Smiley face belies Wal-Mart
By Cindy Rodriguez
Denver Post Staff Columnist
DenverPost.com
Robert Greenwald's latest documentary, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," feels like a rushed, poorly edited film.
That is understandable, considering the director assembled more than 800 "field producers" who, in a few months, fanned the country and also headed to Wal-Mart factories in Bangladesh, China and Honduras to collect stories of how the nation's largest retailer is undermining the American quality of life.
He spliced dozens of those stories together, many with poor sound quality or shaky footage.
But the voices of current and former Wal-Mart sales associates and managers bring to life the way that corporate dominance and stockholder greed have created a segment of the American workforce, 1.3 million people, who earn slightly above the U.S. poverty rate.
The film documents that, even after putting in a 40-hour workweek, workers are eligible for food stamps, Medicaid and other public-assistance programs. It's an insult to these workers and a drain on taxpayer-funded programs. (Welfare was never meant to help supplement exploited workers.)
All the while Wal-Mart raked in billions in profits - $10 billion in 2004 alone - while chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. reported earnings that year above $17.5 million.
Watching this film will make you never want to shop at Wal- Mart again.
I haven't shopped there in years because the so-called low prices cost us too much.
There will be those who will turn a blind eye, justifying their Wal-Mart purchases because they need to save a few dollars. They will say all companies want higher profits and that Wal-Mart continues to grow because it buys in bulk and Americans like shopping there.
But at what point do you stop saying the ends justify the $15.78 jeans?
Consider that those jeans, Lee, are assembled overseas by workers making just enough to feed themselves. Keep in mind that "NBC Dateline" revealed in 1992 that Lee paid workers in Bangladesh to sew "made in the USA" labels in jeans being shipped to Wal-Mart.
Among the information revealed in the film, most of which has been established by government agencies and labor organizations:
The average Wal-Mart sales associate earns less than $14,000 a year and can't afford the $1,000 deductible required by the health-care plan.
Wal-Mart has a history of union-busting.
Wal-Mart factory workers in China make less than $3 a week, after putting in more than 72 hours of work.
Family-owned businesses collapse when Wal-Mart moves to town.
The company has denied the movie's claims and says the film distorts Wal-Mart's image.
Can this Arkansas-based company, under public pressure, change its predatory business style?
Wal-Mart should take its cues from rival Costco, a highly profitable yet benevolent company.
Costco pays its average employee $17 an hour. It offers workers an affordable health-care package that 85 percent of employees take part in. It contributes to employees' 401(k) plan.
Of course, Jim Sinegal, the CEO of Costco, takes a more modest annual salary of $350,000, a sliver of what Wal-Mart's Lee brings to his palatial estate.
Perhaps Wal-Mart's CEO greed trickles down from the top.
The Walton family - widow Helen and three children Rob, Jim, and Alice (another son, John, died in a plane crash in June) have a collective net worth topping $100 billion, according to Forbes magazine. The film reports the family donated just $6,000 to a company fund that helps needy employees.
The more you find out about Wal-Mart, the more you realize that the low costs come indeed at too high a price. Shop elsewhere. Boycott Wal-Mart, the company known for always low wages.
Cindy Rodriguez's column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays in Scene.
Contact her at 303-820-1211 or crodriguez@denverpost.com.
So, wanna guess where I shop? CostCo. Better environment because I hate the stench of exploitation.
Tags: Wal-Mart, WalMart, High Cost of Low Prices, mad profit, corporate responsibility