Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was founded by Sam Walton in 1962. It is the largest retailer in the world and one of the largest companies in the world based on revenue; in 2004 it was the largest, but the recent rise in oil prices has taken at least one oil company past it. For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2005, Wal-Mart reported net income of US $10.3 billion on US $285 billion of sales revenue (3.6% profit margin). It is the largest private employer in the United States, Mexico and Canada. It holds an 8.9 percent retail store market share, with $8.90 out of every $100 spent in U.S. retail stores being spent at Wal-Mart.

Timeline

• 1962: First Wal-Mart store opens in Rogers, Arkansas
• 1969: The company incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 31, 1969.
• 1972: Wal-Mart listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
• 1983: First Sam's Club opens in Midwest City, Oklahoma.
• 1987: Wal-Mart completes largest private satellite communication system in the U.S.
• 1988: First Supercenter opens in Washington, Missouri.
• 1990: Wal-Mart becomes nation's largest retailer.
• 1991: The first store outside of the U.S. opens, in Mexico City.
• 1994: Wal-Mart acquires 122 Woolco stores in Canada.
• 1996: Wal-Mart enters China through a joint-venture agreement.
• 1997: Wal-Mart replaces Woolworth on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Woolworth's Square One Shopping Centre location in Canada becomes the largest Wal-Mart store in the world, at 220,000 square feet (20,000 m²).
• 1997: Wal-Mart becomes largest private employer in the United States, with 680,000 employees worldwide.
• 1997: Wal-Mart has its first $100 billion sales year.
• 1998: First Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market opens
• 1999: Wal-Mart has 1,140,000 employees, making it the largest private employer in the world. It acquires the ASDA Group with 229 stores in the United Kingdom.
• 2003: Wal-Mart sets a single-day sales record of $1.52 billion on Black Friday.
• 2004: Wal-Mart buys the Amigo supermarket chain in Puerto Rico for $17 million.
• 2004: Wal-Mart employees in Jonquière, Quebec, Canada vote in favor of becoming the first unionized Wal-Mart in North America. Five months later, Wal-Mart announces that it would close the store, citing poor sales.
• 2005: Wal-Mart seeks to expand to urban markets, most notably New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
• 2006: Wal-Mart is built in the town of Napanee, Ontario after years of discussion.

Business

Wal-Mart operates discount retail department stores selling a broad range of non-grocery products, though emphasis is now focused on the "Supercenters" which offer a full line of grocery items. Wal-Mart also operates Sam's Club—a "warehouse club" (similar to Costco and BJ's) that sells discounted bulk merchandise to due-paying members.

As of January 2005, Wal-Mart employed 1.3 million people in the United States. Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters are located in Bentonville, Arkansas. Apart from retail locations, it operates 99 Distribution Centers and Transportation Offices in the United States. Internationally, Wal-Mart employs over 410,000 people (excluding Japan) for a company-wide total of 1.7 million employees. Wal-Mart also operates the largest real estate company in the United States, with an entire division devoted to building new stores, selling old stores, and developing shopping centers around its stores.

In addition to its wholly-owned international operations, Wal-Mart owns a 42% stake in The Seiyu Co., Ltd. in Japan, with a proposed US$597 million to increase its stake to 50%. This purchase has been approved by Seiyu Group shareholders and The Seiyu will be consolidated into Wal-Mart International in FYE 2006.

In the past, Wal-Mart operated dot Discount Drugs, Bud's Discount City, Hypermart*USA, OneSource Nutrition Centers, and Save-Co Home Improvement stores. In 1990 Wal-Mart acquired The McLane Company, a foodservice distributor. In 2003 McLane Company was sold to Berkshire Hathaway.

Wal-Mart stock is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WMT.

Competition

Wal-Mart's chief competitors in the discount retail space nationally include Sears Holdings Corporation's Kmart chain and Target, Best Buy, along with many smaller regional chains such as Meijer in the midwest. Wal-Mart's move into the grocery business has also positioned it against major grocery chains such as Kroger, Albertsons, Publix, Giant Eagle, Safeway and dozens of local grocery chains. Chief competitors of Sam's Club are Costco, which is slightly larger than Sam's in terms of sales, as well as the smaller BJ's Wholesale Club chain operating mainly on the East Coast.

Due to Wal-Mart's success in selling consumer goods and its necessary focus on more expensive items (and larger population areas) to increase revenue, a niche has been carved out of Wal-Mart's dominance by several shrewd retail corporations ^[1]. By focusing on a small number of low-cost products, and siting their retail operations in extremely convenient locations (primarily very small towns which cannot support a Wal-Mart as well as low-income areas of larger metropolitan areas), retailers such as Family Dollar and Dollar General have successfully competed head-to-head with Wal-Mart for home consumer sales.

Wal-Mart Television Network

The Wal-Mart Television Network is an in-store network showing commercials for products sold in the stores, concert clips and music videos for recording artists products sold in the stores, trailers for upcoming movie releases, and news. According to a New York Times story, it is seen by 130 million people a month, making it the fifth largest network in America, behind NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox

Contributions

In 2004, cash donations to non-profit organizations by Wal-Mart, its employees, and its customers made through Wal-Mart, the Wal-Mart Foundation and the Sam's Club Foundation totaled more than US$170 million. Unlike most corporate donors, Wal-Mart does not provide a figure for its corporate contributions; instead Wal-Mart's reported contributions include those made by its customers in a larger aggregate figure. The typical Supercenter channels $30,000 to $50,000 a year to local causes and events. More than 90 percent of cash donations from Wal-Mart Stores and the Wal-Mart & SAM'S CLUB Foundation target local communities.

After the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster on the United States Gulf Coast, Wal-Mart donated $2 million to the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross and $15 million to the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina Fund for a total of $17 million. These donations made it the largest single corporate contributor. In addition, an estimated $3 million in merchandise was donated to victims in several states, and in some cases the corporation was able to provide supplies before the federal government. An emergency contact website was set up by Wal-Mart to help locate displaced persons, accessible by Internet and at every store in the country. About $1.5 million in emergency aid was given to displaced employees, and employees displaced by the storm were offered work at Wal-Mart locations elsewhere in the country.

According to the November 21, 2005 issue of The Nation, recently both the Arkansas-based company and the Walton family have elevated their charitable giving. The Walton Family Foundation (WFF) gave away $106.9 million in 2003, twice as much as in 2000. Walmart's company political action committee, the second largest corporate donor to the GOP, gave away $2.1 million in 2004, compared to $100,000 in 1994. Also in 2004, Alice Walton donated $2.6 million to the Progress for America PAC, which supported the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. From 1998 through 2003, the WFF contributed $25,000 to the Heritage Foundation, $15,000 to the Cato Institute, $125,000 to the Hudson Institute, $155,000 to the Goldwater Institute, $70,000 to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, $300,000 to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, $185,000 to the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, and $350,000 to the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. The WFF has also donated to advocacy groups promoting school privatization, such as a $3 million donation in 2003 to the Knowledge Is Power Program.

Renewable energy experiments

Recently, Wal-Mart has designed two experimental stores [2], one in McKinney, Texas, the other in Aurora, Colorado, which feature wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels, and biofuel-capable boilers. The buildings also include many other energy and cost-saving technologies. Critics, such as the Institute for Local Self-reliance [3], while acknowledging that the features in the new stores are an improvement, still contend that Wal-Mart practices increase driving, and that it has a poor record of locating stores on environmentally sensitive sites, especially wetlands.

An environmentally-friendly design for a Wal-Mart in Vancouver, BC, Canada was proposed. This design, too, included wind turbines, geothermal heating and collecting rainwater. However, this proposal was rejected by the city councillors [4] on June 28, 2005 for several reasons including worry over the possible negative impact to small businesses and a potential increase in traffic as customers drive longer distances to go shopping.

Employees

Wal-Mart refers to its employees as "associates," and encourages managers to think of themselves as "servant leaders." Each shift at every store, club, and distribution center (theoretically) starts with a store-wide meeting where managers discuss with hourly employees daily sales figures, company news, and goals for the day.

All Wal-Mart stores in the United States have employees referred to as "People Greeters." They welcome people to the store and help prevent shoplifting. At some Sam's Club these employees inspect the contents of the shopping carts of exiting customers.

