Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This film pulls together all of the arguments in favor of wal-mart. There is also a very interesting conclusion on the undeniable good work that the company did in summer 2005 in the Katrina-ravaged regions. However, none of the legitimate concerns of critics are given any thoughtful review. I say this as a concerned conservative, who wants to understand the enormous changes occuring in my country, and not a liberal.
On the plus side, it is hard to argue against the business model of wal-mart: it offers everyday low prices, which the company accomplishes by incredible and continual productivity gains - by some measures wal-mart is responsible for 25% of the productivity gains in the US due to its use of new technologies! - as well as vast scale economies in particular with globalisation. Regardless of what critics say, these factors are the basis of the company's success: consumers chose to buy there because of the prices and convenience.
However, this is the point when the film becomes disingenuous. Anything that critics say is summarily dismissed by either a single and simplistic example, by some self-appoined talking head, by employees who like their jobs, or simply by people passing by on the street. I found this pathetically unconvincing. For example, because wal-mart is criticised as a destructive force against traditional town centers, the filmmakers find one town that was able to renew itself as a tourist spot with boutiquie stores and then assumes that that can happen everywhere (but the site was in the Blue Mountains, not in the Oklahoma dustbowl). No statistics are offered, no additional proof, and no counter-arguments are acknowledged.
Moreover, it is easy to find people to spout the opinion you want to espouse by looking for them - to be sure, wal-mart critics do the same, but there are some critics who act like journalists and try to see what truth there is in the arguments advanced. This film does not. At one point, the filmakers interview a group of teenagers who state wal-mart wages would "enough" for them (none of them work there), as if that refutes the experience of single mothers trying to make ends meet on wal-mart salaries! They also get a few people to state that they never get asked to work overtime wothout pay as if that eliminates the need to investigate the claims of thousands of others who are winning multi-million dollar class-action lawsuits against that practice in their wal-marts.
Finally, some of the talking heads make the most ridiculous arguments. One of them dismissed all the arguments of critics who charge that wal-mart urges its workers to use the welfare system as "those who advocate government health care anyway" - as if that negates their arguments! By glossing over the details, they don't even make the case in favor of the wal-mart business model all that well, let alone consider how the intallation of a wal-mart impacts entire communities.
As such, this film is for the convinced, for those who want to have their opinions reinforced rather than challenged. That makes it like Fox news at its worst: you know what you are going to get before you switch it on - pure opinion and little reporting - so why bother? It isn't for learning. The costs behind wal-mart's methods are not even open to question. The one thing I took away from this is the sincerity of some of the employees, who genuinely believed in the company.
Overall, I cannot recommend this film, except as a pure ideological view in favor of this controversial company. This doesn't do anyone any good - there is no chance for dialogue in this approach, no acknowledgment that critics can make legitimate points. Whether powerful companies like it or not, they do not automatically deserve our trust, but instead our critical and constant scrutiny.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Why Wal*Mart Works and why this makes some people C-R-A-Z-Y (2005)
The world's largest family consists of the nearly 1,300,000 people who work for Wal-Mart and service nearly 138-million shoppers every week.Consumers love a bargain, and their quest to save money has helped build Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. into the world's top retailer.From the company's humble beginnings in rural Arkansas to its leadership position in the economy, Wal-Mart has earned both a legion of supporters and a score of detractors.Some claim that Wal-Mart's "always low prices" is bad for competitive retailers, while others feel that consumers should be allowed to decide with their pocketbooks.Regardless, no one can deny that Wal-Mart has made an impressive impact on America while helping millions of families and shoppers on a budget.Documentary producers Ron and Robert Galloway present an insider's look at the world's largest company, and how Wal-Mart's quest for better pricing has created new efficiencies in distribution and an overall stronger marketplace.What makes Wal-Mart work?Is it better pricing, convenience, quality and selection?Perhaps, but the Galloways discover that the incredible family of Wal-Mart Associates may well be the company's greatest asset of the all."We didn't get where we are today by being like everyone else and driving the middle of the road.We became Wal-Mart by being different, radically different" – Wal-Mart C.E.O. Lee Scott
