Customer Reviews

Frontline: Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I saw this when it originally aired on PBS and it made me both angry and sad. Angry that a huge BILLION dollar company cannot afford to give their employees affordable healthcare,put some AMERICAN companies out of business(Rubbermaid)because of their greedy buying tactics and overall have shady business practices. Sad because they have been getting away with this irresponsible behaviour for far to long. People are beginning to wake up and realise how much harm this company is really causing America. If you need to find out information for yourself please buy this film. You will walk away from it never wanting to shop at Walmart ever again.

This is another superbly done documentary from the award winning PBS investigative journalism series Frontline (Peabody Award, Emmy and many more!). Disregard what one reviewer said about this being pro-Walmart propaganda paid for by the corporation. He's obviously smoking something, because this is made and hosted by Hedrick Smith, a PULITZER prize winning journalist who used to write for the NY Times. He is one of America's most respected journalists. I started watching the show since I was in high school (I'm now late 20's) and their shows are exceptionally high quality. Now, if Frontline is interviewing people who lost jobs and showing Rubbermaid factory equipment being auctioned off because they got put out of business by Walmart, how is this pro-Walmart?

The story starts in America and its impact on the US economy. He interviews some professors, economists, managers, suppliers, and executives. Then the story moves to China and HK, and then back to the US. There are some very clear insights from nmost of the people interviewed especially from one professor who talks about the shift in American culture and business history.

Is Walmart good for America? I can't answer that and neither can Frontline. This documentary does an excellent job presenting facts without judgement and presents both sides and the complex shades in the middle. It asks some thought provoking questions. The US trade deficit is getting worse every day. Quality is going up (some "Made in China" stuff is now very good and getting exponentially better every year), and that's really scary for us in America. Who's the blame? Well, all of us. We're not competing well in the global economy, and we want the cheapest goods. We're not willing to put our money where our mouth is.

If you're interested in economics, history, social issues, this is a must see. If you care about the American economy, and global events, you should watch this documentary. It's loads better than the "Walmart, the High Cost of Low Prices" film (which is very one sided and not nearly as well done). oh,.. and start learning Chinese!

This documentary was first shown as a expose` on the PBS series, Frontline. It started a trend. It asks the hard questions about how Wal-Mart became the world's largest retailer, and at what cost? It is not preachy as with Robert Greenwald's version and it's not biased like Michael Moore. It gets both sides of the arguement to explain themselves and it gives the viewer the chance to decide. Very powerful journalism!

I had no idea how much the Chinese have a grasp in our world or retailing. The cheap labor markets we have created over there have started a frightening trend in world commerce. How much does Wal-Mart care about human rights violations in China? What about the million or so American jobs being lost because of Wal-Mart's slimy practices? What is happening to our country? We are selling out to the lowest common denominator and greed not service seems to be the corporation's motivation. I thought Frontline did a very nice comparison of Rubbermaid vs. Wal-Mart. Kind of good vs. bad ways to conduct international business. Wow!!

This movie is situated between Greenwald's High Price of Low Wages and the other pseudo-documentary, Why Wal Mart Works and Why it Makes Some People Crazy. It is very well researched indeed. Actually, and I know this is not the right forum, but I would respectfully submit to a previous reviewer who wrote that this movie was a pro-Wal Mart propaganda piece that he/she (named DW "real life" (Texas)) probably confused it with the Why Wal Mart Works movie. It is understable as you actually have a number of Wal Mart "documentaries" on the market, either pro or con.

I've never been a fan of Wal-Mart. Indeed, I'm not a real big fan of any of the big box stores but I find WM particularly offensive. So I saw this film.

It's really quite well balanced. The producer talked to WM vice presidents and other executives, a number of academics (the views of whom were not always so clear; they made observations of fact, not fitting them into a particularly value judgement of WM). And he talked with people put out of work by WM, even an Asian, from Hong Kong, who's had to wheel and deal with WM. He even talked with a talking head from libertarian think tank the Cato Institute. (He said no more or less than I would expect from Cato. They exist to provide the propoganda that guy's spreading.)

True, Wal-Mart had humble beginnings. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But it's become a corporate behemoth some of the consequences of which the film didn't even cover, or did so to briefly that the viewer barely perceives the lack of benefits provided by a mega-profit company.

Then there's the rah rah, cheering sessions employees must undergo daily. I know of them as my mother worked for WM for a short time while in her 70s. That cheerleader element of the company is what turned her off instantly.

What's the bottom line? There are several: US companies are laying people off and closing plants so that Chinese workers can make 30 cents an hour producing products for us. Eventually, though, we few of us will afford those products and by then our trade deficit, already at record levels, will be due.