Wal-Mart benefits

According to an October 2005 article in BusinessWeek, Walmart's health insurance covers 44% or approximately 572,000 of its 1.3 million U.S. workers.[5] According to Wal-Mart's website, Wal-Mart provides insurance to more than 1 million people.[6]

Financial results

Wal-Mart is now the largest grocery chain in the U.S., with 14 percent of all grocery sales -- nearly twice the sales of Kroger ($95 billion vs. $51 billion). Wal-Mart also does 20 percent of the retail toy business. Sam Walton's family's holdings in Wal-Mart if combined would comprise the nation's largest fortune; at $100 billion combined they are significantly ahead of Bill Gates.

Wal-Mart went public in 1975. Since then its stock has climbed from 5 cents (split adjusted) to a high of $63 in March 2002. Its stock has dropped more than 20% since then, closing under $50 in August 2005.

Different explanations have been offered for this success:

• The company has always paid a great deal of attention to site selection; in the company's early years, Sam Walton would fly over small towns in a private plane to identify prospective locations. The company claims it analyzes potential locations to find those that would support "one and a half" stores. Although the intended location was a seemingly small rural town, being up in a plane would reveal a lucrative market if the surrounding communities were taken into account, defying the conventional wisdom that a discount store requires a sizable city. Wal-Mart then promptly moved quickly to pre-empt these discovered locations, since allowing a competitor to locate would likely cause a price war that would make both discount stores unprofitable. Lastly, rural towns were less likely to have organized unions and community activists unlike large urban centres. "This strategy gave Wal-Mart a near monopoly in its local markets and enabled the company to ride out the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s more successfully than its then larger competitors such as K-Mart and Sears."[7]
• Wal-Mart benefits from economies of scale in manufacturing and logistics; the purchase of massive quantities of items from its suppliers combined with a very efficient stock control system help make Wal-Mart's operating costs lower than those of its competitors. They are leaders in the field of vendor managed inventory—asking large suppliers to oversee stock control for a category and make recommendations to Wal-Mart buyers. This reduces the overhead of having a large inventory control and buying department. Wal-Mart's vast purchasing power also gives it the leverage to force manufacturers to change their production (usually by creating cheaper products) to suit its wishes: a single Wal-Mart order can easily comprise a double-digit percentage of a supplier's annual output.
• One particular aspect of the economy of scale is the aggregation effect, used in other business such as The Home Depot and Wells Fargo, whereby Wal-Mart sells as many different items as possible. This allows the company to grow revenue over its fixed cost base (more sales out of the same store). This is why Wal-Mart began to sell low margin groceries.
• Information Systems: Wal-Mart helped push the retail industry to adopt UPC codes and bar-code scanning equipment. Also, Wal-Mart's focus on cost reduction has led to its involvement in a standards effort [8] to use RFID-based Electronic Product Codes to lower the costs of supply chain management. As of June 2004, it has announced plans [9] to require the use of the technology among its top 300 suppliers by January 2006.
• Suppliers: A spokesperson for the company told the Wall Street Journal on Nov. 18, 2004 that it imported $15 billion worth of goods from China in the year that ended Jan. 31, 2004. About $7.5 billion were directly imported by Wal-Mart; the other $7.5 came indirectly through suppliers. In the same period net sales reached $256 billion, with $209 billion coming from U.S. operations. U.S. current account imports from China was reported as $152.4 billion during 2003 [10]. Mainland Chinese media place Wal-Mart as their 8th largest trading partner in front of Russia and the UK on the top-10 list.
• Cost Control: Wal-Mart watches controllable expenses very closely. Hourly employees can be reprimanded or terminated for having unauthorized overtime. Wal-Mart also squeezes out any inefficiencies in the business, such as reducing paper consumption by using a computerized process.

Public relations

In 2005, Wal-Mart officials embarked on a public relations campaign to counter some of the criticism it receives, through its public relations website as well as through television commercials which show employees who have had a medical emergency and have been sent by Wal-Mart to the Mayo Clinic.

It was reported in the New York Times on November 1, 2005 that in response to increased criticism the public relations firm Edelman had been retained. Edelman has set up an internal "war room", a rapid-response public relations team, staffed with high-profile political operatives to respond to negative media attention. Operatives hired include Michael K. Deaver who formerly worked on behalf of Ronald Reagan, Leslie Dach who worked on behalf of Bill Clinton, and Robert McAdam who worked on behalf of the Tobacco Institute [11].

