David Nassar
Wal-Mart Watch

Associated Press
09.30.08                               [back to top]        

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Tuesday it has told suppliers to stop acquiring cotton from Uzbekistan to try and put an end to forced child labor in cotton harvesting.

The world's largest retailer said it has formed a coalition representing 90 percent of U.S. purchases of cotton and cotton-based merchandise.

"There is no tolerance for forced child labor in the Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) supply chain," said Rajan Kamalanathan, Wal-Mart's vice president of ethical standards.

On Sept. 12, the Uzbekistan government issued a plan detailing steps to stop the use of child labor, following a letter from a number of industry trade groups demanding the end of forced child labor in cotton harvesting.

Wal-Mart will modify its stance once these steps can be independently verified.

Shares rose $1.17, or 2 percent, to $59.62 in trading after the opening bell.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

  [back to top]        

Wal-Mart expands worker health benefits

By Karen Jacobs,
Reuters
September 30th, 2008                        [back to top]        

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Retail leader Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Tuesday that it was expanding health benefits for workers, including offering a 2009 program that provides pre-pregnancy and child development services.

The company said a "Life With Baby" program in next year's benefits package would provide workers counseling with registered nurses through all phases of maternity.

It said that plan also includes expanded benefits such as periodontal cleanings to help prevent gum disease in mother and child, and a new program designed to stop smoking.

In a statement, the retailer said about 15,000 of its workers have babies each year.

Wal-Mart also said its 2009 health plan offerings would provide added preventive coverage such as mammograms, colonoscopies and flu vaccinations to workers.

Earlier this year, Wal-Mart said 92.7 percent of its employees have health-care coverage, including 50.2 percent who are covered by the retailer's plan. Wal-Mart has 1.4 million U.S. workers.

 [back to top]        

Lawyer: Wal-Mart may owe $600M

By Donna Goodison,
Boston Herald
September 29th, 2008                        [back to top]         

The state is being deprived of as much as $600 million in fines from Wal-Mart alone by failing to enforce a Massachusetts law requiring companies to give employees meal breaks, according to a Medford lawyer waging a class-action lawsuit against the retailer.

Attorney Robert Bonsignore won a key Supreme Judicial Court appeal this week that reinstated the class-action lawsuit on behalf of 67,500 current and former Massachusetts employees of Wal-Mart. The suit alleges that Wal-Mart systematically withheld workers’ wages and cut short or denied their meal and rest breaks.

As part of the case, first filed in 2001, an expert statistician witness analyzed Wal-Mart’s paper and electronic payroll records from 1995 to 2005 and documented more than 1 million instances when Bay State employees were denied meal breaks.

State law requires employers to give at least a 30-minute meal break to employees who work more than six hours in a given day. Violations of the law, which is up to the state attorney general to enforce, are punishable by a fine of $300 to $600 per occurrence.

“If you add the objective numbers that we have, the state can claim at a minimum $600 million in fines just from Wal-Mart,” Bonsignore said. “Given the financial dire straits that the commonwealth faces, it’s incomprehensible to me that the attorney general is sitting on its hands.”

Bonsignore first presented his case and data to former Attorney General Thomas Reilly’s Office.

“We had multiple meetings with them, and they declined to prosecute,” he said.

Reilly, who left office in January 2007, is now a partner at the Boston office of Greenberg Traurig, which is Wal-Mart’s counsel in the class-action suit.

Current Attorney General Martha Coakley also declined to intervene, according to Bonsignore.

On Tuesday, the SJC vacated a 2006 trial court ruling that had decertified the Wal-Mart employees’ class-action lawsuit. The ruling essentially reinstates the case, which will proceed in Middlesex Superior Court. It also allows Bonsignore to ask a jury to place a value on the employees’ missed meal breaks - funds that, if he’s successful, would benefit the employees.

“We’ve got our right now for the first time to try to get something for these people who couldn’t eat a sandwich,” Bonsignore said. “But the state is walking away from $600 million at a time when we need every cent to fund police, to fund public services, to fund enforcement of laws, just name it.”

But based on a statement from Coakley’s office yesterday, the attorney general now appears willing at least to take a look at Bonsignore’s payroll record data.

“The prior administration looked at this case and decided not to proceed,” a spokesman for her office said. “But now that the SJC has reinstated the case, if the plaintiffs’ attorney wants to share evidence that they have, we are happy to review it.”

The state is being deprived of as much as $600 million in fines from Wal-Mart alone by failing to enforce a Massachusetts law requiring companies to give employees meal breaks, according to a Medford lawyer waging a class-action lawsuit against the retailer.

