The Wal-Mart Effect
The Times’ 2003 series on Wal-Mart
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Wal-Mart is so powerful that it moves the economies of entire countries, bringing profit and pain. The prices canÂ’t be beat, but the wages can.
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Wal-Mart, once a believer in buying American, extracts ever lower prices from 10,000 suppliers worldwide. Workers struggle to keep pace.
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Sewing contractor Rob Reed shut down his Commerce factory this summer after 17 years, laying off 100 workers and adding his name to a long list of bankrupt U.S. manufacturers.
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Safe working conditions. Reasonable hours. No child labor.
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Wal-Mart plans to open 40 of its nonunion Supercenters in California. Labor is fighting the expected onslaught, but the big retailer rarely concedes defeat.
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