Economic impact in the United States

As Wal-Mart is an enormously large business, it has a significant impact on economies, especially in the United States. Several studies have been conducted to determined the nature and extent of this effect.

Kenneth E. Stone of Iowa State University has published several studies on Wal-Mart. In 1997, Stone found that small towns "lose up to 47 percent of their retail trade after 10 years of Wal-Mart stores nearby."[12] In [2003], Stone collaborated with collaborated with Georgeanne Artz, also of Iowa State University and Albert Myles of Mississippi State University to show that there "are both positive and negative impacts on existing stores in the area where the new supercenter locates."[13] A study by Russell S. Sobel and Andrea M. Dean found that point out that though Wal-Mart openings cause some small businesses to close by offering lower prices, it also creates opportunities for other small businesses and that as a result, "the process of creative destruction unleashed by Wal-Mart has no statistically significant impact on the overall size of the small business sector in the United States" (the researchers also claim that the Stone study is flawed) [14]

In 2002, the state of Georgia's survey of children in the state's subsidized health care system, PeachCare, found that Wal-Mart employed more of the parents of these children than any other employer. More than 10,000 children who qualified for the program had parents working at Wal-Mart. The next largest employer employed the parents of less than 800 children in the program.[15]

A 2002 study[16] by Emek Basker of the University of Missouri examined the impact of Wal-Mart on local employment. Basker found that Wal-Mart's entry into a county increased net retail employment in that county by 100 jobs in the short term. Half of this increase disappeared as other retail establishments closed over a five-year period. Basker found an average decrease of 30 retail jobs in neighbouring counties and 25 wholesale jobs in the entered county. Basker concluded that the net change in the number of jobs was not significant. Basker's study did not distinguish between low-paying and high-paying jobs.

In 2004, the University of California, Berkeley published a study which asserted that Wal-Mart's low wages and benefits resulted in an increased burden on the social safety net, costing California taxpayers $86 million.[17]

A 2005 study by Global Insight, the world's largest economics organization, that was commission by Wal-mart found that the company has had a positive net economic impact on the U.S. economy (Several notable economists oversaw the study, including both political conservatives and liberals [18]). From 1985-2004, Wal-Mart "can be associated with a cumulative decline of 9.1% in food-at-home prices, a 4.2% decline in commodities (goods) prices, and a 3.1% decline in overall consumer prices" and, that this has saved consumers $263 billion in that time frame ($2329 per household). Also in that time period, it is responsible for the creation of 210,000 net jobs for the economy. The study indicates that "nominal wages are 2.2% lower, but given that consumer prices are 3.1% lower, real disposable income is 0.9% higher than it would have been in a world without Wal-Mart." (Global Insight Study)

Additional findings from the Global Insight study include: Wal-Mart increased the US economy's overall productivity by three-quarters of a percent by highly efficient distribution systems and pressure on suppliers to be more efficient. Wal-Mart increased net consumer purchasing power by $118 billion in 2004. The efficiencies created 210,000 jobs that would not otherwise exist, but at the same time reduced take-home pay for all retail workers (including the company’s competitors) by $4.7 billion. However, that $4.7 billion is overwhelmingly offset by the $263 billion it has saved Americans from spending from 1985 to 2004, ($2,329 per houshold) according to a Global Insight study. [19] And, this savings has the largest effect on the poor since the average Wal-Mart customer earns $35,000 a year, compared with $50,000 at Target and $74,000 at Costco. [20]

Debates over Wal-Mart

Some praise Wal-Mart for benefiting consumers, while other criticise it for being harmful to employees, the community, the economy, and the environment. Specific areas of controversy include the company's product selection; treatment of suppliers, competitors, and employees; impact on local communities, and effects on world trade and globalization.

According to Jay Nordlinger of the National Review, criticism of Wal-Mart is more about what Wal-Mart represents; the sucess of capitalist enterprise and how Wal-Mart is the largest retail store in the world rather than what it actually does. He compares this criticism to the same attacks upon Hummer SUVs while ignoring the issues with many other gas guzzling competitors like old cars the poor could only afford. He believes that Wal-Mart is merely a symbol of capitalism and success that leftists attack in order to associate capitalism with "exploitation" and "unfairness" to further their own big government/socialists objectives.

