Thursday, August 31, 2006

Patent Holder Sues Wal-Mart, Others

Patent Holder Sues Wal-Mart, Others
A company called RFID World claims that leading adopters using RFID for inventory control have violated its patent, and it is suing for damages.
By Mark Roberti






Aug. 30, 2006-Back in April 2002, an individual named Ronald Bormaster filed a patent application for an inventory-control system using radio frequency identification. That patent was awarded by the U.S. Patent Office on Nov. 22, 2005. Bormaster has since set up a company, RFID World, and transferred the patent to that company. He is now suing Wal-Mart, Gillette, Michelin, Home Depot, Target and Pfizer.

RFID World has filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, which reportedly finds in favor of the plaintiff 88 percent of the time, compared to 68 percent nationwide. The original complaint reads: "Wal-Mart, on information and belief, uses an inventory-control system utilizing the RFID technology claimed in [Bormaster's patent]. By utilizing such systems, Wal-Mart has in the past and continues to infringe at least claim 1 of the patent."

The same claim is repeated against the other defendants. The claim goes on to say: "The Defendants' infringement of the patent alleged above has injured RFID World and, thus, it is entitled to recover damages adequate to compensate for the Defendants' infringement, which in no event can be less than a reasonable loyalty."

The patent describes a generic RFID tracking system and mentions several "embodiments" of the system, including tracking livestock, golf clubs in a bag, medical instruments in an operating room and children in a defined play area. There is no mention in the patent of RFID use to track products in warehouses, distribution centers or stores, as Wal-Mart and others named in the suit use the technology.

"The golf bag was where the inspiration came from," says Edward Goldstein, a partner at Goldstein, Faucett & Prebeg, LLP and lead attorney on the case for RFID World. "But claim one is not limited to golf-bag inventory. It's much broader than that."

Rel S. Ambrozy, a partner with McKenna Long & Aldridge, a law firm with a burgeoning RFID practice, says it's notable that the suit was not brought against the manufacturers of the RFID technology employed by the end-users. "Similarly positioned end users need to make sure that they consider indemnification very carefully when purchasing such technology," he says.

The suit raises concerns about lawsuits by patent holders similar to the suits filed by the heirs of Jerome Lemelson, an inventor who had a patent on bar-coding technology. The aim of the RFID World suit, some believe, is to use a patent to extract a settlement payment from large end-user companies.

"I believe the lawsuit is frivolous," says Craig Harmon, president and CEO of Q.E.D. Systems, an organization that provides standards development, educational, advisory and systems-design services. "It is in a very dangerous venue for defendants. Not withstanding that fact, I'm hopeful that the RFID technology and end-user community is able to send a message to discourage future frivolous lawsuits."

"We've looked at the prior art," says Goldstein, referring to existing RFID patents. "We think [Bormaster's] patent is distinguishable from prior art. Wal-Mart has been involved in setting an RFID standard for its suppliers, and if [the suppliers] comply with that standard, they are in violation of this patent. It is not a frivolous suit at all."

Ambrozy of McKenna Long & Aldridge says suits like this one are not uncommon when a technology begins to gain wide use and/or acceptance. "When genetically modified foods became profitable in the late 1990s, there were a series of patent litigations, often referred to as the `corn wars,' to establish who owned the underlying technology," he says. "The same thing has been happening recently in regard to flat-panel TVs and computer displays. Because RFID technology has not only become cheaper to obtain, but is being required by both the private and government sectors, lawsuits like the RFID World suit will probably become more common in the near future."

Summonses have been issued. The next step is for the defendants to respond to the complaint. They can request a transfer to a different jurisdiction if they wish. If the suit is heard in the eastern Texas court, then discovery and motions will begin within 60 days.







© Copyright 2002-2006 RFID Journal LLC.











Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Wal-Mart identified as source of salmonella outbreak

Wal-Mart identified as source of salmonella outbreak





GREENWOOD, Ind. Indiana health officials say they've identified a Wal-Mart deli and bakery as the source of a recent salmonella outbreak in an Indianapolis suburb.

Lynae Granzow, a state health department epidemiologist, said in a news release that food handlers who did not have any symptoms might have contaminated products in the deli and bakery. Granzow said the food-poisoning outbreak was a rare occurrence, but her department was confident that Wal-Mart had properly addressed the situation. She said the deli employees had been transferred to another part of the store, and all the equipment and surfaces in the deli section had been thoroughly cleaned.

She said food available at the store now is safe. But Granzow said people who bought ready-to-eat items at that Wal-Mart's deli and bakery areas before Saturday should discard them or return them to the store for a refund.

The salmonella outbreak around the southern Indianapolis suburb of Greenwood sickened at least 84 people since May. The bacteria can give people diarrhea and other flulike symptoms.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.






All content © Copyright 2001 - 2006 WorldNow and WREG. All Rights Reserved.










Sunday, August 27, 2006

In Mexico, Wal-Mart Is Counting on Banking

In Mexico, Wal-Mart Is Counting on Banking
Kept out of financial services in the U.S., the retailer sees an opening for serving its customers south of the border.
By Marla Dickerson, Times Staff Writer
August 27, 2006




MEXICO CITY — Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Mexican unit has won loyal customers with low prices on such merchandise as tennis shoes, refried beans and toilet paper. Now Mexico's largest retailer is looking to slash the price of another consumer staple: banking.

The unit, Wal-Mart de Mexico, confirmed this month that it had applied for a banking license, raising the possibility that Wal-Mart shoppers south of the border soon may be opening checking accounts and taking out auto loans while filling up their grocery carts.

Wal-Mart executives aren't disclosing details of the company's strategy or even the proposed bank's name pending a regulatory review of the application. That process could take months. But a company spokesman confirmed that the retailer known for squeezing suppliers for low prices aimed to bring the same peso-pinching mentality to financial services.

"We believe that this efficiency that we learned in developing the retail sector we'll be able to transfer to the banking business," Raul Arguelles, vice president of corporate affairs, said in an interview at Wal-Mart de Mexico's headquarters here.

Mexican customers can already get store-branded credit cards that Wal-Mart offers through third-party providers. They can wire money, make deposits, cash checks and perform other transactions thanks to agreements the retailer has made with institutions including BBVA Bancomer and MoneyGram International to operate branches and ATMs inside some stores.

But setting up its own bank in Mexico would be a first for the global giant, which has run into a buzz saw of opposition in the United States to its bid for a banking charter there.

The Mexican unit of Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart operates 833 restaurants, supermarkets and retail stores under the names Wal-Mart Supercenter, Sam's Club, Suburbia, Bodega Aurerra, Superama and Vips.

Arguelles said the company probably would start out offering basic savings accounts and credit cards in branches at some locations, eventually moving into checking, car loans, mortgages and even business credit.

That's welcome news for Wal-Mart customers such as Ernesto Contreras Ramirez, who is fed up with traditional financial institutions. The 44-year-old taxi driver said he was grateful to Wal-Mart for granting him a credit card when his bank turned him down, even though he has nearly $7,500 on deposit there. The meager rate of interest he earns and the maintenance fees that eat into his nest egg irk him as well.

"If Wal-Mart opens a bank that gives me more benefits, well, for sure I'm going to switch," said Contreras, who had stopped by a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the capital's south side with his wife and two daughters to pick up milk, eggs and soft drinks.

Wal-Mart is just the latest hopeful among a slew of companies entering the banking business in Mexico. The country's authorities are eager to bring more competition to the industry, 90% of which is controlled by half a dozen players that cater largely to big business and well-heeled individuals.

The Treasury Ministry has granted licenses to six new banks in the last eight months. Half went to nontraditional lenders that plan to target lower-income Mexicans. Those were Banco Ahorro Famsa, owned by Monterrey-based appliance retailer Grupo Famsa; Banco Autofin Mexico, a unit of car and home financer Grupo Autofin; and Banco Compartamos, a venture of Compartamos, Mexico's largest micro-credit institution, which makes tiny business loans to the poor.

The movement stands in sharp contrast to the situation in the United States, where commercial enterprises are prevented by law from owning full-service banks. U.S. companies can obtain more restrictive charters to operate "industrial loan corporations" to process financial transactions or offer loans to their customers.

Wal-Mart's pending application to open one of these specialized institutions in the U.S. has provoked an outcry from many community banks. The retailer said it intended to use the operation to process credit card and other electronic payments.

