Price Check

KXAN-TV (TX)
April 28, 2006             [back to top] 

Every time you go shopping, you could be getting overcharged and not even know it. Electronic checkout scanners are not always accurate. KXAN NBC Austin decided to put them to the test. Our Chris Willis went shopping with a hidden camera and found out you could be getting ripped off.

The checkout scanner is a device that makes your life easier, but at what price?

"Sometimes, there's actually a price tag on the item, and then of course, there's the scanned price," Better Business Bureau Vice President Erin Jones said.

Trillions are spent each year in retail stores. Electronic scanners tally most of that money.

So the question is: do you trust them with your money? Maybe you shouldn't.

Thanks to budget cuts from the 2003 Legislature, nobody is keeping regular tabs on the accuracy of checkout scanners.

We found that people are getting ripped off.

So we decided to check them for you. We took our undercover cameras to big box retailers and grocery stores in Central Texas.

What we found may surprise you because if we're being taken, the odds are so are you.

Clearance items can really cost you. "On sale" can really mean a sneaky full price. You're about to see who's watching out for your bottom line.

Stephen Pahl is the Regulatory Programs Branch Chief for the Department of Agriculture.

"The scanner itself doesn't cause the inaccuracy because it's just a device that scans something, and it spits out the price it has scanned," Pahl said.

It's his job to make sure you're paying the right price, but lawmakers cut his random scanner checks.

The agency now acts only when a consumer complains.

"A program that we have to, you know, deter those that may be a little unscrupulous," Pahl said.

Store managers don't usually allow our cameras to come in and check things out so we used a hidden camera and went shopping.

The first stop is the Wal-Mart on 183 and I-35. We went straight to the clearance rack, which is supposedly where the best deals are, right?

We pulled a child's sweater set off the rack, which was marked $9. On the big clearance aisle, we found a halogen flood light for $3.

We also found a baseball batting glove in the 50-cents clearance bin. We ended up paying more than 20 times that price for the batting glove.

"Consumers may not be double-checking their receipts," Pahl said.

But if you do double-check your receipts, you could catch the blatant mistakes. We checked our receipts, and we found mistakes.

Of the 18 items we purchased at the Wal-Mart on 183 and I-35, three were scanned incorrectly, but the overcharge was enormous.

The sweater set scanned at $13 -- an overcharge of $4.

The halogen flood light scanned at $7.47. That's an overcharge of $4.47.

Our deal of the day turned into the biggest rip-off. The batting glove in the 50-cent clearance bin scanned at $12.46. That's nearly 23 times the sale price. It's an overcharge of $11.96.

Our 18 items totaled $70.62, which if the scanner was accurate, should've been $50.19. It was an overcharge of $20.43.

"There are many different places where pricing is shown," Jones said.

The Better Business Bureau says they're not flooded with scanner complaints because they believe consumers don't even know they're being overcharged.

"In Texas, they have about an 85-percent accuracy rate," Pahl said.

It was better, but still inaccurate when we took our hidden cameras to the grocery store.

We looked for items specifically marked "on sale" at the Fiesta on I-35. Of the 12 items we purchased, one was incorrect.

The Zip Lock bags marked "on sale" at $2.49 scanned at $2.69.

It was a 20-cent difference. If it happened to us, it likely happened to the thousands of other shoppers that day, and that can add up to huge profits for them and money out of your pocket.

"We just don't tolerate that here in Texas, so it's a zero tolerance in Texas," Pahl said.

It's fair to mention, we also went to Randalls, H-E-B and Target.

Their scanners got it right.

Wal-Mart sent us this statement, "We stock hundreds of thousand of items and can make more than 5,000 price changes per week. We strive for 100 percent price accuracy. We do audit our stores to make sure our pricing is as accurate as possible."

This is a problem you, the consumer, have complete control over. Check your receipt. Match it with the sale prices.

If you are overcharged, you can call 1-800-TELL-TDA . They move quickly and will get out to check the scanners immediately.

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Wal-Mart turning up heat on reluctant politicians

By Emily Kaiser
Reuters
April 27                   [back to top] 

EVERGREEN PARK, Ill., - One block outside Chicago's city limits stands a new Wal-Mart store that may be the retailer's most powerful weapon in a long-running effort to quell big-city opposition to its expansion.

