Jerry Seglin, a business ethics columnist for The New York Times, once spoke on the topic, “Is it ethical to shop at Wal-mart?” Seglin began his remarks by giving a description of two retail stores. The first one was described as a company “founded by a folksy entrepreneur whose notions of thrift, industry, and the square deal were pure Ben Franklin” (“Is it ethical,” 2004). The organization’s low prices had spurred productivity and had helped to combat inflation (“Is it ethical,” 2004). The company was America’s most admired company.
The other retail store was described as a “very big discount store” that “will do just about anything to get bigger” including hiring illegal immigrants to mop its floors, locking workers inside the store overnight and crushing many an individual proprietor in its ambitions to grow bigger and bigger (“Is it ethical,” 2004). Which one of these descriptions represents Wal-Mart one might ask? Both of them do. And so goes the long-standing argument: does Wal-Mart stimulate an economy or retard it? Does Wal-Mart produce jobs or force jobs overseas? Does Wal-Mart really save the consumer money or are we really just “shopping ourselves out of jobs” as one supplier suggested?
Background on Wal-Mart
According to Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, “the secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want” (Walton, 1993). By focusing on the customer, Wal-Mart grew nearly exponentially. While Walton was only able to raise enough funds to build fifteen stores in the 1960s, the company had 276 by the end of the 1970s (“The Wal-Mart story,” 2006). In the 1980s, Wal-Mart was one of the most successful retailers in America. In 1989, sal ...