But small banks fear that the behemoth will use its charter as a backdoor route to opening branches in its 3,900 U.S. stores, threatening their business. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., trying to defuse the uproar, recently announced a six-month ban on granting charters for industrial loan corporations.

But Mexican regulators are encouraging new players in Latin America's second-largest economy, which is woefully underbanked for its size. The financial sector was slammed by the nation's peso devaluation in 1994, which led to a massive wave of loan defaults and a costly government bailout.

The vast majority of Mexico's 106 million citizens don't have a bank account or credit card, much less car or home loans. Annual interest rates on some bank credit cards top 70%. Mexico ranks lower than most of Latin America's other major economies in credit granted to the private sector as a percentage of GDP, data gathered by Morgan Stanley show.

This dearth of loans to consumers and businesses is a big drag on Mexico's development. Although low inflation and a stable economy have emboldened Mexico's big banks to step up consumer lending in recent years, they still largely ignore the poor and working classes. Millions of self-employed people who toil for cash in the informal economy as taxi driver Contreras does are deemed too risky by traditional banks.

But these consumers represent a potentially lucrative opportunity for Wal-Mart and other retailers, according to Jorge Kuri, a Latin America banking analyst with Morgan Stanley in New York. He said banking was a way to reap handsome lending spreads on deposits while offering one more service to lure shoppers through their doors.

"There is opportunity in the low-income market," Kuri said. "That's what these entities are going after."

Some institutions already have proved that lending to those of modest means can be profitable. Mexico City-based retailer Grupo Elektra helped pioneer the concept of in-store financing by offering working-class Mexicans credit on furniture, appliances and electronics.

That experience helped the company win a banking license in 2002, the first granted by Mexican authorities since the mid-'90s financial crisis. Today, its Banco Azteca has more than 1,500 branches located mainly in its retail outlets in Mexico and Panama. In 2005, the bank's deposits and net income grew nearly 50% over 2004 levels. Grupo Elektra executives have credited the bank with helping drive record sales at its stores.

Retailers such as Wal-Mart would love to emulate that success. But it may not be easy.

Although companies in the U.S can easily check a person's credit history with one of three big agencies, Mexican firms know that only a tiny fraction of the population is listed in a similar registry here.

Instead, Grupo Elektra built its own borrower database over decades, gaining valuable insight into how to lend to people whose work and credit histories are hard to verify and whose incomes can be precarious.

Wal-Mart would be wading into these uncertainties if it launched a bank, analyst Kuri noted.

"You're talking about lending to people that have small salaries and who are very susceptible to changes in macroeconomic conditions. It's not like they have savings to pay their debts for a couple of months if something happens," he said. "So it is a high-risk strategy … with a steep learning curve."

Wal-Mart's Arguelles said the company had recruited a team of veteran bankers to help it develop a business model. Once the license is approved, he said, the company will take a slow, conservative approach to rolling out the operation. But Wal-Mart's bank will be guided by the same low-price strategy that helped it flourish in retailing.

"The humblest, poorest people should stop paying the highest prices," Arguelles said.






Times staff writer Cecilia Sanchez contributed to this report.

Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times










Saturday, August 26, 2006

Newport: No to Wal-Mart






Newport: No to Wal-Mart
But Target, Kroger might be part of development
BY MIKE RUTLEDGE ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER





NEWPORT - A Wal-Mart Supercenter will not be part of the proposed Newport Pavilion retail development, pleased city officials said Wednesday.

Target and Kroger Co. appear to remain at the center of developer Bear Creek Capital's major-tenant negotiations, but city officials - who hope to make an announcement in coming weeks - declined to comment on the likelihood.

But they would like that to happen.


At least some city commissioners opposed Wal-Mart, saying the store could not anchor the kind of upscale development they had envisioned.

"Wal-Mart was never on the radar screen for the Board of Commissioners to begin with," Mayor Tom Guidugli said.

Although the city's development agreement with Bear Creek did not give Newport power to veto specific stores, "Do you know how difficult we can be to work with if the project isn't what we want?" he asked.

"We do own the property," Guidugli said. "But it's difficult to negotiate that stuff in the press. Then you're (angering) the people you've got to negotiate with.

"We didn't agree on some of the same things on the tenant mix, and we told them up front what we wanted," Guidugli said about Bear Creek. "And they looked like they were moving in a different direction, and the board wasn't very happy about it."

Bear Creek has said there were always two proposed versions of the project.

"I don't think it was an anti-Wal-Mart thing," said Commissioner Beth Fennell. "I just think we had a different vision than that.

"We started out with a Rookwood-type vision, and then they all of a sudden put more like a Wal-Mart type vision," Fennell said.

Rookwood Commons is an upscale shopping center in Norwood

"Now, we're maybe somewhere in the middle," she said.

"Originally, before 2001, we envisioned sort of an upscale-type shopping center, but for various reasons, that didn't get out of the ground as quickly as we hoped," Fennell said. "And in the meantime, Crestview Hills (Town Center) was built.

"Originally, in my mind, that would have been the type of mix we would have had - the Dillard's, and that Main Street-look to it," Fennell said. "That was my vision, and I think at one time that was what we thought we were going to get, but that was with the previous developer (Neyer Properties) and then a lot of things changed - marketing decisions, economic conditions changed, and then we changed developers."

Guidugli said he likes Target.

"I talk to the young people that have kids and do a lot of shopping, and their families always dress well, and most of them shop at Target," he said. "So I think it's a good fit. And there's none in Campbell County."

E-mail mrutledge@nky.com






Copyright © 1995-2006: Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, updated June 7, 2005.








Friday, August 25, 2006

Wal-mart Supercenter: Archaeologist: developers discount site findings

Wal-mart Supercenter: Archaeologist: developers discount site findings
By Tom Sharpe The New Mexican
July 30, 2006




Researcher considers discoveries significant; city says area ‘cleared’ by earlier survey

An archaeologist who worked on the site of the planned Wal-Mart Supercenter in southwest Santa Fe says the developers didn't want to hear about him finding 2,000-year-old artifacts there.

Tom McIntosh, who was hired to examine the vacant 65 acres earlier this year, said the developers seemed to have their minds made up that there was no significant archaeology there.

He said Richard Gorman, a land-use consultant for the proposed Entrada Contenta development, initially offered him an incentive to finish his work in two weeks.

"Gorman says, 'You don't need to tell me anything. Just go out there and get us a survey. ... There's nothing there. We're going to offer you $2,500 extra to turn that report in in two weeks,' " McIntosh recalled. "I said, 'There's no way we can get it in in two weeks.' He said, 'Well, if there's nothing there, you should be able to get it.' "

While the archaeologist made what he considers significant discoveries, it's not clear what, if anything, city officials will do with a report he drafted. And McIntosh is riled about how his work has been treated.

Gorman did not respond to repeated messages from The New Mexican seeking a response. McIntosh said Gorman called him Thursday and threatened to sue him over his statements to a reporter.

McIntosh, who has been working in Santa Fe for three years under the name ArcCom, said he negotiated an open-ended contract with Gorman and project manager Tom Keesing, acting on behalf of BSW Engineering and Steve Johnson Development LLC.

Keesing directed a reporter's questions to Nancy Long, an attorney for landowner William Herrera. Long said she couldn't speak for Gorman or Keesing because she was not present during their dealings with McIntosh. Keesing also said he had "never met" McIntosh.

McIntosh, who said he only spoke to Keesing by phone, said his contract called for a base fee of $4,500 if no significant archaeology was found or, in the alternative, $150 an hour.

After he and two associates worked for two to three weeks in May along the confluence of the Arroyo de los Chamisos and the Arroyo Hondo, McIntosh said, they identified six "lithic" sites, with stone tools and dwelling sites dating back 2,000 years, plus one "ceramic" site from around 1200 AD.

McIntosh said archaeological sites are considered significant if there is a potential to obtain more information. But he said the lithic sites are particularly significant because little is known of the hunter-and-gatherer cultures that lived in the Santa Fe area before pottery was invented.

Other archaeologists agreed with McIntosh's definition of archaeologic significance but said almost any site has the potential to yield more information. They said lithic sites are common in the Santa Fe area and are considered significant only when found in a context that allows the sites to be dated through scientific methods, such as the presence of hearths with charcoal that yields carbon-14.

"If the site is just a couple of (stone) flakes and there's no way to date when they were left behind, then often it's just considered not significant," said Eric Blinman, director the state Office of Archaeological Studies.

McIntosh said regardless of the significance of the sites, full exploration and documentation would have taken about 30 days and cost the developers another $20,000.

The project already has been put in limbo by a pending lawsuit. More than 20 small-business owners are asking a judge to void City Council approval of the project, claiming the governing body acted improperly during a series of split votes last summer on the development, which includes a planned 265,800-square-foot commercial development anchored by the 150,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The archaeologist said when he presented Keesing and Gorman with a bill for $17,000 for more than 100 hours of work, they balked. "Keesing said, 'Look, do you know who you're dealing with? We'll just walk away from this and not pay you, period, because that's absurd,' " McIntosh said.

After he insisted Keesing and Gorman pay him, McIntosh said, he met with Herrera, who paid him in full. "Herrera is totally honorable," McIntosh said of the retired dentist whose family owns the land. "He wanted to make sure everything was right and no bad stuff was going on."

A few days after Herrera paid him, McIntosh said, David Rasch, head of historic preservation for the city Planning and Land Use Department, told McIntosh his report wasn't needed because the site already had been "cleared" by a 2001 archaeological survey. McIntosh said when he went to Rasch's office to look at the 2001 report, he was told it was missing.

However, Carla Lopez, a media spokeswoman for the city, said no report is missing. She said a 1994 report by Matthew Schmader, approved by the city Archaeological Review Committee in 2001, found no significant archaeology in the area, including the adjoining Tierra Contenta subdivision. She said this gave "permanent approval" to development on the property.

The city about a decade ago annexed Tierra Contenta and some adjoining properties, including the land near Cerrillos Road that Herrera and his representatives have designated as Entrada Contenta.

McIntosh, however, said he's not satisfied with the city's explanation.

Other archaeologists say they have heard of developers offering incentives for finishing surveys quickly and trying to persuade archaeologists not to find anything. Alysia Abbott, a local archaeologist, recalled how a developer refused to pay her a $3,000 fee because she found archaeological sites on his county land. She said she turned in her report identifying the sites to county officials, even though the developer told her not to do it.

McIntosh said he'll turn his report in to the city, even though city officials say it's no longer needed. "The thing that's got me riled up now," he said, "there's seven significant sites that are going to get destroyed out there without any kind of protection or data recovery or anything."

Staff writer Bob Quick contributed to this report.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 995-3813 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.


Firm withdraws from Wal-Mart project

One of three firms involved in the development of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in southwest Santa Fe has dropped out.

Steve Johnson Development LLC of Albuquerque and Scottsdale, Ariz., canceled its option to buy part of the proposed Entrada Contenta project three weeks ago, said Doug Peterson of Albuquerque.

Peterson said his family’s firm, Peterson Properties, is an equal partner with Steve Johnson Development in CAP II Investments LLC, which was the potential investor in Entrada Contenta, though Steve Johnson Development was listed individually on public records related to the project.

Asked why the firm pulled out, Peterson said, “I don’t want to say anything that would hurt the pending lawsuit,” referring to the court challenge filed by more than 20 local businesses who say the City Council acted improperly in approving the project last August.

The withdrawal leaves Herrera and Associates, owned by landowner William Herrera of Santa Fe, and Frontera Development of Phoenix as the partners in Entrada Contenta.

— Tom Sharpe






©2006, Santa Fe New Mexican, all rights reserved. Opinions expressed by readers do not necessarily reflect the views of the management and staff of the Santa Fe New Mexican.





Thursday, August 24, 2006

Wal-Mart Gets Communist Branch in China

Aug 24, 4:48 PM EDT
Wal-Mart Gets Communist Branch in China
By ELAINE KURTENBACH
AP Business Writer





SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Wal-Mart, capitalist retailer for the masses, now has its own Communist Party branch. Earlier this month, Communist Party and Communist Youth League branches and a trade union were set up at a Wal-Mart outlet in the northeastern industrial city of Shenyang, a staffer in the store's communications department said Thursday, confirming Chinese media reports.

As is typical of many media-shy Chinese, she gave only her surname, Liu. She would not discuss further details.

A bastion of private business, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has fought efforts to form unions elsewhere in its worldwide operations. But in recent weeks it said it agreed to work with the state-sanctioned labor federation to allow unions in its outlets in China, where it has 30,000 employees.

It is not clear exactly how the party branch would operate or whether it had an office in the Shenyang store.

At Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., international division spokeswoman Beth Keck said the party branch opening was a routine matter.

"It our understanding that party members and the party have routinely organized branches in enterprises in China and we respect their right to do so," Keck said.

Keck declined to comment when asked if the party branch opening was related to the recent spread of official Chinese trade unions at Wal-Mart stores there or what the branch in Shenyang would actually be doing.

Repeated phone calls to the public relations department of Wal-Mart's China headquarters in the southern city of Shenzhen went unanswered Thursday afternoon.

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions, reportedly at the behest of President Hu Jintao, has been campaigning for several years to set up party-controlled unions in Wal-Mart branches as well as other foreign-invested companies.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has 60 stores in 30 Chinese cities, resisted for two years before employees in the southeastern city of Quanzhou successfully voted to set up a union in late July.

Shenyang Wal-Mart has only two party members and 16 Communist Youth League members out of its 389 employees, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

But the Xinhua report stressed that the branch's function would be to promote better business.

The party and youth league branches "will encourage members to play an exemplary role in doing a good job and that will be helpful to business development," it quoted Chen Lie, a Communist Party district leader in Shenyang, as saying.

Chen said the groups would not interfere with management or operations of the retailer, which is based in Bentonville, Ark.

Since July, employees of at least 16 other Wal-Marts in China also have formed unions, according to the ACFTU, the umbrella group for unions permitted by the communist government. Overall, China aims to unionize employees at 60 percent of its foreign companies by the end of this year.

China does not allow independent labor organizations. Unions usually represent the work force of a single company or outlet, rather than an industry, and they traditionally have been allied with management.

The communist leadership has sought to preserve the party's influence in the business sector amid sweeping capitalist reforms and a huge influx of foreign capital and management.

Once a thriving industrial hub of China's planned economy, where factory workers enjoyed elite status and cradle-to-grave benefits, Shenyang has seen massive layoffs in recent years.




On the Net:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.: http://www.walmartstores.com

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.



©2006 The Associated Press.
All rights reserved. Terms under which this site is provided.
Learn more about our Privacy Policy.




Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Judge Weighs Class-Action Status Of Suit Against Wal-Mart

Judge Weighs Class-Action Status Of Suit Against Wal-Mart




An eastern Kentucky judge is weighing whether to grant class-action status to a lawsuit accusing retail giant Wal-Mart of forcing employees to work overtime without being paid.

At Catlettsburg, Ky., Boyd County Circuit Judge Marc I. Rosen heard arguments Friday and asked attorneys to submit a proposed order this week.

Wal-Mart employees sued the company a year ago, claiming workers weren't properly compensated for working overtime and were not paid for missed break time. The case has been delayed with multiple, lengthy filings.

Wal-Mart employs more than 145,000 people in Kentucky.



(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


Monika Rued, Web Producer
Created: 8/21/2006 11:42:51 AM
Updated: 8/21/2006 11:48:29 AM


Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Wal-Mart's got issues

Wal-Mart's got issues
By Marcus Kabel
Associated Press Writer
August 21, 2006






Bentonville, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is fighting battles on multiple fronts after posting its first quarterly profit decline in 10 years, and analysts question whether the world's largest retailer can regain the feverish growth rates of its past.

Wal-Mart's woes range from high energy prices, which hit its lower-income customer base and its own costs, to setbacks in its international strategy, to public relations stumbles like last week's sudden resignation of civil rights icon Andrew Young as its public ambassador.

Young quit as head of a pro-Wal-Mart advocacy group after he was quoted in the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper as saying inner-city stores that overcharged black customers were run by "Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs." Wal-Mart, which has made repeated public commitments this year to diversity, said Young's comments did not reflect its views.

On the plus side, analysts say, Wal-Mart has ambitious programs to stock trendier products, remodel most of its more than 2,000 Supercenter stores and tighten its grip on the costs of inventory, labor and energy.



Outcome still uncertain
Combined with an ongoing public relations offensive to counter critics who claim its pay and benefits are skimpy, Wal-Mart is juggling a lot of balls at once and analysts say the outcome is still up in the air.

