Pros And Cons Of Wal-Mart

Improved Essays
Back in the 1940’s in Newport, Arkansas, Sam Walton started franchising a Ben Franklin’s variety store, until he came up with a bright idea. Walton went on a voyage talking to suppliers throughout the small town looking for deals to make bargains so he could bring more supplies and goods into his store. Although, retailers that manage to get bargains from wholesalers would not change the store prices just so to make profit and income from the sales. Walton knew that he could perform better in his sales by passing his savings to customers and gaining more volume which leads Walton to more profit. By the 1980’s, Sam Walton became ranked as the richest man in the United States by establishing a store, which the headquarters of the corporation …show more content…
But for this corporation to be a multi-billion dollar company, why are the workers getting paid below the wages of other employees who are competitors, which are less successful, to Wal-Mart? Sam Walton provided a statement that proves Wal-Mart is spending low-slung employee wages just so they can be “one uppers” to its competitors. With this kind of approach to a business is profitable, which leads to a strategy of failure to many of its employees that work hard to provide their kids leading themselves into poverty. An average employee receives a wage of $7 dollars an hour while working 30-40 hours week. Doing the Math, that amounts up to $13,000 a year which is very impossible to survive. In today world, there’s a trend of factors that constrain families not to take vacation with their families without the proper wages from their salary that businesses offer to them. A lot of constraints include providing food for children, their education, rising of gas prices or trying to pay your rent or mortgage (Mitchell).

Do you think that Wal-Mart is right or wrong by determining to recompense its employees’ wages while they flourish as an establishment? The act of utilitarianism ethical theory will become successfully functional to the company’s current pay scale for its employees’, permissible to speak what the company should pay its employees’ according to act utilitarianism. The initiative of this ethical theory of utilitarianism is that we the people must take action and make a difference for the best outcomes. Whether the results stand positive or negative, morality from our actions can be right or

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The book, To Serve God and Walmart by Bethany Moreton addresses how the family values of the Ozark region where Wal-Mart was brought up were incorporated into Wal-Mart’s establishment. Values such as opposition to selfishness, community contribution, and support of family were incorporated into Wal-Mart’s culture and this enabled it to succeed in Ozark, Kansas and eventually establish itself as the largest International corporation. In many ways, consumption and excessive material shopping were regarded as a sin among the Christian population of Ozark, Kansas, before Wal-Mart’s arrival. Being a small-town conservative Christian area that was ranked “at the bottom of America’s consumer hierarchy.”…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Wal-Mart has been recognized as one of the most unethical companies of this generation, the company has been getting away with multiple unethical and illegal acts for many years now. In 2010, Walmart was considered the world’s largest employer (Sethi, 2013). Some of the few unethical and illegal acts they have been accused of is, fraud, acts of bribery, corruption and mistreatment of employees with their powerful market status. Wal-mart has also been recognized one of the worst companies to work for as they have been accused on multiple occasions of underpaying their overtime workers, withholding alleged health benefits, mistreatment of employees and so on, because of which, the company has been sued on many occasions by its employees. As it’s…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Major companies are always being asked questions by consumers and other people about their business, and their business ethics. The answer to these questions, and business ethical values are crucial to consumers, and will decide for the consumer whether they would like to purchase products from that business or not. An example of an organization that faces these issues is Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is one of the largest organizations in the Unites States, and is faced with ethical problems everyday. Wal-Marts standards are all about satisfying the customer with the lower prices than any other store.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Is Walmart Good For America ? Walmart is one of the largest corporation in United States, it has transformed Lifestyle and economy of America significantly. There is positive site and negative site about it like: Is outsourcing good, do Employees get right wages, how it is helping Walmart by not forming a union, are their price strategy affecting other store, are Stores like Walmart good for neighborhoods and small town, and should Walmart sell guns.…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why Is Walmart Successful

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sam Walton, the entrepreneur who started it all, was able to accomplish success by recognizing the need for low-cost retail stores in America. Born on March 29, 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, Samuel Moore Walton was the first son of Thomas Walton and Nancy Lee. During the early years of his life, Sam was a good student and…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walmart Vs Rubbermaid

