Naked Truth Investing: Wal-Mart customers 'save money' and 'live better' while Wal-Mart employees pay more for their 401(k) plan and retire broke

No smiley faces at Levy Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart sued for improperly assembled bicycle

Candlsense warmers pose fire hazard

By Stonecipher,
The Consumerist
June 30th, 2008                     [back to top]

Tipster Toland pointed us toward the Stonecipher Report which contains an entry about a weary traveler who, against his better judgment, decided to get his oil changed at Wal-Mart. After his car was returned, he noticed that his oil monitoring system was still indicating 10% oil life. He asked the Wal-Mart employee if the oil had actually been changed to which she replied, "Yep, I know it was, cause I did it myself." He then went to go check the dipstick and discovered the oil hadn't been changed after all. His post, inside...

Hey everyone, been on the road for two days now and I'm about to pull out of Idaho Falls, ID and head north and then east into Montana.

The drive has been beautiful so far. Eastern Oregon is incredible. I had driven through there in the past, but it was night time and I didn't know what I was missing, but wow, one of the most colorful places I've ever been.

My travel was delayed a bit, however, when I stopped to get my oil changed, and I thought the story was worth passing along.

Now, I ordinarily avoid Wal-Mart like the plague, but I needed a change and I was about to hit a piece of road with no services for over 100 miles, so I figured I better get it done while I had the chance.

Sadly, the ONLY place in town to change my oil was at the local Wal-Mart. So as sick as it made my stomach, I pulled up and did it.

The girl (yes, not a woman) who took my information seemed friendly at first. She politely inquired about the full car load of stuff and said "you must be going somewhere cool."

"Chicago" I said with a smile.

I handed her the keys to the car and stepped out. She told me it would be a 20-minute wait, so I grabbed the iPod and the paper I had and went into the waiting room.

By the way, the one thing I was happy about was that at least this oil change was going to be cheap. Under $25.

About 25 minutes later the girl came into the waiting room and told me the car was ready. I paid, took back my keys and jumped in, ready to hit the open road again.

But when I turned on my car the oil monitoring system said I was still at 10% of my oil's life.

That was weird.

I got out of the car and asked the girl if she was sure that the oil change had in fact been done. She said "Yep, I know it was, cause I did it myself."

"Can you explain why my car is telling me it hasn't been?"

"Well we don't reset the meter in any of those Japanese cars" was her response.

I thought maybe she was right. In all honesty, I wasn't sure if this was something that had to be reset myself or if the car automatically did it upon an oil change.

The only way to find out was to check for myself. So I headed back to the car, popped the hood, and stuck in the dipstick.

Sure enough, it was almost empty.

Unreal. They had just charged me $24 and told me they had changed the oil, but it was never done! They knew they were the only place for miles and miles, this could cause serious problems for people without the monitoring system to alert them it wasn't done.

If it wasn't for that I never would have thought to double check. In the future I will.

Anyhow, at this point I wasn't Wal-mart's happiest customer ever. So I went back in and told the girl what I found.

She called in the mechanic and IN FRONT OF ME said to him "why didn't you change the oil?" Clearly she either forgot, or just didn't care that she had already told me that SHE had done it.

His response was "You told me to just pull it into the lot, you didn't say anything about an oil change."

I was on the mechanic's side for a minute until he looked at me and said "When we get these foreign cars in here, sometimes it gets confusing."

Now I was just livid.

First of all, my car being foreign was 100%, fully and completely irrelevant to the fact that they had just charged me $24 to allow my car to sit in their garage for 24 minutes before pulling it into their parking lot. A dollar a minute. Wow.

On top of that, the disdain for my foreign car was becoming very apparent now. Which was also irritating. My bet is that neither of these people knew that while their own American cars were built by foreign workers for next-to-nothing wages, all of my Honda Civic (with the exception of the engine) was assembled in Ohio by well paid, and highly skilled Americans.

The parts were also produced in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, once again, by American workers.

Long story short, I thought about getting a manager and demanding my money back. And in retrospect, I should have. But I wanted to get back to the road and try to keep my blood pressure low. So I waited a few more minutes while the mechanic replaced the oil in my ever-so-complex Civic and instead of getting my money back I'll just blog about what a rotten, evil and horrible place Wal-Mart is.

I hate Wal-Mart. Ok, so now it's time for me to hit the road, so much for this being a quick note.

The lesson: When your gut says don't go to Wal-Mart, listen to your gut. Also, it is a good idea to check your engine's dipstick no matter where you get your oil changed.

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Wal-Mart evacuated after shoppers, employees complain of respiratory problems

By Ryan Mills,
Naples News
June 30th, 2008                  [back to top] 

An East Naples Wal-Mart was evacuated for more than three hours Monday afternoon after more than a dozen employees and customers began coughing and complaining of respiratory problems.

But after hours of investigation, neither a Collier County hazardous materials team nor the Florida Department of Health could find the cause.

The Wal-Mart at 6650 Collier Blvd., just northeast of Marco Island, was evacuated shortly before 3 p.m. after it was determined that something in the air in the front of the store was causing people to cough, East Naples fire spokesman Greg Speers said.

Collier County Emergency Medical Services treated 13 people at the scene — 10 customers and three Wal-Mart employees — but no one was transported to the hospital.

Collier County sheriff’s deputies and East Naples firefighters also arrived to assist. Deputies along Collier Boulevard blocked access to the parking lot, and by 3:30 p.m. yellow tape blocked the entrances to the store.

About 75 Wal-Mart employees in blue shirts stood to the side of the store drinking bottled water and doing the Wal-Mart cheer.

“What store is number one?” the cheerleader asked the crowd.

Linda Reitzes, who is visiting from Naples, was stranded outside the store all afternoon because the bicycle she came on was roped off. When asked if the evacuation was much of an inconvenience, Reitzes said “not really.”

“I’d be packing,” she said. “I’m going back to New York tomorrow night.”

Reitzes, who said she was shopping for “odds and ends,” didn’t have any symptoms, and didn’t need to be treated.

“They just made an announcement on the loud speaker for Wal-Mart shoppers to please exit the building,” she said. “It was a very calm announcement. Nobody was panicking.”

The Collier County hazardous materials team made three sweeps through the store. They were followed by four representatives from the health department, Speers said.

“They never figured out what it was,” Speers said. “They couldn’t detect any type of leaks or a substance in there that could have been the cause.”

There were no injuries related to the store closing, Wal-Mart spokesman Phillip Keene wrote in an e-mail.

“The safety and security of our customers and associates is a top priority at Wal-Mart,” Keene wrote. “We are working with authorities as they investigate.”

Wal-Mart employees were allowed to re-enter the store about 6 p.m., Speers said. Store managers said they will keep a close eye on customers and employees to make sure no one else has similar respiratory symptoms, he said.

“If anybody complains of any symptoms, we’ll be back there,” Speers said

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RWDSU President Slams Wal-Mart Hypocrisy

Earth Times
June 27th, 2008                    [back to top]

The president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union today blasted the announcement by Wal-Mart that it would notify its employees about the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and challenged the giant retailer to take similar steps to notify workers of their legal right to organize for union representation.

RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum, whose union has led efforts to prevent Wal-Mart from opening in New York City, said that "rather than encourage employees to sign up for a tax credit for low income workers, Wal-Mart ought to respect the right of workers to a union contract and middle-class wages."

"If hypocrisy was an Olympic sport Wal-Mart would hold the record for gold medals," Appelbaum said, adding that the company, whose revenues now top $300 billion, has "ruthlessly fought every effort by workers to organize."

Pointing out that Wal-Mart officials said they would inform workers about the EITC through its internal Web site, messages on pay stubs, and notices in store break rooms, Appelbaum said the retail giant should use the same means to inform its employees of their legal right to organize for union representation.

"Since none of Wal-Mart's executives seem to understand that workers actually have the legal right to organize I'm more than happy to send them a copy of the law," Appelbaum said.

With more than 100,000 members working in the retail sector and other industries, the RWDSU is an affiliate of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

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Police say Wal-Mart snubbed efforts to cut shoplifting

By Senta Scarborough ,
Arizona Republic
June 27th, 2008                               [back to top] 

Mesa police are using the equivalent of two full-time officers to answer shoplifting calls at Mesa Wal-Marts, but efforts to help the big-box retailer curtail theft have largely been pushed aside.

Thefts at Wal-Mart's seven Supercenters rose 89 percent from 2006 to 2007, police records show. Police estimate thefts will rise 117 percent this year if the January-through-May numbers continue at their current pace.

Police were called to Mesa Wal-Marts on 376 shoplifting thefts in 2007, with thieves generally targeting electronics, clothing, beauty products and alcohol.

Mesa police brought their concerns to local and corporate Wal-Mart representatives last fall and have since provided detailed crime statistics to help focus the store's loss-prevention efforts and offered expertise to bring down crime.

In March, the department's four-member crime prevention unit conducted a free CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) assessments at the seven Wal-Mart Superstores. Out of that came an 18-page report to help protect the stores from thieves.

"We are targeting where the problem is," Mesa Police Chief George Gascón said. "We want the thefts to stop and believe we can reduce them considerably."

But Wal-Mart's response has been disappointing, he said.

"They are not seeming to want to work with us. They say the right things and never follow through," Gascón said.

Wal-Mart corporate spokesman Dan Fogleman said the chain appreciates the department's efforts "to identify these people breaking the law and prosecuting them to make our community safer."

"We are always open to discussion, and we evaluate suggestions against the needs of our customers and business as a whole," he said.

But Wal-Mart has apparently yet to adopt any of the suggested changes.

"It has cost the city twice with lost opportunity for sales tax and police resources, processing and court costs," Gascón said. "We are not asking them to spend money. It's really altering business practices."

But Fogleman said the company's top priority is the security of its customers and employees.

"Nothing is more important than providing a safe and pleasurable (shopping experience) and working environment for customers and associates," Fogleman said. "Unfortunately, crime occurs in any community."

Prevention strategies

In the past nine months, police have provided data that show not only what merchandise is being stolen most often but also the peak times and days for theft.

Among the changes Gascón would like to see:

• Have greeters check receipts when a customer enters for returns and leaves the stores with purchases, much like Costco. Last year, Wal-Mart agreed to implement a similar program called Asset Protection Exit Greeter Program, a pilot approach used in its Las Vegas stores, to at least one Mesa store. The program was supposed to start this year but has not. Fogleman said the program hasn't come along as quickly as the company had hoped, but added it's no guarantee that police calls would drop. He said calls actually could increase because they might catch more people.

• Put a uniformed security guard at the main entrance as a visible crime deterrent. The store's asset-prevention staff is plainclothes security.

• Enclose the electronics "bullpen" areas so people would have to pay before they leave the area.

These and other issues prompted Gascón to ask for a meeting in Mesa with a corporate representative, but the request was passed back to a local Wal-Mart representative. Communication has been slow.

"We are not anti-business or anti-Wal-Mart," Gascón said. "They do bring in money to the city, but it isn't a license to waste police resources."

Target has been working with Mesa police and has seen an 18 percent decline in shoplifting cases from 2006 to 2007, said Mesa police community partnership coordinator Denise Traves, who oversees a program working with business to reduce crime.

"The solutions are simple, not expensive, easy to implement. It's not rocket science," Traves said.

Wal-Mart has participated regularly with the Mesa Retail Asset Protection Program, created last fall by Mesa police. The group meets monthly with local retailers to share information on shoplifters and organized retail-crime suspects.

Fogleman said Wal-Mart's asset-protection staff takes measures to prevent crime and aggressively works to catch lawbreakers.

Some of the recommendations made by Mesa crime prevention specialists already were in place, including pan, tilt and zoom surveillance systems and crime prevention signs warning of prosecution and video surveillance.

Fogleman said Wal-Mart promotes "aggressive hospitality" where employees acknowledge any customers within 10 feet as a way to help welcome people and prevent crime.

But police said there is no consistency in crime-prevention measures at the stores.

"What we are seeing is they have a desire to meet the needs, but, unfortunately, I don't know if it meets their marketing strategies," Traves said. "I don't know how much they have tried. We have attempted to educate them and they are not getting it. We are just not seeing the effort."

Top Mesa shoplifting locations

January through May 2008

• Superstition Springs Center: 184*

• Fiesta Mall: 112*

• Wal-Mart, 1955 S. Stapley Drive: 91

• Wal-Mart, 4505 E. McKellips Road: 83

• Wal-Mart, 857 N. Dobson Road: 77

• Wal-Mart, 240 W. Baseline Road: 55

• Target, 1230 S. Longmore: 55

*Total includes several stores in the mall.

Source: Mesa Police Department

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Study: Bennington Wal-Mart would hurt other businesses

By AP,
Rutland Herald
June 26th, 2008                  [back to top]

Doubling the size of Bennington’s Wal-Mart store would provide short-term growth of about 75 new retail jobs, but would trigger-long term job losses at it hurt local businesses, a new economic study has found.

Economic consultants Kavet, Rockler & Associates said construction costs on the expansion project would be about $16 million, and that sales would be expected to more than double, to about $48 million in the first year of the bigger Wal-Mart’s operations.

But it said, “Most of the expanded store’s growth will come at the expense of existing stores in the served market area, with some impact on downtown but even more on commercial areas north of the town center.

On the jobs front, the report said, “In 2009, operation of the expanded store will generate a total of about 78 jobs, mostly in the retail trade sector. Total county employment impacts over the longer term, however, shrink to zero by 2013 and ultimately decline by about 35 jobs,” the report states.

The report estimates that 10 to 15 percent of the existing downtown businesses are likely to be hurt by the Wal-Mart expansion, including those selling clothing, beauty and hair products, sporting goods, electronics, eye wear and home and hardware goods. It added that empty storefronts may remain so for longer periods.

The Wal-Mart expansion, proposed by store owner BLS Bennington, LLC, would roughly double the current store’s size to 112,000 feet. It has been hotly debated in town for years.

The town passed a cap on the size of retail stores at 75,000 feet, only to have residents overturn it in a special election in April of 2005.

The town granted permits for the project in January of 2006; it’s now before the District 8 Environmental Commission.

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Wal-Mart sued by customer in premises liability complaint

By Steve Gonzalez,
The Madison St. Clair Record
June 25th, 2008                                      [back to top]

A woman who was injured at the Highland Wal-Mart filed a personal injury suit against the retailer in Madison County Circuit Court June 23, alleging the property was not kept in a reasonably safe condition. Maureen Neal claims she was at the Wal-Mart on Nov. 5, 2007, for the purpose of assisting one of her students in unloading merchandise from a Wal-Mart trailer when one of the trailer doors swung closed on her leg and foot without warning. Neal claims Wal-Mart owed her a duty to exercise ordinary care to see that its property was reasonably safe for the use of those lawfully on the property. Despite that duty, Neal alleges Wal-Mart was negligent by failing to properly secure the trailer doors and failed to warn or otherwise notify her that the trailer doors were not secured. She claims the incident has caused and will continue to cause her to incur medical expenses, lose income, sustain pain and suffering and suffer from a disability. Represented by Joseph Hillebrand of Kassly, Bone English & Hillebrand in Belleville, Neal is seeking a judgment in excess of $100,000, plus costs. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Daniel Stack.

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Anadarko family sues Wal-Mart for developing child porn

KSWO
June 25th, 2008                        [back to top]

Anadarko_The man accused of a horrible case of child abuse, child pornography, and incest, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison for the crimes, and the victims' family wants one of the world's largest corporations to pay for not reporting his disgusting actions. The victims' family says the Wal-Mart store in Anadarko developed hundreds, possibly thousands, of child pornography photos of the victims before ever calling police. The two victims from Anadarko are sisters - 13 and 17 years old - and earlier this year their great uncle pled guilty to abusing and taking pornographic photos of them. Police learned about Robert Strange's horrible crimes after receiving a phone call in February from the Wal-Mart photo lab in Anadarko. The lab reported pornographic photos of the two victims, and it was later reported that they were not the first photos of that nature Strange had taken. "We found out that Wal-Mart, for a period of several years, had been developing the child pornography," says the victims' attorney, David Butler. Butler says Wal-Mart broke Oklahoma laws regarding child pornography. "If they see anything they even question to be child abuse or pornography, they're required to report that immediately to law enforcement," he says. "Obviously, that didn't happen in this case because it had been going on for two or three years." Butler says that Robert Strange may be one of his best witnesses, since he admits he took the photos and had Wal-Mart print them. "If it had been reported the first time it was brought in there, he could have been arrested the first time, and these girls would not have had to undergone the abuse they suffered for several more years," says Butler. Butler admits that taking on one of the world's largest corporate giants will be an uphill battle, but he says the two victims deserve it. "They have unlimited resources, and you know you're in for a fight, but we believe it's a valid fight, and we're willing to go the distance for our clients." The lawsuit is filed in Caddo County, and although Butler would not say just how much money the family is seeking, he says it's more than $10,000. 7News contacted Wal-Mart's legal department, and a spokeswoman there said that they have not received a copy of the lawsuit yet. However, they are beginning to research the matter after learning of the story.

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August hearing set for former Wal-Mart executive

Associated Press
06.24.08                                        [back to top]

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - A hearing is set for Aug. 22 over whether convicted former Wal-Mart executive Tom Coughlin is entitled to his retirement package valued at up to $15 million.

Coughlin, who was convicted of embezzling from the world's largest retailer, filed a counterclaim against Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ), accusing the company of conducting a "witch hunt" against him. Coughlin, the former vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., was sentenced to 27 months of home detention, plus 1,500 hours of community service. He also had to pay $400,000 in restitution.

In a response to Coughlin's counterclaim, Wal-Mart says the former executive is not entitled to his retirement package because he defrauded the company. Coughlin pleaded guilty in 2006 to five counts of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion.

The Bentonville-based retailer also denied Coughlin's claims that Wal-Mart committed a tort of outrage, causing him mental anguish.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved

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Wal-Mart spin is thick with lies

By David Fick,
Hi Desert Star
June 24th, 2008                     [back to top]

“Wal-Mart benefits people, environment” was the title of Mr. John Mendez’s Guest Soapbox Saturday.

Mr. Mendez, a senior manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart, starts his spin early with a fantasy engagement with me. I’ve heard enough “that’s a good question” to know what follows is usually not a good answer.

“As Mr. Fick stated,” he begins, and then proceeds to say things I never stated, showing his well-worn craft that makes him the big bucks.

Mr. Mendez states a new store is needed “because Yucca Valley’s population has increased almost two-thirds since the early 1990s.” Yet Wal-Mart’s own environmental impact report analysis says the 1990 YV population was 16,403 and 2005 YV population 19,726. That’s a 19 percent increase, hardly two-thirds!

Don’t people ever read these EIRs?

Also from the Wal-Mart EIR: “Utilizing employment factors … the proposed project is anticipated to generate approximately 589 jobs.” But Mr. Mendez in his Soapbox is, once again, saying something different, that Wal-Mart Supercenter plans to employ about 410 people (260 current, 150 new). That’s 410, not 589, underpaid, off-the-clock and videotaped people working for that big global company in Arkansas. What’s the truth here?

There’s a lot of tall-talking about Wal-Mart Supercenter and that’s all it is. Some dismiss it as spin, exaggerations or even falsehoods, but they do their job. Wal-Mart spends millions per day on public relations to impress people and send the profits along to Arkansas.

MBCA benefits people and the environment of the Morongo Basin without the lies and money. Instead, we fight with heart and truthful information.

Hope to see you tonight at Yucca Valley Community Center, before 6 pm.

David Fick
Morongo Basin Conservation Association

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Naked Truth Investing: Wal-Mart customers 'save money' and 'live better' while Wal-Mart employees pay more for their 401(k) plan and retire broke

By Daniel Solin ,
Blogging Stocks
June 24th, 2008                           [back to top]

This is the part of a new series of columns called "The Naked Truth," by retirement expert Dan Solin. Please bring him your questions, in the comments box, and he will answer as many as he can. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is the world's largest company with over $380 billion in revenues. It's success is based on it ability to squeeze vendors to the breaking point. The largest manufacturers are no match for this retail giant. Wal-Mart's 401(k) plan has over $9.5 billion in assets. Its modestly paid employees count on this plan to fund their retirement. A recent class action lawsuit makes allegations which, if true, will cause many of these employees to be great disappointed. The suit alleges that Wal-Mart's 401(k) plan pays "retail" for its mutual funds, instead of the institutional rate for the same funds. Institutional funds require a minimum investment ranging from $100,000 up to $1 million. Clearly, not a big hurdle for Wal-Mart's mega 401(k) plan. The difference in cost between retail and institutional funds is significant. The average annual expense ratio for retail equity mutual funds is around 1.50%. The same expense ratio for an institutional fund is around 0.50%. A 1% difference in costs doesn't seem like much but it can add up. On an initial investment of $50,000, it could cost investors as much as $19,000 over 20 years, assuming an 8% rate of return. The failure to insist on lower cost institutional funds is not the only problem with Wal-Mart's 401(k) plan. It is populated with high expense ratio, actively managed funds, despite the fact that lower cost, actively manged funds, with similar benchmarks and better performance, are available from fund families like Vanguard. Yet even these obvious deficiencies still don't address the primary problem with the plan. Why are actively managed funds included at all? The plan should consist solely of low-cost, broadly diversified, domestic and international stock and bond index funds, and target retirement funds, made up of low-cost index funds. The complaint alleges that, if Wal-Mart had followed this practice, the plan would have increased in value by an additional $140 million for the six-year period ending January 31, 2007. Has Wal-Mart lost its negotiating mojo? Or has it succumbed to a flawed 401(k) system that places the interests of employers, brokers, consultants and the mutual fund industry above those of its employees? Dan Solin is the author of The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read (Perigee Books 2006) and The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read (Perigee Books, June 24, 2008). Visit his website at Smartestinvestmentbook.com

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Size of Northcross Wal-Mart Drastically Reduced

Austin Business Journal
June 24th, 2008                         [back to top]

Wal-Mart plans to cut the size of its controversial store at Northcross Mall almost in half.

The retail giant already had city approval to build a 192,000-square-foot store on the site at Burnet Road and Anderson Lane. But now Wal-Mart says it will reduce the store's footprint to 99,000 square feet as part of a nationwide reevaluation of its new stores.

The planned store will now be just one story instead of two and will have surface parking in lieu of a garage. Groceries will remain part of the merchandise mix but a garden center and auto shop will be eliminated in the new plan, a spokesperson says. The design aesthetic of the building will remain largely intact. Construction has not yet begun on the store since developer Lincoln Property Co. has been concentrating its attention on another portion of the site.

Since the plan was unveiled in late 2006, Lincoln Property Co., the group redeveloping the aging mall, and Wal-Mart have drawn fire from area residents who said the store would create tremendous traffic problems in the area among other issues. Several lawsuits were filed but none was successful in stopping the development.

Lisa Elledge, senior manager of public affairs and government relations for Wal-Mart says the company is currently working to complete the modifications to the store. She says once Wal-Mart and the developer "have finalized the site plan...the parties intend to provide more details to the city of Austin and the surrounding neighborhoods."

Responsible Growth for Northcross, a group of area residents and business owners that formed to oppose the Wal-Mart plan, said the scaled back store is a better fit for the neighborhood. RG4N had been planning to appeal its lost lawsuit decision, but the group now says that won't be necessary.

"We still think a mixed-use development is the ideal (use) for that location, but at least their new plan is something that can work without hurting the surrounding neighborhoods and small businesses," says Hope Morrison, RG4N's president.

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Whole Foods and Wal-Mart Execs Agree: We’re Not Green

By Lisa Everitt ,
B Net
June 23rd, 2008                               [back to top]

Put a Wal-Mart guy and a Whole Foods guy on the same stage to talk sustainability at a conference in Boulder, and what happens? Interesting things.

Fresh from their morning yoga and organic luncheon, a not particularly friendly audience of execs and marketers heard Wal-Mart senior director of corporate responsibility Rand Waddoups say: “Wal-Mart is not a green company.” Countered Michael Besancon, southwest regional president for Whole Foods Market: “If Wal-Mart is not a green company, then Whole Foods is not a green company. We do a lot of green things, and we have green intentions, but we don’t believe that we are, and we try not to say that we are.” Later in the discussion, asked by eco-journalist Simran Sethi whether Wal-Mart sells products containing genetically modified organisms, Waddoups answered, “Everybody is.”

Sethi started to pursue the point but Besancon interrupted. “We are too,” he said. “We sell GM foods. We can’t source corn and soy in every product… we can’t control everything manufacturers do.” Because of this, consumers as well as retailers must push for transparency of the supply chain, Waddoups said. Added Besancon: “The more questions you ask, the more answers you get that you don’t want to hear.”

Sustainability, Besancon added, creates a great deal of tension between the three legs of the “triple bottom line”: People, planet, and profits. Replacing plastic bags, which cost a penny each, with paper bags, which cost as much as 17 cents each, is not a zero-sum move.

Waddoups was the salty snack buyer at Wal-Mart, sharing a cubicle with the water buyer, when the company responded to Hurricane Katrina more quickly and effectively than the government did — starting with 18-wheelers full of bottled water. That showed him — and the rest of management — that the world’s largest company could be a potent power for good. “We’re trying to be as good as we were during Hurricane Katrina all the time,” he said. “What’s happening now with the climate is like Hurricane Katrina in slow motion.” Besancon, who went to work at a southern California health food store 38 years ago, noted that Waddoups started corporate and adopted a sustainable viewpoint, whereas “I started out as a hippie and became a hard-assed businessman.” From my notebook:

•Food price inflation is the most challenging aspect of the current economic environment for Whole Foods. Having been able to take advantage of “incredible price elasticity” on high-end foods, the company now has to add value to support its higher prices, such as the “Whole Trade” certification. Asked to go beyond what’s already required by Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance, vendors have complained but more than 70 are participating in the new program, Besancon said.

•While Wal-Mart asks its 60,000 vendors to support sustainability measures, the company has found that operational changes are much easier to manage. “We (once) thought of energy expense as a noncontrollable expense,” Waddoups said, citing a supercenter in Las Vegas that cut energy expenses 45 percent in two years.

•Sometimes a sustainability change is a win-win-win. Wal-Mart now sells Radio Flyer tricycles out of the box, “because who needs a box?” Waddoups said. Because selling it without a box meant it had to be easier to assemble, it’s also easier to display, so “sales are great on it.” Reducing waste has always been a cultural value at Wal-Mart. “Sam Walton was the master of getting rid of waste,” Waddoups said.

•If last year was the year of the compact fluorescent, and this year is the year to bring your own bag and stop drinking bottled water, what happens next? “Spoilage,” said Besancon. “We discovered we were throwing a lot of stuff out.” In his four-state, 38-store region, Whole Foods composted 15 million pounds of trash last year that would have gone into landfills — “and that’s after food banks” take anything that’s still edible.

•While Waddoups is one of a three-person corporate responsibility team, Wal-Mart established sustainability captains at 40,000 stores. Each employee has a “Personal Sustainability Project” that ranges from quitting smoking (20,000 people) to making all Wal-Mart seafood compliant with Marine Stewardship Council guidelines (fish buyer Peter Redmond). “Sustainability is about individual choices in the aggregate,” Waddoups noted — and Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott has told associates that sustainability will be key to getting promoted.

•Michael Pollan’s accusation of “industrial organics” in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” was a wake-up call for Whole Foods, Besancon said. While he supports buying local and is conscious of food security, his overriding goal for nearly 40 years has been to remove synthetic chemicals from agriculture “and the reason we support industrial organic is because that’s how it gets done. It wasn’t going to get done one little farm at a time.” When he heard that Wal-Mart was the No. 1 seller of organic produce and organic cotton clothing, “I said, damn, my life has been successful. I won.”

•Whole Foods and three personal care manufacturers (Avalon Natural Products, Nutri Biotics? and Beaumont Products) were sued June 12 by California Attorney General Jerry Brown for selling products that contain a potential carcinogen, 1,4-dioxane. “What the hell’s up with Jerry?” Besancon asked. “Why in the hell doesn’t he sue Revlon? I don’t get it.”

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Local News for Northwest Arkansas

By Kimberly Morrison,
The Morning News
June 23rd, 2008                          [back to top]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in 2007 continued to slip down a list of corporate reputation rankings, according to a survey.

The Bentonville-based retailer ranked No. 44 on the Harris Interactive report, which ranks the reputations of the country's 60 "most visible" companies based on consumer perception surveys.

It was the third consecutive year Wal-Mart's score on the list declined.

Wal-Mart's slipped score was the also the third largest rating change, trailing behind Bank of America and Halliburton Co., which saw more significant declines in reputation scores.

Wal-Mart has similarly dropped down Fortune Magazine's list of America's most admired companies.

Wal-Mart in 2003 and 2004 was America's No. 1 most admired company on Fortune Magazine's list, but fell to No. 12 in 2005. The retailer in 2007 dropped to No. 19.

Wal-Mart isn't too concerned with reports on its reputation.

"At a time when the public and Wal-Mart customers specifically are being pressed financially to make ends meet, we think the ultimate measure of reputation is sales," said Greg Rossiter, a Wal-Mart spokesman. "Our sales over the last several months demonstrate pretty clearly that the public trusts Wal-Mart to help them save money to live better."

The retailer has in recent years set out to be a better corporate citizen by incorporating health care and environmental sustainability initiatives into its business. But it may take time for the public to shift their perceptions of the retailer, said Sam Waltz, the director of Sam Waltz & Associates and a specialist in corporate reputational management.

"When there's acute reputational damage that becomes chronic reputational damage, it becomes a very difficult thing to regain positive attributes," Waltz said.

"In other words, it can take some time to get public credit for the good work Wal-Mart is doing now. It could take months and years because there's people who look at them with a political paradigm and just do not want to give them credit."

Nearly half of the American public surveyed said that companies need to address global social issues such as poverty, hunger and disease. Yet treatment of employees, including labor practices and human rights, continued to be a the most important measurement in evaluating a company, according to the report.

Harris Interactive, a Rochester, New York-based market research company, surveyed more than 20,000 people and asked them to rate on a point scale a company's reputation on 20 attributes like vision and leadership, emotional appeal, financial performance and social responsibility.

Each survey participant is asked to rate one randomly selected company from the 60 included and each is given the option to rate a second company.

About 535 people rate each company.

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Mother's Lawsuit Blames Wal-Mart for Premature Birth

FoxNews.com
June 21st, 2008                          [back to top]

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — A Hagerstown woman who filed suit against Wal-Mart is asking for damages for herself and her son, who, she says, was born prematurely after she fell in a store.

Radhia Haj-Mabrouk contends in the suit filed Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court that she slipped on water on the floor in the Wal-Mart on Garden Groh Boulevard in August 2005, fell and was hurt.

Haj-Mabrouk was pregnant then and her son was delivered by emergency C-section later that day, the suit says.Haj-Mabrouk is seeking $1 million on her behalf and $2 million on behalf of her son, Lofti Haj-Mabrouk, according to the lawsuit.

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said Friday that Wal-Mart had not yet been served with the lawsuit.

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Like Clock Work: Wal-Mart Faces 80 Class Actions, Most from Off-The-Clock Allegations

By Kimberly Morrison,
The Morning News
June 21st, 2008                                [back to top]

Wal-Mart has worked overtime to show its kinder, gentler side, but accusations of workplace misdeeds are surfacing in a slew of class-action lawsuits that continue to challenge the retailers new image.

There are at least 80 class-action lawsuits in 41 states pending against the Bentonville-based retailer, 76 of which stem from wage and off-the-clock issues, according to Wal-Mart's 10K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

There are more cases against the Bentonville-based retailer than those disclosed in Wal-Mart's federal filings. Companies are not required to disclose all legal proceedings, just those that may result in "material" financial losses, or more than 10 percent of the current assets of the company.

Among the lawsuits facing Wal-Mart, The Morning News examined five cases. The cases represent potentially the largest judgments or potential financial impact, or the highest number of plaintiffs.

Dukes v. Wal-Mart is a standout. It's being called a landmark case in employment discrimination. The suit's 1.6 million plaintiffs, representing all of Wal-Mart's female employees, makes it the largest sex-bias case in U.S. legal history.

"The company can not reasonably estimate the possible loss or range of loss that may arise from these lawsuits," Wal-Mart stated in its federal filing with the SEC.

There are, however, a few suits from which the retailer might expect to take a blow.

Wal-Mart is facing a $198 million lunch tab from Savaglio v. Wal-Mart, a class-action lawsuit in which employees said they were not provided meal and rest breaks in accordance with California state law.

A similar case in Pennsylvania involved complaints of missed meal and rest breaks and other failures to pay employees for all time worked. That case -- Braun/Hummel v. Wal-Mart -- resulted in a judgment against Wal-Mart of nearly $188 million.

Wal-Mart has consistently denied wrongdoing in these and other cases.

Both Savaglio and Braun/Hummel cases are tied up in appeals, delaying the payout to 301,000 current and former employees that make up the two lawsuits.

It also means the retailer hasn't yet footed the combined $251 million bill.

But can any of these lawsuits financially threaten a retailer that made $12.8 billion in net income in its more recent fiscal year?

"It's not like they wouldn't be able to pay the light bill if they had a billion dollar settlement," said Patricia Edwards, fund manager with San Francisco-based Wentworth, Hauser and Violic. "It wouldn't be good, don't get me wrong. But the low point in cash last year at quarter end was just short of $5 billion."

Edwards said Wal-Mart reserves cash for potential future lawsuit payouts so there would be a reduced impact on shareholders in the event of such a case. With Wal-Mart's ability to absorb some of the impact, a billion dollar payout may show up in earnings as a loss of 5 cents per share, Edwards said.

There's also consolation, Edwards said, that there doesn't seem to be a lot of new cases in the pipeline, an indication that Wal-Mart may have changed its ways.

"If you're dealing with things that happened three to five years ago and you've changed and are not doing those things anymore, then you have to look at the company on a go-forward basis rather than what's happened before," Edwards said.

But the ghosts of Wal-Mart have yet to haunt the retailer.

The following are summaries and updates of the largest cases facing Wal-Mart.

DUKES V. WAL-MART

Among all the cases facing Wal-Mart, this one is the mother lode.

Dukes v. Wal-Mart represents a whopping 1.6 million female employees and alleges Wal-Mart systematically discriminated against women in promotions, pay, training and job assignments.

"Wal-Mart has strong equal employment opportunity policies, and fosters female leadership both among its associates and in the larger business world," Daphne Moore, Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said in an e-mail statement. "Wal-Mart has consistently maintained that class certification is inappropriate because the alleged experiences of the six women who brought this suit are not representative of our female associates."

The case was brought on behalf of all past and present female employees in the company's U.S. retail stores and warehouse clubs since 1998. Six women, including two who still work at Wal-Mart stores, originally filed the suit in 2001.

Wal-Mart in December lost its second bid to have a federal appeals court in San Francisco reconsider a lower-court decision to grant class-action status.

Wal-Mart is still fighting the court's decision.

A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court split 2-to-1 in the decision to uphold the class-action status. The retailer on Jan. 8 filed a petition for "rehearing en banc," or, by the full 15-judge panel.

Both sides are waiting on the Ninth Circuit to set a briefing schedule so they can respond to arguments.

After briefing, the court could still take several months to resolve the panel and "en banc" reviews, said Brad Seligman of Berkeley, Calif.-based The Impact Fund and lead attorney for the eight firms representing the plaintiffs.

"At root, this is not a novel case," Seligman said. "It is a very straightforward case about whether Wal-Mart is paying women less than men and not promoting them as often as they should."

The plaintiffs seek, among other things, injunctive relief, front pay, back pay, punitive damages, and attorney's fees. And the final tally on that, should the plaintiffs win their case, could amount to more than a billion dollars.

"Based on the analysis we presented to the court in 2003, it didn't take any mental gymnastics to get to the billion dollar range," Seligman said. "I'm sure it's more now."

HALE V. WAL-MART

A case that began in 2002 with five former employees in Missouri has since swelled to more than 200,000.

The plaintiffs, who worked for the company's stores and discount warehouses between 1996 and 2003, allege systematic understaffing and overtime limits were enforced through the retailer's corporate policies and a bonus incentive plan for managers based on strict payroll and staffing controls. The understaffing caused employees to miss breaks and work off the clock without compensation, the plaintiffs allege.

The Missouri Court of Appeals last June upheld the suits' class-action status, originally granted in 2005. A trial has been set for April 6, 2009.

It will be a trial nine years in the making since plaintiffs first filed the suit. But it's time that Steve Long, lead trial attorney with Denver-based Shughart, Thomson & Kilroy and one of the 12 attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said was well-spent.

"I think the Missouri courts took a long time to make sure they got it right and making sure this was a proper class action," Long said. "Hopefully it will allow us to avoid a lot of post-trial issues because so much has been decided already."

Long has gone up against Wal-Mart before. Colorado-based attorneys Gerald Bader and Franklin Azar tapped Long for help representing Wal-Mart workers in Colorado in a similar off-the-clock lawsuit. That case reportedly settled for $50 million.

Long's career in business litigation spans more than 30 years and 60 jury trials, but said facing off with Wal-Mart is a daunting task.

"Wal-Mart is a formidable defendant," Long said. "They fight very hard for what they believe, and they fight very hard to protect the way they practice their business in order to preserve their profits. Since they make a lot of money, they can fight very hard."

BRAUN/HUMMEL v. WAL-MART

The class-action lawsuit initially filed by Michelle Braun in 2002 was soon followed by another lawsuit filed by Dolores Hummel in 2004. The litigants proceeded separately until the estimated 186,000 plaintiffs were consolidated for trial in September 2006, according to court documents.

The plaintiffs alleged that they were forced to miss rest breaks and work off the clock from March 1998 through May 2006.

A three-month, 32-day trial ended in a jury siding with the plaintiffs, and found that Wal-Mart failed to pay workers for all the work they performed and refused to allow workers to take their paid mandatory rest breaks.

The jury awarded damages of $78.8 million.

A Pennsylvania judge later awarded $62.3 million in damages, $10.2 million in interest and $36.5 million in attorney's fees for the five firms representing the plaintiffs.

The final judgment was $187.6 million.

"The company believes it has substantial factual and legal defenses to the claims at issue," Wal-Mart said in its federal filing. The company filed a notice of appeal in December.

SAVAGLIO V. WAL-MART

The largest verdict to date against the retailer is Savaglio v. Wal-Mart, which also grabbed the No. 10 spot on The National Law Journal's list of top verdicts from 2005.

The allegations in this case are like the others -- they were not provided meal and rest breaks in accordance with state law. In California, employees working more than 6 hours receive a 30-minute meal break or an additional hour pay. Wal-Mart, the workers allege, did neither.

The 2005 jury trial of the case resulted in a verdict of $57 million in statutory penalties and $115 million in punitive damages. The judge later in 2006 awarded the plaintiffs an additional $26 million in costs and attorney's fees.

Wal-Mart stated in its federal filing that "the company believes it has substantial factual and legal defenses to the claims at issue."

The retailer in January filed its notice of appeal.

"We won and Wal-Mart has appealed virtually everything under the sun," said Michael Christian, attorney with Minneapolis-based Zelle, Hofmann, Voelbel & Gette LLP. "Nothing happens during the pendancy of that appeal. The briefing will be completed within the next months and at that point, the court will likely set an oral argument for some point in the fall."

Christian is still working with the case, but has since moved to Zelle Hofmann from San Francisco-based The Furth Firm, which maintains control of the case.

BRAUN v. WAL-MART

A verdict is waiting in the wings for a Minnesota class-action suit representing 56,000 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club employees.

The trial began in January. Over the next two and a half months of trial, attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that Wal-Mart owes employees more than $50 million for unpaid work, including 8 million missed meal and rest breaks, and falsified time cards.

Wal-Mart attorneys have denied the allegations.

"Wal-Mart did not force anybody to do anything," company attorney Neal Manne said as the trial concluded April 1.

Plaintiffs claimed stores were understaffed and managers were pressured to meet store performance goals. They allege that store managers falsified timecards and asked employees to work before clocking in and after clocking out.

Debbie Simpson, a former employee and original plaintiff in the suit, testified she missed breaks because there was too much work and no one was available to cover for her. She eventually resigned from her position as a department manager.

"Wal-Mart is chronically understaffed and we have a significant amount of evidence showing that -- not just ours, but Wal-Mart's own records," said Justin Perl, who leads the case for Minneapolis-based Maslon, Edleman, Borman & Brond LLP. "Wal-Mart is now contending that its own time records are inaccurate."

The workers are seeking back pay to 1998 and as much as $1,000 per violation.

Judge Robert King Jr. said he would issue a decision on liability, back pay and willfulness by July 1. A jury trial would decide damages in a second trial to start Oct. 20, should King rule in favor of Wal-Mart's employees.

BEYOND THE FIVE

Wal-Mart has argued in the cases that circumstances are individual and not representative of worker's conditions at its stores, and has vigorously challenged the class-action certifications for every case.

"Wal-Mart is committed to treating its associates fairly and in accordance with the law," Moore said in an e-mail statement. "It is our policy to pay every associate for every hour worked, and any manager who violates that policy is subject to discipline, up to and including termination. The great majority of courts across the nation have ruled that cases like this are not properly suited for treatment as class actions because every individual's circumstances are unique."

Wal-Mart additionally stated in its March 31 federal filing with the SEC that class certification has yet to be addressed in a majority of cases, but where it has, the company's tally goes like this -- certification was denied in nine cases, granted in 11 cases, conditionally granted in three cases, denied in nine cases and in two cases, certification was granted, but the case was subsequently dismissed.

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Wal-Mart plans IT back office in Bangalore

By Boby Kurian
& PP Thimmaya,
Economic Times
June 20th, 2008                                [back to top] 

BANGALORE: A new address may be added to Bangalore’s already-crowded IT landscape. Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, is mulling a captive IT/ITeS unit in India’s tech capital, with the potential to create several hundred jobs, sources said.

The $388-billion retail giant, based in Bentonville in the US, has outsourcing ties with IT vendors like Infosys and has done a recce for developing a captive shared service centre to cater to multiple functions in its worldwide operations. Besides IT development and maintenance, a shared service centre supports different parts of a global enterprise such as HR, finance and accounting.

Sources said Wal-Mart looked at a few potential locations before more or less zeroing in on Bangalore. While a definite call on the captive unit is still pending, Wal-Mart is believed to have scouted for senior tech personnel to take the idea forward.

“Wal-Mart is expanding its IT resources globally, including India, to support its growing international business and operations in India. However, we have made no further announcements to that growth. We currently have no plans for a captive development centre in India,” a Wal-Mart spokesperson said. Wal-Mart’s information systems division is centralised at Bentonville, with a large pool of Indian techies on board. But going forward, the retail behemoth may be looking at developing IT hubs globally to bolster its round-the-clock support services.

In February this year, the retailer said it was expanding IT staffing in India through outsourcing deals with unidentified vendors. The press statement at the time mentioned that Wal-Mart was expanding outsourcing even as it created several hundred new jobs in Northwest Arkansas in the US. Some observers said Wal-Mart may firm up plans only after the US presidential elections later this year as the flight of jobs abroad continues to be a sensitive issue in America. Interestingly, the development comes when there’s a raging but inconclusive debate about the long-term viability of captive IT units on concerns of escalating costs.

But several global retailers like Tesco, Target and Supervalu have set up captive support centres in Bangalore in the last 3-4 years. A source said Wal-Mart may kick off the captive centre with a small operation and may even rope in a dedicated third-party vendor to start with a small basket of offerings. But Wal-Mart’s global peers have set up their own captives due to the fact that no large Indian IT/ITeS player has the capability to provide end-to-end services in the dynamic and complex world of retailing.

UK’s Tesco, the world’s third-largest retailer behind Wal-Mart and Carrefour, set up a captive centre nearly four years ago, and currently employs over 2,700 people. Tesco Hindustan Service Centre caters to the entire IT life-cycle management of the parent’s global retail operations, besides support businesses and finance services like payroll and pension management as well as store design support. In fact, the Hindustan Service Centre played a crucial supportive role in Tesco’s recent high-profile foray into the US market pitting it against Wal-Mart on the latter’s home turf.

At the same time, India’s outsourcing majors have been deepening their retail vertical offerings, with Infosys counting Wal-Mart and Tesco among its clients while TCS does work for Home Depot. Most frontline IT companies have projected a substantial ramp-up in their retail vertical, with the rapidly-expanding domestic retail sector showing huge potential.

Wal-Mart has entered into a joint venture with the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Group for cash & carry operations while Carrefour and Tesco are rumoured to be in advanced discussions with local suitors for similar tie-ups.

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SmartCare closes 15 Wal-Mart med clinics,

By Joyzelle Davis
Rocky Mountain News
June 20th, 2008                           [back to top] 

SmartCare Family Medical Centers on Friday unexpectedly shut its 15 in-store health clinics located in Wal-Mart stores throughout Colorado.

Wal-Mart had no prior notice, company spokesman William Wertz said.

SmartCare's public relations agency issued a statement confirming the closures and referred questions to the company's Texas headquarters, which didn't return a call.

The in-store clinics treated common medical problems like strep throat and ear infections for a $65 flat fee. The clinics, staffed with nurse practitioners, were open from early morning to late evening seven days a week for walk-in appointments.

Several other operators of in-store health care clinics, including New York-based CheckUps, have closed sites amid high operating costs. Last month, CVS/Caremark, the parent of MinuteClinic, said it was curbing growth plans and might shutter some locations.

Wal-Mart contracts with a number of clinic operators nationwide and remains committed to the idea, Wertz said.

It's too soon to tell what Wal-Mart will do with the SmartCare clinic locations, he said, but the store might consider a partnership with local medical centers or other providers.

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Companies deny breaking pledges

By He Huifeng ,
South China Morning Post
June 19th, 2008                                  [back to top]

Some multinational companies hit back yesterday at a Ministry of Commerce report that suggested they had failed to honour pledges made to quake relief efforts in Sichuan .

The report, updated daily on the ministry's website, examined the commitments by 460 companies, including international giants, foreign-invested companies and firms in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, comparing their initial pledge amounts with cash received.

Mainland media reported that at least 11 companies, including multinational giants such as Wal-Mart, Unilever, Google, Texas Instruments and China Steel of Taiwan, had given far less than they had pledged.

Zeng Xiwen , Unilever Greater China vice-president for corporate affairs, questioned the source of the information and denied that the company had not handed over any of the 10 million yuan ($11HK.34 million) it had pledged.

"We have contacted the Ministry of Commerce and discussed the report problem, because the sources used in the report were incorrect," Mr Zeng said. "The department told us they used data from the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment.

"Actually, we never went to the association or the ministry to report our donation figures. We wanted to keep the donation low-profile, instead of making it a promotion."

He said the company had contributed at least 10 million yuan, including 6 million yuan in cash given to the Provincial Charity Federation of Sichuan, 1.5 million yuan in materials donated to quake-hit areas, and 3 million yuan more was being processed by banks.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mou Mingming said she hoped the ministry would contact companies directly to confirm the contributions. "In fact, we made two initial corporate donations. We sent out at least 3 million yuan in materials to the quake areas soon after the disaster," Ms Mou said.

"In all, our donations will be at least 20 million yuan. But the report has confused the public and created misunderstanding about Wal-Mart."

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Woman sues after Wal-Mart worker fell off ladder and hit her

By Cara Bailey,
The West Virginia Record
June 19th, 2008                                    [back to top]

CHARLESTON - A Kanawha County woman has filed a suit against a national retail chain after an employee fell off a ladder and hit her while she was shopping in the store.

Eugenia G. Comer filed the suit May 16 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

According to the suit, Comer was visiting a Kanawha County Wal-Mart on May 19, 2006, when she was injured.

The suit says a Wal-Mart employee was standing on a ladder near Comer when he fell off the ladder and hit Comer.

Comer claims she suffered physical and mental pain, anguish and anxiety, and has been disabled. According to the suit, Comer has undergone treatments, examinations, therapies and other manipulations of her body.

She claims she has suffered a diminished ability to enjoy life and lost wages.

Comer seeks compensatory damages for her injuries and losses.

Attorney Stephen Gaylock is representing Comer. The case has been assigned to Judge Charles King.

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Wal-Mart Recalls More 'Hip Charm' Key Chains

Consumer Affairs
June 19th, 2008                         [back to top]

Wal-Mart is recalling about 39,000 Hip Charm key chains, in addition to 12,000 chains recalled in April.

The charms on the key chain can contain high levels of lead, which is toxic if ingested and can cause adverse health effects.

There have been no injuries reported with the additional key chains included in this recall. The Illinois Attorney General informed Wal-Mart and CPSC in April that the previously recalled key chain was found in the home of a 9-month-old child who was discovered to have high blood levels of lead. The child was observed mouthing this key chain.

The recalled key chains have several charms including a button, clover, leaf, and heart. The charms hang from a silver-colored chain. The words “Hip charm” and the following UPC numbers are printed on the products packaging: 03156811032, 03156811029, 03156811019, 03156811016, 03156811018, 03156811028, and 03156811030.

The key chains were sold at Wal-Mart stores nationwide from April 2005 through June 2008 for between $ .50 and $6. They were made in China.

Consumers should not allow children to handle the key chain and should return it to any Wal-Mart store for a full refund.

For further information, contact Wal-Mart at (800) 925-6278 between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.walmartstores.com.

The recall is being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

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Moms Win Battle Against Wal-Mart

WESH
June 19th, 2008                            [back to top]

A couple of Central Florida stay-at-home moms have taken on the biggest bullies in business and government and won.

The area's environment and drinking water supply could be winners as well.

Lisa Smith and Arlynn Baker walked through what will become Central Florida's newest nature preserve after winning a five-year battle.

It all started because they were determined to prevent their children from having to dodge Wal-Mart traffic in front of their school. The land once was an Atlantic beach.

Authorities said it's a critical recharge area for Titusville's drinking water wells, and there's almost no land like it left.

The two women stirred up so much opposition that it was too hot even for Wal-Mart, and the retail giant backed down.

"This is a perfect example to people elsewhere that, you know, it does look like a mountain, but take one step at a time," Smith said.

The state's land preservation agency, Forever Florida, just voted to buy the property, so now, no one can ever develop it -- all because two mothers refused to give up and refused to be intimidated by red tape or corporate lawyers.

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Adidas Poised to Win $1.60 a Share on Wal-Mart Copycat Sneaker

By Erik Larson,
Bloomberg
June 17th, 2008                      [back to top]

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Adidas AG, which was awarded a $304.6 million verdict against Payless ShoeSource on May 5 for selling knockoff striped sneakers, is poised to win even more from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in a lawsuit making similar claims.

The world's second-biggest sporting-goods maker may collect at least $326 million in damages, the equivalent of $1.60 a share, if a jury agrees Wal-Mart copied Adidas's three-stripe sneakers by selling shoes with two- and four-stripe motifs as Payless did. A jury trial is set to start Oct. 6 in federal court in Portland, Oregon, the same courthouse where the Payless case was decided.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, settled two earlier suits by Adidas over striped sneakers. The company's repeated promises not to mimic Adidas may prompt a jury to award punitive damages much higher than those against Payless, said Steven Nataupsky, managing partner of the law firm Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear in Irvine, California.

``Adidas will be arguing that a company has infringed twice, has agreed to stop twice and yet is marching forward with more infringing shoes,'' said Nataupsky, whose firm represents plaintiffs and defendants and isn't involved in the Adidas case. Its clients include Starbucks Corp. and Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Adidas, based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, has sued about three dozen retailers since 1999 in the U.S. and Europe to keep what it considers knockoffs of its shoes and clothing from diluting the brand. The campaign is finally paying off.

Brand Value

``The brand value is incredibly important,'' said Alexander Roepers, president of New York-based Atlantic Investment Management Inc., Adidas's second-largest investor. ``Just like Coke or Nike, they'd be wise to protect it, and that's what they're doing.''

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, disagrees with Adidas's assertion that the stripe pattern, used since at least 1952, has significance in the sporting world.

``Wal-Mart denies that the three-stripe mark has achieved international fame and tremendous public recognition,'' the company said in court papers.

The Arkansas retailer ``probably watched every step'' of the Payless trial to develop its own strategy and recognizes problems in the Payless defense, Nataupsky said.

``If Wal-Mart's going to take it to trial, then they have clearly in their own minds determined how they can avoid mistakes,'' he said.

Daphne Moore, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, declined to comment on the likelihood of another settlement or any other aspect of the case.

Payless Precedent

The suit, filed in 2005, claims Wal-Mart ``maliciously'' sold hundreds of thousands of imitation Adidas shoes in violation of a 2002 settlement that barred it from offering ``confusingly similar'' products. A previous settlement, in 1995, prohibited Wal-Mart from selling shoes with three parallel stripes or certain four-stripe designs.

Topeka, Kansas-based Payless, which last year changed its name to Collective Brands Inc. after buying the Stride Rite chain, was told by a jury to pay Adidas $304.6 million. Two days later, Sears Holdings Corp.'s Kmart unit reached a confidential settlement of a suit Adidas filed in Portland in 2005.

``You can see where Kmart stepped up and settled because there was now a precedent for an enormous award out there,'' Nataupsky said. ``Adidas now has a game plan in place for seeking an enormous number and obtaining that result.''

The Payless verdict was more than seven times the retailer's profit last year of $42.7 million. The award consisted of $30 million in actual damages, $137 million in forfeited profit and another $137 million in punitive damages.

Hometown Advantage

Wal-Mart reported sales last year of $378.8 billion, dwarfing Payless's $3 billion. The companies' relative sizes might cause the jury to impose higher punitive damages than the Payless jury did, according to Nataupsky.

``The size of the defendant is absolutely taken into consideration'' in punitive-damage awards, which are ``designed to punish and deter future infringement,'' he said.

Andrea Corso, a spokeswoman for Adidas, declined to comment on the case.

The German sportswear company also enjoys a hometown advantage, with its North American headquarters located in Portland.

``That can only be a plus for Adidas,'' Nataupsky said.

Adidas, founded in 1924, had profit last year of 551 million euros ($852.3 million) on sales of 10.3 billion euros. The shares rose 17 cents yesterday to 44.65 euros in Frankfurt trading. Wal- Mart rose 13 cents to $59.31 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

`Clear and Transparent'

Shoe sales represent about 1.7 percent of Wal-Mart's revenue, according to Edward Weller, an analyst at ThinkEquity Partners LLC in San Francisco. Based on that estimate, Wal-Mart had shoe sales of about $25 billion in the U.S. and Canada in the six-year period covered by the lawsuit.

Payless shoe sales totaled more than $22 billion in the eight years covered by the Adidas suit. A jury said it should forfeit $137 million, which equals 0.6 percent of its sales for those years.

If Wal-Mart's disputed shoes enjoyed the same margins, its profit would be about $148 million. Should the retailer lose, a jury applying the formula used in the Payless case might order Wal-Mart to pay $326 million -- the profit, an equal amount of punitive damages and $30 million in actual damages.

Adidas has also sued Steven Madden Ltd., Polo Ralph Lauren Corp., Target Corp. and Nordstrom Inc. Those cases were all settled before going to trial.

``A ruling against Wal-Mart will give Adidas more security,'' said Uwe Weinreich, an Adidas analyst at UniCredit in Munich. ``In the future, there will be clear and transparent limits, which have to be observed by competitors and retailers.''

The case is Adidas America Inc. v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 3:05-cv-01297, U.S. District Court, District of Oregon (Portland).

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Wal-Mart cuts capital expenditure forecast

By Nicole Maestri,
Reuters
June 17th, 2008                     [back to top]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Tuesday lowered its capital expenditure forecast for its current fiscal year, saying it remains focused on moderating supercenter store growth in the United States.

The discount retailer said that for its fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2009, it now expects capital expenditures to be in the range of $13.0 billion to $14.0 billion, down from its previous view of $13.5 billion to $15.2 billion.

At its analyst meeting in October, Wal-Mart cut its capital expenditure forecast and scaled back on planned supercenters -- or locations that combine a full grocery store with a discount store -- as it faced slowing sales in a saturated U.S. market.

The world's largest retailer said the pullback would allow it to concentrate on boosting sales at its existing stores by remodeling older locations and improving its merchandise assortment.

In recent months, Wal-Mart's sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, have been outpacing those of competitors as cash-strapped U.S. shoppers look to buy basics like food and medicine at discounted prices.

In May, Wal-Mart's U.S. same-store sales rose a stronger-than-expected 3.9 percent while smaller rival Target Corp reported a same-store sales decline of 0.7 percent.

