Wal-Mart

The ethical question of should Wal-Mart be responsible to protect other companies? It can have many different perspectives and the dilemma I face is how to pick just one perspective. As a consumer or a student who is studying the effects of Wal-Mart from an ethical organizational view point. To better evaluate my judgments with facts and information we need to break down the positive and negative sides Wal-Mart can have on the community and also other local businesses. Although we all know where you stand on the subject of Wal-Mart there must be something appealing or good about it or it wouldn’t be the impressive tycoon it is. Wal-Marts first contribution would be its “Everyday Low Prices, Always.” As a consumer of Wal-Mart (yes I do shop there) I notice the prices are defiantly different then if you go to other local places and as a college student who doesn’t have any money it can help out. This brings up another point, since Wal-Mart has “everything under the sun” going to one store is easier then driving, parking and paying at four different places compared to one and again I’m a college student who doesn’t have time to do the earn running. So for me personally I have always been a fan of Wal-Mart and can see why they have such an affect on a community. The fact also remains that people do like to shop at Wal-Mart; otherwise it would be the mega business that it is today. They can do this be out pricing competitors and the local stores. What in reality all stores try to compete with one another. Even before Wal-Marts came to town businesses would strive for that edge that brought customers to there store over the others. So isn’t Wal-Mart just being competitive as would all stores? Now there also are the downfalls of Wal-Mart. Over the past few classes we have been analyzing Wal-Mart intensively. Criticizing and condemning it for its ethical practices. How they are misusing the customer’s trust that they are getting the lowest price or how they are importing products for other countries to get lower prices for there products and in turn putting plants and factories out of business by not being able to compete. There has been an ample amount of information that I didn’t know about Wal-Mart before reaching this class. It makes me confused about my role in these hurting factors because I am a consumer. As for the local business am I hurting them as well, as the book describes how mom and pop stores can compete with Wal-Marts driving force by not even being able to purchase the products at the prices Wal-Mart is selling them at. The fact that these arte the kind of stores that pay they employees higher salaries and include benefits. They have personal touch and actual knowledge about products and can answer questions if the customers need help. The example from the book is how a small local craft store has people come in to ask questions about a project and then will buy the supplies at Wal-Mart because of its low price. So Wal-Mart defiantly doesn’t have the personal touch or knowledge about there thousands of products, and I can vouch for that most of the time if you’re looking for something and can’t find it asking an employee won’t get you any farther. They don’t even know what isle the product is in or even if they have the product. So when you compare Wal-Mart with local stores you have to weigh what you value more customer service or low prices and in today’s world most people will pick the one that gets the most for there buck. So after evaluating Wal-Mart good and bad qualities we can ask if they should protect other business. It’s really a question of ethics because in the real world the answer would be no. Wal-Mart is a business like all others and they aren’t expected to protect other stores. To me the question is does Wal-Marts ethics come to play because we all know that they aren’t doing all this great business just to benefit the consumer. So how much is Wal-Mart manipulating the situation to gain customer compliance? I feel that by imposing it is Wal-Marts job to protect the community’s local businesses we negate the responsibilities from ourselves. My experience with Wal-Mart I’m sure goes way back. I grew up in St. Cloud and Wal-Mart was very close to my neighborhood. I have always shopped at Wal-Mart either with my parents when I was younger or as I grew older it was a great place to get general stuff and at lower prices. As a college student and being on my own I have noticed more and more of the negative qualities Wal-Mart gives off. As it is becoming even larger all the time and putting more and more products on its shelves I have had more trouble ever finding what I’m looking for. It’s become a hassle to run in for just one or two items because there have become harder to find and will always be a distance to get to from the door. These types of things are making my happier Wal-Mart experiences less and less. One experience I had recently would be trying to get help in the photo lab. I was there because I had seen commercials on T.V. were you can get a photo put on a gift card during the holiday season and of course the commercial had happy employees helping the man do it and making it seem like a nice and simple touch to personalizing a Wal-Mart gif card. Of course when I got there the experience wasn’t quite the same I saw on T.V. Here are some many factors that drove me insane. One being that they isn’t any room back there for any type of relaxed atmosphere everyone is crowed into as small space with there kids and carts I felt like I was in a free clinic during the flu months. On top of that there is one or two people behind the desk to help but reality there job is to just point you in the right “direction” of where to go or what to do. Waiting in the crowded line wasn’t even the worst part, once I got helped the man just pointed my in the direction of the “do it yourself” machines and went to do his business. Well then I had to stand in that line while women took over fifteen minutes picking and slighting adjusting her holiday picture to the point I was fed up and left. Although that experience wasn’t the best experience to highlight Wal-Marts “good customer service” I do admit I continue to shop there. I seen it has if you know what you want and can do it by yourself then who cares how great the customer service is. Most people have become so self-sufficient these days that customer service isn’t a priority anymore. It shames me to say that in my situation I would rather take the lower price then have someone hold my hand.