Does Walmart help poor people?
Reuters pokes holes in a $50 billion claim
Does Walmart help poor people?
Joseph N. DiStefano
Obama adviser Jason Furman has famously claimed that Walmart, the largest U.S. retailer and the largest private employer in Pennsylvania and many other states, saves poor Americans $50 billion a year by selling groceries more cheaply than other chains.
How? Walmart buys in enormous bulk; and it doesn't have to pay union pensions and healthcare, among other old-line grocery expenses.
The claim that Walmart helps the poor has been used to socially justify Walmart's low wages.
But, writing for Reuters, bond-watcher Cate Long pokes holes in Furman's widely-quoted number by pointing out, among other things, that total Walmart grocery sales are less than $75 billion/year.
Read her item here: http://blogs.reuters.com/muniland/2012/11/28/a-truth-bomb-for-walmart-supporters/
As lead grocery shopper for my family of 8, I can testify that Walmart sometimes has excellent prices for canned herring and other packaged goods, but its meat and produce prices are not competitive with my local Shop-Rite. Long says Walmart's former pricing advantage has eroded.
Comments (16)
I find ShopRite to almost always have better prices than Walmart, Target, etc. and they contribute socially to the community, employ some who would otherwise have difficulty finding jobs, etc.— Mary Jean Cunningham- I also like Shoprite, they have better use in our communities.— maclancer
- I grew up in a small town and Wal-Mart was our grocery store, hardware store, auto mechanic, garden outlet, and much more. It's harder to see the value of their services and low prices in a city where you have lots of choices, but the convenience of one stop shopping over driving an hour away to a hardware store is hard to beat in rural America.— PNE
- They actually give classes to their employees on how to apply for food stamps (which means every taxpayer in America subsidizes Walmart). Why would they give those classes if they didn't care about their impoverished "associates"?— Hamlet
- They also employ poor and provide flexible schedules, limited beneftis and 401(k). Many part time hourly employees have risen through the ranks there. A family member in NC retired from there as a truck driver at age 56 with a $475k retirement package.— boroughboy
- You're partially right about that. While a lot of people can come up through the ranks, their pay sucks until they reach much higher positions. Walmart is not known as a great employer. — PotteryPete
- This is America, you can choose to shop at Wal-Mart or not. These stupid stories because the left hates Wal-Mart are ridiculous.— fgomarty
- You don't get the logic of monopoly capitalism, do you? WalMart tries as hard as it can to leave people with no choice but to shop there, by driving other, smaller local retailers out of business. And in some areas it has succeeded. And as for those who hate WalMart, that would include everybody -- right, left and center -- who has understood how its low, low, low, low prices have repercussions on where goods are produced (like China) and on wages here in America.
- Stop drinking the koolaide people. Walmart relies on cheap labor - in the US and overseas - and forces their "full time" employees to take food stamps and other government programs. If one of the most successful corporations in the world is making billions on the backs of low wage labor and where the heirs own more wealth than the bottom 41% of the country, they aren't a good company for the poor.— flyersfan89
- Wal-Mart doesn't help poor people. Wal-Mart hurts everyone. They're PA's largest private employer and yet look how much money the state spends on benefits and other assistance to Wal-Mart employees. Wal-Marts price match guarantee is only there so they can eliminate competition and then charge whatever they want. They also don't do anything for their neighbors. They feel since they donate to national organizations they don't have to donate to local organizations. Where as ShopRite has better benefit packages, and strives to be part of a community. ShopRite makes an effort to take part in carnivals and goods for guns programs. Wal Mart just fools people and people fall for their act.— EC391981
- Q: Does Walmart help poor people?
A: Yes, the poverty stricken billionaires called the Waltons. They're panhandling at Broad and Chestnut because according to Mrs. Walton, their tax burden is sending them to the poor house.— ald - WalMart employes people with limited skills in jobs that do not require a high level of technical skill. It is unreasonable to expect a person that stocks shelves to make $50,000 a year. That is a low skill job with a pool of potential employees that excedes the demand for the employees. This drives to the wages down too. Walmart does have an program for local communities. I followed their simple guideliines on their form and my Fire Company received a grant worth $5000 dollars to test, replace smoke detectors and batteries in our community. They even provided the promontional items needed to let the community know about this free service that we could do for them if they called and asked us. It was a great success and we will be doing it again.
The left does not like Walmart because they are not lead around by their noses by unions. And this is a good thing.— Wildman Bill - No corporation CREATED more poor people than WalMart in the last 30 years. WalMart is directly responsible for putting literally hundreds of thousands out of work forever. WalMart's employees are on welfare and medicaid costing ALL TAXPAYERS millions.— warrentheape
- WalMart has good prices throughout, not just food. And the store I go to employs people who clearly wouldn't have gotten jobs elsewhere, and I mean that in a good way. WalMart's pay is also comparable to other big box retailers, namely Target... http://blogs.payscale.com/content/2011/05/target-vs-walmart.html— Rich Henson
- I only shop for myself, so I have a lot more choices. I shop at Reading Terminal Market and support local vendors. I know full well that it's not that easy for someone who has a family or multiple mouths to feed, so none of this is meant as judgment.
Low prices or not, I wouldn't be caught dead supporting Walmart. The lowest I'll go is Target or SuperFresh, but only for items I can't get at my local, little market or RTM.— PotteryPete
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Joseph N. DiStefano blogs about the latest news in the Philadelphia business community and elsewhere. Contact him at 215-854-5194.
Reach Joseph N. at JoeD@phillynews.com.
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