Lie #4:  Wal-Mart Buys Locally

We cannot continue to be a solvent nation as long as we pursue this current accelerating direction. Our company is firmly committed to the philosophy by buying everything possible from suppliers who manufacture their products in the United States.” [Sam Walton, Wal-Mart Press Release, 3/13/85]

Today we instruct buyers to make trips to places like Greenville, South Carolina; Dothan, Alabama…before just routinely dashing off a letter of credit to the Far East.”  [Sam Walton: Made in America, 308]

With this approach, we estimate we have saved or created almost 100,000 American manufacturing jobs…Every job we save creates another potential Wal-Mart customer who’s not worrying about where his or her next dollar is coming from.”  [Sam Walton: Made in America, 310]

The Truth:

Wal-Mart is China’s sixth largest export market. In 2006, Wal-Mart imported $27 billion of Chinese goods.  Wal-Mart’s imports are responsible for 11% of the growth of the total U.S. trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2006.  [Time, 6/19/05; EPI Issue Brief #235, 6/27/07]

Wal-Mart’s imports from China cost American jobs.  Wal-Mart’s trade deficit with China alone eliminated nearly 200,000 U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2006. On average, 77 U.S. jobs were eliminated for each one of Wal-Mart's 4,022 U.S. stores in 2006.  [EPI Issue Brief #235, 6/27/07]

Wal-Mart encourages American companies to open Chinese factories.  In order to obtain Wal-Mart contracts or to continue relations with Wal-Mart, American companies are coerced by Wal-Mart to open factories in China.  Lakewood Engineering and Manufacturing Company and Huffy Bikes were two such cases. [Los Angeles Time, 11/23/03; Mansfield News Journal, 12/8/03]

Wal-Mart abandons buy American program. In February 1985, Walton wrote 3,000 American manufacturers and wholesalers to announce that the chain wanted to buy more American goods. Walton said: “We cannot continue to be a solvent nation as long as we pursue this current accelerating direction. Our company is firmly committed to the philosophy by buying everything possible from suppliers who manufacture their products in the United States.” Today, however, over 80 percent of Wal-Mart’s 6,000 global suppliers are based in China. [Wal-Mart Press Release, 3/13/85; Wal-Mart Literature, 1994; PBS Frontline, 11/16/04]

Wal-Mart buys local outside of America but not in the United States. Amy Wyatt, of Wal-Mart's International Corporate Affairs division, discussed local sourcing efforts as compared to operations in the United States. “Wyatt confirmed this, saying 90-95% of products in Wal-Mart's stores outside the United States – besides Central America, the company now operates stores in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom – are generally produced in the region. ‘In the United States , our local sourcing is not as high as 90%,’ she explained. ‘The manufacturing just doesn't exist (there).’ For example, apparel sold in U.S. Wal-Mart stores is often manufactured in Central America, she said.” [Tico Times (Costa Rica), 3/17/06]

Wal-Mart ruins Rubbermaid. In 1994, Rubbermaid won accolades as the most admired company in the United States—but five years later, its fortunes fell so hard that the company sold itself to a competitor. When the price of a key component of its products went up, Rubbermaid asked Wal-Mart for a modest price increase—but Wal-Mart said no, and stopped sales of Rubbermaid products. At a Rubbermaid factory in Wooster, Ohio, that meant the loss of 1,000 jobs. [PBS Frontline, 11/23/04]

Wal-Mart advises supplier: “Open a factory in China.” To land a supply contract with Wal-Mart, the Lakewood Engineering and Manufacturing Company—a Chicago fan manufacturer—had to locate manufacturing operations in Shenzhen, China. Workers there make $.25 an hour—while the company’s Chicago workforce earned an average hourly $13. [Los Angeles Times, 11/23/03]

Wal-Mart forces Huffy Bikes to brake US production. Despite decades of making bicycles in the United States, Huffy was forced by Wal-Mart price pressures to close three factories and lay off thousands of workers. The mayor of Celina, Ohio—where Huffy closed a large factory—said Wal-Mart’s “demand for cheaper bicycles drove Huffy out of Celina.” [Mansfield News Journal, 12/8/03]

Lie #5: Wal-Mart Saves Its Customers $2500 Annually