Attorney Robert Bonsignore won a key Supreme Judicial Court appeal this week that reinstated the class-action lawsuit on behalf of 67,500 current and former Massachusetts employees of Wal-Mart. The suit alleges that Wal-Mart systematically withheld workers’ wages and cut short or denied their meal and rest breaks.

As part of the case, first filed in 2001, an expert statistician witness analyzed Wal-Mart’s paper and electronic payroll records from 1995 to 2005 and documented more than 1 million instances when Bay State employees were denied meal breaks.

State law requires employers to give at least a 30-minute meal break to employees who work more than six hours in a given day. Violations of the law, which is up to the state attorney general to enforce, are punishable by a fine of $300 to $600 per occurrence.

“If you add the objective numbers that we have, the state can claim at a minimum $600 million in fines just from Wal-Mart,” Bonsignore said. “Given the financial dire straits that the commonwealth faces, it’s incomprehensible to me that the attorney general is sitting on its hands.”

Bonsignore first presented his case and data to former Attorney General Thomas Reilly’s Office.

“We had multiple meetings with them, and they declined to prosecute,” he said.

Reilly, who left office in January 2007, is now a partner at the Boston office of Greenberg Traurig, which is Wal-Mart’s counsel in the class-action suit.

Current Attorney General Martha Coakley also declined to intervene, according to Bonsignore.

On Tuesday, the SJC vacated a 2006 trial court ruling that had decertified the Wal-Mart employees’ class-action lawsuit. The ruling essentially reinstates the case, which will proceed in Middlesex Superior Court. It also allows Bonsignore to ask a jury to place a value on the employees’ missed meal breaks - funds that, if he’s successful, would benefit the employees.

“We’ve got our right now for the first time to try to get something for these people who couldn’t eat a sandwich,” Bonsignore said. “But the state is walking away from $600 million at a time when we need every cent to fund police, to fund public services, to fund enforcement of laws, just name it.”

But based on a statement from Coakley’s office yesterday, the attorney general now appears willing at least to take a look at Bonsignore’s payroll record data.

“The prior administration looked at this case and decided not to proceed,” a spokesman for her office said. “But now that the SJC has reinstated the case, if the plaintiffs’ attorney wants to share evidence that they have, we are happy to review it.”

[back to top]        

Walmart to pull plug on DRM servers

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes,
ZDNet
September 28th, 2008                  [back to top]        

So, Walmart is to pull the plug on its DRM servers and leave all the suckers customers who bought DRM-encumbered music up a creek without a paddle.

Here’s the email sent out to customers:

Important Information About Your Digital Music Purchases

We hope you are enjoying the increased music quality/bitrate and the improved usability of Walmart’s MP3 music downloads. We began offering MP3s in August 2007 and have offered only DRM (digital rights management) -free MP3s since February 2008. As the final stage of our transition to a full DRM-free MP3 download store, Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site.

If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer. This change does not impact songs or albums purchased after Feb 2008, as those are DRM-free.

Beginning October 9, we will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com. If you do not back up your files before this date, you will no longer be able to transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash. Your music and video collections will still play on the originally authorized computer.

Thank you for using Walmart.com for music downloads. We are working hard to make our store better than ever and easier to use.

Walmart Music Team

So, you choose to buy something legitimately, despite the fact that it’s shackled by DRM, and the company decides to pull the plug on the life support system of the DRM servers in order to save money. Sheesh. And this system is supposed to prevent piracy.

Something that I do find interesting from the email is how Walmart are encouraging users to make use of the analog hole in order to carry out a little damage limitation.

But why not take the simple approach to solving this problem. Give everyone who bought a DRM-time-bombed song access to the DRM-free version. Problem solved.

 [back to top]        

'Wal-Mart Women' Vote Remains in Play

By MIGUEL BUSTILLO
and ANN ZIMMERMAN,
The Wall Street Journal
September 26th, 2008               [back to top]        

Hoping to capitalize on the voting might of its working-class customers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. released results of its own poll Thursday showing the "Wal-Mart Women" vote coveted by both presidential candidates is still up for grabs in five battleground states.Wal-Mart's customer poll found that Wal-Mart women were slightly more likely to support Sen. John McCain in Ohio and Florida, and Sen. Barack Obama in Virginia, Nevada and Colorado, though only a few percentage points separated preferences in each state.

Wal-Mart said it commissioned the survey to test the voting preferences of men and women who are shopping at its stores. But the poll was clearly an exercise in public relations. The discount retailer sought to play up the notion that Wal-Mart's customers have a key role in November's elections to show that it is a political force to be reckoned with.

Pollsters have emblematized part of the crucial working-class swing vote as "Wal-Mart Women," defined as more socially conservative women who typically don't have a college degree, who are feeling the economic pinch and are shopping at Wal-Mart for its lower prices.

