...Gasland and Social Conflict Theory According to Karl Marx “in all stratified societies there are two major social groups: a ruling class and a subject class. The ruling class derives its power from its ownership and control of the forces of production. The ruling class exploits and oppresses the subject class. As a result there is a basic conflict of interest between the two classes.” Social conflict theory is a theory that reflects on how the more powerful groups use their power in order to harness groups with less power. The good example of the social conflict theory can be find in the “Gasland” movie directed by Josh Fox. There are three main theories of socialism: structural functional, social conflict, and symbolic interaction. The reason for social conflict being the best candidate for Gasland is because it shows how much power, wealth, and prestige the government can hold among the U.S. population. It showed real, heart-wrenching stories of normal, everyday Americans suffering consequences from fracking. Gasland addresses the environmental harm caused by fracking. Specifically, the film targets the pollution of drinking water. It also looks at the harmful health defects that will occur once animals and humans are exposed to fracking. This documentary relates to the political economy of neoliberalism. Josh Fox is the main character in the documentary, Gasland, who shows how gasoline companies benefit themselves by impacting other people’s daily life in an unsecure way...
Words: 585 - Pages: 3
...Naiem salib Essay #3. First draft. Is Walmart good or bad for America? Throw the years Walmart have expanded more and more , and attracted more customers And employee’s .Some people can’t live without Walmart ,Some shop at Walmart and other work there , but not everyone is a fan of Walmart .Walmart also do a lot of good things to the community ,But the question here does Walmart do more good stuff to the community or does they make the community even more worse? Lets start and talk about the good stuff that Walmart do. They're cheap which helps low income families or people who just want cheap stuff. One-stop shopping is also a huge plus for a lot of people save time, gas, and money. You might have to turn some of the bad into a bit of good. For one, retail employment growth - they open a lot of jobs for a lot of people, and you can find all you can need in Walmart from food to tires to pet supplies , so you wont have to go to ten stores to buy you’re stuff , and they are one of the cheapest stores in America. Is Walmart bad for America? Over 100 million customers visit Wal-Mart every single week in this country, but is it good for America. and that question cannot be answered , because the reason that people hate Walmart is the same reason that the other half of America love Walmart .And that is what they want .Walmart god so big that they started paying people less than the minimum wage , and they couldn’t care less. In 2010, Wal-Mart had revenues of 421 billion...
Words: 337 - Pages: 2
...February 8, 2015 Is Walmart good for America? Most everyone loves Walmart’s low prices. Walmart Super Centers are great for one stop shopping. A place that offers low prices must be a great place right? Maybe it isn’t such a great place. Low prices come at a cost to America. I do not think that Walmart good for America. Walmart purchases a lot of products from China, which furthers America’s trade deficit. Walmart contributes to the downfall of American manufacturers. Walmart also encourages businesses to take manufacturing overseas. Walmart imports an extreme amount of products from China. China’s prices are cheaper. The low cost of labor in China makes their products cheaper than American products. Chinese products allows Walmart to sell the products to consumers for a low cost. Walmart rakes in the profits because of the large mark-up they use. The United States currently has a major trade deficit. The trade deficit hurts our economy. We are buying more products from other countries than we are selling to them. Manufactures have to go to Walmart headquarters to negotiate prices. If Walmart disagrees with the terms, the manufactures lose them as clients. Rubbermaid once made and sold products to Walmart. The price of resin increased, and Rubbermaid had to increase their prices. Walmart refused to take the price increase. They stopped carrying Rubbermaid products. Rubbermaid was hurt drastically by Walmart’s decision. They later went out of business. If Walmart had took the price...
Words: 409 - Pages: 2
...Inc. (NYSE: WMT), branded as Walmart, is an American multinational retail corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's third largest public corporation, according to the Fortune Global 500 list in 2012, the biggest private employer in the world with over two million employees, and is the largest retailer in the world. Walmart remains a family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family, who own a 48 percent stake in Walmart. It is also one of the world's most valuable companies. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart is also the largest grocery retailer in the United States. In 2009, it generated 51 percent of its US$258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business. It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America. Walmart has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names. The company operates under the Walmart name in the United States, including the 50 states and Puerto Rico. It operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda, in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. Walmart's investments outside North America have had mixed results: its operations in the United Kingdom, South America, and China are highly successful...