"I think they're in so much transition right now that it's hard to measure whether or not they're making progress," said Patricia Edwards, portfolio manager and retail analyst at Wentworth, Hauser & Violich in Seattle, which manages $8.2 billion in assets and holds 51,000 Wal-Mart shares. "It is a lot to handle."

George Whalen of Retail Management Consultants in San Marcos, Calif., said Wal-Mart has a track record of handling multiple tasks: "When you get to be the biggest in the world, you fight battles on every front sometimes."

Second-quarter results showed the first profit decline in a decade on the cost of selling its loss-making business in Germany. It quit another loss-maker, South Korea, in May but still operates in 13 countries in Asia, Latin America and Britain and intends to keep expanding, especially in China.



Gas prices hurting?
But the quarter's sales and profit growth also slowed at Wal-Mart's U.S. stores, its biggest division, as high fuel prices kept customers away, cut their spending power and drove up Wal-Mart's own costs for a fleet of 7,000 trucks.

Some analysts question whether Wal-Mart can regain previous growth rates that made it a darling of Wall Street in the 1990s.

After precipitous gains in the 1980s and 1990s, the stock peaked at around $70 in January 2000 before losing steam. It has lost another 3 percent this year to current levels around $45.

Wal-Mart's earnings per share rose more than 16 percent per year on average over the past 10 years and sales grew by annual rates between 12 percent and 20 percent. But all that has slowed, with earnings per share up about 11 percent last year and sales up just 9.5 percent.

Robert Buchanan, head of retail analysis at A.G. Edwards & Sons, said a target of 10 percent growth in annual earnings per share is more realistic from now on, considering Wal-Mart's size. In a research note, he wrote that "the 'law of large numbers' has set in."



Edwards said that with nearly 4,000 stores in the U.S., Wal-Mart can only maintain past growth rates by acquiring more companies overseas or "building a Wal-Mart on every other street corner in China."

"They are the 900-pound gorilla. The 900-pound gorilla cannot grow as fast as the little company from the Ozarks," Edwards said.



More stores on the way
Some analysts are more bullish, and Wal-Mart has said it plans to open more than 1,500 stores in the United States in the coming years.

Sandra J. Skrovan, who heads a Wal-Mart research program at consultant Retail Forward Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, said Wal-Mart is well-positioned to weather the current gas crunch, even if prices don't decline. Its Supercenters, which combine a full grocery section with general merchandise, offer a one-stop shop and customers will continue to come in for food even if they postpone buying home electronics or clothes.



Changes, such as adding organic foods, trendier clothes and electronics, are meant to compete with rivals like Target Corp. and Best Buy.






Record Online is brought to you by the Times Herald-Record, serving New York"s Hudson Valley and the Catskills.









Sunday, August 20, 2006

Wal-Mart battling to revive growth

Wal-Mart battling to revive growth
By MARCUS KABEL, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 18, 7:14 PM ET




BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is fighting battles on multiple fronts after posting its first quarterly profit decline in 10 years, and analysts question whether the world's largest retailer can regain the feverish growth rates of its past.

Wal-Mart's woes range from high energy prices, which hit its lower-income customer base and its own costs, to setbacks in its international strategy, to public relations stumbles like this week's sudden resignation of civil rights icon Andrew Young as its public ambassador.

Young quit as head of a pro-Wal-Mart advocacy group after he was quoted in the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper as saying inner-city stores that overcharged black customers were run by "Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs." Wal-Mart, which has made repeated public commitments this year to diversity, said Young's comments did not reflect its views.

On the plus side, analysts say, Wal-Mart has ambitious programs to stock trendier products, remodel most of its more than 2,000 Supercenter stores and tighten its grip on the costs of inventory, labor and energy.

Combined with an ongoing public relations offensive to counter critics who claim its pay and benefits are skimpy, Wal-Mart is juggling a lot of balls at once and analysts say the outcome is still up in the air.

"I think they're in so much transition right now that it's hard to measure whether or not they're making progress," said Patricia Edwards, portfolio manager and retail analyst at Wentworth, Hauser & Violich in Seattle, which manages $8.2 billion in assets and holds 51,000 Wal-Mart shares. "It is a lot to handle."

George Whalen of Retail Management Consultants in San Marcos, Calif., said Wal-Mart has a track record of handling multiple tasks: "When you get to be the biggest in the world, you fight battles on every front sometimes."

Second-quarter results showed the first profit decline in a decade on the cost of selling its loss-making business in Germany. It quit another loss-maker, South Korea, in May but still operates in 13 countries in Asia, Latin America and Britain and intends to keep expanding, especially in China.

But the quarter's sales and profit growth also slowed at Wal-Mart's U.S. stores, its biggest division, as high fuel prices kept customers away, cut their spending power and drove up Wal-Mart's own costs for a fleet of 7,000 trucks.

Some analysts question whether Wal-Mart can regain growth rates that made it a darling of Wall Street in the 1990s.

After precipitous gains in the 1980s and 1990s, the stock peaked at around $70 in January 2000 before losing steam to linger mainly in the $50-$60 range. It has lost another 3 percent this year to current levels around $45.

Wal-Mart's earnings per share rose more than 16 percent per year on average over the past 10 years and sales grew by annual rates between 12 percent and 20 percent. But all that has slowed, with earnings per share up about 11 percent last year and sales up just 9.5 percent.

Robert Buchanan, head of retail analysis at A.G. Edwards & Sons, said a target of 10 percent growth in annual earnings per share is more realistic from now on, considering Wal-Mart's size. In a research note, he wrote that "the 'law of large numbers' has set in with regard to go-forward percentage growth in sales and EPS."

Edwards said that with nearly 4,000 stores in the U.S., Wal-Mart can only maintain past growth rates by acquiring more companies overseas or "building a Wal-Mart on every other street corner in China."

"They are the 900-pound gorilla. The 900-pound gorilla cannot grow as fast as the little company from the Ozarks," Edwards said.

Some analysts are more bullish, and Wal-Mart has said it plans to open more than 1,500 stores in the United States in the coming years. It is opening more than 300 this year alone.

Sandra J. Skrovan, who heads a Wal-Mart research program at consultant Retail Forward Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, said Wal-Mart is well-positioned to weather the current gas crunch, even if prices don't decline. Its Supercenters, which combine a full grocery section with general merchandise, offer a one-stop shop and customers will continue to come in for food even if they postpone buying home electronics or clothes.

"The retailers that are positioned to provide value and convenience to consumers who are having to tighten their wallets and having to reduce the number of trips they make are really in a good position," Skrovan said.

But Skrovan agreed it was too early to say when Wal-Mart will see an increase in sales from its new initiatives, which include more organic foods, trendier clothes for women including a new segment of its George line from designer Mark Eisen, and flashier home electronics in a remodeled display. Those changes are meant to compete with rivals like Target Corp. and Best Buy.

"I think it's going to take a while before we really start to see that bump up," Skrovan said.




Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.


Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.


Wal-Mart envoy quits after racist remarks

Wal-Mart envoy quits after racist remarks
By Michael Barbaro and Steven Greenhouse The New York Times
Published: August 18, 2006





Andrew Young, the American civil rights leader who was hired by Wal- Mart Stores to improve its public image, has resigned from that post after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had "ripped off" urban communities for years, "selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables."

In the interview, published Thursday in The Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly, Young said Wal-Mart should displace mom-and-pop stores in urban neighborhoods.

"You see those are the people who have been overcharging us," he said of the owners of the small stores, "and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs."

Young, 74, a former mayor of Atlanta and a former U.S. representative at the United Nations, apologized for the comments and retracted them in an interview late Thursday. Less than an hour later, he resigned as chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group created and financed by the company to trumpet its accomplishments.

"It's against everything I ever thought in my life," Young said. "It never should have been said. I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles."

His remarks drew forceful condemnation from Arab, Jewish and Asian leaders.

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, called the comments "very hurtful."

"The sad part," he said, is that "even people of color and even minorities who suffered discrimination and prejudice are not immune from being bigoted and racist and even anti-Semitic."

In the six months that Young was under contract with the Wal-Mart-financed group, he traveled the country promoting the retailer, meeting with community groups and writing opinion pieces for local newspapers.

"I am more of a spokesman than the chairman of Wal-Mart," he remarked, referring to his work on behalf of the company.

Wal-Mart executives moved quickly Thursday to distance themselves from Young's remarks. "Ambassador Young's comments do not reflect our feelings toward the Jewish, Asian or Arab communities or any other diverse group," said a company spokeswoman, Mona Williams.

