Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
| Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price | |
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Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price film poster
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| Directed by | Robert Greenwald |
| Produced by | Jim Gilliam |
| Distributed by |
Brave New Films Disinfo |
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Release date
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November 4, 2005 (USA) |
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Running time
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99 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.5 million |
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price is a 2005 documentary film by director Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films. The film presents a negative picture of Wal-Mart's business practices through interviews with former employees, small business owners, and footage of Wal-Mart executives. Greenwald also uses statistics interspersed between interview footage, to provide an objective analysis of the effects Wal-Mart has on individuals and communities.
The documentary Why Wal-Mart Works; and Why That Drives Some People C-R-A-Z-Y was released on the same day as Wal-mart: The High Cost of Low Price.
The film features archival footage of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott praising the corporation at a large employee convention, intercut with interviews designed to undercut Scott's statements.
The documentary argues that Wal-Mart underpays its workers, paying them an average of $17,000 per year (in 2005 dollars). According to the interviews, these wages are too low for employees to afford Wal-Mart's health insurance, so management counsels workers apply for government programs such as Medicaid instead. Greenwald also claims that Wal-Mart hires undocumented workers for their cleanup crews, paying them well below minimum wage. Other criticisms of the retail mega-chain include Wal-Mart's anti-union practices, its negative effect on mom and pop stores and small communities, insufficient environmental protection policies, and its poor record on worker's rights in the United States and internationally. Scenes filmed abroad document factory workers in Bangladesh and China creating Wal-Mart goods for as little as 18 cents an hour. One 9-year veteran of Wal-Mart testifies that he was moved to tears when he viewed the conditions in clothing manufacturing facilities in Latin America. He reported the abuses but the company did not correct them. The documentary also argues that Wal-Mart's parking lots have unusually high crime rates, a situation that could be vastly improved if the company were willing to spend the money to place cameras outside the stores.
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