Wal Mart The High Costs Of Low Price

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Wal-Mart is Bad Business? Wal-Mart is accused of doing several things to maintain their low prices. "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" was presented to us as an effective, eye-opening account of the Wal-Mart legacy of exploitation, lies, deceit and snuffing out competition, all in the name of low prices for consumers. The film illustrates how Wal-Mart takes over retail in communities, exploits its workers both in the United States and abroad and gleefully watches small retailers fail when they move into town. The author of this documentary film urges us to look into the world of big business in America that will make any viewer stop and think about what, where and how they purchase the commodities they use every day. The first of these, it is choosing to locate their stores in towns where other large retail businesses are not present in order to decrease competition. Instead, the consumers in these towns are shopping at small shops, referred to in the movie as “mom and pop stores”. When a Wal-Mart is built in these small towns, the “mom and pop stores” go out of business because the consumers begin to shop at Wal-Mart instead. By eliminating the competition in the area, Wal-Mart is able to keep low prices because all the business is going to them. Secondary, many Wal-Mart employees in the documentary movie express their dissatisfaction with the store. They are not paid well and are often unable to afford the insurance that is offered to Wal-Mart associates. Instead, they are forced to turn to government-funded programs like Medicaid. The documentary claims that thousands of Wal-Mart workers in every state use Medicaid or other similar services. Wal-Mart associates are also strongly discouraged from working overtime, and when a worker does work overtime, the time spent is not recorded, and they are therefore not paid for it. Also, Wal-Mart has been fined

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