TOP TEN REASONS TO SHOP ANYWHERE BUT WAL-MART
1. WAL-MART TAKES AWAY THREE LOCAL JOBS FOR EVERY TWO
IT CREATES - AND THEN PAYS POVERTY WAGES.
Because Wal-Mart uses a lower employee ratio than many stores,
it replaces only two-thirds of the retail jobs lost when it
puts local stores out of business. And because Wal-Mart has
variously defined full-time work as 28 to 34 hours per week,
these new jobs nearly always mean a drop in income for store
workers. In 2003, the average full-time Wal-Mart employee
made about $14,000, an amount below the federal poverty line
for a family of three. Less than half of all Wal-Mart employees
have health care coverage (as compared to more than two/thirds
coverage for workers nationally), with local hospitals and
taxpayers making up the gap. Even with coverage, a single
Wal-Mart employee choosing the cheapest health plan available
may have to spend as much as $6,396 - nearly half his or her
annual salary - before benefits kick in. Wal-Mart stores average
almost 50 percent employee turnover annually, with many stores
reaching 100 percent annual turnover. As the San Francisco
Chronicle observed: "If you earn a livable wage...you
can probably buy all your monthly needs at Wal-Mart. But that's
because the average Wal-Mart employee cannot do the same."
(Sources: Business Week; How Wal-Mart Is Remaking Our World,
Jim Hightower; San Francisco Chronicle; Wal-Mart: An Example
of Why Workers Remain Uninsured and Underinsured, AFL-CIO,
October 2003)
2. WAL-MART PUTS LOCAL STORES OUT OF BUSINESS.
Wal-Mart routinely engages in a practice known as "predatory
pricing" to put local competition out of business. When
it opens a new store, it sells products at that store below
wholesale price, drawing customers away from local shops.
With over 4,700 stores worldwide and annual profits of over
$7 billion, the chain easily absorbs this temporary loss.
Once competitors close, Wal-Mart raises its prices and moves
on to its next new store. The effects can be devastating.
In Oklahoma City, 30 supermarkets closed after Wal-Mart saturated
the area with supercenters. In Kirksville, Missouri, a newly
opened Wal-Mart supercenter quickly put out of business four
clothing stores, four grocery stores, a stationary store,
a fabric store, and a lawn-and-garden center; the local daily
paper lost major ad revenues from these closures and began
to struggle also. (Sources: Business Week; How Wal-Mart
is Remaking Our World, Jim Hightower; Puget Sound Business
Journal)
3. WAL-MART ROUTINELY DISREGARDS LABOR LAWS.
Wal-Mart is the biggest private employer in the US with more
than 1.1 million workers, yet its labor practices are among
the worst. Cases against Wal-Mart for forcing employees to
work off the clock without pay are pending in 25 states. Nearly
1 million women have filed the largest class action suit ever
against the corporation, charging massive sex discrimination
in pay levels and promotions. Nationally, Wal-Mart has sparked
more lawsuits for disability discrimination than any other
corporation, and in Maine alone, it has been cited for 1,400
violations of child labor laws. The National Labor Relations
Board has issued more than 40 formal complaints against Wal-Mart
for using illegal tactics to deny its workers the right to
unionize. The corporation also faces federal racketeering
charges for repeated use of illegal aliens on cleaning crews.
Regarding Wal-Mart, a top Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
lawyer told Business Week, "I have never seen this kind
of blatant disregard for the law." Is this the kind of
behavior we are willing to accept from our nation's largest
employer? (Sources: Business Week; How Wal-Mart Is Remaking
Our World, Jim Hightower)
4. WAL-MART DOES NOT HAVE THE LOWEST PRICES - AND WAS
ORDERED TO STOP SAYING SO!
For many years, Wal-Mart used the slogan "Always the
Lowest Price. Always." But when the National Advertising
Review Board, funded by the Better Business Bureau, investigated,
they found the "lowest price" claim to be false.
Ordered by the Review Board to change its slogan, Wal-Mart
switched to "Always Low Prices. Always." - a tagline
so close to the original that many still perceive Wal-Mart
to have the lowest prices. In fact, shopping basket comparisons
by newspapers in Arkansas and Texas found that Wal-Mart is
not the cheapest place to shop. A survey conducted by a Texas
Press Association staff member in the Austin area found K-Mart
had lower prices than Wal-Mart on average. (Source: How
Wal-Mart is Destroying America and What You Can Do About It
by Bill Quinn)
5. WAL-MART COSTS YOU MONEY AT TAX TIME.
A congressional report released in February 2004 found that
one 200-person Wal-Mart store costs taxpayers about $420,750
per year - or $2,103 per employee. These numbers reflect subsidies
for federal school lunch programs, housing assistance, state
and federal health coverage, low-income energy assistance
for Wal-Mart's working poor. Taxpayers are forced to pick
up the tab for Wal-Mart employees because the largest corporation
on the planet refuses to cut into its own profit margin to
pay its workers a living wage.