The rise of Wal-Mart's female customers as a sought-after voting bloc has presented the Bentonville, Ark.-based company with an unprecedented opportunity to help choose the next president -- and it's trying to make the most of it.

The political poll, conducted for the company by a bipartisan team of pollsters, isn't the first Wal-Mart has conducted, but it is the first it has made public, said Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar.In addition to the survey, Wal-Mart is distributing demographic summaries to the press of the archetypal Wal-Mart Woman -- or Wal-Mart Mom, as they are also known -- and it has launched a voter-registration drive to ensure that more of its customers make it to the polls.

The rise of Wal-Mart Women marks a turnaround in Wal-Mart's political fortunes. In past years, Wal-Mart has been a favorite punching bag as candidates invoked the megaretailer as a symbol of corporate greed. Just two years ago, Democratic presidential candidates such as Sen. Joe Biden -- now Sen. Obama's running mate -- were attacking Wal-Mart for low wages and paltry health-care benefits as part of a broader strategy to curry favor with labor unions and capitalize on Americans' economic anxieties.

But as Wal-Mart Women take center stage in this year's race for the blue-collar vote -- and the economic slowdown makes Wal-Mart's fixation on low prices fashionable with growing numbers of Americans -- the criticism has quieted, a shift that is boosting the company's efforts to burnish its image.

"Candidates see our shoppers as representative of Americans worried about today's economy," said Leslie Dach, a former Washington public-relations guru and veteran of seven Democratic presidential campaigns hired by Wal-Mart to help repair its reputation.

With more Americans turning to Wal-Mart for essentials such as food, health care and gasoline, candidates run a risk of alienating voters by assailing the company, said Neil Newhouse, a partner with the Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies. The firm coined the term Wal-Mart Women a year ago to categorize the voting bloc expected to be this season's equivalent of the soccer moms of 1996 and Nascar dads of 2004. It found in a poll this month that nearly a third of expected voters now shopped at Wal-Mart. "You're not going to bash a place that 30% of likely voters go to on a weekly basis," Mr. Newhouse said. "It doesn't make political sense."

Bruised by a drumbeat of criticism alleging stingy and discriminatory treatment of its employees, Wal-Mart has been making an aggressive push in recent years to rehabilitate its image, hiring a public-relations firm to help it answer critics, launching a campaign to reduce its environmental impact, and expanding a $4 prescription generic-drug plan to help combat high health-care costs.

Wal-Mart also has so far doled out more campaign contributions to Democrats than Republicans in the House of Representatives this election cycle -- a first for the traditionally GOP-leaning company.

Wal-Mart hasn't escaped criticism this year. A group of unions has asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate whether the company improperly cautioned tens of thousands of store supervisors that voting for Democrats, including Sen. Obama, could hurt the company because the Democrats support a bill that would make unionizing easier.

The union-backed anti-Wal-Mart group Wake Up Wal-Mart has been running negative ads in seven states that show Sen. McCain in front of a Wal-Mart logo and accuse him of favoring reckless corporate tax cuts.

Still, the shift in Wal-Mart's image this political season has frustrated the company's foes, who argue that their claims about Wal-Mart exploiting American workers and pushing jobs offshore remain as relevant as ever.

"Even people who don't necessarily feel good about Wal-Mart's policies have found themselves shopping there because of how bad things have gotten," said Meghan Scott, a spokeswoman for Wake Up Wal-Mart.

[back to top]        

Wal-Mart says to open first India centre in 2009

By Devidutta Tripathy,
Reuters
September 24th, 2008                       [back to top]        

NEW DELHI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Store Inc will open its first cash-and-carry centre in India in 2009, the head of its India operations said on Wednesday.

Wal-Mart, which has a venture with India's Bharti Enterprises for cash-and-carry wholesale operations, had earlier said it aimed to open the first of its centres by year-end and open 10-15 centres over seven years.

"Certainly that was the initial plan," Raj Jain said at the sidelines of a business conference.

"We still stick with that. It could be faster, it could be slower."

The first centre will be in northern India, he said.

 [back to top]       

Wal-Mart sues, mocks burn victim

David Nassar
Wal-Mart Watch                           [back to top]       

Wal-Mart has done a lot of nasty things over the years, but this one might take the cake.

Missouri mom Lori Howerton purchased a gas can from Wal-Mart. In 2002, her 12-year-old son Justin tried to help her by using the gas can to burn some branches that had fallen during an ice storm. As he poured gas on the pile of wet branches, the vapors ignited, a flame leaped up and ignited the gas can nozzle. When Justin tried to blow out the flames, the can exploded and covered him in burning gasoline. Justin suffered third-degree burns over more than half of his body, was permanently disfigured and emotionally traumatized.