"Needless to say, we were appalled when the comments came to our attention," Williams said. "We were also dismayed that they would come from someone who has worked so hard for so many years for equal rights in this country. Ambassador Young has done the right thing to apologize and to ask for a retraction. We also support his decision to resign."

Margaret Fung, executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said, "Andrew Young should know better than to resort to derogatory ethnic stereotypes about Korean store owners in black neighborhoods."

Khaled Lamada, former president of the Arab Muslim American Federation and currently director of outreach for the Muslim American Society, said that Young's statements were "not fair" and that they "shame" the Muslim community.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said, "These are stereotypical remarks that any leader of the civil rights movement should run away from rather than utter."

Explaining his comments about Koreans, Jews and Arabs, Young said he was referring to the history of retail ownership in the neighborhood where he lives in southwestern Atlanta.

"Almost everyone who has come into my community has moved in, made money and moved out and moved up," he said. "That process is still continuing."

Over the last two years, Wal-Mart efforts to open stores in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York have been blocked by community opposition. Because of Young's background, Wal- Mart had looked to him to ease its entry into such cities.

"The only thing I can do," Young said Thursday before he resigned, "is to ask that people judge me about a life of working together with people who are different and bringing people together without violence and without rancor. I would hope that would count for something."

Andrew Young, the American civil rights leader who was hired by Wal- Mart Stores to improve its public image, has resigned from that post after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had "ripped off" urban communities for years, "selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables."

In the interview, published Thursday in The Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly, Young said Wal-Mart should displace mom-and-pop stores in urban neighborhoods.

"You see those are the people who have been overcharging us," he said of the owners of the small stores, "and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs."

Young, 74, a former mayor of Atlanta and a former U.S. representative at the United Nations, apologized for the comments and retracted them in an interview late Thursday. Less than an hour later, he resigned as chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group created and financed by the company to trumpet its accomplishments.

"It's against everything I ever thought in my life," Young said. "It never should have been said. I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles."

His remarks drew forceful condemnation from Arab, Jewish and Asian leaders.

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, called the comments "very hurtful."

"The sad part," he said, is that "even people of color and even minorities who suffered discrimination and prejudice are not immune from being bigoted and racist and even anti-Semitic."

In the six months that Young was under contract with the Wal-Mart-financed group, he traveled the country promoting the retailer, meeting with community groups and writing opinion pieces for local newspapers.

"I am more of a spokesman than the chairman of Wal-Mart," he remarked, referring to his work on behalf of the company.

Wal-Mart executives moved quickly Thursday to distance themselves from Young's remarks. "Ambassador Young's comments do not reflect our feelings toward the Jewish, Asian or Arab communities or any other diverse group," said a company spokeswoman, Mona Williams.

"Needless to say, we were appalled when the comments came to our attention," Williams said. "We were also dismayed that they would come from someone who has worked so hard for so many years for equal rights in this country. Ambassador Young has done the right thing to apologize and to ask for a retraction. We also support his decision to resign."

Margaret Fung, executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said, "Andrew Young should know better than to resort to derogatory ethnic stereotypes about Korean store owners in black neighborhoods."

Khaled Lamada, former president of the Arab Muslim American Federation and currently director of outreach for the Muslim American Society, said that Young's statements were "not fair" and that they "shame" the Muslim community.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said, "These are stereotypical remarks that any leader of the civil rights movement should run away from rather than utter."

Explaining his comments about Koreans, Jews and Arabs, Young said he was referring to the history of retail ownership in the neighborhood where he lives in southwestern Atlanta.

"Almost everyone who has come into my community has moved in, made money and moved out and moved up," he said. "That process is still continuing."

Over the last two years, Wal-Mart efforts to open stores in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York have been blocked by community opposition. Because of Young's background, Wal- Mart had looked to him to ease its entry into such cities.

"The only thing I can do," Young said Thursday before he resigned, "is to ask that people judge me about a life of working together with people who are different and bringing people together without violence and without rancor. I would hope that would count for something."







Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved





Thursday, August 17, 2006

Eye on Election, Democrats Run as Wal-Mart Foe

August 17, 2006
Eye on Election, Democrats Run as Wal-Mart Foe
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MICHAEL BARBARO





DES MOINES, Aug. 16 — Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, delivered a 15-minute, blistering attack to warm applause from Democrats and union organizers here on Wednesday. But Mr. Biden’s main target was not Republicans in Washington, or even his prospective presidential rivals.

It was Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer.

Among Democrats, Mr. Biden is not alone. Across Iowa this week and across much of the country this month, Democratic leaders have found a new rallying cry that many of them say could prove powerful in the midterm elections and into 2008: denouncing Wal-Mart for what they say are substandard wages and health care benefits.

Six Democratic presidential contenders have appeared at rallies like the one Mr. Biden headlined, along with some Democratic candidates for Congress in some of the toughest-fought races in the country.

“My problem with Wal-Mart is that I don’t see any indication that they care about the fate of middle-class people,” Mr. Biden said, standing on the sweltering rooftop of the State Historical Society building here. “They talk about paying them $10 an hour. That’s true. How can you live a middle-class life on that?”

The focus on Wal-Mart is part of a broader strategy of addressing what Democrats say is general economic anxiety and a growing sense that economic gains of recent years have not benefited the middle class or the working poor.

Their alliance with the anti-Wal-Mart campaign dovetails with their emphasis in Washington on raising the minimum wage and doing more to make health insurance affordable. It also suggests they will go into the midterm Congressional elections this fall and the 2008 presidential race striking a populist tone.

Some Democrats expressed concern about the direction the party was heading, saying it could turn back efforts by such party leaders as former President Bill Clinton to erase the image of the party as anti-business and scare off corporations that might be inclined to make contributions.

Still, what is striking about this campaign is the ideological breadth of the Democrats who have joined in, including some who in the past have warned the party against appearing hostile to business interests.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who was a member of Wal-Mart’s board when she lived in Arkansas, the corporation’s home state, returned a $5,000 campaign contribution from the company last year. Mrs. Clinton said she did so to protest Wal-Mart’s health care benefits, and she has continued to distance herself from the policies of a company she was close to when she was the first lady of Arkansas.

Scheduling conflicts prevented Mrs. Clinton from attending any of the rallies being organized, her aides said. But she supported many of the campaign’s goals, they added.

“It’s not anti-business,” said Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, a former head of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council, appearing at an anti-Wal-Mart rally on Tuesday. “Wal-Mart has become emblematic of the anxiety around the country, and the middle-class squeeze.”

“All you need to know is Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont have appeared at these events,” Mr. Bayh said, speaking of the Connecticut senator and the man who defeated him in the Democratic primary on Aug. 8. “That’s pretty good evidence that Democrats across the country are rallying around this issue.”

Yet there are clear risks for Democrats, not least in alienating Wal-Mart employees and customers.

Wal-Mart has begun a counterattack. In interviews on Wednesday, company executives warned that they would alert their 1.3 million American employees to the anti-Wal-Mart campaign. They also pointed to a poll the company financed that reported that Americans were generally supportive of the company.

“There is far more evidence to show that this short-sighted political strategy will backfire than that it will actually work,” said Mona Williams, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores. “We believe our associates vote, and it is our responsibility to let them know when a politician speaks out for or against our company.”

In a letter to its workers in Iowa, Wal-Mart warned of the political events, including appearances by Mr. Bayh, Mr. Biden and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico.

Wal-Mart “would never suggest to you how to vote,” the letter said, “but we have an obligation to tell you when politicians are saying something about your company that isn’t true. After all, you are Wal-Mart.”

Some Republicans said Democrats were trying to appease liberal bloggers, union leaders and an Democratic left wing invigorated by Mr. Lieberman’s defeat in the primary.

But Democrats say they are sure they have a message that will resonate. John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2004, appeared at an anti-Wal-Mart rally in Pittsburgh two weeks ago. Mr. Edwards said in an interview that his party was not vulnerable to a backlash for this criticism so long as Democrats made clear that their main goal was improving policies for the poor and the middle class.

“Wal-Mart as an example of the problems that exist in America today is a powerful political issue,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “I think our party pretty much across the board agrees that people who work hard should be able to support their families. When a company like Wal-Mart fails to meet its corporate responsibility, it make it impossible for that to occur.”

