Wal-Mart: Yes
Everybody sooner or later goes shopping and encounters a versatile choice of where to go and spend a sum of invaluable money. Such problem is not seen few and far between, as large business corporations provide extensive alternative of diverse shops. One can visit large malls, where it is possible to buy everything, according to personal taste; otherwise, one may prefer going to small convenient shops that can totally satisfy one’s needs. Everything depends on one’s tastes, as Nechyba states in his book (2011): “Despite the fact that tastes are not directly observable, we are able to observe people’s choices under different economic circumstances, and from those choices we can conclude something about their choices”. It shows and reveals the key essence: in the contemporary world with sophisticated and elaborate business systems everything is made to meet needs and requirements of customers. Interesting fact is that more than half of the productivity acceleration in the retailing of general merchandise can be explained by only two syllables: Wal-Mart (McKinsey, 2002). This is what Wal-Mart is doing and why it gains world-wide fame.
To know better what Wal-Mart stores look like and judge whether they should be preserved in global, as well as local, market, there is a need of a deeper analysis of its history. Everything started in early 40th, when Sam Walton was considering of being an entrepreneur and set up his own business. “How a man and his wife could invest six thousand dollars of personal savings and money borrowed from family members into a small business that fifty five years later would become the largest company in the world…” (Soderquist, 2005, p.7). This statement is startling, as it describes how a person without a big sum of money can jeopardize when stakes are high. Sam Walton bought a small shop and expanded his selling in a couple of years. He did realize the general truth – if one wants to attract more and more people, one should inaugurate a new policy. Such policy was conducted through such straightforward steps: giving customers appropriate choice when they can find everything (starting from a toy and finishing with meat); reducing prices on products that make them reasonable and accessible. The second element makes Wal-Mart store thrive up to these days.
Every store deserves to be accepted, and Wal-Mart is not an exception. The first reason lies in a simple statement – everything is selected and gathered in one place. Wal-Mart store places everything in one building and makes it convenient for every customer not to go to another place for a bottle of milk. It gives a large quantity of items: food, beverages, clothing, gadgets etc. Due to beautiful sights and elaborate structures, every visit to a Wal-Mart gives joy and satisfaction.
“Wal-Mart's most common type of store — the Supercenter — offers customers an indoor, air-conditioned shopping area larger than three football fields. These shopping behemoths provide so much — such a staggeringly huge range of well-made products — that a person could practically live his whole life without having to shop anywhere else” (Kirklin, 2006).
Judging from the stated above, it is always appreciated when one can go shopping and buy everything in one store, because the precious time is money, as the business proverb says.
Second, Wal-Mart helps people save their money at the time, when it is so hard to make a living. The competition nowadays is so high, that while applying for a job, one may find it startling to see 30 people just like you. Here problems begin and people, can hardly make their ends meet. All people can see is that everything spins around money. It is somewhat similar to the Sun, and planets which are spinning around it. In this case, “Sun” is “money” and “planets” are “people”. Such metaphorical transference helps deeply understand the essence of modern market system which, moreover, is hard for comprehension for ordinary people. Nevertheless, everybody understands that without money people cannot live. They cannot buy food, clothes, medicine and other vital products. They will not even exist. These small papers make people wake up and go, if they want to have something in their lives. Whatever religious people are, and how much they value the inner world, money is a thing which does not allow them to sit and do nothing. Therefore, Wal-Mart plays a vital role in saving at least a little sum of money, which may be sometimes quite helpful. People do not visit Wal-Mart to buy some branded goods; they visit Wal-Mart because of low prices (Hill, 2012, p.67). This statement proves that pricing policy in Wal-Mart makes crowds of people buy and appreciate the service it provides.
Third, problems of environmental issues are being constantly discussed by ordinary people and higher institutions, such as governments. People worry about the health condition of their children and their own. This theme just cannot attract the attention of contemporary people. It is always better to know that children may swim in the lake without premonition that there are radioactive elements which may cause a skin irritation or even worse diseases. It is always beneficial when people drink a glass of tap water without a fear that stomach disorder waits for them. It is always pleasant to sit in the tree surrounded place and breathe fresh air without smoke and exhaust fumes. This list may be endless. Environmental issues are the topic of heated discussions, but not enough steps are taken to prevent the nature loss. Nevertheless, Wal-Mart takes one of the top companies that do care about the environment. As Berg and Roberts (2010, p.101) indicate: “Wal-Mart’s broad environmental goals are simple: to be supplied 100 % by renewable energy; to create zero waste; and to sell products that sustain people and the environment”. This tasks sound reasonable and satisfactory; consequently, Wal-Mart deserves to be approved in eyes of customers.
Last but not least, evidence that Wal-Mart have more advantages than drawbacks is a care of its workers’ health. All over the world, employees are much valued if there would be a care for them, while looking for a job. People always consider what programs for health benefit are provided by the employer. This even may be a pivotal question, however strange it may sound. Without decent health condition one cannot do work efficiently, one cannot properly think and percept the world as it is. This is the reality. If one cannot get up from the bed in the morning, it is not possible at all to speak about values, money and other things. It goes without saying that it is quite obvious. Therefore, Wal-Mart realizes this harsh truth and tries to help somehow their workers. “Wal-Mart has implemented the innovation that experts say will lead higher-quality, more efficient health care, namely electronic medical records (EMRs)…More than 50,000 employees enrolled in the EMR program in the first six month” (Rainer, 2011, p.138).
There are no lost or misplaced test results, costs are reduced to minimum, due to the effectiveness of the program, because everything is done by a computer system, and the most important – fewer mistakes are made while treating patients. It is the general idea that nobody can argue that this fact shows that Wal-Mart policy includes not only making an immense profit, but also taking care of their much valued workers.
All mentioned paragraphs show that Wal-Mart Board of Directors does take customers’ and employees’ thoughts into consideration. This is truly honorable of them to make their service better and satisfy needs of the people. Nevertheless, there always are and will always be opponents who can disprove everything heard about Wal-Mart. One of the likely objections to the existence of Wal-Mart is that small shops are being closed, because all customers prefer Wal-Mart to their small shops with a limited offer of production. Of course, people will go in the place, where the quality is the same, but the price is lower. This is a harsh reality. If those people did not have their own small business, they would also do the same. Moreover, in the modern economy survives the strongest one. It is not forbidden to set up own business industry, which will be as profitable as Wal-Mart. People have the same rights to make their money. Wal-Mart is destroying peoples’ lives, just because their ideas where not implemented in reality, comparatively to Wal-Mart’s. It was amusing to read one quotation: “A lot of us are not wealthy to let Wal-Mart continually steal money from us that we work hard for on a daily, weekly or monthly basis” (Murphy, 2008, p.6). This sounds quite ridiculous, that one reads it few times. Wal-Mart does not steal money from people. If one does not want to buy products in these stores, it will not obligatory to do this. All the time people have a choice where to go for shopping. Very few people go to exactly one shop or store. It would be awkward as all these claims are made on insufficient evidence.
Wal-Mart is known as the largest retailing company. It gives the workplace to thousands of people all over the world, and provides their employees with dignified salary. The service of Wal-Mart stores is always up-to-scratch, and more people every day prefer to buy everything in Wal-Mart. The price policy also deserves its praise and admiration. Moreover, Wal-Mart directors always value workers’ job; they initiate new projects to keep their health in a proper condition and save their money, if something goes wrong. Finally, it takes care of the natural environment and spends large sums of money on its preservation. This is extremely vital, because people are an inalienable part of nature and must appreciate what it gives them. In other words, Wal-Mart has always been and will always be a company for people to admire, value and to enjoy using their service.
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