WALMART WATCH

San Diego Defeats Wal-Mart Ban

2007-07-14T00:26:00.000-04:00

Associated Press
San Diego Defeats Wal-Mart Ban
Associated Press 07.10.07, 10:19 PM ET

In a surprise victory for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the City Council on Tuesday failed to override the mayor's veto of a ban on some big-box stores in the nation's eighth-largest city.

Councilwoman Donna Frye reversed sides after supporting the ban three times since September, resulting in a 4-4 deadlock that fell one vote short of putting the measure into law.

Frye said she was uneasy with a blanket ban and would work for a new law that requires tougher scrutiny of new superstores.

"I do not like the idea of having giant superstores, but I also believe there is a way to deal with this issue that will be inherently better for our city," said Frye, who narrowly lost a write-in bid for mayor in 2004.

Mayor Jerry Sanders called the council vote an "enormous victory for San Diego consumers."

"Government should not tell consumers where they can and can't shop," he said.

The measure would have prohibited stores of more than 90,000 square feet that use 10 percent of space to sell groceries and other merchandise that is not subject to sales tax. It took aim at Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) Supercenter stores, which average 185,000 square feet and sell groceries. Costco Wholesale Corp. (nasdaq: COST - news - people ) and other membership-style retailers would have been exempt.

Supporters of the ban argued that Wal-Mart puts smaller competitors out of business, pays workers poorly, and contributes to traffic congestion and pollution. Opponents said the mega-retailer provides jobs, low prices and more choices for consumers.

The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer has about 2,000 Supercenter stores, including 27 in California, but none in the San Diego area. The retailer has 18 regular Wal-Mart stores in the San Diego area, including four within limits of the city of 1.3 million people.

Wal-Mart, which was considering a petition drive to overturn the measure if it became law, welcomed the decision.

"The ordinance was so anti-competitive and so anti-consumer," said Amy Hill, a company spokeswoman.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Woman Files Beef Lawsuit Against Tyson & Wal-Mart

2007-07-08T01:28:00.000-04:00

Woman Files Beef Lawsuit Against Tyson & Wal-Mart
7/5/2007 6:55:00 AM
Woman Files Beef Lawsuit Against Tyson & Wal-Mart

A Muskogee, Okla., woman is filing a lawsuit against Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods Inc. alleging hamburger meat she purchased made her sick, according to a local media report.

KOTV in Tulsa said Melinda Pierce filed the complaint after she had bought some Tyson hamburger meat at the Muskogee, Okla., Wal-Mart on June 4, ate it and fell.

Last month, Tyson foods voluntarily recalled packages of ground beef made in its Sherman, Texas, plant on June 2nd and sent to Wal-Mart stores in 12 states, including Oklahoma. (See E. coli concerns prompt United Food Group recall to top 5 million pounds, new ground beef recall on Meatingplace.com, June 11, 2007.)

Tyson foods spokesman Gary Mickelson told Meatingplace.com the company has not been contacted nor have they seen the lawsuit. "If she contacts us, we certainly will be glad to look into it," he said.

Wal-Mart told KOTV it has not seen the lawsuit, but that food safety is a priority.

Source: Janie Gabbett on 7/5/2007 for Meatingplace.com

Copyright 2007 Integrated Management Information, Inc

Border Patrol Surrounds Local Wal-Mart

2007-07-08T00:29:00.000-04:00

Border Patrol Surrounds Local Wal-Mart
Story by Christine Dinh, 6/27/2007

CALEXICO, Calif., June 27, 2007 - Border Patrol agents surrounded a local Wal-Mart today and searched inside for suspected drug smugglers.

It started earlier this afternoon as Border Patrol and Marine helicopters followed a truck suspected of smuggling drugs to a Calexico Wal-Mart.

Three people got out of the truck and went into the store.

Agents swarmed in and discovered several bundles of marijuana weighing nearly 300 pounds.

The three suspects were arrested and turned over to the DEA.

Images courtesy U.S. Border Patrol

Story Created: Jun 27, 2007 at 8:25 PM MDT

Story Updated: Jun 28, 2007 at 10:46 AM MDT

Copyright ©2007 Pappas Telecasting of Arizona All rights reserved.

Attorney: Wal-Mart Collected On Deaths

2007-07-03T13:29:00.000-04:00

Attorney: Wal-Mart Collected On Deaths
Skip directly to the full story.
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI The Tampa Tribune
Published: Jul 3, 2007

TAMPA - When Karen Armatrout died in 1997, her employer, Wal-Mart, collected thousands of dollars on a life insurance policy the retail giant had taken out without telling her, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.

Armatrout was one of about 350,000 employees Wal-Mart secretly insured nationwide, said Texas attorney Michael D. Myers, who estimated the company collected on 75 to 100 policies involving Florida employees who died.

Myers is seeking to make the Armatrout lawsuit a class-action case on behalf of the estates of all the Florida employees who died while unwittingly insured by Wal-Mart.

"Creepy's a good word for it," Myers said. "If you ask the executives that decided to buy these policies and the insurance companies that sold them, they would say this was designed to create tax benefits for the company, which would use the benefits for benevolent purposes such as buying employee medical benefits.

"If you asked me, I would say they did it to make more money."

Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley said he could not comment because the company has not been served with the lawsuit.

The company settled two lawsuits with employees represented by Myers in Texas and Oklahoma, one for about $10 million and one for about $5 million. He said Karen Armatrout came to his attention when Wal-Mart mistakenly gave her husband's phone number to an Oklahoman who called the retailer inquiring about the settlement.

Myers said he also has filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart in Louisiana.

Payouts Up To $80,000
Richard Armatrout, who is retired, does not want to speak publicly about his case, Myers said. Armatrout did not respond to a message left by the Tribune.

Karen Armatrout was 50 when she died of cancer, said Myers, who said she had worked several years in the pharmacy of the store on West Waters Avenue.

Myers said the policy payouts ranged from $50,000 to $80,000, depending on the person's age and gender. They were taken out on all full-time Wal-Mart employees who, in December 1993, were between ages 18 and 70 and participated in the medical benefits plan.

He said the company stopped taking out the policies in 1995 but continued to receive payouts on employees who died, even those who had left Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart, which said it canceled its policies in early 2000 because it was losing money on the arrangement, says the program was intended to reduce its income taxes to help pay rising employee health care costs. Workers were notified and given the opportunity to opt out, the company said.

The Armatrout lawsuit says the policies were all written in Georgia, where the laws allowed such policies to be obtained.

The lawsuit says Wal-Mart used confidential information it received from employees for use in their employment, such as Social Security numbers and dates of birth, to obtain the life insurance policies.

Myers said this corporate practice is not uncommon. He estimates that up to 25 percent of Fortune 500 companies have taken out such policies on employees. The vast majority of the time, the employees didn't know, Myers said.

The practice evolved over time, Myers said. Corporations started by taking out large life insurance policies on key executives, getting tax breaks when they paid the premiums and collecting the payouts.

IRS Not Pleased, Attorney Says
The amounts of those policies grew to the point that Congress limited how much a company could insure an individual for, Myers said. Insurance companies then suggested buying lots of small policies on companies' work forces, the attorney said. He said the Internal Revenue Service has labeled the practice a sham and has successfully litigated the issue against several corporations.

Myers said his law firm has sued corporations for the practice, including Winn-Dixie and Fina Oil and Chemical. The latest case is its first in Florida.

The practice spread beyond top executives in the 1980s when the industry successfully lobbied states to allow employers to claim an "insurable interest" in the lives of rank-and-file workers.

Many employers seized on the practice because they could borrow against the policies, and the interest paid was tax-deductible. Congress closed that loophole in 1996, but COLI - corporate owned life insurance - remained a popular investment strategy.

The chief appeal was that interest accrues over time on the money in such policies. When a worker dies, the employer collects without paying taxes on the gain.

In 2001, premiums on such policies swelled to $2.8 billion from $1.5 billion the year before, according to a report by CAST Management Consultants of Los Angeles.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

©2007 Media General Inc. All Rights Reserved

Husband files 'dead peasant' suit against Wal-Mart for collecting insurance in spouse's death

2007-07-02T00:13:00.000-04:00

Updated June 29, 2007, 4:55 p.m. ET
Husband files 'dead peasant' suit against Wal-Mart for collecting insurance in spouse's death
By Emanuella Grinberg
Court TV

When Karen Armatrout died of cancer in 1997, her husband, Richard, collected a modest amount in life insurance benefits from her employer, Wal-Mart.

But Armatrout claims that, unbeknownst to him, Wal-Mart also collected on a life insurance policy, one the company took out on Karen Armatrout years before without her knowledge.

This week, Armatrout filed a class-action complaint seeking what his lawyers estimate might be $80,000 in benefits that Wal-Mart supposedly collected "in bad faith" on a corporate-owned life insurance policy.

Armatrout's "dead peasant" suit, filed Wednesday in Tampa, Fla.'s U.S. District Court, accuses Wal-Mart ofmaking money off her death without having a valid claim to her estate.

Typically, such a stake, known as an "insurable interest," is reserved for individuals so closely connected to the person insured that he or she would suffer significant financial damage if the person died.

The complaint also charges that the Arkansas-based corporation misappropriated Karen Armatrout's name and personal information for the purposes of taking out the policy.

"Wal-Mart and the insurers used employees' private information to buy and sell policies," Armatrout's Texas attorney, Mike D. Myers, told CourtTVnews.com. "As matter of public policy, Wal-Mart should not be permitted to keep the policy's benefits because it did not have the necessary insurable interest in the lives of its rank-and-file employees to warrant being a beneficiary."

From 1993 to 1998, Wal-Mart was not alone in reaping the tax benefits associated with corporate-owned life insurance, which came to be known by critics as "dead peasant" insurance, based on a character in Nikolai Gogol's "Dead Souls" who buys up the contracts of recently deceased serfs.

Lawyers for Armatrout, who say that Wal-Mart took out such policies on 350,000 "rank and file" employees like Karen Armatrout during that time, have also participated in lawsuits against Golden Corral, Winn Dixie and Camelot Music.

The attorneys, who have brought three identical lawsuits against Wal-Mart in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, say the company made use of favorable tax regulations in Georgia, which allowed the company to take out corporate-owned life insurance policies without the employees' knowledge.

Wal-Mart settled the suits in Texas and Oklahoma, where the company paid back 100 percent of the benefits, amounting to just over $5 million.

Along with Armatrout's case in Florida, another suit is pending in Louisiana.

In the previous cases, Wal-Mart attempted to argue that Georgia law applied because that was where the policies were purchased and paid out. But the courts found that the proper venue for deciding whether Wal-Mart had an insurable interest was thedeceased's state of residence.

Only six states, Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont, allow companies to take out life insurance policies on their employees without notifying them. Most states have laws requiring that companies advise their employees and seek their consent before purchasing the policies.

Myers says he is hopeful that the precedents set in the other cases bode well for the Florida case, where he is seeking class-action certification for an estimated 80 plaintiffs in addition to Armatrout.

"I'd rather be where we are now rather than after losing three in a row," Myers said.

Representatives for Wal-Mart did not return calls for comment.

© 2007 Turner Entertainment Digital Network, Inc. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
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Area woman sues Wal-Mart, claims false detainment

2007-07-02T00:10:00.000-04:00

Area woman sues Wal-Mart, claims false detainment
By Dustin Lemmon Wednesday, June 27, 2007

An Illinois City woman filed suit this week against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. over a June 2005 incident in which she allegedly suffered a seizure while being detained by store security.

The suit, seeking nearly $800,000 in damages, was filed in Rock Island County Circuit Court by Lindsay Castellano, 21, who also faces a misdemeanor retail theft charge under her maiden name in connection with the incident.

Castellano, who is hypoglycemic, had just purchased $116 worth of groceries at the Moline store on June 26, 2005, when she started feeling woozy and rushed outside to get some juice or candy she kept in her car in case of emergency, the suit stated.

Before she could reach her vehicle, Castellano was stopped by a store security guard, who grabbed her arm and physically prevented her from reaching the vehicle, the suit stated. The suit did not explain exactly why the guard stopped her.

A year later in July 2006, Castellano was charged under her maiden name, Lindsay Doyle, with a misdemeanor count of retail theft in Rock Island County Circuit Court and accused of stealing cosmetics, medication, underwear and sunglasses at Wal-Mart on June 26, 2005.

A Moline police report filed in court claimed the case “fell between the cracks” after store security and police failed to follow up and was brought back to their attention after learning Castellano planned to sue the store.

Castellano did not appear for an August 2006 court hearing and the case is still pending, court officials said. The Rock Island County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday there is still a warrant out for Castellano’s arrest for failing to appear.

John Simley, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, said the company had not been served with a copy of the suit as of Tuesday and he could not comment on something they had not seen.

In the suit, Castellano claimed she explained her emergency to the guard, who still would not allow her to retrieve the juice or candy from her car. Castellano was forced back into the store at 3930 44th Avenue Drive, where about 30 seconds later, she suffered a seizure, the suit added.

After recovering “to an extent” from the seizure, Castellano was taken to a closed private room where she was asked questions and had her property searched, the suit claimed, adding she was then arrested for theft.

According to the report filed with the misdemeanor case, a store security guard watched Castellano starting at 9:45 a.m. and saw her remove tags and remove some items from store packages before placing them in her purse.

Castellano paid $100 for groceries but had another $100 worth of merchandise in her purse, the report claimed.

Castellano was offered treatment from paramedics with the Moline Fire Department and declined, the report added.

After Castellano was questioned, the items were returned to the store and she received credit on her debit card for the items she purchased, the report stated, adding she was then taken to the Rock Island County Jail where she posted bond.

The lawsuit contained multiple counts against Wal-Mart including battery, assault, false imprisonment, false arrest, conversion, harassment, negligent supervision and general negligence. Each count asks for a specific dollar amount in compensation, all totalling $778,800.

She also seeks $150 for the contents of her purse, which she claims the store seized.

The 2005 incident happened within a week of Castellano’s marriage, which she was unable to fully appreciate because of the emotional distress she was suffering at the time, the suit added.

A hearing for the lawsuit is set for Sept. 20.

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

© Copyright 2007, The Quad-City Times, Davenport, IA

Disabled Man Denied Access to Wal-Mart's Electric Wheelchair

2007-07-01T22:21:00.000-04:00

Disabled Man Denied Access to Wal-Mart's Electric Wheelchair
Posted: Jun. 21, 2007

Roanoke Rapids — A disabled veteran from Halifax County said he was twice denied access to an electronic wheelchair at a Wal-Mart in Roanoke Rapids recently.

Thomas Young lost his leg to diabetes six months ago. He has been adjusting to life without it. Simple things like shopping at Wal-Mart can be difficult, Young said, but nothing prepared him for what happened at the store Sunday.

“I just come up here on Father’s Day to get a few things, do a favor for the wife,” Young said. “The grandson had come along, and I sent the grandson in to pick up the electric cart.”

Young’s grandson, Zach Shumaker, said when he went to retrieve the cart and bring it to his grandfather, store officials told him it was against store policy.

Young said his wife then called the store manager, who apologized and said that was just not true. The manager said Young could come back anytime and get a cart.

After the apology, Young and his grandson returned to Wal-Mart the next day. When Shumaker tried again to take the cart to his grandfather, store officials told him he was not able to get the cart past the pylons, Young said.

A Wal-Mart spokesperson said the scooters are there to help people like Young, but the rule is that they can leave the store only if accompanied by store personnel. Company officials said they are looking into why that didn’t happen in this case.

“I thought they should have made at least the manager come out to the truck and talk to me while I was still sitting in the vehicle,” Young said. “It would have made it much easier to swallow.”

Young said he is writing a letter to Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters, but said he has no intentions of filing a lawsuit.

The company apologized again Thursday and said it’s their goal to provide a motorized cart for everyone who needs one.

Copyright 2007 by WRAL.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2007, Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc.

Ex-Wal-Mart Employee Claims Executives Took Gifts

2007-07-01T15:36:00.000-04:00

Ex-Wal-Mart Employee Claims Executives Took Gifts (Update5)
By Lauren Coleman-Lochner and Margaret Cronin Fisk

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Julie Roehm, the marketing chief fired by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for alleged conflicts of interest, accused executives of accepting free plane travel, concert tickets, and, in the case of Chief Executive Officer H. Lee Scott, discounts on yacht purchases.

Roehm said in court papers filed in Detroit yesterday that she never put her own interests first, ``although other executive employees of Wal-Mart did on a frequent basis.''

The filing follows Roehm's lawsuit for breach of contract and fraud in December and a counterclaim by Wal-Mart in March that accused her of taking gifts from DraftFCB, an advertising agency she had hired, and having an affair with a subordinate. Wal-Mart fired Roehm after less than a year on the job and subsequently dropped the agency.

``This lawsuit is about Julie Roehm and her misconduct,'' said Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley. ``Her document shows how weak her case is.''

Scott bought yachts and a ``large pink diamond'' at a ``preferential price'' from companies run by Irwin Jacobs, the complaint said. Roehm also accused Scott of traveling to Las Vegas and Florida on jets owned by Jacobs.

One of Jacobs' companies, Plymouth, Minnesota-based Jacobs Trading Co., buys and sells returned and leftover merchandise from stores including Wal-Mart, and employs Scott's son as a consultant.

``We will address these issues in court,'' Simley said. ``Certainly we dispute the allegations involving our CEO and Irwin Jacobs.''

Jacobs denied giving preferential prices on at least two fishing boats and diamond to Scott and says Scott has never been in any of his planes. He doesn't sell diamonds, he said.

`Outright Lying'

``Wherever she's getting her information from is either wrong or from someone who is outright lying,'' Jacobs, 65, said in an interview by mobile phone from Turkey today. ``If they don't retract it, I'm going to sue them personally.''

``What bothers me about this whole thing is how hard he tries to make sure the things he does are done just the right way,'' Jacobs said of Scott. ``He made it very clear he did not want preferential treatment. He said that to me in person.''

Roehm attorney Sam Morgan said today that he would depose Jacobs, ``and we'll see what he has to say under oath.''

Separately, the state of Rhode Island has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to look into whether Wal- Mart adequately disclosed a possible conflict of interest concerning Scott's son Eric's employment by Jacobs Trading.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island Treasurer Frank Caprio urged the SEC in a May 21 letter to probe whether Eric ``may have had a material interest in the transactions that investors would consider significant.'' Companies are required to disclose dealings that benefit directors' immediate family members.

Rhode Island has a $21 million stake in Wal-Mart in its pension funds.

The concern is baseless because none of Eric Scott's work or compensation involves Wal-Mart, said Jacobs. Scott rents office space from Jacobs Trading and contacts other companies to arrange purchases of their leftover merchandise, he said, noting the arrangement was approved by Wal-Mart attorneys.

``There are rules for what you should disclose and we follow all of them,'' including in this case, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said.

``It would probably be different if Eric Scott were a high-level executive officer with Jacobs Trading, but he is not. He has no interest, much less material interest,'' in two companies' transactions, she said.

SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment on what action, if any, the agency will take.

Vodka Case

Wal-Mart didn't initially disclose the reasons why the retailer fired Roehm.

After Roehm filed the lawsuit for breach of contract and fraud, Wal-Mart accused her of taking gifts, including meals and a case of vodka, from DraftFCB, which was competing for the company's $580 million annual advertising budget.

Roehm denied those accusations in the filing yesterday. She also said other Wal-Mart executives, including her supervisor John Fleming, the company's executive vice president of marketing, accepted from vendors free tickets, backstage passes and souvenirs from an Eagles concert in Spain.

Roehm's lawsuit was initially filed in state court in Michigan in December and transferred to federal court in January. A trial is scheduled for May 2008, Morgan said.

The lawsuit is Roehm v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., No. 07-CV- 10168, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan (Port Huron).

Shares of Wal-Mart rose 26 cents to $46.91 at 4:01 p.m. in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lauren Coleman-Lochner in New York at llochner@bloomberg.net ; Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan, at 2947 or mcfisk@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: May 25, 2007 17:31 EDT

Ex-worker files suit against Wal-Mart

2007-07-01T00:53:00.000-04:00

Ex-worker files suit against Wal-Mart
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Posted on Saturday, September 30, 2006

A Fayetteville woman filed a federal lawsuit Friday against her former employer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., over claims that supervisors failed to meet her medical needs during a problematic pregnancy.

The lawsuit, filed in U. S. District Court in Fayetteville, claims Maggie Collins’ former bosses told her she could not use a stool at work because “it did not look good.”

Collins, who had worked for the company since July 2004, suffered a miscarriage in 2005 and was having problems with a second pregnancy when she asked her boss if she could sit on a stool do to her work. She was a customer service manager at Wal-Mart Store No. 144 in Fayetteville.

“Ms. Collins was told that she could either stand and work or leave,” attorney Judith Rebecca Pratt Hass wrote in the lawsuit.

Collins quit her job in late 2005 “rather than endanger the health and life of her unborn child,” the court filing said.

Copyright © 2001-2007 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.

Plugged-in: Wal-Mart shuns gay groups

2007-06-23T22:59:00.000-04:00

Plugged-in: Wal-Mart shuns gay groups
World's largest retailer stops donating to gay-rights organizations. Fortune's Marc Gunther reports.
By Marc Gunther, Fortune senior writer
June 22 2007: 11:52 AM EDT

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) -- Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has decided to curb its support of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) organizations after conservative Christian groups threatened a boycott, and after some of its own employees expressed disapproval.

The move comes a year after Wal-Mart had put on a gay-friendly smile. The company joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. It sponsored the annual convention of Out & Equal, a group that promotes gay rights in the workplace, and sold gay-themed jewelry in stores.

"We are not currently planning corporate-level contributions to GLBT groups," said Mona Williams, the company's senior vice president of corporate communications. Individual stores can still donate to gay groups.

By way of explanation, Ms. Williams cited a policy adopted last fall saying that Wal-Mart would not make corporate contributions "to support or oppose highly controversial issues" unless they directly relate to the company's ability to serve its customers.

How significant is the pullback? Williams says it does not signal any less support for its GLBT employees or for Wal-Mart Pride, a network of gay employees at the company. She's an executive sponsor of the group, which was sanctioned in 2005. "We certainly don't feel that it's a retrenchment," she said.

Others can't help but see it that way. After Wal-Mart explained its decision to a meeting of about 50 Pride members, one contacted FORTUNE to express disappointment.

"I thought the company was moving in the right direction," this employee wrote in an email. "But last week changed everything. Pulling funding from GLBT organizations is a slap in the face to gay employees and it sends a very clear message. Diversity within Wal-Mart is only partially inclusive." "They're catering to their conservative base," the employee added, in a phone conversation.