Speaking at a William Blair & Co conference, which was broadcast over the Internet, Wal-Mart Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe said the retailer's May sales were boosted in part by inflation and tax rebates, which are currently making their way into the hands of consumers.

He said the real question remains how much of a benefit it will continue to see once all the checks make their way into the hands of consumers by mid July.

Wal-Mart shares declined 1 percent, or 57 cents, to $58.74 in afternoon New York Stock Exchange trading.

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Wal-Mart lowers 2009 capital spending forecast

Mae Anderson
Associated Press
06.17.08                                  [back to top]

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is reducing its capital spending forecast for fiscal 2009, as it slows construction of supercenters amid a weakening U.S economic environment.

The world's largest retailer said Tuesday it expects to spend $13 billion to $14 billion during the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2009. It previously expected to spend $13.5 billion to $15.2 billion.

Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe says the lower forecast "reflects Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people )'s ability to grow more efficiently with reduced capital expenditures." He says the Bentonville, Ark.-based company favors moderating supercenter growth in the U.S.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved

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Wal-Mart readies for overseas expansion

By Elizabeth Rigby
and Jonathan Birchall
Financial Times
June 17, 2008                                        [back to top]  

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is embarking on a further round of international expansion on the back of a systematic overhaul of the way it runs its business, which is expected to deliver more than $100bn in sales this year.

The retailer is actively exploring a first move into Russia and neighbouring countries, while preparing to open its first wholesale warehouse stores in India next year in a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises.

Wal-Mart already has operations in 13 countries, which accounted for 26 per cent of its net sales last year.

Wal-Mart’s international square footage growth rate is now above that in the US, where it has now slowed the expansion of its profitable Supercenter format in the face of market saturation.

To support its international expansion, the retailer has set up new systems over the past two years to assess and integrate new international businesses, in an effort to avoid repeating the missteps that led to unsuccessful ventures in South Korea and Germany in the late 1990s.

The overhaul has been spearheaded by Mike Duke, the company’s vice chairman, who took over as head of international operations in September 2005.

“As I came in, and maybe with a new perspective, I was aggressive in addressing certain opportunities that needed to be addressed,” he said in an interview at Wal-Mart’s headquarters.

Shortly after taking over the job, Mr Duke acted on the results of a global review of the company’s country units to pull out of South Korea and Germany, the first significant global retreat by the retailer since it first went overseas, to Mexico, in the early 1990s.

“Looking at our businesses as a portfolio caused me to really look at businesses where we could not produce shareholder return, and look at those objectively and say: ‘If we can’t reach the returns for our shareholders and we are not serving our customers in a unique way, we should exit that country’.”

The focus on shareholder return has driven continued investment in high-growth markets – including Latin America, Canada and China. But Wal-Mart is also continuing its efforts to turn round Japan’s Seiyu, moving to take full control of the retailer last year, in spite of a net loss of Y20.9bn ($193m) in 2007.

Mr Duke insists that Wal-Mart is committed to Japan, which Wal-Mart executives compare with the early struggles faced by its now profitable business in Mexico. He says Japan is one of the countries in which Wal-Mart may not be “winning today” but has “a clear path to victory”.

The retailer argues that taking full control of the Japanese company has made it easier to institute changes that have included creating a more streamlined distribution system and increasing Seiyu’s focus on low prices.

The company is also taking the multi-format strategy that has worked well in Brazil and Mexico to other countries. In India, it will be involved with Bharti in stores ranging from small supermarkets to hypermarkets and wholesale outlets.

Wal-Mart has also reshaped its line-up of international executives. José Angel Gallegos Turrubiates, formerly a senior executive of its Mexican unit, was recently named head of international human resources, with responsibility for talent development.

Vicente Trius, the former head of Wal-Mart’s successful Brazilian stores, was recently appointed to a new post in Hong Kong overseeing regional operations in China, Japan and India.

Executives say that the move should create more space for Mr Duke to focus on strategy, while Mr Trius has indicated that he will also be exploring new opportunities for expansion in the region.

Wal-Mart has moved David Cheesewright from Asda in the UK to head its Canada stores, bringing his experience of Asda’s grocery business to support an expansion of food sales.

“Moving talented executives around [is important] because each move brings a new perspective and some different ideas,” Mr Duke says.

The retailer is increasingly confident about bringing in top international talent from outside its own ranks.

In China, it has replaced an older Wal-Mart executive with Ed Chan, from Hong Kong, who was poached from Dairy Farm International, a pan-Asian food and drug retailer. In India, the business is headed by Raj Jain, who built his career at Hindustan Lever. And to head its push into Russia and neighbouring countries, it has appointed Stephan Fanderl, former head of the hypermarket and supermarket business of Germany’s Rewe Group.

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Police investigate sale of tigers in Wal-Mart parking lot

By Ryan Holeywell,
The Monitor
June 15th, 2008                          [back to top] 

McALLEN - Police and federal authorities are investigating the sale of six Bengal tiger cubs in a Wal-Mart parking lot Sunday afternoon.

The animals appear to have been bound for Mexico and neither the buyer nor seller had the permits needed to legally transport the endangered species across national borders, a federal agent said.

A group from Spring Hill Wildlife Ranch in Bryan was selling the cubs - four white ones and two orange ones - in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart near Jackson Avenue and Expressway 83.

Authorities believe the Spring Hill employees were selling the tigers to a pre-arranged buyer via an intermediary, and that the animals' final destination would be in Mexico.

"The people who were picking up the tigers and taking possession of them... were Mexican nationals in a Mexico-licensed vehicle," said Special Agent Alejandro Rodriguez of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He said tigers have been smuggled into Mexico through the Rio Grande Valley before.

Rodriguez said some people involved in the transaction said the tigers were to be taken to a Mexico City zoo, while others said they would be going to Roma.

Under federal law, it's illegal to transport an endangered species across national borders unless both buyer and seller have what is known as a CITES permit.

Those involved in the transaction could face federal conspiracy charges if authorities determine the animals were, in fact, Mexico-bound.

Police said ranch employees were selling the white cubs for $5,500 per animal, and the orange ones for $900 per animal. The buyers' vehicle lacked air conditioning, police said, which also raised concern about the animals' safety.

Rodriguez said the cubs are healthy and would be transported to the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville as authorities continue their investigation.

The orange tigers are about 10 weeks old, Rodriguez said, and the white ones are about two weeks old.

Rodriguez said it appears Spring Hill has sold tigers in the Rio Grande Valley at least two other times in the last 18 months.

Police arrested the co-owner of Spring Hill Wildlife Ranch for interfering with public duties, authorities said.

The woman, whose name police have not released, attempted to barricade herself in the truck containing the tigers after Monitor staff began photographing the animals from the parking lot. She is expected to be arraigned Monday.

Two people who had been questioned by the police about the transaction declined to comment on the case to The Monitor.

Police learned of the transaction when a McAllen Police Department patrol officer became suspicious of the truck with Mexican license plates in the Wal-Mart parking lot, police said.

When the officer approached, the group moved to the parking lot of the nearby Mervyn's department store, prompting him to follow and ultimately discover the tiger cubs.

"The basic premise of this transaction in a parking lot - it doesn't seem right," said McAllen Police Sgt. Eddie De La Rosa.

Bengal tigers can grow to 9 feet long and weight more than 550 pounds. There are about 2,000 Bengal tigers living in the wild. The cats can be found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar and Nepal.

Jerry Stones, facilities director at Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, said Bengal tigers are an endangered species. There are thousands of large cats including tigers, leopards and lions owned privately - and legally -in Texas, Stones said.

He said he thinks some tiger owners may not realize the effort that goes into caring for the cats. "They buy them as babies," Stones said. "They don't realize it's going to get to be hundreds of pounds, eat an awful lot of food and become dangerous."

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Wal-Mart Supercenter a badly done deal

By David Fick ,
Hi Desert Star
June 14th, 2008                         [back to top]

In 1992, a newly incorporated Yucca Valley town welcomed Wal-Mart with a gift of a million dollars and a look the other way as 468 Joshua trees were bladed down. This new store on the east edge of town and the first Gulf War ended many local businesses. Another war and maybe another Wal-Mart Supercenter on the east edge of town will bring much more sacrifice from the Yucca Valley business community. The Town Council soon decides if the Morongo Basin needs to serve this global giant from Arkansas. The Surrender Monkeys to Development at any cost say yes. The people who have considered the trade in local jobs, business loss and social damage say no.

The proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter is about 180,000 square feet with the grocery portion taking 60,000 square feet. That leaves 120,000 square feet for the non-grocery retail, which is 10,000 square feet or 8 percent more than the old Wal-Mart. Although that increase doesn’t match all the hype of Wal-Mart’s needed extra room, the grocery portion is the part that does the damage. Wal-Mart wants it customers that normally visit two to three times a month as a Wal-Mart to increase their visitation to two to three times a week as a Wal-Mart Supercenter. The resulting 400 percent visit increase captures even more non-grocery retail. This grocery outlet becomes a “Loss Leader” and Wal-Mart will subsidize its damage till Yucca Valley loses two grocery stores and a number of assorted retail businesses. Wal-Mart is about its sustainability, not Yucca Valley’s or the Morongo Basin’s. On May 22, the Town Council received more timely information about Wal-Mart Supercenter’s environmental impact report. Hundreds of pages of studies, reports and memos in PDF form and hard copy. We, as the Morongo Basin Conservation Association (MBCA), got permission to put this information on our Web site, www.mbconservation.org. Dr. Philip King’s memo on the urban decay of Yucca Valley exposes the impacts this project would have on retail demand, a glut of vacant retail space and the predatory grocery sales of Wal-Mart. The other reports re-affirm the increase in crime, traffic and social ills that this Wal-Mart Supercenter presents to Yucca Valley.

One of the premises in the Wal-Mart Supercenter’s EIR is that retail growth demand will be 5 percent a year and that the housing boom of two to three years ago would continue. Those abounding “rooftops” were to soften the $30 million grocery sales loss to the other four grocery stores. They were wrong and within a year of Wal-Mart Supercenter’s opening, Food 4 Less and Stater Bros. West (little Staters) would close.

Regarding growth and Yucca Valley, the State Water Project is in extreme trouble of it’s own and Yucca Valley’s aquifer recharge situation has an unknown future. Limited water means limited growth.

For those people who look forward to cheaper groceries (3 to 5 percent less) and more stuff (8 percent more) to buy, I wonder what other trade-off decisions you’ve made in life. The many who oppose this project are a little less selfish and have considered the situation of Yucca Valley’s general health more important.

The next Town Council meeting about Wal-Mart Supercenter is at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 25, in the Yucca Valley Community Center.

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Dubai World subsidiary gets Wal-Mart firm

The Times and Democrat
June 14th, 2008                                [back to top]

Economic Zones World (EZW), a Dubai World company, announced the acquisition of Gazeley Limited, the Wal-Mart-owned global provider of sustainable logistics space, as part of its strategy to expand into global markets.

The price was not disclosed.

An integration team will determine the best approach for combining the two businesses while retaining and developing the current management teams. The partnership will see all existing employees retained.

The transaction is subject to the receipt of European regulatory approval and is expected to complete during July.

EZW is a developer of ‘economic zones’ globally.

It developed and operates the Jebel Ali Free Zone of integrated logistics and distribution facilities adjacent to Jebel Ali Port in Dubai.

To date, Gazeley has created more than 60 million-square-feet of logistics warehouse space.

EZW has acquired Gazeley to further expand its collective reach into international markets.

Gazeley will provide EZW with operations in the UK and Europe, as well as additional growth opportunities in emerging markets including China, India and Mexico.

The acquisition was driven by EZW’s customer-centric strategy for global growth and the company’s desire to strengthen its penetration of global markets through Gazeley.

Gazeley’s customers include many of the world’s largest companies, third-party logistics providers, manufacturers, retailers and their suppliers.

Gazeley is also a preferred developer of distribution space for Wal-Mart International, including Asda in the UK and Wal-Mart.

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Wal-Mart opponents collect enough signatures for ballot measure

By Donald Murphy,
San Luis Obispo County Tribune
June 13th, 2008                                             [back to top]

An initiative that would block a Wal-Mart Superstore proposed for Atascadero’s north end has obtained enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

The petition for the measure, called the Atascadero Shield Initiative by its proponents, contained at least 1,511 valid signatures, enough to satisfy the requirement that 10 percent of registered voters sign it, City Clerk Marcia McClure Torgerson confirmed Friday.

Tom Comar, a leader of the anti-Wal-Mart effort, said the measure is intended “to protect local businesses, to ensure that the General Plan is maintained and to protect the rural, small-town character and the feel of this unique city on the Central Coast.”

The City Council is scheduled to discuss the measure June 24, when it will have three options. It can adopt the proposed measure as a city ordinance, place it on the Nov. 4 General Election ballot, or ask for analysis of the effects of the measure before deciding to adopt it as law or put it before the voters.

City Manager Wade McKinney said his staff would describe the options to the council but would not recommend a course of action.

The proposed Wal-Mart project for property at Del Rio Road and El Camino Real has divided the community for more than two years.

Supporters say it would encourage residents to shop locally and would bring new sales tax revenue to the city. Opponents say a mega-store would provide only low-income jobs and would hurt local businesses and the environment.

See the Saturday edition of The Tribune for more on this story.

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Recall effort hit with order

By Danny Bernardini
Article Launched: 06/13/2008                         [back to top]

The group leading the recall effort of three Suisun City council members was hit with a 30-day temporary restraining order Thursday by Raley's and will no longer be able to collect signatures near the two entrances. Ordered by Solano County Superior Court Judge Paul Beeman, the group Save Our Suisun (SOS) must now vacate the doorways of the Raley's supermarket in Suisun City for at least 30 days. They may, however, still collect signatures in the surrounding parking lot and shopping center, said Cres Vellucci, spokesman for SOS.

Unless the two sides can work something out beforehand, the case is scheduled to return to court at 9 a.m. July 2,

"None of that was really a surprise as far as we are concerned," Vellucci said. "They seemed to be asking for more, but that's all they got. It's not as limiting as I thought it would be."

SOS served its "Notice of Intention to Circulate Recall Petition" documents during a council meeting in March, saying the council had "ignored safety experts and approved a controversial Wal-Mart" in February and "risked the health and safety of Suisun residents," according to a press release.

The group served the notices on Mayor Pete Sanchez, Vice Mayor Jane Day and Councilman Mike Hudson and also announced plans to see the other two councilmen, Mike Segala and Sam Derting, voted out of office when their seats come up for election in November.

Woman wins Wal-Mart lawsuit

By Aimee Green,
The Oregonian
June 12th, 2008                                  [back to top]  

A Multnomah County jury on Wednesday unanimously awarded an 81-year-old Wal-Mart shopper $331,000 for injuries she received when a store display dropped on her foot, breaking it. "They gave us every nickel we asked for, and they gave it to us in 35 minutes," attorney Greg Kafoury said, referring to the time jurors spent deliberating. Lois Whitmore, who was 78 at the time, had been pushing one of her grandchildren in a shopping cart at the Wal-Mart at 4200 S.E. 82nd Ave. on the day of the mishap. As they passed through the store's pharmacy section, a rack holding brochures dropped onto her foot, causing lasting injury.

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Wal-Mart opponents say supercenter would harm North Tonawanda

By Bill Michelmore,
News Niagra Bureau
June 12th, 2008                                     [back to top]

NORTH TONAWANDA — A Wal-Mart supercenter would destroy the fragile economy of North Tonawanda, leading businessmen said Tuesday evening at a Common Council work session. The proposed store, to be built on the former Melody Fair Theater site near Niagara Falls Boulevard and Erie Avenue, was approved by the city Planning Commission on June 2 and awaits Common Council approval. The businessmen urged the Council to conduct an economic impact study of the 185,000-square-foot store. The work session plea to block the Wal-Mart project will be presented to the Common Council on Tuesday. The 400 jobs Wal-Mart estimates the store would create would be offset by a loss of 550 jobs from local businesses that couldn’t compete with the megastore, Frank S. Budwey, owner of Budwey’s Supermarkets in North Tonawanda and North Buffalo, told the Council members. “There is only so much income in North Tonawanda, and it is shrinking,” Budwey said. “Wal-Mart will take up to $40,000 out of our community and out of the pockets of locally owned businesses.” The loss of these businesses would leave “a blight of empty and abandoned buildings that would become yet another taxpayer burden,” Budwey said. Charles Hewitt, a local business development consultant, said that in a declining city like North Tonawanda, there is a strong likelihood Wal-Mart would have to shut down in five to seven years. “They devastate every business that’s worth anything and leave town with their profits,” he said. The store and the traffic congestion it would create would destroy the quality of life in the Wurlitzer Park area, “one of the nicest, most affluent neighborhoods in North Tonawanda,” Hewitt said. Traffic, crime, noise and litter would become such a problem, these “affluent homeowners would decide it’s not worth the hassle and move to Pendleton, Wheatfield and Amherst,” he added. The project is designed to route traffic through the Martinsville and Wurlitzer Park residential neighborhoods, affecting 21 streets containing homes with a total assessed value of more than $94 million, said Catherine Kern, president of a group called North Tonawanda First. A drop of only 5 percent in these property values would erase most of the property tax revenue from the Wal-Mart store, she noted. With a 10 percent drop in property values, which is more likely, the city and the school district would end up with a net loss in property tax revenue, she added. Wal-Mart supercenters are known to drive competing businesses, particularly supermarkets, drugstores, opticians, taverns, auto parts and maintenance companies out of business,” Kern said. North Tonawanda First puts a conservative estimate of total assessed property loss from the Wal-Mart presence at $5 million. Harvey Albond, a city planner with 50 years of experience, said an environmental study on the Wal-Mart project is only part of the approval process. The impact on the local economy is just as important, he said. “There has been a lack of socioeconomic data,” Albond told the Common Council. “You cannot consider this project without an independent study.” Council members and Mayor Lawrence Soos listened to the fervent pleas with no comment.

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Oakley bans supercenters

By David Goll ,
East Bay Business News
June 12th, 2008                                         [back to top]

A scaled-down, 690,000-square-foot River Oaks Crossing retail center was approved by the Oakley City Council Tuesday.

However, the council also voted to ban supercenters -- the combination supermarket and general merchandise stores built by Wal-Mart -- which was proposed to anchor the center before Wal-Mart Stores Inc. pulled out of the project in February. The east Contra Costa County city joins a long list of East Bay cities that have either rejected supercenters and/or enacted ordinances against such developments, including Oakland, Martinez, Antioch, Hercules, Concord and Livermore. As in other cities that have passed these types of ordinances, City Council members in Oakley voted to ban retail stores of 100,000 square feet or more that sell groceries.

Wal-Mart supercenters are at least 200,000 square feet in size and open 24 hours a day. Critics of the stores contend they hurt smaller businesses, generate too much traffic and attract crime because of their round-the-clock hours. City officials expressed disappointment when Wal-Mart dropped out of the project four months ago, saying the city could use the sales tax revenue it generates to pay for city services and programs.

On Tuesday, City Council members also voted to restrict hours of operation at River Oaks Crossing, making midnight the standard closing time for most of its stores. However, drug stores with 24-hour pharmacy operations, grocery stores, some restaurants, hotels and gas stations were exempted from the requirement.

Though critics of the development expressed support for the council's vote to ban supercenters, they also bemoaned the loss of a 44-acre vineyard that will be paved over to make way for the shopping center.

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Brookfield Wal-Mart overcharges for sales tax

Kirksdale Daily Express
June 12th, 2008                         [back to top]

BROOKFIELD, Mo. — The Brookfield Wal-Mart Supercenter overcharged its customers during April, May, and the first week of June, according to a story in the Linn County Leader.

Phil Keene, a spokesman for Wal-Mart at the chain’s corporate offices in Bentonville, Arkansas, advised this morning that the overcharged sales tax amounted to 1.25 cents for every $10 and 12.5 cents for every $100 spent by customers.

According to the Missouri Department of Revenue, the correct sales tax for nonfood items at the Brookfield Wal-Mart should have been 7.475 percent and 4.475 on food items. As of June 6, the store was charging 7.6 percent in sales tax on the nonfood items and 4.476 percent in sales tax on food.

Keene advises the overcharges occurred as a result of a computer error at the Brookfield Wal-Mart.

Keene states customers will have to produce receipts to receive a refund on the overcharged sales taxes.

Keene advises there is no other way to correlate a customer’s identity with the store’s records of purchases if the purchase was made with cash.

Keene declined to release the total store revenue for the period in question.

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Wal-Mart, Toys R Us to remove products with BPA

By James Bernstein,
Newsday
June 11th, 2008                                [back to top] 

Even while Congress is still considering measures to ban a controversial chemical used in producing baby cups, toys and water bottles, two major retailers on Long Island and elsewhere are removing products containing such chemicals from their shelves, they said Wednesday.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer, which has 11 stores on the Island, and Toys R Us, which has 13 stores in Nassau and Suffolk, have said they are taking steps to remove products that contain Bisphenol-A, a chemical used to make plastics clear and shatter-resistant. Its common uses include water bottles, food containers and baby bottles.

Some federal legislators, including Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), are supporting measures to ban products containing what is commonly referred to as BPA.

Scientific research has drawn different conclusions about its use. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it does not see a need for a ban on products made with BPA. But some consumer groups, backed by the National Toxicology Program, an organization of several federal health and safety groups, disagree.

In a recent draft report, the national group said there is "some concern" BPA can cause changes in behavior and the brain. The group said its conclusions are based on studies in animals.

Saying they were responding to "consumer demand," both Wal-Mart and Toys R Us issued announcements in April that BPA products will be removed.

"While the FDA has not established any restrictions on the use of BPA in baby bottles, for several years now we have offered a variety of BPA-free products for customers who seek this option," said a Wal-Mart statement. "We are working to expand our BPA-free offerings and expect the entire assortment of baby bottles to be BPA-free sometime early next year."

Toys R Us said "in light of growing consumer concerns on this topic, the company has been working with manufacturers to phase out all baby bottles and other baby feeding products containing BPA. ... This process is ongoing and is expected to be completed before the end of 2008."

Whole Foods Markets also stopped selling BPA baby bottles.

Nalgene, a Rochester-based company that is one of the nation's largest makers of plastic containers, said last month it will "phase out production" of its line of containers containing BPA over the next several months.

Schumer and other Democrats in Congress are seeking a ban on the chemical's use. "BPA is far more dangerous than many had realized," Schumer wrote his colleagues. Legislation is pending in both houses.

In the United States, BPA is manufactured by Bayer Materials Science, Dow Chemical, General Electric and Sunoco Chemicals. Spokespersons for those companies could not be reached for comment.

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Logan woman says she was wrongly fired by
Wal-Mart

By Cara Bailey,
The West Virginia Record
June 11th, 2008                                        [back to top] 

CHARLESTON - A Logan County woman has filed a suit against Wal-Mart, claiming she was fired after she informed human resources of inappropriate conduct taking place among the store supervisors. Sherry Muncy filed the suit May 15 in Kanawha Circuit Court. The suit is against Wal-Mart as well as supervisors Dwight Neal and Calvin Stapleton. According to the suit, Muncy was an assistant store manager at Wal-Mart. While employed there, she claims Neal and other employees subjected her to unwanted and unwelcome hostile remarks, including some of a sexual nature. Muncy claims she informed the human resources manager of the inappropriate conduct, but no action was taken to stop the hostile behavior. On Oct. 26, 2007, Muncy was discharged, which she claims is retaliation because of her reports on the harassment that was occurring in the workplace. In the three-count suit, Muncy claims her termination is a violation of the West Virginia Human Rights Act. She seeks compensation, including back pay, front pay, damages for humiliation, embarrassment, emotional and mental distress and loss of personal dignity, as well as punitive damages. Attorney Paul Stroebel is representing Muncy. The case has been assigned to Judge Charles King. Kanawha Circuit Court case number 08-C-946

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TSU student jailed on bogus Wal-Mart forgery charge

By Jeremy Desel ,
khou
June 11th, 2008                   [back to top]

HOUSTON -- A college student’s trip to Wal-Mart last month ended with her in handcuffs and a two-day stay in the Harris County jail.

Nitra Gipson was charged with felony forgery after the Meyer Park Wal-Mart manager accused her of passing bogus money orders. Thing is, the money orders were legit and had been purchased at Wal-Mart to begin with.

The cash-strapped college student had just sold her car to pay for her last two semesters at Texas Southern University, where she is studying criminal justice. She was paid with Wal-Mart money orders, which the giant retailer advertises as “good as cash.�

In Gipson’s case, they were as good as time behind bars.

“Humiliating is not the word for it,� said Gipson. “I was horrified. I think they singled me out because of the amount of money that it was and (thought) I was trying to get over on them.�

No manner of effort by Gipson to show that the money orders were legit worked. The store manager insisted she be charged.

The district attorney’s office saw it differently. Charges were dropped after the money orders were verified when Gipson provided the purchase receipts.

But after spending 48 hours behind bars, the damage had already beeen done.

“Wal-Mart should be held responsible and accountable for letting this child go to jail for two days. All because she was doing what any customer of Wal-Mart should do,� said community activist Quannel X.

Gipson said Wal-Mart then added insult to injury when she got a letter in the mail.

“I started to read it and thought, ‘Oh my God.’ They are asking me to pay them when it was clearly their mistake,� said Gipson.

The letter demanded Gipson pay Wal-Mart $200 to settle a shoplifting charge. It is a charge that never existed, though.

When 11 News contacted Wal-Mart officials they said they were looking into the case and would provide no further details.

The spokesperson did claim that the decision to pursue charges was up to the law enforcement officials on the scene. But the copy of the criminal complaint obtained by 11 News, shows that the store manager is who pressed charges.

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EPA fines Springs company

By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD,
Colorado Springs Gazette
June 10th, 2008                                    [back to top] 

A Colorado Springs construction firm has been fined $300,000 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for stormwater violations at 16 big-box store construction sites in four states.

Colorado Structures Inc. had runoff management and permit inadequacies at construction sites for 13 Wal-Mart and Home Depot stores in Colorado, including one in Colorado Springs, and one each in Nevada, South Dakota and California, according to court documents.

In a settlement with the EPA and the Justice Department, Colorado Structures agreed to reduce stormwater pollution at its sites, comply with permit requirements, inspect sites regularly and report the findings to the EPA, and provide stormwater training for employees, in addition to paying the fine.

"Stormwater runoff from construction sites poses a threat to the environment by washing sediment, debris and other pollutants into surrounding waterways and degrading water quality," said Ronald J. Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, in a news release issued Friday.

Calls to Colorado Structures were not returned Tuesday.

It was unclear how the fine ranks in terms of others given to construction companies for stormwater violations. While fines at single construction sites can be in the tens of thousands of dollars, multiple violations or large projects have drawn larger fines.

According to a complaint filed in Denver federal court, EPA inspectors visited the Wal-Mart under construction on Space Center Drive in May 2002. Inspectors found inadequate measures to prevent rain from washing dirt and other materials into storm drains, including a silt fence with gaps, another fence that had been knocked down and a dirt pile upstream from a storm drain.

Inspectors found a pattern of inadequate stormwater management, planning and inspections going back to 1999 at Wal-Mart construction sites run by Colorado Structures at three locations in Aurora, as well as sites in Castle Rock; Commerce City; Cortez; Pueblo; Fort Morgan; Littleton; Carson City, Nev.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Roseville, Calif.

Violations were also found at two Home Depot sites in Aurora and one in Evergreen.

The federal Clean Water Act requires builders to have measures in place to prevent pollution from reaching waterways and storm sewers.

Both big-box retailers have been fined in connection with these and other storm water violations around the country. Wal-Mart paid $3.1 million in 2005 and Home Depot paid $1.3 million earlier this year.

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Wal-Mart will pay $250,000 to disabled woman it fired

By Laura McCandlish ,
The Baltimore Sun
June 10th, 2008                               [back to top]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay $250,000 to a pharmacy technician who suffered a disability resulting from a gunshot wound and was subsequently fired from one of its Harford County stores, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced yesterday.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart failed to accommodate technician Glenda Darlene Allen and then unlawfully fired her from the Abingdon store because of her disability, the EEOC said. Allen, who had worked as a Wal-Mart pharmacy technician at another store in Aberdeen since July 1993, was shot during a robbery at another job in 1994. The injury damaged Allen's spinal cord, resulting in an abnormal gait requiring the use of a cane, the EEOC said.

Allen, 41, said Wal-Mart remained a cooperative employer until she got a new pharmacy manager, who refused to accommodate her injuries, demoting her to door greeter in 2003. When Allen refused the demotion, Wal-Mart terminated her on April 8 of that year, said her attorney, Christopher Marts of Bel Air.

Wal-Mart's settlement with Allen includes $150,000 in compensation, plus $50,000 in back pay and $50,000 in attorney fees, said Maria Salacuse, the EEOC's senior trial attorney in Baltimore. Compensation in such individual discrimination cases is capped at $300,000, Salacuse said.

Allen's lawsuit was settled by the U.S. District Court in Baltimore shortly after it denied Wal-Mart's request to throw it out March 10, the EEOC said.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore defended the retailer's record yesterday, saying that it had a long and recognized commitment to employ people with disabilities.

"This is an isolated situation," Moore said. "We are pleased that it is resolved."

It is the EEOC's second settlement this year concerning Wal-Mart's violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. In April, a court ordered Wal-Mart to pay $300,000 for refusing to hire a job candidate with cerebral palsy in Richmond, Mo

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Wal-Mart Supercenter has opposition in West Dundee

By Robert Channick ,
Chicago Tribune
June 10th, 2008                                [back to top] 

Concerned about traffic, noise pollution and around-the-clock traffic, West Dundee homeowners planned to rally Monday night against plans for a big-box store slated for an undeveloped 31-acre site near Spring Hill Mall.

"We just don't think that a Wal-Mart Supercenter is a right fit," said Lisa Geisler, 41, spokeswoman for Dundee Neighbors, a grass-roots coalition formed two months ago in the Tartans Glen subdivision. "There's really no need for it in our community."

Anticipating a large crowd, the Village Board moved its 7 p.m. public comment session to the fire station at 555 S. 8th St.

Annexed by the village along with the nascent Spring Hill Mall three decades ago, the site at Huntley Road and Elm Avenue has long provided a buffer between the shopping center and the 205-home subdivision.

The property is tucked in next to a park with ball fields, tennis courts and a playground, and it has become a battleground over efforts to extend West Dundee's retail footprint.

In April, the village notified adjacent homeowners that the Wal-Mart proposal was going before the zoning and planning commission. Residents mobilized quickly, hiring an attorney. Last month, the commission voted to recommend the proposal.

In 2000, the village rezoned the site from residential to commercial to accommodate a proposed Meijer store, despite objections from residents. The Michigan-based retailer subsequently pulled out, but the door to retail development was firmly wedged open.

"It had a residential zoning, but it was never intended to be developed residentially, because it was part of the Spring Hill Mall holdings," said Joe Cavallaro, village manager of West Dundee.

Of the 146 Wal-Mart stores in Illinois, nearly 60 percent are supercenters, reflecting a trend toward bigger big-box facilities, said Roderick Scott, senior manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart in Chicago.

Residents vow to fight on, if only to downsize the development.

"They understand it's not a matter of if it will happen, but when it will happen," said Brian O'Connor, an Elburn attorney retained by Dundee Neighbors. "But it needs to be consistent with the residential character of that area."

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No smiley faces at Levy Wal-Mart

By DJ Smith ,
Dogtown Wire
June 10th, 2008                               [back to top]

The new Wal-Mart Supercenter is close to opening in Sherwood, which means the Levy store No. 7 will soon be closing. KTHV’s video features Wal-Mart Senior Manager Public Relations Laurie Smalling touting higher gas prices and the store’s low priced goods as one reason the new store will benefit customers. The report claims the Sherwood store will bring 300 jobs to Pulaski County, but it doesn’t say if this 300 reflects those jobs to be lost at Levy that would constitute a simple lateral move and not a true increase of 300.

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Wal-Mart sued for improperly assembled bicycle

By Ann Knef ,
The Madison Record
June 10th, 2008                                   [back to top] 

The mother of a 13-year-old boy is suing Wal-Mart for improperly assembling a bicycle. Lisa Willyard, on behalf of her son Tony Willyard, claims workers at the Cahokia Wal-Mart failed to properly tighten the handlebar on a Next-Dynacraft bike, according to a complaint filed June 4 in St. Clair County Circuit Court. She bought the bike June 1, 2006. During Tony Willyard's first ride June 4, 2006, the handle bars "detached from the steering stem, causing Plaintiff to lose control of the bicycle, flip over the handle bars, and strike the ground, hitting his right shoulder on the curb, and causing Plaintiff severe and permanent injuries," the complaint states. The child suffered a right scapular fracture, torn labrum, an AC joint injury, as well as injuries to his back, collarbone, head and neck, the complaint also states. Willyard claims the bike was sold with the wedge draw bolt, steering stem and wedge nut improperly installed. She also claims the rear brakes were inadequate or non-functioning. Seeking in excess of $50,000 in damages, Willyard is represented by David N. Damick of St. Louis

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Wal-Mart Wars: Too high a price to pay

By Elise Schmitz,
Milwuakee Journal Sentinel
June 8th, 2008                                       [back to top]

Patrick Cudahy, founder of Cudahy, had a dream to create a thriving city. In fact, he believed in his meatpacking plant so much that he bought 700 acres to achieve this goal and offered quality jobs with livable wages to his employees.

Now, more than 100 years later, Wal-Mart wants to sneak into Cudahy under the guise of "creating" new jobs, but at a cost of $6 million from Cudahy taxpayers. Developing the Wal-Mart in Cudahy would cost $11.5 million, which means taxpayers would be responsible for more than half of the cost, according to CudahyNOW.com. It's amazing that a company with revenue of $256 billion wants to pass the buck onto the community.

Now, I don't live in Cudahy, but I can only imagine the reason some residents may support Wal-Mart is they think the superstore would create jobs. No one can argue this. Yes, Wal-Mart would need cashiers, stockers and managers to staff the store. But are these good jobs?

First, let's take a look at the jobs Wal-Mart will create. According to Wakeupwalmart.com, the average associate earned $9.68 an hour in 2005, making the annual wage $17,114. Considering the average two-person family (one parent and one child) needed $27,948 to meet basic needs in 2005, the average Wal-Mart worker isn't making ends meet.

Added to that, the average associate would need to spend between 7% and 25% of his or her income just to cover the health care premiums and deductibles, if electing for single coverage. It's no wonder that, according Wakeupwalmart.com, 27% of associates' children are on public assistance programs such as Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Next, let's consider the jobs Wal-Mart will help other companies eliminate. In fact, they're not just other companies but Wal-Mart's own suppliers.

Wal-Mart has a knack for creating a dependent relationship with its suppliers that keeps them coming back year after year. The supplier is lured into working with Wal-Mart because the profit potential is so great. But as time goes on, the supplier is expected to slash its prices, or Wal-Mart will get the product from another company that's willing to charge less.

In order to continue making a profit, the suppliers often have to downsize and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products overseas, where they can be made at a much cheaper cost.

This happens to countless companies. In fact, it happened even to one right here in Milwaukee - Master Lock. In a Fast Company magazine article, "The Wal-Mart You Don't Know," Charles Fishman explains that after making locks in Milwaukee for 75 years, Master Lock was forced to move its factory to Nogales, Mexico.

Why?

Because Wal-Mart gave it an ultimatum: Either lower the price of the locks, or Wal-Mart would find a supplier that could make them cheaper. When Master Lock couldn't make the locks any cheaper without losing money, it inevitably had to move overseas. Today, only 10% to 15% of all Master Locks are made in Milwaukee. So now there are 800 factory workers in Mexico doing the work that was once done here at home.

No one's saying we have to return to the days of mom and pop stores, although that sounds like a nice thought. This is about is the final tally: A year from now, how will this all shake out? What is the gap between what Wal-Mart promises to a community - creating jobs - and what it actually delivers?

Cudahy's city slogan is "Generations of Pride." With all we know about Wal-Mart, how could this generation be proud to support bringing this company into its community?

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Wal-Mart Reaches Out to Candidates, Congress

By GARY MCWILLIAMS
and ANN ZIMMERMAN,
Wall Street Journal
June 7th, 2008                                [back to top]

Sounding more like the ruler of a sovereign nation than a corporate chief executive, the leader of retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. used the annual shareholder meeting to sketch out a broad agenda to improve customers' lives, and offered to partner with governments to solve social problems.

On issues from the environment to health-care reform, "we stand ready to work with the next president and next Congress, Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. told stockholders on Friday. "Leaders who want to get things done will see Wal-Mart as a partner."

In a departure from the past, Wal-Mart is communicating with each of the U.S. presidential candidates, Mr. Scott said, and has also held talks with government officials outside the U.S.

Eduardo Castro-Wright, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores' U.S. division, speaks during the annual Wal-Mart shareholder's meeting.

"In every country, food and energy are issues," he said. "Wal-Mart can play a role."

That Mr. Scott is holding the company out as a social steward and government partner for addressing the world's ills would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Then the company was repeatedly criticized for skimpy health benefits, forcing employees to work overtime without pay, and prizing store growth over all else -- including neighborhood and environmental concerns.

There are still plenty of skeptics who doubt Wal-Mart is really out to save the world. "Whether it's health care or the environment, there's a change election under way, and on nearly every issue, Wal-Mart is on the wrong side of change," said Meghan Scott, spokeswoman for Wake Up Wal Mart.com, a group that is funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers union and that is critical of Wal-Mart.

