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A Force to Be Reckoned With

           As Ray Ring of High Country News reports, Wamsutter, Wyoming, a town of about 750 people, was founded in 1868 by the Union Pacific Railroad, which runs through it. Built up by its residents over the years, Wamsutter has seen people come and go. Large booms occur in Wamsutter - sometimes doubling its size - due to the tiny town's devotion to specific energy industries. Ring tells readers that Wamsutter's current devotion seems to be to M-I SW ACO, an oil-patch service company. The town's mayor - nobody wants the job; it is too much work for too little recognition - is the manager of SW ACO's local steel tanks, and must deal with the town's railroad legacy running by every few minutes. At this point, Ring claims, there is almost nothing in Wamsutter, and what's left is ugly and dilapidated, due to the common "busts" the town experiences. Someday, there may be another boom that brings eager workers into Wamsutter, but the workers always seem to disappear, taking half the population with them (7­-13). Towns like this small Wyoming settlement are devastated by the introduction of large corporations that take away from local businesses and abuse employees all too often; Wamsutter is not alone in this tragedy.

          One of the most controversial corporations that often invade small communities, completely changing local way of life, is Wal-Mart. What perhaps makes the debate over the world's largest retailer's supposed "benefits" is the ~ompa11y's popularity; in "Wal-Mart Values," Liza Featherstone, writer for a weekly political magazine called The Nation, claims that "four out often American women visit one of Wal-Mart's stores weekly" (l1).1n another High Country News feature, Tim Sullivan details Inglewood, California's "stand against the biggest corporation in the world." Sullivan writes that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. wanted to "build one of its giant 200,000 sq ft 'supercenters' ...[its] discount-pharmacy-grocery stores," which would ruin the scenic, small-town feel. Of course, these huge discount stores do have their advantages, but the consequences of the retailer's introduction to a small community are often found to outweigh the advantages. For this reason, locals who exhibit ''town pride," and worry about job security and the local environment fight against the monster retailer, claiming that it would destroy all possibility of a peaceful community. Wal-Mart was a small town business in the beginning, but it quickly grew into a small town's enemy. Though its humble beginnings would suggest otherwise, the experience - and misery - of small communities hit by superstore giant Wal-Mart, the threatened environment, and the suffering employees the retailer claims to care about, all make it clear that the growth and introduction of large corporations like this one is very harmful.

          The smiling faces of employees grace banner ads framing Wal-Mart's website, and "The Story of Wal-Mart" is presented benignly in the "Wal-Mart Culture" section, the website's equivalent to an "about us" page. The site informs visitors that the store was born in Rogers, Arkansas, when Sam Walton employed his new concept of retail, an innovative business model that has helped turn the company into a wildly successful money-maker. By the end of the 1970s, Walton had watched the number of his stores grow to about 276 in 11 states. The company's web page holds that this tremendous growth was due largely to its founder's theories about customer satisfaction. He encouraged his employees to remember the customers, and stated that the only important point of view was that of the consumer. If the patrons were not satisfied, Walton claimed, the store would never be successful. According to the website, Walton was a gambler, and his gamble paid off. This, of course, would then explain why the company now has 5,000 stores and wholesale clubs in 10 countries. The low prices and quality of goods that Wal-Mart is able to offer have all contributed to a billion-dollar, worldwide corporation (Wal-Mart Stores).

          One must wonder; however, what effect expansion has on members of the communities that Wal-Mart invades. Obviously, Wal-Mart has its faults, or the country - and the world­ would be embracing the store, not voting against it overwhelmingly in towns across the nation.  Wal-Mart has been called many things, and all its nicknames are evidence of negative feelings toward the corporation; Sprawl-Mart, and Veal-Mart are the most popular (Featherstone). The former is perhaps the most telling, hinting at the true cause of such animosity towards the store whose founder is remembered so fondly. USA Today's May 2004 article about Wal-Mart's latest target writes that the store has "saturated the suburbs and is turning to urban areas for new markets" and is now trying to gain permission from the city of Chicago to build at two new locations, only a month after its rejection by Inglewood voters ("Wal-Mart Aims"). The representatives of the two areas in Chicago that would be receiving Wal-Mart stores support the introduction of the mega-retailer, hoping that it would bring in jobs and perhaps attract other stores as well. Opponents, however, are anything but few and far between, with protestors gathering outside of the city council meeting where the decision to accept or reject Wal-Mart was to be made. One protestor made his position clear to USA Today. saying that the Chicagoans "want jobs, but [...] good jobs" ("Wal-Mart Aims"). 

