Today’s Business Law Class

Random Quote: If you wait too long for the perfect moment, the perfect moment will pass you by.

What does that quote have to do with my business law class you may ask? Nothing whatsoever. And I’m not currently working as a sniper so it really doesn’t apply to me, but it was a random quote I just read, so there. Anyways…from the title you can probably guess that I had my business law class today. We had a discussion about a few of the case studies from the textbook, one about Ben & Jerry’s and the other about Wal-Mart.
The Ben & Jerry’s case study was about the company not partnering with a particular Japanese company to distribute their products throughout Japan. The issue arouse because B&J decided not to partner with the particular company because it did not have a strong track record of “social responsibility”. B&J believes that all companies should be “socially responsible” by giving money to random groups. They notably give millions to dollars to such organizations as MoveOn.org, the DNC, True Majority, and other such organizations. The class generally agreed that B&J had the right to work with a company who’s stated values more closely represented that of their own. I don’t think I’ve ever bought their ice cream and have no intention of giving them any of my business; I will eat it if someone else buys it, but I’ve got better places to spend my money.
The Wal-Mart case study was very similar. Wal-Mart chooses not to carry a large variety of magazines, CDs, DVDs, and video games that they deem inappropriate. This time the class deemed that Wal-Mart shouldn’t be pushing their own values onto everyone else by using their own, arbitrary morals in deciding what products to sell. I’m convinced that people have a generally negative view of Wal-Mart mainly based upon media criticism. I like the company but very rarely shop there for two reasons. First, I try to avoid cheap, Chinese crap as much as possible, of which Wal-Mart is the largest distributor. Second, I only patronize businesses where people speak fluent English; the Wal-Marts in this area do not hire very many people who speak English nor do these people generally shop there.
I argued that these cases are essentially the same as companies have a right to choose whom they do business with and who they do not do business with. The biggest difference is that Wal-Mart is a much bigger company and has much more leverage in this area. Also, Wal-Mart gives millions of dollars to conservative organizations that I like, as opposed to Ben & Jerry’s who does the opposite.
Thus concludes my second post for the week.