About Social Responsibility
When I hear the words social responsibility I think of situations in which I or anyone would do the right thing. For example if I hit a dog with my car I would try to find the owner. If I saw a house on fire I would call 911. However, this realm of responsibility is also about other areas....areas like shopping for example. For a while now I have been on a kick of being socially responsible shopper. If you asked me what responsibile shopping was last year I would have told you whatever place saves me the most money. Is this true? If thats the case I should get everything I need at Walmart, rumor has it they will sell babies, cars, and houses soon at discount prices. The following is from a paper my friend Amber wrote.
"The thing about Wal-Mart though—which should not be forgotten—is that it’s the largest, most successful company in history, and the world’s largest employer. It has a market share close to 30 percent of numerous industries in the world’s most powerful economy (ours). The main objection to Wal-Mart (well, mine anyway) is not only that it’s predictably ruthless, but that it acts with the impunity granted it by its power.
Walmart (in response to intense public criticism of late, including a memo pulbished by the New York Times) Unlike other companies which respond to public criticism by actually improving policies, or at least promising to address them, Wal-Mart just goes about business as usual and tries to make what it’s doing sound better. Instead of actually increasing employee benefits, it pays for commercials with happy employees and yellow smiley faces. Instead of recognizing that Wal-Mart sets wage trends, executives publicly support raising the minimum wage, while keeping their own wages low. Instead of responding to concerns that Wal-Mart has an unfair advantage over its competitors, it hires former political campaign managers to clean up its image.
Of course, the reason that Wal-Mart does this is that cleaning up its image is a lot cheaper than cleaning up its practices, and executives have confidence that people will settle for a little sweeping under the rug, and keep coming back for the low prices. For whatever reason, it seems we keep falling for it, and it won’t change until we stop. So, if you care about the well-being of workers, if you don’t like the concentration of power in a single corporation, if you don’t think returns to shareholders must be the sole dictator of business decisions, then exercise your right in a free economy and spend your money elsewhere. Now is a good time to start. "
If your like me your probably thinking "every business is corrupt, so why not go to the corrupt one that gets me the cheapest milk and donuts". I understand. I suggest checking these sites www.responsibleshopper.org. and www.business-humanrights.org. They might be of help in this busy shopping frenzy the next few weeks.
"The thing about Wal-Mart though—which should not be forgotten—is that it’s the largest, most successful company in history, and the world’s largest employer. It has a market share close to 30 percent of numerous industries in the world’s most powerful economy (ours). The main objection to Wal-Mart (well, mine anyway) is not only that it’s predictably ruthless, but that it acts with the impunity granted it by its power.
Walmart (in response to intense public criticism of late, including a memo pulbished by the New York Times) Unlike other companies which respond to public criticism by actually improving policies, or at least promising to address them, Wal-Mart just goes about business as usual and tries to make what it’s doing sound better. Instead of actually increasing employee benefits, it pays for commercials with happy employees and yellow smiley faces. Instead of recognizing that Wal-Mart sets wage trends, executives publicly support raising the minimum wage, while keeping their own wages low. Instead of responding to concerns that Wal-Mart has an unfair advantage over its competitors, it hires former political campaign managers to clean up its image.
Of course, the reason that Wal-Mart does this is that cleaning up its image is a lot cheaper than cleaning up its practices, and executives have confidence that people will settle for a little sweeping under the rug, and keep coming back for the low prices. For whatever reason, it seems we keep falling for it, and it won’t change until we stop. So, if you care about the well-being of workers, if you don’t like the concentration of power in a single corporation, if you don’t think returns to shareholders must be the sole dictator of business decisions, then exercise your right in a free economy and spend your money elsewhere. Now is a good time to start. "
If your like me your probably thinking "every business is corrupt, so why not go to the corrupt one that gets me the cheapest milk and donuts". I understand. I suggest checking these sites www.responsibleshopper.org. and www.business-humanrights.org. They might be of help in this busy shopping frenzy the next few weeks.
posted by K at 5:41 PM
2 Comments:
When you think about it, Josh,...and I don't mean you personally, more like you plural... it seems like Walmart is quite a bad company. I've read many articles that reveal the bad qualities of the company. They have a huge workforce but are not required to give them ample benefits. The average worker is not given the opportunity to work the 40 hrs a week to become eligible for health coverage, dental, etc. Essentially, what Walmart has done is to blind both employees and consumers alike. While this is difficult to avoid in today's society, where commercialism is all about how cheap someone offers a product, there are other cheap options to that problem. I will probably still go to Walmart from time to time, $5 dvd racks are quite enticing, but I also recognize that supporting a smaller, more ethcial company at a cost of 10% extra to me can be rewarding. Both for the sake of me and company. Most people, unfortunately, do not consider this when they jump in their car to pick up that cheap milk and donuts. Its something that is good to acknowlede though, but its hard to change it other than on an individual level. Money is power. For Walmart, they have cheap products but a huge turnover rate. For the consumer, they dont have a huge budget and are typically bound by their financial situation. Somewhere there must be a happy medium though
baxter,
whats up bro. One thing is for sure...they sell cheap dvds. Did you know they don't allow the salvation army to be outside anymore. I heard also they aren't allowed to say christmas or sell "christmas" items that have the name on them....pretty ridiculous. Theres been boycotts accross the U.S. i hear. I sure as rain don't go there anymore....so I think your right. It starts at a personal level...whether we chose to make ourselves aware or not...maybe its true.. ignorance is bliss...or as my friend bryan would say..."ignorance is not bliss, its just plain ignorance"-bnix
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