Review of Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005) by Steve R — 28 Nov 2011

So you say you like Wal-Mart? You love the low prices? You think they do good work in the community? Watch this documentary. Watch it with an open mind.

And even if you can dismiss what's in here as biased and as folks who have an axe to grind, how do you dismiss the lawsuits that the company has lost? How do you dismiss all of the fines and governmental action taken against it? How do you dismiss all of the proven damage that this company has done to communities that it has essentially taken over?

I've loathed Wal-Mart for years and years, since the first interloping stores invaded the Pacific Northwest. I cheered when the Bremerton Wal-Mart garnered the then-largest fines ever assessed against a company in Washington State after the company despoiled a wetland ecosystem that was one of the most productive salmon streams in this County. And yet, to my shame, I've shopped there a handful of times, when it was "convenient." Never again.

And really, while I was watching this, the thought went through my mind, "Is Target any better? Fred Meyer? Kmart? Best Buy? Costco? Where does one shop responsibly? Is it already too late?".

So I don't have many answers, but I do have one: No more Wal-Mart. Ever again.