Wal-Mart is profitable primarily because 1) they have the tightest supply chain in the business, 2) they’re able, due to their size, to wring every penny out of their suppliers (and forcing them to manufacture in China in the process), and 3) they pay their people poorly. The people who shop at Wal-Mart see the one-dollar tub of pork rinds and think it’s heaven on earth. What they don’t see, however, is the fact that they’re also paying to subsidize the company with their tax dollars. Here are just a few examples:
Wal-Mart sales clerks made an average of $8.23 an hour–or $13,861 a year–in 2001. That’s nearly $800 below the federal poverty line for a family of three. (Source: Business Week)
In Georgia, Wal-Mart employees are six times more likely to rely on state-provided health care for their children than are employees of any other large company. (Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Reliance on public assistance programs in California by Wal-Mart workers costs the state’s taxpayers an estimated $86 million annually. (Source: UC Berkeley Study)
Wal-Mart is a Welfare Queen. Pass it on.
5 Comments
While not a direct connection to your entry, this web-site highlights the economic impact difference between chain and local businesses. It’s pretty amazing if you haven’t seen the work these guys have done. They did a study a year or two ago in Austin that showed that a borders-type retail chain provides less than a third of the positive economic contribution that a locally owned book and record store brings. The work that these guys at Civic Economics are doing is really quite important, I think.
Check them out
http://www.civiceconomics.com/Andersonville/>/a?
Thanks for the link, Dan. I haven
The Daily Show on Wal-Mart:
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/002392.php
salon.com did an article on Wal-Mart a couple of years ago and compared it to Costco. It talked about the glass ceiling for women at Wal-Mart and its exceptionally high turnover rate. Costco, on the other hand, has exceptionally LOW turnover and offers health care and pays their employees a semi-livable wage. Wal-Mart really is the Evil Empire.
as long as the spam bot has brought us back here, I hear that a Costco is going in at Jackson/Zeeb area. They’re the ones with the not craptastic CEO and policies right?