Wal-Mart = Evil?

I know what you're thinking: "Mike, I know you're bad at math, but you're plunging into new depths with that title. It doesn't even have numbers." Rest easy, my left-brained friend. I'm not attempting any new-agey voodoo algebra here; I'm addressing the issue of the retail beast that is Wal-Mart conquering the world. The other day I watched Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, a documentary in which Robert Greenwald enumerates the company's faults.
I first became wary of ol' Wally World back when Bill Gates first became embroiled in the debate about whether or not Microsoft was a monopoly. The implication was that no such allegations had ever previously been levied against Wal-Mart because the company was influential enough in all the right circles to suppress even the suggestion of such a thing.
Certainly the grassroots nature of this film is evidence of that influence. Greenwald envisioned a wide theatrical release, but sponsors and studios backed down. Instead a more grassroots campaign was launched, which jives nicely with the nature of the documentary, but unfortunately greatly limits the audience. The people who really should see this film, the unsuspecting consumers, are the ones who never will.
I was skeptical about how powerful the message of the documentary would be, after being disappointed by Farenheit 9/11, in which Michael Moore went after an easy target and missed spectacularly. Wal-Mart: The high cost of Low Price had its preachy, patronizing moments, to be sure, but it also got to the heart of the company's questionable morals, including lack of health care for employees, vicious suppression of any "associates" looking to unionize, conspicuous absence of charity donations by the Walton heirs, and some abhorrent working conditions for Japanese factory workers.
Thing is, Wal-Mart's not breaking any laws, or at least not any that can feasibly be upheld. I guess it would be easy to be unsympathetic to Wal-Mart's detractors; the retailer offers convenience and low prices, so who cares where it comes from? Quite frankly, there's a lot that I can only purchase at Wal-Mart unless I want to go out of town. But I think the best form of protest is simply to not shop there, and to encourage others to check out things like this documentary. Word of mouth is a remarkably powerful tool.