Words: 2803 - Pages: 12
... Mexico prior to NAFTA. Walmart was paying higher tariffs to import American goods. Once NAFTA was implemented, Mexico became a free trade zone. This made it possible for Walmart to reduce its tariffs from 10% to 3% creating a level playing field with its competitors. With the signing of NAFTA, it also opened up the doors to foreign investment in Mexico. Walmart was also paying huge fees for goods to be shipped from Europe and Asia into Mexico. Once these companies knew that building manufacturing plants in Mexico they could keep the costs low by using Mexican labor, they facilitated it. This allowed Walmart to purchase these products without paying high import tariffs. “NAFTA resulted in better suppliers due to an increase in competition, competitiveness and efficiency among the companies in order to gain the trust of their clients. Better supplies also increased the variety of products available to consumer with wider price ranges, which allowed Walmart to offer customers better savings and thus increase their purchasing power. NAFTA also helped Mexico achieve greater economic growth at a lower rate of inflation, which also added to the purchasing power of consumers.”(Daniel & Radenbaugh, pg. 321) 2. How much of Walmart’s success is due to NAFTA, and how much is due to Walmart’s inherent competitive strategy? In other words, could any other U.S. retailer have the same success in Mexico post-NAFTA, or is Walmart a special case? Because...
Words: 990 - Pages: 4
...of its US$258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business.[4] It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America. Walmart has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names. The company operates under its own name in the United States, including the 50 states and Puerto Rico. It operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda, in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. Walmart's investments outside North America have had mixed results: its operations in the United Kingdom, South America and China are highly successful, whereas ventures in Germany and South Korea were unsuccessful. Wal-Mart is one of the world’s leading retailers, but there are many competitions with other retailers such as: Target, Kmart and convenience stores. But the strategy of Walmart is lower prices, better variety and good quality, it’s one of the factors to satisfy customer needs. Customer is the most important factor for success of the company. II. Question. 1. Should Walmart sell more food products to compete with rivals such as: Shop Rite or Stop&Shop? In my opinion, many people go to Warmart to buy the stuffs for their house, and many items are sold there. But if they want to buy meat, vegetable, fruit … Walmart can’t provide to them, they need to go other place, I think that it’s not convenient for the customer. Thinking about, if we can go one...
Words: 711 - Pages: 3
...costs 50 cents, but you can’t blame any corporation for low costs, low goods state the world is in right now. People generally remember a period shortly after World War II when America led the world to manufacturing, where some (most) American companies made their products right in the comfort of their hometown, and quality products had no rivals. This is definitely not what our world looks like today. Today there is global competition, cheap labor, manufacturing overseas, and consumer demand for cheaper goods being “cheap over anything else”. Walmart fills a lot of these demands for America, with an American company that provides jobs for over 2 million people a year. Employing so many workers helps keep down prices and inflation for over 300 million Americans. If Wal-Mart did not exist, its place in the economic world would be taken over by a different company, and that company may not be American so we should count ourselves lucky. So, you cannot hold this against Wal-Mart on the basis of a claim that says Wal-Mart destroys the old American economy that our parents and grandparents remember. That economy no longer exists and the new world is nowhere near as predictable. Sometimes it moves too quickly for some (me) to keep up. Workers have less job security, and Main street is no longer the center of America, but Walmart does it’s best to help us keep up. Walmart gives people somewhere to get good products for a cheap discount that they couldn’t otherwise afford. This...
Words: 872 - Pages: 4
...Basak Alemdag WALMART RETAIL ANALYSIS Business description Walmart is an American retail corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores in various countries. It is currently the largest retailer in US and in the world and also the world's third largest public corporation according to the Fortune Global 500 list in 2012. Today, Walmart operates in 15 countries with a total of 8500 stores. It is well-known for its low-cost structure. Founded by Sam Walton in 1962, the company is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart is still a family-owned business, run by the Walton Family who has the 48% stake of the company. It also owns a chain of warehouse stores in North America, called “Sam's Club retail warehouses”. Walmart has a wide range of product categories under the following departments: Electronics, Auto&Tires, Apparel, PhotoCenter, Books, Sports/Outdoors, Home Improvement, Baby, Patio&Garden, Toys, Health, Pets, Grocery, Gifts, Beauty, Movies&VideoGames, Party/Occasion, Pharmacy, Jewelry. Customer identification Walmart essentially targets price-sensitive consumers as their regular customers. It offers overall medium-quality goods with lowest prices, and it is the main reason most customers shop from Walmart. The average US Walmart customer's income is below the national average, and analysts recently estimated that more than one-fifth of them lack a bank account, twice the national rate. A Walmart financial report...
