When you mention the name Wal-Mart you are likely to get lots of varied reactions. While shoppers love the "always low prices," critics point to the impact that the company has had on the economy and the environment.
The fundamental issue that most people disregard or don't even think about, needs to be addressed.Wal- Mart succeeds because it gives most consumers what they want, which is low prices. While seeking low prices is not a bad policy for Christians to follow in itself, we believe that as long as the primary measure in choosing stores is low prices, many of the costs associated with low prices will remain. In costs we mean the moral price that Wal-mart pays to give us the low cost. We think Christians need to move away from the one-dimensional measure of price to multi-dimensional criteria so that price is but one consideration in store choice. Collectively, the criteria involved should fit within a holistic vision of shalom.
As Christians we often can find it convenient to blame businesses for practices that we find unethical, immoral, or challenged in terms of stewardship. In many ways, however, Wal-Mart and its practices are merely a response to our preferences as we express them in the marketplace. Businesses respond to consumers' desires, consumers search for the lowest prices on goods while rarely considering other aspects of the product (how it was made, its impact on the environment, etc.). For example secular businesses haven't responded to the recent demands for fair trade products because of the businesses "new found morals", but instead because of the consumer demand for fairer traded products. To look into our own life for example, how many Sunday mornings have we spent preparing for worship by searching through the flyers that come with the Sunday paper looking for coupons and the sales that are to hit the stores that week? It should be no surprise to us that Wal-Mart has become so successful with its "Always Low Prices ", we are the driving force behind how businesses react to consumer demands. Businesses are only going to make money by meeting our criteria, and they will go to every measure, even if it means sacrificing moral standards to meet that criteria.
Thus Christians need to recognize the seriousness of their roles as consumers, managers, investors, employees, and as citizens of the Kingdom. Businesses will not rise to the high expectation of advancing shalom without the efforts of all of these groups together. We need to realize that its our fault. Christians need to develop covenantal relationships and commit to working with businesses that want to move in the direction of Shalom. When people make covenants with each other, as opposed to contracts, they tend to go beyond what is normally required of them. People who enter covenants are willing to make sacrifices in order to promote a larger vision. Christians along with businesses need to rest on a shared commitment to ideas, to values, to goals, and to management processes.
We need to be careful, however that we don't get confused in our role in the world and fall back into a Constantinian thinking, where the church starts to make itself at home in the world, when we are instead pilgrims in this world. Making businesses more 'christian' is not going to rescue peoples' souls to Christ. We need to understand that this instead puts Christians' consciences more at ease with where they shop. We also need to remember that God created all humanity equal, and we strive to provide equal opportunity to all, but Scripture does not command equal outcomes. Thus, there is no way that everyone is going to have the same outcomes when it comes to fair trade and treating people fairly. While we strive for Shalom in all the world, Shalom will not be accomplished this side of the Eschaton.
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