Wal-Mart and Me

Last night I shopped at Wal-Mart for the second time this week. I was first beckoned to the store because my car battery died in New England this weekend. Wal-Mart was the closest and frankly the only store available in the community I was visiting to purchase my replacement battery. Once inside the store, I was amazed by the variety of products they offered and there unbelievable prices. Amiss I am, I bought more than the battery I enter to purchase.

Globally there is a growing debate about Wal-Mart, their low prices, low wages paid to their workers, their competition with small businesses and most importantly, the oversees sweatshop labor it takes to manufacture some of their products.

It's important to understand the dynamics of Wal-Mart or 'Wally World' as my wife refers to the store as. In order to compete with other large box stores, Target, K-Mart, etc., for customers, customers who are guilty with reason for wanting lower prices, Wally World was successful in creating a management and business portfolio that eliminates the middle man, force manufactures to cut cost-that is certainly past down to the customer- and create a store that supplies customers with the widest variety of products at the lowest possible prices.

At the end of the day, the customers are happy after they say good night to the checkout clerk and realize they just saved themselves over 30% on their purchases, had it been done at a competing store. What's not realized by us customers are the backroom abuses precipitated by the workers at Wally World, the sweatshop workers in China that worked for twelve hours stitching that $7 sweater you just both and only make the same per day, the single parent mother who works at the Wally World warehouse that isn't provided with health insurance and can't take her children to the doctor, the local mom and pop stores we enjoyed visiting that are not longer there because Wally World's low prices out competed them and drove them out of business.

It's also important to know the people that are sounding the cries of 'no to Wal-Mart.' They are International and Local Trade Unions, Social Justice and Workers Justice organizations, Liberal Communities who understands the repercussions of Wally World, and individuals who are conscious of the devious effects of having these stores in our communities.

Now we ask ourselves the questions. Why are Wally Worlds encouraged in our communities? Why are they still in existence? What are our governments doing to stop their expansion? If we examine the answers out there we would realize they all have an inherent flaw. I shopped at Wally World because of their low prices-promised to me by their welcome slogan, "We sell for less"-and so do the millions that shop their. With prevailing low wages being offered to the American worker, the constant concessions we are force to take regarding our benefits at work and our growing families we are left with no other choice. Unions cry fowl at Wally World, yet they have not be successful in garnishing the livable wages from employers for the members that they represent. Social Justice Organizations protest Wal-Mart's injustice toward their workers and the producers of their products and rightfully so, without fully understanding the dynamics of raw economics of many a Wal-Mart shoppers, needing to provide for our families on small budgets. Liberal individuals are guilty of the same myopic view of Wal-Mart, only seeing the bad side of the company without ever understanding to void they fill, and the millions of customers who depend on Wally World.

Can we assign blame in this situation? A resounding no. There are a few parallels that need to be understood and practice in our judgments. One, Wal-Mart is a store that offer lower prices. Yes there are serious ramifications involve in this process but customers are satisfied. Second, most of Wal-Marts customers are the millions of people who live on the fringes or close to the fringes and Wal-Mart fills the void in their budgets. Anti Wal-Mart-'er' rally around the negative effects of Wal-Mart without advocating for the customers of Wal-Mart to be equipped with higher wages that would allow them to shop at other stores for their products. In instances where this advocacy is strong, employers are often reluctant to provide higher wages, leaving us in the position we are in now. When an employee is remunerated with low wages, he/she finds avenues to save and make your family budget work. It’s impossible for us as customers not to shop at Wal-Mart when our employers refuse to pay the livable wages needed to effectively discourage this shopping practice. When faced with raw economic situations, customers are forced to make real economic choices. Wal-Mart is one such real economic choice.

In the end, we need to tailor the conversation in two directions. One towards Wal-Mart, lobbying their managers to employed more satisfactory employment practices, practices that elevate their workers, while profits are had. Rally with trade unions as they battle with employers to secure higher wages for employees. Riding our society of Wal-Mart would prove impossible if the latter is not achieved. We should not ask customers not to shop at Wal-Mart when we pay them salaries that equals to Wal-Mart prices. Customers are often in positions where Wal-Mart is their only hope for living from this pay check to the next. Until that is changed, like myself, many other people will continue to enjoy shopping at Wally World, where they “sell for less.”