Interestingly, gay-rights groups were more understanding. Selisse Berry, the executive director of Out & Equal, said: "Wal-Mart continues to engage on the issue of worker equality, and we will support them in that...This is a marathon, not a sprint, and so long as Wal-Mart keeps its doors open, we hope to give them encouragement." Wal-Mart had donated $60,000 to Out & Equal.

The Human Rights Campaign, America's largest gay-rights group, also says it will continue to work closely with Wal-Mart. "With a company as large as Wal-Mart, it's not going to happen as fast as many of us would like," says Daryl Herrschaft, who oversees the HRC's workplace project.

Wal-Mart supported the gay chamber, an organization of more than 24,000 gay- and lesbian-owned businesses, for the first time last year. (Other corporate backers include IBM, Wells Fargo, Motorola and American Express.) The chamber's president, Justin Nelson, did not return a call seeking comment.

Several sources told FORTUNE that Wal-Mart now intends to work harder to educate its own employees about GLBT issues - something it had been advised to do before aligning itself publicly with gay-rights groups.

Last year, when anti-gay groups picketed stores, store managers weren't prepared to explain the company's position. Leaders of Wal-Mart Pride say most of its members work in and around the company's Bentonville headquarters, so they have been unable to muster allies in the field.

On June 9, Wal-Mart Pride members made a presentation to more than 500 employees at one of the company's Saturday morning meetings, which are used to rally the company around business goals. "The presentation was warmly received," Williams said.

Still, some members of the group had hoped that Wal-Mart would by now have taken a major step towards workplace equality by offering health care benefits to the domestic partners of its GLBT employees. More than half of FORTUNE 500 companies do so.

The lesson here may be that it's hard to find a middle ground when it comes to gay rights in the workplace. A company either believes in workplace equality for all, and is willing to stand up and say so, or it doesn't.

It's pretty clear where Wal-Mart stands.

© 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

Wal-Mart's offer to downsize Northcross store met with scorn by local opponents

2007-05-14T21:14:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart's offer to downsize Northcross store met with scorn by local opponents

5/14/2007

590 KLBJ-AM

Walmart has sent a letter to the city promising to bring the store size down to 186-thousand square feet from the original proposal of 219-thousand square feet. But further down in the letter it says if anyone files a lawsuit against their site plan, they may re-evaluate that decision. Hope Morrison with "Responsible Growth for Northcross" says she reads that as a threat. The group held a press conference tody across the street from the site of the proposed new store. Morrison decried what she said was "strong-armed" tactics by Wal-Mart to "bully" local opposition. To view Wal-Mart's letter to the City of Austin, click HERE For the full audio of the press conference by "Responsible Growth for Northcross, click HERE

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EEO Public File Report April 1, 2006 - March 31, 2007

Would Sam Be Proud?

2007-05-06T23:58:00.000-04:00

Executive Pay
Would Sam Be Proud?
Nathan Vardi 05.03.07, 6:00 PM ET

Things keep going wrong for H. Lee Scott Jr. and Wal-Mart Stores. The world's biggest retailer has been floundering since he took over seven years ago. The company's shares have returned -3.4% annually, compared with the 1.5% annual gain for the S&P 500 during Scott's tenure. But the man in charge is still being paid well, earning $60 million this decade and averaging $8.5 million a year.

Scott, 58, is only the second man to head Wal-Mart since founder Sam Walton left a legacy of annual double-digit growth. But for Scott, posting surging financials at a company with $345 billion of sales has proved challenging. Earnings have slowed, rising only 8% annually over the last two years. Last November, same-store sales growth turned negative for the first month in a decade.

Trying to find his way, Scott has emphasized everything from organic apples to trendy crochet sweaters. He admitted in October that hocking upscale products at the discount retailer had "moved too far too fast," adding it was time to go back to "fashion basics." Scott has also been focusing on international expansion, especially in places like Mexico and China. Still, Wal-Mart had to exit its foreign adventure in Germany last year, resulting in an $863 million loss, and Japanese and U.K. operations are struggling.

On the home front, Wal-Mart continues to be publicly assaulted by unions, trial lawyers, local community groups and just about anybody else with an ax to grind. Scott's battle for American hearts and minds was not helped by former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, whom Wal-Mart hired to help improve its public image. Young resigned after giving a newspaper interview in which he reportedly said ethnic shopkeepers were selling spoiled food to inner city blacks. The company recently had to fire an employee who worked for its Threat Research and Assessment Group, set up to look for pro-union sentiment in its ranks. Acting on his own and with unclear motivations, the employee had been secretly recording conversations between Wal-Mart media relations staff and a journalist.

Still, Wal-Mart defends Scott's paycheck and his performance. Wal-Mart points to the fact that last year alone sales increased $37 billion and income from continuing operations increased by $770 million. The company claims Scott's compensation is benchmarked with the CEOs of other publicly traded U.S. retailers and large companies, adding that its boss gets paid one of the lowest salaries as a percentage of annual revenue and net income.

"Lee Scott leads the largest and most complex company in the world and has delivered strong financial performance," says John Simley, a Wal-Mart spokesman. "More than 85% of our CEO's compensation, as set by an independent board committee, is tied to the company's financial performance."

Indeed, Wal-Mart's board has kept finding ways to reward Scott, who was born in Baxter Springs, Kan., and joined Wal-Mart in 1979. In 2006, for example, the board saw fit to grant Scott $4.4 million in a long-term incentive payout. For the last four years, Scott's annual pat-on-back bonus has added up to $16.6 million.

© 2007 Forbes.com Inc.™ All Rights Reserved

Wal Mart loses bid to take union fight to Supreme Court of Canada

2007-05-05T23:32:00.000-04:00

Wal Mart loses bid to take union fight to Supreme Court of Canada
Published: Thursday, May 3, 2007 2:24 PM ET
Canadian Press

OTTAWA (CP) - The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear an appeal by Wal Mart over the fight to unionize its store in Gatineau, Que.,

As is usual in leave-to-appeal cases, the court gave no reasons for its decision. The world's largest retailer wanted the courts to force the Quebec labour relations board to order a secret ballot by the store's employees. The Quebec Court of Appeal rejected the case earlier.

The labour board had ordered the certification of one United Food and Commercial Workers local after between 35 and 50 per cent of workers signed union cards.

The local withdrew its union request in May 2005, but another local submitted its request for accreditation the following day.

The labour board cancelled a union vote because the original local had withdrawn its request.

Wal-Mart challenged that decision, saying it should have been allowed to present arguments on the legality of the withdrawal.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Copyright © CBC 2007

Can Your Company Compete Against Wal-Mart?

2007-05-04T23:16:00.000-04:00

Can Your Company Compete Against Wal-Mart?
It can if you use the POCKETS strategies.
By Adrienne Selko

May 2, 2007 -- Think Wal-Mart is just a retailer? Think again. Wal-Mart is a manufacturing, IT, logistics and distribution driven company that also has retail stores. In other words, it's a supply-chain driven company says Michael Bergdahl, a former Wal-Mart director who worked directly under Sam Walton. The influence of Sam Walton and the world's largest retailer cannot be underestimated says Bergdahl but companies can successfully compete against it.

In his new book, What I Learned From Sam Walton: How To Compete and Thrive in a Wal-Mart Word, Bergdahl lays out strategies on: pricing, operations, culture, key product, expenses, talent and service (POCKETS).

"Manufacturers need to realign their game plan. Customers are in charge and shelf space is not guaranteed. Private label products will happily move onto the shelf if yours isn't available," explains Bergdahl. This is true for many retailers, not just Wal-Mart, and is especially true in Europe where private label products make up 40% of the retail market.

That puts the supply chain front and central to a manufacturer's profitability. Wal-Mart has honed the hub-and-spoke distribution strategy which provides one of its key operational competitive advantages, explains Bergdahl. While Wal-Mart needs only 10% of its stores square footage for inventory, competitors need 25%. That's because each store is within a day's drive of a distribution center.

In the book, Bergdahl quotes Jay Fitzsimmons, a Wal-Mart senior vice president and treasurer as saying that "we're in the distribution business. It's Wal-Mart's job to bring a product from the dock to the customer's trunk in as little as 72 hours."

One way that Wal-Mart brings in products so quickly is their unique relationship with vendor partners. Other companies can replicate this model and in fact Bergdahl suggests that companies take advantage of professional trade associations to create teams of local companies. And use the organization as a platform to share best practices advises Bergdahl. That's what the largest companies do -- they benchmark best practices against each other. GE, P&G, FedEx, Home Depot all share ideas.

Manufacturing products that customers want and backing that up with great service is how you can compete against Wal-Mart says Bergdahl. "Manufacturers want to be all things to all people and they end up offering the same products in all markets. That just doesn't work today. The products must be tailored to local needs." Micro marketing is key says Bergdahl.

"Differentiating products is how manufacturers will succeed today," says Bergdahl. Companies must hold onto their brands for that is their true value in the marketplace. "Manufacturers have to realize that they are in the business of branding and not manufacturing as we thought of it in the past. In some cases that means managing the brand and outsourcing the actual manufacturing process."

Another area of success for Wal-Mart is its ability to control its expenses. "Wal-Mart has changed the traditional standards of expense control, evolving, or morphing them to a previously unheard-of level, disproving the notion that you can't save your way to prosperity," says Bergdahl.

Cost control at Wal-Mart's is sort of like an extreme sport says Bergdahl. He tells a story in the book about Lee Scott, current CEO of Wal-Mart, sharing a hotel room at Days Inn with the CFO to save money. To ward against excess spending in a company as large as Wal-Mart each employee acts as if they were responsible for paying the company's bills at the end of the month explains Bergdahl. The company's profit-sharing plan seems to be the driving force behind employee frugality.

Cost savings are huge in Wal-Mart's distribution and logistic functions as it employs a method called cross-docking. Products are received on one side of the warehouse and leave out of the other side, virtually eliminating the storage of goods. A form of just-in-time distribution, merchandise flows through the distribution center to the customer in the shortest time possible. Using company owned fleet and tractors Wal-Mart replenishes its own stores 24 hours per day from its own distribution centers. Using technology like RFID and VSAT systems (Very Small Aperture Terminal) velocity of products is greatly increased and inventory turns are quite high.

"The key to competing and surviving against Wal-Mart is to focus your business into a niche or pocket where you can leverage your strengths in the local marketplace," says Bergdahl. Using Sam Walton's own rules for building a business, companies can compete. Bergdahl summarized these rules:

Commit to and communicate a clear business strategy.

Take care of your people.

Control costs.

Take care of your customer

It can if you use the POCKETS strategies.Take calculated risk to set your business apart.

Michael Bergdahl is a former director of Wal-Mart. He has also worked with Frito-Lay and American Eagle Outfitters. He has been involved with two successful business turnarounds. For information on his book and speaking schedule visit www.michaelbergdahl.net.

Copyright© 1998-2007 Penton Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Lead found in baby bibs sold at Wal-Mart

2007-05-04T23:01:00.000-04:00

Lead found in baby bibs sold at Wal-Mart
(Original publication: May 2, 2007)

Vinyl baby bibs sold at Wal-Mart, including the chain's stores in New York, have been found to contain lead that could be dangerous if they deteriorate and children swallow pieces of the vinyl.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning today telling parents to stop using bibs that are cracked or peeling. The agency said that "none of the bibs that were tested at CPSC's laboratory would pose a risk of substantial illness to children from mouthing. However, if the condition of a vinyl bib deteriorates to the point that a baby could pull or bite off and swallow a piece of vinyl containing lead, then the amounts of lead consumed could approach levels of concern."

The agency said it tested the bibs based in part on information provided by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office.

The bibs in question were sold under the name "Baby Connection" and come in packages of two or seven. Some of the bibs have Sesame Street characters.

According to Cuomo's office, the highest levels of lead were found in bibs with a tag sewn into the lining that have these numbers: 1468102732, 14681527 and 1468151077.

Wal-Mart has agreed to stop selling the bibs in New York, Illinois and California, according to Cuomo's office.

More information at: http://health.lohudblogs.com.

Copyright © 2007 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and
Putnam Counties in New York.

Wal-mart: The Low Tax Leader, Always

2007-05-01T00:21:00.000-04:00

Wal-mart: The Low Tax Leader, Always
The Capital Times :: BUSINESS :: A10
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Mike Ivey

The next time you make the not-so-scenic drive on U.S. 151 past the giant new Wal-Mart warehouse near Beaver Dam, keep this in mind: Wisconsin's largest employer draws more in corporate welfare than it pays in state taxes.

Not that this comes as any great surprise. Stories about the evil doings of the nation's largest corporations are greeted largely with yawns these days.

But according to a report from the Milwaukee-based Institute for Wisconsin's Future that somehow fell through the cracks on Tax Day, Wal-Mart has used a variety of completely legal tax avoidance schemes to cut millions from its state tax bill.

Using public records, the group determined that Wal-Mart pocketed $852 million in net profits in Wisconsin off value-hungry consumers between 2000 and 2003.

Over that same period, Wal-Mart paid only $3 million in corporate income tax here. That's a tax rate of 0.35 percent, a fraction of the 7.9 percent rate corporations doing business in our fair state are supposed to pay.

Pardon my West High math, but if Wal-Mart paid the going tax rate here it would have owed closer to $67 million.

At the same time, Wal-Mart has been feeding at the public trough like nobody else in state history. The Arkansas-based retailer has benefited from more than $20 million in public economic benefits in Wisconsin, according to one national study. Good Jobs First reported in 2004 that Wal-Mart stores and distribution centers in Baraboo, Beaver Dam, Menomonie, Milwaukee and Tomah received at least $21.75 million in local tax subsidies.

The most egregious example, of course, is the Beaver Dam distribution center with a total subsidy of nearly $8 million. Of that, $4.2 million came via the Beaver Dam Area Development Corp., which negotiated with Wal-Mart behind closed doors.

The shady dealings led to three separate lawsuits, including one filed in 2004 by then state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager. The AG accused the Beaver Dam Development Corp. of breaking the state's open meeting and public record laws.

A Marquette County judge did rule in favor of the corporation but the case has moved on through the appeals process and the plaintiffs hope the state Supreme Court will eventually rule on the matter.

One could argue that Wal-Mart is only doing its best to bring value to financially-strapped consumers. If the firm paid more in taxes, it would just raise the price on diapers and salty snacks, right?

But what's really galling is that Wal-Mart and its sister retailer Sam's Club are the first to wave the flag and talk about the American dream of owning your own business. Sam's Club even has the nerve to boast it's "in business for small business."

This from a corporation that uses every trick in the book to avoid paying its fair share.

Here's the latest Wal-Mart tax avoidance scheme, as reported in the Wall Street Journal in February 2007.

Apparently, Wal-Mart has aggressively used a "captive Real Estate Investment Trust" or REIT, which is based in Delaware. It owns the company real estate so it can, in effect, rent space back to itself to save on taxes.

A scheme like this would land a hard-working Wal-Mart shopper from McFarland or Sun Prairie some jail time for tax evasion. But for many corporations, working overtime to avoid taxes is just another day at the office.

E-mail: mivey@madison.com

madison.com is operated by Capital Newspapers, publishers of the Wisconsin State Journal, The Capital Times, Agri-View and Apartment Showcase. All contents Copyright ©, Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved.

Wal-Mart anti-union tactics criticized by Human Rghts Watch

2007-04-30T23:49:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart anti-union tactics criticized by Human Rghts Watch
By MarketWatch
Last Update: 8:37 ET Apr 30, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s exploitation of weak U.S. labor laws interferes with workers' rights to organize and violates the human rights of its employees, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, an independent nongovernment organization.

In a 210-page report released Monday, Human Rights Watch said Wal-Mart uses an arsenal of sophisticated tactics - some of which it says are illegal - aimed at thwarting union organization and creating a climate of fear for its 1.3 million U.S. workers.

The Human Rights Watch study was based on interviews with 41 current and former Wal-Mart workers, managers, labor lawyers and union organizers between 2004 and early 2007. The organization also said it analyzed cases against Wal-Mart charging the company with violating U.S. labor and employment laws.

While Wal-Mart Stores is not alone in engaging in illegal anti-union tactics, the retailer "stands out for the extreme sophistication and aggressiveness of its anti-union strategies," said Carol Pier, senior researcher on labor rights and trade for Human Rights Watch and author of the report.

Pier noted that while Human Rights Watch had been following reports on Wal-Mart's anti-union efforts, what was missing from the debate was a "human rights analysis" and a roadmap to its systematic approach. With Wal-Mart being the largest private employer in the States, Pier noted that "the company's treatment of its workers has significant impact in the U.S. and beyond." She emphasized that the report was not funded by labor unions and the group is not an anti-Wal-Mart organization.
But Wal-Mart was quick to dismiss the study's allegations as untrue and unsubstantiated.

"Wal-Mart provides an environment of open communications and gives our associates every opportunity to express their ideas, comments and concerns," said David Tovar, a spokesman at Wal-Mart, in a statement. "It is because of our efforts to foster such an environment that our associates have repeatedly rejected unionization attempts."

He said the company "respects our associates' right to a free and fair unionization vote through a private, government-supervised process and we remain committed to compliance with U.S. laws regarding workers' rights to unionize."

Tovar added that less than 5% of all retail workers in the states are part of a union, so the current trend is not unique to Wal-Mart.

In a statement, Justin Hakes, legal information director at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a nonprofit group, called the study "the latest tactic in the aggressive efforts by union officials to force union affiliation on Wal-Mart's workforce."

Human Rights Watch is using the report to call on Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The EFCA - which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in March and is now under consideration in the Senate - increases penalties for labor law violations. The legislation also would restore what the group calls a "democratic" union selection process by requiring employers to recognize a union if a majority of workers sign cards showing their support. Currently, employers can force union elections and then intimidate workers with their aggressive anti-union message during the campaign period, Human Rights Watch said.

Unions have been trying to organize Wal-Mart for years, but after failing in several attempts to represent workers at individual Wal-Mart stores, union-backed groups like WakeUpWal-Mart.com have emerged to embrace a broader strategy that goes beyond its employees and aims to get the retailer to improve its wages, health care benefits, environmental record and to be a better neighbor.

According to Human Rights Watch, Wal-Mart uses training sessions, videos and other means to indoctrinate its employees on the negatives of joining a union, tactics that the group says starts on the day employees start their job. The company also gives explicit instructions to managers on how to prevent union formation, according to the report. The report said that Wal-Mart generally responds within a few days to workers organizing by dispatching from headquarters members of its Labor Relations Team.

According to Pier, Wal-Mart engages in illegal tactics such as restricting the dissemination of pro-union views and firing workers for their union activity, in extreme cases. According to former workers and managers at one store, Wal-Mart ordered the repositioning of surveillance cameras to monitor union supporters.

-Contact: 201-938-5400

Copyright © 2007 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved.

Kroger beating Wal-Mart

2007-04-29T23:43:00.000-04:00

Kroger beating Wal-Mart
Market share is growing
BY JOHN ECKBERG

Wall Street is getting a taste of the Kroger Effect.

Grocery store industry watchers long believed that when Wal-Mart entered a market where the century-old Kroger Co. dominated, the Cincinnati-based grocer lost customers and cash to the bare-bones retailer from Bentonville, Ark.

But an analysis of regions where Kroger went head-to-head with Wal-Mart last year shows Kroger usually came out with a marginally greater slice of the market.

The results indicate that a recent building binge of supercenters by Wal-Mart not only failed to garner it more market share, but may have led a growing number of shoppers to seek out Kroger's neighborhood shopping approach.

In addition to emphasizing convenience, Kroger is closing the price gap.

A pricing analysis by Bank of America analyst Scott Mushkin last fall found that Kroger's prices were 7.5 percent higher than nearby Wal-Mart supercenters, compared to 20 percent to 25 percent five years ago.

Wall Street is rewarding Kroger's strategy by driving its share price to record levels last week, closing Friday at $29.73.

Kroger thrives when Wal-Mart comes calling, David B. Dillon, Kroger chairman and chief executive, told Wall Street analysts during a March conference call.

"There are 34 major markets in which supercenters have achieved at least a No. 3 market share," Dillon said.

"Our share increased in 27 of those 34 markets."

Kroger competes against 1,262 supercenters - a 10 percent increase in stores from 2005 - and of those centers, 1,000 are operated by Wal-Mart.

Yet in the 44 major markets in the United States where Kroger operated nine or more stores in 2006, the company increased its market share, Dillon told the analysts.

Kroger lost market share in six markets and remained unchanged in one region.

That means Kroger is more than four times more likely to sell more groceries than to sell fewer groceries in markets with a strong Wal-Mart presence, according to the Kroger report.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is seeing its largely suburban supercenters losing same-store sales - a retail measure comparing annual sales at stores open more than a year.

Kroger officials declined to comment on the battle for dominance with Wal-Mart beyond the statistics cited by Dillon in March.

But the numbers tell the story: In 2006, the company earnings jumped 16 percent to $1.11 billion. Earnings per share were $1.54 per share - up from $1.31 in 2005 - and it projects 2007 earnings of $1.60 to $1.65 a share - a growth of 9 percent to 12 percent over 2006. The fourth quarter 2006 earnings were 54 cents per share, or $384.8 million for the quarter - a 36.4 percent increase over fourth quarter 2005.

WAL-MART DISAGREES

Wal-Mart had no trouble rebutting the Kroger market share analysis.

"We continue to grow and have regained position as No.1 on the Fortune 500 list of companies," said Mia Masen, director of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart's Midwest Division. "We are a No. 1 shopping destination for Americans. New customers continue to go to supercenters, particularly in Ohio."

Kroger has done a pretty good job in trying to update its stores, and that has helped with shoppers, said Britt Beemer, chairman and founder of America's Research Group, a consulting firm based in Charleston, S.C. One challenge for Wal-Mart may be customer service, said Beemer.

Copyright 2007, Enquirer.com

Copyright © 1995-2007: Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, updated June 7, 2005.

Wal-Mart Filing Puzzles Analysts

2007-04-29T23:38:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart Filing Puzzles Analysts
This article was published on Saturday, April 28, 2007 5:13 PM CDT in Business
By Anita French
The Morning News

Wal-Mart filed what some analysts called an odd statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday that seems to try and justify the $29 million President and CEO Lee Scott earned last year.

The Bentonville-based retailer filed its annual proxy statement April 19 outlining Scott's and other top executives' compensation. On Thursday, the company followed up with a two-page document that began with an explanatory note saying Wal-Mart had provided statements in response to a media inquiry regarding the company's executive compensation.

The document goes on to outline Wal-Mart's financial performance last year and how sales had grown under Scott's leadership. The company then includes a statement that seems an attempt to justify Scott's compensation.

"More than 85 percent of our CEO's compensation, as set by an independent board committee, is tied to the company's financial performance. Lee Scott's compensation is benchmarked with the CEOs of other publicly traded U.S. retailers and large companies. When compared to other companies, it is among the lowest as a percentage of annual revenue and net income," the statement says.

Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley said the company filed the unusual document "in anticipation of any questions we might get about executive compensation."

"Under SEC rules, when a director is standing for election or there are shareholders proposals relating to compensation, we have to file any responses to news media with the SEC," he said. "If we were to say something, it may constitute solicitation of shareholders. In order to prepare for any questions from the news media, we have to file our answers."

In its proxy statement, Wal-Mart said Scott, 58, earned $1.3 million in base salary, which was unchanged from fiscal 2006. Scott received an incentive payment of $4.3 million, which was based on the total company attaining 82.42 percent of its maximum pre-tax profit improvement performance goal for fiscal 2007.

He also received $15.3 million in stock awards and $8.1 million in option awards, along with $422,680 in other compensation and $308,390 in changes in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings.

Scott's total compensation was $29.7 million, but the stock options and restricted stock awards will not vest for several years and are based on the company's performance.

Jeff Macke, founder and president of Macke Asset Management, said in March that Scott's stock award of $22 million seemed extreme in light of Wal-Mart's recent financial performance.

"I've no idea what their logic was. I'm a capitalist, but I'm not sure how you can justify $22 million," he said at the time.

On Friday, Macke seemed equally perplexed at Wal-Mart's follow-up filing with the SEC.

"It's bizarre," he said. "Better to remain silent. Justification seems the obvious reason behind it, but there's nothing about his compensation being tied to shareholders. There should be some relationship between pay and return to shareholders.

"The financial arguments make sense to an extent, but the idea that employees are proud of him is nice but has nothing to do with his compensation at all."

Fund manager Patricia Edwards of Wentworth, Hauser and Violich in Seattle, also said she had never seen an SEC document like the one Wal-Mart filed.

"They seem to want to be able to make sure the public has the information they have as reasons for the compensation. It's fine, but not everyone is going to agree with it," she said.

Wal-Mart's most persistent critic, Wal-Mart Watch of Washington, weighed in with its own statement. Spokesman Nu Wexler called the SEC document "defensive and misleading."

"It's awfully hard to justify a $29 million CEO salary when your stock is dead money, your upscale strategy was a flop, and you've just posted the lowest same-store sales growth in the history of the company. Lee Scott's spending a lot of time putting out public relations brushfires and Wal-Mart's senior management team seems to be losing its focus on the fundamentals," he said in an e-mail.

Wal-Mart's stock price has remained sluggish since Scott took over the company almost seven years ago. The company also has had to defend itself recently against attacks over its wages and health benefits, largely from Wal-Mart Watch and another union-backed organization, Wake-Up Wal-Mart.

Text of Wal-Mart's SEC filing on Thursday:

"Lee Scott leads the largest and most complex company in the world and has delivered strong financial performance. Last year alone, sales were up $37 billion and income from continuing operations increased by $770 million from the prior fiscal year. Since he became CEO in 2000, annual sales have more than doubled to $345 billion and income from continuing operations has grown 126 percent to $12.2 billion. Compound annual growth rates are strong in almost every major category: net sales 12.3 percent, income from continuing operations 11.8 percent, EPS from continuing operations 12.9 percent.

We have maintained double-digit annual growth rates in sales and income from continuing operations, which is almost unprecedented for a company this size. More people than ever are shopping at Wal-Mart and that's why we are once again the number one company in the Fortune 500.

More than 85 percent of our CEO's compensation, as set by an independent board committee, is tied to the company's financial performance. Lee Scott's compensation is benchmarked with the CEOs of other publicly traded U.S. retailers and large companies. When compared to other companies, it is among the lowest as a percentage of annual revenue and net income.

Our associates respect that Wal-Mart has a well-recognized culture of opportunity. They are proud that their CEO started as a manager in the trucking division and has stayed with the company for 28 years. They're also proud that his leadership - through sustainability initiatives and the $4 prescription drug program -- reflects the company's purpose of saving people money so they can live better."

SOURCE: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

All content © The Morning News. Unauthorized distribution prohibited.

Group fighting Wal-Mart superstore

2007-04-28T23:52:00.000-04:00

Group fighting Wal-Mart superstore
Miami Twp. residents say the retail behemoth's plan to build near I-675 would increase flooding in the area.
By Steve Bennish
Staff Writer
Monday, April 09, 2007

MIAMI TWP., Montgomery County — A new Wal-Mart Supercenter near the Dayton Mall, which would replace an older Wal-Mart store on Springboro Pike, seemed a sure thing.

But a challenge from a local citizens group has the project on hold.

The citizens, who have hired a Cincinnati attorney to fight the project before the state's Environmental Review Appeals Commission, argue that the superstore could increase storm water runoff and flooding in the residential area north of Ohio 725.

They argue that the Ohio EPA should not have awarded the corporate retail giant a special permit to fill in .9 acres of wetlands and turn 2,750 feet of three unnamed tributaries to Holes Creek into a culvert.

The proposed 184,000-square-foot store and its 1,000-vehicle parking lot — to be wedged between Kingsridge Drive and I-675 — would occupy the last undeveloped parcel near the Dayton Mall and in an area packed with retailers and restaurants.

The independent three-member commission appointed by Ohio's governor can overturn or modify the OEPA permit. No date has been set by the commission for an administrative hearing, which could then be followed by a decision.

Any decision the commission makes can ultimately be appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7407 or

sbennish@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Copyright ©2007 Cox Ohio Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, USA. All rights reserved.

Wal-Mart Justifies CEO Pay in Proxy Amendment

2007-04-27T22:46:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart Justifies CEO Pay in Proxy Amendment
By Arkansas Business Staff
4/27/2007

Because of a media inquiry regarding the Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’ executive compensation practices, the company on Thursday filed an amendment to its recent proxy in which it reported total compensation for president and CEO Lee Scott of $29.7 million for fiscal 2007.

Here’s the text of the filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission:

“Lee Scott leads the largest and most complex company in the world and has delivered strong financial performance. Last year alone, sales were up $37 billion and income from continuing operations increased by $770 million from the prior fiscal year.

Since he became CEO in 2000, annual sales have more than doubled to $345 billion and income from continuing operations has grown 126 percent to $12.2 billion. Compound annual growth rates are strong in almost every major category: net sales 12.3 percent, income from continuing operations 11.8 percent, EPS from continuing operations 12.9 percent.

“We have maintained double-digit annual growth rates in sales and income from continuing operations, which is almost unprecedented for a company this size. More people than ever are shopping at Wal-Mart and that’s why we are once again the number one company in the Fortune 500.

“More than 85 percent of our CEO’s compensation, as set by an independent board committee, is tied to the company’s financial performance. Lee Scott’s compensation is benchmarked with the CEOs of other publicly traded U.S. retailers and large companies. When compared to other companies, it is among the lowest as a percentage of annual revenue and net income.

“Our associates respect that Wal-Mart has a well-recognized culture of opportunity. They are proud that their CEO started as a manager in the trucking division and has stayed with the company for 28 years. They’re also proud that his leadership – through sustainability initiatives and the $4 prescription drug program – reflects the company’s purpose of saving people money so they can live better.

The Arkansasbusinss.com article that ran April 20 noted that Scott’s total compensation “includes option awards and stock awards that he hasn’t actually pocketed.”

The stock options and restricted stock awards will not vest for several years and are based on the company’s performance, the article said.

Copyright © 2007, Arkansas Business Limited Partnership. All rights reserved.

Wal-Mart Supercenter is opening in Franklin, but some residents say they are worried

2007-04-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart Supercenter is opening in Franklin, but some residents say they are worried
Share your thoughts on this
By Christopher Magan
Staff Writer
Monday, April 16, 2007

FRANKLIN — Chester Shockley Jr. is one of many residents happy the world's largest retailer is set to open a Supercenter Wednesday on Second Street.

Shockley, a digital photo buff, just returned home from a Caribbean cruise and plans to develop nearly 700 pictures at the new Wal-Mart Supercenter's photo lab.

"I'm glad to have it close," he said. "It will be very convenient. Now I don't have to wait so long to get my pictures developed."

A photo lab isn't the only thing the 204,000-square foot store near Interstate 75 will have. The store's 370 employees, making an average wage of $9.61 an hour, will help the big box retailer sell everything from eyeglasses to eggplants. Shoppers can even get their hair cut, do their banking and get the oil in their car changed.

"If we don't have it, chances are you ... don't really need it," Smith said.

But the one-stop shopping model and the company's "Always low prices" have some worried about the future of Franklin's long-standing retailers and small businesses.

"It will definitely hurt small businesses," said William Elza, who lives near the new store. "They can sell things cheaper."

Just down the street from the Supercenter at the Laynecrest Plaza Smoke Shop, employee Barb Erickson isn't sure how Wal-Mart will impact other businesses.

"I hope it doesn't hurt Marsh too bad," she said. "We want the whole plaza to do well. We draw people from each other."

A manager from Marsh supermarket in the plaza declined to comment about the store's opening.

City leaders admit the chain store has a reputation for hurting small businesses. But they hope the arrival of the company will help the city economically by attracting more people to town.

Smith says similar stores serve an average of 35,000 shoppers a week.

Cherie Cooper-Darragh, director of the Franklin Area Chamber of Commerce, said the store will force small businesses to do things differently.

"I've talked to small retailers," she said. "In a lot of instances people think they have developed a rapport and a niche with their customers and are doing well. When a big retailer comes to town the small chains do have to think differently."

Mayor Todd Hall says the big box store is a good fit for Franklin.

"Once it opens we'll hopefully see other businesses look our way," Hall said. He noted since the Arkansas-based company announced plans to build in the city McDonald's and Walgreen's both opened stores nearby.

"In our circumstances it will help us become a destination," Hall said.

But the traffic that comes along with being a shopping "destination" worries some residents.

Friday contractors will still working to finish installing a turn lane and traffic light that must be completed before the store can open.

Other improvements are underway or planned for Second Street to handle increased traffic.

"It's going to be in a state of flux up there for the next four years," said Don Woods, the city's chief building official.

That's a concern to Rosalie Taylor.

"I think it's going to be bad," she said of possible traffic congestion. "It's always been bad up there."

Despite the perceived draw backs, Smith insists he's company's new store is a positive for the community.

"We're bringing customers to Franklin," he said. "Those people are going to come to Franklin to eat at restaurants and shop at stores. When it comes to businesses everyone has their niche."

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2845 or cmagan@coxohio.com.

Copyright ©2007 Cox Ohio Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, USA. All rights reserved.

Wal-Mart to open 400 in-store clinics

2007-04-24T23:30:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart to open 400 in-store clinics
Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:54PM EDT
By Nicole Maestri

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Tuesday that it will contract with local hospitals and other organizations to open as many as 400 in-store health clinics in the next two to three years.

Should current market forces continue, the world's largest retailer said up to 2,000 clinics could be in Wal-Mart stores over the next five to seven years.

Wal-Mart said the effort marks an expansion of a pilot program it started in 2005, when it leased space within its stores to medical clinics. Currently, it said 76 clinics are operating inside Wal-Mart stores in 12 states.

It has said the clinics are expected to boost the health of its shoppers and should also help sales by drawing consumers into its stores.

"We think the clinics will be a great opportunity for our business. But most importantly, they are going to provide something our customers and communities desperately need -- affordable access at the local level to quality health care," said Wal-Mart Chief Executive Officer Lee Scott in a statement.

Wal-Mart has endured criticism over the years from labor unions that say it pays inadequate wages and pushes employees onto government aid programs.

The company has tried to counter such attacks, taking steps like selling generic drugs for $4 per prescription, and joining with the 1.8 million-member Service Employees International Union, one of its most vocal labor foes, to call for universal health-care coverage for all Americans by 2012.

The retailer said on Tuesday that $4 prescriptions now account for more than 35 percent of all prescriptions filled at Wal-Mart, and nearly 30 percent of the $4 prescriptions are filled without insurance.

Wal-Mart said the health clinics, which will lease space in its stores, will be managed by local or regional hospitals and/or other organizations that are independent of Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is not alone in pursuing these clinics. Drug store operators like CVS/Caremark Corp. and Walgreen Co are also putting clinics in their stores, hoping to attract Americans looking for less expensive treatment options amid soaring health-care costs.

Wal-Mart shares fell 1 percent to $48.45 in afternoon New York Stock Exchange trading.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

Reuters journalists are subject to the
Reuters Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

Wal-Mart Shareholders Shocked, Spooked By "Threat" Memo

2007-04-13T00:16:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart Shareholders Shocked, Spooked By "Threat" Memo
This article was published on Thursday, April 5, 2007 10:37 PM CDT in News
By Marcus Kabel
The Associated Press

BENTONVILLE -- Activist shareholders were disappointed and "a little spooked" Thursday after Wal-Mart asked its internal security operatives to check whether some of them posed a threat.

Wal-Mart lawyers telephoned several investor groups to apologize for the phrase "potential threat" used in a memo, those groups said.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday on an internal Wal-Mart memo asking the retailer's security team to research shareholders submitting resolutions for the annual meeting June 1.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark confirmed the memo existed but said it is routine for the company to review "potential areas of concern" before shareholders' meeting.

"This is mainly using the Internet and other public sources to obtain background information," Clark said. "We did not authorize any surveillance for any of the 14 shareholder groups this year."

Wal-Mart lawyers told at least one investor group that there was background research done on it but no surveillance. Two other investors said Wal-Mart lawyers had told them nothing had been done, not even background Internet research, but apologized anyway for the memo.

"Now I'm confused because if nothing took place, why should they apologize?" said Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center, a free market think-tank that considers itself an ally of Wal-Mart against what Flaherty called attacks by liberal critics.

Flaherty said groups like his cannot know whether or not they are being watched by Wal-Mart, whose security division is run by veteran CIA and FBI agents.

"Personally I'm a little spooked," Flaherty said. "All we have is their word for it."

Sister Susan Mika from the Benedictine Sisters of Boerne, Texas, an order that has been active for years as a shareholder trying to improve Wal-Mart corporate citizenship, said she was told by a lawyer that the memo was written by a "low-level manager."

"What I expressed to (the lawyer) was that we were appalled and shocked that Wal-Mart would have this type of surveillance of shareholders. We are the owners of the company," Mika said.

Mika said the Benedictine Sisters were not satisfied with the phone call and would write to Chief Executive Lee Scott asking for an explanation of what, if anything, had happened.

Flaherty said Jeff Gearhart, a vice president and general counsel in Wal-Mart's corporate division, called him late Wednesday to apologize for the memo using the term "potential threat assessment" but that Gearhart was vague about whether there had been any research done by Wal-Mart security on his group.

Another shareholder with a resolution before the upcoming annual meeting, Steven Milloy of Action Fund Management, said a Wal-Mart attorney who called him said there had been research done on his activist mutual fund.

Milloy said attorney Susan Clooz told him "I just want you to know we were not doing surveillance, we were just doing background research."

Milloy responded by faxing a letter to Wal-Mart asking for copies of everything collected on his group and a certified statement from the CEO that there was noting else on file.

All content © The Morning News. Unauthorized distribution prohibited.

Court Grants Walmart Gag Order Over Security Leaks

2007-04-12T23:24:00.000-04:00

Court Grants Walmart Gag Order Over Security Leaks
BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) - April 9 2007 -

Wal-Mart won a gag order to stop a fired security operative from talking to reporters and a judge ordered him to provide Wal-Mart attorneys with "the names of all persons to whom he has transmitted, since January 15, 2007, any Wal-Mart information."

The court papers made public Monday follow a string of revelations about the retailer's large surveillance operations and its business plans.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. filed a lawsuit and request for a temporary restraining order directly with a Circuit Court judge after court hours Friday.

In the lawsuit, Wal-Mart alleges that former security operative Bruce Gabbard violated trade secrets law by revealing to reporters "confidential information about Wal-Mart security systems and operations" and "highly confidential information about Wal-Mart's strategic planning". It seeks unspecified damages.

The judge's temporary order bars Gabbard from disclosing any further Wal-Mart trade secrets or confidential information.

The suit and restraining order were filed two days after Wal-Mart apologized to activist shareholders for Gabbard's revelation that they were considered potential threats and ahead of a story in Monday's editions of the Wall Street Journal on Gabbard's claim that Wal-Mart had a super-secret "Project Red" aimed at bolstering its stagnant share price.

Wal-Mart declined to comment on the "Project Red" report except to say in a statement, "Our senior management, our board and their advisors regularly conduct thorough, strategic reviews of all aspects of our business. That's just good governance. We look at a full range of alternatives, many of which are considered and rejected, and we will not comment specifically on any of them."

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of faith-based investors that has worked with Wal-Mart since 1990 on a variety of social issues, demanded Monday that Chief Executive Lee Scott apologize formally for a memo that lists the group as a potential threat.

ICCR members hold more than 2 million shares in the retailer.

"More importantly, we ask CEO Lee Scott to shift shareowner resources away from these public relations activities and instead focus on the core issues ICCR and other concerned investors have been bringing to Wal-Mart for almost two decades: the human dignity inherent in each supply chain worker, in-store employee, and customer of Wal-Mart," the group said in a statement.

Wal-Mart's union-backed critics said the latest revelations about Wal-Mart's security operations and the share price project deserved congressional scrutiny.

"Given the scope of the Wal-Mart spy scandal, the time has come for congressional hearings to find out how deep this rabbit hole goes," said Chris Kofinis, spokesman for WakeUpWalMart.com.

The restraining order suggests that Gabbard, 44, might still have Wal-Mart equipment or documents. It orders him to surrender any documents or data and a long list of "all home and work computers, personal digital assistants, hard drives, thumb drives, and all other electronic or digital media and hardcopy information."

It also orders Gabbard, at Wal-Mart's request, to provide lawyers with the names of contacts to whom he has provided information about the company.

Gabbard, a 19-year Wal-Mart veteran, was fired along with his supervisor last month for allegedly recording phones calls between a reporter and company officials and for intercepting pager messages between other persons. Wal-Mart said Gabbard violated its policies.

Gabbard was part of a 20-strong security team called the Threat Research and Analysis Group.

Wal-Mart made the case public last month and denied Gabbard's claims that his actions were the result of pressure from Kenneth Senser, a former senior CIA and FBI official who has headed Wal-Mart's office of global security since 2003.

Gabbard did not work for Senser's department, although the company and others familiar with the case said Senser has the authority to work with staff from other divisions in carrying out investigations. Gabbard has said he felt pressured by Senser to find information leaks, while Wal-Mart has denied that those conversations alleged by Gabbard took place.

Gabbard and his former supervisor, Jason Hamilton, who was also fired, have declined repeated requests for interviews with The Associated Press.

But in a text message to The Associated Press last week, Gabbard confirmed the allegations that he was part of a broader surveillance operation against company workers, critics, vendors and consultants that he alleged were approved by the company.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Copyright ©2007 ABC Inc., WPVI-TV Philadelphia.

Credit crooks take advantage of Walmart policy

2007-04-09T03:43:00.000-04:00

Credit crooks take advantage of Walmart policy
10:22 AM PDT on Friday, March 16, 2007
By WAYNE HAVRELLY, for kgw.com

If your credit cards ever get stolen, one of your best protections is simply writing, "See ID" on the back, instead of writing your signature. Most stores will spot this, putting a stop to a thief’s spending spree.

Elizabeth Ubiergo is a Spanish teacher at Clark College who always writes "See ID" on the back of her credit cards. On Tuesday afternoon, her credit cards were stolen from her purse which was sitting in her office.

“Someone in the period of noon to 3 p.m. was out shopping while I was giving class,” Ubiergo said.

The crook moved fast, first attempting over $600 in purchases at a Vancouver Fred Meyer. That transaction never happened because the cashier asked for ID. A Vancouver Panda Express also did the right thing and turned down the hungry thief.

Across the street, the thief finally hit pay dirt, making over $670 in transactions at a Walmart Supercenter. Then the thief raced across town to another Walmart and made a $600 transaction.

“My complaint is if they would have just looked on the card they would have seen it said to see some photo ID which is clearly what I write on my card, then none of this would have happened,” said Ubiergo.

I used my own credit card at the same Panda Express and they promptly asked for my ID.

Officials at Fred Meyer say their cashiers are trained to look closely at all credit card signatures and if it says to see ID, that’s exactly what cashiers are supposed to do.

However, Walmart officials provided us with a written statement that said: Like many retailers, we do not have a strict policy on identification confirmation for credit card transactions.

In this case, it appears a crook took advantage of that lack of policy, racking up nearly $1,300 in purchases.

Ubeirgo has already spent hours on the phone with retailers, banks and police, trying to clean up the mess and protect her good name.

There is something you can do to help fight this problem. If you write "see ID" on the back of your credit cards and a cashier doesn’t ask you for that ID, simply asked them to do it.

Even if some stores don’t train employees to check IDs and signatures, as customers, we can all help provide that training regardless of store policy.

kgw.com - AP Award winner, Best Oregon TV Web Site, 2007
Edward R. Murrow Award winner for Best TV Web Site, Northwest Region, 2006
© 2007 KGW-TV

WAL-MART hires ex-CIA men to spy on staff

2007-04-08T01:05:00.000-04:00

ELECTRIC NEWS
WAL-MART hires ex-CIA men to spy on staff
April 01, 2007

EMPLOYEES of retail giant Wal-Mart have a very good reason to stick to the company's strict corporate policies - if they don't, they're very likely to get caught.

That's because Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the US, maintains a dedicated team of ex-spies and former federal agents to police its own staff.

So far, its crack team of former officials from the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigations have dug up information that has led to the firing of a high-profile board member who used company funds to buy hunting equipment, two senior advertising executives who took expensive gifts from a potential supplier and a computer technician who taped a reporter's telephone calls.

Employees have even called Wal-Mart's investigative tactics 'ruthless', reported the New York Times (NYT).

In 2002, one investigator followed a Wal-Mart manager all the way to Guatemala just to get proof that he was sleeping with a lower-level employee, a violation of company policy.

The manager was fired after the investigator reported hearing 'moans' from the hotel room the couple shared.

And when two former marketing executives sued the company for wrongful termination, Wal-Mart despatched its team to dig up truckloads of evidence to counter the suit.

Among the dirt they uncovered were e-mail records showing that the two married executives were having an affair with each other, that they accepted free meals from an advertising agency vying for Wal-Mart's business, and that they were negotiating a deal to leave Wal-Mart for the agency.

These no-holds-barred tactics have much to do with the low prices Wal-Mart famously offers to its customers.

Founder Sam Walton was known to be unforgiving of employee misconduct because he equated the wayward behaviour with inefficiency that would cost customers money.

Mr Kenneth Senser, a former top official at the CIA and FBI who runs Wal-Mart's security department, said the company is determined to enforce its employment policies, no matter how senior those involved are.

