Wal-Mart way isn't always fair way

WASHINGTON — It used to be that what was good for General Motors was good for the nation. At least that's what people said in the old days before the Japanese invasion when the industrial behemoth was running roughshod over the rest of the world's automobile manufacturers.

Now it seems there are those who would apply that slogan to Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. But is it an accurate assessment of the Arkansas-based giant's value to the free enterprise system? There are a growing number who would disagree, citing numerous instances where the Wal-Mart way — and the way it built its business — isn't quite the American way. In fact, it frequently appears to be the antithesis of fair competition, deriving its enormous selling power through an injection of questionable practices.

Substantiation of those allegations came recently when it was revealed that Wal-Mart was subcontracting its daily cleaning chores in many of its stores to companies that employed illegal immigrants at low wages and without overtime or benefits and apparently without collecting payroll taxes. Federal agents raided 60 stores in 20 states rounding up more than 250 illegal aliens, and the company has been notified that it is the target of a grand jury investigation.

There are serious charges that Wal-Mart executives were aware of the practice, which by all estimations saved the company millions of dollars over what it would have had to pay otherwise. Not to have known is almost incomprehensible for a company that is tightly managed at all levels. One commentator noted that Wal-Mart is not the kind of place where they permit janitors to run around in their stores at night without some company supervision. Some of those janitors now have filed a class action suit against the company charging that it violated federal racketeering charges by conspiring with cleaning contractors to cheat them out of wages.

This is just the latest questionable event in the spectacular life of the late Sam Walton's brainchild. There have been charges of predatory practices almost from the company's humble beginnings, ranging from the sale of goods produced in foreign sweat shops to using its enormous buying power to sell near or below wholesale until its competitors are put out of business to low wages that destroy the prevailing local pay scales. In smaller communities a rule of thumb has been that five local businesses will fail during the first year after a Wal-Mart opens as the underpricing bites off an ever increasing percentage of sales of everything from groceries to drugs to dry goods and, in some areas, even haircuts.