Movie: _Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices_
Didn't have much to do tonight so I was looking through our free on-demand movies and stumbled upon this. Seemed surprising to me that it would be available for free on comcast digital cable. I figured I would know some of what they would have to say but watched the film anyway. It was produced in 2005 so some of the information they relayed was probably outdated, but some of it was very striking.
Here's the IMDB entry.
Here's the film's website.
I am still not going to shop at Wal*Mart. Nothing has changed. It was not the best well-made film, but the information they presented was very powerful. Not sure how true all of it is, but if even a portion of it is, it's frightening.
For example: They train their managers to move employees' hours from one week to another when an employee has earned overtime hours so that Wal*mart will not have to pay overtime - saving money on overtime pay.
They pay Chinese workers who make the products Wal*mart sells in it's American stores $0.18 per hour and charge them to live in industry dormitories - they charge them rent and utilities. If the factory workers choose to live off the Wal*mart property, they still get charged the rent from their paychecks.
The film gave numbers of the employees in different states who use public assistance for health care because the Wal*mart insurance is too expensive or the employees have to supplement it because it does not cover their needs. The film also said that managers are encouraged to suggest to their subordinates that they seek out public assistance.
There are presently lawsuits in 31 states against Wal*Mart.
They also told several heart-breaking stories in which Wal*marts moved into towns and destroyed all the local business. The film implied that it was something the managers used to joke about - guessing how long it would take for each independent business to close up shop (3 months, 6 months, 3 months...)
Perhaps the most striking part was when the showed how much the Walton family is worth and gave numbers about how much the family had done in the interests of philanthropy and it was disgustingly low. Disgusting.
Here's the fact page which cites sources for the facts presented in the movie.
Here's the IMDB entry.
Here's the film's website.
I am still not going to shop at Wal*Mart. Nothing has changed. It was not the best well-made film, but the information they presented was very powerful. Not sure how true all of it is, but if even a portion of it is, it's frightening.
For example: They train their managers to move employees' hours from one week to another when an employee has earned overtime hours so that Wal*mart will not have to pay overtime - saving money on overtime pay.
They pay Chinese workers who make the products Wal*mart sells in it's American stores $0.18 per hour and charge them to live in industry dormitories - they charge them rent and utilities. If the factory workers choose to live off the Wal*mart property, they still get charged the rent from their paychecks.
The film gave numbers of the employees in different states who use public assistance for health care because the Wal*mart insurance is too expensive or the employees have to supplement it because it does not cover their needs. The film also said that managers are encouraged to suggest to their subordinates that they seek out public assistance.
There are presently lawsuits in 31 states against Wal*Mart.
They also told several heart-breaking stories in which Wal*marts moved into towns and destroyed all the local business. The film implied that it was something the managers used to joke about - guessing how long it would take for each independent business to close up shop (3 months, 6 months, 3 months...)
Perhaps the most striking part was when the showed how much the Walton family is worth and gave numbers about how much the family had done in the interests of philanthropy and it was disgustingly low. Disgusting.
Here's the fact page which cites sources for the facts presented in the movie.