Democrats say Wal-Mart is a potent symbol of corporate excess. The company earned $11 billion in profit last year, but fewer than half of its employees in the United States are covered by its health care plan, and the average worker earns less than $20,000 a year.

Wal-Mart counters that its average wage is more than $10 an hour, and that more than 150,000 Americans who had no health insurance now have it through the company. It also says it has saved consumers billions of dollars by squeezing costs.

The challenges to Wal-Mart are hardly new: it has been the target of political attacks as far back as when Patrick J. Buchanan ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996, and said Wal-Mart was guilty of “gigantism” for crushing smaller businesses.

The criticism has become more intense as Wal-Mart has grown into an increasingly major influence on the American economy and culture. For example, there is an ongoing cross-country bus tour, now in Iowa, organized by Wake Up Wal-Mart, a union-financed group highly critical of the retailer. The campaign includes news conferences with elected leaders in 19 states, may be the most ambitious tactic to date.

Wake Up Wal-Mart’s communications director, Chris Kofinis, said a large cast of Democratic candidates was joining the rallies. They include candidates in Senate races in Ohio and Maryland, and the governor’s race in Maryland, where Wal-Mart’s practices have been the subject of a legislative battle. “Who can disagree with the proposition that corporations should provide affordable health care, pay decent wages, protect American jobs and help provide a safe and just workplace?” Mr. Kofinis said.

Ms. Williams, the Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said the rallies would not resonate with voters. Democrats, she said, were “attending a union-sponsored protest with small crowds of faithful union activists, and there is not a swing vote in sight.’’

“They are preaching to the choir,” Ms. Williams said.

For years, labor activists have characterized Wal-Mart as beholden to Republicans. In the last election cycle, they note, the company gave 80 percent of its contributions to Republicans. Many of its stores are in Republican-dominated territory in the rural South.

But as Wal-Mart has grown in size and power, it has tried to establish ties to the Democratic party. Its chief executive, H. Lee Scott Jr., has grown close to Mr. Clinton, who personally thanked him for Wal-Mart’s relief work after Hurricane Katrina and played host to Mr. Scott at his home in New York last month. In addition, Mr. Scott recently played host to the former Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore, to talk about the environment, and he appeared on the New York radio show of the Democratic activist Al Sharpton.

Even the Democrats who have been at the forefront of the recent attacks have not always had difficult relations with the corporation. Mr. Bayh, for example, took a total of $10,000 in contributions from Wal-Mart in the 2002 and 2004 campaigns.

“It’s clear that the contributions did not have any influence on how he has approached this issue,” said Dan Pfieffer, a spokesman for Mr. Bayh.

Adam Nagourney reported from Des Moines for this article, and Michael Barbaro from New York.





Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company



Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Wal-Mart Ordered to Comply With Workplace Law

Wal-Mart Ordered to Comply With Workplace Law
From Bloomberg News
August 15, 2006




A California judge ordered Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Monday to obey state laws requiring rest breaks for hourly workers and told the retailer to provide reports on its compliance for the next three years.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Ronald Sabraw in Oakland issued a tentative ruling that, since 1998, Wal-Mart wasn't in compliance with rest break laws, pressured workers to waive meal breaks in a manner he said was coercive and stopped tracking its compliance with break rules, though senior executives knew there were "widespread meal and rest break problems."

Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley had no immediate comment.

"We're very pleased with the court's findings," said Jessica Grant, attorney for the workers.

The workers asked Sabraw for the order after a California jury decided in December that Wal-Mart must pay workers $172.3 million for illegally preventing them from taking breaks. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, faces 40 similar suits around the country.

Under California law, employees who work more than five hours must get a 30-minute break. Workers who don't get the break receive an extra hour's worth of pay.





Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times







Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Rights Dept. Backs Bias Claim Against Wal-Mart

Aug 13, 2006 12:51 pm US/Central
Rights Dept. Backs Bias Claim Against Wal-Mart




(AP) St. Paul Minnesota's Department of Human Rights has sided with a black woman who says the Wal-Mart store in Eagan discriminated against her because of her race.

Store employees had suspected Gayle Bryant, of Eagan, of using a bad check to buy $92.69 worth of bottled water and household goods. They called police, who waited for her to leave the store and then stopped her for questioning. The check was good.

The human rights department said it found probable cause to support Bryant's claim that that she was singled out for being black.

"I feel a sense of victory. I have proven that the system actually works," Bryant said.

"Just because someone does not come out and say they won't serve you because you are black doesn't mean they aren't being racist. I think people would be surprised at how common and overt racism still is."

A spokeswoman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Sarah Clark, did not respond to a request by the St. Paul Pioneer Press seeking comment on the recent ruling.

The retailer initially offered Bryant a $50 gift card, and later increased the settlement offer to $1,000 after blaming the incident on overalertness for fraud.

Clark said back then that the incident was not race-related, but that the employees did not follow the company's check-acceptance policy.

Both sides have a settlement meeting scheduled for October, said Bryant's attorney, Samantha Gemberling. If a settlement is not reached then, the attorney general's office could represent Bryant before an administrative law judge.

"Getting this determination from the state really gives a lot of credibility and credence to what Gayle has always understood was an act of discrimination," Gemberling said.

The incident happened in April 2005, when Bryant says her check was approved at the register by the SCAN service -- which verifies checking accounts. She says the cashier called over other employees and asked to see her driver's license.

Two cashiers and an assistant manager then told her they couldn't authorize her check and left her for about 30 minutes while they took her check and went into a back office, she said.

Bryant says the check she used was a starter check that her bank, Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union, gave her after it misprinted her previous batch of checks. Those checks lacked the customary security lock symbol on the front and a watermark on the back. She says she hadn't had any trouble with them before, and even used one of them at a different Wal-Mart two weeks earlier.

Bryant says no one asked her to pay by cash or credit card instead, or told her they didn't believe her checks were real. The assistant manager ultimately told her that although he couldn't get authorization, he would take her check anyway.

As she left the store, three Eagan police officers were waiting in the parking lot to arrest her on suspicion of theft and using a counterfeit check.

"According to (Wal-Mart's) policy and procedures, her check should have been accepted as valid payment for her purchases, but she was instead given sham 'approval' in order to create justification for having her apprehended by the police on suspicion of theft," Human Rights Commissioner Velma Korbel wrote in her findings recently.

Bryant would not say how much money she is seeking but did say she wants Wal-Mart to reaffirm its commitment to diversity and make its policies on checks clear.

(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)



© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.




Saturday, August 12, 2006

Former Wal-Mart exec sentenced

Former Wal-Mart exec sentenced
Former vice chairman gets just over two years home confinement, after facing up to 28 years in prison.
August 11 2006: 6:31 PM EDT





FORT SMITH, Ark. (Reuters) -- Tom Coughlin, the former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. vice chairman who admitted to stealing thousands of dollars from the company, was sentenced on Friday to 27 months of home confinement.

Coughlin, who joined Wal-Mart in 1978 and worked closely with legendary founder Sam Walton, had faced up to 28 years in prison and $1.35 million in fines after he pleaded guilty in January to wire fraud and tax evasion.

"There is no excuse for my conduct," Coughlin said at the hearing in U.S. District Court in Fort Smith, Arkansas. "I feel compelled to apologize to my extended Wal-Mart family."

Coughlin said he would spend the rest of his life trying to undo the damage he had caused.

His doctor, Joel Carver, had testified earlier on Friday that the 57-year-old was too "fragile" for prison, suffering from diabetes, cardiac disease, sleep apnea, arterial blockage, and other ailments. Coughlin was treated for arterial blockage in 2003.

Prosecutors countered that prisons had good medical facilities to care for him, but Judge Robert Dawson decided on home confinement, five years of probation, and restitution of about $411,000. Roughly three quarters of that sum will go to Wal-Mart, and the remainder to the Internal Revenue Service.

Wal-Mart said it was pleased that the sentencing was completed, and noted that investigators had found no wrongdoing on the part of the company.

"Our company's actions throughout this process have been consistent with our core values and the principle that all (employees) are held accountable to the same standard, regardless of their position," the retailer said in a statement.

Wal-Mart had accused Coughlin of misappropriating as much as $500,000 through misuse of gift cards and bogus invoices, and said he used the money to buy an odd assortment of items including customized dog kennels and a Celine Dion CD.

