Business Ethics Term Paper:
Wal-Mart
Walmart serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 9,826 retail units under 60 different banners in 28 countries. With their fiscal year 2010 sales of $405 billion, Walmart employs 2.1 million associates worldwide. Walmart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, with the opening of the first Walmart discount store in Rogers, Ark. The company incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., on Oct. 31, 1969. The company's shares began trading on OTC markets in 1970 and were listed on the New York Stock Exchange two years later. In this term paper I will be discussing the different ethical questions that arise about Walmart and some of the ethical concerns that people have about …show more content…

Some reasons that it is considered to be a monopoly is that it dwarfs its competition and it affects the products prices and its choices. Walmart has the power to control prices or to get rid of the competition because of it. Walmart’s revenue $404 billion compared to other businesses is so much higher. For example, Macy’s brings in $25 billion in revenues while Sears brings in $46 billion. Because of Walmart’s large size and its buying power, Walmart is able to buy their products at very low prices. Walmart is able to strong arm its suppliers because of its ability to influence it. And while this may be a good thing for Walmart and the people that shop there, how does it affect other businesses in the area? Many people claim that the size of Walmart is hurting white collar businesses. Almost all businesses, big or small are impacted by what Walmart does. Walmart’s competitors are often forced to lower their prices because of Walmart’s ability to keep them so low and because these businesses aren’t as profitable as Walmart, they are often closed because of the lack of profit.
The final ethical issue that comes up when talking about Walmart is the affect of Walmart’s low prices. Like stated above a consequence of the low prices are that it can destroy jobs but it also can affect the suppliers profits because of Walmart’s ability to force suppliers to go down on their prices. Because of these low prices thousands of manufacturing jobs have been moved