Opposition by activists, competitors, local citizens, labor unions, and religious groups may include protest marches, property damage to store buildings, or by creating bomb scares. Opponents cite concerns such as traffic congestion, environmental problems, public safety, absentee landlordism, bad public relations, low wages and benefits, and predatory pricing. When Walmart plans a new store location, as often as not the company has to fight its way into town in the municipal equivalent of civil war between pro and anti Walmart factions. Walmart opened its Teotihuacan Superstore near the Pyramid of the Moon amid community protests. Some libertarian economists, such as those at the Cato Institute, claim that Walmart is successful because it sells desirable products at low prices. The 2006 book The Walmart Effect by business journalist Charles Fishman contains much of the criticism, though it also enumerates Walmart's positive impacts within society. In November 2005, a documentary film critical of Walmart ( Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price) was released on DVD.Ĭritics say that Walmart's lower prices draw customers away from smaller Main Street businesses, hurting local small-town communities, and that the company hurts the United States economy by relying excessively on Chinese-produced products – Walmart is the largest importer in the United States in many categories, such as electronics and fast-moving consumer goods. The company retained the public relations firm Edelman to interact with the press and respond to negative media reports, and has started working with bloggers by sending them news, suggesting topics for postings, and inviting them to visit Walmart's corporate headquarters. Efforts to counter criticism include a public relations campaign in this same year, which included several television commercials. By the end of 2005, Walmart had launched Working Families for Walmart to counter those groups.
In 2005, labor unions created new organizations and websites to criticize the company, including Wake Up Walmart ( United Food and Commercial Workers) and Walmart Watch ( Service Employees International Union). The company has denied any wrongdoing and said that low prices are the result of efficiency.
Criticisms include charges of racial and gender discrimination, foreign product sourcing, anti-competitive practices, treatment of product suppliers, environmental practices, the use of public subsidies, and its surveillance of its employees. The American multinational retail chain Walmart has been criticized by many groups and individuals, such as labor unions and small-town advocates, for its policies and business practices, and their effects. A Walmart Supercenter in Madison Heights, Virginia (2005)
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