Wal-Mart should rethink its practices

On behalf of concerned citizens across the country and around the world, I submit this, an… On behalf of concerned citizens across the country and around the world, I submit this, an open letter, to the corporate leaders of Wal-Mart. Only through systemic changes, in response to the charges contained herein, may you forestall further wrath from yours truly.

To the Walton Clan:

Congratulations!

According to a recent Public Broadcast Service report entitled “Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town,” you are in charge of one successful corporation.

With sales of around $200 billion annually, over 3,000 stores in the United States, and almost 100 million shoppers patronizing those stores on a weekly basis, you, the leaders of the recently crowned largest corporation in the world, are rollin’ in more dough than a baker.

And the future only seems brighter, with new megastores to open every other business day, and a track record of expanding into one new country every year.

However, it’s not time to pass the Courvoisier quite yet. For you see, with great power comes great responsibility, something that seems quite lacking at your retail establishment.

On the domestic front, your stores are well known for driving out local business. In fact, Al Norman of Sprawl-Busters notes this about Wal-Mart’s tactics: “They place their stores so close together that they become their own competition. Once everybody else is wiped out, then they’re free to thin out their stores. Wal-Mart has 390 empty stores on the market today. This is a company that has changed stores as casually as you and I change shoes.”

While you may initially bring lower prices to a community, one still must question whether it’s a worthwhile tradeoff, given the loss of better-paying jobs that your presence causes.

The same PBS report finds that your health plan costs almost double the national average, and that your pay scale “places employees with families below the poverty line, with the majority of employees’ children qualifying for free lunch at school.”

Many of us are not exactly thrilled that our tax dollars are subsidizing your ability to pay these wages and thus have such low prices, but your response to any attempts to rectify this situation has been, perhaps, even more troubling.

When meat-cutters in a Jacksonville store signed union cards, reported corporate watchdog Jim Hightower in an April 26, 2002 column entitled “How Wal-Mart is Remaking Our World,” 11 days later you decided to shut down every single meat-cutting department in the country, instead choosing to buy prepackaged meats.

Quite fitting for a company whose managerial guidebook, Hightower reports, states that “Wal-Mart is opposed to unionization,” and that “You, as a manager, are expected to support the company’s position … this may mean walking a tightrope between legitimate campaigning and improper conduct.”

But those most victimized by Wal-Mart reside overseas.

Charlie Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee notes that, “In country after country, factories that produce for Wal-Mart are the worst.” Unfortunately, your reach extends beyond merely that which your company controls directly. Already abysmal labor standards are being lowered across the board as your rivals try to cut costs to stay competitive with this model that you have created.

Little surprise, then, that the Maquila Solidarity Network has bestowed your corporation the “Sweatshop Retailer of the Year” award in 2003 for your complete and utter disregard for the conditions in your overseas factories.

The list of grievances could go on, including the lawsuit you currently face alleging mass sexual discrimination against female employees, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much at the same time.

Just keep in mind that having one of your stores in a community is a privilege, not a right. While I have little expectation that your corporate behavior will significantly change, if you expect the people of the world to tolerate your presence, I suggest you make clear that you value your customers by changing your policies and giving back to the local and global communities.

Yes, corporate friends, congratulations. Congratulations on the fact that you just lost a customer.

Sincerely,

Kevin Funk

For additional info on how Sam Walton’s decaying corpse has recently been seen roaming the Arkansas countryside and biting the heads off of small children, e-mail Kevin at kbf1@pitt.edu.