Wal-Mart pushes ‘made-in-America’ drive
Print Edition
Wal-Mart Stores Inc is hoping for a groundswell “made-in-America” movement.
The world’s largest retailer is hosting its first two-day summit starting yesterday, bringing together retailers, suppliers and state governors in the hope of driving more manufacturing in the United States.
The event is expected to draw more than 1,500 people. It occurs seven months after the US-based discounter pledged that it planned to buy US$50 billion more US-made goods over the next decade.
That’s the equivalent of just over 10 percent of what Wal-Mart will sell at retail this year.
Wal-Mart has said that if other merchants try to do the same, that would mean an additional US$500 billion in American-made goods over the next decade.
The campaign could boost Wal-Mart’s image, which is constantly under attack by labor-backed groups who have criticized the retail behemoth as a destroyer of US jobs.
Experts say the effort won’t rejuvenate the US manufacturing industry, but the movement could help stem the tide of jobs flowing to China and elsewhere over the last two decades.
Some experts point out that Wal-Mart led the migration of manufacturing jobs overseas in search of the cheapest labor.
“It took two decades to unwind the American manufacturing base and it will take two decades to bring it back,” said Burt Flickinger III, president of the retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group.
The US jobless rate of 7.4 percent, while now at a four-and-a-half-year low, is still above the 5 percent to 6 percent typical of a healthy economy.
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart and other major retailers have been criticized for not doing a better job in monitoring worker safety in factories overseas. A factory building collapse this year in Bangladesh killed 1,129 people, the deadliest incident in the history of the garment industry.
Wal-Mart said several manufacturers had told executives privately they had defined “tipping points” at which making goods overseas will no longer make sense.
Wal-Mart, with more than 4,000 stores in the US and about US$460 billion in total sales, has proven that it has the clout to get other suppliers and merchants on board.
Wal-Mart has said items that are made, sourced or grown in the US account for about two-thirds of its spending on products for its US business, according to data given by suppliers. But analysts say that much of its clothing, home furnishings and consumer electronics are made elsewhere.
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