit on behalf of 1.5 million women employees, basing on extensive public records filed against Wal-Mart. However, the Judge of the case took Walmart’s side. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, "Even ifevery single one of these accounts is true, that would not demonstrate that theentire company 'operate[s] under a general policy of discrimination …Respondents have identified no 'specific employment practice'--much less onethat ties all their 1.5 million claims together. Merely showing that Wal-Mart'spolicy of discretion has produced an overall sex-based disparity does notsuffice." Now we know that Wal-Mart is actually a bad company that disguises itself as a ‘revolutionary retailer’, and also came to know that Wal-Mart power is already so prevalent all over the world that even government compromises to Wal-Mart. This situation is similar to what’s happening in Korea, Samsung group ruling over the Korean government.

To sum up, Walmart seems to bring in a lot of things and give positive impact to many communities, but viewing Walmart in long term, the situation goes back to the original state, if not worse. In this way, I would describe Wal-Mart as industrialization, since industrialization also seemed to greatly improve the lives of people with no negative impact at all, but then people understood later that there are even more disadvantages than benefits. And also, as my title indicates: A BOOMERANG.

< Sources >

 “When Walmart Comes to Town: A Success Story”, Youtube, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdtcBiaflUQ&feature=player_embedded>

“Wal-Mart trims some U.S. health coverage”, REUTERS, Jessica Wohl  <http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/21/us-walmart-idUSTRE79K43Z20111021>

“Wal-Mart: Merchant of Shame”, National Organization for Women (NOW), <http://www.now.org/issues/wfw/wal-mart.html>