Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price

As some of you may heard, there is a new documentary film about Walmart. It is called "Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price". It exposes the horrible business practices of the retail giant. Its goal is to 'take you behind the glitz and into the real lives of workers and their families, business owners and their communities, in an extraordinary journey that will challenge the way you think, feel... and shop'.

The film debuted in Manhattan last night. The locally-based NY1 cable news channel did a story this morning on the premiere. The director, Robert Greenwald, spoke about the film. He said there there is a systemic policy of low wages, cheating employees out of overtime pay, poor working conditions, no benefits, and encouraging employees to seek government aid so that taxpayers pay the burden of their healthcare instead of the uber-rich Walmart. Next, NY1 showed a Walmart executive defending (if it could be called that) her company. She said that the film was a work of 'fiction' and said (and read this carefully, folks) that:
"The truth is Walmart does provide jobs. Walmart does provide goods and services that people can afford, the things people need, so they can buy things they want."

Yes, that was her entire defense. No mention of overtime pay, working conditions, healthcare, or the communities that Walmart inhabits and looms over like a dark retail shadow. Her defense was that a) it provides jobs and that b) people like to buy things there. Well ma'am, technically illegal aliens who are hired to mow lawns for $3 an hour have "jobs". So the mere fact that your business employees people is hardly a defense. Until robots can run everything, we all assume you'd have to employ human beings. As for people liking to shop there... well duh. Their prices are low. That's a big benefit of using sweatshop labor and undercutting competitors. And Walmart's customers do appreciate the everyday low prices, because on their salaries, they can't afford to shop elsewhere. They work at Walmart.