Stung by resistance to new stores in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. <WMT.N> is countering with a stern message for city leaders -- turn us down and we'll go to neighboring suburbs, taking jobs and tax revenue with us.

In Evergreen Park, just outside Chicago, Wal-Mart boasts that 25,000 people applied for 325 available jobs. The few who were hired call themselves "The Chosen Ones."

Nearly all the applicants listed Chicago home addresses -- much to the dismay of Chicago Alderman Howard Brookins Jr., who lobbied unsuccessfully for a Wal-Mart store in his nearby South Side district. The Evergreen Park location opened just 18 months after Chicago rejected the South Side store.

"We are losing a whole hell of a lot of revenue, and there is no answer to that," said Brookins, who recently visited the Evergreen Park store and estimated that three-quarters of the cars parked in the lot had City of Chicago stickers, indicating they belonged to city residents.

"It would be one thing if, when Chicago said no, people from Chicago weren't shopping at those stores," he said. "If you can't stop them (from shopping there) then the best thing to do is at least keep some of that tax base in Chicago."

Analysts say the Evergreen Park store could be the most important location in Wal-Mart's 3,800-store U.S. chain if it makes city leaders think twice about rejecting Wal-Mart.

"It accomplishes two great things -- it develops a very profitable store, and it sends a strong message to other cities as to what Wal-Mart's approach is going to be if they decide to be obstinate," said Darrell Rigby, head of the global retail practice for consultants Bain & Co.

Wal-Mart is nearing saturation in the smaller markets where it got its start, so growth increasingly depends on gaining access to urban areas.

But moving into big cities puts the retailer face-to-face with its biggest critics, which include labor unions, anti-sprawl groups and environmentalists who contend that Wal-Marts drive local competitors out of business, depress wages and benefits across the retail sector, and damage the environment.

Some on Wall Street have called on Wal-Mart to slow down from its typical 8 percent annual square-footage growth, noting that the return on investment has been falling in the United States. Wal-Mart insists that returns are improving now, and it has more than 1,000 new stores in the pipeline.

JOBS AND TAXES

Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott has taken every opportunity to tout the Evergreen Park store, where he said sales were "exceeding our wildest expectations."

At the National Governors Association meeting in February, Scott hammered home the jobs message in a speech to state leaders, who have not always welcomed Wal-Mart with open arms.

He said the retailer wanted to build a store on Chicago's underdeveloped South Side, "but the local aldermen would have none of it. So Evergreen Park, just outside the city limits, welcomed us in."

He mentioned the 25,000 applicants and added: "Those men and women needed jobs. And they wanted Wal-Mart jobs."

The message appears to have gotten through.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Wal-Mart proponent and chairman of the governors association, said he has spoken to several of his peers who had reservations about Wal-Mart, but were reluctant to oppose the retailer for fear of losing out on the jobs and tax revenue.

Wal-Mart is the largest U.S. private-sector employer with more than 1.3 million workers, which gives it plenty of political clout. But it has also come under fire because thousands of its employees receive government-funded Medicaid, putting major strain on state budgets.

Indeed, opponents say that much of the tax benefit from Wal-Mart stores is used up by the Medicaid expenses and costs for increased policing to address shoplifting and other crimes. They also point to economic studies that show Wal-Mart stores actually reduce retail employment because some competitors go out of business.

NEXT STOP: NEW YORK

Evergreen Park Mayor James Sexton said his village and school districts expect to receive $1.5 million this year from sales and property taxes, making Wal-Mart the largest single revenue source. He said security issues had been "nil" so far, and did not require additional police.

"We're loving it," he said. "There was some hesitation because of the union issues, but we had an agreement with Wal-Mart from the beginning that it would be built from bottom to top with local union trade people, and they upheld their promise on that."

His village also requested and received a red brick exterior, instead of the typical blue-and-gray painted box. He said the store, which is smaller than the massive Wal-Mart supercenters that carry a full line of groceries, was expected to generate $70 million in sales this year.

Wal-Mart does not disclose sales data for individual stores, but based on last year's store count and revenue, the average store generated about $65.8 million in sales. The majority of those stores were the larger supercenters, however.

A similar strategy is playing out in other cities too. Wal-Mart highlights an Oakland, California, store where 15,000 people applied for a few hundred jobs. The store is across the bay from San Francisco, another pocket of Wal-Mart opposition.