If the story ended there, it would be a tragedy. But there's more. When the Howertons dared to sue Wal-Mart and Blitz, the gas can maker, for selling and manufacturing a defective product, guess what Wal-Mart did? Wal-Mart countersued Justin's mother for negligence! Even more egregious is that the company was aware of the gas can dangers and accidents as shown in heartless videos of executives mocking gas can explosions.

This shocking behavior was reported in last week's episode of Dan Rather Reports. Watch the heart-wrenching segment and share it with everyone you know:

http://action.walmartwatch.com/gascan

The Howertons' lawsuit against Wal-Mart and Blitz alleged that Justin's accident could have been prevented by a simple device installed on the gas can's nozzle for less than a dollar. This is an essential safety feature, and both Blitz and Wal-Mart are responsible for failing to install it.

As Dan Rather reported,

"Wal-Mart can and has in the past required its suppliers to make changes in product designs when customers complain or when they think it's necessary."

In fact, Wal-Mart did just that with Blitz several years ago, pressuring the company to make a change in a spout on a different gas can. Blitz, of course, complied.

But rather than take responsibility for its failure to protect its customers, Wal-Mart challenged the lawsuit and filed a countersuit against Lori Howerton. According to Howerton's attorney, Wal-Mart even hired a private investigator to follow Justin, a minor, to make sure he wasn't faking his burn injuries.

The repulsive videos of Wal-Mart executives mocking gas can explosions and crudely laughing about this tragedy show a blatant disregard for customers' safety. It's the kind of thing you have to see to believe:

http://action.walmartwatch.com/gascan

Wal-Mart has a long history of callous disdain for the health and safety of both its customers and its workers.

Whether it's selling toys with lead paint to parents, suing brain-damaged former employee Debbie Shank for her medical funds, or denying living wages and proper health care coverage to hundreds of thousands of workers, Wal-Mart continues to set new standards for heartlessness.

Its treatment of the Howertons is just the latest and perhaps most egregious example -- and we need to make sure everyone hears about it:

http://action.walmartwatch.com/gascan

Sincerely,

David Nassar
Wal-Mart Watch                   

[back to top]         

How Obama Can Win Working-Class Votes

Shikha Dalmia
09.24.08                                  [back to top]        

For now, Barack Obama has contained his free fall in the polls. But the slim margin he enjoys over John McCain can hardly be a source of comfort.

If he wants to restore his original lead, he will have to do more than go on the offensive. He will have to deliver on his promise of being a post-partisan unifier and convince working-class whites to join blacks--two key Democratic constituencies--to join forces behind him. This charge will require him to perform a delicate double-maneuver: persuade working-class whites that he's not an identity politician indifferent to their interests and, at the same time, assure black voters that his appeal as a post-racial candidate doesn't involve selling them out.

One principled way he could do both? Ask colleges to end preferences for minorities and white children of alumni in admissions.

Racial preferences have been a sleeper issue so far, but they will generate more attention come November, given that Colorado and Nebraska are facing ballot initiatives--authored by a black businessman from California, Ward Connerly--to ban their use in public universities. If similar initiatives in California (1996), Washington (1998) and Michigan (2006) are any indication, they will win handily, thanks to white working-class support. Indeed, the Michigan initiative passed 58% to 42%, receiving nearly 70% of the votes in places such as Macomb County--home of the Reagan Democrats.

But Obama has condemned Connerly's initiatives as "divisive." This will likely irritate working-class whites who already feel alienated by his "god and guns" remark. Indeed, their antipathy is one reason why, despite pervasive disgust with the current Republican administration, McCain has gained ground.

The current average of major polls shows Obama leading McCain by 3%--certainly an improvement over last week, but still only half of what it was two months ago. The latest Gallup poll shows McCain leading Obama 55% to 33% among lesser educated, blue-collar whites. Likewise, a Zogby poll earlier this month reported that Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) shoppers support McCain over Obama 62% to 24%.

Of course, over 90% of blacks polled support Obama. But they alone can't carry him to the White House; they comprise only 11% of the general election voters--and whites 77%.

Obama needs to do something--as dramatic as McCain's picking a hockey mom with a working-class background as his running mate--to change the electoral calculus. Fair college admissions, though not the most pressing issue this election, could nevertheless resonate far beyond the states facing the Connerly initiative. These include Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia--all battleground states that, with the exception of the last, are part of the Rust Belt and contain huge working-class populations.

Obama's comment to ABC's George Stephanopoulos that colleges shouldn't grant privileged blacks like his daughters special consideration by virtue of their race over disadvantaged whites was a good first step. It suggests that Obama would be open to replacing race-based affirmative action with economic affirmative action--a measure that would appeal to blue-collar whites. But they won't take him seriously so long as he opposes Connerly's initiatives. Too precipitous a reversal, though, would risk a fall-out with black voters.

