By JESSICA DeLEÓN
Star-Telegram
Sun, Sep. 30, 2007                            [back to top]   

They're the old grocery stores and restaurants that once teemed with customers. Now they sit empty, sometimes for years, despite their visible locations.

Except in booming Keller and Southlake, officials throughout Northeast Tarrant County face the challenge of filling large vacant buildings. Until they're reoccupied, cities lose out on potential revenue from sales, equipment and inventory taxes. And they lose out on foot traffic that might improve sales at neighboring businesses. Meanwhile, residents complain about what they perceive as blight.

"You've always got that building," said Bill Ridgway, Euless' economic development director.

Wal-Mart effect

City officials say they most want to see their former supermarkets occupied because of the potential tax revenue. But why are so many grocery stores empty?

"One word: Wal-Mart," said Scott Welmaker, Colleyville's economic development manager.

Colleyville has two empty grocery stores: Kroger and Albertsons, both privately owned and diagonally across the street from each other on Colleyville Boulevard.

Welmaker hopes that if one supermarket gets filled, the other will soon have a buyer.

He would like to see clothing or linen stores.

"Obviously, grocery stores didn't work there," he said.

Supermarkets present problems for reuse. The buildings usually have one floor, 18-foot-high ceilings and support structures that divide the building, said Terry Clower, associate director of the Center for Economic Development at the University of North Texas in Denton.

The design makes it more difficult to attract other businesses because of the limited uses, "which is why we see many old grocery stores turn into bingo halls," Clower said.

The vacancy can also become a self-fulfilling prophecy, he said: The longer the building sits empty, the more businesses don't want to locate there, and the space can turn into an eyesore.

Or, in another scenario, the building has a secondary use, Clower said. For example, a grocery store may close, and a deep-discount retailer will take its place -- generating far less sales tax revenue.

Taken over by the city

Some cities have converted the vacant buildings for their own use.

Hurst is transforming Cavender's, a former Western clothing store at 845 W. Pipeline Road, into a senior center. The building, which had been vacant for about three years, could be occupied by July 2009.

The senior center will be next to a city park and be part of a development that will include a new fire station, homes and stores, city spokeswoman Ashleigh Whiteman said.

"It really just made sense," Whiteman said.

In North Richland Hills, officials plan to convert the former Food Lion store at 4131 Rufe Snow Drive, empty since 1997, to city offices. The state's planned expansion of Northeast Loop 820 will likely force the building that houses the city's library, recreation center and other offices near Rufe Snow to close.

The city is building a recreation center and library at Home Town NRH off Davis Boulevard, but other offices will need space. No timeline has been set for moving into the Food Lion store; the highway expansion project may be years away.

When local governments take over buildings, they're also giving up, Clower said. They're taking the building off the tax rolls and not getting the sales tax revenue that they used to.

"It becomes, 'We're kind of stuck with that building,'" he said.

Patience can pay off

Sometimes cities have found they have to be patient.

Euless waited for nearly a dozen years before a former Sutherlands building materials store, at 1010 N. Industrial Blvd., found a tenant.

Residents often asked about the building at town hall meetings.

"It had become a very bad joke," Ridgway said.

Professional Turf Products took over the space about a year ago. "The city cooperated with them in every way possible," Ridgway said, including giving the company sales tax incentives.

The old Kmart at 701 S. Industrial Blvd sat empty for at least five years until 2001, when the building become the DFW Technology Center. It's now the corporate headquarters for Reynolds Asphalt.

After four years of waiting, Bedford officials expect that a 60,000-square-foot call center will move into the Bank One building at 1900 L. Don Dodson Drive by the end of the year. Officials hope they can fill the rest of the 200,000-square-foot building.

And JPS Health Network is putting a clinic in a 20,000-square-foot section of the former Winn-Dixie on 6601 Watauga Road in Watauga.

Sometimes cities and businesses must be flexible. The old Winn-Dixie shopping center on 143 E. Harwood Road in Hurst, vacant for five years, will have two businesses instead of one.

Bicycles Inc., now in Bedford, will take up half the 44,000-square-foot building, with the other business to be determined. A dialysis center will also move into the shopping center.

Dallas-based Realtor Croesus Capital Partners, which bought the center in December from a Florida real estate investor, plans to update the center with new landscaping and a new facade.

Trip Green of Croesus said that the company was attracted by the area's solid demographics and income levels and that it wasn't spooked by the building's long vacancy.

"What we saw is what it could be, not what it was or not what it had been," he said.

Staff writer John Kirsch contributed to this report, which includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.

Euless

Former Tarrant Printing building,

3200 W. Euless Blvd., 74,942 square feet

How long empty: About three years Property value: $1.5 million

Officials' wish: Anything retail, especially a Costco, Target or Wal-Mart, or a grocery store.

Other information: The building is having asbestos removed, Economic Development Director Bill Ridgway said. The building also used to be a Tom Thumb.

Grapevine

Albertsons, 2100 W. Northwest Highway, 66,958 square feet

How long empty: Five months

Property value: $3.8 million

Officials' wish: Grocery store/retail store

Other information: The building was one of the first Albertsons stores in the area, Grapevine Assistant City Manager Tommy Hardy said. Many Albertsons stores have been closing, and this store went with a round of closings this year, he said.

Hurst

Tom Thumb/Mayfair shopping center, 666 Grapevine Highway, 197,745 square feet

How long empty: Three years Property value: $14 million

Officials' wish: Retail store or restaurant

Other information: The Tom Thumb, which moved next door, is part of a shopping center that includes several restaurants and stores that are still operating.

North Richland Hills

Food Lion, 4131 Rufe Snow Drive, 37,025 square feet

How long empty: 10 years Property value: $1.9 million

Officials' wish: The city plans to use the building to relocate services displaced by the expansion of Northeast Loop 820.

Other information: North Richland Hills bought the building in December 2003 for $650,000.

Richland Hills

Sam's Club, 7500 Baker Blvd., 125,911 square feet

How long empty: Seven years Property value: $2.7 million

Officials' wish: A store.

Other information: It had produced $500,000 in tax revenue for the city annually.

Watauga

Albertsons, 6249 Rufe Snow Drive, 59,761 square feet

How long empty: Two years Property value: $3.3 million

Officials' wish: A business

Other information: A Super Saver store occupied the building for a year after Albertsons vacated it. Albertsons left as part of an overall store reduction in the Metroplex.

Bedford

Harrigans Grill and Bar, 1501 Airport Freeway, 7,401 square feet

How long empty: Four years Property value: $900,000

Officials' wish: Restaurant

Other information: Companies have told city officials that the property doesn't have enough parking, and motorists may find it hard to get to.

Colleyville

Albertsons, 4801 Colleyville Blvd., 60,000 square feet

How long empty: Six months Property value: $4.2 million

Officials' wish: Soft-goods/clothing store

Colleyville

Kroger, 4904 Colleyville Blvd., 78,589 square feet

How long empty: Two years Property value: $6.7 million

Officials' wish: Soft-goods/clothing store

Other information: The national corporations closed the Albertsons and Kroger stores.

Sources: Cities, Star-Telegram archives, Tarrant Appraisal District

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A giant seeks a smaller footprint

Wal-Mart plans to shrink new stores to ease opposition in state.

By Dale Kasler and Jon Ortiz
Sacramento Bee
Sunday, September 30, 2007                   [back to top]   

Three years ago, Stockton welcomed a Wal-Mart Supercenter, the first in Northern California, with open arms. Last month, the city passed a law forbidding Wal-Mart from opening any more of them.

The City Council's 6-1 vote bans all new big-box grocery stores but is clearly aimed at Wal-Mart, which had proposed two more Supercenters.

"There's a feeling that one 'super Wal-Mart' is sufficient," said City Manager J. Gordon Palmer Jr.

Success in California has come slowly and grudgingly for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Although it has opened 31 Supercenters in the state since early 2004, it has encountered resistance on a scale not seen elsewhere.

Local activists and the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents grocery workers, have halted or delayed Wal-Mart's advance through lobbying and litigation in roughly two dozen communities. Elected officials and judges have listened sympathetically to their argument that non-union Wal-Mart harms communities by paying substandard wages and putting local retailers out of business through relentless discounting.

"When the story is told, it resonates," said Jacques Loveall, president of UFCW-Golden 8 in Roseville.

Wal-Mart's hurdles in California aren't all political. Costly real estate upsets its business model, which depends on cheap land for its massive stores. The state's incumbent grocery chains, once thrown off stride by Wal-Mart, have learned to compete more effectively.