Wal-Mart in popular culture

• Billie Letts's 1995 novel Where the Heart Is depicts 17-year-old Novalee Nation moving in to, and give birth in, an Oklahoma Wal-Mart.

• Letts' book was adapted in 2000's Natalie Portman-Ashley Judd film Where the Heart Is. The film, costarring Joan Cusack and Stockard Channing, changes the setting to a Lubbock, Texas Wal-Mart.

• Tibby, a character in Ann Brashares 2001 novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, spends her summer working at 'Wallmans'. The character is also included in the 2005 film adaptation, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

• A ultra-slick, out-of-control sled ridden by Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) into the toy donation bin outside of a Wal-Mart in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. The scene was filmed outside a Frisco, Colorado Wal-Mart.

• A Wal-Mart in the middle of the New Mexico desert serves as a product placement parody in the 2003 animated comedy Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

• Sy Parrish, the main character in 2002's One Hour Photo, works at a large discounter called "Sav-Mart"

• "Sprawl-Mart" is a big-box retailer in Springfield on Fox's The Simpsons. In the 2005 episode "On A Clear Day I Can't See My Sister", the Sprawl-Mart carries the sign "Not a parody of Wal-Mart". Additionally in another episode when Homer asks Ned Flanders how his Leftorium store is doing he says not too good, due to a "Left*Mart" having moved in. A large Wal-Mart like store is shown in the background. This may be a parody of Wal-Mart, such as its taking on additional markets, like Sam's Club imitating Costco and Neighborhood Markets imitating Albertson's or Safeway.

• A Mad TV sketch made a parody of the franchise refering to it as "Walls Mart" poking fun at the bland persistence of Wal*Mart employees.

• "Mega-Lo Mart" (with a pronunciation similar to "megalomania") is a large discount retailer on Fox's King of the Hill. When Mega-Lo Mart begins selling propane, Strickland Propane can't compete with their prices, and protagonist Hank Hill loses his job selling propane and propane accessories. Ironically, he is hired to sell propane at Mega Lo Mart until the store is burned down when an inept supervisor causes a gas leak.[21]

• A "Wall-Mart" built in Comedy Central's South Park episode "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes" runs all local stores out of business. The retailer is depicted as a self-aware and independent entity, building itself across the nation to take over everything, and forcing employees and managers to work there against their will. The episode also pokes fun at consumers: South Park residents are forced to shop at Wall-Mart because they are unable to resist its everyday low prices. The town, unable to resist shopping there, tries to burn Wall-Mart, but a crew rebuilds it the following day. Stan and Kyle eventually destroy the Wall-Mart by breaking its heart, a mirror in the electronics department that reflects the image of Stan and Kyle, which shows them that the heart of Wall-Mart is the consumers. South Park residents return to a mom and pop store until it too becomes a big box retailer, which residents promptly burns to the ground.

• A JibJab comic called "Big Box Mart" premiered on the October 13, 2005 Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Another cartoon, "This Land", also parodies Wal-Mart.

• 'Wall 2 Wall Mart' is seen in The Fairly OddParents.

• 'Stuff-Mart' is a location in the Veggie Tales video "Madame Blueberry," which addresses consumerism.

• Former Miami Herald humor columnist Dave Barry penned a column detailing the early millennium fascination with spending the night in an RV parked outside Wal-Mart.

• In Fox's The Simple Life, socialite Paris Hilton appears to be unaware of the existence of Wal-Mart and asks "Do they sell things for walls?" Cohort Nicole Richie comparatively appears more knowledgable, announcing "People hang out at Wal-Mart." In a later episode, the pair visit a Wal-Mart and are shown frolicking, reading magazines on the floor, and "hanging out".
• In Kim Possible it is catagorized by "Smarty-Mart"

Statistics

Retail operations

Wal-Mart operates 5 major retail formats under 3 retail divisions:

