Walmart s Presence Of The American Economy - 1643 Words

Walmart’s presence has, at least for the foreseeable future, but put in place. What does this presence mean for the American economy? It means lower prices on thousands of goods. It certainly means a more convenient shopping experience for Americans. However, it also means that a lot of manufacturing work has been outsourced to overseas factories that can produce at a much lower cost. This is a critical equation to balance when talking about a company with revenues of $480 billion (Walmart.) There is a certain nostalgia present when making an argument against Walmart. For example, â€Å"In the old days, you could actually support a family selling electronics or running a general store. But you can’t support a family working at Walmart†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦This is the kind of innovation that Walmart uses to better America. Couple an example like operation hurricane pop tarts with the advent of smartphones and great things are in store for the Walmart c ustomer. Walmart now has a smartphone app that allows in store users to use voice command to get help finding popular items within their budget (Thompson.) It is likely that it is this efficient use of data that has allowed Walmart to be successful at such a large economy of scale for such an extended period of time. Those who romanticize the small business owner would disregard these efficiency boosting technological advances. It is true that America may have more manufacturing jobs if Walmart had never expanded to the extent that it has, but it is also true that many advancements in supply chain management wouldn’t have occurred either. American businesses now have higher technology and more efficient use of their time. Instead of mourning jobs lost to more cost effective foreign competition, Americans should seek to create new higher technology jobs. These types of jobs will create more wealth and yield higher pay anyway. In a globalized economy, perhaps it is time to stop asking, â€Å"Is this good for America?† and instead ask, â€Å"Will this help the world economy?† What, then, are the benefits that Americans are