Reading 56 talks about the issues facing the ‘hood or poor
urban neighborhoods and how larger chain corporations like Walmart, Ikea and Marriott
choose to expand their businesses to these areas. The argument from the business
perspective is that there are more jobs created for the people who live nearby
in the low income regions and that they also are allowed easier access to cheaper
products. But the flip side to this is that these companies pay notoriously low
wages and have advanced their efforts in cracking down on union organization. I’ve
always had the view that the local ‘mom and pop’ shops are hurt the most when
these larger chain businesses move in because they are able to offer more
benefits and cheaper products or services, taking away from the business of the
local stores. This is a really hard split and the book illustrates well how
some people, like Willie Cole, can move up the hierarchy from cashier to
manager and so on and become more successful than they may have on their own
but that isn’t always the case. These companies use stories like this to cover
up the economic damage they do to the community and how they know what little
choice there is for the people to decide between accepting the low wage jobs and
standing against them but there is often little hope in what seems to be a David
vs. Goliath match up. It’s a really dirty tactic to employ local religious leaders
to vouch for these companies, preaching slogans like ‘any job is better than no
job’. I see it as a microcosm in a way. It’s all a ploy to distract the harmfulness
of their presence. At the end of this reading there was one sentence that said Walmart
had been fighting battles in Queens, New York that had they won it would have
given them a store in 9 of the 10 largest urban markets which include all but
Detroit. Which with their economic trouble wouldn’t be a smart business move
but really shows how if there isn’t a large profit to be made, they don’t care
about offering jobs to people of color.
This picture doesn't relate exactly but it's along the lines and I like the style.
