Criticism of Walmart
criticism against large retailer based in the United States
The American multinational retail chain Walmart has received criticism from parties such as labor unions and small town advocates for its policies and business practices.
Criticisms include charges of racial and gender discrimination, foreign product sourcing, anticompetitive practices, treatment of product suppliers, environmental practices, the use of public subsidies, and its surveillance of its employees. The company has denied any wrongdoing and said that low prices are the result of efficiency.
In 2005, labor unions created new organizations and websites to criticize the company, including Wake Up Walmart (United Food and Commercial Workers) and Walmart Watch (Service Employees International Union). By the end of 2005, Walmart had launched Working Families for Walmart to counter those groups. Efforts to counter criticism include a public relations campaign in this same year, which included several television commercials. The company retained the public relations firm Edelman to interact with the press and respond to negative media reports, and has started working with bloggers by sending them news, suggesting topics for postings, and inviting them to visit Walmart's corporate headquarters. In November 2005, a documentary film critical of Walmart (Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price) was released on DVD.
Critics say that Walmart's lower prices draw customers away from smaller Main Street businesses, hurting local small town communities, and that the company hurts the United States economy by relying excessively on Chinese-produced products – Walmart is the largest importer in the United States in many categories, such as electronics and fast-moving consumer goods. The 2006 book The Walmart Effect by business journalist Charles Fishman contains much of the criticism, though it also enumerates Walmart's positive impacts within society.
Local communities
When Walmart plans a new store location, as often as not the company has to fight its way into town in the municipal equivalent of civil war between pro- and anti-Walmart factions.
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