A Wal-Mart supplier accused of sweatshop

Once a paragon of Red State values, it's being criticized for bowing to political correctness.

Daniel McGinn
NEWSWEEK
May 31, 2008                            [back to top] 

For investors, most annual meetings are anything but a hot ticket. They're typically held in small auditoriums and feature an agenda that makes C-Span look like an action thriller. Then there's Wal-Mart, the Arkansas-based retailer whose shareholder meetings are celebrity-packed, high-wattage showcases. Last year's gathering featured the comedian Sinbad and musical numbers by Jennifer Lopez and the cast of "High School Musical." But amid these surprise performances, the most unexpected moment came when shareholder activists were each given three minutes at the podium. Most offered run-of-the-mill liberal criticisms that hit every large company: a Roman Catholic nun urged Wal-Mart to support universal health insurance; several speakers suggested the company rein in executives' huge paychecks. But from the other end of the spectrum came Peter Flaherty, lambasting Wal-Mart for being too nice to unions, too concerned about the environment and too accommodating to gays and lesbians. "People shop at Wal-Mart because of low prices, not because the company is politically correct," Flaherty shouted at the crowd.

Come again? With its deep roots in Red State America and a reputation for upholding "family values," Wal-Mart seems an unlikely target for conservative criticism. It's the company that banned sales of CDs with offensive lyrics, refused to stock racy magazines like Maxim and declined (until 2006) to sell the Plan B emergency contraceptive pill. But in recent years, as it faced growing pressure from liberal activists, Wal-Mart has begun to make changes. It began offering more-robust health-insurance coverage to workers. Its CEO voiced support for raising the minimum wage. It has launched an ambitious environmental program. As a result, while Wal-Mart continues to face criticism from liberal groups, it's now simultaneously being criticized by some conservatives, who say the company's concessions to liberals are hurting its business. "This is kind of a guerrilla fight," says Flaherty, who heads a tiny right-wing think tank called the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), which holds just a few thousand dollars in Wal-Mart stock.

Shareholder activism has been around since the 1940s, when the SEC first began letting investors file resolutions. At first, most shareholders focused on bottom-line issues, but in the late 1960s, Vietnam War protesters began filing resolutions against companies that provided materials (including napalm) for the war. By the 1980s, activists had become a fixture at annual meetings, speaking out on issues like companies' investments in South Africa or the use of sweatshop labor. While conservative pro-life groups have occasionally filed proxy resolutions, says researcher Beth Young of the Corporate Library, shareholder activism has been dominated by liberal interests.

Now that's changing. Flaherty, a former grass-roots organizer for Ronald Reagan, argues that conservatives have been slow to recognize that today it's corporations, not government, that drive many big social changes. That's been true recently on issues like gay rights, health-care costs and the environment. So since 2006, Flaherty and the five-person staff at NLPC have been filing proposals and attending annual meetings. So far this spring, they've spoken at the shareholder meetings of General Electric, Boeing and Anheuser-Busch; next week they're at United Airlines. And they're not alone: the right-leaning Free Enterprise Action Fund (FEAF), a tiny libertarian mutual fund, filed resolutions with 20 companies this spring, including Wal-Mart. Most of the FEAF resolutions argue that companies should be more skeptical and resistant as environmentalists push them to reduce their carbon footprint. Some investors apparently agree: at last week's ExxonMobil meeting, where a group of Rockefeller heirs unsuccessfully urged the company to broaden its focus on renewable energy, a speech by FEAF manager Steve Milloy received loud applause.

Environmental issues are at the heart of Flaherty's complaints about Wal-Mart, too. In a 46-page report the NLPC will release this month, staffer John Carlisle writes that Wal-Mart customers aren't buying many of the organic products it's begun stocking; that the energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs it's been touting aren't really good for the environment (because they contain mercury), and that its support for legislation to cap carbon emissions will only hurt consumers and its bottom line. (Wal-Mart responds that its environmental initiatives "are not only good for the environment—they are good for our business, too.") The NLPC says Wal-Mart is naive to think incremental compromises will ever really placate liberal critics. "The more Wal-Mart tries to appease the Left, the more the Left demands," the report concludes.

While most corporations look on them as gadflies, shareholder activists occasionally do bring about change. Many U.S. companies divested South African holdings under pressure in the 1980s, for instance. But most shareholder resolutions garner very few votes, and Flaherty's group is getting limited traction so far; its resolution against Wal-Mart didn't get enough votes last year, so it lost its spot on the agenda at Wal-Mart's 2008 meeting, which takes place this week. Some observers think political discussions don't belong at annual meetings in the first place. "The corporate ballot box is not the best place to have debates on broader social topics," says Charles Elson, a University of Delaware governance expert. But as long as businesses grapple with fast-rising health-care costs, the growing concern over the environment and other hot-button political issues, corporate meetings will likely see more strange bedfellows indeed.

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Does Wal-Mart sell inferior goods?

By Justin Wolfers,
NY Times- Freakonomics Blog
May 30th, 2008                                       [back to top] 

Are Wal-Mart’s Products Normal?

Emek Basker is an incredibly creative (and under-appreciated) industrial organization economist. She is also surely the leading Wal-Mart-ologist, and has been studying big box stores for several years.

Her most recent piece provides a very nice teaching example highlighting the importance of the income elasticity of demand; she also managed the perfectly accurate but cheeky turn of phrase that we all dream about sneaking into an academic paper: In this note, I estimate the income elasticity of revenue for Wal-Mart and Target over the last ten years. Because some consumers are likely to view each discounter’s products as normal while others view them as inferior, the aggregate relationship could go either way and depends on the size of the two groups as well as on the magnitude of their elasticities of demand (positive and negative).

I find that demand for Wal-Mart’s products exhibits a negative income elasticity and Target’s demand exhibits a positive income elasticity … For the average consumer, then, it appears that shopping at Target is perfectly normal, but shopping at Wal-Mart is not.

Given these findings, perhaps Rob Jensen’s Giffen good expedition team needs a Wal-Mart-ologist. Oh, and in case you are wondering how Target and Wal-Mart are doing, here are their latest stock price movements: Given Basker’s estimates, it is probably no surprise that the current slowdown is good news for Wal-Mart, but bad news for Target.

It turns out that Basker’s findings are no surprise to Wal-Mart: In October 2007, CEO Lee Scott argued that “Our low prices and low-cost business model should give us an advantage over other retailers if things get more difficult for consumers.”

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Tenn. withdraws from Wal-Mart energy audit program

By AP,
CNN Money
May 28th, 2008                       [back to top]

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Tennessee has withdrawn from a partnership with Wal-Mart that would have made its state capitol the first to undergo an extensive energy audit by the nation's largest retailer, state and company officials said Wednesday.

Earlier this month Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced partnerships with 19 states and Puerto Rico to help find ways to cut energy costs at their state capitols.

"The governor's office notified us that they were withdrawing from the program, and that's all we know," Wal-Mart spokesman Dennis Alpert said.

"We had already started the conversations with the governor's office and staff to make it the first," he said. "It was probably going to take place in mid-June."

Under the program announced May 6 at the National Governors Association's State Summit on Clean Power and Efficiency, engineers paid by Wal-Mart will visit the capitol facilities to examine lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning systems, refrigeration equipment and building structures.

"We're supportive of Wal-Mart's broader initiative," Will Pinkston, senior adviser to Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, said in an e-mail. "But we've had a couple of false starts that probably were unique to Tennessee, and we've run into some unrelated issues that frankly complicated things." Pinkston did not elaborate on those issues.

"All things considered, we're just going to move in a different direction right now," he said.

Bredesen, a Democrat, has separately created an energy task force to examine ways to improve Tennessee's energy performance.

The other states that have signed up for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart's program include Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia.

Minnesota's Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty said at the May announcement that the public-private partnership was an example of how governors can lead an effort to become greener. "The cleanest and cheapest energy is the energy we save," he said.

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Girl stung by scorpion in Wal-Mart watermelon

Associated Press
May 27th, 2008                       [back to top]

BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — One young shopper at a Wal-Mart in West Virginia had to watch out for more than falling prices.

A 12-year-old girl picking up a seedless watermelon from a bin was stung Sunday by a tan, inch-long scorpion that had apparently stowed away in a shipment from Mexico.

Megan Templeton, of Barboursville, was taken to the hospital as a precaution but later released. Her father, William Templeton, said the pain was a little worse than a bee sting.

He initially didn't believe his daughter when she said she had been stung by a scorpion, but then he saw the critter scurry underneath a box. It was captured by Wal-Mart employees.

Most of the nearly 2,000 kinds of scorpions are not dangerous to humans.

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Wal-Mart executive vice president sells shares

The Associated Press
May 27, 2008                                      [back to top]

NEW YORK An executive vice president of discount retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sold 71,450 shares of common stock, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a Form 4 filed with the SEC Friday, Eduardo Castro-Wright reported selling the shares on Wednesday and Thursday for $56 apiece.

Insiders file Form 4s with the SEC to report transactions in their companies' shares. Open market purchases and sales must be reported within two business days of the transaction.

Wal-Mart is based in Bentonville, Ark.

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The worst mistake by Walmart

SAP will be devastating replacing its homegrown IT version

Susan Hicks
India Daily
May 26, 2008                         [back to top]

It is the tale of non-tech companies failing to understand the effect of mismanaged and undocumented IT development gown in-house. Even worse mistake is to try and replace the same with enterprise system software like SAP.

SAP can do little to control the organizational indiscipline and lack of competence among the employees of this corporation. What WalMart should have done is to first reengineer the IT system, reform its IT level organizational problems and then bring in external software systems like SAP.

What SAP will do is to first take away the freedom of development. It can be good for an organization that has corrected the root causes of troubles (indiscipline) through reengineering existing systems. They will try and create the same flaws within SAP, spend much more money and after five years, blame SAP.