Wal-Mart "came in with a plan to take the state by storm," said Robert Reynolds, a supermarket consultant in Moraga. "It is very slow going -- it is expensive."

Coupled with Wal-Mart's national problems, including sluggish earnings, the California struggles are prompting the company to rethink its strategy. Consultants say Wal-Mart is planning a new grocery format that's the size of a convenience store with an upscale feel. The idea is that a smaller footprint would churn up less political friction.

"Much of it has to do with the public opposition that they've faced, most prominently in California," said analyst Stephanie Hoff of Edward Jones in St. Louis.

Another factor is new competition from Britain's Tesco, which is planning small markets in California and the Southwest.

"Wal-Mart, which is finding itself blocked more and more over footprint size, is paying attention to what Tesco is doing," said Richard George, a professor of food marketing at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

Wal-Mart wouldn't discuss the plan, but spokeswoman Tiffany Moffatt said, "We're always looking at new formats." She said any new format would be driven by customer preferences, not competition or politics.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer and the nation's No. 1 grocer, acknowledges some hiccups in California but says it is pleased with its progress.

"Our Supercenters have been extremely successful," Moffatt said. Supercenters, which average 185,000 square feet, are nearly twice as big as regular Wal-Marts and contain full-line grocery stores.

Wal-Mart is more successful politically in some places than others. Where there's more open space, or there's a clear need for jobs and retailing, union influence tends to wane and the climate is friendlier.

Greater Sacramento's four Supercenters are sprinkled around the edges of the region. The area's first truly urban Supercenter, which opens next year, will land at a site that's been struggling for years, the former Florin Mall.

Wal-Mart held 4.8 percent of the area's grocery market as of December, says Nielsen Trade Dimensions.

But Wal-Mart's overall California presence is tiny by the standards of a $345 billion-a-year company. It runs 208 stores in the state, including Sam's Clubs. Texas has one-third fewer people but twice as many Wal-Marts.

One reason is politics.

"A lot of California, politically, is dominated by union interests. Wal-Mart galvanizes that interest," said Larry Kosmont, a land-use consultant in Encino.

At least 12 communities have passed big-box laws similar to Stockton's. Five others, including Sacramento, require economic-impact studies before mega-groceries can be built.

Two Bakersfield Supercenters were blocked by a lawsuit claiming they'd spawn environmental blight by hollowing out local business districts. Similar suits have tied up Supercenters proposed in Lodi and Chico for years.

Wal-Mart beats some opponents. It defeated a "blight" lawsuit in Gilroy and persuaded San Diego officials to reject a big-box law similar to Stockton's. At Wal-Mart's urging, voters overturned Contra Costa County's big-box law. The newest Supercenter, in American Canyon, opened earlier this month after three years of wrangling.

Sometimes "special interests have delayed the process, but we've found that time and time again, when the public gets involved, consumer choice ultimately prevails," Moffatt said.

At the Stockton Supercenter on Hammer Lane the other day, shoppers pledged their loyalty to Wal-Mart and expressed anger at the city's new law.

"Wal-Mart is such a great store, great values," said Kathy Wickstrom, 61. More Supercenters "would have given Stockton a lot more jobs." The average store employs 350 workers.

Stockton once saw Wal-Mart as an economic boon. But proposals for two more Supercenters and a SuperTarget sparked lobbying by activists and the UFCW. The council, trying to cultivate a more upscale image for Stockton, pulled the welcome mat.

Stockton now bans stores greater than 100,000 square feet that devote more than 10 percent of their space to nontaxable items such as groceries.

The law and others like it are rooted in the theory that mega-markets don't generate enough sales tax to compensate for the traffic and pollution they cause. But often the real issue is Wal-Mart, and all it represents.

"For some people it has become a symbol of evil," said consultant Mark Lilien of Retail Technology Group.

Image problems have contributed to the company's national struggles. Publicity campaigns by the UFCW International and the head of the Service International Employees Union have hit Wal-Mart on issues like outsourcing and employee health care.

Sales growth has been hurt by a misguided merchandising strategy that emphasized upscale apparel. High gasoline prices have impacted Wal-Mart's working-class base. Amid disappointing second-quarter earnings, Wal-Mart curtailed national construction of Supercenters by a third.

In 2004, when California's first Supercenter opened in La Quinta, "it looked like all the retailers in the state were on the run," said consultant Burt Flickinger III.