'If it's a senior vice-president or cashier in the store, we are going to look at the allegations the same way - and not give somebody a pass,' MrSenser, who heads a team of 400, told NYT.

However, there are some employees who feel that Wal-Mart is using its investigative team to intimidate employees who question authority or raise issues their bosses wish to remain secret.

Mr James Lynn, a former factory inspection manager, claims Wal-Mart launched a witchhunt against him because he openly criticised the working conditions in the Central American factories he had inspected.

Mr Lynn, who was the manager in the Guatemala incident, was fired after his relationship with a subordinate was discovered.

Mr Senser has dismissed MrLynn's accusations.

'We are not in the business of prosecuting people, or pursuing an allegation to find a violation of the law,' he said.

'We operate for the benefit of our shareholders to make sure this company is being appropriately and ethically run. There is a difference.'

Copyright © 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co. Regn. No. 198402868E. All rights reserved.

Fired Wal-Mart worker claims surveillance ops: report

2007-04-07T23:07:00.000-04:00

Fired Wal-Mart worker claims surveillance ops: report
Reuters
Wednesday, April 4, 2007; 12:44 AM

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N) worker fired last month for intercepting a reporter's phone calls says he was part of a larger, sophisticated surveillance operation that included snooping not only on employees, but also on critics, stockholders and the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., The Wall Street Journal reported.

As part of the surveillance, the retailer last year had a long-haired employee infiltrate an anti-Wal-Mart group to determine if it planned protests at the company's annual meeting, according to Bruce Gabbard, the fired security worker, the Journal said.

The company also deployed cutting-edge monitoring systems made by a supplier to the Defense Department that allowed it to capture and record the actions of anyone connected to its global computer network, the Journal said.

The company fired Gabbard, a 19-year employee, last month for unauthorized recording of calls to and from a New York Times reporter and for intercepting pager messages. Wal-Mart conducted an internal investigation of Gabbard and his group's activities, fired his supervisor and demoted a vice president over the group.

Gabbard said in the Journal that he recorded the calls on his own because he felt pressured to stop embarrassing leaks. But he said in the Journal that most of his spying activities were sanctioned by superiors.

A company spokeswoman, Sarah Clark, characterized its security operations as normal.

"Like most major corporations, it is our corporate responsibility to have systems in place, including software systems, to monitor threats to our network and our intellectual property so we can protect our sensitive business information," she said in the Journal.

"It is also standard practice to provide physical and information security for our corporate events and for our board of directors and senior executives."

© 2007 Reuters

© Copyright 1996-2007 The Washington Post Company

Wal-Mart should open "Bat Cave"

2007-04-07T23:05:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart should open "Bat Cave"
Posted Apr 4th 2007 1:35PM by Jonathan Berr
Filed under: Other issues, Consumer experience, Wal-Mart (WMT), Employees, Columns, Target Corp. (TGT)

My fellow bloggers have weighed in on Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s (NYSE: WMT) "Threat Research" operation, calling it "paranoid" and questioning whether it made any "sense." Let me add a third word to describe this Keystone Cops operation: wasteful.

Wal-Mart has the right to defend itself against criticism. It has the right to make sure that employees aren't violating company policies. But does the world's largest retailer need what its own mini-FBI? No.

The company seems to be worrying more about silencing critics and punishing misbehaving employees more than selling goods that people want to buy. What's funny is that the company's obsessesion with controlling its image and penchant for secrecy seems to continually backfire.

The Wall Street Journal story about the "Bat Cave" make Wal-Mart look petty and cheap at a time when its trying to win back customers that have deserted its stores for Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) and other competitors. Investors have backed Target as well sending its shares up about 18 percent over the past year compared with 4 percent for Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart has got to ask itself whether the information it gains from its "threat research" is worth the bad feelings it creates with customers, shareholders and employees. If Wal-Mart wants to repair its reputation, it needs to be more forthcoming about why it does what it does.

Maybe then it won't need a secret 20-person department to investigate threats both real and imagined.

All contents copyright © 2003-2007, Weblogs, Inc. All rights reserved

Wal-Mart's plan to conquer the world

2007-04-05T22:14:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart's plan to conquer the world
Failure in Germany, South Korea show the retail powerhouse is fallible. But as its home market shrinks, Wal-Mart has no choice but to find success overseas.
By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com senior writer
March 29 2007: 10:11 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite Wal-Mart's wobbly track record overseas, industry experts say it's becoming more crucial than ever for the world's largest retailer to get its international act together, and quickly.

Here's why.

Wal-Mart is running out of room to grow in the United States, its largest market, where it already operates about 4,000 stores. With each new store, it risks eroding sales at older stores.

Sure enough, sales growth at older stores open at least a year, known in the industry as same-store sales, have slowed considerably, growing 1 to 3 percent on average during the last three years from more than 5 percent previously. That puts Wal-Mart behind its archrival Target Corp.

Wall Street rewards expansion but not through cannibalization. Therefore, Wal-Mart's stock has languished in a trading range for the past few years, unable to break it's all-time high of $69.

As slower sales growth and other negatives started to accrue - Wal-Mart became a lightning rod for critics about its labor practices, among other things - Wal-Mart executives realized that they need a shiny object to appease investors. To that end, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott late last year announced that the company would ramp up international growth while slowing domestic expansion.

"Think about it this way. The U.S. gives Wal-Mart some 260 million shoppers. The world gives Wal-Mart 6 billion shoppers. You do the math," said Edward Weller, analyst with Think Equity Partners.

Wal-Mart may rule the retail roost at home, but it hasn't met with the same measure of success abroad. In key markets like China, European competitors like Tesco, Carrefour and Metro have outperformed Wal-Mart and grabbed more market share.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart currently operates close to 3,000 stores in 13 countries outside of the United States. These markets accounted for about 23 percent of its total sales of $381 billion in 2006.

But last year it pulled out of Germany and South Korea after industry watchers said it realized that its low-price merchandise offerings and big-box, no-frills stores didn't really appeal to consumers in those markets.

"Many American companies have had a choppy history overseas because they assume they can replicate their U.S. business model in other countries," said Dana Telsey, a retail industry expert and founder of research firm Telsey Advisory Group.

Instead of rushing into a new market, she said, companies would be better off first learning the local tastes, scouting good locations and tailoring their merchandise accordingly.

At the same time, Telsey said Wal-Mart is learning from its mistakes. For instance, in China where it operates 73 stores, the discounter has started selling live seafood in its stores.

In February, Wal-Mart struck a $1 billion deal to acquire Chinese rival Trust Mart by 2010, challenging French chain Carrefour's dominance as the largest operator of the huge grocery and retail outlets known as "super-centers" in China.

In India, from where Wal-Mart already exports about $1.5 billion worth of merchandise to its stores, the company last year set up a liaison office to study the Indian market.

It subsequently entered into a joint venture with an Indian company to open hundreds of stores across the subcontinent.

Wal-Mart cannot enter the Indian market directly. This is because current regulations pertaining to foreign direct investment only allow "single-brand" retailers such as Nike or Gucci to own 51 percent of their business operations in India. But this still precludes market entry to global merchants like Wal-Mart that sell a variety of brands.

In line with what is permitted under existing guidelines, Wal-Mart said it will focus on the back-end supply chain management, giving Bharti access to its knowledge in information systems, logistics and supply chain management.

According to Wal-Mart spokeswoman Amy Wyatt, the stores in India "will be 100 percent owned, operated, managed and run by Bharti.

"In partnership with Bharti, and in full compliance with existing guidelines, we are setting up a wholesale cash-and-carry business in India," Wyatt wrote in an email to CNNMoney.com. "Our primary business philosophy for wholesale cash-and-carry is to sell merchandise at very low prices to our members, organized and unorganized retailers including the small neighborhood stores."

"As a Wal-Mart investor, China and India excite me," said Steven Baumgarten, an analyst with PNC Advisors, a Philadelphia-based investment firm that manages $54 billion in assets, including Wal-Mart shares.

"These are two very large markets with growing middle-class populations with disposable income. These are ideal Wal-Mart consumers."

Think Equity Partners' Weller also pointed to Wal-Mart's ongoing success in Mexico where Wal-Mart de Mexico has become the country's largest retailer.

And a recent note Goldman Sachs said Wal-Mart plans to open 10 Wal-Mart supercenters in Canada, adding to its base of 289 stores in the country.

As it gradually irons out its wrinkles overseas, Wal-Mart is reaping the financial benefits to both its top and bottom line.

For its recently completed fourth quarter, Wal-Mart's international sales soared 30 percent versus a 10.9 percent increase for its U.S. operations, which included its Wal-Mart discount stores and its Sam's Club Warehouse division.

Still, PNC's Baumgarten said, Wal-Mart has more challenges ahead. "In order to drive down expansion costs, it has to drive up efficiencies in those markets. It's not there yet," he said.

Both Baumgarten and Weller also shot down suggestions that instead of gambling on international growth, perhaps Wal-Mart is better off giving money back to investors or buying back shares in a bid to reignite its stock.

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart approved a 31 percent increase in its annual dividend to 88 cents share, yielding about 1.8 percent.

Said Baumgarten, "Wal-Mart has consistently paid out dividends to shareholders and bought back shares, but the stock still hasn't done much. So I don't buy that argument."

Meaning international growth for Wal-Mart is now more crucial than ever.

Clarification: An earlier version of the story did not clarify that under current Indian regulations, Wal-Mart cannot directly enter the Indian market. Therefore, Wal-Mart will provide back-end support while the new stores will be wholly-owned and operated by its Indian partner.

--Analysts quoted in the story do not personally own shares of Wal-Mart and their firms do not have an investment banking relationship with the company.

Critics launch 'terror' attack ads against Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart withdraws industrial banking push

Wal-Mart, union push universal health care

Wal-Mart may have an India problem

© 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

© 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Getting To The Bottom Of Some Defective Boots

2007-04-02T00:03:00.000-04:00

Getting To The Bottom Of Some Defective Boots
March 30, 2007

When Greg Dowd was growing up, there were only two brands of work boots he would buy: Timberland and Herman Survivors. Usually he bought the Timberland because they were cheaper, but both were great for hunting, working the farms or building houses.

Last year he went to Wal-Mart in North Windham and bought a pair of the Survivors, expecting to be wearing inexpensive but comfortable, safe and well-made boots.

Despite taking good care of the boots, which cost about $49, Dowd soon started noticing chunks of the soles breaking off. He figured it was simply a defective pair and thought he could just take it back to the store and get another.

Dowd, 49, of Mansfield, was about to learn a little about the largest company in the world and how he is affected by the global economy.

For 122 years, anyone who bought a pair of Herman Survivor boots could be assured of two things: They would pay top dollar, but it would be for a product that would last for years, even under grueling conditions.

All that changed in 2001 when Wal-Mart bought Herman Survivors from a private company. The owners had previously refused Wal-Mart's overtures to let it carry the boots, so Wal-Mart made an offer that Anthony DiPaolo, the CEO of Herman Survivors, couldn't say no to.

Until then, the boots had mostly been made in the U.S. and Poland, sometimes in China, but only with U.S.-made materials, DiPaolo said Thursday in a telephone interview from his offices in Dedham, Mass. He now runs Work 'N Gear, a workers apparel chain.

When his company made the boots, he said, it sold them for $80 to $180 a pair, a lot of money in the 1980s and '90s. Now Wal-Mart sells them for a fraction of that price.

But, he noted, you are not getting the same boot.

"The difference is staggering," he said.

Nor are customers getting the same service. No question about that, said Dowd, who had expected his boots to last at least a year through hard wear on an eastern Connecticut farm where he works.

After noticing the soles falling apart, Dowd went back to Wal-Mart, thinking it was a one-of-a-kind defect. Sorry, he was told, the 30-day warranty was over. So he asked who manufactures the boots, hoping to get redress there. The clerk had no idea.

So Dowd wrote a three-page letter to the Watchdog asking for help. The first thing I did was to go on the Internet and type in "Herman Survivors Reviews." (Here's what I got.) There I learned that Wal-Mart now owns Herman Survivors and that they are made in China.

Although some reviewers were pleased with the boots they bought over the past few years, many others had the same experience as Dowd.

"Thank god for duct tape," wrote one reviewer. Another one said the boots started falling apart 10 days after purchase.

I gave Wal-Mart all week to give a response to this column.

Despite daily phone calls to their "public relations" department, all I got by Thursday's deadline was a lame response.

"We have had no major issue" with the boots, said Tara Raddohl, who suggested that dissatisfied customers should first go back to their local Wal-Mart stores.

If that doesn't help, she said, they should call 800-WAL-MART.

So, I asked naively, does that mean you will do something to improve the boots and give refunds?

"We will listen to our customers," was the reply, as I kept badgering her.

Dowd will be happy to hear that, as he continues to wear his defective boots because he needs to make them last for a year.

"It's a shame" what happened to Herman Survivors, DiPaolo said.

It's also a shame what happened to the hundreds of workers who made those legendary shoes in Massachusetts, Maine and Missouri. But we get what we pay for.

E-mail: watchdog@courant.com

courant.com is Copyright © 2007 by The Hartford Courant

WAL-MART hires ex-CIA men to spy on staff

2007-04-01T23:58:00.001-04:00

WAL-MART hires ex-CIA men to spy on staff
April 01, 2007

EMPLOYEES of retail giant Wal-Mart have a very good reason to stick to the company's strict corporate policies - if they don't, they're very likely to get caught.

That's because Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the US, maintains a dedicated team of ex-spies and former federal agents to police its own staff.

So far, its crack team of former officials from the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigations have dug up information that has led to the firing of a high-profile board member who used company funds to buy hunting equipment, two senior advertising executives who took expensive gifts from a potential supplier and a computer technician who taped a reporter's telephone calls.

Employees have even called Wal-Mart's investigative tactics 'ruthless', reported the New York Times (NYT).

In 2002, one investigator followed a Wal-Mart manager all the way to Guatemala just to get proof that he was sleeping with a lower-level employee, a violation of company policy.

The manager was fired after the investigator reported hearing 'moans' from the hotel room the couple shared.

And when two former marketing executives sued the company for wrongful termination, Wal-Mart despatched its team to dig up truckloads of evidence to counter the suit.

Among the dirt they uncovered were e-mail records showing that the two married executives were having an affair with each other, that they accepted free meals from an advertising agency vying for Wal-Mart's business, and that they were negotiating a deal to leave Wal-Mart for the agency.

These no-holds-barred tactics have much to do with the low prices Wal-Mart famously offers to its customers.

Founder Sam Walton was known to be unforgiving of employee misconduct because he equated the wayward behaviour with inefficiency that would cost customers money.

Mr Kenneth Senser, a former top official at the CIA and FBI who runs Wal-Mart's security department, said the company is determined to enforce its employment policies, no matter how senior those involved are.

'If it's a senior vice-president or cashier in the store, we are going to look at the allegations the same way - and not give somebody a pass,' MrSenser, who heads a team of 400, told NYT.

However, there are some employees who feel that Wal-Mart is using its investigative team to intimidate employees who question authority or raise issues their bosses wish to remain secret.

Mr James Lynn, a former factory inspection manager, claims Wal-Mart launched a witchhunt against him because he openly criticised the working conditions in the Central American factories he had inspected.

Mr Lynn, who was the manager in the Guatemala incident, was fired after his relationship with a subordinate was discovered.

Mr Senser has dismissed MrLynn's accusations.

'We are not in the business of prosecuting people, or pursuing an allegation to find a violation of the law,' he said.

'We operate for the benefit of our shareholders to make sure this company is being appropriately and ethically run. There is a difference.'

Copyright © 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co. Regn. No. 198402868E. All rights reserved.

WAL-MART hires ex-CIA men to spy on staff

2007-04-01T23:58:00.000-04:00

Newsletter hoax is no joke to residents

2007-03-30T23:56:00.000-04:00

Newsletter hoax is no joke to residents
Early April Fools' gag hits nerve near Worthington
Thursday, March 29, 2007 5:53 AM
By Dean Narciso
The Columbus Dispatch

Worthington Hills is a subdivision of 1,100 homes laid out around a golf course in Perry and Sharon townships north of Worthington.

Residents know one another by name, children play in the streets and people look out for their neighbors.

They also appreciate their privacy. "We enjoy limited outside access to our community," the Worthington Hills Civic Association Web site states.

So when residents learned that rock legend Eric Clapton and a Wal-Mart had plans to move in, some of them threw a fit.

The news, however, was an early April Fools' charade that proved all too effective.

"This has turned into an enormous debacle. You either thought it was hysterical or you were ready to kill somebody," resident Ann Ward said of the front-page stories in the quarterly "Views from the Hills" newsletter.

The publication was mailed to each homeowner last week. An apology quickly followed.

"In an effort to include some levity to an otherwise serious publication, a series of news articles and issues were included on the first page," association President Chet J. Chaney wrote.

The satire was written by Douglas Curran, the newsletter editor, and "resulted in some confusion and inconvenience for our community partners," Chaney wrote.

The newsletter also stated that Fairway Drive might soon be connected to Jewett Road in Delaware County, creating an influx of traffic, and that the Worthington Hills County Club would be downsizing its 18-hole golf course to nine holes.

A disclaimer at the end of the newsletter explained the joke.

Chaney received more than 100 e-mails and dozens of phone calls. About two-thirds were amused and supportive, he said.

The critics told him, " 'I read it. I believed it.' They were more upset that they actually believed it."

Others said, " 'What threw us off is that it's not April Fools' yet,' " Chaney said.

"We're volunteers," he said of the newsletter staff. "It's very easy to criticize someone who is trying to make the community a better place to live. Absent that first page, it's a wonderful newsletter."

dnarciso@dispatch.com

©2007, The Columbus Dispatch, Reproduction prohibited

Wal-Mart's plan to conquer the world

2007-03-27T22:52:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart's plan to conquer the world

Failure in Germany, South Korea show the retail powerhouse is fallible. But as its home market shrinks, Wal-Mart has no choice but to find success overseas.
By Parija B. Kavilanz , CNNMoney.com senior writer
March 27 2007: 5:01 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite Wal-Mart's wobbly track record overseas, industry experts say it's becoming more crucial than ever for the world's largest retailer to get its international act together, and quickly.

Here's why.

* Wal-Mart and India-based Bharti Enterprises inked a joint venture this year to roll out a nationwide chain of supermarkets.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite Wal-Mart's wobbly track record overseas, industry experts say it's becoming more crucial than ever for the world's largest retailer to get its international act together, and quickly.

Here's why.

Wal-Mart (Charts) is running out of room to grow in the United States, its largest market, where it already operates about 4,000 stores. With each new store, it risks eroding sales at older stores.

Sure enough, sales growth at older stores open at least a year, known in the industry as same-store sales, have slowed considerably, growing 1 to 3 percent on average during the last three years from more than 5 percent previously. That puts Wal-Mart behind its archrival Target Corp. (Charts)

Wall Street rewards expansion but not through cannibalization. Therefore, Wal-Mart's stock has languished in a trading range for the past few years, unable to break it's all-time high of $69.

Retailers hurt themselves with too many stores

As slower sales growth and other negatives started to accrue - Wal-Mart became a lightning rod for critics about its labor practices, among other things - Wal-Mart executives realized that they need a shiny object to appease investors. To that end, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott late last year announced that the company would ramp up international growth while slowing domestic expansion.

"Think about it this way. The U.S. gives Wal-Mart some 260 million shoppers. The world gives Wal-Mart 6 billion shoppers. You do the math," said Edward Weller, analyst with Think Equity Partners.

Wal-Mart may rule the retail roost at home, but it hasn't met with the same measure of success abroad. In key markets like China, European competitors like Tesco, Carrefour and Metro have outperformed Wal-Mart and grabbed more market share.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart currently operates close to 3,000 stores in 13 countries outside of the United States. These markets accounted for about 23 percent of its total sales of $381 billion in 2006.

But last year it pulled out of Germany and South Korea after industry watchers said it realized that its low-price merchandise offerings and big-box, no-frills stores didn't really appeal to consumers in those markets.

"Many American companies have had a choppy history overseas because they assume they can replicate their U.S. business model in other countries," said Dana Telsey, a retail industry expert and founder of research firm Telsey Advisory Group.

Instead of rushing into a new market, she said, companies would be better off first learning the local tastes, scouting good locations and tailoring their merchandise accordingly.

At the same time, Telsey said Wal-Mart is learning from its mistakes. For instance, in China where it operates 73 stores, the discounter has started selling live seafood in its stores.

In February, Wal-Mart struck a $1 billion deal to acquire Chinese rival Trust Mart by 2010, challenging French chain Carrefour's dominance as the largest operator of the huge grocery and retail outlets known as "super-centers" in China.

In India, from where Wal-Mart already exports about $1.5 billion worth of merchandise to its stores, the company last year set up a liaison office to study the Indian market.

Wal-Mart may have an India problem

It subsequently entered into a joint venture with an Indian company to open hundreds of stores across the subcontinent.

"As a Wal-Mart investor, China and India excite me. These are two very large markets with growing middle-class populations with disposable income. These are ideal Wal-Mart consumers," said Steven Baumgarten, an analyst with PNC Advisors, a Philadelphia-based investment firm that manages $54 billion in assets, including Wal-Mart shares.

Think Equity Partners' Weller also pointed to Wal-Mart's ongoing success in Mexico where Wal-Mart de Mexico has become the country's largest retailer.

And a recent note Goldman Sachs said Wal-Mart plans to open 10 Wal-Mart supercenters in Canada, adding to its base of 289 stores in the country.

As it gradually irons out its wrinkles overseas, Wal-Mart is reaping the financial benefits to both its top and bottom line.

For its recently completed fourth quarter, Wal-Mart's international sales soared 30 percent versus a 10.9 percent increase for its U.S. operations, which included its Wal-Mart discount stores and its Sam's Club Warehouse division.

Still, PNC's Baumgarten said, Wal-Mart has more challenges ahead. "In order to drive down expansion costs, it has to drive up efficiencies in those markets. It's not there yet," he said.

Both Baumgarten and Weller also shot down suggestions that instead of gambling on international growth, perhaps Wal-Mart is better off giving money back to investors or buying back shares in a bid to reignite its stock.

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart approved a 31 percent increase in its annual dividend to 88 cents share, yielding about 1.8 percent.

Said Baumgarten, "Wal-Mart has consistently paid out dividend to shareholders and bought back shares, but the stock still hasn't done much. So I don't buy that argument."

Meaning international growth for Wal-Mart is now more crucial than ever.

--Analysts quoted in the story do not personally own shares of Wal-Mart and their firms do not have an investment banking relationship with the company.

