In just over 14 weeks, a new museum of American Art will open in a small town tucked away in the Arkansas Ozarks. It is being financed and built with profits made by the Wal-Mart corporation, and stocked with artwork collected by the second richest woman in the world -- Sam Walton's only daughter, Alice Walton. (Her sister-in-law Christy Walton is the world's richest woman.)
Unlike Wal-Mart stores, none of the artwork hanging on the walls of the so-called Crystal Bridges museum will be imported from China. More than 600 paintings and sculptures will be shown in a building with enough square footage to house nearly 4 football fields.
Less than a week ago, Wal-Mart announced a five-year, $20 million grant to help eliminate admission fees for all visitors at Alice's museum. It turns out that Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke has an aesthetic appreciation for Wal-Art. "We realize that things like listening to your favorite song, seeing a beautiful painting or laying eyes on an amazing sculpture make our lives better, too," Duke said in a prepared corporate release.
The museum is a non-profit venture set up six years ago by the Walton Family Foundation. For a $5,000 contribution, you can be part of the "Benefactor Circle" of the Museum, of which $4,634 is tax deductible. For a $20,000 donation you'll get invited to a "private behind-the-scenes tour" of the exhibits, and 'intimate gatherings" with the Museum's Executive Director. It's not hard to imagine legions of Wal-Mart vendors queuing up to become Guild members, currying favor from the empire that feeds them.
But what of Wal-Mart's 2.1 million workers? Will this new museum make their lives better?
It's not hard to imagine that legions of Wal-Mart hourly workers might harbor resentment that Sam Walton's daughter has spent the last decade on what The New York Times described as a "spending spree," using what Forbes magazine called her $20.6 billion 'inherited' wealth to procure brightly-painted pieces of canvas.
Meanwhile the average Wal-Mart worker last year toiled in Action Alley for $11.75 an hour, earning roughly $18,645 per year before taxes, which is just about the current federal poverty level for a single mom with two kids. (Independent studies peg the Wal-Mart average wage below $9 per hour).
This does not have to be a Hobson's choice for the world's largest retailer: forced to choose between good wages and good art. Wal-Mart workers could have both. In a 2006 study, the Economic Policy Institute concluded that Wal-Mart could give all of its non-supervisory workers a raise of nearly $2,100 per employee (a 13% raise) without raising prices. The same researchers concluded that "Wal-Mart could definitely raise compensation for its workers and still have lower prices than its competitors."
It's regrettable that Wal-Mart does not exhibit the same passion for American-made products as its Museum does for the acquisition of American-made art. There should be a plaque at the entrance to the Crystal Bridges Museum which reads: "The Walton family wishes to thank the more than 2 million Wal-Mart associates worldwide who have helped to create the enormous wealth that has made the acquisition of this art possible. "
In her Crystal Bridges interview with The New York Times, Alice Walton said: "For years I've been thinking about what we could do as a family that could really make a difference in this part of the world." The Walton Family Foundation has pledged $800 million to the museum for an operating endowment. Alice Walton could make a difference in the world by urging Wal-Mart to match what her Family Foundation has given to this new museum, to invest in the form of higher wages for the workers who built her fortune. Wal-Mart could help its own 'associates' to live better, as their corporate slogan promises, by increasing their take home pay.
"Laying eyes on an amazing sculpture" is uplifting to a wealthy CEO--but not necessarily for a worker who can't save up enough money to fix the family's car or pay this month's mortgage.
Do we have to paint a picture for the Walton family?
Al Norman has been described by the Wall Street Journal as a "one man anti-Wal-Mart cottage industry." He is the founder of Sprawl-Busters.
[10] But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
[11] And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
[12] Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
[13] But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
[14] Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
[15] Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
[16] So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
Walmart pays market wages. They are not a charity. Raising wages would alter their business model. Wamarts labor model is to keep people around for short term periods so they do not stay long enough to get raises or benefits. They are in business to make a profit for stockholders, not to provide family supporting jobs. If you want that I would suggest opting into an employee owned retailer such as Publix or HyVee.where employees are rewarded on the profits of the company. If Walmart was such a horrible place to work, people would not be working there and they would not be the country's largest private employer. What about McDonalds, Target, and Walgreens? Where's the outrage? Why are we not asking them to open up the company treasury so workers can take a little extra home? In this country the real minimum wage is about $40,000 a year. Whether you make $18,000 or $40,000 it makes no differece. The government will give you food stamps, medicaid, Earned Income Credit, and other forms of welfare to get you up to the $40k mark.
People take jobs at Walmart and McDonalds etc. because that's all there is. They're glad to have the jobs because they want the dignity of working for a living; but that doesn't justify the fact that they are simply being strip-mined by the company. Walmart has come to so-dominate retail in America that they have established what you refer to as the "market wages." And in paying those pathetic wages and providing only minimal benefits to a few, they have created the dependent class of retail shoppers that keep them in the chips at the other end of the equation.
Walmart has effectively established themselves as the "company store." Read your labor history if you don't know what that means.
You have had the luxury of amassing a vast collection of art and you ask us to believe that it is a philanthropic effort? Like providing for essential medical care for Walmart's non-supervisory employees? Perhaps it would be better to auction off the art and use those funds to make a difference in the lives of the American workers who have made you so wealthy. That would be one way to "...make a difference in this part of the world."
In 2011 Wal-Mart is losing business to dollar stores because people can no longer even afford to shop at Wal-Mart. This is progress?
"The same researchers concluded that "Wal-Mart could definitely raise compensation for its workers and still have lower prices than its competitors.""...well duh....they could also raise them more and have them equal. So is the idea to raise prices on all the customers? Who speaks for the customers that seem to shop there of their own free will? Oh.....Wal-mart.
I'm not a big art person so I don't really care, but there are lots of foundations and universites that contribute money to art museums. Why should the family that built Wal-mart not be allowed to do the same? Who should dictate what the price of Pampers should be?
I love the idea of raising worker's wages while "still being cheaper than competitors", ok, you so the author would prefer passing along the wage increases to the consumer? How does that help? Perhaps the single mother with two kids should consider her past decisions which have led her to working at wal-mart with two kids. Personal responsibility kids, pay attention.
As for the art, who cares, it has nothing to do with Wal-Mart. Their profit margins are hardly huge, they make money by simple volume. When does it stop? Stop worrying about how much money other people have and work towards building yourself up.
The point of the research cited in my piece is that Wal-Mart could give its non-supervisory workers a 13% wage hike "without raising prices."
What earthly good could come from asking a single Mom to "consider her past decisions?" That Mom's heart sinks every time she opens her pay check. Yet it is her labor that helps produce the unimaginable wealth of Alice Walton.
I imagine this Mom would have an empty feeling walking through the Crystal Bridges Museum. Just thinking about Alice Walton dropping $20 million on one painting is enough to enrage the workers who spill out of Wal-Mart every afternoon wondering why they are valued so little by their employer. It's called paycheck depression.
Every painting, every sculpture in this new luminescent building has the sweat of Wal-Mart workers glistening all over it.
--Al Norman
The wealth held by the Walton family is irrelevant to the worker. Why does it matter how much money the person you work for has? So, am I to understand then that if she worked in the same job for a struggling business owner she should expect less pay? No, the pay is determined by the job, not the employer. Furthermore, the Walton's family wealth came from the rise of the largest employer in the world in a single lifetime, of course there will be amazing wealth brought with that.