Walmart - the World's Largest Retailer

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is the largest corporation and private employer in the United State. It is consistently up against a hostile campaign featuring billboards, newspaper ads, and a critical documentary movie. However, many people have debated the Wall-Mart strategies for several years now. Wal-Mart practices towards its employees have become a controversial matter in the USA society. In the article “Up Against Wal-Mart’’ Karen Olsson describes how Wal-Mart treats their employees and raises awareness of Wal-Mart practices towards their worker. Low pay, lack of affordable health care, gender inequality, and the anti-union strategy are a few topics covered in Olsson’s article. On the other hand, in the article “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.’’ Sebastian Mallaby fends off the critics claim that Wal-Mart is bad for poor people. The author admits that Wal-Mart gives low wages, however, many people get the benefit from the low prices that the company offer. My feelings on this issue are mixed, I do support Olsson position that Wal-Mart should change the way they treat their employees. However, I disagree with Mallaby argument that the low costs offered by Wal-Mart offset the low pay it offers to its workers.

The first point made in Olsson article is Wal-Mart underpaid employees. The author at first explains how Wal-Mart is considered as the most profitable retailers in USA. She stated “The Company is the world’s largest retailer, with $220 billion in sales, and the nation’s largest private employer, with 3,372 stores and more than 1 million hourly workers.”(608) the author aims to knowledge the reader about Wal-Mart success. However, the author then goes on to say “the average hourly workers at Wal-Mart earns barely hardly $18,000 a year at a company that pocketed $6.6 billion in profits last year.”(608) furthermore, Wal-Mart’s expectation of its employees is huge. To get the job done with understaffing, Wal-Mart occasionally forced employees to work overtime without pay. By not paying overtime, Wal-Mart owners made more than 50 million a year. Wal-Mart forces workers to work overtime, especially employees who have children and wants to be a manager to support his or her family.

In the second article “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” Mallaby argues the fact that Wal-Mart is good for poor Americans. He supports his theory by pointing out that Wal-Mart’s low cost of goods saves its consumers billions per year. The author admits that Wal-Mart employees are paid low wages. Mallaby insists that the saving from Wal-Mart’s low prices are much larger than many of government programs to assist the poor. Although, Mallaby admits that Wal-Mart has been harsh in breaking unions, which lead to lower wages for its employees; but argues that the pay cut