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Despite the billions of dollars Walmart brings in annually and the government rebate payout, they still repeatedly underpay their employees. And because of these low wages Wal-Mart employees have either very little or no disposable income to use and…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walmart External Factors

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In further details, this paper will indicate how they influence the areas of Globalization, advancement, innovation, diversity and morals. Sam Walton chose he needed to open a retail…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Yet, it can not pay decent wages or allow the formation of unions. Walmart is notorious for the unfair treatment of workers paying under minimum wage to workers, offering no benefits and also advertising prices that are cheaper than no other, only at the expense of humans. Parmar refers in his article to “Walmart, which employs 1.4 million people worldwide, is its failure to pay workers living wage. Store employees are paid 20-30 percent less than the industry average…”. (Parmar, 2015).…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Consumers today don 't directly see the behind the scenes actions and grievances of workers and employees within franchises and companies. Though on the surface raising wages does not seem problematic, if one were to put on the hat of an economist they would see the significant repercussions that could result. James Surowiecki and Michael Saltsman both present ideas regarding the complex topic of how to properly improve the lives of those in the workforce in an economy that is suffering in their articles “The Pay Is Too Damn Low” and “To Help the Poor, Move Beyond ‘Minimum’ Gestures.” Surowiecki believes that though there are other ways to fight poverty, simply raising the minimum wage will help drastically. In contrast, Saltsman believes that…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The company employs over 2 million employees. In the decision point, Walmart is described as well-known for “its aggressive practices aimed at controlling labor costs” (Hartman, DesJardins, & MacDonald, 2014, p. 213). Perhaps, this is the reason the company has made very unethical decisions when it comes to their employees. One way the company cut cost was by reducing the amount of money they paid toward health care costs. The company is also in the spotlight for the minimal wages they pay their employees.…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Walmart Slave Labor

    • 1395 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Wal-Mart and the use of Child and Slave Labour By Karina Da Cruz 04/13/2016 Wal-mart is known for its affordable prices. However these prices often come at a high cost to humanity. Founded in 1962, Wal-Mart grew rapidly, reaching $1 billion in annual sales in 1980 and $100 billion annual sales in 1997. Today the company employs 2.2 million associates and has 11 thousand stores worldwide as well as a massive number of suppliers overseas (About us).…

    • 1395 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The “Everyday Low Prices” Wal-Mart offers comes at the expense of many workers at different stages. Cases of unlivable wages, forced overtime work without pay, and intimidation of…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walmart is not good for America because they don’t treat their workers well, they offshore secondary jobs to china, they destroy other retail businesses who can 't compete with them, and they cause suppliers to lose money and possibly declare bankruptcy because of Walmart 's demand for such low prices. Walmart’s employment practices are no secret. Part of the reason why they can sell goods at such low prices is because they don’t pay their average employee well. This is described in the article titled Walmart raising Wage to at least 9$ by Hiroko Tabuchi. ”The retail Giant……. said that all of its retail workers would earn at least 9$ an hour by April and 10$ an hour by next February.…

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Key to Wal-Mart’s organizational culture is the understanding that its associates and the people Wal-Mart serves are its greatest assets, without which the organization could not succeed (Three Basic Beliefs, 2007). Organizational culture at Wal-Mart encompasses several key concepts, including sustainability, associate values and benefits, community giving, foundational and matching grants, scholarships, volunteerism, and personal development. Its effects are observed throughout the organization, from high level executives taking time to listen and respond to concerns of front-line associates choosing to exercise the open door policy, to employee meetings soliciting ideas and feedback from associates, regardless of tenure or location held, taking place in each of its stores. Customers experience its effects in the cheerful greeting received when entering or exiting a store and in Wal-Mart’s liberal merchandise return policies, while members of surrounding communities benefit from its community outreach…

    • 2310 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    • Few of the trends in plant layouts are as follows: • Cellular layouts within a larger process layout. • Usage of automated material handling equipment, espec8ially automated storage and retrieval systems, automated guided vehicle systems, automatic transfer devices and turntables. • ‘U’ shaped production lines (refer figure 2.2.6) that allow workers to see the entire product line and easily travel between workstations. Moreover, it allows the rotation if workers among the workstations along the lines to relieve boredom and relieve work imbalances between workstations.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays