Walmart has continued to run their business model under the idea of keeping prices low by exploiting the American worker. Besides the vast amount of money spent on supplementing the incomes of Walmart employees, the government is additionally taxed by Walmart for the excessive use of police services. Walmart calls for police service, make up a large part of any retail theft statistic in any given city. A recent analysis published by Bloomberg this week, highlights the problem.
The report published this week examined hundreds of thousands of police statistics and found that there have been over 200 violent crimes. These crimes included shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and an assortment of violent incidents. This is on top of the daily slew of retail thefts that are commonplace for any Walmart. While Walmart executives are aware of the problem and have indicated that they have a plan to combat it, little seems to have been done. In many areas, Walmart contracts out their security to off-duty police officers. But according to critics, Walmart’s use of police as in-store security end up coming at the tax payer’s expense.
According to Sgt. Robert Rohloff of the Tulsa Police Department, “It’s ridiculous – we are talking about the biggest retailer in the world. I may have half my squad there for hours.”
Any town, especially smaller rural areas that have a Walmart, experience the majority of their retail related crime on their premises. The city of Tulsa receives upward of 2,000 calls for service per year, divided between four Walmart stores. This is astronomical compared to the city’s Target department store’s 300 calls, also split between four stores. The numbers alone show that Walmart has a distinct issue with crime, ultimately stemming from poor internal security planning.
The need for excessive police services puts a financial strain on local police departments, as each call for service results in thousands of dollars in salaries and expenses. Walmart has shown over and over again, to be a destructive force in our economy. Not only do small businesses crumble when Walmart comes to town, they pay their workers so little that many are forced onto public assistance and services, like food stamps, in order to make ends meet. The end result is a huge American tax payer bill. When you add to this the estimated $1 billion that the company avoids paying, thanks to legal federal loopholes, it’s clear that the mega-corporation looks to benefit no one except for their own board of directors.
Walmart has seemingly become a microcosm of everything that is wrong in America. The fact that violent crimes can now be added to the list of problems that the major retailer faces, is yet another mar on the company’s reputation. A reputation that despite the associated atrocities, has continued to grow. Walmart’s sales tactics have caused an increase in profits by 23% over the last decade, showing that the retail behemoth is not slowing down any time soon. In light of this new problem of violent crime, it will be interesting to see if this has any effect on their seemingly endless expansion.
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