Documentary Movie Reviews

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Wal-Mart: The High Cost
of Low Price (2005)

Rate: 9
Viewed: 6/07

WalMart
6/07: Provocative, effective, and interesting are the adjectives to describe Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.

Small businesses have been going out of business en masse since the late 90's because they can't compete with the low prices set by Wal-Mart. However, that's not the interesting part, but rather, it's this: do people care? Of course not. Saving money has always been their number one priority.

A big flaw of the documentary is the lack of analysis for different stores such as Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc. Are they any different from Wal-Mart? That's why it has been a mostly one-sided perspective.

I've known just about everything that's been said in Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price because I used to work there. So, I'm not surprised at the level of greed. If there's anything that's most bizarre about the job, it's being asked a bunch of weird questions during the job interview process such as:

"What would you do if you stole a can of soda?"

"How did you feel when you smoked weed?"

"What would you do if you saw a co-worker stealing merchandise?"

Once I passed the screening test before being offered a job, my answers to several questions got flagged, and the assistant manager wanted to do a follow-up by hearing my explanations to why I chose the particular answers. It's only because I couldn't agree with any of the answers which were four in total and I went with the least evil.

Another weird part about working there is the indoctrination of why unions are bad. Of course, the film was trying to convert me into a boycotter of Wal-Mart stores, but it's impossible. It's where the food is. If there's another supermarket that sells the same food at low price, I'll gladly shop there. However, the quality of food, especially in produce and meat, at Wal-Mart is mostly terrible, so I shell out more elsewhere. Some day, Wal-Mart will face the same fate like Sears by being replaced by another competitor, and it's probably going to be Amazon which is just the result of supply and demand.

All in all, I will laugh if I ever see Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price for sale at a Wal-Mart store.