Port Authority of NY and NJ and World bank in Washington DC. are an ideal examples. They bought into SAP four years back. They stopped talking to other vendors and spread an impression that software like SAP, PeopleSoft or Oracle Financial will solve all their problem and make them reach ‘Nirvana.’

Four years later they are back into their old habits. They now spend much more money. They blame these enterprise level software for all their troubles. The meta-development still lacks documentation and rigorous processes.

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Pet-Food Companies Settle Lawsuit

Wall Street Journal
May 24th, 2008                                 [back to top]

A group of about 30 companies sued over contaminated pet food linked to the deaths of perhaps thousands of dogs and cats have agreed to pay $24 million to pet owners in the U.S. and Canada.

The deal would affect people who incurred expenses directly related to the illness or death of a pet linked to the food, which was at the center of the biggest-ever U.S. pet-food recall in 2007. Many affected pet-food makers are still trying to win back previously loyal users who switched brands following the recall.

Among the companies settling the suit are Menu Foods Income Fund; Procter & Gamble Co., which makes Iams pet food; Colgate-Palmolive Co., maker of Hill's; Nestlé SA, maker of Purina; and Mars Inc., maker of Pedigree. Retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Petco Animal Supplies Inc. and Pet Smart Inc. were also part of the suit.

Nearly 300 people sued the companies in state and federal courts. They and perhaps thousands of other pet owners would be eligible for payments under the deal. The settlement is detailed in papers filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court in Camden, N.J. It still needs a judge's approval. A court hearing on the settlement is scheduled for Friday.

"We think it's a strong settlement legally and economically for affected pet owners in the wake of a terrible tragedy," said Russell Paul, a lawyer for plaintiffs in the suit.

"We are fully supportive of the agreement and confident that this matter is moving toward a resolution," said a Mars spokeswoman. P&G said that since the recall, it has changed its ingredient sourcing and relaunched affected wet foods with new packaging and improved formulas.

The pet food was discovered to contain wheat gluten imported from China that was contaminated with melamine, a chemical used to make plastics. Menu Foods was the first company to issue recalls.

Some of the companies have already paid out more than $8 million to people whose pets were sickened or died after eating the contaminated food.

Under terms of the deal, pet owners could be reimbursed for all reasonable expenditures, including veterinarian bills and burial or cremation costs.

In addition to those expenses, pet owners can request reimbursement for the cost or fair-market value -- whichever is higher -- of a deceased pet or one purchased in replacement. Owners who don't have documentation of expenses can get as much as $900 each. All claims are subject to review.

The companies said they will donate any money left in the fund after claims are paid to animal-welfare charities.

Settlement details were originally to have been filed in court about two weeks ago, but it took longer to hash out the deal, partly because it had to be made to conform to U.S. and Canadian law.

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Wal-Mart Canada Selects New Ad Agency

Supermarket News
May 22, 2008                                  [back to top]

MISSISSAUGUA, Ontario — Wal-Mart Canada here has selected noted Canadian brand marketer J. Walter Thompson as its advertising agency of record in Canada. JWT replaces U.S.-based Publicis, except in Quebec, where Wal-Mart Canada continues to be represented by Allard-Johnson. Publicis had represented Wal-Mart since its arrival in Canada in 1994. “JWT will be a valuable partner in helping shape our future public and consumer image in Canada,” Vi Konkle, chief customer officer of Wal-Mart Canada, said in a statement. Thompson is perhaps best known in Canada for its work with quick-service restaurant chain Tim Hortons

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Foreign companies defend China earthquake aid

By JOE McDONALD
Associated Press
05.22.08                                     [back to top]

BEIJING - Foreign companies are defending themselves against accusations spread on Chinese Web sites that they are doing too little to help earthquake survivors.

Online comments called for boycotts of McDonald's (nyse: MCD - news - people ), Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ), Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ) and others - in one case calling them "International Super-Misers" - but companies said they felt no impact.

"We feel very proud of what we've done. We've done a lot," said Thomas Jonsson, a spokesman for Nokia Corp., which donated food, tents and mobile phones for rescuers. On Wednesday, it pledged 35 million yuan ($5 million) for reconstruction.

McDonald's Corp. said it has served more than 40,000 meals to quake survivors and rescue workers and pledged 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) Wednesday to build new schools in quake areas.

"We've been involved in helping and responding since day one," said McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa Howard.

By Tuesday, foreign companies had donated 1.2 billion yuan ($175 million) in cash, plus supplies worth 108 million yuan ($15.5 million), according to the government.

Despite that, nationalistic Chinese Web surfers who react angrily to any perceived slight to their country have accused foreign companies of failing to provide enough help.

A posting on popular search engine Baidu.com (nasdaq: BIDU - news - people )'s blog service listed corporate donations and said they were smaller than those after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Comments on online bulletin boards criticized McDonald's Corp., Yum Brands Inc.'s KFC restaurants, Toyota Motor Corp. (nyse: TM - news - people ), Nokia, South Korea's Samsung Electronics Corp. and French retailer Carrefour SA.

Chinese nationalists often have conflicted feelings toward foreign companies, which have helped to fuel the country's economic boom but are seen as rivals to local companies.

Among other companies, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it has given food, some 3,000 tents and other aid worth 3 million yuan ($430,000) and added to that by using its distribution network to move supplies to the disaster area.

"We are reacting very quickly in support," said Wal-Mart spokesman Jonathan Dong.

Nokia sent 5,000 mobile phones for use by rescuers and sent employees into the disaster area to maintain them, Jonsson said.

"For us initially the most important thing was to get our relief effort going, and once we had it going we could communicate about it, but some people were quick to think we weren't doing anything," he said. "We've seen these criticisms going away and our efforts being better understood as the days go along."

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved

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Even kids come to fight

Wal-Mart East end worries about loss of good jobs

Peter Kuitenbrouwer,
National Post
Thursday, May 22, 2008                         [back to top]

Leanne Wild, 34, and her daughter Jubilene, 2½ (named for the Hebrew word Jubilee, her mom says) arrived in the grand lobby at 655 Bay St. at about 11:15 a. m. yesterday. Both wore bike helmets; Jubilene wore mittens and little yellow rain boots. The little girl stood on the gleaming granite in the lobby, dwarfed by a cathedral ceiling, and asked: "Mom, can I have an apple?"

With Jubilene in a bike seat, mother and daughter had just rode in from the Gerard India Bazaar along the Dundas and Gerrard streets bike paths. It was an epic journey of sorts, from the little house she bought two years ago, across the river, through rain showers and down busy streets to the corridors of bureaucratic power.

They joined about 100 residents of Leslieville and environs who packed a sterile hearing room on the 16th floor of this building, home of the Ontario Munipal Board, to voice their opposition to a Smart!Centres plan to rezone about nine hectares of employment land on Eastern Avenue for a big-box shopping plaza.

"We're not shop owners," said Ms. Wild, unwinding her long, damp scarf. "We're just residential folks in the neighbourhood. I'm frustrated in general by Smart!Centres and the way they operate. I like the downtown small shops owned by local people."

The city last year turned down the Smart!Centres project; the company appealed to the OMB. Provincially appointed OMB judges have power to overturn council. Yesterday James McKenzie, who presides over this hearing, was outraged when the lawyers told him the case would take 26 weeks. "This is not going to be an open-ended process," he told the 16 lawyers. "Let me disabuse you of that notion right now."

After lunch, the lawyers agreed with Mr. McKenzie to spend 17 weeks on the hearing, and wrap up by Oct. 2. Smart!Centres said its key witness will be Tom Smith, vice-president of development, who has taken his case directly to Torontonians over the past few weeks with appearances on television, radio and in print.

The City of Toronto and Smart!Centres have two lawyers each, as do the East Toronto Community Coalition, Talisker, which owns the BMW dealership near the Don Valley Parkway, Mark Flowers, which owns land east of the disputed property, and Loblaws, which owns a store nearby.

People from the neighbourhood wore black T-Shirts with the slogan "Good Jobs Matter," which the coalition was selling for $20 each. They say they prefer film jobs or other high-paying work to Wal-Mart jobs on the site. Toronto Film Studios is leaving the spot at the end of the year to go to the new Film Port in the port; Wal-Mart is the usual anchor tenant for Smart!Centres.

I asked Dennis Wood, Smart!Centres' lead lawyer, what he thinks of the slogan, "Good Jobs Matter."

"There's a difference of opinion between my client and them about whether good jobs of the kind they're talking about are achievable on that site," Mr. Wood said. "It's the difference between 75% of something and 100% of nothing."

But Brendan O'Callaghan, the City of Toronto lawyer, said industrial and commercial users occupy 94% of the land from the Don River east to Coxwell Avenue, from Eastern Avenue to Lakeshore Boulevard, including Canada Post's mammoth South Central processing plant and the Lever factory. He says rezoning land in the heart of this area for retail could cause all the others to rezone and close factories.

"It's a tremendously successful employment area," Mr. O'Callaghan said.

A win for either side may well not be the end of the story. Eric Gillespie, lawyer for the local residents, noted that his firm fought Smart!Centres for 10 years to keep Wal-Mart out of Guelph. In the end Smart!Centres settled, building a berm to protect a local Jesuit seminary from its big box, he said.

"The Jesuits just announced that they are going to begin a reforestation project that will take 500 years," Mr. Gillespie said. So I guess the mitigation measures have worked."

But as he spoke, I could see the wheels turning in the head of his client, Kelly Carmichael, who heads the community coalition. "Ten years," she was thinking. "I'll have to sell a lot of T-shirts."

The hearing continues at 10 a. m. today.

Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.

