As uncle Ben once told Peter Parker, “with great power, comes great responsibility.” I feel that Walmart could have learned a thing or two from Uncle Ben. Walmart is one of the largest retailing organizations in the world, yet it failed to protect two of their loyal employees. Wando Evans, a 15 year Walmart veteran is now dead due to the Corona Virus and the lack of Walmart’s anticipation of the situation.

Wando Evans worked at Walmart in Evergreen Illinois for over 15 years. He was dearly loved and respected by his co-workers and family. When Mr Evans tried to reason with his managers to let him go home early because he was not feeling well, his plea fell on deaf ears. Instead, his managers continued to schedule Mr Evans to work, and failed to report Mr Evans announcement of having flu like symptoms. I believe this is were Walmart reached its tipping point and went from staffing the store to clearly avoiding and neglecting an employee request to stay at home.

In the ethical frameworks, there is one framework called Deontological ethics. Under this framework, an individual feels an obligation to complete their duty regardless of the outcome. This can be examined in the military when a solider takes an order from their superior and carries it out dutifully. I believe the manager in Walmart that was supervising Mr Evans failed to do his duty by not reporting the conditions that Mr Evans was explaining. The manager also failed to notify other employees that such situation had been brought managements attention and that further precautions should be taken.

Compared to other ethical frameworks, I believe Deontological works best because of obligations that are being fulfilled in a timely and orderly fashion. As we said earlier, unlike other ethical frameworks, deontological does not weight the precautions of future events due to current decisions. The only thing that matters is doing the right thing. So if Walmart had to shut down for a few days to make sure the store was properly sanitized, that would have been an acceptable outcome because it would have preserved the like of Wando Evan and his co-worker.

I believe that that manager supervising Wando Evans took the Theological approach when he refused to let Mr Evans go home. Under the Theological approach, the individual feels a strong sense of egoism and determines what would be better for the greater number of good. The manager was probably thinking about the other co-workers and how their obligations would become more difficult if he let Mr Evans go home early. What the manager failed to consider was that Mr. Evans could potentially be contaminated with COVID-19 and could become a greater threat to not only the manager but to other customers and employees in the store.

Lastly, I feel that Walmart as an organization could have taken a more Deontological approach to the COVID-19 epidemic. The idea that one of the worlds leading retailing stores could not properly provide proper protection equipment to their employees is terribly upsetting. The CDC had put strict regulations on how large retailers should manage customer social distancing and proper sanitation procedures, yet in court documents, many of these procedures were ignored or not complied with. Under the Deontological framework, Walmart should have made it their duty to protect their employees by providing proper equipment and listening to restrictions by the CDC, even if their bottom line was effected by these restrictions.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-deontological/

Walmart has been around since 1962 and since that time it has manifested into one of the worlds retailing giants. In the United States alone, Walmart has over 4000 stores and just over 11,000 stores around the world. In 2019, Walmart had a net worth of just over half a trillion dollars! Walmart was originally founded by a man named Sam Walton in Rogers Arkansas and employed certain strategic tactics to reach its current global position.

Walmart’s mission statement is “to save people money so they can live better.” Within every store we can see the “consistently low prices” signs and when ever customers go into Walmart to buy one thing the generally end up walking out with many more items than intended. This is because Walmart has strategic supply chain and logistics operations that allows Walmart to buy in bulk and sell in retail at drastically low prices. In the sense of logistics, Walmart implements several distribution centers near their targets markets to have a continues flow of cheap and reliable goods.For the consumers, this is music to our ears, but for many small businesses Walmart swallows up any chance of potential success.

Walmart’s vision statement is “Be the destination for customers to save money, no matter how they want to shop.” We can see from this quote that Walmart shows no sign of slowing down their retail conquering and their desire to remain at the forefront of retail. Walmart continues to implement new forms of shopping for their consumers including curb-side pick-up and online shopping with home delivery. It’s clear the Walmart is looking forward into the future and will continue match the trends and habits of new customer technology.

Walmart hasn’t gotten to its level of prestige without getting their hands dirty in one way or another. The company has been constantly bombarded with allegations of corruption and mistreating their workers. In 2005, allegation of bribery came to light when an email was discovered about pay-offs to Mexican governmental officials in the amount of 24 million dollars. Walmart has also spent millions of dollars to keep their workers from unionizing and in recent years, and judges decision has made it illegal for Walmart to threaten workers with pay reductions and terminations of employment for voicing their opinions about unions.

In conclusion, we understand that Walmart is doing their best to provide the best prices for their consumers. However, the tactics that they use aren’t always the most ethical and it has casts a dark shadow over Walmart’s reputation.

https://mission-statement.com/walmart/

http://panmore.com/walmart-vision-mission-statement-intensive-generic-strategies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmart

http://laborpress.org/walmart-ordered-to-stop-mistreating-workers/

It’s not news to anyone that the Corona Virus is sweeping the nation and peoples lives everywhere are changing dramatically. So dramatically that people have lost jobs, their sense for security and even loved ones. This was the case with Wando Evans, a fifty-one year old Walmart worker who was found dead in his apartment on March 25. Mr Evans tested positive for the deadly virus COVID-19 and many are wondering if his death could have been avoided. Mr Evans family is suing Walmart on the basis of wrongful death with other allegations aw well.

Mr Evans was one of two individuals that have suffered fatality from the deadly virus from the same store. His family has filed a lawsuit of wrongful death against Walmart after they realized that other employees had contracted the virus and were still showing up to work. Mr Evans family believes his death could have been avoided and was disappointed with the lack of Walmart’s precautions to the virus.

Due to the new regulation imposed by the US government to “Flatten the Curve”, people across the country have lost employment. Establishments such as bars, restaurant and sporting events have been closed or canceled. Yet other workers have been named essential and their regular work days have continued amid the deadly virus. These essential workers include, EMT’s, Healthcare workers, Police and Fire Personnel and retail workers.

Walmart has been at the bad end of many unethical situations and this story put Walmart in bad lighting yet again. Over the years, Walmart has been on the front page of controversial issues such as the usage of child in foreign countries to allegations of corruption in many other countries. According to Mr Evans family, Mr Evans had reported his ill conditions to his superior but his manager continued to scheduled Mr Evans. For fear of losing his job, Mr Evans continued to report to work and on March 25th was found dead inside his home.

This event truly boils down to the value of an employees life. On one hand, our country is facing the worst pandemic since the influenza pandemic in 1918. With a virus so contagious and deadly, certain restrictions have been put in place to limit the spread of the virus. On the other hand, these same restrictions are crippling our economy. With many bars, restaurateur and main areas of entertainment being shut down, people are losing their jobs and their ability to make ends meet.

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-hit-wrongful-death-lawsuit-employee-dies-covid/story?id=70040675

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html