Words: 2083 - Pages: 9
...of the largest corporations in America, Walmart has a huge influence on the lifestyle and economics of many Americans. It caters to consumers looking to save money, and those effected by the recent economic decline. It is also the largest private sector employer in the nation. (Peled) Yet, behind those yellow smiles, is the face of corporate greed. In an effort to be more fiscally responsible, middle class shoppers, and especially the poor are compelled to shop at Walmart. Over the last decade, as the economy has worsened, and more people are looking to make ends meet and spend less, Walmart has enjoyed record profits. In fact, in 2013 they made a 17 billion dollar profit. (Gandel) However, its employees, many of whom earn a minimum wage are forced to apply for government funded public assistance. In April of 2014, the Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of 400 progressive groups, estimated that Walmart costs taxpayers 6.2 billion in Public Assistance. Essentially, taxpayers are supplementing the salaries of these often minimum-wage, hard working employees. Because these workers earn so little, they can only afford to shop at Walmart. In effect, Walmart is double dipping; not only are they profiting by paying their employees so little, but when their workers pay with government funds, they make a profit on that too. The only way those workers can survive on wages so little is by creating a dependency by working and shopping at Walmart. They might look like saviors...
Words: 599 - Pages: 3
...Walmart's history is one of the best examples of innovation, leadership and success. Walmart was founded by Sam Walton in 1962; it was incorporated on October 31, 1969, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It started with a single store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962 and has grown to what is now the world’s largest and the most emulated retailer. Some researchers refer to Walmart as the industry trendsetter. Today, this retailing pioneer has annual revenues of over $100 billion, 3,000 stores and more than 750,000 employees worldwide. Walmart operates in each store, from the products it stocks in the warehouse, to the front-end that helps speed checkout. Walmart’s philosophy: provide everyday low prices and superior customer service worked the best. Lower prices also eliminated the expense of frequent sales promotions and sales are more predictable. Walmart has invested heavily in its cross-docking inventory system. Cross docking has enabled Walmart to achieve economies of scale which reduce its costs of sales. With this system, goods are continuously delivered to stores within 48 hours and often without having to stock them. This allows Walmart to refill the shelves 4 times faster than its competitors. Walmart controls its buying power through purchasing in bulks and distributing the goods on time. Walmart guarantees everyday low prices and considers them the one stop shop. Walmart operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the UK as ASDA abbreviation of Asquith and Dairies...
Words: 5332 - Pages: 22
...that merits study at this point in the course? According to this case, the major issue is the conflicts between Walmart and local manufacturers. Because of the low price in Walmart, local manufacturing business cannot survive in the market. Also, production process in Walmart creates many environment problems. Meanwhile, importAlso, to produce low cost merchandise, Walmart provides extremely low wages and benefits to labors, which put workers in a hard condition. taking advantage of illegal immigrants. •Gender discrimination against women. • Most sued company in America in respect of lawsuits. 3. What sub-issues or related issues are present in the case that merit consideration now? Analysis and Evaluation 1. Who are the stakeholders in the case and what are their stakes? What challenges, threats or opportunities are posed by these stakeholders? From government perspective, US government gain good reputation. Walmart, as a US company, brings many good reputations. For Chinese government, it is a good supplier to Walmart. Walmart creates many job opportunities in China. However, Walmart harms nature environment in China. From owners perspective, The Walton Family earns a lot of money. However, it gets bad reputations in the society. To fix this problem, it can give back to society , such as donations. From Employees perspective, employees in Walmart get jobs. However, they can only get low wages. Labor unions argue for labors rights. It is against Walmart’s...