Citing the threat from Wal-Mart, unionized supermarket chains wrangled cost savings, but not before a costly strike gripped Southern California. Workers accepted concessions in Northern California, too.

As Supercenters spread, so did their influence, likely playing a role in Ralphs grocery's decision to pull out of Sacramento.

But grocers found they could compete by emphasizing organic foods, nicer stores and selective discounting, Flickinger said. The UFCW largely abandoned a futile effort to organize Wal-Mart's workers and discovered it could influence city councils.

"There's no question we're making more progress on the political front," said Loveall, whose local represents 30,000 grocery workers in the Central Valley.

When it hears of a proposed Supercenter, the Roseville local bombards city councils with anti-Wal-Mart DVDs and white papers and enlists employees of unionized stores to speak up at public hearings.

Results have been mixed. While Stockton issued a decisive rebuke to Wal-Mart, Elk Grove passed an ordinance that exempted two of the city's main commercial districts, the Calvine and Lent Ranch areas.

The Elk Grove law isn't "as sweeping or as substantial as we'd like it to be," but is still a victory for labor, Loveall said.

A law similar to Stockton's has been recommended by the Planning Commission in Galt, where Wal-Mart wants to build a Supercenter. The Galt City Council is set to consider the recommendation Oct. 16.

Wal-Mart's struggles are affecting labor relations. A new contract in Southern California restores many of the previous concessions. In Sacramento, where most contracts expire Saturday, management negotiators invoke the specter of Wal-Mart less often.

"They're acknowledging that the campaign to keep Wal-Mart at bay has borne fruit," Loveall said.

But grocers say Wal-Mart can't be ignored. "They have not grown as fast as they originally predicted. ... But we still consider a company like Wal-Mart a growing and legitimate competitor," said Safeway Inc. spokesman Brian Dowling.

Copyright © The Sacramento Bee

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Wal-Mart ETF: You Want To Invest?

By Margaret Brennan
CNBC.com
28 Sep 2007                                  [back to top]   

If you think that the share price of retail giant Wal-Mart will recover from its malaise, then you might also be interested in buying into what looks to be one of the first Wal-Mart Exchange Traded Funds. Then again, if you've heard about the bargaining power that Wal-Mart has and uses to push down the cost of items purchased from its suppliers, you might think twice about putting money into the MyShares Wal-Mart ETF.

According to our partners at Dow Jones, the Montvale, NJ-based company MyShares is launching an ETF that invests in Wal-Mart's suppliers.

I took a look at the SEC filing by MyShares and found this description: The fund will "normally invest at least 90% of its total assets in stocks of companies that derive a substantial portion of revenue from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc."

The ETF is "designed to exploit a unique situation where the world's largest retailer has spawned a sub-industry of dependent companies, including many that are common household names."

The filing doesn't name the companies in the index. I left a message with MyShares head Erik Liik to find out more but haven't heard back as yet. I'll keep you posted.

© 2007 CNBC, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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Wal-Mart expanding cheap medications strategy

FierceHealthcare
Sep 28 2007                                    [back to top] 

Over the past year, Wal-Mart has made tremendous waves with its $4 generics offerings. Not only has the retail giant built new possibilities for its own pharmacy business, Wal-Mart's moves have been copied by rivals like Target, creating a ripple which is still expanding.

Until now, nearly all of the drugs offered in the $4 program were aimed at the elderly, including high blood pressure, heart and diabetes medications. This week, though, Wal-Mart has gone in a new direction, adding an ADHD drug to its growing list of low-cost meds. It's also added two popular birth control pills at a $9 price point. These moves suggest that Wal-Mart wants to bring younger consumers into the fold, analysts say.

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Parents sue Wal-Mart over E. coli

South Florida Business Journal,
September 27th, 2007                            [back to top] 

The parents of a Pembroke Pines teenager are suing Wal-Mart after they calm their daughter became severely ill after contracting an E. coli infection last month from frozen hamburger patties purchased at a local store.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Broward Circuit Court, seeks financial damages from Wal-Mart for allegedly selling the beef.

The teen's mother, Anna Safranek, bought a box of 12 Topps quarter-pound patties from the Wal-Mart at 151 S.W. 184th Ave., in Pembroke Pines, on Aug. 15, lawsuit said. Two days later, 15-year-old Samantha cooked and ate one of the hamburgers.