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Wal-Mart rang up $2.2M in 1Q government lobbying

Associated Press
05.20.08                                        [back to top]

WASHINGTON - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, spent $2.2 million in the first quarter to lobby on consumer product safety legislation and a host of other issues, according to a disclosure report.

In the last five months, the House and Senate have passed their versions of legislation that would toughen inspections of toys and other products made outside the United States, in response to millions of recalled products that have sickened children. Both bills increase penalties for companies that violate safety rules and increase funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) has said it has implemented certain safeguards of its own, including independent laboratory testing for products it sells. A top company lobbyist also said the company would follow whatever new federal rules are enacted.

The Bentonville, Ark.-based company also lobbied the federal government on immigration reform, climate change and renewable energy legislation, the farm bill and food safety, health, labor and corporate tax issues, digital television matters and a bill that would make organized retail crime a federal felony.

In the January-to-March period, Wal-Mart lobbied Congress, White House, U.S. Trade Representative's office, and several other departments, including Commerce, Energy, State and Health and Human Services, according to the report filed April 21 with the House clerk's office.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved

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Wal-Mart settles whistleblower case, terms not disclosed

Associated Press
05.20.08                                    [back to top]

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - An employee in Wal-Mart's labor relations department has settled her discrimination lawsuit with the world's largest retailer.

Rita Miles sued in 2006, saying she was harassed and given poor evaluation scores because she refused to shred documents relating to the investigation of Tom Coughlin, a former vice chairman convicted of fraud.

The terms of the settlement filed Friday in U.S. District court in Fayetteville weren't disclosed. The suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.

Miles' suit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (nyse: WMT - news - people ) claims that the Bentonville-based retailer violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed by Congress in 2002 after corporate scandals at Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and other companies.

The suit claimed that Miles was told to destroy hard copies of documents relating to the investigation of Coughlin, who has been sentenced to home detention after pleading guilty to stealing money, merchandise and gift cards from the retailer.

Wal-Mart has said that the company kept copies of all documents requested by the U.S. Department of Justice subpoena in the Coughlin case.

Dauphne Moore, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, wouldn't say whether Miles was still employed at Wal-Mart.

"The case has been settled and the terms are confidential," she said.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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A Wal-Mart supplier accused of sweatshop

By Jian Wen ,
China Real News
May 19th, 2008                       [back to top] 

Hsing Toys (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., a supplier of Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) , has been accused of sweatshop conditions. At Tai Hsing, workers are forced to work at least 66 hours per week with very low pay. According to some experts, Wal-Mart's low-price purchasing strategy is based on suppliers' exploitation of Chinese workers.

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Wal-Mart moves forward with new Marketside stores

Reuters
Fri May 16, 2008                         [back to top]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research)is now hiring store managers to work at Marketside, new smaller format stores the world's largest retailer is preparing to open in Arizona.

Marketside is described as "the neighborhood market for busy people with a taste for fresh and delicious food."

Last year, Wal-Mart's British supermarket rival Tesco (TSCO.L: Quote, Profile, Research) entered the U.S marketplace, opening Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets stores in California, Arizona and Nevada. Tesco is seeking to woo U.S. shoppers with smaller convenience stores that emphasize ready-to-eat meals and fresh produce.

Wal-Mart has launched www.workformarketside.com, a website that currently lists eight job openings for Marketside managers and assistant managers in four Arizona cities.

The site says Marketside will "simplify the daily challenge of creating an enjoyable meal by providing inspiring choices, while also offering everyday favorites at great prices in an easy-to-shop environment."

Wal-Mart, whose No. 2 British supermarket chain Asda competes with No. 1 Tesco in the United Kingdom, has long been expected to open a new, smaller store concept that would rival Tesco's stores in the States.

Wal-Mart is now working on launching the convenience store-sized markets in four cities southeast of Phoenix.

Store application plans call for the stores to occupy roughly 15,000 square feet. That is less than half the average size of Wal-Mart's Neighborhood Market grocery stores, and a small fraction of the size of its Supercenters, which combine grocery stores with general merchandise and can be more than three times the size of a U.S. football field.

A story in the Financial Times said on Friday that Marketside locations will prepare and serve food, and include a kitchen, food counters and seating for up to nine people.

Wal-Mart spokesman Nick Agarwal said the retailer tests lots of different formats.

"We'll no doubt announce more in due course but not at this stage," he said of the retailer's plans for the new stores.

(Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman and Nicole Maestri, editing by Will Waterman and Steve Orlofsky)

© Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved.

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The Emergence of Real Trade Unionism in Chinese Wal-Mart Stores

Chinese Labor News Translations
Reported by Big Box Collaborative http://www.bbc.wikispaces.net/CampaignerEmail14May08  [back to top]

The trade unions in Chinese Wal-Mart stores are often dismissed as hollow shells set up by the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) without workers' involvement. But through monitoring Chinese media and online blog discussions among Chinese Wal-Mart employees, CLNT has found workers who take an active interest in their store union, and at least in one case, of an elected rank and file trade union chair using the trade union platform to actively defend workers' interests. While most – if not all – of the trade union branches are heavily dominated by Wal-Mart management or local governments, some workers have seized this union-building exercise and try to turn the unions into a body that they identify as their own to protect and to use in their struggle against Wal-Mart management.

Background

There were two stages of union-building at Wal-Mart. Unionization at the first 17 stores was initiated by the ACFTU, in July and August 2007. Most of these 17 involved ACFTU quietly organizing rank and file employees. The ACFTU approached workers after work hours outside the stores and mobilized them to submit an application to set up a union branch. These efforts had culminated in democratic elections of trade union committees and trade union chairs by workers willing to take the risk to put themselves forward as candidates. Such election often took place in the early hours of the morning without Wal-Mart's knowledge. When these unions sprang up one after another for the two weeks Wal-Mart was taken aback and refused to recognize them.

Wal-Mart then seeing the problem if this trend was to continue, changed its stance and decided it was better to have the ACFTU working with it than against it. It approached the ACFTU and negotiated to sign a memorandum which allowed for trade union branches to be openly established at the remaining of its 60 Chinese stores (see CLNT March 2007). After this, the ACFTU abandoned its surreptitious organizing efforts and reverted to its long-time practice of seeking management approval when setting up union branches and union committees. Reports from the China press describing the establishment of these union branches clearly showed that this allowed Wal-Mart to intervene and manipulate the operations of the union branches, sometimes reportedly with the connivance of pro-business local Party branches and district trade unions. Today China has just over 100 Wal-Mart stores, and all of them presumably have trade union branches.

There has been curiosity in China and abroad to know what is happening within these Wal-Mart union branches. ACFTU's critics have presumed that all of the branches will be quiescent stooges of Wal-Mart and the ACFTU. For instance, Han Dongfang, director of China Labor Bulletin in Hong Kong, in a recent speech in Los Angeles ridiculed these Wal-Mart unions as a mere window-dressing exercise.

A search of Chinese websites and web blogs reveals a mixed but encouraging story. Although many of the Wal-Mart Trade Unions are indeed under the control and manipulation of Wal-Mart management and local Communist Party organs, at least one has been negotiating with management to remediate labor rights violations and to improve the income and work conditions of its members. Our regret is that based on these web searches alone it is not possible to establish how many have really taken action to further workers' interests.

We have selected four cases of Wal-Mart trade union branches to illustrate the various situations faced in the 100 branches. At least three of these (possibly all four) belong to the first batch of branches set up secretly before 16 August 2006.

These four cases fall under two categories: unions controlled by the Wal-Mart management and/or the local Communist Party resulting in inactive union branches (Cases 1 & 2), and unions in which the membership treat their union branches as their own and resist being controlled by outside forces and corrupt officials (Cases 3 & 4).

Case 1. Union branch controlled by Wal-Mart management Shenzhen Jiali Center Wal-Mart Store #3424

Based on two blogs written by workers from this store, it is unclear whether the union was set up without management's knowledge or openly. It seems that the original union committee was not completely under management control, but has become so after a series of manipulations by management, such as by replacing elected trade union committee members with management staff. This is why the website contains a cry for help; "It's over! It's over! Come and save this Wal-Mart trade union!" It is likely that Wal-Mart was able to dominate the branch with the silent consent of the local Party, which moved into the store to set up a Party branch on 14 December 2006.

Case 2. Union branch controlled by the Chinese Communist Party Shenyang Taiyuan Street Wal-Mart Store #5780

This Wal-Mart union branch in Shenyang City in the North-east province of Liaoning has been hailed by the Party as a success story because it was the first Wal-Mart store in China to have a Party branch. The trade union branch was set up without Wal-Mart's knowledge in the small hours of the morning of 12 August 2006; and four days later an "underground" Party branch and Youth League branch were set up. The trade union branch was quickly controlled by the Party, which declared it was "not intervening in the work of foreign enterprises", i.e., the Party branch would make sure it that the union branch did not interfere with management. Reading between the lines, it is obvious that the trade union only performs some formalistic functions at the store. This case reflects the government's stated goal to "setting up trade union branches to facilitate the setting up of Party branches".

Case 3. Trade union members struggling against corrupt elected union officials Shenzhen Hujing Wal-Mart Store #2701.

The Hujing Wal-Mart Store trade union was also set up secretly. It was in fact the second store in China and the first in Shenzhen City to have a union branch. It was a time when joining the union and running for office was a risky undertaking. But Zhou Liang, an ordinary worker stepped forth and got himself democratically elected. The blog translated here indicates that he and the elected accountant soon became corrupt, embezzling trade union funds, lording over the workers and doing nothing. The members are now trying to get rid of them and to re-organize a new committee. An interesting point to note about this case is that the trade union members, having elected their representatives (as opposed to being appointed by management or by an upper level of the trade union or by the Communist Party), insisted that they be held accountable. The experience of electing union cadres of their own choice has arguably created a sense of ownership over the union, and feel they have the right to dismiss these representatives when they did not live up to the expectations of their constituency. A few employees are willing to organize an investigation committee and signature campaign to get rid of Zhou and the accountant, despite encountering enormous pressure from Wal-Mart management during work hours.

