Ethics

With a history spanning less than fifty years, Wal-mart is a relatively young company. Target and Kmart opened their first shops in 1962, the same year which Wal-mart opened its first. In its forty-seven years of operation however, Wal-mart has revolutionized shopping in the United States and many other countries across the world. Wal-marts founder, Sam Walton, started the company guided by the idea that if he sold everyday necessities at prices lower than other retailers, consumers would frequent his shop (Fishman, 2006). The international retail chain has remained most loyal to its call of not only bringing down commodity prices, but also keeping them lower than the prices of all its competitors. Today, Wal-mart is the most dominant player in the global retailing arena, having grown to an extent where its closest rival makes only a fraction of what Wal-mart makes every year. Other retailers have been forced to lower their price, if only to stay afloat, while many former giants have lost the competition to Wal-mart and closed shop. While customers across the world are attracted to Wal-marts unbeaten prices, experts have argued that Wal-mart keeps prices low by breaking the law and flouting ethical standards in its operations. This paper examines the extent to which Wal-marts business practices are morally acceptable.

Relationship with workers
Although no retailing chain makes profits half as huge as Wal-mart, the company is notorious for poor pay to its workers. While its smaller competitor Costco pays an average rate of 17 an hour, Wal-mart pays an average of 10.11 for full-time workers (Cascio, 2006). Some of the worker-related complaints raised against Wal-mart include locking employees inside stores overnight, refusing to pay its workers, and such serious illegalities as hiring illegal immigrants to work overnight and paying them badly (Fishman, 2006). Although Wal-mart does manage to keep its commodity prices low, this is done partly at the cost of its workers. Predictably, Wal-marts employee turn over rate of 44 percent is over three times the turn over rate recorded at Costco (Cascio, 2006).

Relationship with suppliers
Due to its dominance in the global retail market, Wal-mart suppliers pay much attention to its needs and instructions. For instance, when Wal-mart argued that the paperboard box in which most deodorants were packed served no purpose other than increase the cost of production and take up shelf space, suppliers ditched the paperboard box. The effect was a reduction in the prices of deodorant due to the fall in the cost of production. While the Wal-mart effect endear Wal-mart to its customers due to lower prices, some of the tactics used by Wal-mart to win lower supplier prices are anything but ethical. According to Fishman (2006), Wal-mart exerts intense pressure on suppliers to deliver products at ever lower prices.  Wal-mart shows utter disregard to what the suppliers do to reduce their production costs in order to deliver at the prices dictated by Wal-mart. As long as goods are delivered at low prices, Wal-mart does not care whether the suppliers hire illegal immigrants, compromise the quality of the goods supplied, or improves the production process to reduce production and operation costs. In a way, Wal-mart forces suppliers to either lower prices to what Wal-mart approves of, or lose the supply deals to local and international competitors who are ready to supply Wal-mart at lower prices. Unfortunately, many suppliers bow to pressure from Wal-mart to lower prices.

Conclusion
Although commodity prices at Wal-mart are lowest, Wal-marts are morally unacceptable. Although lowering commodities is central to Wal-marts cause, there can be no justification of trading in lower quality products, hiring illegal immigrants, underpaying workers and forcing suppliers to sell at dictated prices. Wal-marts model, though attractive to consumers who are able to access commodities at low prices, violates state and national laws, and falls below all measures of moral acceptability.