Angry People

Although I missed this one at the cinema, I took the opportunity to watch the film on DVD. The director takes the approach of making the film personal by featuring people that have been affected by Wal-Mart and their actions. It’s very sad to watch families that have built up businesses, serving the local communities for generations, lose everything.

It’s not just businesses in competition that lose out - the employees get a terrible deal - from the low wages, culture of fear, abuse to lack of basic facilities and human rights. How do Wal-Mart manage such low prices? Watch the section about the Chinese prisons factories where products are produced for a few cents by people working 7 days a week and living in the factory, which are then sold for maybe $15.

WAL-MART SUBSIDY NATIONWIDE: $1.008 BILLION

What boggles the mind is the huge cost to the taxpayer. Huge subsidies are offered to Wal-Mart to get them to bring their mammoth superstores to a town. Local businesses receive no such benefits and close down due to the competition.

WAL-MART Costs Taxpayers $1,557,000,000,00 to Support its Employees facts page

This is because the wages Wal-Mart pay are so low, most of their employees are on state benefits or similar.

Currently in the U.S. there are 26,699,678 SQUARE FEET of empty WAL-MARTS

Wal-Mart accepts subsidies to build their stores but before they become liable to pay a percentage of their profits to the town, they move their stores. The town is left with a massive, empty building and a ravaged economy where no-one could afford to rent a building of that size. In 2005 Wal-Mart had 356 stores empty and available for sale or to rent.

And so the list goes on.

The film features some examples of how Wal-Mart/Asda has been defeated in the UK, in Canada and in Germany but they are not unique in their marketing/business strategy. Could Tesco be the next Wal-Mart?