Case 4. Trade Union struggling against Wal-Mart management Nanchang Bayi WM Store # 5782.

The Nanchang Bayi trade union was clandestinely set up on 14 August 2006. The chair, Gao Haitao, was elected by popular vote. Since then he had fought against Wal-Mart management over one issue after another. It is significant that he had studied law on his own while supporting himself by working at Wal-Mart part-time. In 2005 he passed a nation-wide examine in law and decided to stay on in Wal-Mart as a full-timer. His legal knowledge became his main weapon to fight against Wal-Mart.

We have translated a very long blog related to this case that includes two articles that provide the background information on Gao and the struggles he has been going through (Click here to view translation: CLNT_WMTU_nanchang_blog). But just as interesting are the large number of comments (including a few from supervisors and managers) from Wal-Mart stores all over China that support him, hailing him as a genuine trade union leader. Some suggest that he should organize and train the trade union chairs in all of the other Wal-Mart stores. Many address him respectfully as "Chairman Gao" though he is not their union chair and is in fact just a young rank and file worker in one of the many stores. There are also suggestions for collective actions. One, for instance, suggests that they start collecting funds, and one writes that he is willing to contribute 100 RMB a month of his cigarette money to start a union fund.

It is alleged in this blog that Wal-Mart has tried one trick after another to control Gao. One attempt was to get the city level union on be on its side, and then to create a so-called union working committee at city level headed by a manager to override the workplace unions of the three Wal-Mart stores in the city. Gao refused to go along with this and sought help from the ACFTU in Beijing, which supported Gao and overrode the decision of the city-level union.

In two instances, Gao fought management against unfair dismissal and succeeded. This was seen as so unusual by other workers that membership suddenly jumped many fold.

Being required by the Trade Union Law to pay two percent of the total payroll to the workplace union as union activity fees, Wal-Mart tried to retrieve this expense by skimping on bonuses and an annual holiday gift. This provoked Gao to write an open letter to trade union members that argued against shifting the responsibility of workers' welfare onto the union (Click here to view translation: CLNT_WMTU_nanchang_letter ).

It has become a pattern that whatever Wal-Mart management does, the city-level union seconds it. Time and again Gao had to seek help from the ACFTU in Beijing to issue instructions to overturn the city union's decisions. Gao openly laments the stance taken by the middle levels of the union. It is rare for a low-level trade union chair to engage in this type of frank criticism.

The comments made in the blogs bring out clearly that most workers in China do not totally dismiss the ACFTU. They can be disappointed and cynical about Chinese trade unions, but there is no mention of a desire to set up an independent trade union. When given the space to struggle against management through existing legal and institutional structures, if competent and committed leadership emerges they are willing to rally around it. These blogs are important vehicles for self-expression, exchanges of information and ideas, and discussions about collective action.

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NFL Star: Wal-Mart Left Kids Out in the Cold

TMZ
May 14th, 2008                    [back to top]

NFL superstar Andre Johnson claims his charity got stiffed by Wal-Mart -- it all involves water and ice. Yes, ice.

Johnson ordered 750 bicycles to be given to underprivileged kids at an event sponsored by the Andre Johnson Foundation -- in return for the purchase, Wal-Mart agreed to donate water and ice for the May 3 event.

But there was a problem with the order, so Johnson ended up buying fewer bikes than planned. Wal-Mart countered by not giving the water and ice as promised. That's cold.

Wal-Mart is trying to rectify the situation. They tell TMZ, "We are reaching out to the Andre Johnson Foundation as we speak to rectify the situation. It's disappointing that this happened."

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Wal-Mart and the Chinese Earthquake: Cheap Help for A Cheap-Labor Country

by Phil Mattera
www.dirtdiggersdigest.org
May 14, 2008                                             [back to top]

Wal-Mart Stores has put out a press release patting itself on the back for promising the equivalent of about $430,000 for disaster relief and reconstruction for the area of China hit by a massive earthquake this week. The gesture was laudable but the amount was less than impressive. After all, the giant retailer would be nowhere today without the countless Chinese workers who toil in sweatshops so that American consumers can be offered the cheap goods that are at the core of the company’s business model. Last year those largely Chinese-made goods brought Wal-Mart profits of $12.7 billion, or about $1.4 million every hour of every day. The $430,000 contribution thus represents less than 20 minutes of profit. Wal-Mart also profits from Chinese consumers. The company operates more than 200 stores in China (through joint ventures and minority-owned subsidiaries), several of which have been shut down because of the tremblor. Wal-Mart was so eager to operate stores in China that it agreed to let its employees there be represented by unions (though of the government-dominated variety). Wal-Mart has a history of using relatively inexpensive amounts of disaster relief to boost its reputation. After Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, Wal-Mart maneuvered to get maximum exposure for its prompt delivery of relief supplies. A fairly routine operation for a company possessing the most advanced logistics infrastructure was seen as nearly miraculous, given the ineptitude of federal and state public officials. The company made an initial faux pas (quickly reversed) in announcing that employees at its stores shut down by the storm would be paid for only three days. It also started out offering a measly $2 million in relief but soon overcame its parsimonious instincts and upped the figure by $15 million, thereby winning wide praise. The wave of favorable coverage went on for several months, thanks at least in part to the efforts of its army of p.r. operatives from Edelman and a conservative blogger who was paid to tout Wal-Mart’s hurricane work in the blogosphere. Wal-Mart may have to part with more than $430,000 to get a similar public relations bonanza from China’s suffering.

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Cities may mute effect of Wal-Mart

By Sandra M. Jones,
Chicago Tribune
May 13th, 2008                          [back to top]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. appears to have played a role in putting some retailers out of business since opening its first Chicago store in Austin more than 18 months ago, but the effect on its smaller rivals is likely milder than what occurs when the giant store arrives in a rural town, according to initial findings of a new study.

Researchers from Loyola University Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago tracked 191 stores within a three-mile radius of Wal-Mart from March 2006, six months before the store opened, through November 2007. The team found 23 stores, or 12 percent, of the businesses in the study group shut down last year.

Their preliminary conclusion is that a "small but statistically significant relationship" exists between local companies going out of business and Wal-Mart's arrival in the city. The researchers cautioned they are "hesitant to draw any strong conclusions" until a third phase of research is completed later this year.

For more than two decades, academics have studied Wal-Mart's effect on small-town America, but little is known about how Wal-Mart affects jobs, wages, property values and sales in an inner city.

The world's largest retailer has been moving into big cities and stirring controversy, especially in the union-dominated North. The researchers claim this is the first empirical study of the local economic impact of a Wal-Mart in a large city.

"People have their opinions on Wal-Mart," said Phil Nyden, director of the Center for Urban Research and Learning at Loyola in Chicago. "The idea is to get some actual data to inform the debate."

In a bid to win over critics worried about the giant retailer driving out mom-and-pop stores with larger selections and lower prices, Wal-Mart launched an unusual program last year in 10 inner cities, starting in Chicago, aimed at helping local retailers near its urban stores. It offered to pay for local newspaper advertising and to showcase the independent stores on Wal-Mart's in-store TV network and donate funds to the local chambers of commerce.

Called "Jobs and Opportunity Zones Program," it received mixed reviews. Wal-Mart detractors called it a publicity stunt. And some participants said the program didn't make much of a difference in their day-to-day business.

According to the Chicago study, there is some "limited" evidence stores located closer to Wal-Mart are more likely to go out of business than those farther away within the three-mile radius.

Many of the stores that closed last year sold clothing, beauty supplies and shoes, all items available at Wal-Mart.

Lawrence LeBlanc, owner of LDL Furniture and Appliance, said sales at his secondhand-goods store just down the street from Wal-Mart have fallen dramatically since the discount chain came to town. The little shop had been generating about $130,000 to $140,000 in sales a year before Wal-Mart. Last year it rang up $35,000. The only reason LeBlanc has kept the store open, he said, is that he owns the building.

"I used to be able to sell 15 to 20 televisions a month," said LeBlanc. "Now I sell two or three."

On the other hand, Norman Delrahim, owner of B&S Hardware nearby, said that after an initial drop-off in sales, he thinks business is "a little better" as shoppers come to the neighborhood to visit Wal-Mart and notice his store.

Wal-Mart said it is attracting new business to the area, such as the Menards home improvement store going up across the street.

"There is a lot of development that has come into the area," said Roderick Scott, senior manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart in Chicago. "We've been a positive agent in that change."

The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer opened a 142,000-square-foot discount store in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side in September 2006. It planned to open as many as 20 stores in the city, most of them Supercenters that also sell groceries.

Unions, angling to get non-union Wal-Mart to pay its workers more in wages and health benefits, fought to keep Wal-Mart from expanding in the city. Last month the city struck down a request to allow Wal-Mart to open a second store at Chatham Market on the South Side.

Researchers plan to learn more about Wal-Mart's effect on jobs and wages as they complete the final phase of the study. The last wave of data collection began in March 2008 and runs through November 2008. The study is financed by Woods Fund of Chicago, a foundation that helps the poor.

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Wal-Mart Reaches 2 Million Workers

Associated Press
May 13th, 2008                              [back to top]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ Imagine Houston being populated only by Wal-Mart workers.

Houston proper, with its population of just over 2 million, has about the same number of people as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. now employs worldwide.

Put another way, if a city had only families of four and one member of each household worked at Wal-Mart, that would be a perfect fit with the 8 million-strong population of New York City, a market Wal-Mart happens to covet.

During a recorded call with investors Tuesday, Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott mentioned offhandedly that the company now has more than 2 million "associates," as Wal-Mart terms its employees. Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe confirmed in an interview that Wal-Mart had reached the milestone.