Shortly after, Samantha began suffering from intense pain, cramping, diarrhea, fatigue and dehydration, the suit says. She was taken to the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood, where doctors discovered she was infected with E. coli 0157:H7. She spent three weeks in the hospital and underwent six days of dialysis. The suit claims she sustained permanent kidney damage and will have to be monitored for the rest of her life.

Wal-Mart, which said it has not yet been served with the suit, said it pulled the patties from the shelves on Aug. 30 after a single customer complaint in "an abundance of caution." Spokesman Kory Lundburg said he was unsure whether the Safraneks filed the customer complaint.

Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that Topps was voluntarily recalling about 331,582 pounds of frozen products.

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Wal-Mart scraps Pittsburgh-area store

The Associated Press
September 27, 2007                              [back to top] 

Wal-Mart will not build a store at a suburban hilltop construction site where a massive landslide last year closed a busy highway for two weeks, the retailer announced Wednesday.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said in a statement that it will return the hilltop in Kilbuck Township "to a predevelopment, natural sloping condition that includes trees and vegetation."

Officials from Wal-Mart and the state Department of Environmental Protection met Tuesday to discuss the revised plan. In August, the department said Wal-Mart's stabilization plan was incomplete. Wal-Mart has been trying to devise a plan that would stabilize the hillside to prevent another landslide.

Part of the site gave way Sept. 19, 2006, sending some 500,000 cubic yards of dirt and debris onto Route 65 and railway tracks below. One lane of the highway, a major artery to Pittsburgh's western suburbs, remains closed.

"We're happy to see that Wal-Mart has chosen to put the safety of the community first and we look forward to receiving the company's revised stabilization plan," the state department's regional director, Kenneth Bowman, said in a statement.

The revised plan includes creating a 40 to 45-foot soil stability slope from the rock cliff, and two 25-foot walls on the back of the property instead of one 60-foot wall, the company said.

Wal-Mart took control of the entire development site in March.

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Wal-Mart shakes up generic pricing

By Jonathan Birchall
Financial Times
Sept 27, 2007                         [back to top]  

Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, is to start selling prescription birth control and fertility drugs for around a third of their current prices, in a significant extention of its drive to lower the cost of commonly-used generic drugs.

The retailer has also introduced a radically new approach to the pricing of generic alternatives to branded drugs that have just come onto the market.

New generics are ususally priced at only a small discount to the original branded drug. Wal-Mart said it will sell a $4 new generic version of Glaxo's Coreg, a blood pressure drug, that currently sells for $119. Wal-Mart will also sell a new generic version of Novartis' heavily marketed anti-fungal Lamisil for $4, while a month's supply of the branded drug currently costs over $330.

The retailer said it would start selling a monthly supply of prescription Ortho Cyclen and Ortho Tri Cyclen birth control drugs for $9, compared to current prices of $24 to $30, introducing a second pricing tier into its low-cost generic programme.

The retailer's move to start selling generic drugs last year was copied by rivals including Target and a number of supermarkets, while Wal-Mart says it has reduced the costs to its customers by $614m over the past twelve months.

Bill Simon, chief operating officer of Wal-Mart stores, said that the first phase of the programme "has exceeded all our expectations".

"We'll continue to look for new ways to drive costs out of the healthcare system," he said.

The move has also led to other price cutting initiatives. Publix, a leading supemarket chain in the southeast US, announced this summer that it would start providing generic anti-biotics to its customers for free.

Wal-Mart, which has been bitterly criticised over its own healthcare policies by union critics and others, said last year that it intends to use its market power as one of the largest pharmacy operators in the US to reshape the pharmaceuticals market.

It is also supporting one of two business coalitions that are lobbying for government and state healthcare reform, with the retailer arguing for a more transparaent pricing system for healthcare services that would support "consumer driven" reforms.

Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Wal-Mart on trial in Dakota County

Portfolio.com
Sep 26 2007             [back to top]  

A trial has begun in Dakota County pitting Wal-Mart against former workers alleging wage-law violations by the retail giant.

Four women who worked for the company claim the retailer was in violation of the Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act, the Pioneer Press reported Wednesday.

The suit challenges that Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) did not pay them for the time they worked. Employees say they were forced to work through breaks, and that managers inappropriately recorded breaks on their time cards, the paper said.

The paper said that the nonjury trial is expected to go for months.

