To the Editor:
Re “Wal-Mart’s Authoritarian Culture,” by Nelson Lichtenstein (Op-Ed, June 22):
Wal-Mart has the right to follow whatever corporate policies it deems appropriate to fit its extraordinarily successful business model. The company is tough on suppliers and has a very successful distribution system, and from the efficiencies of both it passes along substantial savings to its customer base. And it provides some 1.4 million jobs for both men and women throughout the United States. Wal-Mart didn’t get to be the world’s No. 1 corporation by standing still!
You have a choice of where to work, and if you don’t want to work at Wal-Mart, you don’t have to.
As a professor of business and marketing, I beg to differ with Mr. Lichtenstein on his assumptions and conclusions. Sure, employees at some point have to make tough choices during their working lifetime—and some may well involve balancing the demands of work and family, especially during this current economic downturn.
A corporation cannot run its business model strictly around the family. Certainly Wal-Mart is not the only company with aspiring lower-level managers who eventually get promoted and have to relocate. How about we give Wal-Mart some credit once in a while rather than always trying to put a “Target” on its back.
GEORGE R. COOK
Rochester, June 23, 2011
Note from KBJ: Amen.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 