"MUST SEE" documentary: Walmart - The High Cost of Low Prices

[madhen]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiSmlmXp-aU"]YouTube- WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price -- teaser trailer[/ame]

All I could say after watching this was, "Wow!" If you have ever shopped at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club, and you have the opportunity to watch this documentary, you'll never want to give them another penny of your money.

If you believe that we need to be self-sufficient, that we need to be good stewards of our environment, that we need to build and buy domestically, and that we need to weigh the monetary cost of our purchases against the cost in human suffering, WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY!! If you believe that we should live as communities, rather than as poverty-level slums at the edges of urban sprawl, WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY!!

A couple of low points: Wal-Mart pushes its employees to use government assistance for health care, which they have to do because even full-time employees can't afford the health care program Wal-Mart offers and don't make enough money to be disqualified for public assistance. So in 2005, U.S. taxpayers paid approximately $1.5 BILLION in government assistance needed by Wal-Mart employees.

In 2005, Wal-Mart contributed approximately 1% of its profits to charity, vs., for example, Bill Gates, who contributed 58%.

In 2005 (when the documentary was released), Wal-Mart employees had contributed approximately $5,000,000 toward a corporate "charity" fund to help other employees in need; conversely, the entire Wal-Mart family, each of whom is worth over $10 BILLION, contributed a whopping $6,000.

[The Muse]

I watched it a while ago and read "The Walmart Effect", which is why I can't shop there. I'll gladly spend a bit more if it means doing business with a less offensive company.

I don't understand how people who are in a financial situation to make a responsible choice are willing to help Walmart continue to exploit people.

*ducking now*

[sabrelvssammy]

i'll stand beside you muse and take some of the 'rotten tomatoes... i whole-heartedly agree with you...

they only get a tiny bit of my money....and its becoming less and less each time...as my wal-mart experiences are becoming less and less enjoyable.....

[Spirit Deer]

My daughter works as a department manager for Wal-Mart and has good insurance. However, when she had her first baby she qualified for WIC. I never could figure that out.

[Contrary Housewife]

Here's another eye-opener. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/...n_snapper.html

There's been a lot of reasons over the years why I don't shop there. This is only one of them.

[Milly]

This one covers the same ground, only funnier. It actually means MUCH more now than it did when I first saw it in 2005. BTW, turn up your volume.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/big_box_mart

[homesteadmamma]

I watched it too. It's one of the reasons if at all possible, I don't shop there.

[madhen]

Some years ago, I had heard about how the corporation went radically overboard to try to stop its employees from unionizing, and that alone convinced me not to go there. I admit that I've stopped there recently for "cheap" yarn (as there are no craft stores near me), but after watching that documentary, I wish I hadn't. The part that struck me was how they deliberately short-staff their stores and force free labour from the employees who are there. I always wondered how a place could have 30+ check-out aisles but always have customers packed 4-5 deep on the 5 only open ones.

The website: www.walmartmovie.com also covers the stats that are covered in the documentary, and has a lot of good additional reading material. I am going to try to find How Walmart is Destroying America at my library. If I can't find it, I might buy it used and DONATE it, so people can read it!!

I thought the description of "plantation capitalism" was beautiful!!

[Lady_V]

I watched the teaser... is the movie online too, or do I have to buy the dvd?

[tbs727]

My husband works for Wal-Mart at the store level. Don't believe everything you hear about the "evil empire".

[dogmatix]

I saw that film a while back and haven't shopped at Walmart since.

[madhen]

I watched the teaser... is the movie online too, or do I have to buy the dvd?

I saw it on t.v., so you might be able to find it through a search.

[madhen]

My husband works for Wal-Mart at the store level. Don't believe everything you hear about the "evil empire".

Have you seen the documentary? (I am not being snarky, just actually curious.)

What was interesting was the number of interviews with Wal-Mart employees, former and present (at least at the time of the documentary) and how some of them had no idea what was going on at the corporate level. But the interviews with the workers in China were heart-breaking, and the facts are hard to ignore, as are the number of lawsuits against Wal-Mart by its employees. And when I saw how stores are purposely short-staffing, that definitely tied into the evidence that I have seen, as every Wal-Mart I have been in (and I've been in quite a few), has lots of closed registers, and lines of unhappy customers at the few that are open.

I used to have to go to Wal-Marts (and K-Marts, and other stores that had hunting/fishing departments) as part of my job, probably ten years ago, and Wal-Mart's paranoia about its employees unionizing was obvious even then. I remember seeing anti-union signs up in break rooms and employees would mention that you could get fired for trying to set up one. I understand that the job of a "for profit" company is to make a profit, but there has to be a moral threshold which you are not willing to cross, and it sounds like Wal-Mart has trampled right over it.

[redeme]

Yep, I choose not to shop there. I really haven't been much of a shopper there, ever. There is power in the dollar of the consumer, if we use it.

[onencgirl]

I live within walking distance to a walmart but refuse to step foot in it. I can't remember the last time I was in one.