From the Virginia Tech Collegiate Times:

Yes this is the real side to the company everyone flocks to because their prices are just so low. But is it really worth it? When a new Wal-Mart opens, the community always loses out. Not only do the workers get treated poorly, when some are forced to work overtime without compensation and others get locked inside the stores at night, but local businesses suffer.

Those unique shops that sell quality products go out of business because they can’t compete with Wal-Mart’s prices, but we shouldn’t expect them to. Wal-Mart has such low prices because even with $10 billion in profits they use sweatshop labor and skirt around environmental laws. Their low prices exist because they have the buying power to force their suppliers to lower their selling prices causing these companies to cut corners and lay off workers to try to stay in business.

The $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies from state and local governments are also certainly a factor in the low prices of Wal-Mart’s products. This does not even touch on the amount that taxpayers indirectly contribute for Wal-Mart’s workers who are on welfare or Medicaid, as so many of them are.

There is now a nationwide campaign to collect donations to help pay for health care for Wal-Mart’s workers because Wal-Mart won’t do it. Yes, Wal-Mart certainly does have some of the cheapest prices around, but is it worth it at the expense of all those that get neglected in the process?