The local component of over consumption is local to anyone. A large number of people from this campus come from small towns and cities, many in this area from rural communities. Those from all over have seen a Wal-Mart come into their town, locating themselves right on the outskirts of the town and building either just a Wal- Mart, or a Super Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart, and its little smiling yellow face, which we can all now recognize, makes promises of more jobs, good wages and benefits and a great atmosphere to work in. And of course, “always the low prices, always.” However, these promises rarely ever come true. For every two jobs that Wal-Mart creates, it takes away three local jobs in the community. How, you ask?

Wal-Mart planners locate the store on the outside of town and promise to have everything you need, the one stop shop at the lowest prices. In doing this however, it diverts people away from the downtown areas of town, and eventually forces small and local business to close, taking away jobs from the community. This drives out or shuts down the local and downtown businesses, and lowers the towns tax base. More jobs are not the only promise that it breaks. It also promises good wages and benefits, which it does not provide. Most people employed with Wal-Mart make little above the minimum wage and health benefits are minimal and full of loopholes. For example, to receive benefits you must work 35 or more hours a week, and management works very hard at preventing you from reaching that criteria.

Now for some interesting statistics, the most recent was the Fortune 500 list has Wal-Mart as the number one money making corporation in America, with a gross of $219, 812 (these numbers are in millions). To put this in comparison to some other well-known corporations Exxon Mobil came in second grossing $191, 581. Target, a store much like Wal-Mart came in at 34th grossing $39,888, and the even more widely known Microsoft came in at 72nd with $25, 296.

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