Why I boycott Walmart

November 28, 9:58 PMDC Corporate Ethics ExaminerJim Cunningham

Previous Next

21 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the DC Corporate Ethics Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Memorabilia from Walmart censorship history.

Ahhh, it’s that time of year again… the flavors of leftover turkey and gravy sandwiches… the smells of neighborhood fire places burning… the sounds of people screaming as they’re trampled at Walmart on Black Friday.

Every year, on or around this day, I do an internet news search to find out what loss-leader items are luring people to the awful, evil place known as Walmart. Today a Google News search on “Walmart” returned thousands of versions of the story about a man who was trampled to death at a Walmart store in Long Island. Someone always gets hurt at Walmart on Black Friday. It’s become a matter of routine. One wonders why Walmart continues such a barbaric event that has long-proven itself to be dangerous.

I know why.

Because Walmart is evil.

OK. OK. It’s more than a bit simplistic to call Walmart “evil”, but they do have a long history of bad business practices, censorship, and poor treatment of their employees, not to mention that they’re pioneers at union busting. I quit shopping there long before I was politically aware. In fact, making the decision not to shop at Walmart many years ago may have been the first political act of my young life – and certainly my first politically-aware decision as a consumer. Of course, back then I was merely upset that Walmart refused to carry some of the music I liked because they deemed the content to be offensive or inappropriate. I felt that was my decision to make – not theirs - and that if the retailer insisted on deciding for me what I should be listening to, than I wasn’t going to shop there any longer.

That lasted for years. And then one day after I graduated college, when I was just scraping by, a SUPER Walmart was built in the little town I had recently moved into. I had been trying to survive on that little piece just-out-of-college salary and now there was a giant bright shiny new Walmart in the neighborhood that sold groceries in addition to everything else. I weakened and, for a brief time, enjoyed low prices on the things I needed, and even, Walmart end caps being what they are, the things I didn’t.

I was just starting to enjoy my newly-found savings (and I suppose cobble-together some sort of justification in my head to remove my guilt) when I learned the story about the T-shirt that Walmart found so offensive, they had it stripped from store shelves. What did that shirt say? It was Margaret from the Dennis the Menace cartoons. The shirt depicted her standing, hands on hips, with a speech bubble over her head that read, "SOMEDAY, A WOMAN WILL BE PRESIDENT!" apparently some people complained about the shirt and it was pulled from shelves. I was horrified.

After that, I stopped shopping at Walmart for good. I’m not alone. Many Progressives refuse to shop there. But I’ve always kept an eye on them [explicit language in link] and continued to hold a grudge. I pay attention whenever I hear something new about them. Heck, I pay attention even when it’s old news just rehashed in some different town or context. Sometimes Walmart makes the news, but it’s pretty rare. There are organizations like Walmart Watch who try to keep their atrocities in public view. But the worst stories are often personal.

I have a close friend who worked at Walmart. She used to tell me stories about how her managers would force her to clock out and return to work. There was nothing her or her coworkers could do. If they complained they would be fired and replaced with people who would put up with the treatment. She said her supervisors were ruthless people ever-willing to take advantage of employees in imaginative new ways. My friend, the kind soul that she is, always suspected her supervisors were simply responding to pressures from above.

I used to work for a packaging company. One of our customers would tell us stories about how agreeing to have his product sold through Walmart was like making a deal with the devil. They mandated how he would make his product, how it would be packaged, what colors to use on the package – you name it, they dictated it. But the worst part came when they told him they would no longer sell his product, unless he sold it to them cheaper - much cheaper. And when he couldn’t provide the quantities they wanted when they wanted for the price they wanted and still pay his employees a fair wage and continue to stay in business, Walmart offered to buy him out. It was for less money than he would have liked and he would lose the business he loved and the product he invented, but he had no choice.

And so Walmart uses its power to hurt American values, American workers, American business and the American economy. (Even consumers themselves if they’re not careful.)

I waited until after Black Friday to tell this story because I can’t, in good conscience, ask other people not to shop at Walmart. Not in this economy.

The way things are, you don’t have a choice. It’s not your fault the economy is in the tank. You should be able to get nice things for yourself and your family when things are bad.

But later, when things are better, maybe then you’ll change your mind and join me in spending our money in places other than Walmart.