The world's largest retailer is also the world's largest private employer. The company has about 1.3 million U.S. workers. As of April 30, Bentonville-based Wal-Mart had 7,343 units - 4,195 in the U.S. and 3,148 in its international division, which includes Puerto Rico.

(Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Wal-Mart profit rises 6.9 pct, beats Street view

Associated Press
05.13.08                                  [back to top]

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says its profit rose nearly 7 percent in its first quarter on higher sales. The results beat Wall Street's expectations.

The world's biggest retailer said Tuesday it earned $3.02 billion, or 76 cents per share, in the three months ended April 30. That was up from $2.83 billion, or 68 cents per share a year earlier.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had projected earnings of 75 cents per share.

The company had overall revenue of $95.30 billion compared to $86.41 billion in the prior year.

The company cited its low prices as a reason for its improvement, along with improved customer service and internal cost savings.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

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Wal-Mart Delivers Good And Bad News

Ruthie Ackerman,
Market Scan
05.13.08                               [back to top]

With American consumer spending under immense pressure, Wal-Mart Stores surprised Wall Street on Tuesday when it reported strong sales in its first quarter. Now the question on investors' minds is how is the world's largest retailer continuing to lure customers despite the turmoil in the U.S. economy?

The answer: Wal-Mart Stores (nyse: WMT - news - people ) 's low prices are driving sales with customers flocking to buy basics like groceries, shampoo, cleaning supplies, and pharmacy items. But once customers buy what they need they are also purchasing other items as well. Surprisingly one area of strength was consumer electronics.

"Customers do shop for things they want, not just what they need," said Eduardo Castro-Wright, chief executive of Wal-Mart's U.S. division.

Last week, the International Council on Shopping Centers reported that April sales at U.S. chain stores open at least a year, a key retail measure known as same-store sales, rose 3.6% from the similar month in 2007.

U.S. consumers are changing their habits but still spending, as most retailers reported a boost in April sales at stores open at least a year, following a downbeat March. The biggest gains were at stores that sell groceries and other staples, while discretionary and specialty retailers had mixed results. (See " Retail To The Rescue")

On Tuesday, Wal-Mart reported its profit jumped as lower prices boosted sales. But its conservative guidance spooked investors.

Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe said for the second quarter the company forecasts sales in stores open at least a year to range from flat to up 2.0%. He said the company expects to earn between 78 cents and 81 cents per share.

Schoewe also dampened investor optimism when he said it is still difficult to gauge the impact of federal tax rebate checks on U.S. sales. A recent survey by American Century Investments revealed that only one in four Americans plans to spend any of their stimulus checks--most say they plan to pay off debt or add to their savings. (See: "Retailers to Customers: Stimulate Us!")

Wal-Mart’s shares fell 1.2%, or 71 cents, to $57.31 in morning trading Tuesday.

But Chief Executive Lee Scott added some words of encouragement: “We’re off to a solid start, with record first quarter sales and earnings."

Low prices and improved customer services were the primary drivers of sales growth, the company said, despite the “economic headwinds” caused by energy and food inflation. But not all was well in Bentonville, Arkansas. “There are still uncertainties during the rest of the year,” Scott said. “The economy is playing a critical factor in 2008.” Even so, he remarked, Wal-Mart is well positioned to benefit from the downturn in the economy and a rebound as well.

Wal-Mart reported earnings jumped 7.1%, to $3.0 billion, or 76 cents per share, in the quarter ended April 30, up from $2.8 billion, or 68 cents per share, in the prior year, beating analysts’ forecast of 75 cents a share.

The company said overall revenue in its first quarter jumped 10.3%, to $95.3 billion, up from $86.4 billion in the prior year. Net sales excluding membership fees rose to $94.1 billion, from $85.4 billion a year ago. Analysts had projected revenue of $93.5 billion for the quarter.

Excluding fuel, same-store sales for the first quarter were up 2.9% at Wal-Mart's domestic properties, rising 2.7% in the Wal-Mart Stores division and 3.6% at Sam's Clubs, the warehouse division.

--The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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Tax evasion 'costs lives of 5.6m children'

By Sean O'Grady,
The Independent
May 12th, 2008                           [back to top]

The lives of more than five million children could be saved in the developing world – if the super-rich and the world's largest companies paid their fair share in taxes, according to a leading British charity. In Death and Taxes: the True Toll of Tax-dodging, Christian Aid says that the extent of tax abuse "is so widespread and damaging that it is tantamount to a new slavery".

The charity estimates that governments in the poorest countries are being cheated out of at least $160bn (£82bn) a year in tax revenues, much more than the $40 to $60bn the World Bank estimates is needed to pay for the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The MDG aim of halving poverty by 2015 would save 350,000 children's lives a year.

The director of Christian Aid, Dr Daleep Mukarji, said: "We predict that illegal trade-related tax evasion alone will be responsible for the deaths of 5.6 million children under the age of five between 2000 and 2015. That's almost 1,000 a day". Christian Aid believes that up to $11 trillion of funds may be stashed away in tax havens.

The report notes the conventional distinction drawn between tax planning and tax avoidance, which are legal, and tax evasion, which is not, but says that avoidance is part of a "sliding scale of legitimacy", in which ever more ingenious and complex methods are used to get around the rules and shelter corporate profits, notably through the use of tax havens, places where extreme secrecy in turn encourages a more general criminality.

It says: "The inescapable fact is that there are only four reasons for banking 'offshore': to avoid tax, to evade tax, to function in secret, to sidestep regulations controlling financial services or monopolistic practices. In each scenario, the pursuit of profit outweighs all other considerations, including good citizenship and social responsibility".

Tax havens have come under increasing scrutiny lately, as European Union governments and the OECD have tried to rein in their activities. The German secret service recently paid €4m (£3m) to an informant to reveal details of money held in Lichtenstein. HM Revenue and Customs is following its example, with the hope of recovering £100m in lost revenue.

Christian Aid points out that the British Government has a special responsibility and influence because so many tax havens are linked to the Crown as overseas territories or crown dependencies. The list includes Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands. Ironically, Christian Aid adds, even CDC plc, formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation and still owned by the Department for International Development, pays no taxes on its £350m of profits, thanks to its use of tax havens, even though its main aim is to fund development projects.

High-profile individuals are criticised by Christian Aid for minimising their tax bills, including the Formula One racing champion Lewis Hamilton, pop star Phil Collins and U2 lead singer Bono.

The widespread use of holding companies in tax havens to hold profits, licences and intellectual property, all to reduce tax bills, is also condemned: "Every transnational corporation uses holding companies", it said, and listed BP, Wal-Mart, Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and Ford Motor Company's reinsurance group as benefiting from offshore holdings.

Christian Aid's strongest words are reserved for the companies and firms of accountants who save billions through such activities as manipulating invoicing and cost structures to avoid paying taxes and royalties on mineral rights in developing economies.

Rather than protecting wealthy "non-doms" by acquiescing in the system of tax havens, Christian Aid calls on the British and Irish governments to "support international moves to curtail ...the secrecy of tax havens, thereby lifting the lid on the tax industry and its machinations".

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Pollo Campero opens franchise in US Wal-Mart store

By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press
05.12.08                               [back to top]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Pollo Campero, a Latin American fried-chicken favorite that had been seen in the U.S. only in takeout boxes aboard arriving flights, has teamed up with Wal-Mart to expand its reach to the nation's growing Hispanic population.

A restaurant bearing the Guatemalan chain's mascot chicken in a cowboy hat now sells its famed product inside a Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) Supercenter in Rowlett, Texas. Officials with the chain's fledging U.S. arm, Campero USA Corp., hopes to expand its reach into more than 20 Wal-Mart locations across the country by the end of 2009.

For the world's largest retailer, Pollo Campero offers a new opportunity to reach out to its diverse range of shoppers as it customizes some aisles in its mammoth stores to sell culturally attuned products.

"It's kind of like when we're looking at salsa versus ketchup and tortillas versus bread," said Lorenzo Lopez, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. "All those things have crossed over very well with customers in general and this has the potential to very well do the same thing."

Wal-Mart, which largely abandoned running its own restaurants inside its stores, now leases out space for companies such as McDonald's Corp. (nyse: MCD - news - people ), Blimpie International Inc. and Subway. Recently, the company offered Camille's Sidewalk Cafe, a Tulsa, Okla.-based chain offering healthy fast food, to begin franchising its brand inside stores.

Pollo Campero, Spanish for "country chicken," offers a chance to capture a different, but lucrative kind of clientele. The fast-food chain, created in 1971, talked for years about moving into the U.S. market. The final push came in 1999, after Grupo Taca, Central America's main airline, began complaining about the smell of chicken overwhelming its planes.

Now the company has more than 40 locations in the United States. Rodolfo Jimenez, an executive vice president of business development with Pollo Campero, said Wal-Mart approached his company after a restaurant expo last year as part of an effort to reach Hispanic customers.

"They always said that they had a very big Hispanic component in their customer base," Jimenez said. "They wanted to bring in an authentic Latin brand to really be able to please those customers."

Jimenez said Pollo Campero, owned by Corporacion Multi-Inversiones, continues to discuss with Wal-Mart where it could next lease space in a store. The possibilities could be large for the brand, as even Wal-Mart's hometown of Bentonville has seen its Hispanic population explode since the 1990s.

But the push isn't limited to Hispanics. Jimenez said the chain now offers grilled chicken as part of an effort to please discerning U.S. customers.

The fried chicken, however, continues to be the restaurant's major draw. Jimenez, who spent time in the chain's new addition in Rowlett since its opening Thursday, said curious Wal-Mart customers continue to walk over to examine the Latin fare.

"Most people didn't know the brand," Jimenez said. "But just the fact of being there, and it's an open space and looks nice. We just said we were about chicken, so they came over and tried the product and they were very pleased."

