Robert Greenwald Walmart
Robert Greenwald's ''Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price'' is not ''Fahrenheit 9/11.'' There are no goofy takeoffs of old television series. You won't see H. Lee Scott Jr., the chief executive of Wal-Mart, the largest retailer on the planet, practicing his golf swing or making revealing comments on camera.
He doesn't have to. Mr. Greenwald's film features plenty of star witnesses, many of them former employees. Weldon Nicholson, a store-manager trainer for 17 years, says that when Wal-Mart came into a new town, management people would scan the stores along Main Street and make a game of predicting how long it would take each business to close.
Johnny Faenza, an employee of H & H Hardware, a family business in Middlefield, Ohio, that opened in 1962 but bit the dust after Wal-Mart came to town, is mystified by the corporation's unimpeded …show more content…
And of course there was the scandal about employees being locked inside stores overnight.
In all fairness, Wal-Mart is not the only company in the world accused of trying to work its employees to death or of economizing by using part-time and freelance people who don't receive expensive employee benefits.
In addition to these complaints, there also seems to be a problem with security in Wal-Mart parking lots. After interviews with victims and their families, a seemingly endless list of crimes committed in store lots rolls like film credits. Then a message appears onscreen: those were only the ones from the first seven months of 2005.
''The High Cost of Low Price'' makes its case with breathtaking force. Mr. Scott of Wal-Mart declined to speak on camera, Mr. Greenwald says. The company is worried enough about this film and growing opposition elsewhere that it has hired high-powered former presidential advisers and set up a public relations ''war room'' to deflect and respond to
He doesn't have to. Mr. Greenwald's film features plenty of star witnesses, many of them former employees. Weldon Nicholson, a store-manager trainer for 17 years, says that when Wal-Mart came into a new town, management people would scan the stores along Main Street and make a game of predicting how long it would take each business to close.
Johnny Faenza, an employee of H & H Hardware, a family business in Middlefield, Ohio, that opened in 1962 but bit the dust after Wal-Mart came to town, is mystified by the corporation's unimpeded …show more content…
And of course there was the scandal about employees being locked inside stores overnight.
In all fairness, Wal-Mart is not the only company in the world accused of trying to work its employees to death or of economizing by using part-time and freelance people who don't receive expensive employee benefits.
In addition to these complaints, there also seems to be a problem with security in Wal-Mart parking lots. After interviews with victims and their families, a seemingly endless list of crimes committed in store lots rolls like film credits. Then a message appears onscreen: those were only the ones from the first seven months of 2005.
''The High Cost of Low Price'' makes its case with breathtaking force. Mr. Scott of Wal-Mart declined to speak on camera, Mr. Greenwald says. The company is worried enough about this film and growing opposition elsewhere that it has hired high-powered former presidential advisers and set up a public relations ''war room'' to deflect and respond to