Words: 1504 - Pages: 7
...Walmart Walmart, one of the great stories in American history but, how does it compare to other retail stores like Target or K-mart, but, it also has a history of discrimination toward women and minorities. Mr. Sam Walton, a military man, a captain in World War II could not have imagined that his business would grow into one of most productive retail stores in modern history. Even today, with Walmarts, overseas, Walmart has cornered the retail market by storm. But, it also has a bad image, over its business deals against women and minorities and especially not giving equal pay for equal work, or denying workers the opportunities for advancements that are offered to white males in his business. I guess this wouldn’t be Mr. Walton, but his board of governors should be held accountable. Everyday people file law suits against the company, how long will the company last? Next, they have become so large that they can afford to move overseas, and hire workers that will work for less than the average American will, now, that will be exactly what was needed for the company,(globalization.) Walmart has stores in countries that the common American has never heard of. In the 1940’s, a young man named Sam Walton, of Newport, Arkansas, was using another stores business model, and that was, get products at a reasonable price, and they had to be American made. His idea was so simple anybody could have done it, but anyway, his idea was to look for bargain deals from suppliers and sell them...
Words: 2501 - Pages: 11
...Walmart Customer Service Retention DeVry University BUSN 319 Week 3 Case Study Walmart is a company in a service store industry. Customers believe in getting the value for their money for every purchase they make. Walmart is experiencing challenges associated with the change in buying habits of customers; focusing on more basic commodities. Walmart offered on low prices as it strongest selling point for customers. It also offered convenience as a one stop shopping store but the company is yet to come up with a new strategy in view of this challenge. The company currently has its focus on online retailing in a bid to offer its customers convenience. The company believes in good customer relations in a bid to retain the customers. Walmart considers low pricing its first choice in retaining customers (Allan & Nathan, 2015). Customer loyalty points offered through shopping cards is also a second choice that the company banks its hopes (Allan & Nathan, 2015). The changes in economic trends greatly affect the manner through which customers will buy and at the same time it affects Walmart’s pricing strategy in the long run. In addition, the company will have a hard time coming up with an approach that will counter the same because of the need for doing a break-even analysis (Alworth, 2015). Mr. Richard Alworth, the Walmart customer service manager at Alliance Ohio, holds that customer relations determine the future of a company (Alworth,...
Words: 941 - Pages: 4
...global organization named Walmart. I will also analyze ethical and social responsibility issues that WalMart deals with as a result of being a global organization. I will further compare these ethical perspectives with other cultures that do business with Walmart. Walmart’s Ethical Perspective Walmart belief is built on a foundation of integrity , values of honesty, fairness and objectivity. Sam Walton founded Walmart with the strong conviction that a retailer could help people save money and live better. Since, Sam’s passing away, Mike Duke, Chief Executive Officer, President and CEO of Walmart states “culture is how we work together to fulfill that purpose. It's incorporated into every aspect of our business”. He further states “Our beliefs are the foundation of our culture: service to our customers, respect for the individual, and striving for excellence which rest on the foundation of personal integrity and responsibility(p.1).” Strong adherence to these principles has created a unique work culture at Walmart. No matter where you go — to any of our stores and offices in any of our brands around the world — our associates live these values” (p.1). The Statement of Ethics is strictly enforced in conjunction with local laws, to create an honest, fair, and legal workplace. It applies to all stores in 27 countries and to third parties such as suppliers, consultants, law firms, public relations firms, contractors and other service providers. Walmart encourages associates...
Words: 1532 - Pages: 7
...Name: Clement Lee Wei Kang (144339W) 23 November 2015 Semester 2 AY2015/16 1a) Strength of Walmart: - Walmart has a efficient supply chain/ logistics system. - Walmart has strong market power over its suppliers and competitors - Ability to price product lower than its competitors due to bulk purchases from suppliers Weakness of Walmart - Walmart faces threat from online based retailers and marketplace companies such as Amazon and Ebay. - Walmart has a poor public image due to the bad practices of the company 1b) Products that Walmart sell includes home appliances, clothing, food, automotive and sporting goods. 1c) According to Hofstede’s framework, Walmart has a low power distance as surbordinates are more likely to contradict bosses in the US, it is individualistic as the “American dream” where they hope for a better quality of life and a higher standard of living than their parents’. This belief is that anyone, regardless of their status can ‘pull up their boot straps’ and raise themselves from poverty., it operates in a slightly high masculine society as males have higher chances of being in management position than female and has low uncertainty avoidance. 2a) Walmart uses strategic importance of market to select its market based on the opportunities it will provide for them in the country. Walmart first started by establishing a presence in the Americas: Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Canada. As these countries are the nearest geographically and...
Words: 754 - Pages: 4