• Wal-Mart Stores USA
  • Wal-Mart Discount Stores — Average 100,000 square feet (9,290 m²) and include a selection of general merchandise, including apparel, electronics, health and beauty aids, toys, sporting goods, and household products. The stores also have an in-house-branded food court. There were 1,233 Wal-Mart Discount Stores in the U.S. as of October 31, 2005.
  • Wal-Mart Supercenter — Average 187,000 square feet (17,400 m²) and combine a standard Wal-Mart Discount Store with a full-line supermarket. (commonly known as big box stores) The stores also typically feature a tire and oil change shop (Wal-Mart Tire & Lube Express), a hair-cutting place, a Movie Gallery video store, an arcade, an eye-care place, and a branch from a local bank in the area. The food courts are normally limited-menu McDonald's, though Subway, Dunkin Donuts, and Baskin-Robbins have also been located. Some locations also sell gasoline through Murphy USA. There were 1,914 Wal-Mart Supercenters in the U.S. as of October 31, 2005.
  • Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market — Average 43,000 square feet (4,000 m²) and include grocery, pharmacy, and limited general merchandise products. There were 96 Neighborhood Markets in the U.S. as of October 31, 2005. The concept will be introduced into Canada in 2006 with 3 stores (one in London, Ontario and 2 in the Greater Toronto Area).
  • Walmart.com — Online shopping site that offers merchandise different from that in stores. The walmart.com site also offers digital music downloads with digital rights management (DRM) and online photo processing.
• SAM'S CLUB — a membership-only wholesale warehouse club focused mainly on serving small business owners. Clubs average 128,000 square feet (11,891 m²). There were 556 Sam's Clubs in the U.S. as of October 31, 2005. Sam's Club also operates in Canada.
• Wal-Mart International — operates various formats internationally, including (but not limited to) SAM'S CLUB, Discount Stores, Supercenters, Supermarkets, and restaurants.

Store counts & revenue

Current store counts and revenue for Fiscal Year Ending January 31, 2005 (revenue amounts in U.S. Dollars):

• Company Total: 5,246 stores (excludes Seiyu operations) (US$285.2 billion)
  • Wal-Mart Stores USA (3,337 stores, excluding Puerto Rico) (US$201.4 billion)
    • Discount Stores: 1,353
    • Supercenters: 1,713
    • Neighborhood Markets: 85
  • SAM'S CLUB (United States): 551 Clubs (US$37.1 billion total)
  • International: 1,587 (US$56.3 billion total)
    • Argentina: 11
    • Brazil: 295
    • Canada: 262
    • China: 43
    • Germany: 91
    • South Korea: 16
    • Mexico: 678
    • Puerto Rico (United States insular area): 54
    • United Kingdom (ASDA): 282

ASDA in the United Kingdom is the largest of the international businesses by sales. In Germany, however, after eight years in the market, Wal-Mart's yearly revenue is still less than one-tenth of the leading retailer, EDEKA. The presence of unions and the difficulty obtaining building permits are two possible reasons for this lack of success.

Corporate governance

Former members of the board of directors of Wal-Mart include Hillary Clinton (1985-1992), who also worked for Wal-Mart as a lawyer, [22] and Tom Coughlin, who went on to be vice chairman [23]. He has since plead guilty to five counts of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return related to embezzlement and theft from Wal-Mart while serving as a member of its board. [24]

Miscellaneous

• Ol' Roy, the Wal-Mart brand of dog food sold at the stores, was named after Sam Walton's dog, which lived from 1970 to 1981.
• With the success of the much smaller "dollar" stores like Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree, Wal-Mart is seriously considering entering the dollar store business.[25]
• The Wal-Mart in Madison, Ohio is the only Wal-Mart with two American flags outside.

References and External Links

External links

Wal-Mart corporate web sites

• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Corporate Site
• Wal-Mart Foundation
• Wal-Mart Public Relations site

Further Information Sources

• Reclaim Democracy huge collection of articles, studies and websites on Wal-Mart. The articles largely are critical of Wal-Mart, but supporters also are represented. Much of the best reporting and studies from multiple perspectives is collected here.
• Against the Wal has a larger, but much less selective collection of articles on Wal-Mart.
• Wal-Mart's Corporate political contributions at BuyBlue.org
• Business Week, October 26, 2005, "Some Uncomfortable Findings for Wal-Mart" overview of some academic research findings on Wal-Mart

Articles supporting or explaining Wal-Mart

• Understanding the Wal-Mart Effect, Max Borders, Tech Central Station, April 11, 2005.
• Wal-Mart and RFID: A Case Study Wal-Mart's future plans to further reduce costs.
• Wal-Mart's China inventory to hit US$18b this year China Daily, November 29, 2004.
• "A distorted lens on Wal-Mart", Bruce Bartlett, Washington Times, November 22, 2004.
• "Job Creation or Destruction? Labor-Market Effects of Wal-Mart Expansion" (pdf), Emek Basker, Dept. of Economics, University of Missouri, 2002.
• Measuring the Economic Impact of Wal-Mart on the U.S. Economy a study funded by Wal-Mart, determining the net economic impact of Wal-Mart at the national, city, and county level
• Should We Admire Wal-Mart? Fortune Magazine, March 8, 2004
• The Freedom to Hate Wal-Mart?, Paul Jacob, The Free Liberal, December 5, 2005

Articles critical of Wal-Mart

• Company for the People Seattle Weekly, December 15 - 21, 2004, Article which contrasts Wal-Mart with employee-friendly Costco.
• Costco's Dilemma: Is Treating Employees Well Unacceptable for a Public Corporation? The Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2004 Costco's compensation for its employees with comparison to Wal-Mart
• How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart, The New York Times, July 17, 2005

• UC Berkeley report on the community impact of Wal-Mart's lower wages(pdf)
• "Inside the Leviathan" by Simon Head for The New York Review of Books, December 16, 2004
• "The Wal-Mart You Don't Know", Fast Company, Issue 77, December 2003, Page 68 Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas.
• California Legislators Call for Oversight of Wal-Mart's Health Benefits (Study of Peachcare)
• "Wal-Mart: High Prices for American Workers" file, (PDF February 16, 2004) from the Democratic Staff of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
• Up against the Wal-Mart, Business Week, March 13, 2000, Explains union's attempt to unionize Wal-Marts
• In Wal-Mart's America, Washington Post, August 27, 2003. Article argues that the decline of Union Industry jobs and the rise of Wal-Mart is destroying America's middle class.
• Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay For Wal-Mart(pdf), A Report by the Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce U.S. House of Representatives Representative George Miller, Senior Democrat, February 16, 2004
• Wal-Marts Cost State, Study Says, San Francisco Chronicle, August 3, 2004
• Retaliating first, Wal-Mart in Canada, The Economist, Feb 24th 2005
• Sweet Victory: Maryland Stands Up To Wal-Mart, The Nation, Sunday, April 17, 2005. Maryland's House approved a bill that would require all businesses in the state with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits for workers.
• Wal-Mart caught using child labor, CBC News, November 30, 2005.
• Video report of Wal-Mart using child labor, CBC News, November 30, 2005.
• Rotten Library: Wal-Mart

Sites critical of Wal-Mart

• Sprawl Busters, site Al Norman, an activist who helps local "site fights" against big box stores
• Index of numerous studies on Wal-Mart's economic and social impacts from The American Independent Business Alliance.
• Wake-Up Wal-Mart website by the United Food and Commercial Workers
• Wal-Mart Watchlabor union-funded website
• Wal-Mart Wiki Though not strictly critical, this wiki is definitely weighted against Wal-Mart in its current state.
• Wal-Mart Free NYC A group fighting to keep New York City Wal-Mart free.
• The New Rules Project(critiques big box development, not limited to Wal-Mart)
• Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price A feature-length documentary

Data

• Yahoo! - Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Company Profile
• WMT: Profile for WAL-MART STORES - Yahoo! Finance
• 2004-04-09 10-K
• Wal-Mart political donations

Blogs

• AlwaysLowPrices.net a blog run by Kevin Brancato (discontinued on November 14, 2005).
• Wal-Mart Space a blog run by Bobby Gerry which explores Wal-Mart's financial statements

Documentaries

• Why Wal-Mart Works & Why That Makes Some People Crazy, a pro-Wal-Mart documentary (not affiliated with Wal-Mart).
• Store Wars, a PBS special taking a close look at one community's battle over Wal-Mart.
• Frontline: Is Wal-Mart Good for America?, a PBS Frontline documentary on the impact of Wal-Mart in the U.S. and China.
• The Age of Wal-Mart, a 2004 documentary produced by CNBC. Featuring interviews with both Wal-Mart top brass and critics, it won a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award for television excellence.
• Outrageous Fortunes, BBC Three, aired on 26 April 2004, about the workings of Wal-Mart.
• Independent America, a 2005 documentary on the larger issue of independent businesses fighting for survival against corpprate chains.
• Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, a 2005 documentary by Robert Greenwald, the creator of Outfoxed. [26]

