My husband & I watched this documentary the other night. I know when it first came out people were having parties to watch it together. We are always a little behind mainly because we wait until we can rent it. Anyway, we watched it and we were not too surprised by the information in it. Government subsidies to support a multi-billion dollar company, sweatshops (how else do we buy items so cheap?), the effects on small towns (it devastates them), the anti-union tactics, etc.
The only question I had the entire time as they consistently condemned Walmart for paying its employees starvation wages and all of the other evils was “How is this different from any other retailer in America?”
In college I had the rather unfortunate experience to work for Neiman Marcus in their catalog call centers. I worked on the phones, my friend worked in Customer Service. She told me that the markups at Neiman were 400%! I believe her. But when you look to see where the items were made the answers were typical: Bangladesh, China, China, India, Mexico, China. Of course a wealthy company like Neiman, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, Walmart, Penney’s, Sears, Target, Kohl’s, Gottchalks, use sweat shops in Developing Countries because they do not have to pay the worker benefits like they do in the US.
At Neiman Marcus-where a 100% cotton t would run you $350-the majority of people who worked the call centers were women, older women. Women struggling to pay their bills on a fixed income. Would Neiman give these desperate women a good 40 hour week? Nope. 40 hours means benefits. My mom, who continues to work in retail, regales me with her stories about her coworkers’ hours being cut, or after years of working finally obtaining a pay raise of $.25. Health care? Who needs health care?
So, yes, my husband and I were disturbed by the Walmart movie. If the movie is to show what is wrong with America’s corporate structure and the limits of Capitalism, ok. But really, this movie could have been made about any retailer and that is truly sad.
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