Wal-Mart is often seen as a microcosm of the globalization process. Using its enormous retailing power it has been able to provide an array of consumer goods at rock bottom prices. However, it has also been widely criticized for paying low wages, a lack of adequate benefits, and driving small retailers out of business. So too, Globalization has been praised for lifting millions of people from poverty in China and India, but denounced for failing to improve the lot of most of the world’s poor, undermining living standards in developed countries as industries have migrated overseas to exploit low wage labor, and for unleashing industrial developments that have damaged the global environment. Do you believe that the impact of WalMart and the larger process of Globalization has been largely positive or negative?

my fluffed up post for mandatory school discussion board to make look longer and essay structured:


The United States is undoubtedly a nation of consumption. Two-thirds of the GDP comes from consumption, and companies like Wal-Mart have been of assistance to this. Wal-Mart is an American corporate giant. It's been long debated whether or not Wal-Mart is good for the economy or bad for the ecnoomy. While they help the developing world develop and the American household get more for cheaper, it also puts a lot of Americans out of business. But is that necessarily a bad thing?

Wal-Mart has become the store where you can buy almost anything you need for cheap. This would be attractive to anyone in any situation, so as long as they're selling for more than it costs to make, everyone will benefit from this. Instead of making multiple trips to multiple locations, you can just stop at Wal-Mart, and seeing how big and common Wal-Mart has become, it's typically a very convenient trip to make. Aside from benefiting the American household, it benefits all those around the world, notably China. It buys a good deal of goods from China, giving the Chinese people a lot of business and economic stimulation they would not have had previously.

On the flip side, what about all the Americans who go out of business due to Wal-Mart? They simply can't compete with the Wal-Mart level prices and availability. They go out of business, and we have more unemployed Americans. This looks bad, but it isn't all grim and doom. There's an economic theory which for the life of me I can't seem to remember the name of, but it basically states that todays jobs are being destroyed and outsourced in order for past holders of those jobs to train for a job that has not been created yet. This is a cycle that must be seen positively. If everyone gets stuck doing the same thing, there won't be any progression. Wal-Mart is bringing the rest of the world up progressively, and we must take a step ahead and continue to create more skilled jobs with higher benefits, pay, and output.

I think overall Wal-Mart is something that puts weaker businesses out of business, while the stronger ones flourish. Weaker business either have to adjust or go to something new they're better at, or attain a higher level of skill through higher learning institutions. Bad things now may turn into good things later, and I believe that Wal-Mart, whether they saw it coming or not, is responsible for future innovation.

Wal-Mart is good in the sense that it provides for a lot of middle-class families, arguably at the price of driving out smaller businesses. Honestly the only thing that bothers me is the whole mass cheapo product thing. Stronger businesses don't always mean better products, and I would rather pay a little more for quality.. I'd just have to prioritize what I can sacrifice being crappy and cheap (like toilet cleaner) and what can't be (clothes.. truthfully :X) for it to work within my financial situation. If Wal-Mart keeps stamping out small businesses in their effort to settle on mass-pleasing brands, where will the diversity come from? Innovation is born out of diversity.. Those businesses won't even get a chance to really develop their product. In some cases, the depletion of those businesses can mean erosion of a culture or art like soap-making. Competition between companies = happiness for everyone


As for globalization, idk.

Wal-Mart doesn't produce products, even the Sam Choice brand is just another company that has the Sams Choice logo on it. Wal-Mart is a distributaing retailer, they sell other people products. Developing products isn't in their blood.

Also it's kind of hard to use the unemployment argument. A average super Wal-Mart employees 300+ employees. So, they are really creating jobs. Most small businesses that would be effected by the opening of a Wal-Mart have a small employment base to start off with. They will still be out of a job, but the unemploymeyed people being hired at the Wal-Mart store in most cases outweighs the ones going to loose their jobs.

There really isn't much small businesses can do. If Wal-Mart has their minds set for a retail store, they will get it. They will sue until they get the land and they will fight until the death if they don't get it. In one case in the US, a county has kept a super Wal-Mart from building.

I also love when people are still using home values as a reason for not building a Wal-Mart, houses today aren't worth anything to begin with, and even if they were, NO ONE is going to buy it.

When I hear a small business complain about a new Wal-Mart I laugh, because they too wanted to be like Wal-Mart, they wanted to be nation wide, they wanted to be world wide. They wanted everything Wal-Mart has, but can't compete.

Also, the average small business doesn't know how to manage money correctly or how to compete with Wal-Mart. It's possible to do, I have seen it done. You have to know your business market, and you have to be better than Wal-Mart in every other place then price. It's not that hard, Wal-Mart sucks in a lot of other places. Customer Service is a perfect example of that.