Danny Blankenship Sure Wal-Mart is everywhere especially it has populated small town America from coast to coast and just about everyone has fell in love with everyday low prices always low prices. Yet as this documentary proves it comes at a price! As Robert Greenwald exposes and shows the dirty side of a big corporate outfit that's dirty and they will do anything to make a profit. Yet still Wal-Mart claims to be champions of the community and fighters for the little people, but as you see example by example and step by step in this film low prices come at a high cost.Most telling is how low that Wal-Mart pays it's employees, as many can't even afford health insurance and disturbing is seeing how Wal-Mart only allows so many hours during a work week, and they will run short to finish jobs even making workers do overtime yet still the company will turn in false time to make a profit. It clearly does not live up to it's commercials Wal-Mart is not a great place to work.The biggest problem with Sam Walton's empire is how that when his stores move into little town U.S. they put out your local mom and dad stores that have tradition. As Wal-Mart offering everything at a lower price puts out the community special stores. Also of a note is how the building of new Wal-Marts destroy valuable and precious land of historical towns. And Wal-Mart doesn't seem to be worried about security as evidenced by it's history of crime on store property as the security cameras actually watch inside on the store employees who are trying to organize unions! That's another big negative with Wal-Mart they are so anti union and seeing the shocking footage of how their toys are made in China wakes a person up and it showcases that Wal-Mart is a business of corporate greed and dirty money they will expose a worker for profit. Yet as the film closes out their is hope many bigger towns are fighting to ban Wal-Marts from coming to their towns, by voting against the building of them at the ballot box. So I guess democracy still works. Overall this is a pretty eye opening film about Wal-Mart it will make you think before shopping with them again as low prices come at a high cost for most involved.

freakfire-1 Well, this movie did fail to be entertaining in many areas but it did hit on some key notes. Yes, they do drive down wages, although providing more jobs. That is a catch-22.Some people have commented they have good wages. That is not the case as they don't pay too much higher than the minimum wage in most areas and fail to check on immigration status. I even know times they fail to check AGE status, hiring underage workers and failing to catch their real age.As far as not being able to move of the 'food chain' in the store, that is also generally correct for the most part. The only way to make a good wage there is if you enter the Assistant Manager program and they can ship to several different areas.The film notes times when they have been turned down recently. However, several of those cities listed near the end of the film have come back and accepted Wal-Marts to be built.This film shows the downsides to this corporation. Wal-Mart goes for the cheapest in many ways and avoiding paying higher wages. But if you get down to it, other businesses (like minerals, etc) that also pay low wages to keep the cost down, so Wal-Mart isn't the only one, just the biggest one.Overall, its not that even handed, but it does make the public more aware of its bad side. "C"

jrstl I don't and never have worked for Wal-Mart, but do enjoy the 20-30% savings per year by shopping there.If the unions of the U.S. didn't front the money for this "documentary", they should have. Show me any Company with 10% of Wal-Marts 2 million employees, I'll find you lots of disgruntled and dissatisfied ex-employees.When Wal-mart opens in a small town, or a populated area, other retailers are definitely hurt. Not just the Ma & Pa's, but Sears, K-Mart, successful grocery store chains, etc. It's not Wal-Marts fault! They're a business that has done business better than their competitors, big and small. It's why people shop there and make them the largest retailer in the world.When Wal-Mart stops doing it better than everyone else, their sales will drop, their stock will drop, they will lose money. When that day comes, Companies that take Wal-Marts business will grow quicker, have lot's of disgruntled employees, have many suits filed against them.This documentary is a slap in the face to the United States and what makes this country as great as we are. The United States is built on capitalism, we like to make money, we like to do things better than anyone else. Wal-Mart is a stock held publicly traded Company, with checks and balances, government regulation,etc. Watching this "documentary", you'd think Satin started and runs this Company.Obviously I'm in the great minority of posters on this "documentary", but someone had to say it.

murray_johnc I'm somewhat bemused by comments by viewers like Mr Donald Fagan of Baltimore. The gist of his argument seems to be that Robert Greenwald is being unfair to Wal-Mart because other "big box" stores are playing the same game. The whole point of targeting the Wal-Mart chain is the sheer scale of their operation. If the senior management team at Wal-Mart achieve their ultimate goal, pretty soon there isn't going to be any K-Mart or Sears or ....whatever. One could just as easily argue that the Alex Gibney documentary "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" was unfair to the top brass at Enron Corporation because other technology companies like "WorldCom" and "360 Networks" were run just as dishonestly! Nobody disputes that, but again you have to take the sheer scale of the operation into account. If only sleaze-bags like Michael Moore could produce documentaries as honestly and professionally as Robert Greenwald, the industry would be all the better for it in my opinion