Wal Mart: Greed or Enterprise?

[XYZpdq]

My dad worked for Wal-Mart doing overnights loading crap off trucks back in the day, he had no particular complaints about it and after retiring from bank work now works in a Wal-Mart cash office. He loves it because he barely has to interact with anybody at all.

I've worked enough weird shifts over the years that I absolutely respect a company that can sell me most necessities of day-to-day life at 3am.

 

[Xarpho]

The problems I see with Walmart is it's treatment of animals and the abundance of Fat people in scooters going there.
other than that, Walmart is the example of the american dream of having a successful buisness come true (or gone wrong, depending on your perspective on things).
though a fun fact;
While Walmart is associated with middle and lower classes, in Mexico, walmart is on par with those who are middle to upper class while the lower class tends to go to cheaper market stands or at most bodega ahorrera (mexican walmart rip off that had some women luchadora named "mama luch" as a mascot)

For what it's worth, Bodega Aurrerá is owned by Walmart as well.

 

[Joan Nyan]

My city has refused to let any Walmarts open here so I've only ever been once or twice. Still, I think they're overall good. A lot of people wouldn't be able to afford all the basic necessities if they had to go to expensive local stores. Maybe I'm just naive about economics but shouldn't poor people saving money help them get out of poverty? Isn't that generally considered good? Definitely where I live a lot of people I know (including myself) wouldn't be able to live here without cheap chain stores.

 

[Pikimon]

I am of the mind that what Wal-Mart is doing is what any standard business would probably do, cut costs to save money. However sometimes you got to give your employees a little bit more than just minimum wage, it decreases recidivism (which saves money in training and keeps the labor force consistent) and increases worker efficacy (source I/O Psych)

 

[Marvin]

My city has refused to let any Walmarts open here so I've only ever been once or twice. Still, I think they're overall good. A lot of people wouldn't be able to afford all the basic necessities if they had to go to expensive local stores. Maybe I'm just naive about economics but shouldn't poor people saving money help them get out of poverty? Isn't that generally considered good? Definitely where I live a lot of people I know (including myself) wouldn't be able to live here without cheap chain stores.

The assertion is that it improves those people's lives in the short term with lower prices. But it makes the job market shittier, which ruins things long term.

I don't have an opinion on this subject either way.