Wal Mart also has production facilities in countries around the world e.g. China and Bangladesh. I say to myself ; ‘If that’s the way Wal-Mart treats employees in America then what will happen to those in the Third (and Second) world countries’. In China workers, are paid even lower than in U.S.A, but the costs of living is also cheaper. In China, due to high population people are desperate for jobs. Wal-Mart takes advantage of this and exploits workers. The working conditions in the factories are unacceptable. It’s noisy and extremely hot. Wal Mart gives their employees in China rooms to live in. The rooms are incredibly small and they assign 3 to 4 workers per room. The rent for the room is automatically deducted from their pay cheques. Moreover, if employees do not want these rooms, they still pay for it. This implies that they ‘must’ stay in the rooms Wal-Mart has given them. It seems to me that Wal-Mart has taken over their freedom. The food they provide to workers is also horrible and some workers have to eat food at home, meaning that they starve during the day. Workers work for longer hours in the factories and rarely get time off.
Furthermore, Wal-Mart saves around $15 million per year in overtime pay i.e. Wal-Mart makes their employees work over time but they do not pay them for it. Wal-Mart hates worker union or trade unions. They spend huge sums of money to fight these unions in order to make sure that they have full control on their associates.
Now why can this corporation exploit their workers so much? As Wal-Mart says ‘There are hundreds of people out there who want this job.’ They can always replace workers. If they are not happy with a worker, they will simply fire him/her and get a new person to do the job and that’s the end of it.
Now we will say how Wal-Mart treats their customers. Basically, Wal-Mart does not care what happens to their customers. All they want is their money. Customers shop and pay; Wal-Mart do not care about the safety of their customers. Numerous customers have been harmed at Wal-Mart’s huge parking lots. There have been cases of murders, rape, theft, and countless others. Wal-Mart has security cameras installed but there is no one monitoring them. This is just crazy. They really don’t care about the customers.
Let’s take a look at the next group of stakeholders i.e. the suppliers. Many big corporations can control their suppliers. Wal-Mart and many other companies can force their supplier to lower their prices so much that sometimes these people do not even make a profit.
Moving on to the next group, the community, Wal-Mart does something good and bad for the community. Firstly, when a Wal-Mart store moves into a town, a lot of jobs are created. This may improve their living standards. Town residents can also enjoy from a wide range of lower priced goods. A Wal-Mart commercial said that the company gives $5 to society every second. That seems like a lot.
On the other hand, smaller businesses in the area are forced to move out because they simply cannot compete with huge companies like Wal-Mart. This has happened in many communities around America. Some businesses have existed since previous generations and once a Wal-Mart store comes in, they close down. It is really tragic. Wal Mart has also polluted the areas where they move in. Many Wal-Mart centers store fertilizers and pesticides in open parking spaces. Due to heat and rain, some of these wash down into canals and rivers. In many communities people use the water daily from the rivers. This can cause a lot of harm to people living in the area.
Many communities today have fought against Wal-Mart setting up stores in their locality because they are aware
Managers of Wal-Mart are exploited by the company as well. Mangers face discrimination both sex and race. Women are often deprived of promotion even though they deserve it. A black woman was denied for her promotion because she was black and female. This is horrible just the way it is. She worked so hard for it. Anyways, a manger of Wal-Mart suggested that the company should improve working conditions in the factory. He got fired!
Finally, the last and the most important stakeholder group, the government. The government subsidizes Wal-Mart to open stores around America; primarily, because it will create new jobs. Wal-Mart also has close relations with the government officials because they would often fund their election campaigns.
I feel that this is sort of a bribe for the government to pass laws in their favor. Government of some countries e.g. Germany have caused Wal-Mart stores to close down due to strict pollution and safety laws. In the United States, Wal-Mart has been forced to spend millions of dollars in water treatment.
In conclusion, it is clear how socially irresponsible Wal-Mart is. Unfortunately, they care only about making money and they would not consider the impacts of their decision on other stakeholder groups. Their actions are very unethical, and damages society as a whole. However, many people are not aware of these actions and therefore, serious actions are not necessarily taken.
- The affects of superstores in Thailand and Government viewpoint
Since the beginning of the 21st century a lot of multinational corporations have moved into Asian countries via. Globalization. This created a lot of opportunities for people in the region. As economic progression grew in these areas, people’s standard of living started to increase. Supermarkets like Tesco, Carrefour, etc. saw a market opportunity and started operations in these regions. Today these supercentres are very popular because of the cheap products and huge sale discounts.
In Thailand, these superstores have eliminated a lot of smaller shops through competition and predatory pricing. Like in many countries, these shops have been operating for many years, and went out of business when supermarkets moved in. Some smaller shops still survive because they operate in smaller niche markets.
These companies are quite socially responsible, because they understand the nature that if they do something bad in the Thai community they are bound to receive negative attention from the public. People are very ethical by culture, and hence unethical decisions are quite intolerable by society.
These stores, benefit from economies of scale, are able to offer lower prices to consumers in the society. People therefore, have more disposable income to spend on other things. The governments also receive tax revenue from these businesses and use it to fund other things. Jobs are also created when superstores move in.
by
wattledoak25 (student)
