Saturday, July 13, 2013

Five myths about Wal-Mart

Washington Post ^ | 07/13/2013 | Rebekah Peeples Massengill

Wal-Mart has attracted controversy for decades: Its supporters laud its low prices and market efficiencies, while its opponents charge that the company exploits workers, destroys local economies and pollutes the environment. Now, despite warnings from the retailer that it would reconsider its plans to open three stores in Washington, the D.C. Council has passed a living-wage bill that would require Wal-Mart to pay its workers here at least $12.50 per hour. Let’s examine a few of these impressions about the world’s largest retailer.
1. Only lower-income people shop at Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart sells lots of cheap stuff, so it’s no surprise that low- and middle-income shoppers are the store’s most regular customers. However, wealthier people are among the more than 60 percent of Americans who shop at Wal-Mart each month. A 2005 Pew Research Center survey found that more than three-quarters of respondents from households earning more than $75,000 a year thought Wal-Mart was a good place to shop, and nearly 80 percent of them had shopped at Wal-Mart in the previous year. Of customers in this income group, 38 percent described themselves as regular Wal-Mart shoppers.
2. Critics just want to unionize Wal-Mart workers.
Most of the efforts to improve working conditions and compensation at Wal-Mart are led by union-funded groups that have been branded as allies of Big Labor seeking only to line their pockets with more union dues. But practically, none of these efforts has focused on formally unionizing Wal-Mart’s unorganized domestic workforce.
Instead, as early as 2005, groups such as Walmart Watch and Wake Up Walmart waged a largely successful campaign focusing not on Wal-Mart workers’ union status but on their compensation and benefits. A year after Walmart Watch was founded, the retail giant lowered premiums on its health insurance policies
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...

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