Books about Wal-Mart

Books supporting or explaining Wal-Mart

• Bergdahl, Michael (2004). What I Learned from Sam Walton: How to Compete and Thrive in a Wal-Mart World. ISBN 0471679984.
• Lichtenstein, Nelson (2006). Wal-Mart: A Field Guide to America's Largest Company and the World's Largest Employer, New Press. ISBN 1595580352.
• Ortega, Bob (1998). In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and Wal-Mart, the World's Most Powerful Retailer. ISBN 0812963776.
• Slater, Robert (2003). The Wal-Mart Decade: How a New Generation of Leaders Turned Sam Walton's Legacy into the World's #1 Company. ISBN 1591840066.
• Slater, Robert (2004). The Wal-Mart Triumph: Inside the World's #1 Company. ISBN 1591840430.
• Soderquist, Don (2005). The Wal-Mart Way: The Inside Story of the Success of the World's Largest Company. ISBN 0785261192.
• Westerman, Paul (2000). Data Warehousing: Using the Wal-Mart Model. ISBN 155860684X.

Books opposed to Wal-Mart

• Bianco, Anthony (2006). The Bully of Bentonville: How the High Cost of Wal-Mart's Everyday Low Prices Is Hurting America. ISBN 0385513569.
• Disinformation Company (2005). Wal-Mart: The medeum Cost of Low Price, Disinformation Company. ISBN 1932857249.
• Featherstone, Liza (2004). Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers' Rights at Wal-Mart. ISBN 0465023169.
• Quinn, Bill (2005). How Wal-Mart Is Destroying America and the World: And What You Can Do about It (3rd edition). ISBN 1580086683.

Other Books and References

• Ehrenreich, Barbara (2002). Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Owl Books. ISBN 0745318460.
• Porter, David (2003). Megamall on the Hudson: Planning, Wal-Mart, and Grassroots Resistance, Trafford. ISBN 155369855X.
• Dicker, John (2005). The United States of Wal-Mart, Tarcher. ISBN 1585424226.

Footnotes

1. ^  Palast, Greg (2002). The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth About Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High-Finance Fraudsters, Pluto Press. ISBN 0745318460., p. 119-120; Chinese Workers Pay for Wal-Mart's Low Prices, Washington Post, February 8, 2004; [Wal-Mart faces sweat-shop lawsuit Wal-Mart faces sweat-shop lawsuit], Financial Times (London), September 14, 2005; Suit Says Wal-Mart Is Lax on Labor Abuses Overseas, New York Times, September 14, 2005; Workers Sue Wal-Mart Over Sweatshop Conditions, Reuters, September 13, 2005, Sweatshop Workers on Four Continents Sue Wal-Mart in California Court, Press Release, September 13, 2005; Human cost behind bargain shopping Dateline hidden camera investigation in Bangladesh, Dateline NBC, June 17, 2005
2. ^  Petty Cash A Wal-Mart Legend's Trail of Deceit Mr. Coughlin Told Others Bogus Expenses Hid Plot Against Unions Retailer Disputes His Claim, Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2005
3. ^  Retaliating first, Wal-Mart in Canada, The Economist, Feb 24th 2005; Ex-Wal-Mart Workers Win Battle Globe and Mail, Rhéal Séguin, September 17, 2005
4. ^  Wal-Mart public relations web page, section regarding Benefits (retreived May 25, 2005)
5. ^ Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay For Wal-Mart (pdf), A Report by the Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce U.S. House of Representatives Representative George Miller, Senior Democrat, February 16, 2004; Wal-Marts Cost State, Study Says, San Francisco Chronicle, August 3, 2004
6. ^  Down and Out in Discount America, The Nation, January 3, 2005; Wal-Mart's Welfare Dependency, San Francisco Chronicle by Sally Lieber, November 7, 2003
7. ^  See Palast, p. 121; Can't Wal-Mart, a Retail Behemoth, Pay More? The New York Times, May 4, 2005
8. ^  Wal-Mart giant can be tamed The Boston Globe, November 23, 2003. Accessed January 11, 2006.