Critics launch 'terror' attack ads against Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart withdraws industrial banking push
Wal-Mart, union push universal health care
Wal-Mart may have an India problem

© 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Wal-Mart's snooping case exposes a hot area: corporate intelligence

2007-03-18T02:34:00.000-04:00

Posted on Fri, Mar. 16, 2007
Wal-Mart's snooping case exposes a hot area: corporate intelligence

NEW YORK (AP) - Wal-Mart's disclosure that an employee was tapping phone conversations and text messages is drawing attention to a growth industry within corporate America: the business of keeping things secret.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fired the employee, Bruce Gabbard, maintaining he acted alone and didn't receive authorization to eavesdrop. Federal authorities are investigating.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Gabbard said he worked in an amply staffed unit whose mission was to shore up the walls around Wal-Mart's internal data and communications, protecting them not just from Internet hackers but from leaks to company critics. He declined further comment when contacted this week by The Associated Press.

Corporations are increasingly using James Bond tactics and employing security specialists with FBI, CIA or private eye backgrounds in an effort to safeguard proprietary information and any internal dealings that, if made public, could hurt a company's image and stock price, said Ken Springer, a former FBI agent and president and founder of Corporate Resolutions Inc., which conducts character and integrity checks.

In the past, Springer said, the biggest fear in corporate America was theft, but now the concern is anything that poses a threat to a company's reputation -- including having information leaked to outsiders such as the media and, in the Internet era, bloggers. Wal-Mart said Gabbard, a systems technician, had monitored phone calls and text messages of employees and nonemployees, including a New York Times reporter.

The growth of the corporate intelligence business is no secret. Last month, Cofer Black, vice chairman of the security company Blackwater USA and a former CIA counterterrorism expert, announced he had formed a new company called Total Intelligence Solutions, which focuses on providing intelligence gathering to companies. Its services will include rooting out insiders who are causing harm.

``With all this new technology, there are new challenges. Companies need to take proactive steps to protect trade secrets,'' Springer said. ``Reputation is everything. Companies have to use technology to stay ahead of employees' hurting the company or outsiders who gain access to proprietary information.''

Russell Corn, senior managing director of intelligence broker Diligence LLC, whose advisory board member includes former CIA and FBI Director William Webster, agreed, saying the corporate intelligence business is fast expanding. He estimated that it's about a $500 million industry now; it was about one-fifth that amount back in 2000.

Diligence's business, meanwhile, has tripled to $20 million over that time. ``It used to be a hard sell,'' Corn said, adding that Diligence's focus is on intelligence gathering for companies seeking to do business in emerging markets like Khazakstan.

Diligence has been caught doing its own spying: The accounting and consulting firm KPMG sued the company in 2005 for allegedly sending people posing as government spies into KPMG's Bermuda office to coax an employee into giving up proprietary data about an ongoing probe. The suit was settled in 2006.

At Wal-Mart, the head of corporate security is Kenneth Senser, a former FBI and CIA agent. In the interview with The Wall Street Journal, Gabbard said he was a member of Wal-Mart's Threat Research and Analysis team, and that Senser instructed him and another team member to find the source of the leaks of internal memos. Gabbard said Senser told him he was tired of telling Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott Jr. that he didn't know the source.

It's not known yet whether Gabbard's orders ultimately came from the upper levels of Wal-Mart management. But if snooping did involve top management, Wal-Mart conceivably could find itself in a position like that of Hewlett-Packard Co., whose ill-fated effort last year to find the source of boardroom leaks to the news media led to the indictments of Patricia Dunn, the company's former chairwoman, another executive and two private investigators. A California judge dismissed charges against Dunn Wednesday and the other defendants pleaded no contest, but the episode remains an embarrassment for H-P.

Wal-Mart, which has been under pressure to change its employee and other policies by union-backed groups like WakeUpWalmart.com, is perhaps more anxious about leaks than other companies these days. Over the last year and a half, internal memos have been leaked to the media about a range of issues from health care benefits and wages to attendance policies. Negative headlines have depressed its stock -- which three years ago traded at $60 but is now in the $45 range -- and harmed the retailer's reputation.

Patricia Edwards, a portfolio manager and retail analyst at Wentworth, Hauser & Violich in Seattle, said she doesn't know whether Gabbard acted alone, but she said: ``I am getting the feeling that Wal-Mart is becoming more sensitive and more paranoid. I understand their paranoia.''

Wal-Mart has declined to comment further on the eavesdropping case after it announced on March 5 that Gabbard recorded phone messages between Times reporter and members of the retailer's public relations team. He also intercepted pages and text messages from other employees and non-employees, using his own personal equipment.

The company fired Gabbard last week as well as his direct supervisor, Jason Hamilton. A third person was put on disciplinary action.

Gabbard declined to comment in a text message sent Monday to an AP reporter. Hamilton said at his home in Springdale, Ark., on Tuesday that he hadn't been contacted by any federal investigators. He declined to comment further.

Wal-Mart's uneasiness about security also follows years of being shrouded in secrecy in the backwoods of Arkansas. This is a company that has a reputation for gathering sophisticated information about its consumers -- and lets employees know it is monitoring their computer and Internet usage.

Senser, whom Wal-Mart hired in 2003, had helped create a new unit at the FBI focusing on security. The Threat Research and Analysis team, where Gabbard worked, is relatively new, and focuses on overseeing security of Wal-Mart's information systems; it's still unclear whether it was also charged with finding the source of leaks, as Gabbard said. Dave Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman, declined to give out any information about the team.

Wal-Mart said it believes the unauthorized recording of telephone conversations by Gabbard did not violate any applicable federal or state laws because Wal-Mart policies subject all employees' communications to possible monitoring or recording. Still, the company said that Gabbard's recording of the calls was against company policy; Wal-Mart has maintained that it only records associate phone calls in compelling circumstances and with written permission from the company's legal department.

Federal law prohibits intercepting wireless communications without a court order, according to Jim Dempsey, policy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Bruce Schneier, a computer security expert with Counterpane Internet Security Inc., said the situation is complicated, adding that ``we don't know a lot of the details of the (Gabbard's) motivation.''

The real reporting relationship between Senser and Gabbard and whether Senser knew of Gabbard's activities aren't clear.

Schneier said it may be difficult to prove that Gabbard had pressure from superiors -- if in fact he did. In the HP case, board member Thomas Perkins and his attorney demanded information from HP about the methods used to identify another board member as a leaker.

``One of the board members said, 'this will not stand,''' Schneier said. ``That is how it broke.''

------

More technology news and opinion at www.siliconvalley.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© 2007 MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

Wal-Mart Sends Warning Letters

2007-03-17T22:20:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart Sends Warning Letters
This article was published on Friday, March 16, 2007 10:11 PM CDT in Business
By Anita French
The Morning News

A law firm representing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sent two warning letters to Wal-Mart Watch of Washington and an Internet site called The Consumerist, demanding they remove from their Web sites copies of an internal document that reveals market research the Bentonville-based retailer carried out on consumers.

A letter dated Thursday was set to The Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, the organization behind Wal-Mart Watch, by Neil P. Kearney, an attorney for Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis in Pennsylvania.

In the letter, Kearney said his firm represented Wal-Mart and that the market research document Wal-Mart Watch posted was copyright-protected.

"Publication of this presentation infringes on Wal-Mart's intellectual property rights. Further, it is clear from the post itself that your organization recognizes the infringing nature of the post," Kearney wrote.

He told Wal-Mart Watch it had until noon Friday to remove the posting.

Nu Wexler, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Watch, said his group complied with the letter's demand.

"It was pulled," he said about the posting.

The document, titled "Wal-Mart Shopper Segmentation," shows the results from a June 2006 study of what Wal-Mart calls a "nationally representative pool of 4,565 male and female shoppers, ages 16 to 75, with access to a Wal-Mart."

In the study, shoppers are broken down into such categories as "price-sensitive affluents, convenience seekers, brand aspirationals, trendy quality seekers and price-value shoppers."

There is also a category called "conscientious objectors," which makes up 14 percent of potential Wal-Mart consumers, as identified by the company.

Wexler opined that this last category may be one reason why Wal-Mart didn't want the documents posted at Web sites, even though some of the information was published by the media last week.

"The fact that their marketing department describes non-Wal-Mart shoppers as conscientious objectors was embarrassing to the company," Wexler said.

Wal-Mart spokesman Dave Tovar told the Associated Press, however, that the term "conscientious objector" meant consumers who base purchases on a company's practices, such as charitable giving or environmental measures.

Tovar said the term was not synonymous with Wal-Mart boycotters.

The Consumerist, which also posted the market research at its Web site, said it had received a warning letter from Kearney on Monday to remove the posting. Editor Ben Popken told The Morning News in an e-mail Friday that his organization had complied.

"The documents were sent to us by an unconfirmed source," he said.

The Consumerist is a blog aimed at informing consumers about various issues, Popken said.

All content © The Morning News. Unauthorized distribution prohibited.

Wal-Mart CEO gets $22M in stock as reward

2007-03-13T23:02:00.000-04:00

March 11, 2007
Wal-Mart CEO gets $22M in stock as reward
The Associated Press

BENTONVILLE, ARK. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has awarded its chief executive officer a stock bonus worth $22 million for reaching revenue targets, the retail giant disclosed Friday in a regulatory filing.

The compensation committee of Wal-Mart's board voted Wednesday to make the award to Lee Scott and also grant shares to other executives.

Scott's salary and bonus for 2006 was $5.23 million. His total compensation for that year was, excluding restricted stock awards, was $15.7 million. The $22 million bonus was for Wal-Mart's 2007 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31.

The filing Friday says Scott was awarded 459,348 Wal-Mart shares, which will be 50 percent vested in three years and fully vested in five years. The award brings Scott's total Wal-Mart holding to 1,185,002 shares, worth $56.8 million, based on the share price of $47.93 listed in the filing.

©2007 The Clarion-Ledger

Neptune Reluctantly OK's Wal-Mart Settlement

2007-03-11T16:01:00.000-04:00

Neptune Reluctantly OK's Wal-Mart Settlement
2/26/2007 11pm report
By Kyle Meenan
First Coast News

NEPTUNE BEACH, FL -- Neptune Beach spent $100,000 trying to keep retail giant, Wal-Mart, from building a Superstore on Atlantic Boulevard. But Monday night the City Council reluctantly OK'd a mediator's findings, knowing a legal challenge could cost millions.

"I wish I could say, 'NO! I'm not going to support this,' but for my community, I don't feel like I have any other choice," said Neptune Vice Mayor Harriet Pruett.

"I love this community too much to place us in jeopardy of a million or two or three million lengthy lawsuit in litigation."

For nearly two years residents cried out to the council to reject Wal-Mart, citing increases in noise, traffic and crime.

The matter went before a magistrate, who found the store's arguments for building in Neptune Beach were supported by state law.

It was not welcome news to the City Council.

"All in all this is a discouraging conclusion to a long contest between Wal-Mart and another community that objects to its 'one-size-fits-all' business strategy and slash and burn legal tactics," said Councilor John Weldon.

But in the end it was a 4-to-1 vote to approve the mediated agreement for a small WalMart Superstore.

The Council has until April 2nd to work out details like trucks coming in after 10 p.m. and other issues like noise and traffic.

"We're pleased and excited about the opportunity to serve the residents of Neptune Beach and the beaches communities," said Wal-Mart attorney Karl Sanders.

Construction is set to start in early summer.

Created: 2/26/2007 10:40:05 PM
Updated: 2/27/2007 3:25:35 PM
Edited by Chris Turner, Assignment Desk

© 2007 First Coast News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, or redistributed.

First Coast News -- WTLV NBC-12 and WJXX ABC-25 -- 1070 East Adams Street, Jacksonville, FL 32202 -- (904)354-1212

Wal-Mart clerk charged in theft

2007-03-10T22:38:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart clerk charged in theft
By TERRI SANGINITI, The News Journal
Updated Tuesday, March 6, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Tasha Bobilin

A 19-year-old Wilmington woman was arrested on the job for allegedly pilfering the till while working as a cashier at Wal-Mart in Prices Corner, state police said today.

The employee, Tasha Bobilin, of the 2900 block of N. Tatnall St., was charged with felony theft and released in lieu of $1,000 unsecured bail.

State police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh said troopers were called to the store at 1251 Centerville Road on Monday in the wake of an internal audit that revealed a pattern of theft.

Whitmarsh said on several occasions last week, Bobilin’s cash drawer came up short, prompting an audit of her cash register receipts.

The audit indicated that $1,485 went missing from Bobilin’s register while she was working.

Contact Terri Sanginiti at 324-2771 or tsanginiti@delawareonline.com

Copyright © 2007, The News Journal.

Stockton Considers Law To Block Big Retail

2007-03-04T20:44:00.000-05:00

Feb 26, 2007 4:17 pm US/Pacific
Stockton Considers Law To Block Big Retail

(AP) STOCKTON City councilors plan to take up a proposed ordinance Wednesday that would block new big-box retail stores from opening.

Allowing more large chain retailers to do business could hurt local commerce and transform the downtown shopping district into a row of empty storefronts, said Vice Mayor Leslie Baranco Martin, who proposed the ordinance.

It is similar to one enacted in Turlock last year that banned stores that exceed 100,000 square feet and devote at least 5 percent of space to groceries.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opposed the Turlock ordinance but the U.S. District Court in Fresno sided with Turlock last year. San Diego and Long Beach have passed similar laws and other communities across the nation have set square-footage caps, changed zoning laws and even seized land by eminent domain to keep large retailers out.

Stockton officials have not decided yet how the ordinance would apply to a Wal-Mart Supercenter already approved by the city planning board and another Wal-Mart store not yet approved, said Ren Nosky, city attorney.

The full council must approve it before it becomes law.

Roderick Scott, a spokesman for the Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, said he hopes the city realizes the retailer generates jobs and crucial tax revenue.

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. )

© MMVII Sacramento Television Stations Inc. All rights reserved.

Walmart...The Evil of All Evils

2007-03-01T21:29:00.000-05:00

Walmart...The Evil of All Evils
Submitted by swimgirl on Thu, 03/01/2007 - 11:16am.

Over the past few years, Walmart has become a common household name in many cities across the U.S. With its low prices and conveinence, who wouldn't want to shop there? Who cares about going to smaller grocery stores and clothing shops to buy what you need when Walmart is a twenty minute drive away and you can get everything there and for a lower price.

Walmart has been building supercenters across the country, some in small towns and others in big cities which is causing a headache for many small businesses. Walmart makes people want to shop at their stores because of the conveinence of finding everything and the low prices. More people then shop at Walmart and not at the smaller businesses causing them to close. Once the businesses close, Walmart cranks up thier prices because they are the only store left in the community. This can ruin a city's economy so fast that the people in the community don't realize what is going on until it is too late. A local town not too far from here had that happen this past year and Walmart is now trying to build another supercenter in our city. If the people of these communities let it happen, Walmart will eventually control their whole economy.

I am asking that people think twice before going and spending your money at Walmart. One person taking a stand by not shopping at Walmart won't make a difference, but a whole group of people can make a difference.

Stockton Considers Law To Block Big Retail

2007-02-26T22:04:00.000-05:00

Appeals Court Orders Wal-Mart Discrimation Suit To Trial

2007-02-26T00:56:00.000-05:00

Appeals Court Orders Wal-Mart Discrimation Suit To Trial

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest private employer, must face a class-action lawsuit alleging as many as 1.5 million female employees were discriminated against in pay and promotions.

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a 2004 federal judge's decision to let the nation's largest class-action employment discrimination lawsuit go to trial, possibly exposing the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailing powerhouse to billions of dollars in damages.

"Plaintiff's expert opinions, factual evidence, statistical evidence and anecdotal evidence present significant proof of a corporate policy of discrimination and support plaintiff's contention that female employees nationwide were subjected to a common pattern and practice of discrimination," the court wrote in a 2-1 decision.

Wal-Mart said it would ask the court to rehear the case with the same three-judge panel or with 15 judges, a move likely to idle the case for months. Tuesday's ruling came 18 months after the case was argued.

"This is one step of what is going to be a long process," Wal-Mart attorney Theodore Boutrous Jr. said. "We are very optimistic of obtaining relief from this ruling."

He said Wal-Mart's own review found no significant disparity in pay between men and women at 90 percent of its stores.

Wal-Mart, which currently employs 1.3 million workers, claimed that the conventional rules of class action suits should not apply in the case because its 3,400 stores, including Sam's Club warehouse outlets, operate like independent businesses, and that the company did not have a policy of discriminating against women.

U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins, the San Francisco trial court judge who said the case could proceed, had ruled that anecdotal evidence warranted a class-action trial. Wal-Mart took the case to the San Francisco-based appeals court.

Jenkins said if companywide gender discrimination is proven at trial, Wal-Mart could be forced to pay billions of dollars to women who earned less than their male counterparts. Jenkins rejected as "impractical" Wal-Mart's suggestion of having individual hearings for each plaintiff and he planned to use a statistical formula to compensate the women if they won.

Wal-Mart said the judge's scenario was an unprecedented denial of its rights and sought to dismiss the case. The company said women who allege discrimination could file lawsuits against individual stores.

The women's lawyers said the idea was ridiculous, and would clog the federal judiciary.

"Although size of this class action is large, mere size does not render a case unmanageable," Judge Harry Pregerson wrote for the majority, which upheld Jenkins' decision in its entirety.

But Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote in a dissent that women should perhaps file individual lawsuits to safeguard Wal-Mart from paying those who don't deserve money, and would also ensure women get the compensation they deserve.

The appellate court's decision, he wrote, "threatens the rights of women injured by sex discrimination. And it threatens Wal-Mart's rights."

Brad Seligman, one of the attorneys who represented the women suing Wal-Mart, said the decision would hurt the company's reputation.

"No amount of PR by Wal-Mart is going to allow it to deal with its legacy of discrimination," Seligman said.

David Nassar, executive director of Wal-Mart Watch, a group critical of Wal-Mart policies, said the decision vindicates "victims of the company's illegal and immoral gender discrimination."

Copyright 2007 by FOXReno.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

SmartMoney.com © 2006 SmartMoney. SmartMoney is a joint publishing venture of Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and Hearst SM Partnership. SmartMoney is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved. All quotes delayed by 20 minutes. Delayed quotes provided by ComStock.

© 2007, KRXI-TV.

Almost 100 Pounds of Marijuana Found in Wal-Mart Distribution Center

2007-02-25T22:26:00.000-05:00

2/23/07
Almost 100 Pounds of Marijuana Found in Wal-Mart Distribution Center

An employee at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center in Plainview, was not expecting what he found inside a box there Friday.

Plainview Police say an employee was filling an order around 4 a.m. Friday, and noticed one of the boxes was heavier than usual. When he opened the sealed box, he allegedly found 92 pounds of marijuana inside.

Police are still investigating and say drug dogs went through the facility all day. NewsChannel 11 will continue to follow this story and bring you the latest details as they become available.

All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KCBD, a Raycom Media Station.

Costco: The 'anti-Wal-Mart'

2007-02-24T23:07:00.000-05:00

Extra2/16/2007 12:00 AM ET
Costco: The 'anti-Wal-Mart'
The warehouse-club retailer 'has figured out the big, simple things': Hold down expenses and prices, treat employees well, make discount shopping fashionable and keep shareholders happy.
By Barron's

"Membership has its privileges." That slogan belongs to American Express, but it might better apply to Costco Wholesale, the leading warehouse-club operator in the U.S., whose determination to deliver value and innovative products to its 23 million members has made it one of the country's top retailers.

Costco (COST, news, msgs) has succeeded by flouting industry norms. The big-box retailer charges customers a base yearly fee, now $50, to shop in its sprawling stores, which offer quality goods at low markups. Consequently, its margins are among the slimmest in retailing. The privileges also extend to employees, who are paid well and enjoy generous health-care benefits.

This formula has generated fierce loyalty among both shoppers and workers while rewarding long-term investors. Costco shares, which traded Thursday around $58, are up from a split-adjusted price of $1.67 when the company went public in 1985. True, they no longer are dirt-cheap, but in view of the company's superior management and opportunities for growth, neither are they rich.

Small businesses are big customers at Costco, but the company also has managed to make discount shopping fashionable for affluent Americans by offering fine wines, books and big-screen televisions at low prices, and staples such as paper towels and razor blades in bulk.

By offering one-time specials like discounted Prada bags or Callaway golf clubs at individual outlets, Costco has created what it calls a "treasure-hunt" atmosphere in its stores.

Not the Wal-Mart way
Costco is among a handful of retailers that has flourished despite Wal-Mart Stores' (WMT, news, msgs) onslaught; Wal-Mart's more downscale Sam's Club chain runs second to Costco. With its strong labor relations, low employee turnover and liberal benefits, Costco has been called the "anti-Wal-Mart." Its approach has paid dividends because Costco, based in Issaquah, Wash., hasn't encountered the same community resistance as Wal-Mart when it has sought to open stores.

"Retailing isn't rocket science. Costco has figured out the big, simple things and executed with total fanaticism," says Charles Munger, a Costco director for the past 10 years. The outspoken Munger, 82, is better known as Warren Buffett's longtime partner at Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, news, msgs), where he serves as vice chairman.Crucial to the chain's success is CEO Jim Sinegal, who co-founded Costco in 1983 with Jeff Brotman, the company's chairman. "Jim would be on any intelligent list of the top 10 retailers of the past century," Munger says.

Sinegal, 70, also is one of the biggest bargains among big-company CEOs: In an era of seven- and eight-figure pay packages for CEOs, Sinegal earned a salary of $350,000 in Costco's latest fiscal year, which ended in August. He garnered other compensation of about $100,000.

What's more, Sinegal got no bonus last year, after the company determined that it had failed to measure properly the appropriate date for certain option grants from 1996 to 2002, although no evidence of fraud or falsification of records was found.

"Jim wouldn't let the board give him a bonus. His view was that the option glitch happened on his watch," Munger says. "How many people behave like that? No wonder everyone loves him."

Unlike Buffett, who draws a salary of just $100,000 as the CEO of Berkshire, Sinegal isn't a billionaire. He owns Costco stock worth about $135 million and has options on 1.2 million shares.

Sinegal's compensation and demeanor offer a welcome contrast to former Home Depot (HD, news, msgs) CEO Robert Nardelli, who alienated employees with his autocratic style and whose gargantuan exit package of $210 million didn't sit well with shareholders.

Video: Behind the scenes at Costco
None of this has been lost on the investment community. At nearly $58, Costco trades for 22 times fiscal 2007 projected earnings of $2.58 a share. It has one of the highest price-earnings ratios among major retailers. Target (TGT, news, msgs) shares, at nearly $63, trade for 17 times estimated 2007 earnings, while Wal-Mart, at $48, commands 15 times projected 2007 profits.

Though some retailing analysts deem Costco shares expensive, the company seems to qualify under one of Buffett's investment dictums. Buffett has said he'd rather buy a good business at fair price than a fair business at a good price. Berkshire owned 5 million Costco shares at the end of September.