Obama can break through this political logjam by calling for a genuinely fair admission system: He should concede that racial preferences are repugnant because they reward not hard work or merit but an accident of birth. But, by the same token, so are legacy preferences, the vast majority of which benefit wealthy whites.

As Princeton professor Tom Espenshade has shown, racial preferences give black and Hispanic candidates the equivalent of an advantage of 230 and 185 extra SAT points, respectively, on a 1,600-point scale. Legacy preferences--which nearly every elite school, public and private, employs--also translate into a 160-point edge for children of alumni.

Dismantling racial preferences while leaving legacy preferences in place, as Connerly's initiatives would do, won't advance the cause of color-blind admissions because it will open up minority slots for white candidates but no white spots for minority candidates. It would effectively force disadvantaged minorities to compete on merit without holding rich, privileged kids to the same standards.

This message will resonate with working-class whites because they don't qualify for either type of affirmative action. At the same time, calling for the end of both will mitigate the potential fallout with black voters for whom racial preferences are a necessary corrective to existing inequities in the admission system. They will be more willing to give them up if the system itself is fundamentally reformed.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards had railed against legacy admission but was silent about racial preferences. Connerly has acknowledged the unfairness of legacies but has conspicuously omitted them in his campaign to ban racial preferences. Calling for an end to both will allow Obama to acknowledge the important element of justice in both causes--while drawing attention to their partialness.

Obama's political appeal rests on his promise that he is a candidate of change who can transcend narrow interests of race and class and unite the country around basic principles of fairness and justice. But he has yet to give any concrete example of how he will achieve such a creative alliance. Unfair college admission practices give him a golden opportunity to offer one.

Shikha Dalmia is a senior analyst at the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based think tank. She is a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Reason magazine and numerous other publications. She can be reached at shikha.dalmia@reason.org.

 [back to top]       

Mass. court reinstates lawsuit against Wal-Mart

Associated Press
09.23.08                                      [back to top]       

BOSTON - The highest court in Massachusetts has reinstated a lawsuit against Wal-Mart by employees who claim the world's largest retailer pressured them to work off the clock and denied them rest and meal breaks.

In 2006, a Superior Court judge decertified the case as a class-action lawsuit representing 67,000 employees of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (nyse: WMT - news - people ) in Massachusetts and dismissed many of its claims.

But the state's Supreme Judicial Court overturned that ruling on Tuesday and cleared the lawsuit to proceed as a class-action case, finding that the lower court was wrong to exclude testimony from a statistician whose data backed up employee claims.

The claims are similar to those made by Wal-Mart employees in other lawsuits around the country.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 [back to top]       

'Tis The Season To Be Frugal

Lisa LaMotta,
09.23.08                     [back to top]       

Expect to see plenty of discounts this coming holiday season as retailers try to coerce worried consumers into opening their wallets.

The National Retail Federation said Tuesday that it expects a poor retail environment this holiday season due to the current economic conditions, which have forced consumers to take a more frugal stance on shopping. High gas prices, the rising cost of food and trouble on Wall Street have all contributed to the weariness consumers already feel about spending.

The National Retail Federation expects holiday sales to only rise about 2.2% to $470.4 billion. This is well below the 10-year average level of 4.4% annually, and the slowest growth rate since 2002, when growth slowed to 1.3% after the dot-com bubble burst. "Current financial pressures and a lack of confidence in the economy will force shoppers to be very conservative with their holiday spending," said NRF Chief Economist Rosalind Wells.

The dismal forecast by the trade group is not entirely unexpected as several retailers including Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) and Sears Holdings (nasdaq: SHLD - news - people ) said they expect to pare back inventories and offer sales as incentives. Adding to the problem is the shorter holiday season; there are five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year than in 2007. For many retailers, holiday sales represent between 25% to 40% of their annual revenues.

Jewelry stores tend to represent the highest growth during the holidays and both Tiffany (nyse: TIF - news - people ) and Zale (nyse: ZLC - news - people ) said earlier in the quarter that they plan to be aggressive. (See "Retailers Mixed About Holiday Season.")

While the trouble on Wall Street hasn't started to show its expected effects on Main Street, consumers and lenders have lost confidence in the U.S. financial system. Many Americans are worried about how the government's proposed $700.0 billion bailout will affect them and the amount of taxes that are already taking their toll on expenses.

The NRF does not see any recovery for retailers until the second half of next year.