          This quote focuses on one of the most important issues in the Wal-Mart debate; the quality of the jobs that Wal-Mart can or can't provide - as well as the quality of their products and service - are a large reason why Wal-Marts across the nation are meeting resistance. Small towns pride themselves on their local flavor, supporting their local businesses and enjoying the familiarity the tiny shops provide them. Sometimes referred to as mom-and-pop stores, these businesses are often overrun by the convenience and low prices of larger corporations like Wal-Mart. Business Week gathered statistics on Wal-Mart for a story asking "Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?," learning that the company "is the nation's largest grocer" - most likely due to its "supercenters" - and third in the pharmacy department, with 19% and 16% of the market shares, respectively (Bianco, et al.). These numbers are almost impossible for any mom-and-pop store to compete with, and they are often pushed out of the business in this manner.   

"Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?" shows how this phenomenon harms the consumers as well.  The ability of a customer to merely drive a few blocks and purchase everything that is needed in one place is a wonderful theory, and is one of the advantages to Wal-Mart, but the convenience of one-stop shopping is also having negative effects on the people it is supposed to help. Because Wal-Mart has such a hold on the grocery aspect of the market, smaller supermarkets are forced to lower their prices to compete, if at all possible. All too often, however, the allure of one-stop shopping takes away from business for these local stores, and they are forced to close down, leaving the people with only one option: the retail giant that took their place. Thus, shoppers must buy whatever Wal-Mart chooses to provide, limiting their options greatly, while also causing those who live farther away to now become patrons at Wal-Mart, simply because there is nowhere else to go (Bianco, et al.). 

Wal-Mart's expansion into small communities can leave the former employees of ruined local businesses without other options, taking their jobs as well as the dignity of a once proud little mom-and-pop store. A failed local business is evidence of the terrible effects of Wal-Mart's involvement in small communities: it destroys the warmth and familiarity that the area once had, leaving a desolate, deserted building in its place (Ring). It is clear why small towns across the country are voting against the introduction of a Wal-Mart in their area. The retail giant spurs development and brings in low prices for the consumers, but at what cost? The empty buildings where small but proud stores used to reside make it obvious just what the cost of low prices are.  These symbols are reminders of how the community used to be, and what its citizens sacrificed in the name of cheap retail.

          Another such symbol of Wal-Mart's invasion is the threatened environment. A Wal-Mart store in any community, especially a one-stop shopping "supercenter," would attract many customers, which would undoubtedly put a strain on the roadways, and raise environmental concerns, something that Wal-Mart is unfortunately already very familiar with. According to a recent Sierra article detailing ten reasons Wal-Mart must be stopped, "one Wal-Mart 'supercenter' can cover up to 1.2 million square feet with pavement [...which] can create major drainage problems," and thereby lead to flooding, and the possibility of ground subsidence (Gottleib, et al. 16). Wal-Mart is not unaware of this problem, either. According to the same article, Wal-Mart was forced to pay "a $5.5 million settlement for violating storm-water­ discharge laws at 17 stores" in 2001 (Gottleib, et al. 16). In another instance, Wal-Mart violated the Clean Water Act "due to shoddy construction practices at 24 stores in nine states" (Gottleib, et al. 16). It is clear that those concerned about the environment should be suspicious of Wal­-Mart stores, especially the "supercenters" that are so damaging to the ecosystem. The small communities that accept Wal-Mart in are not only risking their jobs and their tight-knit atmosphere for the hope of low prices, but they are risking the environment around them as well. 

Wal-Mart's reputation when it comes to dealing with the environment is less than perfect, but the environment is not the source of very much of the controversy surrounding Wal-Mart. The most talked about, and perhaps the most disturbing, aspect of Wal-Mart is the large number of complaints and figures against Wal-Mart in terms of employee rights and benefits. It is common knowledge that people need jobs, whether to support a family, fulfill material needs, or earn a little spending money. Jobs are also necessary for the local community's economy to run smoothly. The question, however, is what kind of employer would take the best care of its employees. Evidence suggests that Wal-Mart is not that employer. James B. Goodno, of the journal Planning, wrote an article discussing the pros and cons of Wal-Mart's possible entry into larger cities, including opinions of citizens and officials, called "Rethinking Retail." Goodno quoted Ralph Franklin, a city council member in Inglewood who represents the district where Wal-Mart would have been built, as agreeing that there is a need for jobs: "We have high unemployment. We have gang infiltration. We need jobs" (15). However, Franklin later mentions that the area he represented needed good jobs, not the options available at Wal-Mart (Goodno 15).