Wal-Mart is currently facing other employee class-action suits in New Jersey, South Carolina and Missouri. The retail giant previously lost a $78 million verdict in Philadelphia over missed breaks and a $172 million case in California in 2005 over meal breaks.

 © 2007 Condé Nast Inc. All rights reserved.

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Fourth Juarez Wal-Mart super store planned

By Dallel Gonzalez                        [back to top] 

Wal-Mart de Mexico announced the construction of its fourth super center in Juarez during the grand opening of its third store.

"This city is growing, and with it the needs. This represents a great opportunity for the development of new business," said Miguel Baltazar, vice president of the stores, during the grand opening of Wal-Mart Zaragoza.

The new store will be located were the Plaza de Toros Monumental was located, in the Paseo Triunfo de la Republica street, next to Rio Grande Mall.

The new super store will be built on a 505,000-square-feet lot, and is expected to be ready next January, Baltazar said. The total investment will be $15 million, and it will create 340 new jobs.

This will be the seventh store in the state of Chihuahua, the fourth in Juarez.

So far the state has seen an investment of $130 million in seven stores and five restaurants, which have created 3,000 jobs.

Last week Wal-Mart started operations in its newest location, at the corner of Zaragoza and Oscar Flores. The super store offers groceries, clothing, furniture, and general merchandise, and also created 340 new jobs.

Wal-Mart Zaragoza is the anchor store of the Pejorza mall which hosts more than 80 stores and a movie theater, Cinepolis.

"We have a solid collaboration with Chihuahua, with Juarez, in order to develop more stores and create more jobs," said Baltazar.

The first Wal-Mart store opened in 1995, along with a Sam's Club, located at the Avenida Ejercito Nacional.

Alter that, in 2003, a second store opened in the Ave. Santiago Troncoso and Las Torres, in the southern part of the city.

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Group wants Wal-Mart to stabilize Kilbuck site

Pittsburg Post-Gazette,
September 26th, 2007                     [back to top] 

Communities First! has asked the state to order Wal-Mart to permanently stabilize the old Dixmont State Hospital property in Kilbuck where the retailer was building a shopping plaza until 300,000 cubic yards of dirt and debris slid onto Route 65/Ohio River Boulevard more than a year ago.

In a letter sent yesterday to the state Department of Environmental Protection, the grassroots group formed to oppose construction of the Wal-Mart Superstore and River Pointe Plaza said the retailer "should be subject to a fully enforceable order requiring it to rectify the predictable result of its negligence" in trying to develop a landslide-prone property.

The letter, signed by Bob Keir, co-chairman of the group, also asked the DEP to set a deadline for the retailer to submit data and conclusions about what caused the landslide and make no decision on the company's stabilization plan until Wal-Mart submits all data and a complete plan.

Helen Humphreys, a DEP spokeswoman, said the department will review the request. A Wal-Mart stabilization plan submitted to DEP last month was deemed incomplete and inaccurate. The company submitted additional information earlier this month, but the DEP has not finalized its conclusions about that submission, Ms. Humphreys said.

Soil at the site continues to slowly move toward Route 65, where one lane of the four-lane road remains closed to traffic as a safety precaution.

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Wal-Mart wage trial begins

By JULIE FORSTER ,
Pioneer Press
September 25th, 2007                      [back to top] 

With boxes upon boxes of documents jammed under rows of courtroom benches, Wal-Mart employees launched a wage-law violation trial against the giant retailer Tuesday in a Dakota County courtroom.

Former and current employees of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in Minnesota accuse their employer of not paying them for all the time they worked. Specifically, the employees said they were forced to work through break times and that managers inappropriately inserted breaks on their time cards. In other instances, they worked off the clock, without pay, before and after their shifts.

Four women brought the case on behalf of 56,000 current and former Minnesota employees of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. All of them at one time worked for either Wal-Mart or Sam's Clubs but claim they were not properly paid for hours worked in violation of the Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act.

Attorneys for the workers said in opening statements before Judge Robert King Jr. that they have collected more than 1 million documents, including time records, internal memos and timekeeping audits Wal-Mart conducted on its own. Their witnesses will include store workers, high-level executives, store managers and regional and district managers. The nonjury trial is expected to go for months.

Class-action status was granted because the employment practices were seen as widespread and even routine at Minnesota stores. Wal-Mart attorneys said Tuesday they will wait until the workers have wrapped up their case before making an opening statement. On a break, Neal Manne, Wal-Mart's