Discounting Life

In the US there is numerous general stores, supermarkets, shopping centers, boutiques, some of them are specialized, others have a wide spread of products... All these shops build the image of abundance and variety, always reachable, and although many of them are not affordable for the general public, there is a significant amount of products that are surprisingly cheap. I would like to use this entry to study the reasons that enable the low prices and constant discounts, and their consequences for the people in the US and in  the countries the products are made, as well as for the environment.

In order to have a case study, I will name the Walmart supermarkets (although this is not the only case, this is the most representative example for cheap stuff). If there is one stereotype for American "convenience store", it is Walmart, the world's largest retailer. You can find an incredible amount of products, from groceries to clothes, everyday products, furniture, pharmacy etc. Walmart (and many others) sell some products at such prices that it seems impossible to think that they are earning money selling them. In fact, the only way they are doing so, is by paying very little to the producers. I would like to explain some of the reasons and consequences of the cheap prices, because I believe it is important to know these things in order to make the right decisions on where to buy.

Reasons for low prices

• Well, on the first place, big stores are so powerful that they can make a huge pressure to producers to lower their prices. These suppliers have no chance but to accept the demands from the big companies, because the other option would be not sell at all, and they can't afford that.
• Another reason is the low wages for the employees. Workers work 10h a day, often more, for very little money. Many of them are immigrants, which mean cheap labor. They also get very poor benefits for health insurance and retirement money, if they get anything at all.
• Also, these places have no consideration for energy efficiency or minimization of environmental impact. The important factor is the costs, no matter how much contamination it generates. 
• Additionally we can add a low quality food sold in these places: they buy animal products from suppliers that abuse of animals, or vegetables from industries that use GMO products for fater and bigger growth of vegetables, and many suppliers substitute high quality ingredients in their products for cheaper, but unhealthy and untested substitutes
• As important as the rest of the reasons above is the fact that the majority of the procuts sold in these stores are produced oversees: There's a study on a fan sold by Walmart, the price was 20$, 10 years later, it was under 10$. The reason was that the production of the fans was moved to China, where the workers would get 25 cents an hour, working 13+ hours.

Consequences for low prices

• Effects on the small business stores: A big consequence is that small business can't keep up with the low prices, and have no other option but to close. Although this is happening everywhere (also in Spain the big supermarkets are winning ground against the small stores), here it is much more obvious than the rest. Many towns lose numerous jobs in spite of the ones generated by the opening of a big retailer, because for every big store open, more than 2 smaller business need to close.
• Effects on the employees: Also, the workers' poor working conditions leads to important effects on their health and life quality. They are physically and psychologically distressed, because since there is no unions allowed, the workers can be easily laid-off in case of protest or bad behavior.
• Effects on the suppliers:  Suppliers are heavily impacted by Walmart demands, they need to come up with ideas to meet Walmart's requests: move production oversees, which causes loss of jobs in the country.
• Effects to the environment:
  

•  Their production method focused on income instead of efficiency generates pollution and serious damage to environment, it also leads to scarcity of resources. 
• Also, because of low prices, people buy more, and because of the low quality, many things get thrown out, both of these fact mean more harm to the natural resources. 
• In addition, there is the harm caused by the transport from the countries where the items are produced and the one where they are finally sold

The goal of this critical reflection is for us to think a bit more why some things are so cheap and where the things are coming from, and what might be the effects of us buying them. I am sure Walmart will not lose its audience very soon, if at all, but when I found out about this, it made me reconsider, and hopefully this will have some effect on others. 

Thanks for reading, 

Lita & Andres