Growth and more growth
This is a genuine growth story. Earnings per share have increased at a 12% annualized rate in the past five years. Neil Currie, a retailing analyst at UBS Securities, believes the company is capable of generating 13% growth in earnings per share in the next few years and an even higher rate if it gets more aggressive in repurchasing shares. The bullish Currie carries a 12-month price target of $66. With large annual buybacks, Costco could earn more than $4 a share in fiscal 2010, Currie estimates. That could support a stock price of $80.

The company plans to open 36 to 40 stores in the current fiscal year and about 35 annually in subsequent years. The store base totaled 474 on Dec. 31, including 371 in the United States. Costco says domestic and international markets ultimately can support more than 1,000 stores. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the most promising markets are likely Mexico, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Costco's merchandise sales in its most recent fiscal year rose 14% to $59 billion, while membership fees generated $1.2 billion in revenue. This year, sales are expected to rise more than 10%, reflecting lower prices for gasoline. Sales at stores open at least year, a key gauge of retailing success, were up a healthy 8% in fiscal 2006.

Could the company be a candidate for a leveraged buyout? Costco does possess some of the key characteristics that private-equity players seek. It has a strong balance sheet, a predictable cash flow and a durable franchise. Its market value is a hefty $26 billion, but LBOs of that size are doable these days.

Costco bought back $1.5 billion of stock in its latest fiscal year and $400 million in the quarter that ended Nov. 30. But it has resisted a large debt-financed buyback like the one under way at Home Depot, and to date it hasn't sought to raise funds through the sale of its real estate. The company takes pride in its impressive financial condition. "Have we gotten to the point in America that balance-sheet strength is a negative?" Munger asks.Currie argues that Costco could keep LBO operators at bay by launching a more aggressive buyback program and taking on a moderate level of debt.

"The best way for Costco to protect its independence is to have a high multiple on its stock," the analyst says, adding that an augmented buyback would help achieve that goal. He believes Costco comfortably can repurchase $2 billion or more of stock annually. The dividend yield on the stock is a low 0.9%.

Most income from members' fees
Its cooperativelike operation makes the retailer's business model unusual. In its latest fiscal year, Costco generated pretax income of $1.75 billion, about 70% of which came from membership fees. An additional $125 million was kicked in by the interest income on the company's cash. Costco earned just $400 million from its stores, for a retailing operating margin of less than 1%. The low margin is intentional and reflects the company's commitment to low prices.

As a matter of corporate policy, Costco refuses to mark up any product by more than 15% above its cost. When the company signed a new contract in 2005 with a supplier for Brooks Bros.-style men's cotton and button-down shirts, and got a significant price reduction for a massive two-year order, it immediately cut the price of the shirts to $12.99 from $17.99, notes Richard Galanti, Costco's chief financial officer. Other retailers might have phased in the reduction and captured added profit, but that's not the Costco way. The shirts now cost $14.99 because they are made with better-quality cotton.

One attraction in the eyes of a potential buyer would be the opportunity to lift margins. Costco leads Sam's Club in most financial measurements, including total sales, sales per store, sales per square foot of retail space and sales per employee. But Sam's operating profit margin of 3.5% tops Costco's 2.8%.

Some complaints on Wall Street
If Costco were to raise its margins to Sam's level, it would translate into an additional 65 cents a share of net income -- a large amount relative to the current-year consensus estimate of $2.60 a share. Sinegal has talked in the past about lifting Costco's margins to 4%, but little progress has been made.

This has led to some criticism on Wall Street. An analyst report in December, after Costco reported its fiscal-first-quarter profits, was entitled "Still No Margin." Galanti says management has no interest in going private. "The public model has worked for us. We have no plans to change," he says.

Video: Behind the scenes at Costco
Many Costco shareholders are also happy with the current situation. "Costco refuses to be undersold and thinks so long term that the company will not even remotely degrade the value it gives customers, even if it would fuel a healthy increase in margins and earnings and very few customers would notice," says Ken Charles Feinberg, a co-manager of the Davis New York Venture Fund (NYVTX) and Selected American Shares (SLADX), both run by Davis Selected Advisors. "That's how a great management builds a great business franchise that's built to last."

The Davis funds are Costco's largest shareholder, with a 12% stake.

Feinberg says that Costco's effective valuation is lower than its stated price-earnings ratio because of the company's conservative approach to depreciation. He recently calculated that Costco trades for about 16 times his projection of calendar "owner earnings." This profit measure adds to operating earnings depreciation expense in excess of what is needed to maintain the existing store base. Feinberg believes Costco is a "compelling bargain" for long-term investors.

Sinegal doesn't talk much to Wall Street and wasn't available to speak with Barron's. Even at 70, he maintains a grueling schedule. He aims to visit each Costco store twice a year and is about 70% successful in that goal, Galanti says. This means he's on the road 40 to 45 weeks a year. Costco executives jokingly refer to Sinegal's weekly travels as a "death march" because he usually begins each day at 7 a.m. and finishes at 10 p.m.

Dressed in sneakers, khaki pants and Costco's now-$14.99 button-down shirts, Sinegal asks store managers what's selling, what's not and how Costco prices compare with the competition. He has no set plans to retire, although he has talked casually about holding the job for five more years. Because he hasn't set a retirement date, there is no heir apparent. But Costco has a strong group of managers who share Sinegal's passion and vision.

Unlike most CEOs, Sinegal has no severance or golden parachute in his contract, which runs less than a page. He insists on one-year contracts, believing the Costco board should have the opportunity to evaluate him annually to determine if he's still up to the job. Sinegal's view is that the restrained terms of his contract send an important message to employees.

In the view of Berkshire's Munger, one of Costco's great strengths is that its two founders, Sinegal and Brotman, are still active. Brotman, 64, focuses on real estate. "There is no better site acquisitor in the retailing industry," Munger says. "I'd like to see Jeff get more credit. He deserves it."

Costco has chosen to focus on more affluent coastal markets; California alone is home to 30% of its stores. Finding sites for new outlets in densely populated areas is one of Brotman's specialties.

The company features products that offer its members large cost savings over what they would pay at traditional retailers. The chain carries just 10% of the items in a typical supermarket, which might stock 40,000 products.The formula works. Costco sold 1.5 million TVs last year and has successfully built what it calls ancillary businesses such as prescription drugs and eyeglasses, filling 26 million prescriptions in 2006. Hungry Costco members bought 63 million hot-dog-and-soda combinations last year at in-store snack bars -- priced at only $1.50 and with free soda refills. The dogs are even kosher.

Costco's customer-focused strategy is apparent in its 87% membership-renewal rate.

The retailer allows returns on nearly all items at any time, with no questions asked; computers are the lone exception. It doesn't even need to see receipts. This liberal policy has proved costly in the past year because the company is seeing returns of an unusually large number of big-screen TVs. Analysts suspect that many members are taking advantage of the sharp drop in TV prices to return models bought in the past 12 months so they can buy new ones at lower cost. Costco said it is evaluating its TV-return policy but emphasizes that no change will be retroactive and that it still plans to maintain the industry's most generous return policy on electronics.

Low turnover among employees
Workers get a relatively good deal at Costco -- a point of emphasis for the company, which contends it's also a matter of good business. Despite fewer stores, Costco's sales are about 50% above those of Sam's Clubs, and sales per employee are about $500,000 a year versus $340,000 at the Wal-Mart unit, UBS' Currie calculates.

Sinegal was asked in a recent Bloomberg TV interview about the company's health-care benefits. Costco provides health insurance to its 93,000 domestic employees and pays 90% of the cost, which runs about $6,000 annually per employee.

Video: Behind the scenes at Costco
"We're 100% committed to maintaining this program," Sinegal said. "It works for us, and our people count on it. We think they're entitled to that security."

Costco has one of the lowest turnover rates in retailing. Among employees who have been with the company for at least a year, just 6% leave annually. That may be because store employees such as cashiers can earn more than $40,000 a year after only four years on the job.

Costco shares aren't a bargain at current levels, but patient investors could be rewarded because the company is an industry leader with top-notch management, a loyal customer base and solid growth prospects in the U.S. and abroad. In Street-speak, Costco may be "under-earning," meaning its profit margins are lower than they need to be. Management is loath to tinker with a successful formula, but margins probably have only one way to go: up. In time, the shares are likely to follow.

This article was reported and written by Andrew Bary for Barron's.

Fund data provided by Morningstar, Inc. © 2005. All rights reserved.

© 2007 Microsoft

Walmart Pre Hearing begins

2007-02-23T22:14:00.000-05:00

News for Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
Walmart Pre Hearing begins
Written by Ken Hashizume

Day two of discussions on the proposed Wal-Mart is taking place in Port Elgin.

An adjudicator yesterday denied a request by Eric Gillespie, a legal representative for four appellants, that the pre-hearing be adjourned.

Gillespie represents Friends of Saugeen Shores, Concerned Womens Coalition, the Owen Sound Cycling Club, and Cycle Ontario Alliance.

Gillespie says the request to adjourn was to allow the appellants more time to negotiate in settling their appeals and whether a pair of First Nation communities would like to be added to the list of appellants.

He says the Saugeen and Chippewa First Nation communities have put in a land claim on the proposed site of the Wal-Mart.

Legal representative for Saugeen Shores, Dennis Wood, says the dismissal of the request means that the proceedings can continue on.

Wood says other appeals will be heard to determine whether a full hearing is necessary.

The adjudicator will hear more arguments this morning at 10 inside Rotary Hall at the Saugeen Shores Municipal Offices.

Wood says a request will be put forth to dismiss the appeals.

© 2006 Bayshore Broadcasting Corp. All Rights Reserved.

Northcross Wal-Mart Opponents To Form Human Chain In Protest

2007-02-20T22:48:00.000-05:00

Northcross Wal-Mart Opponents To Form Human Chain In Protest
Feb 9, 2007 11:12 PM EST

The moratorium for the proposed Wal-Mart at the Northcross Mall is now expired.

Permits for development have been issued, but so far, construction has not started. The exact design is still up in the air. But the proposed site is going to be a busy place on Saturday morning.

The group Responsible Growth For Northcross is planning to form a human chain around this site Saturday at 10 a.m. But supporters of the new store will also be here. There's a lot of emotion from a lot of people, and nobody even knows exactly what's going to be built.

"The 60-day moratorium really wasn't adhered to, in that development activities continued here to get permits and whatnot," said Jason Meeker with Responsible Growth for Northcross.

"We've had some progress, but I still think Lincoln and Wal-Mart have some work to do from what I've seen," said Councilmember Brewster McCracken.

McCracken says the city is trying to bring Wal-Mart and the neighborhood group together with a compromise. He's publicly stated that the original Wal-Mart proposal was not good for Northcross.

"What we've learned in the last 60 days is the Wal-Mart on this site would be the largest Wal-Mart in the entire world," McCracken said.

You read that right. He said, "The Wal-Mart on this site would be the largest Wal-Mart in the entire world."

KXAN checked city records on Wal-Marts in the area and not only would the Northcross Wal-Mart not be the largest in the world, it wouldn't even make the top five in Central Texas. The Wal-Marts at 183, at 620, in Buda, in Pflugerville and on Ben White Wal-Marts all have more square footage.

With the help of urban planners and designers, Responsible Growth For Northcross came up with a vertical, mixed-use design.

Attorneys for Wal-Mart told KXAN that the city has given them all the neighborhood's concerns, and they're attempting to address as many issues as they can.

Wal-Mart attorneys said that, in the revised plan, they'll use the city's commercial-design standards even though they're exempt from those mandates.

Wal-Mart is already on the lease at Northcross. But opponents insist that it is an illegal site plan, and that's a fight they'll take to court if they have to.

All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KXAN. All Rights Reserved.

Dillons, Wal-Mart recall peanut butter products

2007-02-18T16:34:00.000-05:00

Sunday, February 18, 2007
Dillons, Wal-Mart recall peanut butter products
By LOIS DAVIDSON, Sentinel Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, February 17, 2007 9:05 AM CST

Most people have heard about the salmonella outbreaks resulting from eating peanut butter made from ConAgra Foods Inc., beginning with the code 2111 on Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter products. Already this outbreak has caused 300 individuals across the nation to become sick.

To prevent any more illnesses, Wal-Mart and Dillons have teamed up with ConAgra Foods Inc.

“We have had some of the 2111 peanut butter containers in our Dillons stores. As a precaution, we are removing all varieties of the Peter Pan peanut butter from our shelves,” said Sheila Lowrie, Dillons spokesperson.

Dillons carries ConAgra's Peter Pan peanut butter and it is not known yet when the Peter Pan peanut butter will return to the stores. Not allowed to discuss what the outbreak will do economically to Dillons, Lowrie stated that the store is following all FDA regulations.

Wal-Mart, on the other hand, carries both brands of peanut butter and has removed all Peter Pan and Great Value products from their stores.

“Food safety is always a top priority at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. We are working very closely with ConAgra to fully understand the details of this situation,” said Dan Fogleman, Wal-Mart spokesperson. “We are doing all we can at this time.”

According to Fogleman, Wal-Mart has placed an additional precautionary measure by installing a sales restriction on the products in question. A restriction notice will appear on the cashier's screen to prevent the products from leaving the store if they are inadvertently scanned.

Wal-Mart and Dillons will refund any Peter Pan or Great Value peanut butter with a product code beginning with 2111. For a full refund, a person may take the entire container or just the lid to the store.

A person may also mail the lid, name and address to ConAgra Foods, P.O. Box 57078, Irvine, Calif. 92619-7078. For more information call 866-344-6970.

If a person has become sick and has eaten peanut butter in the past three days, save the product until the illness has been diagnosed. More information is at www.conagrafoods.com .

According to the International Food Information Council, symptoms of salmonella includes nausea, stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever, headache and chills.

To avoid possible bacteria contamination, the IFIC states to sanitize often, cook foods to proper temperatures, refrigerate properly and to avoid cross contact, especially with raw meats and vegetables.

Associated foods with salmonella poisoning include: raw or undercooked meats, poultry, eggs, milk and dairy products, shrimp, salad dressings, noncommercial sauces, cream-filled deserts, and toppings made from raw eggs, cocoa, chocolate and alfalfa sprouts.

For information on ways to prevent a salmonella outbreak in the home, visit www.ific.org .

A nursing supervisor at Memorial Hospital in McPherson, said that no one in McPherson has come in contact with the peanut butter salmonella outbreak bacteria.

He said that whoever begins to have the salmonella symptoms should see their physician.

Copyright © 2006 GateHouse Media, Inc. Some Rights Reserved.

Bird Watchers Dispute Vallejo Walmart Plan

2007-02-17T15:47:00.000-05:00

Bird Watchers Dispute Vallejo Walmart Plan
Land Would Take Over Sanctuary
By Leslie Brinkley

Feb. 2 - KGO - Seven thousand birdwatchers are expected to descend on Vallejo this weekend for the San Francisco Bay "Flyway Festival." And while they celebrate the wetlands and wildlife there, they're also worried about the construction of a giant new Walmart on the shores of an environmentally sensitive slough.

Bird watchers will flock together this weekend along White Slough in Vallejo, it's an area the Audubon Society has dubbed a globally important bird area. One million shorebirds stop here mid-winter along their pacific migration route.

Right next to White Slough and the bird sanctuary, Walmart has filed an application with the city of Vallejo to build a 390,000 square foot superstore.

Myrna Hayes, S.F. Bay Flyway Festival Co-Founder: "People can have a Walmart Supercenter anywhere in the town, but you just can't have a wetland anywhere, a beautiful, globally important bird area, that will bring a different economy to your community."

Myrna Hayes thinks Vallejo should shed its industrial image for a greener one by tapping into the $40 billion dollar bird viewing business.

Vicki Gray, Vallejoans for Responsible Growth: "We're concerned about having an environmentally improved area here on the White Slough and a vibrant commercial downtown."

ABC7's Leslie Brinkley: "Walmart would diminish those chances?"

Vicki Gray: "Absolutely."

But some bird watchers believe the project wouldn't necessarily ruin the slough if done right.

Joe Naudzunas, Birdwatcher: "A lot of places we go to watch birds in the San Francisco Bay, there are toxic waste sites all over the place, but there are still birds."

Clay Taylor, Birdwatcher: "If the place becomes stabilized, and there is not a lot of disturbance, they're gonna like it anyway whether Walmart's here or not."

The City of Vallejo says it's far from a done deal.

Craig Whitton, Vallejo Asst. City Manager: "What the council has only agreed to do is study the project. We will be assessing the biological impacts, economic impacts."

Vicki Gray: "It's about ruining, speaking of birds, our golden goose in Vallejo."

A final decision on whether to build a Walmart by the slough should be made by the time the birds return here next winter.

Copyright 2007, ABC7/KGO-TV/DT.

Copyright ©2007 ABC Inc., KGO-TV San Francisco.

Several Coke bottlers to drop suits over Wal-Mart delivery plan

2007-02-14T21:00:00.000-05:00

Article published Feb 12, 2007
Several Coke bottlers to drop suits over Wal-Mart delivery plan
By HARRY R. WEBER
AP Business Writer

A rift between The Coca-Cola Co. and some bottlers has been eased as the world's largest beverage maker announced Monday that several suits over its plan to distribute Powerade to Wal-Mart stores directly through the retailer's warehouses were being dropped.

Coca-Cola also said it will work with the bottlers "to develop and test new customer service and distribution systems."

The company and its bottlers will consider shipping products directly to retailers' warehouses, as well as other ideas, Coca-Cola spokesman Dan Schafer said. In turn, the bottlers will be compensated for products delivered in their regions through forms of distribution other than themselves, Schafer said, adding that details still need to be worked out.

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said that it hoped that all U.S. bottlers who distribute Coca-Cola products, including Powerade, will participate in the initiative.

Those who have already joined agreed to drop lawsuits now pending in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, and Circuit Court of Jefferson County in Birmingham, Ala., Coca-Cola said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear if all the bottlers that had sued Coca-Cola over breach of contract agreed to drop their claims. Schafer said "substantially all the bottlers in the suit" had dropped their claims.

Last year, several bottlers that handle roughly 10 percent of Coca-Cola's U.S. volume sued to try to block a new delivery system that the beverage maker's largest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., wanted to test for its Powerade sports drink.

A major Coca-Cola customer, Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., had approached the company and its bottlers, saying it wanted to increase availability of Powerade in its stores and help the brand grow faster by delivering the product to its stores through its own warehouses rather than through the bottler system.

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer.

The test of the proposal was only being conducted in CCE's territory, but some other of Coke's bottlers objected, Coke said.

"Our bottling system is our heritage, and it will be the foundation for our future growth. The partnership with our bottlers is what makes the Coca-Cola system powerful and unique, and we will work diligently to ensure that we move forward and succeed together," said Sandy Douglas, president, Coca-Cola North America. "One of the historic strengths of our system has been its ability to change and adapt as our consumers, customers and competitors have changed."

Under the agreement, the company will join U.S. Coca-Cola bottlers in testing new systems to bring company products to customers who require special services. At the same time, Schafer said CCE's Wal-Mart warehouse delivery system will continue.

Analysts said the news was positive for Coca-Cola.

"For Coca-Cola, getting past the disputes with its bottling system is critical to meeting the changing needs of its retail customers and opens the door for a more aggressive and diverse product pipeline over the next few years," Banc of America Securities analyst Bryan Spillane said in a research note.

Coca-Cola shares rose 16 cents to close at $47.92 in Monday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

---
Dateline Alabama

Wal-Mart adopts automated absenteeism system

2007-02-14T20:56:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart adopts automated absenteeism system
Chris Silva
Employee Benefit News • February 2007

Having grown weary of seeing two employees running themselves ragged picking up the slack for absent workers, Wal-Mart has instituted a new policy requiring those who are sick or late to work to call an 800 number. Workers using the automated system to call in sick are tagged with an "unauthorized" absence; anyone who logs seven of those within six months automatically will be fired.

Any Wal-Mart worker that forgoes the new system and accrues three no-call/no-show absences in a six-month period also will be fired. The discount-chain giant also is encouraging anyone needing more than three consecutive days away from work to file for an unpaid leave of absence or time off under the Family Medical Leave Act.

Wal-Mart's shift in policy comes at a time when absenteeism is on the rise and many employers - particularly in retail and similar transient industries - have reached the point of exasperation. According to the 16th annual CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey, unscheduled absenteeism can cost large companies an estimated $850,000 per year. CCH, a human resources consulting group based in Riverwoods, Ill., determined a national absenteeism rate of 2.5% in 2006, up from 2.3% in 2005.

"We did this to formalize our existing attendance policy, to ensure greater consistency and minimize subjectivity," says Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley. The program was initially tested in a few select Wal-Mart stores in the spring of 2006, Simley says, and the results were favorable. "The goal there was to improve the work environment and the shopping experience, and the tests have shown that the new attendance policy does exactly that. So it does work."

The new policy has also been well received by the majority of company employees and associates, Simley adds. "It's actually been very smooth, and the people who appreciate it the most are the associates who are there, at work, and don't have to stretch themselves to cover for someone who's absent."

A new approach

According to CCH, one-third of all absences were unscheduled in 2006, with personal illness accounting for only a third of the reported reasons (35%). Other reasons included family issues (24%, up from 21% in 2005), personal needs (18%), stress/burnout (12%) and entitlement mentality (11%, down from 14% in 2005).

The majority of workers have found work-life to be popular absenteeism deterrents, CCH data show. Employers, however, have generally attempted to quell absenteeism by implementing disciplinary actions and yearly reviews, CCH found.

Wal-Mart's call-in system represents a new approach to fighting absenteeism. Workers navigate an automated system to ensure they're routed to the right store. The call generates a confirmation number, which is electronically filed and stored.

The system also tracks tardiness. Wal-Mart gives employees a 10-minute grace period before they're marked for an incomplete shift, says Simley. The discount chain developed the system internally; there's no third-party administrator.

Analysts and consultants familiar with absenteeism believe an automated approach like Wal-Mart's is worthy of consideration.

"I think this is a recognition that these old approaches just aren't working anymore," comments Tom Klett, senior consultant with Watson Wyatt. "We've got to take a new approach."

Remarks Richard Chaifetz, chairman and CEO of EAP provider ComPsych: "Employers have gotten smarter about absence management programs. As the technology has become more advanced and companies have become more tech-savvy, they've seen cost savings in automating or outsourcing administrative tasks like tracking absences."

An automated system has proved more reliable than phoning in for the store manager, who sometimes will miss the call, says Simley.

The new policy also leaves little doubt about the consequences.

"The idea here is to make this consistent for everybody and make them aware of their obligations," Simley says. "We can't make exceptions and enforce the policy differently for people."

