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What film doesn't say — at a bargainPosted: Nov. 15, 2005
Here's my blurb on the anti-Wal-Mart movie now showing in a theater or living room near you: It's every Michael Moore movie ever made, minus the laughs. But if you like low, low prices, the good news is that screenings of "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" are free. There's one tonight at 7 at the Oriental Theatre. (Go to www.walmartmovie.com) The bad news, if you can believe everything in a propaganda film like this, is that Wal-Mart pays crummy wages and benefits; treats its employees poorly, especially the women and minorities; kills small businesses everywhere it opens; commands government subsidies even though it's filthy rich; causes pollution; sells mostly goods made overseas; and doesn't care about people being mugged in its parking lots. "This is like Godzilla eats Tokyo," is how one minister puts it in the film. She helped keep Wal-Mart and its, as she put it, "plantation capitalism" out of Inglewood, Calif. Similar battles have been fought in Wisconsin.
The Milwaukee County Labor Council put a copy of the movie in my hands last week. Unions in particular hate Wal-Mart for shutting them out and for trying to make America believe that you can raise a family on under $10 an hour if you're not too proud to use food stamps and Medicaid. " 'The race to the bottom' is how we refer to it," said Mike Balistriere, a liaison with the council's AFL-CIO Community Services. The documentary was made by Robert Greenwald, who also did "Uncovered: The War On Iraq," about how we shouldn't be over there, and "Outfoxed," about how we shouldn't watch slanted Fox News. Rather than rely on theatrical release, Greenwald sells the DVD or tape ($12.95) and asks people to show it to their friends. A Greenfield woman named Peg tried to do exactly that. A showing in her living room was scheduled for last Sunday and promoted on the movie's Web site. Peg is a psychotherapist who didn't want me to use her last name because she doesn't like her politics to get mixed up with her business. "I canceled it because no one signed up," she said. Everyone was watching the Packers or over at Wal-Mart, which boasts more than 100 million American shoppers a week. The world's biggest retailer employs 1.2 million people in the U.S., including 27,000 in Wisconsin. No company gets to be as big as Wal-Mart without being part evil. The movie would argue all evil. But Greenwald overplays his hand when he features a family hardware store supposedly crushed by Wal-Mart in Middlefield, Ohio. "The Wal-Mart had nothing to do with that store closing," Dan Weir, the village administrator, told me. The store struggled after being passed from father to son, and died before Wal-Mart opened. You also don't learn from the movie that the store was taken over and renamed Middlefield Hardware by Jay Negin, who told me business is going great. For the record, though, Negin said he doesn't like Wal-Mart's employment practices and won't shop there. Negin and Weir could not think of any businesses in the village of 2,233 that closed after Wal-Mart opened in May. Stuff like this makes me wonder what else in the 98-minute movie isn't quite true. If you trust what's on the screen, you won't even want to drive past a Wal-Mart, let alone shop or work there. Maybe America would be better off without Wal-Mart. It would be great if stores like this paid $20 an hour, had fabulous benefits and sold only American goods. I'm sure we'd all be willing to pay more for their merchandise, right? Have an opinion on this story? Write a letter to the editor or start an online forum. Subscribe today and receive 4 weeks free! Sign up now.
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Call Jim Stingl
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