After watching the Front line exercise about Wal-Mart and Americans, it is hard to determine whether WalMart is good for Americans or not. The retail executives, product manufacturers, economists, and trade experts presenting in the exercise had a lot of reasons to justify why it was good or bad for Americans. Some says it is good because it is meeting the market test with their low prices while others are not  instead happy with the fact that the Chinese who are the producers of Wal-Mart's products are not paying their workers well. In this case, it actually depend on each individual because what is good for A cannot necessarily be what is good you B.
As far as I am concern, Wal-Mart is not a bad place in the sense that they have helped reduce the rate of unemployment by employing a lot of people. Even though their pay rates are not really that high, they are always hiring hence creating jobs for many people. Their products are also relatively very cheap,  that is the reason why they are having a very high demand. Even though people complain  about their products not being as good as compared to those of other competitors, people can't still stop shopping from them because  of their low prices.
Also, some people complain of the pay rate that the Chinese are giving to those who are producing the goods ($100 a month). They failed to understand that the living standards are different from those in America. That $100 could be equivalent to $ 1000 here in America. That is why those workers are still there and not leaving. I f you look at it keenly, you would realized that those workers might still be able to get all their necessities and still have enough money left in their bank account from their monthly pay. So, I think that that should not be an aspect to grumble about.
One reason why somebody could say that Wal-Mart is bad is due to the fact that they send away smaller businesses from some neighborhoods with their low prices. When they are available in some neighborhoods, everybody turn to shop but with them since they have everything that somebody will definitely need in the house. Since other smaller businesses cannot compete with  their low prices, they will be forced to run out of business.
Some of them are grumbling because they happens to lost their jobs at US manufacturing plants because Wal-Mart decided to go with a Chinese supplier instead. Yes, I agree that it is bad, but then, that is their choice. Since they are making profit from it that is what business is all about. That is also one of the advantages of globalization.