This week's class was devoted to a video that showed how Wal-Mart affects Americans. I thought it was very relevant and raises some complex issues. It was interesting to see such a negative spin on the store because it is looked upon, from a retailer's point of view, as an icon. Everyone seems to admire the company and obviously many Americans shop at the store. But I'm sure the average consumer gives little thought to how this monstrous company may be affecting other American businesses. For one it does major importing with China, because labor is low and it keeps the price down (their primary competitive advantage). As a result many American manufacturers have gone out of business. I thought it was a little unfair for the video to make it like this was all Wal-Mart's fault or like this practice is exclusive to Wal-Mart. Many, if not most, American companies, from Target to Nike, import and carry out production overseas for various reasons. This is just the general direction the country has gone in. Something that is exclusive to Wal-Mart is its ability to almost "bully" suppliers into charging extremely low prices and complying with Wal-Mart's sometimes-demanding terms. The video represented Wal-Mart as the retailer with a mentality of "my way or the highway". It gave examples of how it has gotten rid of once-successful companies and consequently caused these companies to fail. This is where the issue becomes a little complicated. It's extremely unfortunate that the companies that went down did so. At the same time, Wal-Mart has to maintain it's competitive advantage as a business. They are on top and any business that's on top wants to stay as long as they can. Do I think they could be a little more lenient and compromising? Maybe. I don't think anyone could really say until they looked at the information that the executives of this company have to lo...