Mr. Scott acknowledged that the company's new role in social issues was to some extent thrust upon it, and urged his listeners to challenge the company's goals if they are too narrow. "We found ourselves playing catch-up," he said. "We can never let that happen again."

He did not offer any new initiatives, but praised employees' community activism and noted the company's contributions to disaster relief in China after the earthquake, and its $4 prescription drug plan, which was recently expanded to include, among other things, an array of over-the-counter drugs.

Wal-mart also has undergone a financial transformation recently. To boost flagging returns, the retailer last year throttled back store growth in the U.S., cut merchandise inventory and renewed its founders' focus on reducing prices -- a message particularly resonant with customers pinched by higher gas and food costs.

But Wal-Mart executives remain confident that the company will continue to do well even when the economy improves. "As the economy turns, and it will, customers will have experienced several months" of a very improved service level, said Eduardo Castro-Wright, president of U.S. Wal-Mart Stores. That experience would keep these more affluent customers shopping at Wal-Mart, he said.

Earlier in the day, Thomas M. Schoewe, the company's chief financial officer, lauded Wal-Mart's financial performance last year, noting its revenue increased by $30 billion from the year earlier, to about $375 billion, and that its share price has recently jumped. The company's shares declined 2% or $1.43 to $58.37 in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

On Thursday, Wal-Mart announced its U.S. same-store sales rose a strong 3.9%, excluding fuel, in May, more than double Wall Street's estimate and the company's own forecast. Mr. Schoewe credited better management and the impact of customers spending their tax rebates.

Pointing to rising energy prices and tighter credit, he said, "This is a time our customers need us."

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Ex-exec Coughlin accuses Wal-Mart of 'witch hunt'

Associated Press
06.06.08                                            [back to top]

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Tom Coughlin, the former No. 2 Wal-Mart executive who was convicted of embezzling from the world's largest retailer, claims in a lawsuit that the company led a "witch hunt" against him.

Coughlin, 58, filed an amended counterclaim Thursday in Benton County Circuit Court naming Tom Mars, Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people )'s executive vice president and general counsel.

Coughlin was Wal-Mart Stores Inc. vice chairman when he resigned prior to being charged with fraud and tax evasion. Wal-Mart said he stole cash, gift cards and equipment worth about $500,000. Coughlin is serving a home-confinement sentence of 27 months, plus 1,500 hours of community service. He also had to pay $400,000 in restitution.

Mars conducted the investigation. In his counterclaim, Coughlin says Wal-Mart caused him mental anguish and seeks unspecified damages from the retailer.

"(Mars) let his zeal to be a prosecutor blind him from a fair and impartial search for the truth," the filing said. "He allowed his desire to curry favor with the senior executives at Wal-Mart to turn an 'investigation' into a personal mission to destroy Mr. Coughlin."

Although he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion, Coughlin argues that what he took was to reimburse himself for trying to uncover union activities within Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart said no such union project existed.

In a statement Thursday, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore denied the allegations in Coughlin's counterclaim.

"The allegations in Mr. Coughlin's amended counterclaim are simply not true. The facts are that Mr. Coughlin's conduct was fully investigated by the FBI, including his phony union story. Consequently, Mr. Coughlin pled guilty to felony wire fraud and felony tax evasion charges."

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

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Group defers Wal-Mart decision

By Chris Rhatigan,
Iowa City Press-Citizen
June 6th, 2008                                     [back to top]

The Iowa City Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously voted Thursday night to defer action on a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter. Advertisement

Wal-Mart is seeking to build a 180,000-square-foot store, replacing its existing store at 1001 Highway 1 W. The existing Wal-Mart and two other buildings at the site, an abandoned Cub Foods and a Staples, would be demolished.

The commission would have to alter a conditional agreement regarding the site's development to allow for the new store. According to a city memorandum, the original agreement stipulates that "the development consist of individual, unrelated buildings."

Commission chairwoman Ann Freerks said she would like to see alterations to the design for the front of the building to meet the city's big-box standards.

Commission member Tim Weitzel said he needed more time to evaluate Wal-Mart's plans.

Wal-Mart spokesman Ryan Horn stressed that the supercenter will be unique in a number of ways for this area.

"There is no Wal-Mart in Iowa that looks like this," he said.

The store will be constructed mainly of brick and has metal canopies at the front of the store. Horn described the look as "organic."

Wallace Taylor, an attorney representing the group Stop Iowa City Wal-Mart, opposes Wal-Mart's proposal.

"The plan was to have a shopping center -- a group of smaller stores that looked nice and fit together," he said.

Taylor also responded to Horn's comment that the retail industry is in contraction.

"That contraction is due to Wal-Mart beating up everybody else," he said.

Barry Westmeyer, owner of the Westport Touchless Autowash at the front of the Wal-Mart site, said he favors the plan. He added that he does not support many things Wal-Mart does but wants the site to remain productive.

The commission will revisit the topic at its June 19 meeting.

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Walmart.com shoppers beware

By Deborah Gage ,
The San Francisco Chronicle
June 6th, 2008                                          [back to top]

If you've been shopping at Walmart.com this week, better scan your computer for possible infections and make sure your software patches are up to date.

Scansafe reported Wednesday that it is blocking access to at least one Wal-Mart page - framedart.walmart.com - because the page was redirecting visitors to a site serving malware that exploited Adobe Flash. If you had an unpatched version of Adobe Flash on your computer, you were vulnerable.

Attacks on Web sites have been a problem all year because of the high quality of tools available to cyberthieves, who can automatically scan sites for coding flaws such as the ones at Walmart.com that let them redirect Wal-Mart's visitors to sources of malware.

In May alone, more than 1.5 million pages were compromised all over the Web, some from legitimate sites like Wal-Mart's. This latest round of attacks, called SQL injections, began on Sunday, Scansafe said.

In an e-mail response, Wal-Mart said, "We're aware of the matter, and we're working with the appropriate third parties to resolve it. "

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Wal-Mart: from zero to hero?

By James Thompson ,
The Independent
June 6th, 2008                                [back to top]

At Wal-Mart, they have been packing up the war room and standing down their elite troops. For many years, the world's largest retailer had been the bête noire of the liberal left, attacked for exploiting its workers, ruining its suppliers, destroying communities, harming the planet. Documentary-makers lined up to produce attack films such as Wal-Mart – The High Cost of Low Prices and Store Wars. Unions and other activists teamed up to launch online campaigns such as Wake Up Wal Mart? and Wal-Mart Watch, aimed at highlighting the company's ills.

And yet now, without anyone really have realised, the steam has gone out of the movement. Wal-Mart is talking to its critics, rather than attacking them, and it has taken healthcare issues and environmental initiatives more seriously. The jury is still out on whether these moves are enough to mollify critics, but moves they undoubtedly are.

As shareholders and thousands of employees gather in Arkansas for the company's annual meeting today, executives are planning for just as much celebrity razzamatazz as usual, and slightly less of the external controversy.

Fewer Americans might now sign up to the notion that Wal-Mart is evil; a handful might even sign up to a notion that Wal-Mart could be part of the solution to many of the problems facing the US and the planet.

And so it is that Wal-Mart has been able to wind down the expensive counter-revolutionary war it was forced to launch in 2005, when the firestorm of criticism was at its worst. The war room, with its dozens of extra public relations staff drafted in from the PR agency Edelman, is no more. Also disbanded is Working Families for Wal-Mart, the lobby group it set up to argue that the benefits of the company's "everyday low prices" trumped the means by which it got those prices so low.

It is no coincidence that with the winding-down of the war comes an improvement in financial performance. Wal-Mart shares hit a four-year record yesterday. Same-store sales figures showing growth of 3.9 per cent in May – well over twice what Wall Street had been predicting – show that American families are trading down to discounters such as Wal-Mart, and that Wal-Mart itself has finally got its act together after years when it made a confused lunge for more upmarket business.

Joseph Beaulieu, retail analyst at Morningstar, said that the horrendous publicity never actually hurt Wal-Mart sales directly, but that it did contribute to a poor performance that has only been reversed in the past year. "The battles were certainly a distraction, taking management's attention away from operational issues. For a couple of years, Lee Scott, chief executive, seemed to have been more like a PR guy for the company, fronting his own publicity campaign."

Sam Walton, the late founder, whose ghost hangs over Wal-Mart still, was a stickler for low prices, driving costs out of the business and squeezing the pips of suppliers. In the environmental movement, Mr Scott has found an opportunity to drive out more costs and win plaudits from the green movement. The company has been economising on fuel, converting its haulage fleet and saving electricity in stores and warehouses, and winning green plaudits in the process. It has also found a profitable business opportunity from bringing low-energy light bulbs and other green products to the American masses.

In healthcare, too, it has made changes. There have been some improvements to its employee healthcare plans, and the company has joined a coalition of businesses lobbying for the federal government to introduce universal healthcare. Unveiling the initiative,the Better Health Care Together? coalition, Mr Scott was making common cause with unions such as the Service Employees International Union, which funds Wal-Mart Watch, and Mr Scott has met regularly to flesh out healthcare policy with Andrew Stern, the SEIU's combative president.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart has dramatically expanded its own pharmacy business and started filling prescriptions for common drugs for as little as $4, in what it has spun as its contribution to making healthcare affordable for the millions without any or adequate insurance – and, it says, for its employees.

"Wal-Mart has done a great job with its public relations – it has spent a lot of money on it – but the perception is very different from the reality," warned Meghan Scott, deputy campaign director at Wake Up Wal Mart?. "It says it has made vast improvements to its healthcare plan, but it still fails to cover almost half its employees. It says it is winning plaudits for environmentalism, but its own sustainability report shows its carbon footprint has gone up in every region of the world. I know from speaking to people in the trenches that Wal-Mart's employees are not feeling any more valued now than they did three years ago."

David Nassar, executive director of Wal-Mart Watch, also said there was much pressure still to be applied, but that its criticisms will necessarily become more nuanced. "Today we use methods that, while every bit as intense, are different from those we used in 2005," he said. "When this organisation was started it was necessary and critical to raise the profile of the campaign in order to get Wal-Mart's attention. Today, as a result of all the critics who have worked on this campaign, there is already more awareness among consumers and communities about Wal-Mart's business and labour practices. That makes it harder for them to get away with all the things they do wrong and forces them to change."

Wal-Mart said it has made genuine improvements to employee benefits, with cheaper health insurance and shorter times before newly hired staff qualify. It has also stepped up charitable work to help communities.

Mr Beaulieu said Wal-Mart's actions had been a mixture of successful public relations and genuine movement. "The current management team has been very conciliatory in talking to its critics and has been much more savvy about how they talk about the diversity of their staff and the benefits they provide," he said. "I do think they have bought into a lot of the green initiatives, such as reducing energy use and stepping up recycling efforts. Even their push into organics, although it never took off, I think they were genuinely serious about it." With healthcare moving up the political agenda ahead of the presidential election, and Wal-Mart at least offering to be part of the brainstorming of a solution – which is bound to have to include big employers as well as the medical industry, insurers and the government – the company might just be at the start of a step change in its reputation. In the meanwhile, the cash-strapped, debt-burdened American consumer is just grateful for those low prices.

Wal-Mart slips on Costa Rica banana skin

Asda, owned by Wal-Mart, pulled out of an important meeting about labour rights in Costa Rica's banana industry last week, soon after launching a renewed price war on bananas in the UK. It is understood that the diktat for Asda not to attend came from Wal-Mart, but UK rival Tesco attended the meeting. The NGO Ban-ana Link organised the event, which was also attended by the GMB union, banana suppliers and Costa Rican industry representatives. The revelation raises questions about Wal-Mart's commitment to international labour standards – an issue that will be raised, although not in relation to Costa Rica, at its annual shareholders' event today. The timing of Wal-Mart's decision not to attend the meeting is also unfortunate for Asda because on 21 May it cut the price of a kilo of bananas from 77p to 72p, which was matched by rivals Tesco and Morr-ison. Sainsbury's, which sells only Fairtrade bananas, also followed with a 5p price cut.

Banana Link co-ordinator Alistair Smith said he found out that no one was attending from Wal-Mart or Asda just three days before the meeting took place on 28 May. He said he was disappointed by the decision but reserved his most critical comments for Wal-Mart's strategy towards workers in the banana industry. He said: "There is a split between the ethical standards people, who want to see a deal on ethical standards, and the commercial people who just want to drive down price to an unsustainably low level for everyone, particularly the plantation and pack house workers."

An Asda spokeswoman said: "While we had planned to attend the meeting in Costa Rica, we had to cancel when we realised we did not have the right senior managers due to attend."

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Muskego group plans recalls over Wal-Mart

By Emilie Rusch,
Milwuakee Journal Sentinel
June 6th, 2008                                                [back to top]

Muskego - A citizens group opposed to plans for a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the city's northern end has organized a political action committee to begin the recall process against several aldermen.

Muskego First filed preliminary paperwork this week to form the Muskego Exploratory Recall Committee and plans to refile today with the names of those they hope to recall, Muskego First co-coordinator John Walters said Thursday.

"The citizens have had enough here in Muskego," Walters said. The city's Plan Commission approved plans Tuesday for a 156,400-square-foot retail center and grocery after a contentious meeting that featured residents speaking for and against Wal-Mart. Opponents frequently clashed with Mayor John Johnson.

The Supercenter will be located off Moorland Road near College Ave., across the street from the future GE Healthcare distribution center. The commission voted 6-1 in favor of the proposal, after adding a six-month review of the thornier issues, including the 24-hour operations.

"We have absolutely no say-so in the process," Walters said. "We have not been asked to participate, to review, to partake in discussion. . . . We're not going to allow it."

Hartford recall in 2006 This is not the first recall effort in the area spawned by controversy surrounding a Supercenter. In fall 2006, two aldermen in Hartford defeated recall efforts by Hartford Citizens for Responsible Government stemming from their votes in favor of annexing land west of the city for a 185,000-square-foot Supercenter. That Supercenter is open.

Ald. Noah Fiedler, the only alderman on the Plan Commission, voted for the Wal-Mart proposal and will be the recall effort's first target, said Orville Seymer, field operations director for CRG Network, an outgrowth of Citizens for Responsible Government, a taxpayer group. Muskego First is a network affiliate.

Fiedler said the Plan Commission did its job and "exhaustively considered" residents' concerns related to the Supercenter's building site and operation, including hours of operation, landscaping, delivery truck route, lighting and noise.

"This process that Wal-Mart went through was the same as any other development would go through, and, in fact, had more public input and notice than required by law and more public input and notice than any project I've seen since I've been working with city government," Fiedler said. "Really, what Muskego First wanted us to do is treat Wal-Mart differently based on the name." Objectors might have been more vocal and have more financial backing, but Fiedler said he doesn't think the issue qualifies as a big controversy.

"My personal experience has been that the majority of Muskego residents favored the Wal-Mart proposal," Fiedler said.

Once the Muskego clerk receives the completed paperwork, the group will have 60 days to gather the petition signatures needed to trigger a recall. Johnson will not be eligible for recall until April.

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Ontario Wal-Mart plans still tied up in court

By Andrea Bennett,
The San Bernadino County
Sun June 6th, 2008                           [back to top]

ONTARIO - Some residents have asked about the status of a Wal-Mart Supercenter the City Council approved for development at Mountain Avenue and Fifth Street in November.

Since residents in the city's northwest section filed a lawsuit challenging that decision in December, the site that was once home to Target, Food 4 Less and Toys R Us has remained pretty quiet.

"It's in the pre-trial phase," said attorney Cory Briggs, who represents residents opposed to the store. "It will probably go to trial late this year, early next year."

The suit alleges insufficient analysis of the project under the California Environmental Quality Act and violations of the Ralph M. Brown Act by members of the City Council and the city manager. The council voted to uphold the Planning Commission's approval of the Wal-Mart Supercenter after the Ontario Mountain Village Association appealed the decision. Briggs said that while Superior Court Judge Donald Alvarez did not halt construction of the superstore, Wal-Mart Stores appeared "to be holding off" on any work there.

That is good news to those opposed to the project, but the inactivity can be frustrating to residents and others anticipating the store. Greg Devereaux, Ontario city manager, said he was not happy with the project's continued delay.

"I think it's a shame the process takes so long," he said. John Mendez, spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores, said the store will be built "as quickly as possible after the proceedings play out."

Despite reports of the company's shift from building superstores to expanding existing ones, Mendez said the Ontario Wal-Mart Supercenter was still a priority.

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Wal-Mart benefits from new merchandising focus

By CHUCK BARTELS and
ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
Associated Press
06.06.08                                               [back to top]

ROGERS, Ark. - Wal-Mart's better-than-expected sales in May got a boost from customers spending their government stimulus checks, but company officials noted that its faster, cleaner and friendlier approach to merchandising is clearly resonating with shoppers in a challenging economy.

"We have ended up in a really good place," said Eduardo Castro-Wright, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (nyse: WMT - news - people )'s U.S. division, standing in the garden section of a Supercenter in Rogers. He was joined Thursday by executives from different departments who offered presentations on how different categories are all embracing its "save money, live better" campaign begun a year ago. That means an emphasis on low prices while focusing on a more edited selection in an attractive selling environment.

Wal-Mart's new direction follows a zigzag course between upscale and discount goods that had slowed sales growth.

On Thursday, the day before its annual shareholders' meeting, Wal-Mart reported a 3.9 percent increase in same-store sales in May, much better than the 1.6 percent gain that analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected. Including fuel sales, Wal-Mart reported a 4.4 percent gain. The company said it expects same-store sales growth between 2 percent to 4 percent in the current month.

Same-store sales are sales at stores open at least a year and are considered a key indicator of a retailer's health.

Standing amid racks of basic clothing items priced at less than $10, Dottie Mattison, Wal-Mart's senior vice president and general manager for apparel, said that the company is focusing on offering the lowest prices on such big brands as Hanes and Fruit of the Loom.

Mattison said Wal-Mart has been "clarifying the offering," which in the case of apparel meant dropping some lines and putting greater focus on others. Garanimals, a mix-and-match children's apparel collection, replaced four store-label brands.

Wal-Mart reported last month that apparel sales, which had dragged down the company's business, were showing signs of improvement.

Wal-Mart's home furnishings area, which enjoyed its first same-store sales increase in two years, has a tighter focus too. Linda Hefner, executive vice president of home furnishings, told reporters that in certain areas of the home department the company is emphasizing major brands, while in other areas it is stressing the retailer's own store labels, particularly Canopy, Mainstays and an upcoming collection called Better Homes and Gardens, which will be shipped to stores this fall.

Hefner noted that prices on home goods are as much as 40 percent less than those of competitors. For example, a queen-size set of Canopy 300-thread count sheets sells for $35.88.

Like many of the store's areas, the home department now features lower shelving to make it easier to shop.

That clarity is also evident in the electronics department, where stores are being remodeled to have a wall of high-definition televisions and a less cluttered look. At the Rogers store, just a few miles from the retailer's Bentonville headquarters, shoppers see clear labeling on televisions, helping them decide what to buy.