That a high-profile corporation like Wal-Mart has revamped its absenteeism system is noteworthy, says Klett. "It looks like they have centralized the system, which is important. The fact that a company of this size has acted on this makes people understand that absenteeism is a bigger issue than they've realized. There's no pat solution out there. There's a lot of latitude for creativity, and I think we're starting to see it." - C.S.

(c) 2007 Employee Benefit News and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Wal-Mart workers speak out

2007-02-14T20:50:00.000-05:00

Feb 14,2007
Wal-Mart workers speak out
by Bend Weekly News Sources

“Our Community First” updates residents on local opposition to a proposed Bend Wal-Mart SuperCenter, Tuesday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m.

Wal-Mart workers from three countries will speak out on what they believe is “the high cost of low prices” -- and Ann Wheeler, a local community activist, will provide an update on local opposition to a proposed Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Bend.

The event is slated for Tuesday, February 20 at 7 p.m., and will be held in the Central Oregon Environmental Center located at 16 NW Kansas Avenue, Bend. The event, sponsored by Central Oregon Jobs with Justice, Our Community First, and the International Labor Rights Fund is free, and translation will be provided.

The Wal-Mart Workers Tour brings together Cynthia Foley, a former Wal-Mart employee who experienced sexual harassment at a Florida Wal-Mart; Beatrice "Betty" Fuentes, a cut flower worker from Colombia who led a fight to improve working conditions at a plantation that ships 80 percent of its flowers to Wal-Mart; and Kotagarahalli Ramaiah Jayaram, a garment worker and union organizer who has worked to improve the wages of workers who make clothing for Wal-Mart in India.

Ann Wheeler, representing Our Community First, will provide an update on the campaign to stop Wal-Mart's plans to build a SuperCenter at the intersection of U.S. 97 and Cooley Road in north Bend. Our Community First led the successful effort to derail Wal-Mart's plans that culminated in a state land use board's rejection of the company's store application last summer.

For more information, contact Central Oregon Jobs with Justice at 541-617-3879 or visit Our Community First's web site, where email contact information is provided.

© 2006 Bend Weekly News

Wal-Mart Worker Caught On Tape

2007-02-11T06:17:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart Worker Caught On Tape
Posted by: Josh Boose, Reporter
Created: 1/31/2007 10:25:31 PM
Updated: 2/8/2007 1:14:28 PM

Imagine accidentally leaving an envelope of cash at a checkout and then finding it gone in a matter of minutes. That's what happened to a local woman. She's out her money, right? But thanks to a surveillance camera, that's not the end of story!

2 On Your Side's Josh Boose has been investigating this story for months now. He started looking into this case in November. That's when we got an email from Amy Ditmar.

She left an envelope with about five hundred dollars in at a Wal-Mart checkout. She wanted 2 On Your Side to look into it, to see what really happened to that envelope.

"What we have here, in my opinion, is a crime of opportunity," says Cheektowaga Police Captain, John Glascott.

"You can't trust anybody," says Ditmar.

Ditmar was doing some early Christmas shopping just before Thanksgiving at the Wal-Mart on Walden Avenue in Cheektowaga. She paid for what she bought, then went on her way. But she realized something was missing.

"I left an envelope with some money on the counter and I didn't realize I left it there until about twenty minutes to a half-hour later," say Ditmar.

In that envelope she says, was about five hundred dollars in cash and her debit card.

Less than 45 minutes later, Amy went back to Wal-Mart, hoping someone found the envelope and turned it in.

Ditmar says, "I went right up to the cashier I was dealing with earlier and asked her if she saw the envelope and she looked at me and said she was too busy with other customers."

Amy talked to the store manager. He told her he would look into it. But, she wasn't satisfied.

She approached a Wal-Mart security guard who was also an off-duty Cheektowaga police officer.

The officer told her they would check the surveillance tape to see what happened to her envelope.

Watch the surveillance video.

Amy says it took about a half hour for the manager and police officer to review the tape.

"They told me they didn't see anything. And if anything happened they would call me back, so I was a little upset about that," recalls Ditmar.

Upset, because she needed that money.

"The presents I was buying everybody, I had bills due. It really put a damper on things. I had to ask my mother for some help and that was kind of embarrassing," says Ditmar.

Later that night, Amy got a call at home. It was the off-duty police officer from Wal-Mart. "He called me that night and told me he was positive that I didn't lose the money on my own. Pretty much, he told me the cashier is the one to blame. And his hands were tied because of Wal-Mart policies."

We later found out the officer was so frustrated with what happened, he quit. He wouldn't discuss the problem on camera, but his supervisor at the Cheektowaga Police Department did.

"He was just unhappy working for Wal-Mart and what their corporate policies were in regard to this", said Captain John Glascott.

Back to that missing envelope.

We stayed in contact with the Cheektowaga Police for four weeks as they investigated. A month after Amy lost her money, they showed us the surveillance tape. 2 On Your Side showed it to Amy.

"Right there," says Ditmar, watching the tape.

While watching the video, Amy claims she saw her envelope sitting by the cash register. If you look closely to the surveillance video (you can see the video by clicking on the video link above), a customer points it out and then hands it over to the cashier, Germaine Hayes. Within a few minutes, the customer checks out and it appears Hayes leaves her register, envelope in hand.

"You would think her being on camera, I mean, she knows there's surveillance everywhere," says Ditmar.

It appears Germaine Hayes now goes to another register to visit with a co-worker. It looks like she still has Amy Ditmar's envelope.

Then, right in full view of the camera, police say she puts the envelope in her pocket.

"It makes me so mad," states Ditmar.

From there, Hayes and her co-worker go into the ladies room. Police say that's where the "empty" bank envelope was later discovered.

From there, Germaine Hayes walks out the back hallway and out the door.

"Going home. Going for a shopping spree," Ditmar says chuckling.

2 On Your Side's Josh Boose asks Cheektowaga Police, "You're trying to find her?"

"We're trying to find her, we're unable to locate the woman right now." says Captain Glascott.

While Cheektowaga Police we're trying to track down Germaine Hayes, 2 On Your Side's Josh Boose contacted Wal-Mart. He wanted to know why the store manager and security officer told Amy they didn't see anything on the tape. Wal-Mart told Josh they weren't aware of any conversations like that. But they did have something to say about Germaine Hayes.

They told 2 On Your Side: "The associate in question is no longer employed by Wal-Mart. We don't tolerate theft by anyone at our facilities."

Read all of emails between Josh Boose and the Wal-Mart spokeswoman

Just more than a month after the incident, Cheektowaga Police tracked down Germaine Hayes. "She was found, she came in and she was arrested for grand larceny," says Captain Glascott.

When it was time for Hayes to appear before a judge, 2 On Your Side was there as she came out of the courthouse. She was laughing.

"Do you want to make any comments at all?" asks Josh Boose. "There's no comments at all. Have a nice day," responds Hayes.

"This isn't a joke, not to me. She finds it humorous," Ditmar says.

"Do you ever think you're going to get your money back?" Josh Boose asks Amy.
"I do," she responds.

Since November, 2 On Your Side called Wal-Mart five times, we emailed them six times. We wanted to know if they would give Amy her money back.

Sixty six days after Amy lost her money, she received a letter in the mail from Wal-Mart.

Ditmar says, "I got a letter from the manager at Wal-Mart explaining how sorry she was for my troubles and if I had any more problems to call her. And she gave me a giftcard for $500."
A gift card for Walmart.

So this simple story of something most of us have probably done before, leaving something behind, turned out to be not so simple after all. All thanks to a surveillance camera and one woman's determination.

Germaine Hayes is due back in court March ninth.

Amy Ditmar hopes she'll see her money back when the court proceedings wrap up. She'll be in that courtroom, waiting and watching to see what happens.

2 On Your Side will too.

We've been getting a lot of response to this investigation. On Tuesday, 2 On Your Side's Josh Boose contacted Wal-Mart again with questions.
Here's what Wal-Mart had to say;

"We care about the safety and security of our customers and associates while they are shopping and working in our stores. This incident was very unfortunate and we fully cooperated with the police during its investigation, as we do whenever and wherever an incident occurs. First, we shared surveillance tapes with law enforcement which I understand was very helpful in the investigation and the arrest of suspect. Secondly, we terminated the associate who was arrested for the incident. Lastly, because we felt it was the right thing to do, we gave our customer a $500 gift card to help offset the loss that she suffered. We are hopeful and supportive that Ms. Ditmar will be successful in receiving $500 in cash as the case proceeds through the judicial process in March. At this point, we consider the matter closed."

WGRZ-TV

Judge rules against proposed WalMart in Bedford Township

2007-02-04T22:11:00.000-05:00

Article published Friday, February 2, 2007
Judge rules against proposed WalMart in Bedford Township
BLADE STAFF

MONROE — A Monroe County judge ruled this morning in favor of Bedford Township in its fight to stop the building of a WalMart store on property owned by Whitman Ford.

Circuit Judge Joseph A. Costello, Jr. issued an order finding in favor of the township, ruling that the township’s laws and master zoning plan “do not constitute exclusionary zoning,” as claimed by Mr. Whitman’s attorneys in a trial last month.

The battle between the township and one of its leading businessmen, Jon Whitman, has drug on for years, with township trustees rejecting several attempts by Mr. Whitman to secure commercial zoning so he could develop his land, reaping millions.

Even though some township officials were supportive of his develop plans, a vocal citizens group, made up mainly of residents of one of the township’s largest subdivision adjacent to the proposed WalMart site, turned out in the hundreds at numerous meetings to heckle any officials who voiced support for Mr. Whitman.
In the end, township trustees sided with residents opposed to Mr. Whitman and WalMart.

Read more in later editions of The Blade and toledoblade.com.

© 2006 The Blade. By using this service, you accept the terms of our privacy statement and our visitor agreement. Please read them.
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The Toledo Times ®

West Valley Walmart employees charged after allegedly slashing prices for co-workers and friends

2007-02-04T22:08:00.000-05:00

West Valley Walmart employees charged after allegedly slashing prices for co-workers and friends
Last Update: Feb 1, 2007 11:50 AM

WEST VALLEY CITY (AP) - Some Wal-Mart employees who are accused in the illegal slashing of prices for co-workers and friends have been charged.

Wednesday, five employees were charged with felony theft. The alleged price slashing occurred over a 10 month period at a Wal-Mart store in West Valley City.

Police believe the discount spree cost the retailer about $15,000.

Court documents say the cost is an estimate based on surveillance footage and documents provided by a store employee.

--- Information from: Deseret Morning News

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

© 2007 Clear Channel Broadcasting, Inc.

Wal-Mart documentary a sordid tale

2007-02-03T23:35:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart documentary a sordid tale
By YURI WUENSCH - Edmonton Sun

In 1958, movie audiences were terrified by The Blob, a sci-fi thriller about an alien life form that consumes everything in its path as it grows and grows.

Today, we have Wal-Mart.

The retail giant is the world's second-largest corporation and the world's largest private employer. Its multi-billion dollar gross domestic product rivals that of many small nations. Wal-Mart's five owners, all members of Arkansas's Walton family, currently rank 17th to 21st on Forbes's annual list of the world's richest people.

It's that vestment of wealth and power in the hands of so few and Wal-Mart's effect on everyday Canadians that are the focus of Montreal director Sergeo Kirby's documentary, Wal-Town: The Film.

Kirby is in Edmonton tonight, screening the film at Metro Cinema (Zeidler Hall, Citadel Theatre). The movie plays tonight and Sunday nights at 7.

The documentary follows six university students, calling themselves "Wal-Town," who undertake a tour of Wal-Mart locations across Canada to raise awareness of the corporation's business practices and how they have affected cities and towns across the country.

When Wal-Town began in 2004, an anti-Wal-Mart movement was already alive and well in the U.S., but there wasn't as much information about Wal-Mart's presence in Canada. That's part of the reason Kirby signed on for the tour.

"I actually went to Concordia University with the group and it was roughly two weeks before they started that I jumped on board," he explains. "So, it was a scramble to get someone from my end involved and to raise some of the initial funds."

Joining the project late also meant Kirby didn't have much time to conduct much preliminary research.

His previous films have covered things like the B.C. logging industry and the most recent Balkan war, so he definitely had an interest in social issues. But he didn't have much of an impression of Wal-Mart beyond the most common negative stereotypes that are associated with multi-national corporations.

"I was very curious - why Wal-Mart? It's sort of an example of how innocuous it is as a company, because it is so ubiquitous.

"Most Canadians are sort of wary of large American companies and are aware of how it affects culture, giving access to a lot of American products and how it doesn't reflect our indigenous interests.

"It's generally known that Wal-Mart has cheaper prices, but it's also known it has inferior goods. I'd heard facts about it using sweatshop labour, but I was largely concerned about the impact it had across Canada."

More than one million Canadians shop at Wal-Mart everyday and about 80% of Canadians have shopped or will shop at Wal-Mart.

Many Canuck consumers on fixed incomes shop at Wal-Mart because of its affordable prices.

Others shop there because of a form of economic entrapment - it's often the only game in town.

Wal-Mart has a sordid history, believes Kirby, of moving into smaller communities and undercutting prices of local businesses, which can't compete with the chain's buying power.

As a result, many of those smaller businesses end up going under.

"When you go to the States, you sort of see where Canada could end up 20 years from now," Kirby says. "You just see these stretched-out communities, devastated downtowns. Their cores are gone, now basically just parking lots and coffee shops. You see this fast-forward motion of us becoming less connected as communities, especially in small towns."

The film details how it's already happened in places like Guelph and its example is exactly what the townspeople of communities like Stratford fear.

But Wal-Town: The Film, Kirby notes, is meant to be less an indictment of the corporation's policies and more an examination of how we as a society allow such blobs to be created in the first place.

"Fundamentally, it boils down to a question of how our economic society is structured. There have to be some checks and balances. What sort of values are rising to the top? The ones that are lost are things like citizenship - our participation - within this economic engine that we've constructed."

Copyright © 2007, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.

Will Wal-Mart sell electricity one day?

2007-02-02T23:59:00.000-05:00

Will Wal-Mart sell electricity one day?
Company enters power industry to cut costs at Texas stores
05:04 PM CST on Monday, January 29, 2007
By ELIZABETH SOUDER / The Dallas Morning News
esouder@dallasnews.com

Wal-Mart's energy strategy goes far beyond selling squiggly lightbulbs. The world's largest retailer could one day sell the electricity, too.

The company recently made big announcements about its environmental goals to sell 100 million compact fluorescent lightbulbs (the corkscrew ones) this year, shift to renewable energy, and install solar panels and windmills at some stores.

More quietly, Wal-Mart has created its own electricity company in Texas, called Texas Retail Energy, to supply its stores with cheap power bought at wholesale prices. This saves the world's largest retailer about $15 million annually and gives the company total control over its utility bills.

Plus Wal-Mart now has the infrastructure to sell electricity to Texas consumers. That could change the game in a deregulated state where high prices have become a hot political issue.

And it could help the giant company to continue to grow, even in one of its most saturated markets.

"We've considered it. Whether or not it will ever materialize, we don't know. It boils down to whether the customers and suppliers want that," said Chris Hendrix, general manager of Texas Retail Energy. "Short-term, it's out of our scope. Longer-term, anything's possible."

Retailers are becoming more sophisticated about buying electricity as deregulation allows power companies to compete for their business.

It's no longer enough for store managers to simply write a check for the utility bill. Now most retailers make electricity decisions at the executive level.

"Because of deregulation, people have changed the way that they look at purchasing this commodity. Before, they would get a bill, they would send it to accounts payable, and that's it. Now there's a lot more that goes into it," said David Wiers, president of the Texas Electricity Professionals Association, a new group of brokers, consultants and other third parties in the power industry.

A company such as 7-Eleven or McDonald's might strike a deal with an electricity retailer to supply all Texas stores at a certain price. Others, including Lowe's, rely on brokers to buy wholesale power for the stores.

Many retailers have installed software to control store lights and temperature from a central location and collect minutely detailed information about their systems, such as the exact temperature inside each freezer.

Such technology gives big-box retailers the ability to get even better deals on electricity by agreeing to cut back electricity use anytime the grid gets overloaded.

No equal

But no other retailer has managed to do what Wal-Mart has accomplished in Texas: cut out the middleman. Wal-Mart buys power directly on the wholesale markets.

"Wal-Mart has made a pervasive commitment to minimizing costs. That's what they do," said Edward Fox, associate professor of marketing at Southern Methodist University.

In other parts of the country, Wal-Mart, the largest private purchaser of electricity in the U.S., buys electricity from third parties, just like any other retailer. But in Texas, the company saw an opportunity to try something new.

It helped found an electricity provider called Creed Power Co. and, in 2004, acquired the remaining stake in the company and changed its name to Texas Retail Energy. Wal-Mart wouldn't disclose the purchase price.

According to filings with the Public Utility Commission, the company exists to serve Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. Wal-Mart would have to file an amendment application to allow the company to serve other customers.

Wal-Mart's stores in Texas use 1.6 million megawatt-hours of electricity each year. That accounts for 0.5 percent of the Texas power grid last year. It's enough juice to power 133,000 homes. And it's about one-third of the annual output of one of the new coal-fired power plants TXU Corp. has proposed.

"We think we can do it cheaper than having somebody do it for us. And secondly, it put us in control of our own destiny," said Mr. Hendrix, of Texas Retail Energy. He said his group of six employees saves Wal-Mart about $15 million a year, net of the cost to run the program.

Mr. Wiers of the electricity professionals association estimates it would cost a couple of million dollars for a retailer to create an in-house electricity supplier.

Power plant next?

Mr. Hendrix said he would consider selling electricity to consumers or to Wal-Mart's suppliers, if that's what customers want. But his main focus is buying power for Wal-Mart itself.

He said he would consider buying a renewable-energy power plant, such as a wind farm, if the company can't find enough vendors to meet Wal-Mart's eventual goal of using only renewable power.

Mr. Hendrix and Angie Beehler, who handles energy regulation and legislation issues for the discounter, are active in Austin. They testify before the Public Utility Commission and take part in workshops. Mr. Hendrix has been a member of a technology advisory committee at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the grid.

Wal-Mart has been stumping for deregulation of electricity markets around the country.

"Anytime you get competition in an energy market, you're going to have choice," Ms. Beehler said. "Don't you like a large selection of green beans? Like Del Monte, Heinz? It's about choice."

Selling electricity could represent a fresh growth opportunity for Wal-Mart.

Mr. Fox of SMU said Texas is the largest market for Wal-Mart, and therefore a saturated market.

"Given their scale and their size, they are at upper limits for what they can do in a particular market," Mr. Fox said.

Still, he added: "There's a lot of pressure to continue to grow."

Mr. Fox said electricity sales could fit with Wal-Mart's push to sell energy-efficient products and its goal to use renewable energy. He pointed to the experimental store in McKinney, where Wal-Mart installed a range of efficient technology and relies on a windmill near the parking lot for some power.

"What Wal-Mart tends to do is they experiment. They make mistakes cheaply by kind of dipping their toe in the water, and then they determine if it's something they can grow and can be a material part of their business," he said.

Mr. Fox said it's unclear whether selling electricity to consumers plays to Wal-Mart's strengths.

"I'm not sure whether it takes advantage of what they do well in terms of distribution and whether they can exploit their relationships with their customers to do well in this market," he said.

For electricity industry insiders, those customer relationships are what make Wal-Mart so intriguing as a possible electricity retailer.

"One of the things that would help our markets would be to have one of the companies in it to decide, 'I'm going to spend the kind of dollars necessary to achieve customer base,' " Public Utility Commissioner Barry Smitherman said.

"You would think a company situated like Wal-Mart that has so many customers coming through their doors every day might be able to acquire customers relatively cheaply or without spending additional dollars," he said.

Texas Retail Energy

Formerly known as: Creed Power Co.

Ownership: Acquired by Wal-Mart, the biggest private electricity user in the nation, in 2004

Business: Supplies power to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in Texas

Annual electricity supplied: About 1.6 million megawatt-hours

Possibilities: Could buy a renewable-power plant or market to consumers

SOURCES: Texas Retail Energy; Public Utility Commission

© 2007 Denton Publishing Co.

Wal-Mart pays itself rent, gets large tax breaks

2007-02-01T20:36:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart pays itself rent, gets large tax breaks
02/01/2007 @ 9:17 am
Filed by Michael Roston

Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer and the world's biggest retailer, is regularly paying itself rent and using the transaction to decrease the taxes it pays to state governments, according to a report in this morning's Wall Street Journal.

The article by Jesse Drucker shows that Wal-Mart has saved hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes in 25 states, and may not be the only company using the practice. Drucker shows that state governments are finally getting wise and working to close a complicated tax loophole that the federal government discontinued years ago.

Wal-Mart is using a tax loophole involving "real-estate investment trusts" to call "rent" it pays to itself a tax-deductible business expense, Drucker explains. A Wal-Mart subsidary will pay rent to a real-estate investment trust, which is owned by another Wal-Mart subsidiary. The trust hands the rent to the second subsidiary in the form of a dividend, which cannot be taxed. Additionally, Wal-Mart counts the initial rental payment as a business expense, which is deducted from taxes in the state where the store is located. In one four-year period, Wal-Mart avoided $350 million in taxes using this strategy, which was developed by the accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP.

The loophole is getting attention in state governments. Newly installed New York Governor Elliot Spitzer said he would close the loophole in the hopes of adding $83 million to New York's state budget, and North Carolina is suing Wal-Mart for back taxes. Smaller companies using the same loophole, like Autozone and Fleet Funding, are also receiving more scrutiny.

The full article can be accessed by subscribers at the Wall Street Journal website. An excerpt is provided below.

#
Wal-Mart could deduct from its state-taxable income the rent paid by Wal-Mart Stores East to the REIT. The REIT paid the majority of its rental earnings to its 99% owner, Wal-Mart Property Co., in the form of dividends. That company's base in Delaware gave it another way to avoid liability for state taxes, since some states do require that dividends a REIT pays to its corporate owner be taxed, as the federal government does.

The Delaware subsidiary then paid the money back to Wal-Mart Stores East, the same subsidiary that made the payments to the REIT to begin with. Those payments to Wal-Mart Stores East weren't taxed either, because dividends paid to a corporation by a subsidiary normally aren't counted as taxable income for the parent company.

The result of the circuitous transaction: Wal-Mart could effectively turn rental payments to itself into state level tax-deductions in most of the states where the payments have been made. Under typical circumstances, rent paid to a third-party landlord also would reduce taxable income. But that would ordinarily be cash out the door, like most other tax-deductible expenses. Here, the majority of the tax-deductible rental payments came straight back to Wal-Mart.

