Walmart's Toll on America.

Kyle Mulder

21 September 2008

Professor Wayne Francis

Blog post #2

We have all shopped at Walmart at some given time of our life, but most of us do not think about the cost of getting that low price. Walmart has beaten its competitors prices and has taken their business. Walmart has outsourced all labor and imported almost all the companies goods. Bad ethics has become a trend in American business. On these points, I do not think Walmart is good for America.

The first Walmart was opened in 1962 by Sam Walton. Sam Walton's theory was simple, to buy wholesale items at a low price and carry a variety of products. His theory worked, he beat his competitors prices and they would lose business. While Sam Walton was alive, all of Walmart's products were made in the United States, which would create American jobs. Sam Walton died in 1992 and the company was given to his family.

When Sam Walton's family took over Walmart they became greedy, they outsourced all labor to countries around the world including China. Out sourcing helps our consumers but it hinders us by taking away thousands of American jobs. The Walton’s are worth over one hundred billion dollars and yet they donate a small portion of their income. Bill Gates donates over half of his income every year to charities and other government programs. The Walton's went on a Walmart rampage and tried to put a Walmart in every city and town in America and the world. The company forced thousands of mom and pop stores to close their doors, and many small chains to close. When Walmart comes into a town they replace all the high paying jobs of a small business with more lower paying jobs at a Walmart super center.

Walmart is not the only company that seems to have bad work ethics. Enron was called “America’s most innovative Company” by Fortune magazine, but the ceo's wanted to make a couple million dollars and lied about Enron's financial standpoint, as a result the company went bankrupt. Lehman Brothers was founded in 1850, which is over a hundred and fifty years ago. The Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy September 13, 2008. The Lehman Brothers went bankrupt due to lending money to groups of people considered high risk. The people then declared bankrupt which would, in turn hurt the Lehman Brothers. These examples of bad work ethics are not the same as Walmart's but could have the same ending as a result of the Walton's work ethics.

Sam Walton started out on a good idea. Today, however, Walmart has become somewhat of a monoploy. Walmart has beaten all of its competitors. Walmart's future depends on the Walton family. In this present day and time Walmart does not look good. The Walton family does not seem to have concern for their company's employees, or the citizens of America. The Walton's only care about having billions of dollars in their bank accounts.