The South African Civil Society Information Service

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price

7 Oct 2010

Wal-Mart is about to arrive in South Africa. Its imminent establishment highlights serious concerns about the company's impact on South African labour rights.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price is a feature length documentary that uncovers the retail giant's assault on families in America, where Wal-Mart's workers are among the most impoverished workers in the country. The film dives into the personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities struggling to fight Walmart.

A study by researchers at UC Berkeley's Labor Center has quantified what happened to retail wages when Wal-Mart set up shop, drawing on 15 years of data on actual store openings. The published study found that Wal-Mart actually reduced the take-home pay of retail workers by $4.7 billion dollars annually.

Editor's Note: You may also be interested in another documentary highlighting problems linked to the retail giant, "Wal-Mart Nation."

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You can find this page online at http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/280.19.