Readers Write: Turning Up the Heat on Wal-Mart

We received scores of reader responses to Don Hazen’s article of June 1, Turning Up the Heat on Wal-Mart, about filmmaker Robert Greenwald's upcoming expose of the maligned mega-chain.

Greenwald's documentary, Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, is scheduled for release in November, and national associations of many stripes -- from the United Church of Christ to the Petroleum Marketers Association of America -- are organizing to promote the film's agenda.

What is the film's agenda? To expose the injustices behind Wal-Mart's famously low prices. "This is the largest corporation in the world, and it is running roughshod over family business and workers throughout the country," Greenwald explains in the article.

Wal-Mart relies on cost-cutting to keep customers coming back, but in so doing, local businesses across the country have been run into the ground, unable to compete with Wal-Mart's predatory pricing.

How else is Wal-Mart wicked? Our readers enumerate the ways -- the ridiculously rich institution doesn't share its wealth, instead depending on low-wage workers (its 1.2 million American workers make an average of $9.99/hour); it outsources virtually all of its product manufacturing; gets big-box tax breaks to introduce more and more stores -- and more and more sprawl -- to American communities... And the list goes on.

After receiving so many comments in reponse to Hazen's story, we've decided to showcase some below.

Reader Paul-D expressed regret that his rural relatives were forced to shop at Wal-Mart for lack of alternatives. "My beloved in-laws live in a painfully rural community in Eastern Kentucky," he wrote. "Virtually the ONLY store they can shop at is the local Wal-Mart. I'd like to try to convince them to drive a little further and shop elsewhere, but they won't do it.

“I'm going to make sure they see this movie. Hopefully we can engage in a dialog about this afterward, and maybe I can pursuade them to get involved in their community and make sure Wal-Mart doesn't gain any more ground than it already has."

Reader Phatkat, also rurally located, acknowledged a personal mistrust for the chain but reminded us (again), "when you are rural, and retired on a fixed income, it is hard NOT to shop there. I buy as little as possible, but there are some things that are either unavailable elsewhere, or are twice the price elsewhere. A sorry impasse."

Kirk, a pastor, agreed: "Wal-Mart has moved into rural communities in a way that makes one either drive so far [that] everything costs more, due to time and gas; or go without."

But he addressed some small ways shoppers can help thwart the big W: "I do find that many local retailers will order items especially for me, and sometimes put in price breaks, since I do other shopping there too. It doesn't hurt that I'm a pastor, but maybe you can obtain similar services for at least some of your shopping. No one should be expected to make unreasonable sacrifices; if we all do what we can, local businesses will be stable, and Wal-Mart will shrink."

Pjbretz, from a "small town of around 25,000" residents, recalled commiserating with a Wal-Mart employee during a recent visit. "I was in line for 30 minutes at one of the express lanes...talking to...an employee of the store. She said that a couple of weeks ago, the manager had to come in on a Saturday to help check people out, because some of the checkers had not come in. And for $6.25 an hour, I don't think I would show up either."

Phatcat also weighed in on Wal-Mart's skimpy hourly wages. "When Wal-Mart's wages are posted as being around $10/hr, it is deceptive. The people who work in the stores get much less, but their fleet truck drivers make wages similar to Costco's workers, or $16/hr. The drivers' wages skew the average upward! It's WORSE than it looks!"