Boycott Wal-Mart: It Eats Your Jobs!
by L. Wolfe
LEESBURG, Nov. 6--Democratic Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche has called for a national and international boycott of the mega-retailer Wal-Mart because, as he put it, its practices are destroying the American economy and “eating your jobs.''
In addressing members of the LaRouche Youth Movement Nov. 1, LaRouche stated, “Wal-Mart is not a company, it's an epidemic disease. Wal-Mart is one of the biggest factors in causing unemployment in the United States. When Wal-Mart sets up an operation in an area, they go to all the prospective vendors, whose goods are manufactured, processed, and delivered, to Wal-Mart to be put on the shelves... and you tell them: You can not sell to Wal-Mart, unless you eliminate all U.S. vendors, [you must] bring in goods which are produced in countries which engage in cheap labor, such as China, or other countries. So therefore, when Wal-Mart gets a bigger impact in an area today, employment in that state and region collapses, because firms are shut down because Wal-Mart won't buy from them. Why? Because they're producing with U.S. labor. It's one of the big factors in unemployment.''
EIR's staff is now working on filling out the picture which shows that Wal-Mart's cheap good policy has left millions of Americans unemployed. We present here some of the preliminary findings of this EIR Task Force, with more to come.
The World's Largest Sweatshop
Wal-Mart reports in its 2023 annual report that it had $245 billion in revenues in 2023, making it the largest corporation in the world, and that by the end of 2023 it will be operating 3,400 stores, spread across every state in America.
As is well known, Wal-Mart founder, the late Sam Walton, loved to wave the American flag around his virulently anti-union labor practices that have made his company one of the nation's largest low-wage, non-union sweatshops. For a while, he tried to brag that his stores would sell only goods “made in America,'' but that marketing campaign quickly passed. As of right now, Wal-Mart is by far the largest importer in the United States; for exmaple, its imports account for 10% of the total of all Chinese imports. According to the Sept. 26 Irish Independent, “If Wal-Mart were a country, it would rank ahead of Great Britain and Russia in total imports.''
Wal-Mart has had as a marketing strategy, since at least the late 1980s, the total domination of an area with its “Supercenters,'' which sell everything. As such, they have the effect of shutting down local retailers in especially America's small and medium sized towns, which cannot compete with in offering cheap goods at “always the lowest prices,'' as Wal-Mart's marketing slogan brags.
Huge Clout
Its market share in retail, in almost every sector is enormous, and growing: Wal-Mart sells 19% of all grocery-store food in the U.S., making it the largest food seller; by shutting down competition, it plans a 35% market share in 5 years or less; Wal-Mart handles 16% of all pharmacy-drug sales in the U.S., and plans to increase that share to 25% by 2008, which would make it the largest pharmacy in America; it controls 30% of the U.S. household staples market -- goods like paper towels, toothpaste, shampoo -- and analysts predict that it will increase that share to 50% before decade's end; It is Hollywood's biggest outlet, selling between 15 to 20% of all CDs, videos and DVDs in the U.S.; and it sells 15% of all single-copy news publications.
The key to Wal-Mart's growth is that it uses its clout to enforce a low wage policy on both its domestic workforce and on all those who supply it. Those policies have led to layoffs and cutbacks in wages and benefits for American workers. Companies have become so dependant on selling to Wal-Mart that its pricing policy determines their labor policies. The following are samples of the percentages of these companies' product that is purchased by Wal-Mart: Dial (soap products), 28.3%; Del Monte Foods, 23%; Clorox, 23%; Revlon cosmetics, 23%; Procter & Gamble, more than 20%. To meet the Wal-Mart price demand, these companies then outsource to cheap labor sites in Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere.
Thus, Wal-Mart “eats American jobs'' in two key ways: it shuts down local businesses and suppliers who cannot compete or market at its “price point;'' and, it forces its suppliers to ship American jobs overseas to reduce costs to sell at low prices.
Some Examples
Here are a few paradigmatic cases where this latter has taken place:
Newell Rubbermaid is the largest producer of consumer rubber products in the U.S. Rubbermaid sells the largest number of its products through Wal-Mart. Since January 2023, under Wal-Mart pressure, Rubbermaid has shut down 69 out of its 400 facilites, and fired 11,000 workers. The equity research director at Associated Trust & Co., C. Mark Heaseldon, stated, “To be competitive and to be able to meet the demands from key customers, like Wal-Mart... [Rubbermaid has] to become competitive in price.'' Fifty per cent of its production will be shifted to low-wage countries, like China.
General Electric's main customer for its appliances and consumer electtronics is Wal-Mart. According to its unions, GE has fired more than more than 100,000 workers, during the last 5 to 6 years, and then outsourced them to low-wage centers in Mexico, Asia, and China.
At Masterlock, 250 union workers lost their jobs in 2000 when Wal-Mart dropped the company's products, and switched to an offshore competitor.
Wal-Mart met this year with Levi Strauss, the maker of Dockers and other jeans, to dictate the standards Levi would have to meet to continue to be a supplier to Wal-Mart. Levi then announced it will shut down its four remaining production plants in the U.S., and shift the work to Ibero-America and Asia.
Due to the imposition of “Wal-Mart economics,'' this nation is losing what remains of its manufacturing base. It may wind up costing you or someone you know their jobs, as the depression deepens, and Wal-Mart's clout grows. Join with LaRouche in stopping this monster before it eats your job.