Final

By: Omari Guidry
Ces 301 Final
Wal-Mart’s Cooperation
Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the world.
It has 6,689 stores in 15 countries worldwide
It has 1.3 million worker employers in the U.S.
There are 500,000 abroad
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/corpaccount/walmart.html




United States Perspective
Wal-Mart makes affordable prices for people.
Wal-Mart is a competitive store for many other large shopping departments because their cheaper prices.
Global perspective
Wal-Mart is a part of global industry and is a business that pays cheaper labor.
The factories overseas also feature very poor conditions for the workers
force overtime
locked bathrooms
starvation wages


Ways Wal-Mart impact communities
Smaller business are hurting because of Wal-Mart
It’s a bigger store
lower prices
Building stores in every town, it don’t matter if residents want them or not
Makes taxpayers pay for the consequences of its lower wage
Better paying retail jobs
They move into depression areas such as urban areas to try to help them out
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/community.html


www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiSmlmXp-aU

Ways people have push back or tried to remedy around Wal-Mart

Why do people shop at Wal-Mart:



People/customers are looking for cheaper prices due to the economy. In today’s society people have less income, but needs to purchase everyday goods. Wal-Mart’s low prices make this possible. Other retail stores offer big sales or coupons, but Wal-Mart always matches these prices. Wal-Mart has store price adjustments/comparison with other store departments in the United States. Which is nice to know, a customer doesn’t have to go to that certain store to show coupons. Wal-Mart gathers bulk now to serve their customers more and more savings than other consumers to make customers happy and come back to Wal-Mart for their reasonable prices. Now that some Wal-Mart’s are called Super Wal-Mart with the grocery store in it, it makes life a little better to shop at one store only now. Wal-Mart also has a very good return policy on their merchandise and products. There is no hassle or fuss if a person is returning a good. Wal-Mart stands by their word and products and want happy customers. This is also a plus knowing if someone goes elsewhere that person will have a lot of problems returning the merchandise. Most of the employees know where the merchandise is in the store. They all serve customers with positive, excellent and very good customer service. I have noticed since I have been going to Wal-Mart I am welcomed into the store which is very maintained, clean and organized. Due to the poor economy and quality service people choose to shop at Wal-Mart because of the cheap prices.

Click HERE to open the feedback tool.

Online Resource

1.http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/corpaccount/walmart.html
This site is a very good source because it talks about how Wal-Mart is the biggest corporation in the world.

2.http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/2006/WalmartsSweatshops.html
This website explains how Wal-Mart has people working overseas in sweatshops for them, and most of the workers are usually women.

3.http://www.laborrights.org/creating-a-sweatfree-world/wal-mart-campaign
I think this was a good source because it has a lot of information. It talks about the force labor, minimum wages violations, and maternity leave violations, overtime pay violations, healthcare violations, right to form independent, and bathroom break violations. This source can be very useful.

4.http://walmartwatch.com/international/country/china/
This website source talks about a little bit of the history of Wal-Mart, and they have 100 supercenters and 3 Sam club. There first stores was opened up in China.

5.www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiSmlmXp-aU
This YouTube video is a good source because it tells a lot of information about Wal-Mart and how they have high cost of low prices. They have 5,000 stores and are still growing.

6.http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/
This site was really good source because it talks about Wal-Mart wages and worker rights. In this article it talks about how a full time associates earn low then federal poverty line and it also talks about the health care.

7.http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WMT
I choose this website because it is a reliable source. On this website it shows all the number statistics on Wal-Mart.


8.http://www.walmartmovie.com/facts.php
What I like about this site is that it just don’t give you numbers about the statistics, it explain all the statistics about Wal-Mart.

9.http://www.walmartmovie.com/facts.php
The reason why I choose this website because it shows graphs on Wal-Mart salary, hourly rates, bonus, vacation weeks, popular tallies, etc.

10.http://walmartstores.com/AboutUs/7603.aspx
This website is a really great source because it gives the history of Wal-Mart and it explains how Wal-Mart first started out. On this website it has a timeline and it is explaining what goes on every year that is related to Wal-Mart.

11.http://www.asaresearch.com/ecommerce/supplychain.htm
I feel like this was a helpful source because it talking about Wal-Mart supply chain. In this article it was talking about how Wal-Mart set standards for supply chain.

12.http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/walmart-plans-to-green-its-supply-chain/19374662/
This website page had good information on Wal-Mart’s supply chain. On this website it gives a good break down on Wal-Mart’s plans to green it’s supply chain.

13. http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=WMT
This website is very useful because it has statistics, graphs.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/wal_mart_stores_inc/index.html
This website was a very good source to use, on this site it talked about Wal-Mart chains and it also has statistics on the web page.

http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4218005/k.783A/Globalization_and_the_WalMart_Effect.htm
I choose this website because it is talks about the effects and globalization on Wal-Mart.




Click HERE to open the feedback tool.