 [back to top]       

De Soto Wal-Mart employee files age discrimination suit

St. Louis Business Journal
September 22nd, 2008                           [back to top]       

A Wal-Mart in De Soto, Mo., fired a long-time employee because of her age, a new lawsuit alleges.

The complaint, filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday, alleges that Wal-Mart terminated Yvonne Loskot, 67, "because she was too old and made too much money," the commission said.

Loskot, who worked for Wal-Mart for a decade, earned $18 an hour as a certified optician, making her the highest-paid employee in the De Soto store's optical department.

A request for comment from Wal-Mart was not immediately returned.

"We all age so everyone should appreciate the protections of the [Age Discrimination in Employment Act]," said Barbara Seely, regional attorney for the EEOC's St. Louis office, in a statement. "Age discrimination in employment does far-reaching damage in our society. It results in the loss of productivity and opportunities for valuable workers in our economy."

In fiscal 2007, the commission received 19,103 charges alleging age discrimination, a jump of nearly 3,000 from the previous year.

[back to top]       

Wal-Mart Price Discrepancies Investigated

Local 6 News
September 22nd, 2008                 [back to top]        

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Apparent cost discrepancies at Central Florida Wal-Mart stores were investigated after the Problem Solvers received a tip from a viewer alleging different prices for the same items.

Mary Barnaby told Local 6 that after shopping at three Central Florida Wal-Mart stores she found varying prices at different locations.

Barnaby's list included 14 staple items like cereal, rice, sugar and soup.

She found items on her list were often cheaper at the Apopka Wal-Mart than at the Wal-Mart stores in Mt. Dora and Clarcona/Pine Hills, Local 6 reported.

"It just kind of lets you down that you think that Wal-Mart is a good kind of family store to shop in and save money. It depends on which Wal-Mart you decide to go to," Barnaby said..

The Problem Solvers took three items randomly from her list and put them to the pricing test: Green Giant asparagus, a 5-pound bag of sugar and condensed milk

Local 6's Steven Cooper reported that Barnaby's theory held up during a Problem Solvers test.

Sugar $2.38 Mt. Dora $2.36 Clarcona/Pine Hills $1.76 Apopka

Condensed Milk $1.54 Mt. Dora $1.56 Clarcona/Pine Hills $1.04 Apopka

Asparagus $2.42 Mt. Dora $2.54 Clarcona/Pine Hills $1.86 Apopka

"I did not go to the managers, and I probably should have but I decided to write you instead," Barnaby told Cooper.

Cooper contacted Wal-Mart.

"When we see that a nearby competitor might temporarily lower a price on an item, our stores have the authority to adjust their price lower. This can happen in a very small vicinity of stores," the company said in a statement to Local 6.

However, the Problem Solvers found that the prices concerned were not temporary as Wal-Mart described, but consistent over a period of at least two months.

Barnaby said she thinks that Wal-Mart is charging more for the same products in poorer neighborhoods than in neighborhoods with higher incomes.

"It disgusts me that the people who can least afford to buy the food have to pay more money than everyone else does," Barnaby said.

That’s a serious accusation and the Problem Solvers probed further, Cooper reported.

First, Cooper looked at the most recent census data, which showed the median household income is highest in Apopka -- where the prices were the lowest, compared to incomes in Mt. Dora and Clarcona/Pine Hills where the prices were higher.

Cooper brought that data to Wal-Mart's attention and a spokeswoman for the company said she was offended by the suggestion that the company was charging more in poorer neighborhoods.

She insisted that Wal-Mart does not price by demographic, that it remains the low price leader in every market -- and that the three stores we visited represent entirely different markets with different sets of competition, Cooper reported.

But when the Problem Solvers checked the competition, they did not find a similar pattern of pricing, Cooper said.

They visited Publix stores in the Windermere/Ocoee area, the Rosemont neighborhood of Orlando, and Altamonte.

The prices of the sugar, condensed milk and asparagus were consistent at all three stores. Visits to different Winn-Dixie stores generated the same results, according to Cooper.

When it comes to Wal-Mart, Barnaby said she comes to one conclusion: “You really need to know which store to shop at to get the better bargain within the Wal-Mart corporation."

Cooper said it's important to keep in mind that the Problem Solvers' price survey was not a scientific study. It is an observation of same-store pricing and it does reflect Barnaby's shopping experience.

And it does appear to put Wal-Mart in the unique position of pricing in a way that its competitors do not, Cooper reported.

Cooper also said that he has received many tips over the years about price discrepancies at other food retailers, but that this claim about Wal-Mart was the first time his researched turned up obvious differences from neighborhood to neighborhood.

[back to top]       

Wal-Mart’s Eco-Gold Tarnished, Say Enviros

By Richard Martin,
New West Development
September 20th, 2008                        [back to top]       

Wal-Mart claims its new jewelry line is eco-friendly, and based on "sustainable mining." Environmentalists, however, disagree.