(This version corrects that the chain has about 40 locations in the U.S., not 50.)

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserve

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Wal-Mart same-store sales top Wall Street expectations

Associated Press
05.08.08                                   [back to top]

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says sales of groceries and items such as flat-screen TVs boosted its same-store sales in April above Wall Street expectations.

The world's largest retailer said same-store sales rose 3.2 percent, easily beating Wall Street's 2.1 percent growth forecast. Including fuel, same-store sales climbed 3.8 percent.

The sales figure, which counts only stores open at least one year, is considered a key measure of a retailer's fiscal health.

Same-store sales rose 2.6 percent at namesake Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) stores and 6.6 percent at Sam's Club, excluding fuel.

Total sales for the four weeks ended May 2 rose 10 percent to $29.18 billion.

The Bentonville, Ark.-based company says it expects May sales growth by the same measure, excluding fuel, to be flat to up to 2 percent.

_

AP Business Writer Mae Anderson

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved

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Wal-Mart, Target issue tepid May sales views

By Nicole Maestri,
Reuters
May 8th, 2008                             [back to top]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) on Thursday reported a better-than-expected 3.2 percent rise in April sales at U.S. stores open at least a year, boosted by demand for basic items like groceries and medicine.

But the world's largest retailer gave a tepid outlook for May as the economic situation gets more difficult and consumers try to stretch their dollars by purchasing cheaper cuts of meat or trading down to pasta.

"The economy continues to get tougher and the 'paycheck cycle' is more pronounced for customers than in past months," Eduardo Castro-Wright, head of Wal-Mart's U.S. store division, said in a statement.

"As money gets tighter for them toward the end of the month, sales drop more than we have seen in the past."

Smaller rival Target Corp (TGT.N), whose April sales at existing stores rose a less-than-expected 3.1 percent, also gave a weak forecast for May.

"We continue to see weakness in markets that are experiencing housing market-related stress, particularly in Florida, Arizona, Nevada and parts of California," Target said on a recorded call.

Wal-Mart shares rose 70 cents or 1.2 percent to $57.53, while Target shares fell $1.13 or 2.1 percent to $52.31 in morning New York Stock Exchange trading.

Ben Pivar, vice president at consulting firm Capgemini, said consumers are showing more caution, buying staples and holding back on splurges, in this environment.

"There's still a lot of uncertainty at the consumer level with respect to where the economy's going," he said.

WAL-MART SALES SURPASS EXPECTATIONS

Wal-Mart's 3.2 percent gain in April U.S. sales at stores open at least a year, known as same-store sales, was above analysts' average forecast for a rise of 2.1 percent, according to Reuters Estimates. It also surpassed Wal-Mart's own forecast for a gain of 1 percent to 3 percent.

Same-store sales at its namesake discount stores rose 2.6 percent, while they advanced 6.6 percent at its Sam's Club warehouse division.

Wal-Mart said net sales in the month, ended May 2, rose to $29.18 billion from $26.57 billion a year earlier.

"Customers are buying less expensive protein sources and trying to stretch their dollars with purchases of boxed dinners and pasta," the company said on a recorded call.

"Moreover, they are gravitating toward more private label than in the past few months."

Consumers continued to buy flat-panel TVs, video games and gaming systems, Wal-Mart said, while the allergy season boosted sales of prescription and over-the-counter medications.

Apparel sales improved, while sales in its home department remained soft, it said.

For May, it forecast U.S. same-store sales would be flat to up 2 percent.

"It's currently difficult to quantify the impact from the stimulus checks," said Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe, referring to rebate checks being mailed to U.S. consumers as part of Washington's $152 billion economic stimulus package.

Wal-Mart will report its first-quarter results on May 13. Last month, it said it expected earnings per share from continuing operations of 74 cents to 76 cents for the quarter, up from a previous forecast of 70 cents to 74 cents.

TARGET SALES OFF TARGET

Target's April same-store sales rose 3.1 percent, missing analysts' average forecast for a gain of 4.5 percent. Target had forecast a mid-single-digit increase.

"Comparable store sales performance in April was slightly below our planned range," Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel said in a statement.

Sales were strongest in health care and consumable items and were weakest in jewelry, home decor and seasonal items, the retailer said.

Sales for the four weeks ended May 3 increased 9.0 percent to $4.25 billion.

For May, Target forecast same-store sales between down 1 percent and up 1 percent.

Target's sales have weakened in recent months as its shoppers overlook purchases of higher margin items like clothes and home decor in favor of basics like food or laundry detergent.

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A closeout for Wal-Mart

By Sandra M. Jones,
Chicago Tribune
May 8th, 2008                             [back to top]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s hard-fought battle to turn Chicago into a beachhead for urban expansion across the country has come to a quiet end, at least for the foreseeable future, as big-city politics held sway over low prices.

Now the world's largest retailer is turning its attention to a backup plan of opening stores just outside city limits, banking that thousands of low-to-middle-income city dwellers will travel to collar suburbs to shop at the discount store. Among the suburbs Wal-Mart is looking at are Calumet Park, Cicero and McCook, according to people familiar with Wal-Mart's plans.

Wal-Mart got the word from city officials last month that Mayor Richard Daley doesn't want to risk a messy showdown with unions over Wal-Mart—like the big-box store battle of 2006—while Chicago is still in the running as a host city for the 2016 Olympics, according to people familiar with the matter. The International Olympic Committee is slated to make that decision in October 2009.

"That's the end of the story, at least for the next two to three years," said John Melaniphy, a Chicago-based retail real estate consultant. "I think in the long run they'll end up in the city one way or another, but it's going to take them a long time."

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s development arm, Archon Group LP, isn't waiting. The Chicago-based developer of Chatham Market on the South Side, where Wal-Mart had hoped to open its second city store, put a "For Sale" sign on the property last week.

Lowe's Cos. has already opened a 117,000-square-foot anchor in the shopping center at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue. Wal-Mart was slated to be the second anchor and Archon had counted on the discount chain to attract other retail tenants. The developer has not been able to find another anchor to replace Wal-Mart.

"We're doing this to see what options present themselves," said Bill Moston, director of retail investments for Archon in Chicago. "We have a responsibility to pursue all available options and to evaluate what they are."

That could mean the empty land would go for other uses such as office space or storage or housing.

Not long ago Wal-Mart had ambitions of operating as many as 20 stores in the city. It opened a 142,000-square-foot discount store in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side in September 2006.

Wal-Mart wanted to open supercenters in the rest of the city, roughly 180,000-square-foot stores that also sell groceries.

But the retailer, which has a non-union workforce, ran into opposition from unions that have been trying to stop the Bentonville, Ark.-based company's expansion into northern cities.

Both Wal-Mart and the unions say they help everyday working families. Wal-Mart points to its affordable merchandise, willingness to blaze a trail into the food deserts of inner cities, and the hundreds of workers each store employs. Unions point to their campaign to persuade Wal-Mart to pay higher wages and health benefits to workers.

"We are a store that wants to come in and invest in that community," said Roderick Scott, head of public affairs for Wal-Mart in Chicago.

Dennis Gannon, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor and a leader in the unions' battle against Wal-Mart, declined to comment on the turn of events.

The mayor's press office and Pete Scales, spokesman for the Department of Planning, declined to comment on its talks with Wal-Mart.

Chicago Planning Commissioner Arnold Randall notified Archon on March 14 that he would not let Wal-Mart open at Chatham Market as proposed because of a letter from the previous developer that pledged to keep the retailer out.

Wal-Mart and Archon met with the commissioner last month to look for a way to make the project work.

"We always want additional retailers in Chicago," Scales said. "Hopefully [the potential sale] will open it up to other retailers other than Wal-Mart."

Daley, siding with business, took a political bruising in the summer of 2006 when he overturned, in his first veto, a big-box ordinance passed by the City Council. The ordinance, aimed at Wal-Mart, would have set minimum pay and benefit levels for any major retailer with a store 90,000 square feet or larger.

In the wake of the veto, unions poured millions into the City Council elections in a successful bid to support candidates who, among other things, were likely to oppose Wal-Mart's city expansion.

Wal-Mart Chief Executive H. Lee Scott first announced his intention to position Wal-Mart as an "urban pioneer" in an April 2006 speech in Chicago, saying the company "has never been afraid to invest in communities that are overlooked by other retailers."

But in the two years since, Wal-Mart has made little headway in expanding into Northern cities. It has yet to crack Boston, Detroit or New York.

And international markets such as Brazil are whetting the giant retailer's appetite, making it unclear how much longer the company will continue to focus on America's inner cities.

Ald. Howard Brookins (21st), who tried and failed to bring Wal-Mart to his South Side ward, said he's not happy with the decision.

He said he plans to woo retailers at the shopping industry's annual trade show in Las Vegas this month, hoping to find a replacement for Wal-Mart.

"We're not guaranteed the Olympics," said Brookins, "but we're guaranteed to get [sales] tax revenue from Wal-Mart."

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WalMart Adds WMG MP3's. Napster Next?

By Bruce Houghton,
hyperbot
May 7th, 2008                           [back to top]

The Warner Music Group family of labels has widened its full catalog mp3 offering to include WalMart.com. Previously Amazon was the only North American based download provider with the catalog.

Hypebot reported yesterday that WMG was about to broaden its DRM-free program to include other sites. Last month WalMart drop all tracks from WMG, Universal and Sony BMG and took its digital store DRM-free. EMI and a limited number of indies provided content until this morning when WMG effectively doubled WalMart.com's catalog.

As it does at brick and morter, WalMart is...

competing on price with all tracks a 94 cents (up from 88 cents last month) and album downloads from $7.98 - $9.22. (By contrast iTunes generally prices at $.99 track/$9.99 album and Amazon's offers variable pricing that is occasionally lower than WalMart but often hits $.99/$9.99.) Indie music plays only a minor role on WalMart.com also mimicing in-store content.

