Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?
The print version of this was sent to me by a business colleague - we had this debate a month ago about what's left for North Americans -- what's really left that we can call our own -- in other words, is there a future? He mentioned this article in BusinessWeek. The article takes a critical look at Wal-Mart, and it's policies detrimental effects on suppliers, workers, communities and even the American culture. Wal-Mart's mantra of low prices and it's dominance of the world retail market is unquestioned -- unchallenged. It had revenues topping $245b US last year. It's three times larger than the number two retailer, France's Carrefour. Weekly, over 138 million shoppers flock to it's 4,750 stores. Last year, 82% of Americans made at least one purchase at Wal-Mart. Last year, Wal-Mart was responsible for cutting $100b US from consumer spending, by having everyone march to their low prices. Economists have labeled this the "Wal-Mart effect." Wal-Mart has 30% of the US market, and analysts project that could reach 50% by a decade. Wal-Mart has a huge share of the top consumer products in the US market, controlling:
28% of Dial's sales
24% of Del Monte Foods' sales
23% of Clorox's sales
23% of Revlon's sales
32% of disposable diapers sales
30% of hair care sales
26% of toothpaste sales
20% of pet food sales
13% of home textiles sales
15-20% of CD/video/DVD/magazine sales
35% of food sales
25% of drugstore sales.
So what's the problem? Well, for starters, Wal-Mart pays it US sales clerks about $1,000 below the poverty line in the US. Wal-Mart polices culture by forcing publishers to change/hide or remove entirely content from CDs, videos, DVDs and magazines. Wal-Mart even refuses to sell Preven, the morning after pill. In communities where Wal-Mart moves in, other businesses are driven out, and there's usually no net benefit from having a Wal-Mart store due to the low wages, and the concessions Wal-Mart wrings out of local governments. Now think of this: what if Wal-Mart collapses? The ripple effect on the US economy and the world economy would be tremendous. So how far should they be allowed to go?
The print version of this was sent to me by a business colleague - we had this debate a month ago about what's left for North Americans -- what's really left that we can call our own -- in other words, is there a future? He mentioned this article in BusinessWeek. The article takes a critical look at Wal-Mart, and it's policies detrimental effects on suppliers, workers, communities and even the American culture. Wal-Mart's mantra of low prices and it's dominance of the world retail market is unquestioned -- unchallenged. It had revenues topping $245b US last year. It's three times larger than the number two retailer, France's Carrefour. Weekly, over 138 million shoppers flock to it's 4,750 stores. Last year, 82% of Americans made at least one purchase at Wal-Mart. Last year, Wal-Mart was responsible for cutting $100b US from consumer spending, by having everyone march to their low prices. Economists have labeled this the "Wal-Mart effect." Wal-Mart has 30% of the US market, and analysts project that could reach 50% by a decade. Wal-Mart has a huge share of the top consumer products in the US market, controlling:
Comments
Post a Comment