 "Photo: Gonzaga University")
Since the beginning of the semester I've found countless things that I've needed. Plastic hangers, cups and plates and cleaning supplies are all staples that I need to find cheaply and quickly. Again and again, Wal-Mart has provided everything I need at execeptionally low prices in one convenient location.
Brady Smith wants us to believe that we're losing something by shopping at Wal-Mart (Wal-Mart's Cheap Ruins, Sept. 30, 2005), but her accusations are groundless. Despite being the nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart is not a monopoly. In fact, Wal-Mart holds less than half the market share in consumer staples.
Wal-Mart has, though, saved American consumers an estimated $20 billion last year alone. Why pay more for exactly the same product somewhere else, while Wal-Mart can give it to you for pennies on the dollar?
Wal-Mart has been scrutinized by the media for complaints of discrimination and other class-action lawsuits. We would have to assume that with over 3,700 stores nationwide that at least a few incidents would arise, as they would with any business. These incidents are isolated and do not reflect on the business as a whole.
In fact, Wal-Mart's employees are about 60 percent female, and over 40 percent of its managers, including professional positions like pharmacists and optometrists, are women. Wal-Mart also offers healthcare to all employees, with premiums starting at under $40 a month for individuals.
Most employees work full-time, which is especially notable in a retail industry where generally no more than 40 percent of a store's employees are full time. Even more notable is the fact that healthcare is offered both to full and half time employees.
Smith asserts that Wal-Mart costs American taxpayers money, as some Wal-Mart employees receive public assistance. In short, Smith is blaming Wal-Mart for offering help to impoverished people. Wal-Mart creates thousands of new jobs every year (an estimated 100,000 in 2005) and these jobs provide a wage to workers who might not be able to find a job elsewhere. When it comes down to it, do you think the impoverished would rather work at Wal-Mart, or not work at all?
Wal-Mart, in fact, has been exceptionally good to our nation. In 2005, Wal-Mart gave over $170 million in charitable donations. Wal-Mart has raised over $300 million for the Children's Miracle Network, paying for cancer treatments, MRIs and heart valve replacements. Wal-Mart donated $2.5 million towards tsunami relief in Southeast Asia, and has donated $17 million towards Hurricane Katrina disaster relief, not to mention the thousands of dollars worth of goods donated by local stores during the crisis.
In 2003, Forbes magazine named Wal-Mart one of the most philanthropic companies in the nation. Wal-Mart is not only an American institution, it is a haven for bargain seekers nationwide. Instead of condemning Wal-Mart for wrongs it hasn't committed, we should be praising Wal-Mart, both for their constant generosity as well as their low prices, always.
Robert Cowan is a senior at Gonzaga.
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