WMG's move puts pressure on the other label groups and download stores to move more rapidly towards all DRM-free. At yesterday's Digital NARM, a spokesperson for Napster hinted that they would go DRM-free within a month.

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Health Clinics Inside Stores Likely to Slow Their Growth

By DAVID ARMSTRONG ,
Wall Street Journal
May 7th, 2008                                    [back to top]

The boom in walk-in health clinics located inside pharmacies, supermarkets and big-box retailers is showing signs of slowing.

Hailed as an inexpensive option for treating minor health ailments like sore throats and rashes, the retail clinics have grown in number to 963 as of May 1 from just 125 three years ago. The clinics typically feature nurse practitioners who can prescribe basic drugs, and the price for a visit ranges from $50 to $75.

But in recent months, retail health-clinic operators based in New York, Nevada, Indiana and Alabama have closed their doors, shuttering 69 clinics in 15 states, including ones operating inside outlets of Shopko Stores, Meijer Inc., Bi-Lo LLC, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Medicine Shoppe unit of Cardinal Health Inc.

Now, the biggest retail-clinic operator, CVS Caremark Corp., says it is scaling back expansion plans for its Minute Clinic brand.

"We have seen fallout in this industry, on a smaller scale, that is not unlike the dot-com bubble," says Tom Charland, the owner of industry consultant Merchant Medicine LLC and a former vice president for strategy at Minute Clinic. "The big mistake was for people to think they could reach break-even in six months," he says. "People are learning this is an 18-to-24-month process to get to break-even."

Mr. Charland says the venture capitalists and private-equity firms that backed many of the retail clinic operators failed to appreciate how complicated and expensive the clinics are to operate. Research shows that patients are enthusiastic about the clinics' convenience and quality of care, but acceptance has been slow.

CVS, which operates more than 500 Minute Clinic facilities, says its plan to scale back expansion is part of a change in strategy. David Rickard, chief financial officer, told analysts last week that the company expects to add 100 clinics this year, down from a prior estimate of 200 openings. He said the company may also close some Minute Clinic locations that aren't in CVS outlets. He said that CVS will focus on "enriching" services at Minute Clinic facilities rather than expansion, and that the company believes Minute Clinic will be a "terrific, successful little business."

Some operators are finding that the clinics are complex to manage. Earlier this year, Check Ups, a clinic operator based in New York, abruptly closed 23 clinics that it operated inside Wal-Marts in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. It was stretched thin by operations in multiple states, says company spokesman William Armstrong.

"You have to have a critical mass of stores seeing a high number of patients to get somewhere," he says. He adds that new clinics need to spend a lot of money on marketing to build public awareness and that the clinics become expensive quickly. "We ran out of operating funds," he says.

Not everyone is trimming sails. Walgreen Co. says it still plans to more than double the number of its Take Care health clinics this year by adding about 240 locations between now and the end of the year, bringing it closer to the number operated by rival CVS. The expansion will cause a drag on earnings in fiscal 2008 of five cents a share, the company says.

Tina Galasso, an analyst who follows the retail clinic industry for Verispan LLC, says the cost of setting up an in-store clinic runs about $500,000. That is one reason why much of the future growth in walk-in health centers is expected to come from big companies with deep pockets and from hospital systems that are already well-known within a community and don't have to spend so much on marketing.

In a strategy that combines both elements, Wal-Mart plans to partner with hospital systems to open as many as 400 co-branded store clinics by the end of 2010, up from about 50 sites in operation now. That approach is a departure from an earlier strategy under which Wal-Mart leased space to operators like Check Ups that weren't associated with hospital systems.

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Wal-Mart was whistleblower in OFT's supermarket investigation

By James Hall,
Telegraph
May 5th, 2008                            [back to top]

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, was the whistleblower behind the Office of Fair Trading's current probe into alleged price fixing of food and toiletries, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The investigation has embroiled some of the world's largest consumer goods manufacturers such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser, as well as UK retail giants, including Tesco and J Sainsbury.

In blowing the whistle, Wal-Mart, which owns the Asda chain, has guaranteed itself immunity from a fine should the OFT discover any cartel activity. Any company found guilty could be fined up to 10 per cent of its annual worldwide sales, which in Wal-Mart's case would be $37bn (£18.7bn).

The move is likely to make the US retailer deeply unpopular with the companies involved, many of whom are its largest suppliers.

Last weekend this newspaper revealed that around 100 OFT officials and lawyers raided the offices of the country's biggest supermarkets ten days ago over allegations of price-fixing involving dozens of popular household brands, such as PG Tips, Aquafresh toothpaste and Andrex toilet roll. Consumer goods companies in the UK and the US were also visited or asked to provide pricing information.

It is understood that following an earlier OFT investigation into price-fixing of dairy products, which resulted in some supermarkets and dairies paying fines of £116m, senior Wal-Mart and Asda executives made the decision to go to the OFT with new information.

All the companies involved in the probe have strenuously denied that they are involved in any cartel activity, and Asda's decision to tip off the OFT does not mean that price-fixing has necessarily occurred. The OFT has refused to comment on the investigation.

Legal experts believe it will be at least two years until the OFT publishes any findings.

"Things will go quiet and it could drag on for two years. If the OFT gets a Statement of Objections out within a year I will be amazed," said one executive.

Other senior supermarket executives have dismissed the raids as a "fishing expedition". However, under its remit, the OFT needs to have a so-called evidential threshold before it can launch a raid, meaning that it must have good reason.

Last week the Competition Commission, the anti-trust watchdog, completed a separate two-year investigation into the supermarket sector. The commission gave the sector a largely clean bill of health, although it said that it had uncovered emails that "might raise issues of co-ordination" between supermarkets and suppliers.

Peter Freeman, chairman of the Competition Commission, said that the watchdog had passed on information to the OFT as part of the latter's new investigation.

He added that there was no contradiction between the commission finding the sector largely competitive and the OFT examining alleged price-fixing.

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Wal-Mart's Shirts of Misery from Bangladesh

By P. Singh,
Cité Libre
May 4th, 2008                                 [back to top]

When you purchase a shirt in Walmart, do you ever imagine young women in Bangladesh forced to work from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., seven days a week, paid just 9 cents to 20 cents an hour, who are denied health care and maternity leave; screamed at to work faster; with monitored bathroom visits; and who will be fired for daring to complain or ask for their rights?

At the Beximco factory in the Dhaka Export Processing Zone in Bangladesh, there are 1,000 workers, at least 80 percent of them young women, sewing shirts and pants for Walmart and other retailers. Beximco is a sweatshop, where human rights are systematically violated.

Shame on Walmart

Walmart and its contractor Beximco do not pay the overtime premium. In fact, as we have seen, they do not even pay the legal hourly wage of 33 cents. They pay only 20 cents an hour and pay overtime at this same illegal 20-cent rate.

These workers are locked in poverty, being cheated out of over $20 a week in legal wages by the largest retailer in the world. The workers are being illegally paid just $16 for a full 80-hour workweek. For the forced 80-hour week, they should be earning at least $36.96. Surely Walmart, with $7.6 billion in annual operating profits, could afford this wage!

Some of the poorest people in the world are being illegally robbed of their wages, driving them deeper into misery. Even the 33-cent an hour wage does not come close to meeting basic subsistence needs.

This is why in Bangladesh there is no difference in the malnutrition rate of children whether their parents are unemployed or are working in factories sewing garments for the largest U.S. companies. Even the legal minimum wage is set too low to allow the workers to climb out of misery.

No maternity leave: At Beximco, legal maternity leave is denied and benefits are not paid.

Denied health care: By law, a factory the size of Beximco should have a health clinic, with a doctor present. Beximco has nothing. There is an empty first aid box for show. The women workers and their children have absolutely no health coverage or protection.

Access to bathrooms limited: The workers need a ticket and permission to use the bathrooms. Access is limited and bathroom breaks are timed.

Maltreatment/cursing/yelling: There is constant pressure to meet the high daily production goal; the workers are yelled at and cursed at to work faster.

Cheated of their tiny savings: In Bangladesh there is a government regulated savings system whereby a small deduction is made each pay period from the workers' wages and deposited in the Provident Fund, which the factory maintains. The workers can withdraw their savings from this fund when they leave the factory or are fired. It functions as a kind of severance pay, to act as a bridge or means of support while new work is sought. But most workers at Beximco, who have been forced to leave, report that they are cheated of their savings.

No worker has seen Walmart's Code of Conduct: Walmart says it has a corporate code of conduct which guarantees the human and worker rights of anyone sewing Walmart garments around the world. Even by industry standards, Walmart's code of conduct is very limited and extremely weak. Yet the workers at Beximco have never even seen this weak code of conduct. Walmart's code is not posted and it has never been explained to the workers. There has been no attempt to implement the code.

No right to organize: In Bangladesh's EPZs, unions and collective contracts are prohibited by law. The workers have no rights; the government authorities do nothing to implement labor law. The workers are fired for daring to protest forced 24-hour shifts. Denied their right to organize, the workers are isolated and vulnerable -- easily cheated of their legal wages and benefits.

Falling Real Wages

Devaluation and inflation have further eroded the real purchasing power of the Bangledeshi workers' wages.

The local currency, the taka, has lost 19% of its value against the U.S. dollar since 1995. (In 1995, there were TK 40.90 to $1.00. By October 1998, the taka had fallen to TK 48.50 to $1.00).

There is a five to six percent inflation rate each year.

Greed in the Global Economy

Walmart and its contractor pay no taxes to sew their garments in the Dhaka EPZ. All that they leave behind is the illegal 20-cent an hour wages and some small rent and fees.

