Criticism of Walmart
The American multinational retail chain Walmart has received criticism from parties such as labor unions and small town advocates for its policies and business practices.
The company retained the public relations firm Edelman to interact with the press and respond to negative media reports,[10] and has started working with bloggers by sending them news, suggesting topics for postings, and inviting them to visit Walmart's corporate headquarters.
[15][16][17][18][19][excessive citations] Opposition by activists, competitors, local citizens, labor unions, and religious groups may include protest marches,[20][21] property damage to store buildings, or by creating bomb scares.
Protests were mounted by Native Americans and Civil War interest groups, but the Walmart store was eventually constructed after moving graves and some modifications of the site so as not to interfere with the battlefield.
A Florida Third District Court of Appeal panel of judges denied the opposition's challenge of the city's approvals and Walmart broke ground on the development in January 2016.
[17] In 2000, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection accused Walmart of selling butter, milk, laundry detergent, and other staple goods at low cost, with the intention of forcing competitors out of business and gaining a monopoly in local markets.
[37] In 2003, Mexico's antitrust agency, the Federal Competition Commission, investigated Walmart for "monopolistic practices" prompted by charges that the retailer pressured suppliers to sell goods below cost or at prices significantly less than those available to other stores.
[42] In May 2010, Walmart's United States stores pulled the Chinese-made Miley Cyrus line of necklaces and bracelets after an Associated Press release that the jewelry contained harmful amounts of the toxic metal cadmium.
For example, a 2005 class action lawsuit in Missouri asserted approximately 160,000 to 200,000 people who were forced to work off-the-clock, were denied overtime pay, or were not allowed to take rest and lunch breaks.
[77] A 2004 report by Democratic United States Representative George Miller alleged that in ten percent of Walmart's stores, nighttime employees were locked inside, holding them prisoner.
[80] Walmart said this policy was to protect the workers and the store's contents in high-crime areas and acknowledges that some employees were inconvenienced in some instances for up to an hour as they had trouble locating a manager with the key.
[84] Following the arrests, a grand jury convened to consider charging Walmart executives with labor racketeering crimes for knowingly allowing undocumented workers to work at their stores.
[90][91] The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has long had the goal of protecting workers, whether unionized or not, who engage in concerted activity by speaking with each other regarding conditions, wages, and/or benefits.
[105] The memo also suggested giving sedentary Walmart staffers, such as cashiers, more physically demanding tasks, such as "cart-gathering", and eliminating full-time positions in favor of hiring part-time employees who would be ineligible for the more expensive health insurance and several policy proposals which may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Walmart executive Sally Welborn stated in a blog post, "This year, the expenses were significant and led us to make some tough decisions as we begin our annual enrollment.
[121] On the union buster's advice, Walton also took steps to show his workers how the company had their best interests in mind, encouraging them to air concerns with managers and implementing a profit-sharing program.
[143] The company says the technology could help it boost worker productivity by generating performance metrics for each employee based on cashier area sounds, such as checkout scanner beeps, and even conversations.
[155] Walmart's rating on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, a measure of how companies treat LGBT employees and customers, has increased greatly during the past decade.
Terrie Ellerbee, associate editor of grocery publication The Shelby Report, traced the problem to 2010 when Walmart reduced the number of different merchandise items carried in an attempt to make stores less cluttered.
[181][182] In 2004, Walmart spent $18 billion on Chinese products alone, and if it were an individual economy, the company would rank as China's eighth largest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia, and Canada.
In 2004, Walmart began working with Business for Social Responsibility, a San Francisco, California-based nonprofit organization, to reach out to groups active in monitoring overseas plants.
Sergio Cicero, a lawyer who had been responsible for obtaining those permits and was bitter about being passed over for the position of general counsel with Walmart México provided the company's corporate general counsel's office with evidence showing that the company had made large payments to gestores, workers who deal with bureaucracies on behalf of citizens and businesses, with coded indications that the money was being passed on to officials to expedite permits.
They recommended opening a full investigation, and possibly notifying the Justice Department, as it appeared that both Mexican law and the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) had been violated.
[198] Later that year, it decided to partly obscure the covers of Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and Redbook on store shelves due to "customer concerns", and refused to stock an issue of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit special because it objected to one photograph.
[200] In one example in 2005, Walmart rejected the original cover of country singer Willie Nelson's reggae album, Countryman, which featured marijuana leaves, in a pro-marijuana statement.
[208] In January 2006, Walmart was criticized for the recommendation system on its website which suggested that some black-related DVDs, such as Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and documentaries on Baptist minister and civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. were similar to the Planet of the Apes television series DVD box set.
Walmart accused the DoJ of cherry-picking, claiming that pharmacists refuse to fill most illegally prescribed drugs from questionable doctors and sent "tens of thousands of investigative leads to" the DEA.
Critics, as well as the United States Internal Revenue Service, charge that the company was trying to profit from the deaths of its employees, and take advantage of the tax law which allowed it to deduct the premiums.
Walmart's Midtown plan was rejected the first time in February 2013,[234] but was redesigned by Gensler[235] and approved by Miami Planning and Zoning Director Francisco Garcia in August 2013, then upheld on appeal by the City Commission in November 2013,[232] Midtown Walmart faced public and political opposition from area residents, business owners, and community activists[236] after being adapted to meet strict zoning regulations that resulted in the design differing from the typical layout, such as utilizing second story roof parking versus a surface lot with more street liner retail spaces instead of a wall perimeter.
[253][254] Under the presiding of former attorney general William Barr, the Walmart corporate and the United States Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration went to court in attempt to resolve the issue.