Released in July under the brand "Love, Earth," the new gold marketing program claims to produce "fashion jewelry that honors, cherishes and protects our planet." Gold and silver contained in the items purchased through Love, Earth is 100% traceable, Wal-Mart says, through something called the Jewelry Sustainable Value Network, back to the original mines. The precious metals used in the jewelry are "mined and manufactured to our standards and criteria."

In fact, Wal-Mart's gold comes from mines in Utah and Nevada, owned by mining giants Rio Tinto and Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp., which have a long history of environmental problems and pollution, according to environmental groups Global Response and Great Basin Resource Watch.

"The mines in Utah and Nevada and the factories in Peru and Bolivia where Wal-Mart claims its gold for Love, Earth is 'sustainably mined and manufactured' are not monitored or certified by any credible independent agent," says a Sept. 11 statement from Global Response, which is based in Boulder. The retail giant is "taking advantage of people's genuine concern for the planet and luring them into purchasing a product that … is extracted at great cost to the earth and to human communities."

Great Basin Resource Watch has been working for the better part of two decades to compel Newmont, which owns or controls approximately 3,056 square miles of land in Nevada, to clean up its operations in the state. Newmont, one of the world's mining giants, has operations around the world and has done battle with environmentalists for years over its mines in the developing world. Nevada is an important center of production for the company, which is the second-largest U.S. gold producer. Of the 5 million to 5.4 million ounces of gold Newmont expects to produce in 2008, more than half will come from Nevada. Last year, according to the company's annual report, Newmont generated $580 million in profits from Nevada gold.

While Newmont's 10 Nevada mines are nominally in compliance with state and federal regulations, says GBRW executive director Dan Randolph, they are hardly "sustainable" as Wal-Mart, and the mining company, claim.

"Part of the question is, are you out of compliance if you don’t get the ticket?" asks Randolph. "Is it speeding if you're driving over the speed limit but you don’t get the ticket?"

Sifting microscopic gold particles from the Nevada's arid soils is an incredibly laborious process: "for every ounce of gold refined approximately 100 to 200 tons of earth had to be moved," says a Resource Watch analysis based on Newmont's environmental impact statements. Environmental problems found at Newmont's Nevada mines include depletion of the water table, air pollution from mercury mixed with the gold ore, "acid mine drainage" from exposed rock at the mine site, and toxic holding ponds, laced with cyanide and heavy metals, left behind once the gold is extracted.

Indeed, many environmentalists consider "sustainable mining" an oxymoron, preferring the more guarded term "responsible mining."

Led by Tiffany & Co., many jewelers have climbed on the responsible-mining wagon in the last decade, supporting efforts like the "No Dirty Gold" movement and programs to avoid the purchase of tainted precious stones or "blood diamonds." Global Response executive director Paula Palmer calls the Love, Earth marketing "greenwashing" and an attempt to "hoodwink consumers into thinking they can ‘reduce impact on human health and the environment’ by buying gold jewelry." Great Basin Resource Watch's Randolph, however, is more circumspect. Having the spent the last few years attempting to build bridges to Newmont in order to foster incremental changes in mining practices, he is loath to call the Wal-Mart program an out-and-out sham.

"The traceability aspect is a good step forward," he allows, an important part of the international effort to develop responsible mining standards.

Wal-Mart, in fact, has engaged with environmentalists in a series of conference calls to discuss the Love, Earth marketing plans. The Bentonville, Ark. company, according to Randolph, has agreed to alter its marketing materials to emphasize that the jewelry is traceable – and to temper claims that the mines from which the gold is purchased are environmentally benign.

While Wal-Mart's claims sound good to the average consumer, "To a more knowledgeable person, almost all modern mines could meet those criteria," Randolph says.

Wal-Mart has not made any changes to its existing marketing materials. In response to a request to interview Pam Mortensen, the executive heading the Love, Earth program, a Wal-Mart spokesperson provided a statement that included the following:

"Wal-Mart’s objective is to have a long-term, fundamental and positive influence on the jewelry supply chain by selling jewelry that is made from precious metals and gems that are produced following Wal-Mart’s supplier standards and the Jewelry Sustainability Value Networks’ environmental and social sourcing criteria."

[back to top]      

Is Walmart Price-Gouging Hurricane Victims?

The Consumerist
September 20th, 2008                          [back to top]      

A Walmart insider tells us that the price of cellphone chargers nearly doubled on orders from Walmart HQ in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Before the hurricane, chargers cost from $10-$15, but afterwards, they rose to a uniform $19.