Also WM pays little, requires of its employees a frightening herd mentality reminiscent of political regimes we try to forget.

Well, one could go on for pages.

For anyone wondering about whether to patronize WM, or even allow one in their neighborhood, I strongly recommend this. And I agree with another reviewer or two: No, WM ISN'T good for America.

get this documentary and you will find out why.

this is an absolutely fascinating look at how a single corporation can have the power to change the market.

This film is NOT about how WalMart treats its employees...it is about how WalMart treats its SUPPLIERS!

If you believe in the Free Market, you should watch this. You may be in for a shock.

To understand the economic effect of Wal-Mart on the United States, maybe it's best to start by looking at their enormous growth in a relatively short time. Aggressive is a good word to describe this company's approach to retailing. In 1970, there were 38 stores. In 1980, it was 286 stores. In 1990, Wal-Mart had 1500 stores and overtook all of its competition in 1991 to become the largest retailer in America.

Part of this huge influence on our markets can be partly attributed to an ill conceived, permanent trading agreement with China during the Clinton presidency. In the early 1990's, Wal-Mart flooded their store inventories with manufactured goods from China and low wage countries. These products had a high mark-up which seriously boosted profits. By the late 1990's, Wal-Mart was dependent on low cost Asian imports but it suited them well financially.

China pays employees anywhere from 25 to 50 cents an hour for work. This helps keep production costs down. So much so that it hurts American companies trying to compete and has even forced some of them out of business. As stated in this program, Wal-Mart has some 6000 global suppliers for its goods and 80 percent of those suppliers are in China. Knowing that China is the largest exporter of consumer goods to the U.S. economy and Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the U.S. economy in consumer goods, it becomes abundantly clear that Wal-Mart has designs on dominating all retailing in the United States. One interview with an employee from the Port of Long Beach also reveals some interesting information. The port brings in 36 billion dollars of consumer goods from China each year and the U.S. exports 3 billion dollars of raw materials to China.

With a massive imbalance such as this, you can only imagine the frightful trade deficit it can create. Since this program first aired on November 16, 2004, Wal-Mart reported record sales of 285 billion dollars, up by 11 percent. The commerce department reported a record trade deficit with China of 162 billion dollars, up by 31 percent. With these figures in mind, one expert in this program estimates that this lopsided economic situation has caused America to lose approximately 1 million jobs to China since the early 1990's.

This documentary is not all one sided. There are interviews for and against Wal-Mart and their business practices so it is a fair look at both sides of the picture. In the end, from my viewpoint of the evidence given, it appears that Wal-Mart is not good for America for many obvious reasons. This mega-company appears to hurt the U.S. economy more than help it. To further examine Wal-Mart and their structure, I would highly recommend the documentary `Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price' in conjunction with watching this one.

I am just a college student who studied business, and now I work in the retail industry. I'm not particularly out to get Wal-mart or anything but this documentary really shows how their greedy practices have been a MAJOR contributor to the current self-destruction of our US Economy.

Everyone likes to shop there and save money, and then we wonder where all our manufacturing jobs have gone. This documentary gets to the bottom of it, and shows why we need to be concerned- It's only BEGUN to get serious. The documentary is by PBS's Frontline, which guarantees they will try to be as unbiased as possible. They present the facts, let both sides state their case, and then you can form your own educated opinion. Here's a tip though... When one side continually says things like "We're not going to comment on that" or if they aren't willing to comment at all... They are doing something they KNOW they shouldn't be.

They are exploiting China, whose workers are paid 50 cents an hour or less, and given NONE of the labor protection OUR employees get. So OF COURSE, they can make TV's or whatever cheaper then we can WITH the price of shipping across the Pacific Ocean included. Our companies and factories can't compete, and as a result, China is easily scooping up entire industries, while we go into serious debt and even bankruptcy. Our unemployment is soaring. We blame the Democrats or the Republicans or Obama or Bush, but it really comes down to how willing Americans are to demand cheap prices at Wal-mart and then stick our heads in the sand like an ostrich and pretend there are no consequences. "Wal-mart"... its called a "monopoly," and isn't our government supposed to break up those things?

Another great documentary of a similar nature is: Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, which goes into many different levels of unethical Wal-mart practices.

Here are two other Frontline documentaries, which I strongly recommend:
Frontline: Sick Around the World (Health Care)
FRONTLINE: Ten Trillion and Counting (The National Debt)

Many of us know what Wal-Mart has done to small retail across America. What I did not know until I saw this documentary was what it has done to manufacturing in America with its incredible determination to have as much of everything as possible made in China. The world will look back on this time as one of great change and on Wal-Mart as the key reagent in that change.