Coughlin pleaded guilty to a smaller sum that included $6,500 for his share of a private hunting lease, $2,695 for upgrades to his 1999 Ford truck, and a $200 Sam's Club gift card that he used to buy a cooler, two cases of Miller Light beer and other items.

Judge Dawson recommended that Coughlin begin his home confinement within 60 days, and pay the restitution within 30 days.

Coughlin retired from Wal-Mart in January 2005, but remained on the board of directors until his resignation two months later following an internal investigation into the improper use of gift cards and expenses.








Copyright 2006 Reuters All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

© 2006 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Ex-Wal-Mart Boss Faces Fraud Sentence

Aug. 10, 2006, 12:18PM
Ex-Wal-Mart Boss Faces Fraud Sentence
By MARCUS KABEL Ap Business Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press





— The former No. 2 executive at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Thomas Coughlin, faces sentencing Friday in federal court in Arkansas after pleading guilty to stealing money, merchandise and gift cards worth just a fraction of his base salary and stock holdings.

Coughlin, 57 and a protege of late Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, faces a maximum of 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. He also could be fined $1.35 million.

U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson, who accepted Coughlin's guilty plea in January, will hold the sentencing hearing at 10 a.m. in his courtroom in Fort Smith, Ark.

Prosecutors have recommended a sentence but Dawson sealed the plea agreement pending a presentencing report.

In court in January, Coughlin specifically admitted defrauding the company to pay for the care of his hunting dogs, lease a private hunting area, upgrade his pickup truck, buy liquor and a cooler, and receive $3,100 in cash. The items were worth a minuscule amount when compared to his $1 million-plus salary.

Coughlin's lawyers did not immediately return a phone call asking for comment ahead of the sentencing. Wal-Mart has declined to comment on specifics of the case, although Chief Executive Lee Scott has called the ordeal "an embarrassment" for the company.

Wal-Mart referred Coughlin to federal prosecutors after alleging he took money, goods and gift cards worth up to $500,000 over a period of at least seven years before he retired in early 2005.

Wal-Mart made further allegations of embezzlement and theft in a separate civil lawsuit it filed last year seeking to revoke Coughlin's multimillion-dollar retirement package.

That suit alleges that Coughlin used tricks including false expense reports to buy things as varied as snakeskin boots, hunting trips and Bloody Mary mix.

However, that lawsuit was dismissed by an Arkansas judge who said both sides had signed a pledge as part of Coughlin's retirement deal not to pursue any claims against each other for any reasons. Wal-Mart has appealed the dismissal of its lawsuit to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

No mention was made in Coughlin's public filings with the court of his earlier claim that he used money obtained from Wal-Mart to pay for anti-union activism. Wal-Mart has said there was no such project.

Coughlin retired as Wal-Mart vice chairman in January 2005 and gave up his spot on the company board in March 2005 after Wal-Mart referred him to prosecutors. The matter was taken up by a grand jury in Fort Smith.

As vice chairman, he received a base salary of $1.03 million in his final year with the company. He received more than $3 million in bonuses and other income in the same period and held about $20 million in Wal-Mart stock, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.




© 2006 The Associated Press

Monday, August 07, 2006

Report: Second Wal-Mart store in China forms union

Report: Second Wal-Mart store in China forms union




BEIJING -- Employees at a second Wal-Mart store in China have formed a union, a news report said Saturday, as labor officials push for workers at all of the company's 60 Chinese outlets to unionize.

Some 42 employees at a store in the southern city of Shenzhen, which was Wal-Mart's first Chinese outlet in 1996, voted Friday to form a union and elected leaders, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Employees at another store formed Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s first union in China last week following a lobbying campaign by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the umbrella group for unions permitted by China's Communist government.

The ACFTU has accused Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, of blocking union-organizing efforts. The company says it respects employees' wishes, but said before the vote last week that none had expressed interest in a union.

The Shenzhen union will "safeguard the lawful rights and interests of the employees," Zhou Liang, its new chairman, was quoted as saying.

Zhou said it would "cooperate with the enterprise operators" to "harmonize" the relationship between employees and employers and promote development, according to Xinhua.

Phone calls on Saturday to Wal-Mart's China headquarters, also located in Shenzhen, weren't answered. An employee who answered the phone at the Shenzhen store and wouldn't give her name said she had no information on the union vote.

The ACFTU often is regarded not as an advocate for better pay and working conditions for employees but as an intermediary that represents employers to workers.

Wal-Mart has 28,000 employees in China and says it plans to open 18 to 20 new stores in the country this year.

An ACFTU official expressed hope this week that the vote last week in the southeastern city of Quanzhou would lead to all of Wal-Mart's Chinese outlets forming unions.

"This is only the beginning. Our goal is to spread trade unions to every Wal-Mart outlet in China," said Guo Wencai, director of ACFTU's department of grass-roots organizations.

China doesn't permit independent unions and activists are frequently jailed and harassed.

Unions in China usually are formed at individual companies or stores, rather than representing workers across a whole industry.

The ACFTU has said one of its key goals this year is to "push foreign-funded or transnational companies to unionize."

About 26 percent of China's 150,000 foreign-financed companies have official labor unions, according to the ACFTU. It says it hopes to raise that to 50 percent this year.

The ACFTU says that under Chinese law, any company with at least 25 employees should establish a trade union.

A member of China's parliament said this year he would introduce legislation making it mandatory for foreign companies to organize official labor unions, according to state media. (AP)

August 5, 2006






Headlines and contents of the news articles shown on this page or the headlines and contents of the news articles shown on the linked pages do not reflect the view or opinions of MSN or Microsoft.

(C) 2005 Microsoft



Sunday, August 06, 2006

Report: Second Wal-Mart store in China forms union

Report: Second Wal-Mart store in China forms union




BEIJING -- Employees at a second Wal-Mart store in China have formed a union, a news report said Saturday, as labor officials push for workers at all of the company's 60 Chinese outlets to unionize.

Some 42 employees at a store in the southern city of Shenzhen, which was Wal-Mart's first Chinese outlet in 1996, voted Friday to form a union and elected leaders, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Employees at another store formed Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s first union in China last week following a lobbying campaign by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the umbrella group for unions permitted by China's Communist government.

The ACFTU has accused Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, of blocking union-organizing efforts. The company says it respects employees' wishes, but said before the vote last week that none had expressed interest in a union.

The Shenzhen union will "safeguard the lawful rights and interests of the employees," Zhou Liang, its new chairman, was quoted as saying.

Zhou said it would "cooperate with the enterprise operators" to "harmonize" the relationship between employees and employers and promote development, according to Xinhua.

Phone calls on Saturday to Wal-Mart's China headquarters, also located in Shenzhen, weren't answered. An employee who answered the phone at the Shenzhen store and wouldn't give her name said she had no information on the union vote.

The ACFTU often is regarded not as an advocate for better pay and working conditions for employees but as an intermediary that represents employers to workers.

Wal-Mart has 28,000 employees in China and says it plans to open 18 to 20 new stores in the country this year.

An ACFTU official expressed hope this week that the vote last week in the southeastern city of Quanzhou would lead to all of Wal-Mart's Chinese outlets forming unions.

"This is only the beginning. Our goal is to spread trade unions to every Wal-Mart outlet in China," said Guo Wencai, director of ACFTU's department of grass-roots organizations.

China doesn't permit independent unions and activists are frequently jailed and harassed.

Unions in China usually are formed at individual companies or stores, rather than representing workers across a whole industry.

The ACFTU has said one of its key goals this year is to "push foreign-funded or transnational companies to unionize."

About 26 percent of China's 150,000 foreign-financed companies have official labor unions, according to the ACFTU. It says it hopes to raise that to 50 percent this year.

The ACFTU says that under Chinese law, any company with at least 25 employees should establish a trade union.

A member of China's parliament said this year he would introduce legislation making it mandatory for foreign companies to organize official labor unions, according to state media. (AP)

August 5, 2006






Copyright 2005-2006 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All rights reserved.
Under the copyright law of Japan, use of all materials on this website, except for personal and noncommercial purposes, is prohibited without the express written permission of the Mainichi Newspapers Co. The copyright of the materials belongs to the Mainichi Newspapers Co. unless stated otherwise.


Headlines and contents of the news articles shown on this page or the headlines and contents of the news articles shown on the linked pages do not reflect the view or opinions of MSN or Microsoft.

