Wal-Mart: The High Price of Low Cost

Director: Robert Greenwald

Starring: Edith Arana, James Cromwell, Diane DeVoy

From political activist filmmaker Greenwald (‘Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War’) comes the latest in the recent spurge of exposé documentaries designed to appal American audiences…and this film certainly has. We might not have Wal-Mart in every town in England (although they do own Asda) but it does not make this film on the David and Goliath battle between mega-rich corporations and small businesses any less relevant. Choosing to evoke our sympathy to the max through detailing very personal family stories, you know full well your heartstrings are being tugged to think a certain way, but the argument is extremely persuasive.

Greenwald uses the effective method of alternating between clips of a rousing speech by Wal-Mart’s CEO bragging about fantastic policies and benefits for employees and the environment with testimonies of the ‘real’ picture, and it is quite a contrast. The staff wages are so crap thousands of them qualify for and regularly collect state benefit; Wal-Mart even offer advice on how to access them. Their policy toward union action is also interesting; there is a specialised managerial swat team who, when news arrives that significant union activity has begun at a particular store, are the following day dispatched in a company Lear jet, the manager reassigned and one of the team take over. The others work to identify union activists and arrange for their swift dismissal. There is also evidence of unfair labour practices, often forcing employees to work ‘off the clock’ without overtime pay. And that’s not even mentioning the exploited east Asian suppliers or the store car parks…

Greenwald claims authenticity in its claims from the fact those interviewed include some who held managerial positions for many years and the audience is blasted with shocking statistics. Wal-Mart itself is under-represented which will perhaps invite a backlash, as Michael Moore has in some quarters, but the rallying call to arms in America seems to have been successful. When the facts represented are of subsidised medical care, racist and sexist attitudes and a blatant disregard for the environmental impact of the company, you will no doubt be outraged.

Hannah Upton