Wal-Mart’s Globalization: Wal-Martization

Americans like to shop at Wal-Mart because their prices are low. Many Americans think that the products that they purchase from Wal-Mart are manufactured in America, when in reality they are actually produced overseas. The reason why Wal-Mart can sell their products at low such prices is because by going overseas and outsourcing their manufacturing, their products are produced at much lower prices. For example, Bangladesh workers earn nine cents an hour for making clothing for Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart biggest outsourcer is China. Wal-Mart is the largest importer of Chinese goods. They have a team that searches the world for the cheapest raw materials, manufactures, and shipping campaign. What this does is allow Wal-Mart to relocate to a cheaper country, or force countries to lower wages so Wal-Mart can produce cheaper goods. The bottom line for Wal-Mart is finding the way to accomplish their goals as cheaply as possible. They are willing to do this at the expense of the workers in these countries.

One product of Wal-Mart’s outsourcing is that jobs are cut in the U.S. and operations are closed because Wal-Mart can do everything cheaper. Wal-Mart can also have a large affect on companies in other countries, and their demand can force them to lower wages, harder work, and longer hours.

The factories overseas also feature very poor conditions for the workers. Some people have compared these conditions to prison like conditions. For example, some of the problems faced by overseas workers include force overtime, locked bathrooms, starvation wages, and denial of access to health care. Additionally, workers have been fired and blacklisted if they attempted to defend their rights against these abuses. Many workers are forced to work seven days a week for as little as 12 to 28 cents an hour with no benefits. Also, a lot of the work is done by young people, age 17 to 25. Often, they are housed in dirty dormitories and they are held under surveillance 24 hours a day.

I think that Wal-Mart is benefiting from those people that are working like slaves for them overseas and getting paid next to nothing, while Wal-Mart is sitting on top in the United States getting praised for their profits and the work that they are not putting in.

Click HERE to open the feedback tool.

Wal-Mart is a covenant department store. It’s a store where they reduce the prices in half so that they are affordable for people. Wal-Mart is a part of global industry and a business that pays cheaper labor. Wal-Mart is a competitive store for many other large shopping departments because their cheaper prices. People are always in search for ways to save money especially in today’s economy. Wal-Mart is a company that is taking power over economic globalization and over the years have made advantage over there supply chain management. In its afford to keep the retail market competitive, they have relied on the two strategies of importing the majority from low wages counties such as China and pushing Americans supplies to lower prices. These practices have become the scapegoat for the loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. because of the of the dependence on imported consumer goods and pushing businesses to move overseas so that they can take advantage of lower wage labor. However, mass retailers like Wal-Mart have profoundly contributed to the rise in manufacturing in oversea countries like China. Although this has benefited consumers it has negative effects on the environment because of shipping, trade, and transportation.

Click HERE to open the feedback tool.

History of Wal-Mart

Wal- Mart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton when he opened the company’s first store in Arkansas. Wal-mart was officially incorporated in 1969. Wal-Mart began selling shares in 1970. It experienced its first 100% split in 1971, and operated in 5 states at the time. In 1972 Wal-Mart was approved and listed on the New York stock exchange and its stock split a second time. In 1979 Wal-Mart became the first company to reach 1 billion in sales in such a short period. In 1983, Forbes magazine ranked Wal-Mart number 1 among general retailers for the eighth straight year, and its stock split for the sixth time. By the end of the decade, Wal-Mart was in 29 states. In 1991, Wal-Mart stepped into the international market with the opening of a retail unit in Mexico City. They formed an international division in 1993. By 1995, Wal-Mart was in all 50 states. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. operated 1,995 stores, 239 Supercenters, 433 Sam’s Clubs and 276 international stores with sales of $93.6 billion and 675,000 associates. They entered China through a joint venture agreement in 1996. In 1999, Wal-Mart became the largest private employer in the world, with 1,140,000 total associates, and their stock split for the 11th time. As of 2005, Wal-Mart employed more than 1.6 million associates in more 6,200 facilities around the world including 3,800 U.S. stores and 3,800 international units – with $312.4 billion in sales. Wal-Mart also marked a significant turning point in 2005 with a new commitment to bring environmental sustainability into its business. Finally, in 2007 Wal-Mart and Bharti Enterprises announced an agreement to establish Bharti Wal-Mart Private Limited, a joint venture for wholesale cash-and-carry and back-end supply chain management operations in India.
http://walmartstores.com/aboutus/7603.aspx


Click HERE to open the feedback tool.

Overview

This theme about Wal-Mart connects to the class because it combats social economic inequality. Wal-Mart has captured the market of such a broad range of low priced products, which it allows them to remain ambiguous to the changes of the economy and charge the bare minimum which allows for even the lowest paid to still shop in their stores. I think it’s really messed up how this situation is and I think there should be something done about this.


http://www.investorguide.com/stock-archives.cgi?date=012510

Click HERE to open the feedback tool.