Employees are also being trained to be more helpful. The section is taking advantage of new markets for video games, such as the Guitar Hero line, which appeals to an audience broader than hardcore gamers. About 1,000 of its stores, including the Rogers location, offer demo models that shoppers can play with. Wal-Mart is also doing more to promote Blu-ray high definition movies and players, now that the industry has settled on a single technology.

In the food area, Wal-Mart is stressing prepared meals like pizza as its shoppers stay home more to save money. This summer, the retailer is focusing in particular on the lowest prices for two food basics - ice cream and soda. On Thursday, it was offering four 12-packs of Coca-Cola (nyse: KO - news - people ) cans for $11.

"In a sense, the retail grocery market is getting a benefit" from the slow economy, said Jack Sinclair, executive vice president of the grocery division.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Wal-Mart keeps low-price mantra going at meeting

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
AND CHUCK BARTELS
Associated Press
06.06.08                                      [back to top]

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart executives said Friday that a reinvigorated focus on price has allowed the world's largest retailer to beat out competitors in a challenging economic environment.

"We're winning in the marketplace. You should feel very proud," Eduardo-Castro Wright, president and chief executive of the U.S. division told cheering stockholders packed into the Bud Walton Arena at the University of Arkansas.

He said at a time when Americans are struggling with higher food and gas prices, "price matters."

Looking at the 20 percent boost to company stock since last year, shareholders have much to cheer about.

Shares, which had been in the doldrums for several years, are now trading close to the top of the company's 52-week range after Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) began resounding the low-price mantra just as the economy hit the brakes.

Shares fell $1.02, or 1.7 percent, to $58.78 as the Dow Jones industrial average fell broadly, giving up more than 280 points Friday.

On Thursday, the retailer posted a better-than-expected 3.9 percent gain in same-store sales for May. The figure for sales at stores open at least a year are considered a key indicator of a retailer's health. The solid increase, boosted in part by the government stimulus checks being mailed out to Americans, followed the company's almost 7 percent gain in profits for the first quarter.

For the year ended Jan. 31, Wal-Mart, which generated sales of $374.53 billion, reported a 5.8 percent increase in profits and an 8.6 percent gain in sales.

Wal-Mart embarked on a multiprong marketing campaign focused on low prices, what it calls more environmentally sound practices, and more affordable health care for customers through a discounted prescription drug program.

Chairman Rob Walton told shareholders that the company remains devoted to the goals set forth by his father, founder Sam Walton, and dismissed critics who say that Wal-Mart has strayed from that vision.

He said Wal-Mart continues to offer products at low prices so that people can lead better lives.

Walton also said the company continues to evolve.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Wal-Mart To The Rescue

Tim Pollak and Marc Babej
06.06.08                                      [back to top] 

The White House still won't say we're in a recession. But it may be the only household in America that feels that way. Everyone who buys his own gas or shops for his own food or reads the local real estate listings or worries about his job sees his quality of life receding.

It hasn't felt this bad in a long time. Consumer confidence--always an indicator, sometimes a self-fulfilling prophecy--is at a 28-year low. There is a palpable air of frustration as people look for silver linings and see only dark clouds, from the inexorable escalation of gas prices to the depressing decline of the dollar.

At times like these, the nation looks for its leaders to provide both reassuring words and actions. But the administration is a lame duck with scarce ability to use its bully pulpit, and the challenging party tends to see its interests served by bad news.

If our politicians are helpless, or hopeless, what's to be done? Who can step into the void? Ironically, help might come from a scourge of the very populists who tend to argue longest and loudest for government intervention: Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ).

Yes, Wal-Mart. With its vast purchasing power and strong hold over the suppliers of most of the basics of daily life, it can do something government cannot: effectively control prices.

Take food. The run-up in market basket prices over the past nine months has been spurred, justifiably, by the skyrocketing cost of commodities. But what goes up inevitably comes down, as wheat has done over the past several months. Will the price of bakery goods roll back in tandem? If the decision were up to manufacturers, the obvious answer would be "no." But the decision isn't in their hands. Rather, it's up to Wal-Mart.

Could Wal-Mart choose to set guidelines for consumer prices pegged to the variable cost of commodities? Why not? It's made "Price Rollback" a staple of its merchandising lingo. It's typically tied to short-term deals made with manufacturers, but that doesn't have to be a hard and fast rule.

When suppliers depend on you for 25% or more of their total business, as many do on Wal-Mart, you have enormous power. The muscle of a company whose sales top $400 billion a year can be a scary proposition. Wal-Mart executives have been quoted saying they don't accept price increases from their suppliers, and while that's a bit of an exaggeration, they are clearly keeping their prices down more than most.

For years, liberal politicians have excoriated Wal-Mart for all manner of "offenses"--accusing it of using its might to foist inferior health plans on timid workers, to out-muscle labor unions and to squeeze neighborhood shopping. (They conveniently ignore the fact that supercenters enable families to be fed and clothed at considerably lower cost than the displaced mom-and-pops, which, incidentally, rarely offer their employees much in the way of benefits.)

Big, bad Wal-Mart coming to the rescue of beleaguered consumers would turn traditional populist thinking on its head. And it could be very good for Wal-Mart.

When people have concerns that marketing can address, marketing should address them. And the economy is clearly the country's No. 1 concern. Wal-Mart has always touted its everyday low prices. But the opportunity now is to claim higher ground--to take a leadership role on the most pressing issue of the day--and to reap the rewards for doing that.

One of those rewards is to solidify the loyalty of millions of customers, and to gain the loyalty of millions more. That's the obvious one. But for a company that has seen its ambitions expand into lucrative new territory, such as New York City, blocked by politicians who see "big" and think small, the PR value could be incalculable. Imagine pickets marching for Wal-Mart.

You have to go back almost 100 years to find a company so well positioned to address an issue as prominent in the public mind--to the days of Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford. Could it be that what's good for Wal-Mart is good for the country?

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Wal-Mart's international business borrows from US

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
06.06.08                                          [back to top]

ROGERS, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is using lessons from its U.S. operations such as multiple store formats and environmental sustainability to help grow its international business, whose sales increased almost 18 percent to $90.6 billion last year.

At a media gathering Thursday in advance of the company's shareholders' meeting, Hector Nunez, president and CEO of Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) Brazil, said the company operates nine different store brands in five different formats in that country, from Maxxi Alacado cash-and-carry stores to Hiper Bompreco "hypermarkets," large stores that combine groceries and general merchandise.

"We're focusing on low-income consumers," Nunez said.

The division is also making strides in environmental sustainability, operating two stores in Brazil that have no environmental impact because of their ability to recycle waste. Same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year, in Wal-Mart Brazil's division were up 9.2 percent in its fiscal first quarter.

Craig Herkert, president and CEO of Wal-Mart's America's division, said Wal-Mart Canada is the largest user of renewable energy in that country. The Canada division operates 31 Supercenters, 268 discount stores and six Sam's Club warehouse stores.

"We are taking the best practices and sharing them," Herkert said.

Ignacio Perez, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Central America, which operates 460 stores in the region, said the company is working with local farmers to help them become Wal-Mart's suppliers.

"We are sharing market information and giving them technological support," Perez said.

In Japan, which Wal-Mart entered in 2002 and has found slow-going, Vicente Trius, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Asia, said the company is focusing on its message of everyday low prices, which customers are demanding in a country known for expensive goods and services. Trius also noted that Wal-Mart's Japan division is also focusing on freshness in foods, something that Japanese consumers put at a premium.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

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Retail giant to slow growth

By Josh Dulaney,
San Bernardino County
Sun June 5th, 2008                                 [back to top]

At one time, Wal-Mart was able and more than willing to plant Supercenters wherever it wanted throughout the region. Now seems to be a bad season to grow the "big box" stores.

No Supercenter in Fontana's planned Promenade or Highland's Golden Triangle project. And officials Wednesday wouldn't reveal a time frame for the stores to be built in Ontario or Rialto. Wal-Mart is "reprioritizing" its growth strategy, according to spokesman John Mendez.

"Some (cities) will see new stores, others will see expansions, others - relocations (of stores)," Mendez said Wednesday.

A year ago, Wal-Mart implemented a plan to moderate its Supercenter growth in the United States, while expanding such growth internationally. It expected to open 195 in the U.S. during fiscal 2007-08, down from 281 the previous year. Plans call for just 170 of the mega stores domestically next fiscal year. Mendez said California is a growth market for the company, and it would continue to look for ways to expand the Supercenter concept in the Inland Empire.

The Redlands store will be expanded to a Supercenter in 2010, Mendez said.

But one Redlands city official said Wednesday that Wal-Mart actually wants to build a new Supercenter and either sell or lease its current store on California Street and Redlands Boulevard.

"Obviously, the recession has a lot to do with it," said Robert Dalquest, assistant community development director. "I think there is a ripple effect, the fact that Wal-Mart is going with one store (Supercenter) in the area, instead of three."

The Ontario store at Fifth Street and Mountain Avenue was slated for construction in March. The land remains fallow. The Planning Commission had approved a new store, but the decision was appealed by local residents, then approved once again by the City Council.

A lawsuit was filed by the group of residents and the case will go to trial late this year, or early next year.

"We intend to build that store," said Mendez. "The best source to ask (when the store will be built) would be the city."

Ontario Planning Director Jerry Blum disagreed.

"We don't build them (stores), we just approve them," Blum said. Blum said unless there is a court injunction against them, Wal-Mart could break ground for a new store now.

The Wal-Mart in San Bernardino on Highland Avenue will also be a Supercenter someday, Mendez said.

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Proposed Wal-Mart for Soledad slammed

By Claudia Meléndez Salinas,
Monterey County Herald
June 5th, 2008                                     [back to top] 

The buzz that has accompanied a proposed Wal-Mart Superstore in Soledad has made its way into Salinas.

Residents of Soledad and the surrounding area have been discussing the pros and cons of having a store in the town for months. On Tuesday, a group of Salinas leaders joined the debate. During the weekly breakfast of the Salinas Steinbeck Rotary Club, four featured speakers described the "devastating" effects a Wal-Mart Superstore has had in the communities where it sets up shop. They talked about abandoned downtowns, wrecked local economies and low-paying jobs, all courtesy of the largest private employer in the United States.

"Downtowns are critical to our communities," said Linda English, a former mayor of Morgan Hill and expert on redevelopment issues. "When you have a Wal-Mart, you have to be prepared. It will be devastating to the community." Soledad is in the final stages of approving a much-anticipated shopping center just north of its downtown a 425,000-square-foot plaza at Front Street and San Vicente Road. The environmental report has been approved by the Planning Commission, and the City Council is expected to review it in the next couple of months. Creekbridge Homes LLC, the developer of the shopping center, negotiated for a couple of years with Target to be the anchor tenant. After the negotiations failed, Creekbridge turned to Wal-Mart.

"The shopping center is going to get built regardless of who the anchor tenant is," said Robert Bikle, vice president of development for Creekbridge. The issue has been made "about Wal-Mart instead of about the project's approval." If Wal-Mart agrees to become the anchor tenant, it would be signing up for a 215,000-square-foot store, more than half the available commercial space at the shopping center. The remaining space would be filled with 30 shops.

A shopping center of this size in a town the size of Soledad would be devastating, and not just for the local mom-and-pop shops, said Ann Trebino, the owner of Soledad Pharmacy and a native of the city. The effects would spill over into nearby Greenfield, Gonzales and King City.

"I'm concerned not just for Soledad's business district, but also other communities in the Salinas Valley," Trebino said. "The city spent a lot of money revitalizing downtown to help keep it viable."

During the past few years, Wal-Mart has become the poster child of corporate practices that some claim cause more harm than good. The company has been accused of sweeping into a town promising increased tax revenue and good jobs. Instead, opponents say, it destroys local economies by wiping out the competition and sometimes leaving town with little or no notice. It is accused of paying such poor wages that employees can't afford to purchase health insurance.

Bikle said each of those accusations can easily be countered.

"The facts directly contradict the statements" made during the breakfast, he said. "The overwhelming public opinion is that Wal-Mart is an incredible asset. The overwhelming public opinion is that they welcome a Wal-Mart Supercenter, and it would be supported by" cities outside Soledad.

While it's true Wal-Mart has its opponents, it's also true South County residents often clamor for more services, big shops included. Many say they resent having to travel to Salinas to buy everyday items they can't find in small, local stores.

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Two Proposed Wal-Mart Sites Find Opposition

WISN Milwuakee
June 5th, 2008                     [back to top]

Residents in Muskego and Cudahy are battling over plans to construct Super Wal-Marts in their towns.

The main points of concern include increased crime and traffic.

“They just see it as an intrusion on their quality of life, a lot of crime that comes with Wal-Mart,” said Orville Seymer, a Muskego resident opposing the construction.

Taking the battle into their own hands, many Muskego residents attended a town-hall meeting to voice their concern. Still, the planning commission gave its approval anyway. Those opposed are threatening to recall their elected representatives.

“Well, recall is part of the democratic process, and everybody is certainly got rights under that process and if that's how they want to proceed that's up to them,” said Alderman Noah Fiedler about the potential recall. But that isn’t to say that everyone is against the Wal-Mart’s construction.

"I've heard both sides; you know some of my neighbors-- I live right over there-- they don't like it 'cause they think crime or something is going to come. I personally like it because I like the convenience and I think more jobs,” explains Elizabeth Ross, a Cudahy resident.

The mayor and aldermen supporting the Wal-Mart said the good outweighs the bad and the feedback they're getting is actually more favorable than the opposition, so they're not afraid of a recall.

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Ontario Wal-Mart plans still tied up in court

By Andrea Bennett,
The Sun
June 5th, 2008                         [back to top]

ONTARIO - Some residents have asked about the status of a Wal-Mart Supercenter the City Council approved for development at Mountain Avenue and Fifth Street in November. Since residents in the city's northwest section filed a lawsuit challenging that decision in December, the site that was once home to Target, Food 4 Less and Toys R Us has remained pretty quiet. "It's in the pre-trial phase," said attorney Cory Briggs, who represents residents opposed to the store. "It will probably go to trial late this year, early next year." The suit alleges insufficient analysis of the project under the California Environmental Quality Act and violations of the Ralph M. Brown Act by members of the City Council and the city manager. The council voted to uphold the Planning Commission's approval of the Wal-Mart Supercenter after the Ontario Mountain Village Association appealed the decision. Briggs said that while Superior Court Judge Donald Alvarez did not halt construction of the superstore, Wal-Mart Stores appeared "to be holding off" on any work there. That is good news to those opposed to the project, but the inactivity can be frustrating to residents and others anticipating the store. Greg Devereaux, Ontario city manager, said he was not happy with the project's continued delay. "I think it's a shame the process takes so long," he said. John Mendez, spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores, said the store will be Advertisement built "as quickly as possible after the proceedings play out." Despite reports of the company's shift from building superstores to expanding existing ones, Mendez said the Ontario Wal-Mart Supercenter was still a priority.

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Wal-Mart's Detractors Come In From the Cold

By Michael Barbaro,
The New York Times J
une 5th, 2008                                 [back to top] 

Over the last several months, a confidential report has circulated within the headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores, proposing sweeping changes to its employee health care plans.

It looks like a typical corporate planning document, but it is not. The nine-page report, written by an Emory University professor, Kenneth E. Thorpe, was commissioned, paid for and given to Wal-Mart by its longtime foes, the Service Employees International Union, and a group the union finances, called Wal-Mart Watch. They are known for attacking the chain, not cooperating with it.

But after waging an aggressive public relations campaign against Wal-Mart for three years, the company's full-time, union-backed critics, who once vowed never to let up, are putting down their cudgels.

Shrill condemnations and embarrassing leaked documents are giving way to acknowledgments of progress -- and, in the case of Wal-Mart Watch, free advice.

"It's fair to say we have been less in-your-face," said David Nassar, the executive director of Wal-Mart Watch, which had hammered the company in stinging newspaper advertisements and provocative reports with titles like "Shameless: How Wal-Mart Bullies Its Way Into Communities Across America."

The mellowing of the anti-Wal-Mart movement is an unexpected development for the retailer, whose public image and share price were bruised by the well-financed union campaigns. On Friday, when the chain holds its shareholder meeting in Arkansas, investors are likely to applaud Wal-Mart for fending off these detractors.

"It definitely has helped the company," a retail analyst at Deutsche Bank, Bill Dreher, said. "Those attacks hurt Wal-Mart."

The union-financed campaigns were started in 2005. As the groups turned up the heat on the company, Wal-Mart was at first defensive, but eventually it responded in ways few of its critics expected. The company expanded its health care plans to cover more workers, though still not enough to satisfy the unions. And it made commitments to the environment, like becoming the country's biggest seller of more efficient light bulbs.

Indeed, Wal-Mart has gone so far on some initiatives, like the environmental programs, that it has started to draw scattered attacks from the right, particularly from a group called the National Legal and Policy Center that has accused the company of giving in to political correctness.

Now, the union-backed groups appear to have concluded it would be more constructive, sometimes, to engage Wal-Mart. That leaves them navigating a complex situation in which they have to decide, issue by issue, whether to shake hands with the company or to slap it.

Since late 2006, Andrew L. Stern, the head of the Service Employees International Union, which provides the majority of financing to Wal-Mart Watch, has met repeatedly with the chief executive of Wal-Mart, H. Lee Scott Jr., to discuss solutions to the country's health care crisis.

Mr. Stern said his dialogue with Mr. Scott "does not end the need for the vigilance of Wal-Mart Watch."

Wal-Mart Watch has always insisted that it does not take orders from Mr. Stern, even though his union provides most of its financing. But those with knowledge of Wal-Mart Watch's operations say Mr. Stern's growing relationship with Mr. Scott has inevitably influenced the group's behavior.

They point to the health care report Wal-Mart Watch commissioned from Mr. Thorpe, which was handed over to Wal-Mart this year, rather than published to embarrass Wal-Mart as it might have been in the past. It is unclear whether the report will influence the company to alter its health plans.

Mr. Nassar said that it was the service employees union, not Wal-Mart Watch, that gave the report to Wal-Mart. Even within the labor movement, Mr. Stern's work with Mr. Scott has raised eyebrows, with some worried that he has obtained too few concessions while allowing Wal-Mart to claim support, however limited, from an old foe.

The less antagonistic approach from the union-backed groups is evident inside Wal-Mart, which had hired dozens of new employees to combat the negative public relations onslaught.

Over the last several months, the company has shut down a campaign-style war room set up in 2005 to do battle with Wal-Mart Watch and another group, WakeUpWalMart.com, which is financed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

And Wal-Mart has disbanded an advocacy group, called Working Families for Wal-Mart, intended to rally support for the company (and serve as a counterbalance to the anti-Wal-Mart groups). A company spokesman would not comment for this article.

Wal-Mart Watch and WakeUpWalMart.com still level occasional attacks against Wal-Mart, and remain potent watchdogs on some issues. That was made evident this year, with the case of Deborah Shank.