In New York, Wal-Mart is getting ready to open a store in suburban White Plains. New York City recently passed an ordinance that would force Wal-Mart to pay more for health care, and the retailer's efforts to build a store in the borough of Queens were thwarted.

Wal-Mart spokesman Philip Serghini said the White Plains store was not designed to make an impression in New York City leaders, but would no doubt draw city residents. Some 3,000 people have applied for 350 jobs, he said.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

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Union Leaders Target Wal-Mart

By Joe Napsha
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
April 27, 2006                             [back to top] 

The nation's largest employers -- particularly Wal-Mart Stores --- should pay higher wages and offer workers affordable health-care benefits without shifting that burden to taxpayers, union leaders told supporters at a Pittsburgh rally Wednesday. "Workers are rallying to urge Wal-Mart to start ... treating their employees with respect and dignity. Despite $11 billion in profits last year, Wal-Mart has 1.3 million people, and over 57 percent are not offered affordable health care," Ron Lenhart, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 23 in Canonsburg, told about 80 union members and activists during a lunchtime rally at Mellon Square, Downtown.

Wal-Mart workers who rely upon state-supported health insurance programs are costing American taxpayers about $1.4 billion every year, Lenhart claimed. The nation's largest retailer is not alone in shifting health-care costs to the taxpayers because other large corporations are doing it, he said.

Although Wal-Mart has responded to critics by providing more health-care insurance plans for its employees, Lenhart said "the new health plan simply makes more eligible employees that can't afford their health care."

In response, Wal-Mart issued a statement yesterday, saying it has expanded its $11 per month health-care plan. Half of its work force will be eligible by Jan. 1, 2007, said Kelly Hobbs, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. Seventy-five percent of its workers already are covered by private insurance, whether it is through Wal-Mart, a spouse, or their parents' plan, Hobbs said.

"America's working families must be mystified by any group that would rally against an $11 per month health plan, $3 prescription drug co-pays and expanded health coverage for children," the Bentonville, Ark.,-based chain said.

The 30-minute rally was sponsored by Change to Win, a coalition of seven international unions, six of which split from the AFL-CIO during the past year. It is one of about 40 rallies that the union coalition is planned nationwide during its "Make Work Pay" campaign.

The rally was followed with a Downtown petition drive that gathered more than 650 signatures in support of state legislation that would require large companies -- those with more than 10,000 employees in Pennsylvania -- to pay at least 9 percent of their payroll on health insurance.

The Pennsylvania HealthCare Accessibility and Insurance Responsibility Act, known as the "fair share" health-care bill, was introduced in the state House on April 3 and was referred to the insurance committee, which has yet to schedule hearings.

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Unions Protest Wal-Mart Health Care

Associated Press
2006-04-27                   [back to top] 

Unions representing six million workers rallied Wednesday in 35 cities from New York to Los Angeles to protest what they called inadequate health-care coverage by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest employer.

In Atlanta, about 50 to 60 people gathered in a church. In Denver, about 200 people turned out. Only 14 showed up in El Paso, Texas, where organizers said they were unable to get a city permit for a larger demonstration. In Cleveland, WKYC TV reported dozens of protesters. Organizers said the totals were over 350 in Los Angeles and Portland, Ore., and around 100 in Pittsburgh.

The Change to Win labor federation of seven unions, which broke away from the AFL-CIO last year to form the nation's second largest labor group, said Wal-Mart epitomizes a business model of low pay and benefits that harm the middle class. The AFL-CIO has about eight million members.

"You can't really talk about these issues without talking about Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart drags everybody down, but they are not the only bad actor out there," said Carole Florman, spokeswoman for Change to Win.

It is the federation's first national rally targeting Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart and part of a broader campaign called "Make work pay" aimed at raising living standards for workers, she said.

Wal-Mart called the rallies a political stunt that ignored the fact that it created 225,000 U.S. jobs last year and provides career opportunities and above-average pay and benefits for the retail sector. It also says it saves its customers, including working families, about $2,300 a year.

"We are an economic engine. Wal-Mart is good for the communities we serve," said company spokesman Dan Fogleman. He added that Wal-Mart recently announced it would help small businesses grow around 50 stores it plans in blighted urban areas.

