Companies like Wal-Mart compel individuals to get everything at the cheapest price (Anthony, 2003). This is the main reason why several jobs are sent overseas. For instance, Wal-Mart Corporation highly expanded that the manufacturers were told how much they would be paid for their own products. This made the manufacturers to send their manufacturing jobs overseas so as to meet the Wal-Mart pricing (Michael, 2005). The cheap labor available overseas greatly contributes towards loss of jobs to several individuals. In all honesty, this is the main cause of shoddy work. Companies fail to pay their experienced workers appropriately. If the work is not done up to the required standards or if the work takes too long to be completed, complains arise (Michael, 2005). Initially, if you bought your merchandise, you would be offered better services. Currently, you get a very cheap good, without any service, and the quality of the good is wanting. The mentality is that you go for a very low quality at a very cheap price. This is what has polluted the market and has resulted in poor sale of quality goods. Nowadays, if you have a very quality product and a very quality service to be offered, nobody will be willing to pay for it.
In the inner side of such corporations, workers get frustrated as a result of the unjust treatments. First, quite a number of the employees are forced to be part-time workers since these companies want to pay for as little benefits as possible. Even though quite a number of the employees are part-time workers, such companies are temporarily understaffed making many employees to work overtime which in most cases are unpaid. Failure of the employees to complete their tasks directly results into loss of that particular job. This compels the workers to go extra miles even if it means working overtime and the benefits are very poor. There are other injustices including sexual and racial discriminations.
On the other side, financial sense is depicted in the whole issue. The consumer should never worry if the prices continue falling. Current electronic devices like televisions, computers, etc may last only a third or half as long as they used to sometimes back. In such a case, what is the problem if such a gadget costs a third or half of what it used to cost? (Ken & Arindrajit, 2004). There is also no financial sense in spending more on electronic devices with pledged reliability while cheap ones are readily available. Consumers always feel that the extra cost is simply meant for buying the brand logo instead of a better quality product. This, however, comes with various consequences. Since the lifespan of such goods are short, there is the problem of excessive waste. Disposal of some of these wastes is also a very big problem as they degrade the environment. Also, there is a repeated purchase of the replacements which in the long run proves to be very expensive (Ken & Arindrajit, 2004).
It is very disappointing that Wal-Mart Company has resisted the efforts of its employee’s in forming unions. It’s again frustrating that this giant store still discriminates employees on gender basis. Socially, the company is doing more harm than good. The prevailing social injustices confirm this. The extremely low prices offered by this company and its general dominance are disastrous in terms of economic growth. The company enjoys great monopoly which makes almost everybody to depend on it. At the same time due to its dominance, the government is forced to formulate policies which favor it.
Work Cited
Andy Miller, "Wal-Mart Stands Out On Rolls of Peach Care," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 27, 2004.
Anthony Bianco and Wendy Zellner, "Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?" Business Week, October 6, 2003.
Arindrajit Dube, Impact of Wal-Mart Growth on Earnings throughout the Retail Sector in Urban and Rural Counties. UC Berkeley Labor Center, USA, 2005.
Ken Jacobs and Arindrajit Dube, Hidden Costs of Wal-Mart Jobs. UC Berkeley Labor Center, USA, August 2, 2004.
Michael Hicks, “Does Wal-Mart Cause an Increase in Anti-Poverty Program Expenditures?” Business Week, October 26, 2005.