        It is well known that Wal-Mart is under fire for mistreating its more than 1.3 million employees worldwide. Currently, according to Jeffrey Garten, author of Business Week's feature "Wal-Mart Gives Globalism a Bad Name," Wal-Mart is the world's "largest retailer [with] (sales of 50% greater than Target, Costco Wholesale, Sears Roebuck, and Kmart combined)" (24). The only way Wal-Mart could achieve such momentous sales would be to expand, and the company has certainly done that, acquiring more than 3,500 stores worldwide. But to maintain these stores, Wal-Mart requires a large workforce, which amounts to an even larger expense: one that cannot be paid in full while maintaining the monster retailer's promise to always offer the lowest prices possible. The result is a momentous violation of worker's rights, including a history of restricting union involvement, which, if allowed to happen, would force the company to own up to its mistreatment of employees. Brian Bolton, the author of a commentary in Sojourners Magazine about Wal-Mart titled "Always Low Wages," told the story of meat workers involved in the first Wal-Mart "supercenters" nationwide: "Meat workers frustrated by low pay, lousy benefits, and abusive treatment voted themselves into the first successful union presence at Wal­ Mart. Wal-Mart responded by closing all of its fresh-meat departments and eliminating those jobs" (9). This action made it clear to all remaining employees that unionizing would be nearly impossible to do, if the workers wished to remain at Wal-Mart. Similar stories have been told about employees who work long hours, yet see no pay for their extra time. According to Garten, there are "some 40 lawsuits in 25 states [that] accuse Wal-Mart of denying overtime pay to those who earn it," which is a basic violation of the rights of laborers to receive compensation for the time they work.

         The right to unionize and to receive overtime pay would not be as large of issues if the employees were given a decent sum of money in the first place. For a cover story in Business Week. called "Working...and Poor," Aaron Bernstein and Michelle Conlin compiled data on the average wage of a Wal-Mart employee, stating that "Wal-Mart pays its full-time hourly workers an average of $9.64, about a third of the level of the union chains [and] also shoulders much less of its workers' annual health insurance cost than rivals, leaving 53% [...] uncovered by the company plan" (58). The figures get even worse when gender is included in the calculations. In "Wal-Mart Values," Featherstone deals largely with Wal-Mart's history of sex discrimination, examining Wal-Mart's treatment of females, and presenting facts that are difficult to ignore. One such fact is that women are greatly underpaid and exploited at Wal-Mart. Featherstone reports that a woman worker's "average wage is $7.50 an hour, out of which [she] must pay [her] own health insurance, which is so costly that only two in five workers buy it" (11). This lower average wage could be attributed to the fact that many more women fill the lower-level positions in the company, but even that idea supports the theory that women are mistreated by the retail giant. This mistreatment has not gone uncontested, either. According to Featherstone, one sex­ discrimination lawsuit in California, Dukes v. Wal-Mart, is poised to "be the largest civil rights class-action suit in history, affecting more than 700,000 women" (12). The suit contains more than 75 witnesses, all females claiming they were discriminated against at some time or another by Wal-Mart. This tremendous outcry is not surprising; according to Featherstone, ''women make up 72 percent of Wal-Mart's sales work force but only 33 percent of its managers," which is much less than Wal-Mart's competitors (12).

          The history of violations that Wal-Mart has built up over the years is atrocious, including everything from sexual discrimination to disregard for the environment and the dignity of small communities across the nation, and the world. Yet, the low prices and convenience Wal-Mart provides its customers, as well its wholesome image make the company a popular and powerful force in the retail business. However, Wal-Mart's incredible accumulation of wealth and power over the last decades have brought it more attention, and with that attention has come the discovery of the sinister, behind-the-scenes practices Wal-Mart takes part in. There is a possibility that many consumers will pass information like the facts about Wal-Mart's mistreatment of employees off as attempts to discredit a wholesome company, but, there is so much evidence against the company that this idea does not hold much merit.  The company's shady dealings do not affect the mass majority of consumers, however, so the most important factor to many is Wal-Mart's ability to destroy local businesses and communities, shoving all of the competition out of the way to make room for its enormous "supercenters". If cities and small towns like around the country really examine both the advantages to having a Wal-Mart - admittedly, there are a few - as well as the disadvantages, the company may be seeing more than a little competition in the future. If Wamsutter, that quiet Wyoming town that has been deserted many times by the multi-million dollar corporations that were meant to help it, had examined the possibilities and come to the correct conclusions, there would be no reason to feature them in High Country News. Wamsutter would still be a very tiny town with a lacking economy if it had refused large corporations like Wal-Mart, but at least it would have its dignity, not to mention ample room to grow and develop. Still, from the number of locations Wal-Mart has worldwide, as well as the incredible figures it is generating daily, one can guess that the monster retailer will be a force to be reckoned with for quite some time now.

Work Cited
 

Bianco, Anthony, et al. "Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?" Business Week. Oct. 2003:
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Bernstein, Aaron; Conlin, Michelle. "Working...and Poor." Business Week May
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Bolton, Brian. "Always Low Wages." Sojourners Magazine Feb. 2004: 9.
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Gilman, Hank. "The Most Underrated CEO Ever." Fortune April 2004: 247.
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Ring, Ray. "When a Boom is a Bust." High Country News 36.17 (2004): 7-13.
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Gottleib, Robert; Shaffer, Amanda; Wheatley, Abby. "10 Reasons to Stop
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