The rallies were organized together with WakeUpWalMart.com, a political campaign group started a year ago by the United Food and Commercial Workers union to pressure the retailer to raise pay and benefits and improve working conditions. The UFCW is part of Change to Win.

Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com, targeted Wal-Mart's health-care insurance, which he said failed to cover 57 percent of its work force, or 775,000 employees. That estimate is based on earlier Wal-Mart numbers, the group said.

Wal-Mart's own latest count from February was that 615,000 employees, or 46 percent, were enrolled in company health plans as of January.

The unions also cited an internal Wal-Mart memo, which became public last fall, that said 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart workers were uninsured or on public health care.

Wal-Mart has defended its health care coverage and twice since October has announced improvements, including shorter eligibility periods for part-time workers, coverage for their children, lower premiums between $11 and $23 a month and reducing prescription co-pays to $3 from $10.

The announcements reflect growing outside pressure on the company, which was exhibited in the state of Maryland recently. There, the state's legislature passed a law that requires companies with more than 10,000 Maryland employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on employee health care or pay the difference into the state's Medicaid fund.

The Change to Win federation is made up of the carpenters' union, the laborers' union, the service employees, the Teamsters, United Farm Workers, UFCW and UNITE Here.

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What's Online Maybe the Heirs Aren't Apparent

By DAN MITCHELL
April 29, 2006               [back to top] 

THE watchdog group Public Citizen (citizen.org) and the advocacy group United for a Fair Economy (faireconomy.org) issued a report this week saying that 18 superwealthy families are largely responsible for financing the lobbying campaign aimed at repealing the estate tax; the Senate is scheduled to take up repeal next month.

The families, worth $185.5 billion, have financed and coordinated the campaign and have, until now, managed to hide their participation behind the trade associations and business groups they have formed to represent their interests, Public Citizen reported. The families include those behind some of the nation's biggest and best-known companies, like Wal-Mart, E.& J. Gallo Winery, Nordstrom and Koch Industries.

In a news release presenting the 58-page report, available on its Web site, Public Citizen pulls no punches. "This report exposes one of the biggest con jobs in recent history," Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, said in the release. "This long-running, secretive campaign funded by some of the country's wealthiest families has relied on deception to bamboozle the public not only about who must pay the estate tax, but about how repealing it will affect the country."

Several liberal blogs played the report like a snare drum. A Daily Kos blogger, Chris Kromm, thinks it is just the kind of issue that liberal politicians should use to appeal to Middle America. "This is a perfect issue for Southern progressives," he writes. "Half of the superrich families are based in or have close ties to the South."

Conservative bloggers have largely ignored the report — according to search results on technorati.com — though opponents of the estate tax have offered retorts in the comments sections of several blogs. "So what?" asks someone on the TaxProf Blog. "Or is the thesis that only wealthy liberals like Soros and Peter Lewis are allowed to participate in politics in the United States?"

THE BEST REVENGE Down several steps from the superrich dwell those whose finances are judged more by yearly income and spending than by wealth. These are people who "live well," according to Forbes.com. And they spend at least $277,342 a year in Chicago. In New York City, a family of four isn't living well unless it spends $483,775. In Wichita, Kan., it's $189,305.

Forbes lists several criteria for good living through spending, including: owning a BMW and a Lexus; private schools; regular meals at upscale restaurants; a weekend home; and three vacations a year with stays at places like the Ritz.

"We are not talking about great riches," Forbes.com explains. "There are millions of Americans who work hard to be able to afford the best for their families — and themselves — but who don't entertain notions of owning private jets, sprawling country estates or closets full of the latest fashions. Their goals are more grounded: a good education for their children, a nice house, a weekend place, the occasional trip, a night out once a week and a little money in the bank.

For a little perspective, Forbes.com offers this: "Of course, these numbers are estimates. You certainly can live for less — or for far more. Take a two-week rental instead of buying a summer home, send your children to public schools or dine at home every night, and you will need to earn less money."

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

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Young Faces Critics Over Backing of Wal-Mart

By Marilyn Geewax
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April 25, 2006                                [back to top] 

WASHINGTON — The Rev. Joseph Lowery and dozens of other civil rights and religious leaders are signing a letter that condemns former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young for his work defending Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The letter, which could still undergo some minor changes before being released today, said Wal-Mart has a "history of breaking child labor laws" and engages in "unethical" business practices. The company now is using Young "to try to turn our eyes from the truth," it says.

