Shady Secrets Walmart Doesn't Want You To Know

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

The private, for-profit prison system now commonplace in the United States is a dystopian nightmare, where U.S. citizens are handed unbelievably long sentences and then forced to work. Guess who "employs" them? That's right, big corporations like Walmart.

Of course, Walmart doesn't directly employ prison labor. Bad for PR, you know. Instead, they use cover organizations like "Martori Farms," as Mic explains, which forces imprisoned U.S. women to spend long hours harvesting produce in the hot sun without water, sunscreen, or food. These prison workers, whose participation is involuntary, earn only $2 an hour. Dirt low wages mean low prices, huge bonuses for executives, and a nice little "Made in the USA" sticker on a product. Walmart certainly isn't the only corporation doing this, according to Pacific Standard, but the next time you see that sticker, just remember, it might have been funded by modern slavery, especially if you like the price. Overseas, the portrait ain't any prettier. In 2017, according to Vox, an Arizona woman found a folded piece of paper in the bottom of her brand new Walmart purse. Opening it, the paper contained a message from a Chinese prison worker, who claimed to be surviving 14-hour work days, with frequent beatings and no lunch break, in order to produce items like her purse. Such notes can't really be verified, but Walmart does outsource about 70 percent of its merchandise from China.

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