In this essay I will show how Anthony Bianco argues in the Bully of Bentonville that Wal-Mart's long-term business model is not sustainable because of the treatment of their workforce. I will also show that other factors that are attributing to their demise. Aside from the massive opposition they face when trying to enter into a new area, Wal-Mart's stock performance prior to the recession had been spiraling downward since 2000. Since the recession many people really have no choice but to shop at Wal-Mart. The reasons for this poor stock performance were that people chose not to shop their because of how infamous Wal-Mart is with treating its employees, people's inability to afford to drive their because of such high gas prices, and because in the process of cutting costs on such a massive offensive, they were feeling the effects of not having a large enough workforce or a dedicated enough workforce.
English: Inside the Walmart (still branded as Wal-...
A protest in Utah against Wal-Mart
English: Walmart Home Office, the headquarters of ...Because some of the stores are so unorganized, people who were in the position to avoid shopping at Wal-Mart did so. Wall Street also felt that their rapid expansion was making it too difficult to stay on top of costs and increase same store sales. Wal-Mart's final problem will be to find a business model that works in countries such as Germany, where they can not get away with the unfair labor practices is does in the US. Like most other powerhouse US companies such as Microsoft, I feel that Wal-Mart will eventually decrease in size but still remain a competitor in retail, just not dominate it.
One of Wal-Mart's ongoing problems is the opposition it faces when trying to open a store a new area. A recent example of this was in Rego Park, a town in New York City. In 2004 when Wal-Mart expressed interest...