A Disaster on the Horizon for Wal-Mart in Kyle - Essay Example

?Wal-Mart in Kyle, Texas: A Disaster on the Horizon The of Kyle is a small in Texas; eight miles north of San Marcos and 20 miles south of Austin. It started as a tiny little cotton community in the late 1800s with the International and Great Northern Railroad joining the picture with a rail line stretching from Austin to San Antonio in 1880; I-35 added to the mobility north and south in the late 1960s. In 2008, the population was 26,103, making it one of the fastest growing cities in Texas. It has a total city area of six square miles, with 5.9 square miles in land and .1 square mile in water. The largest employer in Kyle is the Hays Consolidated Independent School district; the second largest employer is the Texas Justice Department Kyle Unit, a men’s prison. (City of Kyle, 2011) There has been some research and discussion at the city council meeting over the proposed construction of a new Wal Mart Super Center. There are no big box stores in Kyle, therefore the addition of a Wal Mart would employ 200 people; as well as make shopping for both food and necessities much more convenient for the residents. There are several problems with this, however; Wal Mart tends to have a negative affect on wages, the economy, and the environment. Its business practices are questionable, placing employees and the city at risk. Wal Mart is noted for predatory pricing, low wage jobs that offer very limited benefits, and for receiving public subsidies. It destroys the environment and creates more urban sprawl. (Moberg, 2004) (Norman, 1999) Wal-Mart courts those at poverty level declaring itself to be the “low price leader”. However, the low prices extend across the board to include low wages and low quality products. Wal-Mart is known for marketing practices aimed at minority ethnic groups and low income individuals. Not only are the wages rock bottom, but also the employment practices are questionable. It offers very limited benefits for the full-time staff, which comprise approximately 30% of the Wal-Mart workforce, and no benefits for those workers who are hired as temporary or part-time. While the full-time positions are limited, the temporary workers and part-time workers often work well in excess of 40 hours a week, yet without benefits. Wal-Mart workers are subject to long hours, few breaks, and often precarious working conditions that eventually result in ER visits or hospitalizations. With no health care benefits, the cost of health care rises for any area where there is a Wal-Mart, with the townspeople paying the cost through taxation to cover indigent care. (Chaddha, 2007) Wal-Mart is also known for supporting racist views; Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta was chosen as the spokesperson for the Working Families for Wal-Mart and issued some racist comments regarding how smaller independent businesses were Jewish owned and raised the prices to cheat the people while Wal-Mart gave everyone low prices; Wal-Mart eventually dismissed him in order to avoid a major lawsuit. Wal-Mart’s foreign operations exploits workers by forcing them to work long hours with no breaks, failure to provide safety equipment for work, beating uncooperative employees, and forcing them to work in unsafe conditions. It violates child labor laws by working underage teenagers long hours without breaks. It knowingly hires illegal aliens for construction of Wal-Mart facilities across the nation. One way Wal-Mart had forced full-time workers to become part-time thereby losing their limited benefits is to require employees to rotate shift work so that they don’t have a regular schedule in order to attend classes or make leisure plans; this adds tremendously to the work stress. Managers are forced to work overtime with no extra pay; their positions are salaried, whereas the other workers are forced to clock out and continue working until their workload has been accomplished. Wal-Mart employees in dangerous neighborhoods are often locked in at night. (Workplacefairness.org, 2011) Wal-Mart effects the economy by outsourcing to China, among other places, where workers will work for fifty-cents an hour. This not only replaces American workers, it lowers the standard of living in America. Through the Wal-Mart system, manufacturing is now being driven by the retailers, who purchase approximately 30% of their products from China manufacturers; thereby displacing American manufactured products. Wal-Mart is proud of the fact that they rely on global economies to provide products at a lower price. (Frontline, 2004) Wal-Mart also nudges out competitors through predator pricing. Wal-Mart drives prices down forcing local independent local companies out of business; taking more jobs with them. This also prevents big box companies who would show an interest in building in the area to think twice about moving into a Wal-Mart dominated area. It takes subsidies from public funding and receives tax incentives for hiring poverty level employees. (Frontline, 2004) (Harris, 2010) Wal-Mart has an adverse effect on the environment. They usually build in urban areas, building huge buildings that require a significant amount of space and parking. They destroy the natural habitats for whatever ecosystems are present; sometimes causing an environmental crisis in the process. During the construction process, they destroy trees, wetlands and aquifers, air quality suffers; there is loss of natural space as the landscape is denuded. The infrastructure suffers to accommodate the influx of traffic and parking, added sewage and electric load on the grid. When they relocate, those large, unusable buildings are left vacant for vandals to invade. (Norman, 1999) Kyle, Texas really doesn’t need a Wal-Mart. The high cost of low pricing more than eliminates it from the competition for a place in this city. It is a known fact that wherever Wal-Mart builds, the neighborhood goes down. . Kyle already has enough of a stigma to overcome in having the Kyle Unit of the Texas Justice Department in their city. There is a very small amount of land available for commercial zoning; Kyle should make the most of that land by attracting industries that will bring good jobs to their city helping it to grow. Wal-Mart is definitely a disaster on the horizon; one that Kyle can not afford to attract. References Chaddha, Anmol. Are Bad Jobs Good for Poor People? The Wal-Mart Question. JUST Jobs? Organizing for Economic Justice. Vol. 14 No. 1,| Spring 2007. Web. April 21, 2011. http://urbanhabitat.org/node/834 City of Kyle. About Kyle, Texas. City of Kyle.com. 2011. Web. April 21, 2011. http://cityofkyle.com/ Frontline. Is Wal-Mart Good For America? WGBH Educational Foundation, November 16, 2004. Web. April 21, 2011. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/etc/synopsis.html Harris, Elizabeth. Wal-Mart Tries Again For New York City Store. The New York Times. December 12, 2010. Web. April 21, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/nyregion/13walmart.html Moberg, David. The Wal-Mart Effect. Inthesetimes.com June 10, 2004. Web. April 21, 2011. http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/the_wal_mart_effect/ Norman, Al. The Case Against Wal-Mart. Sprawl Busters, 1999. Web. April 21, 2011. http://www.sprawl-busters.com/caseagainstsprawl.html Workplace Fairness.org. Wal-Mart. Workplacefairness.org. 2011. Web. April 21, 2011. http://www.workplacefairness.org/reports/good-bad-wal-mart/wal-mart.php Read More