Walmart Documentary Summary

The documentary in class focused on the hostile, overbearing presence of Walmart in towns through the perspective of their former and current employees, as well as small business owners who were forced to close shop. The viewpoint of this documentary gave us the opportunity to hold two conflicting ideas in our head at the same time, one about the convenient low priced Walmart that we all experience and the nightmarish, unjust Walmart as depicted by those negatively affected by the corporation. Several of our readings and class discussions were focused on discrimination, based on both one’s gender and one’s race. In the documentary we saw several accounts of discrimination, for example, an male African American employee was constantly harassed

For example, Walmart would intentionally be short staffed, forcing employees to stay past their scheduled time which caused their personal responsibilities to suffer. For example, one former employee spent countless unpaid hours doing work for Walmart instead of spending it with her husband who eventually passed away. Other unjust techniques employed by Walmart included fudging employees hours in the system- affecting their pay, and the use of threats to motivate the workers to put up with the hostile working environment. In certain situations, the franchise also spent vast amounts of money for unlawful surveillance equipment. All of these immoral practices cultivated an environment void of justice. Employees were unable to voice their concerns because they were not allowed to unionize, even the talk of unionizing could be used as grounds for firing. In addition, instead of providing adequate wages and full-time positions, Walmart encouraged their employees to go on welfare to get services such as health-care and food stamps. Employees were forced to put up with this injustice out of fear that they would lose their job since they were considered