Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005)

93% of critics liked it
(27 reviews)
65% of users liked it
(7,184 ratings)

Wal-Mart has become one of America's most successful retail chains by offering everyday goods at low prices for working families. But just how is Wal-Mart able to charge less than many of their rivals, and what has their success done for their employees? Documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald takes… More Wal-Mart has become one of America's most successful retail chains by offering everyday goods at low prices for working families. But just how is Wal-Mart able to charge less than many of their rivals, and what has their success done for their employees? Documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald takes a look inside the discount retailer's empire in Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and discovers a company short on scruples and long on shabby treatment of the people who work for them. Through interviews with labor experts and former Wal-Mart employees, Greenwald documents the firm's anti-union tactics, their history of paying wages often below the poverty line, the high price they charge for health benefits (employees are often encouraged to apply for government subsidized health care programs instead), their methods for driving away locally owned businesses, their practice of hiring illegal aliens for cleanup crews at a fraction of minimum wage, the abysmal working conditions and pay in the Third World plants where much of Wal-Mart's goods are manufactured, and more. Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price is one in a series of muckraking documentaries from director Greenwald which includes the films Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, Uncovered: The War in Iraq, and Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 38 min.
Directed By: Robert Greenwald
Genres: Documentary, Musical & Performing Arts, Special Interest

In Theaters: Nov 4, 2005 Wide
On DVD: Nov 15, 2005

Critic Reviews

Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Advocacy journalism at its most unsparing, and it demands to be seen, discussed, argued with, and acted upon.
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price lacks the cinematic panache to elevate it above the level of agitprop. But its all too relevant dissection of its subject is well worth paying attention to.
David Denby, New Yorker
For all its missteps, the movie powerfully suggests that Wal-Mart is capable of demoralizing a community so thoroughly that it doesn't have the spirit to carry on its life outside the big box.
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
Wal-Mart says director Robert Greenwald's film is misleading and inaccurate, but it's hard to dispute the personal accounts from former Wal-Mart employees who speak from experience.
John Anderson, Variety
Whatever Greenwald lacks in style he makes up for with a deluge of facts and figures and a populist feel that make his movies, this one included, accessible even to the most politically naive.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Greenwald has shrewdly chosen not to go with classic talking head types like economists, academics and journalists. Instead he talked to current and former Wal-Mart employees, including several with a dozen or more years with the company.
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
Embora irregular (as seqüências que se focam na China beiram o ridículo, com a dublagem e os apelidos dos entrevistados), o filme de Greenwald estabelece argumentos fortes que levam o espectador a desejar boicotar a empresa-título.
Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
If Greenwald's intention was to make the audience very angry indeed then the film is a resounding success ... it'll definitely make you want to boycott Asda.
John A. Nesbit, Old School Reviews
Once again David slays Goliath in a documentary that has no pretense of being objective
Shawn Levy, Oregonian
It's a bill of indictment, really, more than an objective survey. Greenwald often makes his arguments with a kind of prosecutorial zeal that makes you chary of swallowing it whole.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
A searing expose of the greed and systemic poor treatment of its workers by the largest corporation in the world.
Andy Klein, Los Angeles CityBeat
If you think you already know all about how evil and rapacious America's largest retailer is, wait 'til you see this latest exercise in muckraking from Robert Greenwald...
Robert Roten, Laramie Movie Scope
The information in the film is largely anecdotal and not analytical. This is what gives the film its power.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Effective muckraking documentary.

Read all 14 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Wahida K

It is one of my sources of happiness to say that: I dont know Wal-Mart, neither do I take one sided Documentaries serious. What this Documentary shows, it is not a secret those many 'chain stores and every second little store around the corner do it already since before the… More
It is one of my sources of happiness to say that: I dont know Wal-Mart, neither do I take one sided Documentaries serious. What this Documentary shows, it is not a secret those many 'chain stores and every second little store around the corner do it already since before the Wal-Mart. I think these kind of Documentary confuse people and just cause headache.
Curtis L

Ok, everyone already knows that Wal-mart and Wal-mart like stores are sucking the blood of the country. This film brings up lots of good points, but really they are just attacking the big name of an already established system that sucks. It's called 'chain stores'.… More
Ok, everyone already knows that Wal-mart and Wal-mart like stores are sucking the blood of the country. This film brings up lots of good points, but really they are just attacking the big name of an already established system that sucks. It's called 'chain stores'. Everybody pays people in China pennies to make our crap, even small buisnesses. A friend of mine makes board games, turns hardly any profit, but still has them made in China. Does it suck? Yes. Also, I like how they play up that nobody gets paid anything to work there. It's called minimum wage, and believe me you can get that same low pay in just about any place you work at these days. And the health insurance is unaffordable in all those places too. My wife and I have college degrees and still get paid minimum wage with no health benifits. And yes, Wal-mart has lots of crime in its parking lots, but that's because there are tons of wal marts in the world and that increases the odds of crime happening in them. Hell, somebody shot someone inside the Fred Meyer down the street from where I live. I hate to shop at wal-mart. I often wonder where these 'low prices' they talk about are at, because it costs the same as everywhere else that I've seen. Truth is, nothing is more ugly than traveling across country and seeing that in every town you stop in, all the buisnesses are exactly the same: Chilis, FedEx, Papa's Pizza, Taco Bell, etc etc. There is no place for the Ma and Pop stores anymore, which super sucks because it's helping to replace buisness owners with low paid workers. STILL. This documentary is totally one sided which I hate in any documentary, even when they are right. What they didn't do is discus how the only real way that Wal-mart is flurishing is because the people in these communities shop there in the first place. So whose fault is it? Morons that shop there. They're just another animal filling a nitch to survive.
Luke B

It's excellent at getting it's point across. However, this is mostly hateful propaganda, that is simply the opposite of Wal-Mart's own lovey-dovey advertisements. It raises some excellent points, but seems to go off like some mad old man towards the end. Wal-Mart have… More
It's excellent at getting it's point across. However, this is mostly hateful propaganda, that is simply the opposite of Wal-Mart's own lovey-dovey advertisements. It raises some excellent points, but seems to go off like some mad old man towards the end. Wal-Mart have such hate aimed against them that in the segment on crime outside their stores it seems as though Wal-Mart are the ones committing the offenses. The film also doesn't have the balls to attack Wal-Mart customers. It shows at the very end how communities can oppose the construction of a store, but what about these communities where local stores die out? It's a lot easier to turn people against a huge company rather than themselves.
Jennifer X

It's not a particularly bad documentary, but I don't feel like I learned anything from it. I knew Wal-mart did these so-called "controversial practcies" already.
Emily A

This is one of those documentaries that will make you angry. It's a hard film to watch because it would appear that Walmart doesn't have an ethical bone in its slick, hypothetical corporate body. Counting the ways in which it exploits everyone and everything does get a… More
This is one of those documentaries that will make you angry. It's a hard film to watch because it would appear that Walmart doesn't have an ethical bone in its slick, hypothetical corporate body. Counting the ways in which it exploits everyone and everything does get a little tiresome, but it is nice to know that the filmmakers seem to have hope.
Leigh R

Eye-opening film. I no longer shop at Wal-Mart.
James A

I never went to Wal-Mart before and this solidified my boycott.
Michael G

Statistically speaking, Wal-Mart is worse than cancer and I actually like Tony Danza and Jim Varney better than Wal-Mart, but this was a ridiculously over the top propaganda film. The High Cost of Low Price nitpicks every little thing about the company--and for as much as I loathe… More
Statistically speaking, Wal-Mart is worse than cancer and I actually like Tony Danza and Jim Varney better than Wal-Mart, but this was a ridiculously over the top propaganda film. The High Cost of Low Price nitpicks every little thing about the company--and for as much as I loathe said company I just don't think this documentary is entirely fair. (Like no one gets stabbed or kidnapped out of any other store's parking lot.) It's very intelligent as it bends facts and circumstance while it knows exactly who its audience is--right wing Christians. In its defense, I did miss the first 15 minutes but I got the jist within the first 2 minutes I caught.
Curt C

This was the perfect mix of factual information along with touching human interest stories. An incredibly moving documentary, that simply tells its story through the perspectives of people affected by Wal-Mart. Must watch material.
shane h

absolutely mind bottling, yes bottling. so now I have the serious debate on do I still go there. My head says no way but my wallet says ya life is tough all over but low low prices is what I need. I'm from a small town and I understand the mom and pop business situation all to… More
absolutely mind bottling, yes bottling. so now I have the serious debate on do I still go there. My head says no way but my wallet says ya life is tough all over but low low prices is what I need. I'm from a small town and I understand the mom and pop business situation all to well. The thing that i'm wondering is can a corp like wal-mart even be stopped. I'm sure like world banking there are alot of top tier people involved that wouldn't let it be shut down or de-regulated. It's a sad situation but to tell you the truth mankind has been doing this since the beginning of time. The stronger element will almost always win. Kings and queens did the same thing, i give you protection and you live on my land and produce for me and you get nothing but what i decide to give you, you don't like it then go somewhere else.
Leo L

Highly interesting!!

Read all 11 featured audience ratings

Cast

See full cast

Now you can share movies with your friends on Facebook!

Discover movies your friends are watching
Keep track of what you want to see
Add your reviews to your Timeline

Get Started