Walmart

About

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer and the world's largest corporation. It is also the subject of some considerable controversy regarding claims that it is bad for small towns and treats its workers poorly.

Benefits

Wal-Mart does represent what might be called "retail technology" – a collection of "best practices" for getting everyday goods to the public at low prices – which does contribute significant value to a community. There may also be costs that play out in the long term or in more diffuse ways, however, and more data is needed in order to have a realistic idea of how the costs & benefits play out.

Links

Reference

• Wal-Mart official home page
  • Annual Report
• Wikipedia
• Conservapedia
• SourceWatch
• Analysis of Income Taxes for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
• groups / projects:
  • Wal-Mart Subsidy Watch
  • Wal-Mart Watch: labor-oriented watchdog organization

Related

• 2014/05/08 [L..T] My personal Wal-Mart nightmare: You won't believe what life is like working there "The president's visiting my store Friday. He won't see how I sleep on my son's floor and eat potato chips for lunch."
• 2014/04/03 [L..T] Would Walmart's Prices Spike If They Paid Their Employees More? "This video crunches the numbers on how much Walmart, the single biggest beneficiary of the food stamp economy, might have to raise prices across the board to help a typical worker earn a living wage."
• 2014/02/23 [L..T] Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon's sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers You might find your Prime membership morally indefensible after reading these stories about worker mistreatment.
• 2014/01/13 [L..T] Amazon Has Jedi Mind-Tricked You Into Forgetting It's Pretty Much Walmart Amazon.com is the best-loved company in America, despite being very similar to one of the least-loved companies in America: Walmart.
• 2012/08/07 [L..T] Mandan City Commission gives Wal-Mart $403,000 tax break After two hours of hot debate, the Mandan City Commission on Tuesday gave the Wal-Mart Stores Inc., its first property tax break in the state, to build a supercenter in the city.
• 2007/04/16 [L..T] New Research Shows Wal-Mart Rigs the System to Skip Out on $2.3 Billion in State Taxes Wal-Mart appears to be skipping out on its fair share of taxes that most Americans have to pay to help support state governments. New research conducted in part by a leading non-partisan, non-profit tax organization reveals that Wal-Mart avoided $2.3 billion in state income taxes, cutting its payment to state governments almost in half between 1999 and 2005.
• 2007/02/01 [L..T] Wal-Mart pays itself rent, gets large tax breaks Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer and the world's biggest retailer, is regularly paying itself rent and using the transaction to decrease the taxes it pays to state governments, according to a report in this morning's Wall Street Journal.
• 2004/04/04 [L..T] Altering of Worker Time Cards Spurs Growing Number of Suits "Experts on compensation say that the illegal doctoring of hourly employees' time records is far more prevalent than most Americans believe. The practice, commonly called shaving time, is easily done and hard to detect – a simple matter of computer keystrokes – and has spurred a growing number of lawsuits and settlements against a wide range of businesses."

Video

• 2014/04/03 [L..T] Would Walmart's Prices Spike If They Paid Their Employees More? "This video crunches the numbers on how much Walmart, the single biggest beneficiary of the food stamp economy, might have to raise prices across the board to help a typical worker earn a living wage."

News

• 2005-12-29 Wal-Mart to pay $200 million to workers
• 2005-10-21 Wal-Mart yanks its own chain: signs of reform?

Postings

• 2007-02-07 Why I Hate Walmart: a relatively minor quibble, but with interesting discussion afterwards

Stories

• The Wal-Mart Prank

Video

• Wal-Mart Hatred Is Bullshit! (no longer at this URL) by Penn & Teller
  • what is the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research?
  • "that's the choice that American consumers made" is... a statement fraught with complications