The insider writes:

I work in a Walmart store in KY, and I'm writing in to let you know that my store has raised the prices on all of its cell phone chargers by almost 50%. These price changes were automatically put into effect in our system by Home Office. This, I feel, is in direct response to Hurricane Ike.

Here in KY, we didn't get the rain, but we did get high winds on Sunday morning, which knocked out power to some 300,000 people here. The next day when we opened, people bought every car charge and battery we had because they were still without any power. Now today all of our car chargers go up nearly 50%. In fact, every charger, car or wall, in our store is a flat $19.00, when car chargers were $10.00 and wall chargers were $15.00 yesterday. This is hardly a coincidence, and it's so blatently obvious to our customers. I can't believe Walmart would do something so totally against their own mantra of Save Money, Live Better. This is more like "Raise Prices, Screw Suffering Customers!"

It could be a coincidence, maybe not. Either way, the timing is certainly suspicious.

[back to top]      

Wal-Mart wants injury case moved to federal court

By Kelly Holleran,
West Virginia Record
September 18th, 2008                     [back to top]      

CHARLESTON - Wal-Mart has asked to have a Kanawha County lawsuit filed against it moved to federal court.

Eugenia G. Comer filed suit against Wal-Mart in May in Kanawha Circuit Court, claiming she was injured after one of the store's employees fell off a ladder, hitting her during his fall.

Comer alleges she was shopping at Wal-Mart on May 19, 2006, and was near an employee who was working on a ladder, according to the original complaint filed May 16.

After the employee shifted on the ladder, he fell and struck Comer, the suit states.

Comer claims she suffered physical and mental pain, mental anguish and anxiety and has been disabled as a result of the incident.

She has had to take medicines and to undergo treatments, examinations and therapies after the fall, according to the complaint.

Comer has suffered a limitation of endurance and abilities in many activities and has experienced a diminished ability to enjoy life, the suit states.

She claims she has lost wages and has been permanently injured.

Comer is seeking a judgment in an amount sufficient to compensate her for her injuries, plus interest, cost and attorney' fees.

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart filed a motion in U.S. District Court to have it moved there.

Stephen L. Caylock of Charleston will be representing Comer.

[back to top]      

BENTON COUNTY : Retailer to pay on suits for exec

By MICHELLE BRADFORD,
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
September 18th, 2008                                 [back to top]      

Part of the $ 6. 75 million retirement settlement Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is paying former company Vice Chairman Tom Coughlin is a cushion should he lose lawsuits by former employees who were part of his embezzlement scam.

A settlement order unsealed Wednesday in Benton County Circuit Court said $ 250, 000 will be held in a trust account for any judgments against him in the suits by Pasty Stephens and Robert Hey Jr.

Stephens and Hey were convicted of wire fraud for helping Coughlin steal roughly $ 400, 000 between 1996 and 2002 by manipulating Wal-Mart travel reimbursement and vendor invoices, prosecutors said.

Both are suing Coughlin, saying they did what he told them. Both cases are pending in circuit court.

If Coughlin wins the cases, the $ 250, 000 in the trust account is his, according to Wednesday’s order in the retirement benefits case.

Wal-Mart on Aug. 21 settled with Coughlin, 59, of Centerton, ending a three-year legal battle over a $ 17 million retirement package.

The former No. 2 at Wal-Mart argued he was due the $ 17 million, but the company said he voided his contract by embezzling and sued him in 2005.

In January 2006, he pleaded guilty in U. S. District Court in Fort Smith to wire fraud and tax evasion.

He paid a $ 50, 000 fine and $ 461, 218 in restitution and is serving 27 months of house arrest, to be followed by five years’ probation.

The retirement dispute was settled about an hour before jury selection was to begin last month.

Wednesday’s order also states $ 100, 000 of the $ 6. 75 million represents money Wal-Mart owes Coughlin for assisting in legal matters involving the company.

W. H. Taylor, an attorney for Coughlin, declined to discuss specifics, but said Coughlin testified or helped in cases that as a routine matter crossed his desk while he still worked at the company.

Coughlin retired in 2005 after 27 years with Wal-Mart.

The order states Wal-Mart agreed to pay an additional amount not included in the $ 6. 75 million that represents outstanding medical bills Coughlin had the day of the settlement.

Taylor didn’t know the amount Wednesday and Wal-Mart wouldn’t comment.

Spokesman Daphne Moore said the company is satisfied the settlement is fair and is ready to move on. The order also states that the settlement takes into account Coughlin and his wife’s total medical costs, which are estimated at $ 60, 000 a year. Coughlin is eligible for Medi-1 care in 6 / 2 years, and Cynthia Coughlin is eligible in eight years. He has a history of heart problems and diabetes and recently had double knee replacement.