Young, in his own letter to church officials released Monday, praised Wal-Mart for allowing poor people to be able to buy "low-cost fruits, vegetables, vitamins, medicines and clothing."

Since February, Young has been serving as chairman of the steering committee for Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group that defends Wal-Mart's business practices.

The letter invokes the name of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the revered civil rights leader who worked closely with Young during the height of the movement in the 1960s.

"Dr. King would have disagreed with Mr. Young on this issue — King sided with the poor," says a passage from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. "Young is taking a stand against the poor and is siding with the filthy rich who are oppressing the poor."

Young himself is a minister with the United Church of Christ, whose officials initiated the letter, according to Ron Stief, who heads the church's Justice and Witness Ministries.

Stief said Monday the final version of the letter would be sent to Young this morning. It will be released to the media later in the day.

John Thomas, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, has already sent a private letter to Young, Stief said.

The church cannot order Young to change his position on Wal-Mart. Stief said the purpose of both the private and public letters is to ask Young: "What are you doing defending a company that has done more to hurt working people than any other company?"

Among those who signed the letter were Lowery, another Atlanta-based minister and civil-rights-era leader. Stief said the final version of the letter will have about 50 names attached, including a number of clergy members from the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, Jewish groups and others.

The letter quotes Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, saying he is "disappointed" that Young "has chosen to defend the wayward ways of Wal-Mart."

Working Families for Wal-Mart was launched with Wal-Mart's funding in December. Last week in Rogers, Ark., just a few miles from Wal-Mart's headquarters, Young chaired the first meeting of 10 members of the group's steering committee, made up of business and community leaders who support Wal-Mart.

Young's consulting firm has a contract for an undisclosed sum with the group. His responsibilities include writing opinion articles and speaking with reporters about Wal-Mart's positive impacts on low-income people.

On Monday, committee spokesman Kevin Sheridan released a letter that Young already had composed and is planning to send to officials of the United Church of Christ to explain his position. Quoting from the gospel of Matthew, Young points out that Jesus Christ admonished his followers to feed the hungry. Young said that has always been his goal as well.

He said that while Wal-Mart may be "far from perfect," it has provided low-priced goods and foods for poor people. He said Wal-Mart critics are misguided. "After failing to get the government to address a social safety net, they are criticizing Wal-Mart for failing to provide it," he wrote.

Besides being an ordained minister, Young is a civil rights leader and former congressman, United Nations ambassador and Atlanta mayor.

After last week's steering committee meeting, Young released a statement noting that Wal-Mart plans "to build more than 50 stores in struggling urban areas, expecting to create up to 25,000 jobs in areas desperately needing employment."

"Even as a lifelong Democrat and union supporter, I have to say it's time for Washington, D.C., union leaders to let working families decide where to shop and work," he said in his statement.

A copy of the letter to Young was provided by Wal-Mart Watch, a union-supported group that pushes Wal-Mart to change its business practices. Spokesman Nu Wexler said that William Jarvis Johnson, Wal-Mart Watch's director of Faith Based Outreach, is among those signing the letter.

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Faith Leaders' Letter Condemns Young for Wal-Mart Role

By Errin Haines
Associated Press
April 25, 2006                    [back to top] 

ATLANTA - Dozens of faith leaders from across the country have signed a letter condemning former civil rights leader Andrew Young for representing Wal-Mart, saying his role with the company contradicts the philosophy of his close friend and comrade, Martin Luther King, Jr. "It is imperative that those of us who worked closely with Dr. King and who have followed in his footsteps tread carefully as we ponder our actions when interacting with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and taking into account its harmful effects in our communities," reads the letter, signed by nearly 60 members of various religious groups, including the United Church of Christ.

Young, himself a minister, was ordained under the denomination and is a lifelong member of the church. Among those opposing his alliance with Wal-Mart is the Rev. Joseph Lowery, who served alongside Young and King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the civil rights movement.

"I am disappointed that he has chosen to defend the wayward ways of Wal-Mart," Lowery is quoted as saying in the letter. "I thought that he was seeking to help them change and become a positive force, not to justify their negatives with 'voodoo' economic theories and excuse their practices which swell the ranks of the working poor here and abroad."

