5 Good Reasons Not To Shop At Wal-Mart

I did it---I stepped into a Wal-Mart for the first time in over four years!  Why did I break my solemn vow to avoid the blue beast?  Well, I was visiting my parents in Pennsylvania and my dad was freaking out because he had to use his government-issued Digital TV Converter Box Coupon by the end of July, so we promptly hopped in the car and drove to Best Buy.  Unfortunately, Best Buy was sold out of the converters, but my parents proclaimed that Wal-Mart would have it.

I could feel my throat tightening up as we pulled into the Wal-Mart lot.  My mind raced, desperately trying to come up with some excuse for why I couldn't enter the den of the Enemy.  In the end, like a dutiful son, I walked through the gates of hell with my parents.  Amazingly, I didn't burst into flames or fall to the ground in convulsions---no, I just pursed my lips in resignation and set my gaze hard against the lure of low, low prices. 

So, why am I so dead-set against Wal-Mart?  I'll give you 5 good reasons not to shop there:

1. Wal-Mart Supercenters increase traffic within your community.  According to the Institute of Traffic Engineers, "a 200,000 sq. ft. discount center on average results in 76,232 car trips per week (with the high end of the range being 92,806)."*  That in turn, would lead to further costs for the community (ie.- infrastructure repair and upkeep and environmental degredation)**.

2. Wal-Mart has closed hundreds of stores nationwide, leaving "some 28 million square feet of empty space today in communities across the country."  With shareholders to please, Wal-Mart is in a constant rush to replace perfectly functional, but older stores with Supercenters, leaving behind abandoned buildings and empty parking lots.*  In fact, this very practice occurred in a nearby town of Brockport, NY, where they closed down a regular Wal-Mart and put up a Supercenter less than a mile away!  Thanks for the dead plaza, guys!

3. Wal-Mart is the Orient of the far West.  "70% of the commodities sold in Wal-Mart are made in China." In addition, "Wal-Mart was responsible for about 1/10th of the U.S. trade deficit with China in 2005."  Also, "If Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it would rank as China's eighth-biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada."**   In essence, Walmart has been able to lowball other retailers' prices by obtaining the lion's share of its products from China; a country that, like Mexico, lacks unions and thus has workers that earn low wages.  How many more jobs must our country lose to such unpatriotic business practices?

4. Wal-Mart is bad for National Security.  Wal-Mart has used its formidable political influence as the nation's number one retailer to affect politician's votes on national port security.  Walmart is number one among retailers in 20-foot port containers imported at more than half a million a year (that's 1 container every 45 seconds!).  One of the keys to keeping prices low is to keep the flow of merchandise from China and other foreign manufacturers from being slowed down by those pesky security checks.  Via its retail lobby group, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), Walmart has lobbied members of Congress to oppose 100% scanning of port containers (currently only 5-6% of all port containers coming into U.S. ports get scanned!).  Wal-Mart has also lavished cash on members of Congress: "As of 2006, Wal-Mart had given $191,500 to current House Homeland Security Committee members since 2000..."  "In the 109th Congress, eighteen of the committee's nineteen Republican members took in $173,000—90 percent of the total—and four of the committee's fourteen Democrats collected $18,500."  "In the past eight years, Wal-Mart's Washington Political Action Committee put more than $360,000 into current members of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee...twenty-three of the committee's 24 Republicans took Wal-Mart's money—82 percent of the total—compared to only eight of the committee's 17 Democrats."  "Wal-Mart also has spent $63,000 on current members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in the past eight years...Ninety-six percent of Wal-Mart's spending went to the committee's Republican members."  Republicans tough on terrorism?  With our ports being one of the most glaring deficiencies in our nation's defense, their actions against port security have made the prospect of "weapons of mass destruction" being smuggled into our ports via un-inspected port containers a frightening reality.**   

5. Wal-Mart is bad for the environment.  Wal-Mart recently executed a public-relations coup by bagging former Sierra Club president Adam Werbach as an environmental consultant.  This move improves their image as a burgeoning "green" company, but despite recent strides in a more ecologically-friendly direction (ie.- smaller packaging, compact fluorescent bulbs, etc.), Wal-Mart's overall negative environmental impact still dwarfs their efforts.  First, let's consider the overall size of a Supercenter---
200,000 square feet on average---all of that was former green space.  In addition, what about the size of the parking lot?  As said in a previous post:  "A hectare of trees (2.471 Acres or 107,637 square feet) can absorb 6 or more tons of carbon per year, according to the International Carbon Bank & Exchange."  Where's the carbon offset for all of the acres of those lost trees that were cleared?  With 2,300 Supercenters in the U.S., each occupying 20-30 acres of land (the size of a football field), the cumulative environmental impact is stunning.  Also consider the "thousands of standard Wal-Marts, Neighborhood Markets, Sam's Clubs, distribution centers and warehouses. It is the largest commercial entity in the United States, both physically and economically, and its stores require massive amounts of land, energy and labor to function."  In a 2005 report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, it was estimated "that Wal-Mart stores and parking lots covered roughly 75,000 acres (or 117 square miles) in the U.S., equal to the land size of Tampa, Florida" and that their "'Parking lots contribute directly to what is referred to as "non-point source water pollution,' the leading cause of water pollution in the United States."*

I could go on and on about why you shouldn't shop a Wal-Mart, from issues with workers' wages and rights, to health care issues, to its cost to taxpayers, to its corporate practices, to other environmental issues, etc., etc., etc.  It's going to take some sacrifice and some self-discipline, but it's doable.  My wife and I have not purchased anything from Wal-Mart in over four years, despite living in a somewhat isolated area where Wal-Mart is one of few shopping options. 

Do you have a good non-Wal-Mart streak going yourself?  Do you want to start one?  Share your story!       

*Information derived from Walmartwatch.com.
**Information derived from Wakeupwalmart.com.

Comments

[Beth]

I too try my best not to shop at "the beast". Your blog here has strengthened my will so thank you!

[Tsoniki]

I really don't like shopping at Walmart - but just moved to a small town with very limited stores. I haven't explored a lot yet but would love to find alternatives.

[Kim]

I am so glad to read someone feels the same way as me about Walmart. It has been 3 years since our family have been in one. Walmart opened walking distance from my house and everything you wrote about is true, not to mention that crime and littering has gone up in our neighborhood as well. We are a one income family and have done just fine driving an extra ten miles to shop elsewhere. People think I am crazy and my little boycott can't change anything. Thanks for the encouragement.

[Mountains of the Moon Melissa]

Wal-Mart also tends to market their "green" merchandise like their "eco-friendly" t-shirts as "organic," when the fabric content (always read the labels!) is only a percentage organic cotton (the remaining percentage being conventional). The fact that the t-shirts are also produced overseas makes them even less eco-friendly.

[Stu]

What's especially funny is when Walmart likes to pretend that it's actually good for the environment. Did you see the Financial Times article today that basically called them out on the fact that they engage in greenwashing, by trying to pretend they're green and then spending tons of money on advertising the fact? Unfortunately for them, I don't think the message is getting through. You can't put lipstick on a pig...