In 1998, total government revenues in Bangladesh amounted to $3.872 billion (TK 187.8 billion), a sum far too low to even provide the most basic services to the over 125 million people in the country.

On the other hand, Walmart's sales in 1998 amounted to $137.6 billion, which means that Walmart's annual sales are 36 times greater than the total revenues of the Bangladeshi government. Yet Walmart does not pay a single cent in taxes or tariffs! Nothing!

Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations in the world, is being forced to subsidize Walmart.

Due to an inadequate tax base and overall low government revenues, Bangladesh must rely upon foreign aid to meet more than one-half of its entire development budget.

In the United States, Walmart also seeks multi-million-dollar state, county and city subsidies as a condition for locating its stores. But there is another indirect subsidy as well: one half of Walmart's 720,000 employees, or "associates" as the company calls them, qualify for federal assistance under the food stamp program. Wages at Walmart, now the largest private sector employer in the U.S., start as low as $5.75 an hour.

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Walmart.com using Wii Fit to boost Mom's Day sales

By Nicole Maestri,
Reuters
May 2nd, 2008                                [back to top]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Forget the flowers and candy -- Nintendo Co Ltd's highly anticipated "Wii Fit" video game will debut in the U.S. later this month, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc's online division is trying to persuade shoppers to order the game as "a perfect gift" for Mother's Day.

This weekend, the Walmart.com homepage will be dominated by the Wii Fit -- a physical exercise program that uses a pressure-sensing board as a controller -- including a link to order the product now, ahead of its May 19 U.S. launch.

Through May 11, shoppers who "pre-order" the $89.74 game, or pay in advance to guarantee delivery when the game launches, will also get a $10 online gift card to use for a future order at Walmart.com.

"Initial response is extremely strong, and we're feeling really good about Nintendo Wii Fit dominating the home page," said Kelly Thompson, Walmart.com's chief merchant, of early shopper demand for the game. "... We really like the angle of marketing it to Mom."

The move comes as retailers look for creative ways to entice shoppers to keep spending amid the economic downturn.

Many U.S. consumers are shunning discretionary purchases as more of their budgets go toward rising food and fuel costs, and they have run out of access to easy credit to fund their shopping sprees.

Retailers now see holidays, like Mother's Day on May 11, as potential bright spots when cash-strapped shoppers may be persuaded to spend some of their limited cash.

According to a National Retail Federation Mother's Day survey, consumers, on average, intend to spend $138.63 on the holiday -- down from $139.14 last year.

STRONG SALES GROWTH

But the survey also found that consumers will shell out $1.2 billion this Mother's Day on consumer electronics like digital cameras, digital photo frames and video cameras.

In addition, while U.S. consumers have pulled back on many discretionary purchases, video game hardware and software continue to post strong sales growth.

U.S. sales of video game hardware and software rose 57 percent in March from a year earlier, according to market research firm NPD.

Sales of gaming hardware, software and accessories hit $1.7 billion in March, led by Nintendo's Wii console, which posted its biggest nonholiday month ever. Wii Fit, to be played using the Wii console, has already has sold more than a million units in Japan.

Walmart.com is seeing a trend toward consumers buying more tech-related gifts, like digital photo frames or cameras, for mothers, Thompson said.

With Wii Fit, Nintendo is trying to appeal to new video game users, like women and older consumers.

"You'll see our marketing programs really reach out to both genders and a range of ages," said Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo's U.S. operations, in an interview with Reuters in February.

Dunaway said such gamers will still be drawn to the novelty and sophistication of Wii Fit and its bathroom scale-sized controller, which uses sensors to detect subtle shifts in a person's stance.

Thompson said Walmart.com has worked with Nintendo on the Wii Fit promotion and ensuring it has a strong inventory position to fill the pre-orders. There also will be a link on the site to buy the Wii console, as well as other games and accessories.

Thompson said consumers can give the $10 gift card to mothers on Mother's Day since the Wii Fit will not ship until after the May 11th holiday.

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Wal-Mart won't build Duluth Supercenter

By EILEEN DRENNEN,
Atlanta Journal Constitution
May 2nd, 2008                                         [back to top]

Wal-Mart announced late Thursday night that it would not build a 176,000-square-foot Supercenter at the corner of Peachtree Industrial Boulevard and Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth.

While every step of the stores rollout was greeted by crowds of protesters wearing red T-shirts and carrying "Stop Wal-Mart" signs, there was no indication that pressure from neighborhood group Smart Growth Gwinnett had an effect on the decision.

Instead, company spokesman Glen Wilkins said in a press release, the decision was "related to Wal-Mart's announcement in June 2007 to more strategically prioritize development of Supercenters."

There are already two Wal-Mart stores within six miles of the proposed location, in Duluth and neighboring Suwanee.

"While this decision is certainly an appropriate one from a business standpoint," Wilkins said in the release, "it takes nothing away from the fact that Duluth is an excellent community and a great place to do business."

Smart Growth's Marline Santiago-Cook, who lives directly across Peachtree Industrial near the proposed Supercenter, said the group was not just excited about Wal-mart's decision, but the larger changes that resulted from their lengthy fight. As part of the larger citywide debate about managing development, the city of Duluth adopted a large-scale building ordinance last December that governs all facets of projects over 75,000 square feet.

"Not only did we achieve our goals of stopping this particular project," Santiago-Cook said, "but we got a bigger win by the implementation of the new ordinance, which will address any future project at this particular site as well as in the entire city of Duluth."

The two lawsuits filed against the city of Duluth by landowner Jack Bandy – who wanted to sell his 30-acre site to Wal-Mart – are still pending in Gwinnett Superior Court. The first, alleging that the city violated the open records act by approving a moratorium on large-scale buildings without first advertising it on an agenda, has a trial date set for Sept. 15.

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DoJ Files Decree Ordering Wal-Mart To Pay Veteran $12,000

By Amanda Harris Falls,
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
May 1st, 2008                                          [back to top]

The Department of Justice said Thursday it filed a consent decree that will resolve its employment lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) on behalf of Sean Thornton.

The consent decree will require the Bentonville, Ark., retailer to pay Thornton $12,000 in back pay, less income tax and other withholdings, if it is approved by the court.

The Justice Department filed the complaint March 31 in the U.S. District Court of Orlando, Fla., alleging Wal-Mart violated the law by not reinstating Thornton to his civilian job as a cashier in the Orange City, Fla., store, after he was discharged by the Air Force.

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VIDEOS

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Fighting Wal-Martization 25min. (2005)

A new video by The Labor Video Project 25 min. (2005)

Wal-Mart is now the largest private employer in the United States and has the same impact that General Motors had nearly 50 years ago. This 26-minute video shows why working people and trade unionists are fighting back and what Wal-Mart has in store for the communities it is seeking to build stores in. "Fighting Wal-Martization" is a hard hitting documentary that looks at how the constant price cutting not only drives local small businesses out of the community but how this ends up driving down the living conditions of the very people who shop at Wal-Mart. The video also looks at the healthcare crisis and how Wal-Mart increases its profits by sending it¹s employees to public hospitals to get treatment thereby shifting costs back onto the taxpayer. This video can be used at union meetings, community meetings and on cable TV to get the message out about the Wal-Martization of America and what it means to every working person.

Please mail your check of $20.00 and order form to

Labor Video Project
P. O. Box 720027,
San Francisco, CA 94172

For more info: lvpsf@labornet.org, (415) 282-1908

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices (www.walmartmovie.com)

Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop (www.independentamerica.net)

Big Box Mart (www.jibjab.com)

Garth Brooks Parody (www.walmartworkersrights.org)

"Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" Frontline, PBS Video, (www.pbs.org)
 

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BOOKS

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NON-FICTION

The Case Against Wal-Mart By Al Norman Raphel Marketing ruth@raphael.com

Wal-Mart: The Face Of Twenty-First Century Capitalism Edited By Nelson Lichtenstein The New Press www.thenewpress.com

The Great Risk Shift: The Assault on American Jobs, Families, Health Care and Retirement By Jacob S. Hacker Oxford University Press www.oup.com

War On The Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back By Lou Dobbs Viking, a member of Penguin Group www.penguin.com

Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age By Allison H. Fine Jossey-Bass www.joseybass.com

Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses, By Stacy Mitchell, www.beacon.org www.newrules.org

Wal-Mart: The Face Of the Twenty-First-Century Capitalism, Edited by Nelson Lichtenstein, Published by The New Press www.thenewpress.com

 The Bully Of Bentonville - How the high cost of Wal-Mart's Everyday Low Prices is Hurting America, By Anthony Bianco, Published by Doubleday
Email: specialmarkets@randomhouse.com

 How Wal-Mart is Destroying America (and the world), By Bill Quinn, Published By Ten Speed Press, Box 7123, Berkeley, CA 94707, www.tenspeed.com (pp. 163)

Slam Dunking Wal-Mart, By Al Norman, Published By Raphel Marketing, 12 S. Virginia Avenue, Atlantic City, New Jersey 08410, www.sprawl-busters.com (pp. 237)

The Great American JobsScam, By Greg LeRoy, Published By Barrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 235 Montgomery Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94104-2916, www.bkconnection.com (pp. 257)

Nickel and Dimed, By Barbara Ehrenreich, Published By Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 115 West 18^th Street, New York, NY 10011, www.henryholt.com (pp.221)

United States of Wal-Mart, By John Dicker, Published By Jeremy P. Tarcher (Penguin Group usa), www.us.penguingroup.com (pp.257)

The Wal-Mart Effect, By Charles Fishman www.penguin.com

Megamall On The Hudson, By David Porter and Chester L. Mirsky www.trafford.com

FICTION

Death By Discount, By Mary Vermillion, Published By Alyson Publications, P.O. Box 4371, Los Angeles, CA 90078-4371, www.maryvermillion.com (pp. 275)

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