(C) 2005 Microsoft LegalMSNPrivacyAnti-Spam Policy



Friday, August 04, 2006

Wal-Mart under union fire as election nears

August 03, 2006 10:12 PM ET
Wal-Mart under union fire as election nears
All Financial Times News




Wal-Mart's record on wages and healthcare benefits is emerging as an issue in the US November mid-term elections, driven in part by a union-backed campaign aimed at mobilising public opposition to the retailer.

This week several prominent Democrats – including Senator Joe Lieberman – have supported activists from "Wake Up Wal-Mart", an anti-Wal-Mart campaign group backed by the UFCW grocery workers' union, which has begun a 35-day bus tour across the US.

The retailer was also criticised this week by John Kerry, the senator and former presidential candidate, who lambasted Wal-Mart over its healthcare policies – suggesting that Democrats are becoming more prepared to attack the retailer to galvanise popular support on the broad social and economic issues raised by the largest private employer in the US.

Chris Kofinis, the communications director of Wake Up Wal-Mart, says the group's bus tour is expected to be endorsed by two other potential Democratic presidential candidates: John Edwards, Mr Kerry's running mate in 2004, and Thomas Vilsack, the governor of Iowa.

The bus tour was timed to put Wal-Mart's record on the mid-term agenda, he says. "Absolutely, it's timed for that," he said. "When we have elections, there's a natural increase in the awareness of ordinary Americans over issues such as wages and healthcare."

The union that launched the Wake Up Wal-Mart campaign last year has abandoned attempts to unionise the retailer's stores and is attempting to slow its expansion and seek legislation forcing it to raise healthcare standards and pay higher wages.

The campaign is led by a former Democratic political operative, Paul Blank, who worked on Howard Dean's unsuccessful bid for the party's presidential nomination in 2004. It is also supported by Democracy for America, the group founded by Mr Dean to maintain the internet-based grassroots network created during his campaign.

Last year, in response to criticisms of its healthcare provision for its 1.3m workers, Wal-Mart announced changes that included extending medical cover to the families of part-time workers. The retailer maintains that its pay and benefits are better than average in the low-pay retail sector. It has also set up its own support group, Working Families for Wal-Mart, headed by Andrew Young, the former mayor of Atlanta and first black US ambassador to the United Nations, under President Jimmy Carter.

Mr Young put out a statement saying it was wrong for politicians concerned about healthcare issues to make Wal-Mart the focus of attacks, saying they were "leading America in the wrong direction".

The anti-Wal-Mart coalition has scored two recent victories at city and state level: last week's vote by the city of Chicago to set a minimum wage for big retailers in the city, and a bid by Mary­land to require the retailer to increase its spending on healthcare benefits.

But a campaign focusing on the group could be tricky for some – including Senator Hillary Clinton, who served in the 1990s on the board of the retailer, based in her husband's home state of Arkansas.

Robert Borosage, the co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, a liberal advocacy group, said Wal-Mart's evident popularity with potential Democratic voters also raised questions for the party. "Wal-Mart's a very popular store. And so political people are wary about it."

But he said the chain provided a clear example of the way "the balance of power is skewed against workers".

"This is the beginnings of what will be a quite vigorous debate going into the 2008 presidential election."

Copyright 2006 Financial Times






© 2006 Microsoft





Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Union forms at Wal-Mart store in China

Union forms at Wal-Mart store in China
By David Lague International Herald Tribune
Published: July 30, 2006




BEIJING Workers at Wal-Mart Stores have formed their first trade union in China, following official demands that the world's biggest retailer allow organ- ized labor in its stores here, according to reports in the state media over the weekend.

Wal-Mart has long battled to bar unions from its stores, in the United States in particular, but the government-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions, or ACFTU, has been campaigning aggressively to set up branches in the company's 60 outlets in China. Senior Chinese officials and the state-controlled media have accused Wal-Mart of obstructing efforts to un- ionize its work force.

The company has more than 30,000 employees in China.

The pressure on the U.S. retailer is part of a concerted drive to establish branches of the official union in all foreign-funded companies in China.

On Saturday, at a Wal-Mart store in the southern Chinese province of Fujian, 25 employees elected Ke Yunlong, 29, as the chairman of a seven-member trade union committee, Xinhua, the official press agency, reported. Earlier, 30 Wal-Mart employees had applied to local labor authorities to register a union.

"According to China's trade union law, enterprises or institutions with 25 employees and above should establish trade unions," Xinhua said.

Beth Keck, director of international corporate affairs for Wal-Mart, said the company was aware of media reports that employees in China had formed a union. She said that the company had not discussed the issue with the ACFTU. But she acknowledged that the federation had earlier signaled its intention to try to unionize the company's Chinese work force.

She added that Wal-Mart hoped to have a "cordial and productive relationship" with the federation.

"We know they have been interested in having a relationship with our company for some time," Keck said. "We will of course be looking forward to how this will evolve."

It is unlikely that Wal-Mart will suddenly face a militant work force. Labor activists often accuse the tightly controlled ACFTU of siding with manage- ment rather than workers.

But if the official union can recruit members among the employees of Wal- Mart and other foreign employers, it could give the government increased in- fluence over some of these companies.

China, with its vast and expanding pool of increasingly affluent consumers, is an important market for Wal-Mart as it reorganizes its international opera- tions. The company said Friday that it planned to sell its unprofitable business in Germany. In May, it withdrew from the South Korean retail market.

But Wal-Mart has been growing rapidly in China since it opened its first store in the booming city of Shenzhen in 1996. It now has outlets in 29 cities and sourced more than $18 billion in merchandise from China last year.

Keck said Wal-Mart recognized its employees had the right to join a union at any of its work places around the world. "In every country we operate, we follow the laws concerning labor relations," she said.

Of the 15 countries in which the company owns work sites, she said, some Wal-Mart employees in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Britain and Germany are union members. The United States is the "clear exception" where no employees are union members, she added.


Don Greenlees contributed reporting from Hong Kong.


BEIJING Workers at Wal-Mart Stores have formed their first trade union in China, following official demands that the world's biggest retailer allow organ- ized labor in its stores here, according to reports in the state media over the weekend.

Wal-Mart has long battled to bar unions from its stores, in the United States in particular, but the government-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions, or ACFTU, has been campaigning aggressively to set up branches in the company's 60 outlets in China. Senior Chinese officials and the state-controlled media have accused Wal-Mart of obstructing efforts to un- ionize its work force.

The company has more than 30,000 employees in China.

The pressure on the U.S. retailer is part of a concerted drive to establish branches of the official union in all foreign-funded companies in China.

On Saturday, at a Wal-Mart store in the southern Chinese province of Fujian, 25 employees elected Ke Yunlong, 29, as the chairman of a seven-member trade union committee, Xinhua, the official press agency, reported. Earlier, 30 Wal-Mart employees had applied to local labor authorities to register a union.

"According to China's trade union law, enterprises or institutions with 25 employees and above should establish trade unions," Xinhua said.

Beth Keck, director of international corporate affairs for Wal-Mart, said the company was aware of media reports that employees in China had formed a union. She said that the company had not discussed the issue with the ACFTU. But she acknowledged that the federation had earlier signaled its intention to try to unionize the company's Chinese work force.

She added that Wal-Mart hoped to have a "cordial and productive relationship" with the federation.

"We know they have been interested in having a relationship with our company for some time," Keck said. "We will of course be looking forward to how this will evolve."

It is unlikely that Wal-Mart will suddenly face a militant work force. Labor activists often accuse the tightly controlled ACFTU of siding with manage- ment rather than workers.

But if the official union can recruit members among the employees of Wal- Mart and other foreign employers, it could give the government increased in- fluence over some of these companies.

China, with its vast and expanding pool of increasingly affluent consumers, is an important market for Wal-Mart as it reorganizes its international opera- tions. The company said Friday that it planned to sell its unprofitable business in Germany. In May, it withdrew from the South Korean retail market.

But Wal-Mart has been growing rapidly in China since it opened its first store in the booming city of Shenzhen in 1996. It now has outlets in 29 cities and sourced more than $18 billion in merchandise from China last year.

Keck said Wal-Mart recognized its employees had the right to join a union at any of its work places around the world. "In every country we operate, we follow the laws concerning labor relations," she said.

Of the 15 countries in which the company owns work sites, she said, some Wal-Mart employees in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Britain and Germany are union members. The United States is the "clear exception" where no employees are union members, she added.


Don Greenlees contributed reporting from Hong Kong.







Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved