Ethical Issues and Impact of Wal-Mart's discrimination

Introduction

Wal-Mart is the largest retail company in the world. The company operates retail stores in various formats worldwide.Wal-Mart offers a wide assortment of merchandise at every day low prices (EDLP) in its retail stores. In addition, the company offers its products through various e-commerce websites including walmart.com and samsclub.com. Wal-Mart operates three business segments:Walmart US, Sam's Club, and the international segment. The company also generates revenues from a fourth, non-operating segment named “others” which includes a variety of income categories such as Sam's Club membership fee revenues, tenant income and financial services income. Wal-Mart US operates three different retail formats in the US—discount stores, supercenters and neighborhood markets. The segment has retail operation in all the 50 states in the US.Wal-Mart operates 891 discount stores, each with an average store size of 108,000 square feet, in 47 states. Wal-Mart operates 2,612 supercenters (average size of 260,000 square feet) in 48 US states and 153 neighborhood markets (average sixe of 62,000 square feet) in 16 US states (www.lexisnexis.com.centhsally.centenarycollege.edu).

Discussion

As of January of 2005, Wal-Mart employed 1.3 million Americans, which makes it the largest employer in the United States. There are many critics of Wal-Mart that disagree with Wal-Mart's treatment of its employees, including the wages paid, unpaid overtime, and discrimination in the workplace. Wal-Mart experiences an extremely high rate of employee turnover, as nearly 50% of its employees leave every year. (Palast) In 2001, the average supermarket employee received a wage of $10.35 an hour, yet clerks at Wal-Mart only made an average of $8.23 per hour.

Ratial and Age discrimination case in Wal-Mart

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