Wal-Mart Case Study

21 Pages 5230 Words

s venders pay the following wages to their workers in Third World factories:
Nicaragua - 15 cents / hour Guatemala - 65 cents / hour
Bangladesh - 20 cents / hour Haiti - 67 cents / hour
El Salvador - 61 cents / hour México - 61 cents / hour
With such low wages for those who make the clothing, Wal-Mart can profit greatly while still providing low prices to its customers. In a global labor market, it is the companies who can find the cheapest, most exploitable conditions, with little worker protection or regulations that will profit the greatest.
The fact is that many of these wages do not match up to minimal living standards in these countries. The commitment to low prices seems to rely on the exploitation of Third World labor, and this factor should be taken into account when Wal-Mart makes claims about "always the lowest prices."
Distribution System
About 85 percent of all the merchandise that Wal-Mart sold was shipped through its distribution system to the stores (competitors averaged less than 50 percent). Wal-Mart used a "saturat...