http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/WALMARTREPORT.pdf
6. WAL-MART LEADS IN KILLING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING JOBS.
Despite past claims to "buy American," the vast
majority of Wal-Mart products are now made in cheap foreign
sweatshops, where safety and environmental laws are virtually
nonexistent. Wal-Mart has become the largest importer of Chinese-made
products in the world - accounting for 10 percent of all US
imports from China. In fact, if Wal-Mart were a country, it
would be China's 8th largest trading partner, ahead of Great
Britain and Russia! With the average Chinese worker earning
only 40 cents an hour and Chinese currency enjoying a 40 percent
advantage over the dollar, the playing field is so uneven
that US manufacturers simply can't compete absent a commitment
from consumers and major retailers. Thousands of American
manufacturing jobs have already been lost, with an estimated
1300 US textile plants set to close by 2006.What are the long-range
consequences for our working middle-class when the planet's
largest retailer abandons American-made products? (Source:
Southwest Farm Press)
7. WAL-MART DOES NOT HELP GROW THE CITY'S SALES TAX BASE.
A recent study by Mississippi State University Extension
Service found that for every gain in sales by Wal-Mart supercenters,
there was a corresponding loss in sales for local businesses.
In fact, general merchandise sales decreased nearly annually
after the opening of the first supercenter in any area. Sales
tax revenues don't increase when Wal-Mart opens a new store;
they just shift from existing stores. The city pays for more
infrastructure and services to support the supercenter, yet
its sales tax revenues remain flat. (Source: The Economic
Impact of Wal-Mart Supercenters on Existing Businesses in
Mississippi, Mississippi State University Extension Service).
8. WAL-MART ALREADY OUTNUMBERS OTHER RETAILERS IN AUSTIN
BY MORE THAN TWO TO ONE.
The current Austin area phone book lists ten Wal-Marts (five
regular; five supercenters) plus four Sam's (owned by Wal-Mart);
with two more supercenters now approved, the total number
of Wal-Mart-owned stores will soon be sixteen. Its nearest
competitor, Target, lists only six stores in the Austin phone
book, followed by six Weiners, three K-marts and other chains
such as Penney's, Sears, World Market, Bath & Beyond and
Old Navy. Though Austin consumers still enjoy a healthy range
of shopping choices, Wal-Mart already dominates Austin's
retail landscape with more than twice as many stores as its
nearest competitor. Its proposal to add eleven more supercenters
to Austin stands to skew the balance even further. As Wal-Mart
continues to put competitors out of business and the range
of choices shrink, what is the ultimate benefit to the Austin
consumer?. (Source: SBC Greater Austin Yellow Pages and
Business White Pages)
9. WAL-MART'S PROFITS DO NOT STAY IN OUR COMMUNITY.
Recent studies in Maine and in Austin found that for every
$100 spent at Wal-Mart or other national chain retailers,
only $14 stayed in the community. But when that same $100
was spent in local stores, $45 stayed in town - three times
the amount! While this ratio is not unique to Wal-Mart, the
Maine study also found that Wal-Mart, in particular, contributed
only a fourth as much to charity as local businesses. By contrast,
Target donated twice as much to charity as Wal-Mart and routinely
bought local advertising, boosting community investment. Wal-Mart
does not generally buy, bank or advertise locally. (Source:
Institute of Local Self-Reliance, Mid-Coast Maine Study, 2003,
http://www.newrules.org/hta/hta0903.htm)
10. WAL-MART IS THE BIGGEST COMPANY ON THE PLANET. IF
IT DOESN'T TAKE THE LEAD ON CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY, WHO
WILL?
Wal-Mart is now the largest corporation in the world, with
$244.5 billion in sales in 2003. It generates twice as much
in total net profits each quarter as the entire rest of
the retail sector combined - including Target, Sears,
Safeway, J.C. Penney's, K-Mart, Old Navy and every other store
you can name. Now the largest grocer in the US, Wal-Mart occupies
the top spot on the Fortune 500 list and posts annual profits
over $7 BILLION. Yet this enormously rich corporation refuses
to pay its own way, depending on taxpayers to pick up the
tab for its poverty-wage employees. It leads the industry
in labor law violations and discriminatory employment practices.
It relies on foreign suppliers to undercut American manufacturing
jobs, without regard for human rights, environmental regulations
or displaced US workers. Its ruthless business practices are
savaging our landscape and our economy. It's time for us,
as consumers, to take a hard look at the high cost we all
pay for Wal-Mart's low prices and demand change. Wal-Mart
has no reason to act responsibly until we do. (Sources:
Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce;
Business Week 10/6/03).
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