There are more reasons to be angry at Walmart than not being able to find a parking spot or the endless line that winds around the store from the customer service desk.
Walmart remains one of the most successful and powerful corporations in the world simply because of its low prices.
But they come at a high cost.
For years, labor activists have criticized and targeted Walmart for employing a plethora of part-time workers for low wages. It’s time big-box retailers rethink the way they treat workers, among other things too.
The superstore damages communities by crushing local businesses and paying low wages, as well as hindering the decrease of crime and contributing to obesity.
Earlier this month, a group of organizers called Our Walmart crowded the streets of Washington, D.C., Phoenix and New York to raise awareness for their cause to change the labor practices in low-wage fields like fast food and retail. Protestors demanded $15 wage and full-time status.
By not paying employees adequately or offering full-time positions, Walmart and similar retailers are hurting workers and themselves in an already hard economy. Without providing a proper living wage that allows for disposable income to employees, who are also consumers, Walmart loses the business of the same people they aim to sell to.
Other detrimental consequences occur when Wally World rolls into town. Local businesses suffer and are often forced to shut their doors.
On average, as many as 14 retail businesses close within 15 months following the opening of a new Walmart, according to research published this year in Social Science Quarterly.
This trend is nothing new, though. In 2008, a study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found the vast expansion of Walmart in the ’80s and ’90s was at fault for anywhere between 40 and 50 percent of the decline of smaller stores.
When there are no jobs, there is no money and without funds, there is poverty. The link between crime and poverty is evident. How does this pertain to the superstore? Well, a strange, but interesting, correlation between the placement of a Walmart store and crime exists.
Criminology and Criminal Justice professors Scott Wolfe of the University of South Carolina and David C. Pyrooz of Sam Houston State University call it the “Walmart Effect.”
In their study, Wolfe and Pyrooz concluded while Walmart doesn’t necessarily increase crime, the store’s presence makes it more difficult for U.S. counties to experience crime rate declines, and Walmart increases poverty in communities by reducing the overall number of employment opportunities.
The research implied Walmart is linked to unfavorable changes in crime rates because of the negative structural conditions brought on by the displacement of local businesses and the creation of a weak labor market.
This financial instability and diminished social capital are strong factors contributing to crime because it’s hard to be poor and happy. People get some kind of happy feeling when they are in that small town “everybody-knows-everybody” atmosphere.
Another finding was Walmart functions as a crime attractor and generator. It draws offenders to a single location that provides potential for various criminal activities.
A one-stop shop also brings a lot of people into one concentrated area, which essentially makes customers fish in a barrel for those with ill intent. Bad things happen in a Walmart parking lot. Trust me.
With low pay and the threat of being mugged walking to your car, it would be easy to get depressed and eat your feelings. Walmart’s low priced food is ideal at this point, but be warned, the store can be attributed to obesity.
The results of a 2011 study in the Journal of Urban Economics, “Supersizing Supercenters? The Impact of Walmart Supercenters on Body Mass Index and Obesity” implied that Walmart contributed 10.5 percent to the rise in obesity since the late ’80s.
Walmart’s savvy retail logistics have made way for reductions in the price of food, which leads to over indulging. This way, after you’ve bought all the junk food, you’ll go back to buy diet supplements.
For a store whose mascot was once a bouncing smiley face, employees and shoppers have little reason to grin about the practices of Walmart and similar businesses. The public should think twice before walking through those sliding doors simply for convenience and the employee to employer relationship within these big stores is in dire need of reworking.
Justin Stafford is a 21-year-old mass communication major from Walker, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @j_w_stafford.
Old Wal-Mart occupies space