Young has come under fire recently from Lowery and others in the civil rights community after his company, GoodWorks International, was hired earlier this year by Working Families for Wal-Mart to promote the world's largest retailer. Young's company, which he has headed since 1997, works with corporations and governments to foster economic development in Africa and the Caribbean.

He has said his role in civil rights has changed from marching and protesting to championing economic opportunity. Before starting GoodWorks, Young was a two-term mayor of Atlanta, congressman and United Nations ambassador. He helped bring the 1996 Summer Olympic Games to Atlanta, along with millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

Young was not immediately available for comment, but GoodWorks spokeswoman Magdalene Womack said Tuesday afternoon the company had received the letter, which was sent via fax to GoodWorks offices in Atlanta, Washington and New York.

"We will address it in writing," Womack said.

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Wal-Mart seeks to 'organize' labor its own way

But some employees are irked that the plan could 'turn their lives upside down' if it replaces steady shifts with rotating schedules.

By Parija Bhatnagar,
CNNMoney.com
April 25, 2006                   [back to top] 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - A group of Wal-Mart employees from Pensacola, Florida say their lives will be turned "upside down" if the retailer implements a new scheduling policy that would require workers to adapt to shift rotations instead of maintaining long-term steady shifts.

At issue is the concept of flexible scheduling, which Wal-Mart (Research) has been testing in a few of its stores over the past year, although the company says it hasn't tested that schedule in Pensacola.

In an anonymous letter to CNNMoney.com, the Wal-Mart workers said such a "flip-flop open-availability" system would "create chaos and instability" in workers' lives.

"While working an ever-changing Wal-Mart schedule, how can one arrange day care for young children? The scheduling will make continuing education extremely difficult," the letter said.

However, industry experts say many retailers over the years have migrated to flexible hours scheduling because of its inherent benefits to both employees and customers.

The workers allege that the policy is designed to force higher-paid full-time workers to reduce their status to part-time, or quit (and be replaced with part-time workers), since this would save Wal-Mart "enormous amounts of money from reduced salaries and benefits paid."

Moreover, the letter claims that work schedules will be computer-generated based on each department's sales. Sales will determine the number of associates and hours assigned to each department, and the schedule associates work. The only set schedules are apparently for department managers and "stocking teams."

When asked by CNNMoney.com about the employees' letter,Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman saidemployees in Pensacola are not currently affected by the pilot tests. "The current staff scheduling system has been in place there for over 10 years."

He also denied that Wal-Mart was testing "open availability," in any of its stores. "We're definitely not testing open availability. We do solicit input from associates about when they are available. So if someone is taking a class, they can tell their manager about it and the schedule can be adjusted to accommodate them," he said.

However, the company is making changes at the Pensacola store so it will have more sales staff on evenings and weekends. "The reality of retail is that the busiest times are evenings and weekends in this market," Fogleman said. "We're trying to develop an optimal schedule that would best serve our customers. In order to ensure there are appropriate number of employees to serve those customers, we're asking associates that work daytime schedules to be more flexible."

Battling turnover trauma As the nation's biggest private employer with 1.3 million workers, Wal-Mart suffers one of the highest worker turnover rates in the industry, said Burt Flickinger, managing director with retail consulting firm Strategic Resources Group, who cited his firm's own research.

Flickinger said Wal-Mart is cutting hours for full-time employees and looking to hire more part-time workers in a bid to trim both operating and healthcare costs - which can help the bottom line but can also cut the other way, since high turnover and lower staffing can mean lost sales, especially on busy weekends.

According to Wal-Mart executives, 75 percent of the company's workers in the United States are employed full time, although that number has been trending down gradually.

"For busy parents who stock up on baby food and other items, if they can't easily find it in Wal-Mart, they don't have time to go back. They'll just go to the competition," said Flickinger, noting that Saturday and Sunday account for about 40 percent of Wal-Mart sales each week. "It's critical for Wal-Mart stores to be fully stocked and have experienced staff on weekends," he said.

Wal-Mart spokesman Marty Heirs acknowledged the high turnover and said Wal-Mart was taking steps to address it.

"Most retailers have very high turnover rates, but we would like to keep our associates," Heirs said. "We're already doing a few things like reducing the waiting time for employees to quali