Wal-Mart Is Good For America Argumentative Essay

“Wal-Mart destroyed retail”. “They wrecked every other form of retailing…”. These are both quotes from Business Insider, but more specifically Jan Kniffen, a retail consultant. These seem to be very bold claims considering that Wal-Mart is the number one retailer according to the National Retail Federation. I believe that these claims may be aimed at the wrong question, because with a little more research you may come to find that Wal-Mart is good for America.

Before being able to fully comprehend the effect Wal-Mart can have on people, it is important to understand how Wal-Mart operates. Wal-Mart is a retail store that offers low prices every day. Hence their slogan and business model, “EDLP”, or Every Day Low Prices. Wal-Mart was created as a competitor to stores like Sears. Today, people think of Wal-Mart as a competitor to Amazon, the second-largest retailer. Wal-Mart found a strategy that worked and they ran with it. The only problem is, any store can have low prices, right? The short answer, no. Simply put, Wal-Mart did it first. Wal-Mart makes up around 15% of supplier’s revenue even with their low prices. Other stores simply don’t have the power to cut prices so drastically. According to Business Insider, Wal-Mart products are about 34% lower priced than their top competitor, Amazon. Wal-Mart swiftly dodged the massacre that Amazon had unleashed on the retail market in the 2000s and 2010s by doing the one thing they do best, keeping the prices as low as possible.

Now that we have a basic understanding of what makes Wal-Mart so special, let’s unravel the never-ending ball of yarn that is the controversy around Wal-Mart. So it is very obvious that Wal-Mart has low prices. The question that remains unanswered is how?  Wal-Mart does a few things that help keep prices low. The first is outsourcing. Outsourcing is one of the biggest controversies surrounding Wal-Mart.  A report published by the National Employment Law Protection states that many outsourced Wal-Mart employees have raised allegations of “unpaid wages, health and safety, and other serious labor violations.” This is not the first time Wal-Mart has been accused of violation of safety regulations and employee rights laws. According to Supermarket News, in 2001 Wal-Mart was sued for unfair labor practices. In China, where Wal-Mart produces many of its products, workers are treated poorly, paid very low wages, and overworked. So looking at it from an employee perspective, Wal-Mart has some more than questionable practices. However, from a consumer’s point of view, Wal-Mart is a blessing.

Wal-Mart is the largest retail store, and they definitely wouldn’t be if it weren’t for the customers. Wal-Mart makes shopping very simple. At the end of the day, Wal-Mart benefits the consumer greatly. Now with their online shopping features and curbside pickup, even more people are looking to Wal-Mart for affordable prices. The only issue is that these low prices could come at the cost of employees. However, as we have seen Wal-Mart’s outsourcing practices, while still hurting employees, have been improving over the years. “It pointed to the 13,000 supplier audit reports Wal-Mart said it reviewed last year (that number increased to 14,700 in fiscal 2019), and the 500 investigations Wal-Mart launched into issues reported to it.” This quote from Retail Dive’s article is referencing Wal-Mart’s increased accountability over the past few years. Not only is outsourcing becoming less and less of an ethical issue each year, but it is also benefiting us. According to the NCBFAA, outsourcing increases our country's economy by providing goods for cheaper prices. “The U.S. economy engages in international trade and obtains needed goods at lower cost, which results in better returns on investment and more economically priced goods for U.S. citizens.” On top of that, it also benefits other countries and improves their economies by providing jobs that did not exist before and by getting other countries involved in the global market. As seen here there is plenty of evidence to support either side. However, there are other factors that come into play.

Furthermore, Wal-Mart benefits consumers a lot more than you might think. According to Forbes.com, “Wal-Mart saves a typical American family of four about $2500 a year. That’s about what a family of four gets from the government in food stamps.” With Wal-Mart saving customers this amount of money, they have been a driving force in the fight against poverty. Customers shopping at Wal-Mart aren’t supporting Wal-Mart to keep abusing workers. They support Wal-Mart in making products affordable for people who need them. These affordable products aren’t coming at the expense of poorly paid workers anymore either. Wal-Mart provides low-skill jobs to people in poverty in underdeveloped parts of the world. Meanwhile, while they are making foreign citizens money they are also saving Americans money. If that weren’t enough, Wal-Mart has hired over 256,000 U.S veterans and over 50% of their employees are female, according to capitalcounsler.com.

To sum everything up, it seems clear that the evidence given answers the question of “Is Wal-Mart Good for America” with a big yes. This does not take away from the fact that people every day are mistreated due to Wal-Mart. However, the evidence presented shows that not only is Wal-Mart improving, but it is also benefiting people at the same time. When taking into account, the money saved, the global market expansion, the job creation, and the dedication to improvement, it is clear that yes, Wal-Mart is good for America.