Ms. Shank, a shelf stocker at a Wal-Mart in Missouri, suffered brain damage in a car accident and won a settlement of $700,000. Wal-Mart then tried to recoup more than $400,000 from her, to cover what the company had spent on her medical expenses.

Wal-Mart Watch and WakeUpWalMart.com quickly swung into action. Wal-Mart Watch, for example, set up a Web site that allowed thousands of people to e-mail the top 40 executives at Wal-Mart, expressing their opposition to the company's position.

After the groups' efforts drew heavy -- and overwhelmingly negative -- media attention to Wal-Mart's conduct, the company backed down in April, saying it would forgive the expenses.

Such campaigns, many of them created by the union-backed groups or amplified by them, seemed to materialize every few weeks beginning in 2005.

That year, the newly formed Wal-Mart Watch obtained a copy of an internal Wal-Mart memorandum proposing ways to cut employee health care costs by hiring fewer unhealthy workers.

That same year, when WakeUpWalMart.com was founded, the group paid for TV commercials that questioned whether Christians should shop at Wal-Mart, given its wages and benefits. "Jesus would not embrace Wal-Mart's values of greed and profits at any cost," it said.

But such flare-ups are far rarer now, and they tend to attract significantly less attention.

Leaders of both groups said their original burst of activity was never sustainable and was intended as a quick way to attract attention.

"You can't keep up that white hot level of energy," Meghan Scott, deputy campaign director at WakeUpWalMart.com, said.

Mr. Nassar, of Wal-Mart Watch, said his group needed to "transition away from being a campaign into being an organization that is here for the long haul."

Much like a political campaign after Election Day, the groups have reduced their staffs. Wal-Mart Watch, which once had 40 workers, now has 10. WakeUpWalMart.com had up to 12 workers, but has about 6 today. And its aggressive founders, the former political operatives Paul Blank and Chris Kofinis, left in 2007.

Both groups insist that, even if there is a change in their tone or size, they have not wavered from their mission of fighting to make Wal-Mart a better employer that pays higher wages and offers more generous health care.

"I don't think there has been significant progress," on those fronts, Ms. Scott said. Wal-Mart, she said, still requires workers to meet deductibles ranging from $700 to $4,000 a year for their health insurance. And most workers earn less than $20,000 a year.

But Mr. Nassar and Ms. Scott acknowledge that the appetite for criticism of Wal-Mart, which seemed insatiable at first, has waned, especially in the news media. "There has been a certain amount of fatigue about writing the Wal-Mart-is-bad story," said Mr. Nassar. Ms. Scott described "a cooling down of the Wal-Mart story."

Both said their groups are pursuing different, perhaps less high-profile, strategies than they did in 2005 and 2006. Wal-Mart Watch, for example, wants to be viewed as the best source of outside research on Wal-Mart; WakeUpWalMart.com is reaching out more to regional news outlets, rather than big national newspapers.

Both said they would remain critical when it made sense. "As the company makes changes, it becomes harder to be critical," Mr. Nassar said, "because our critique has to become more nuanced."

"But that's O.K.," he added. "We didn't sign up for an easy job."

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Wal-Mart opponents speak up in W. Dundee

By Larissa Chinwah,
Daily Herald
June 4th, 2008                               [back to top]

A group opposing the proposed Wal-Mart SuperCenter in West Dundee may be taking on the world's largest retailer, but members are making sure their voices are heard.

At every opportunity, members of Dundee Neighbors -- a coalition of more than 500 local residents -- are showing up and vocalizing their opposition to the proposed 186,000 square foot retail center at the corner of Huntley Road and Elm Avenue.

At least 25 people attended the village's Appearance Review Commission meeting Tuesday for Wal-Mart's final presentation regarding landscaping, elevation, signage and lighting site plans.

The commission ensures developers meet appearance requirements laid out in the village's code.

The village's planning and zoning commission last week approved variances to allow Wal-Mart to increase the height of its parking lot lights to 42 feet and to install larger but fewer landscaped islands in the parking lot.

Though the group does not oppose Wal-Mart on principle, or dispute the zoning of the property, group members say the sheer size of the development is worrisome.

Toni Martell, a West Dundee resident, said the SuperCenter, with its retail and grocery components, is not harmonious or in good scale with the surrounding properties. Martell said the surrounding area has changed significantly since the site was zoned for regional retail in 2000 in preparation for a Meijer development.

"Scale is a problem," Martell said. "The demographics have changed and the surrounding development has changed. It's not the same as 2000. (The development) fails to meet one standard, and that is scale."

That scale and proximity to the nearby Tartans Glen subdivision -- located southwest of the proposed development -- would hamper residents' quality of life, said resident Teresa Smith.

"The placement will make it impossible for residents not to be affected in a negative way by Wal-Mart," Smith said.

The village board will discuss the Wal-Mart proposal at its June 9 committee of the whole meeting. That meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Public Safety Center I.

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Sandbags and Machine Guns At Wal-Mart

By Al Norman,
The Huffington Post
June 4th, 2008                            [back to top]

Wal-Mart took another bullet this week--fired from its own gun.

The bad news came just as thousands of revelers at Wal-Mart's Annual shareholder's meeting were preparing to party down in Fayetteville, Arkansas. ABC News reported that Wal-Mart is being sued by a husband in Peoria, Illinois who says his wife killed herself with ammunition sold to her by an untrained clerk at a Wal-Mart firearms department. Mark Johnson, the plaintiff, says his wife, Candace, bought bullets to load into his gun and shot herself last January. Johnson, a former Marine, admitted that he had a gun at home--but says it had no bullets.

The lawsuit charges that Candace Johnson did not own a firearms ID card, and the Wal-Mart clerk should never had sold her the ammunition. The clerk, Christy Blake, was initially facing criminal charges, but the Peoria county State's Attorney's office dropped the charges, according to ABC News. Wal-Mart initiallly suspended Blake, but she is now back working at Wal-Mart.

Johnson's lawyer has taken aim at Wal-Mart, not the clerk. "(Candace) had been a mental patient," Davis told ABC. "In the state of Illinois, they're not allowed to get firearm ammunition or firearms, and that's for the purpose of protecting them and society at large. So that's why the lawsuit is filed. They (Wal-Mart) dropped the ball unfortunately there's a dead person."

Wal-Mart has apparently admitted that its clerk did not receive training for ammunition sales, which is company policy. Gun sales training was a major talking point for Wal-Mart in April of this year, when the company linked arms with Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Wal-Mart became a prominent member of the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership. The retailer promised to implement new gun sale rules at roughly one-third of its American stores. But the Partnership did not save Candace Johnson.

Wal-Mart said it would create a new record and taping system for guns that are subsequently used to commit a crime. If the gun purchaser returns to Wal-Mart to buy another firearm, the system would warn the clerk not to make the sale. The system would also allow the police to view the tapes as part of a crime investigation. Wal-Mart pledged it would institute tougher background checks for its "associates" who work in the firearms department. They must have skipped over the Peoria store.

Wal-Mart has had its own troubled background with guns. In January of 2005, the California Attorney General's office revealed that Wal-Mart had violated the state's gun laws 2,891 times over a three year period. Wal-Mart illegally sold a gun to someone in California 2.6 times everyday from 2000 to 2003. The violations included selling to 23 people prohibited from owning guns, selling guns before waiting for a criminal background check, failing to identify the buyer's identity, and allowing people to make "straw purchases" on behalf of another person prohibited from owning guns.

Wal-Mart violations of gun laws were so lax, the state created a special training program for Wal-Mart workers. That training seems to have misfired. State agents found so many violations at Wal-Mart stores, that the company eventually stopped selling guns altogether in California.

Under the terms of the settlement with the California Attorney General, Wal-Mart paid $14.5 million to the state, and spent at least $4.5 million to comply with state and federal regulations, plus $3 million for a public relations campaign promoting firearm safety and to encourage other gun dealers to do what Wal-Mart failed to do: check the ages of people buying guns. The California AG said that compliance with the laws was necessary to keep "ex-felons, mentally ill and other prohibited people" from getting weapons. But now the old wound is open again, and Wal-Mart is in the headlines for selling bullets to a mentally ill woman in Peoria.

I wrote last April that if the California lawsuit was any indicator, similar violations could be happening all across the nation at thousands of Wal-Mart stores, and people who are not supposed to be buying guns, are walking out of superstores armed with Wal-Mart guns and ammunition. At the store level, where press releases are just so much corporate confetti, there is no reason to believe that sales clerks are prepared to deal with customers like Candace Johnson.

It will be instructive to see how Wal-Mart's legal defense plays in Peoria. Guns seem to be a major part of the Wal-Mart culture. Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott told a gathering of businessmen in Chicago three years ago, "One of the things that can happen when you get under attack is that you actually can close up. We call it at home, being very sophisticated, that you pull out the sandbags and the machine guns." It looks like Wal-Mart is going to need a lot of sandbags and machine guns to defend itself in Peoria.

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Yahoo in deal to sell online advertising for Wal-Mart

Associated Press
06.04.08 

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NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is enlisting Yahoo Inc. to sell display and video advertising on the retailer's popular Web site Walmart.com.

The companies didn't disclose financial terms of the multi-year deal announced on Wednesday but said that advertisers would be able to buy ad space across Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people )'s and Yahoo (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people )'s own online retailing area later this month.

Under the deal, Yahoo will become the exclusive reseller of display advertising on the Walmart.com Web site.

Yahoo also said Wal-Mart would join Yahoo's new online ad-serving platform Amp later this year.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Wal-Mart enters online classified advertising

Associated Press
06.03.08                                                                [back to top]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, has launched an online classified advertising site, a move that opens a broader range of shopping to Wal-Mart's Internet customers.

The site is run through Oodle.com, a three-year-old San Mateo, Calif., firm, and links to Oodle's online offerings.

"This free, community-based resource allows customers to buy and sell items locally, find local jobs and learn about events in their area," Walmart.com spokesman Ravi Jariwala said Tuesday in an e-mail message.

Jariwala said the site expands goods and services that Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) customers can buy through the company.

"It also further connects our community of 130 million customers who shop the Wal-Mart brand each week," Jariwala said.

Craigslist has long been considered the leader in the sector, which has seen business improve in the down economy as more people are looking to sell items to help them make ends meet.

Consumers have less cash because of higher fuel prices, a troubled real estate market and tighter credit. Selling off items via the online classifieds has given people an easier option for raising cash.

Oodle says it makes money through advertisers who pay for prominent placement on the company's network of classified ad sites, which include some newspapers and TV stations.

Oodle, which was founded by a group of eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) and Excite former executives, says it posts over 500,000 new listings daily, generated through more than 80,000 sites.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Wal-Mart Sets Out To Kill The Newspaper Industry

By Douglas A. McIntyre,
24/7 Wall Street
June 3rd, 2008                                        [back to top]

Newspapers have been hit by so many arrows that it is a miracle that they are still standing. As internet ads have taken away much of their revenue and costs of printing and transportation have moved higher, margins at daily newspapers are disappearing.

While national and local ads at many papers are off 10% or better this year, it is the classified business that is really hurt. Some of the largest newspaper have lost 20% to 30% of their classified ad revenue this year. Most of this comes from the damaged real estate, auto, and job sectors.

One of the great enemies of the industry has been Craigslist, the huge online classified website. Now, Wal-Mart (WMT) is joining the phalanx set against newspapers.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Walmart.com Classifieds claims a reach of more than five million consumers each month through a network of sites, including newspapers, portals such as Lycos and online communities such as Military.com." And, it is giving the ads away for free.

Wal-Mart's theory seems to be that giving classifieds to its customer will improve their loyalty to the world's largest retailer. That may be true. It makes sense.

But, over at the local newspaper, another piece just got torn out of its heart.

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Candlsense warmers pose fire hazard

The Morning Call
June 3rd, 2008                                 [back to top] 

About 730,000 Candl-sense warmers, made in China by Provo Craft & Novelty Inc., have been recalled because the internal heating part of the candle warmer can detach and melt the bottom of its plastic casing, posing a fire hazard. Provo Craft has received 11 reports of the heating parts detaching, including two fires and nine incidents of property scorching. One consumer reported a blistered finger. The products were sold at Wal-Mart and other stores nationwide from August 2006 through October 2007.

Details: by phone at 888-306-0132; by Web at http://www.provocraft.com and http://www.cpsc.gov

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Accused Wal-Mart Shooter's Case Continued

By Heather King,
WITN News
June 2nd, 2008                             [back to top]

The man accused of shooting up the new Jacksonville Wal-Mart was scheduled to be in court Monday. However, the case of Elijah Payne has been continued for a second time.

Police say 18-year-old was working at the Yopp Road Wal-Mart at the time of the incident in March. They say he went on an employee break, grabbed a sawed off shotgun from his car and covered his face in camouflage paint. Police say Payne held about 15 people hostage in an employee break room. No one was injured in the attack.

Payne is charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and manufacturing a weapon of mass destruction.

No new court date has been set yet. Stay with WITN for updates

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Shareholders rap Wal-Mart on labour policy

By Hugh Wheelan,
The Observer
June 1st, 2008                                  [back to top]

Wal-mart, the US supermarket giant, faces a battle with angry shareholders next week, including UK pensions management company F&C, over a continued ban by US cities on new stores, as well as the company's failure to comply with international labour standards.

F&C has joined forces with other European pension investors to file the resolution at Wal-Mart's 6 June AGM in Arkansas. They say Wal-Mart's poor business reputation is driving away customers and putting their investments at risk. A 2006 study by the US consulting firm McKinsey found that at least 2-8 per cent of customers had stopped shopping at Wal-Mart as a result of the controversy surrounding the company.

US cities including San Diego have introduced laws banning new stores of more than 90,000 square feet: on average, Wal-Mart's giant Supercenter stores measure 185,000 square feet.

Investors want Wal-Mart to produce a report on the negative social and reputation impacts of its non-compliance with International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions. Wal-Mart has faced allegations of using child labour in overseas suppliers and preventing US employees from joining trades unions.

In 2006 a Pennsylvania court found the company guilty of forcing employees to work during breaks and off the clock. Wal-Mart reportedly faces damages of at least $100m (£50m) as a result.

Kris Douma, a former Dutch MP who is now head of responsible investment at Mn Services, which is backing F&C, said: 'We're hoping for large-scale support from other investors on this resolution and we are inviting them to join us.'

Wal-Mart told shareholders that the US had ratified only 14 of the ILO conventions and that most did not apply to its operations. It said: 'The issuance of any such report would be contrary to the best interests of our company and our shareholders.'

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Wal-Mart: A Year In Review

The Morning News
June 1st, 2008                           [back to top]

June 1 - Businessman Irwin Jacobs files lawsuit against former Wal-Mart marketing executive Julie Roehm claiming she defamed him by alleging in a lawsuit against Wal-Mart that CEO Lee Scott accepted favors and services from him.

The Associated Press Former Wal Mart vice president Tom Coughlin, left, and wife Cynthia, right, leave a Fort Smith federal courthouse after he pleaded guilty to fraud and filing a false tax return.

July

Watts

12 - Wal-Mart regains the top spot on Fortune Global 500 after an 11 percent increase brought revenues up to $351 billion.

20 - Claire Watts, who headed Wal-Mart's merchandising team, announces her resignation.

August

8 - Wal-Mart launches Facebook Web group "Roommate Style Match," a marketing effort aimed at college students through the social networking site.

21 - "Walmartopia!" begins performing its off-Broadway musical satire of Wal-Mart.

22 - State judge in Michigan rules Roehm should have filed her lawsuit in Arkansas. She sought to sue Wal-Mart for breach of contract and fraud, claiming the retailer owed her severance pay.

28 - Appeals court rules that home confinement and restitution for former executive Tom Coughlin, who admitted to defrauding the company, was too lenient. A new sentencing hearing is ordered.

September

12 - Wal-Mart changes its longtime tagline "always low prices" to "Save money. Live Better." The company had used the former slogan 19 years.

October

10 - Wal-Mart introduces a recycled, reusable, washable shopping bag at a sustainability summit in Rogers.

16 - Consumers file two federal class-action lawsuits against the dairy supplier for Wal-Mart's private-label organic milk. The lawsuits against Aurora Organic Dairy claimed it defrauded consumers by passing off milk that did not meet organic dairy standards.

18 - Wal-Mart cut prices on more than 15,000 items in holiday season price war.

22 - Wal-Mart announces move to acquire 49.1 percent of Seiyu Ltd. it doesn't already own. Wal-Mart had invested in the Japanese supermarket chain for five years.

23 - Wal-Mart announces at an analyst and investor conference plans to cut back its U.S. sales growth to make way for international expansion over the next three years.

November

1 - Wal-Mart and Clinton Climate Initiative announce partnership to bring environmentally-friendly technologies to U.S. cities and world.

5 - Roehm says she won't take retailer to court a second time. Wal-Mart subsequently drops lawsuit against her.

6 - The Occupational Safety and Health Administration opens investigation into whistleblower complaint against Wal-Mart that the retailer notified the party named in the complaint and revealed the complainant.

12 - Wal-Mart announces it is shopping the energy market to invest in biomass or power plants that would allow the retailer to buy energy direct.

14 - Wal-Mart releases better-than-expected third quarter earnings of $2.86 billion.

15 - Judge orders Wal-Mart to pay $36.4 million in fees and expenses in a class-action lawsuit for Pennsylvania workers forced to work off the clock. Attorney's fees bring the judgment to $187.6 million.

16 - Coughlin files counterclaim against seeking retirement benefits worth between $12 to $15 million. Wal-Mart had sued Coughlin to void the retirement agreement.

20 - A Wall Street Journal article publicizes case of former employee Deborah Shank. The retailer was seeking reimbursement for her medical care after she won a settlement from the trucking company responsible for her injuries.

December

26 - Wal-Mart moves in-house the company it enlisted to publicly counter union-led.

January

7 - Wal-Mart finalizes a partnership with Camille's Sidewalk Cafe to lease space inside Supercenters to the Tulsa, Okla.-based franchise.

15 - Wal-Mart confirms it will reduce Saturday morning meetings to one per month.

22 - The Morning News reports an apparel division shuffle that would eliminate up to 200 positions from sourcing and product development. After denying the story, the retailer confirmed the reorganization the next week.

February

1 - Wal-Mart sets deadline for suppliers to submit product packaging information to serve as a benchmark to reduce packaging.

1 - Coughlin avoids prison a second time when U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson added 1,500 hours' community service to his previous sentence of home confinement, restitution and probation.

21 - Wal-Mart disputes a customer satisfaction survey from the University of Michigan that shows satisfaction at an all-time low.

March

19 - Wal-Mart announces it will complete takeover of Seiyu Ltd., which it began investing into in 2002.

April

2 - Wal-Mart sends a letter to Shank apologizing for seeking reimbursement for her medical care and says it will refund the nearly half million dollars.

May

16 - Wal-Mart submits building plans for its new Marketside stores in the southeast United States, stores that are a fraction of the typical supercenter to compete against Tesco's Fresh & Easy markets

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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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