As Wal-Mart blitzes Internet retail, debate rages over company’s impact on US wages
“‘The company pays its workers poverty wages. It offers few benefits, and it manipulates workers’ hours and understaffs its stores,’ Traub said. ‘That low-wage business model serves one purpose: It’s so the company can maximize profits that go to some of the wealthiest people on the planet.’
Other retailers have shown they can pay workers a living wage, offer good benefits and fair schedules, and still turn a profit, Traub added, citing Costco and grocer Trader Joe’s as examples. She charged Wal-Mart with adding to the problem of stagnant working-class wages by wielding its ‘tremendous influence throughout the service sector.'”