The national tax savings have been significant. Over a four-year period, from 1998 to 2001, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club paid company-controlled REITs a total of $7.27 billion that eventually came back to Wal-Mart in states across the country, according to a North Carolina Department of Revenue auditor's report filed in court by Wal-Mart. Based on an average state corporate income tax rate of 6.5%, three accounting experts consulted by The Wall Street Journal estimated the REIT payments led to a state tax savings for Wal-Mart of roughly $350 million over just those four years. SEC filings show the company paid $1.18 billion in state taxes during that period. The loss of federal deductions that bigger state tax payments would have triggered brought the company's effective tax savings overall down to about $230 million. Wal-Mart declined to comment on the figures.

© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Bill would block Wal-Mart from opening banks

2007-01-30T21:37:00.000-05:00

Bill would block Wal-Mart from opening banks
By April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News
January 16, 2007

A bill that would block Wal-Mart and Home Depot from owning and operating banks in their stores sailed through a Senate committee today.

The move to protect small community banks from what some lawmakers called "big-box" stores' predatory practices comes as Wal-Mart and Home Depot seek to charter and operate banks within their stores across the nation.

"The community banks can not compete against Wal-Mart," said Barbara Walker, executive officer of the Independent Bankers of Colorado. "Just as it has wiped out mom and pop stores in Main Street America, it will wipe out small community banks."

Senate Bill 40, sponsored by Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, and Rep. Rosemary Marshall, D-Denver, would ban retailers from operating affiliated industrial banks.

The measure is aimed at closing a loophole in federal banking laws.

Industrial loan companies, or ILC’s, can offer nearly the same financial services as traditional chartered banks, but with much less scrutiny and oversight, said Walker.

The Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee voted 6-1 to forward the measure to the full Senate.

Similar legislation will be introduced in the House.

The lone dissenting Republican, Sen. Jack Taylor of Steamboat Springs, rejected claims that banks owned and operated by Wal-Mart and Home Depot would drive community banks out of business.

"It’s implied that in a small community, the big-box stores could reduce them down to one bank," he said. "I’m having trouble accepting the argument."

2006 © The E.W. Scripps Co

Legislation aims to head off Wal-Mart-style banks

2007-01-30T21:36:00.000-05:00

Legislation aims to head off Wal-Mart-style banks
The Denver Business Journal - 3:07 PM MST Tuesday
by Renee McGawDenver Business Journal

Colorado's bankers are launching a pre-emptive strike against retailers who want to get into the banking business.

Senate Bill 40, introduced Jan. 10, would prevent a business from running a bank within one-and-a-half miles of its own retail or commercial premises.

"We want to protect the independent banker," said Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Westminster, who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate. Rep. Rosemary Marshall, D-Denver, is the bill's House sponsor.

Tochtrop refused to name names. But one of the bill's obvious targets is Wal-Mart, the retailing giant whose 18-month effort to enter the banking business worries commercial bankers nationwide.

Wal-Mart's July 2005 application to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) to open an industrial bank in Utah caused such an uproar that the FDIC last summer placed a six-month freeze on new industrial bank applications, to give itself time to consider the issue more carefully. That freeze is scheduled to end on Jan. 31.

Industrial banks -- also known as industrial loan corporations, or ILCs -- were first chartered in the early 1900s as small loan companies for industrial workers. But over time, chartering states gradually have allowed them greater powers, and ILCs now offer many of the same products and services as state commercial banks.

Other retailers operate them, including Target and Nordstrom. Still others would like to -- Home Depot and DaimlerChrysler both have ILC applications pending at the FDIC.

But it's the application by retailing juggernaut Wal-Mart that has caused the most consternation, with groups including the AFL-CIO and American Bankers Association urging the FDIC to reject the request.

Wal-Mart told the FDIC that it isn't interested in lending, but wants to be able to handle its own electronic check processing, and credit card and debt card payments from its customers, instead of paying third-party service providers to do it.

But many bankers believe that if Wal-Mart enters the industry, community banks will face the same challenges that have overwhelmed many mom-and-pop retailers in the small towns where Wal-Mart has opened stores.

"If [retailers] are allowed to open their own banks, and can offer discounts to people opening accounts there, it's going to hurt the independent bankers and all the branch banks," Tochtrop said. "In the long run, it also hurts the consumer, because people lose the one-on-one, face-to-face relationship that they have with an independent banker."

"Small businesses depend on their community banks for unbiased credit decisions in order to sustain and grow their operations," officials at Independent Bankers of Colorado (IBC), the driving force behind the bill, said in a statement. "Would a retailer's bank loan money to competing businesses?"

SBl 40 would prohibit a financial institution from establishing an office, loan production office, deposit production office or branch within 1.5 miles of premises owned, leased or otherwise controlled by an affiliate that engages in commercial activities.

On Tuesday, the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee approved the bill by a 5-to-1 vote. The measure will now move to the Senate floor.

The ban wouldn't affect commercial bank branches located inside supermarkets or other commercial establishments, because the banks don't own those retail businesses.

Don Childears, president and CEO of the Colorado Bankers Association, said that his group supports SB 40. The CBA also plans to introduce a separate, similar bill within the next couple of weeks.

"We and the IBC have met and discussed our respective bills several times," Childears said. "We found that we took different approaches, but they are not inconsistent. So we felt that the best thing was to proceed with both of them, and I think generally both of us are supportive of the other's bill."

© 2006 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of bizjournals.

All contents of this site © American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.

Ex-Wal-Mart ad chief files lawsuit

2007-01-28T15:29:00.000-05:00

Thursday, January 25, 2007
Ex-Wal-Mart ad chief files lawsuit
Bloomberg News

DETROIT -- Ex-Wal-Mart Stores Inc. advertising chief Julie Roehm is suing the discount retailer for breach of contract and fraud in federal court in Detroit. She also said Wal-Mart "made false and malicious statements to the media."

Roehm's complaint says Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart told her she was fired last month because she hadn't "been fulfilling the expectations of an officer of the company."

Roehm joined Wal-Mart in January 2006 from DaimlerChrysler AG, where she was director of marketing communications for the Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brands. Before joining DaimlerChrysler in 2001, she worked at Ford Motor Co. for six years, leaving there as head of marketing communications for all Ford-branded vehicles.

Roehm filed her lawsuit in state court in Pontiac, and it was transferred to federal court in Detroit on Jan. 10.

Wal-Mart has struggled to boost sales in recent months. The company dropped Interpublic Group of Co.'s DraftFCB, the advertising agency Roehm hired earlier in the year, three days after her Dec. 4 dismissal.

Roehm said Wal-Mart hasn't paid all the money it owes her. Roehm was an "at-will" employee and isn't entitled to any damages, Wal-Mart said in court papers filed Dec. 18.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said the company wouldn't comment beyond what it said in court papers. John Schaefer, Roehm's attorney, didn't immediately return calls for comment. A message left at Roehm's Arkansas home wasn't immediately returned.

© Copyright 2007 The Detroit News. All rights reserved.

Shareholder proposal filed on Wal-Mart labor

2007-01-28T00:57:00.000-05:00

Shareholder proposal filed on Wal-Mart labor
From Pensions and Investments Online:

New York City Employees’ Retirement System and Illinois State Board of Investment, Chicago, introduced a shareholder proposal at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. calling for the company’s board of directors to issue a report on the company’s alleged failure to comply with International Labor Organization standards on workers’ rights.

“As shareholders, we are concerned with the vast reports of noncompliance with international labor standards in Wal-Mart’s operations, rendering the company a negative reputation and causing (it) considerable economic harm,” William R. Atwood, executive director of the $11.9 billion Illinois fund, wrote in a letter to Thomas D. Hyde, corporate secretary of Wal-Mart.

Representatives of the two funds have talked with Wal-Mart officials about the concern but failed to reach agreement, prompting the funds to sponsor the proposal, Mr. Atwood said in an interview.

The $37 billion NYCERS owns 2,953,214 Wal-Mart shares and ISBI, 451,055 shares.

Wal-Mart officials declined to comment on the talks or the proposal, said John Smiley, spokesman for the Bentonville, Ark.-based company. Wal-Mart’s annual meeting hasn’t been scheduled yet but is typically in June, said Jami Arms, Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

Posted by Laura - January 16, 2007 12:14 PM - In The News

© 2005 United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Privacy Policy
This site is in no way connected with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. or any affiliate of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
The views expressed in the comments posted on this site are those of persons writing those comments and not necessarily those of the Change Wal-Mart Association, WakeUpWalMart.com, or the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. The Change Wal-Mart Association, WakeUpWalMart.com and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union do not vouch for the accuracy or truthfulness of any posted statement or opinion.

OCA Calls on Consumers to Boycott Wal-Mart for Degrading Organic Standards

2007-01-21T08:46:00.000-05:00

Action Alert: Boycott Wal-Mart for Degrading Organic Standards
OCA Calls on Consumers to Boycott Wal-Mart for Degrading Organic Standards
Organic Consumers Association, Jan 17, 2007
Straight to the Source

Six months after OCA requested in a widely circulated "Open Letter" that Wal-Mart stop selling Horizon and Aurora Organic milk coming from intensive confinement factory farm dairies, and stop importing cheap organic foods and ingredients from China and Brazil that could and should be supplied by North American organic farmers, the nation's largest and most ethically-challenged retailer has done what you would expect, nothing.

In addition, as the Cornucopia Institute has pointed out over the past two months, Wal-Mart continues to post signs in its stores that mislead consumers into believing that non-organic items are actually organic. Meanwhile Wal-Mart's friends in the USDA's National Organic Program have, of course, done nothing.

Wal-Mart's entry into the organic and fair trade sector has generated much fanfare and publicity, at great benefit to a company seeking to re-brand itself in the wake of broad-based criticism of its business practices. While seeking to improve both its reputation and bottom line by moving into the organic and fair trade market, Wal-Mart has systematically lowered standards for these products by squeezing suppliers and sourcing supplies from factory farms and overseas suppliers. Currently, the demand for organic products outweighs the supply, and Wal-Mart's entry into the market has only exacerbated the problem.

The popularity of organics for consumers has in large part grown from the knowledge among purchasers that products they purchased were raised and produced in a safe, humane and environmentally friendly manner and in many cases were produced locally or regionally. The industrialization of organics by companies like Wal-Mart threatens the ability of consumers to be certain that products they are purchasing are indeed raised and produced according to true organic standards.

Basta! Enough is enough. It is now obvious that organic consumers and anyone who cares about health, justice, and sustainability should stop "bargain shopping" for organic products at Wal-Mart and its Big Box competitors. Breaking the chains of mindless consumerism means taking into consideration that where you buy an organic or green product is just as important as what you buy. And please keep in mind that boycotting Wal-Mart is not just a symbolic gesture. Over the past year, as OCA and hundreds of other groups have shined the light on America's retail Death Star, Wal-Mart has lost somewhere between two and eight percent of its former customers, sending tremors through Wall Street and causing the company to lose sales and profits. In countries like Germany and South Korea, consumer rejection has forced Wal-Mart to close down its operations entirely.

So today and everyday please boycott Wal-Mart and the other Big Box chains. Whenever possible buy your organic and fair trade products from your local co-op or independently owned natural food store, or from your local farmers directly. For more information on where you can find organic and fair trade products in your local area, go to:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/btc/buyingguide.cfm

Fair Use Notice: The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of scientific, environmental, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal or technical advice.

OPEN LETTER to Wal-Mart from the Organic Consumers Association

2007-01-21T08:44:00.000-05:00

Open Letter to Wal-Mart from the Organic Consumers Association
OPEN LETTER to Wal-Mart from the Organic Consumers Association
July 4, 2006

In the June 12, 2006 Washington Post article "For Wal-Mart, Fair Trade May Be More Than a Hill of Beans," writer Ylan Q. Mui describes one of Wal-Mart's foreign suppliers of fair-trade coffee, a Brazilian co-op farm. The article paints a glowing picture of Wal-Mart's investment in a small coffee farmer, complete with a portrayal of how the company's never-ending quest to cut supplier costs led it to remote Poco Fundo.

Unfortunately, this is only a small part of a larger picture. Wal-Mart's worldwide impact on fair trade and organic standards, farmers and consumers runs much deeper and has far more negative consequences than the article indicates. Wal-Mart has an opportunity to act responsibly and morally to address the issues of lower standards, misleading consumers and squeezing local family-scale farms. By investing significantly in American farmers' transition from conventional to organic production, Wal-Mart can make good on some of the hype its public relations department has produced in recent weeks.

Wal-Mart's entry into the organic and fair trade food market has generated much fanfare and publicity, at great benefit to a company seeking to rebrand itself in the wake of broad-based criticism of its business practices. While seeking to improve both its reputation and bottom line by moving into the organic and fair trade market, Wal-Mart has systematically lowered standards for these products by squeezing suppliers and sourcing supplies from factory farms and overseas suppliers. Currently, the demand for organic products outweighs the supply, and Wal-Mart's entry into the market has only exacerbated the problem.

The scale of Wal-Mart's procurement of organic products, along with its practice of squeezing suppliers to ensure lower costs, has led to a lowering of standards in its organic purchasing and retailing. Organic milk, for instance, is being purchased by Wal-Mart from large factory farms that, while certified as organic, are at best complying with the letter and not the spirit of organic regulations. Many of the cows on these farms have been imported from conventional dairies, where they were weaned on blood, injected with antibiotic and hormones, and fed genetically engineered grains. National USDA organic standards mandate that cows have access to pasture and that a good portion of their food comes from pasture forage. However, according to a 2006 study by the Cornucopia Institute, larger organic suppliers‹including those that supply Wal-Mart‹are raising their dairy cows in intensive confinement, with little or no access to pasture.

The popularity of organics for consumers has in large part grown from the knowledge among purchasers that products they purchased were raised and produced in a safe, humane and environmentally friendly manner and in many cases were produced locally. The industrialization of organics by companies like Wal-Mart threatens the ability of consumers to be certain that products they are purchasing are indeed raised and produced according to true organic standards.

Currently, certified organics and fair-trade products also provide a sustainable source of income for many American small-family farmers who are threatened by the industrialization of these industries. These small local producers source products according to traditional organic and fair trade standards and have historically received a healthy margin on their sales. Unfortunately Wal-Mart and other large retail chains are now buying products labeled as organic, such as soy milk and tofu made from cheap soybeans from China, where organic standards are dubious and farm labor exploitation is the norm. Wal-Mart's decision to enter the organic and fair-trade markets and source from industrialized producers threatens the livelihoods of America's organic family scale farmers.

In spite of these problems that threaten to undermine organic standards and economic opportunities for American small farmers, Wal-Mart has an opportunity to act morally and responsibly by sourcing organics in a sustainable manner. As the world's largest and most financially successful company, Wal-Mart can treat its customers, suppliers and the earth fairly by sourcing organic and fair trade products from local and North American growers who meet the most stringent standards. Further, Wal-Mart can ensure a sustainable supply of organic and fair trade products by signing equitable, long-term contracts with American family farmers who wish to make the transition to organic practices.

Wal-Mart has shown a commitment to sourcing seafood by pressuring suppliers of fish and shrimp to meet Marine Stewardship Council and Aquaculture Certification Council standards. By taking steps to source organic and fair trade products from local and regional smaller producers who are committed to meeting the most stringent standards, Wal-Mart can do the right thing by the environment, its suppliers and its customers.

Ronnie Cummins, National Director, Organic Consumers Association

Fair Use Notice: The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of scientific, environmental, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal or technical advice.

Woman shoots carjacker in Two Notch Wal-Mart parking lot

2007-01-21T08:40:00.000-05:00

Woman shoots carjacker in Two Notch Wal-Mart parking lot

(Columbia) January 16, 2007 - A man and woman who were shopping at the Wal-Mart on Two Notch Road say a would-be carjacker was not only unsuccessful on Saturday - he is now suffering from a gunshot wound.

Harold Jeffcoat, 29, is the suspect. The victims say the man who tried to rob them came towards them as they were getting into their car and said, "Man, you know what time it is? Give me the keys!" Then they say Jeffcoat pushed his pistol into the man's stomach.

That's when the woman acted. She opened the passenger door and got her pistol from the glove box. She says she fired about five shots at the suspect, who ran away.

Officials say they found Jeffcoat at the Providence NE emergency room. He was there for a gunshot wound to the buttocks.

Jeffcoat is currently at the detention center on a $200,000 bond in this case, and is expected to face additional charges.

Police say Jeffcoat was already wanted in connection with half-a-dozen robberies when they arrested him in connection with the Wal-Mart case.

Meanwhile, authorities say the woman who shot the carjacker will not be charged.

Updated 5:09pm by Chantelle Janelle

All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and WISTV, a Raycom Media Station.

Legislation aims to head off Wal-Mart-style banks

2007-01-19T21:08:00.000-05:00

Legislation aims to head off Wal-Mart-style banks
The Denver Business Journal - 3:07 PM MST Tuesday
by Renee McGawDenver Business Journal

Colorado's bankers are launching a pre-emptive strike against retailers who want to get into the banking business.

Senate Bill 40, introduced Jan. 10, would prevent a business from running a bank within one-and-a-half miles of its own retail or commercial premises.

"We want to protect the independent banker," said Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Westminster, who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate. Rep. Rosemary Marshall, D-Denver, is the bill's House sponsor.

Tochtrop refused to name names. But one of the bill's obvious targets is Wal-Mart, the retailing giant whose 18-month effort to enter the banking business worries commercial bankers nationwide.

Wal-Mart's July 2005 application to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) to open an industrial bank in Utah caused such an uproar that the FDIC last summer placed a six-month freeze on new industrial bank applications, to give itself time to consider the issue more carefully. That freeze is scheduled to end on Jan. 31.

Industrial banks -- also known as industrial loan corporations, or ILCs -- were first chartered in the early 1900s as small loan companies for industrial workers. But over time, chartering states gradually have allowed them greater powers, and ILCs now offer many of the same products and services as state commercial banks.

Other retailers operate them, including Target and Nordstrom. Still others would like to -- Home Depot and DaimlerChrysler both have ILC applications pending at the FDIC.

But it's the application by retailing juggernaut Wal-Mart that has caused the most consternation, with groups including the AFL-CIO and American Bankers Association urging the FDIC to reject the request.

Wal-Mart told the FDIC that it isn't interested in lending, but wants to be able to handle its own electronic check processing, and credit card and debt card payments from its customers, instead of paying third-party service providers to do it.

But many bankers believe that if Wal-Mart enters the industry, community banks will face the same challenges that have overwhelmed many mom-and-pop retailers in the small towns where Wal-Mart has opened stores.

"If [retailers] are allowed to open their own banks, and can offer discounts to people opening accounts there, it's going to hurt the independent bankers and all the branch banks," Tochtrop said. "In the long run, it also hurts the consumer, because people lose the one-on-one, face-to-face relationship that they have with an independent banker."

"Small businesses depend on their community banks for unbiased credit decisions in order to sustain and grow their operations," officials at Independent Bankers of Colorado (IBC), the driving force behind the bill, said in a statement. "Would a retailer's bank loan money to competing businesses?"

SBl 40 would prohibit a financial institution from establishing an office, loan production office, deposit production office or branch within 1.5 miles of premises owned, leased or otherwise controlled by an affiliate that engages in commercial activities.

On Tuesday, the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee approved the bill by a 5-to-1 vote. The measure will now move to the Senate floor.

The ban wouldn't affect commercial bank branches located inside supermarkets or other commercial establishments, because the banks don't own those retail businesses.

Don Childears, president and CEO of the Colorado Bankers Association, said that his group supports SB 40. The CBA also plans to introduce a separate, similar bill within the next couple of weeks.

"We and the IBC have met and discussed our respective bills several times," Childears said. "We found that we took different approaches, but they are not inconsistent. So we felt that the best thing was to proceed with both of them, and I think generally both of us are supportive of the other's bill."

© 2006 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved.

All contents of this site © American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.

Grossman Leaves Wal-Mart Watch

2007-01-18T22:16:00.000-05:00

Grossman Leaves Wal-Mart Watch
By Lance Turner
1/4/2007 11:03:44 AM

Wal-Mart Watch, a union-funded nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., that is a vocal critic of the world's largest retailer, said Thursday that its executive director, Andrew Grossman, is leaving his full-time post with the group.

Wal-Mart Watch's board chairman, Andy Stern, said he asked chief of staff David Nassar to be acting executive director.

"As chairman of the Wal-Mart Watch board, I am excited about the future of the campaign to change Wal-Mart, and [the Service Employees International Union] is committed to funding that future," Stern said in a news release. "After two years of strong leadership from Andrew Grossman, he is leaving his full-time position and assuming a consulting role with Wal-Mart Watch. I have asked David Nassar, currently chief of staff, to serve as acting executive director and feel strongly that David will do an excellent job in a permanent capacity."

Nassar is Wal-Mart Watch’s chief of staff and has worked as a field organizer and manager on domestic and international campaigns. He managed pro-democracy programs for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan. He recently managed SEIU’s New Hampshire for Health Care campaign and a congressional race in Pennsylvania.

Among Wal-Mart Watch's criticisms of the retailer is Wal-Mart's compensation of employees. Grossman told Arkansas Business in 2005 that he believes Wal-Mart's bottom line would improve if it adopted many of the group's proposals.

Copyright © 2007, Arkansas Business Limited Partnership. All rights reserved.

Wal-Mart Jumps the Shark

2007-01-18T22:15:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart Jumps the Shark
READ MORE: Wal-Mart

It's official. Management at Wal-Mart has had a complete psychotic break with reality. Today's Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart "using a new computerized scheduling system, will start moving many of its 1.3 million workers from predictable shifts to a system based on the number of customers in stores at any given time.

The move promises greater productivity and customer satisfaction for the huge retailer but could be a major headache for employees." A "major headache." Ya think?

Wal-Mart's management, in an astonishing display of hubris, announces this plan ONE DAY before a new Congress, controlled by Democrats, is sworn in. Many of these Democrats have had Wal-Mart in their crosshairs for years. This hamfisted move would be the PR equivalent of announcing "wage caps" on long-term employees the same month Wake-Up Wal-Mart began a nationwide anti-Wal-Mart bus tour. Oh wait...they did that last August.

Wal-Mart already has had trouble with its new scheduling experiments. Last year 200 employees walked out of a store in Hialeah, FL in protest of a new scheduling system. That's in Florida, reputedly a red state. What will they do in Michigan or California?

As I made clear in my last HuffPo piece, I believe Wal-Mart, driven by the head of the stores Eduardo Castro-Wright, is floundering in its attempts to increase earnings and has decided shifting employees from full-time to part-time is one way to do it. From the same WSJ article:

"(Employees) they may be asked to be "on call" to meet customer surges, or sent home because of a lull, resulting in less pay. The new systems also alert managers when a worker is approaching full-time status or overtime, which would require higher wages and benefits, so they can scale back that person's schedule.

That means workers may not know when or if they will need a babysitter or whether they will work enough hours to pay that month's bills. Rather than work three eight-hour days, someone might now be plugged into six four-hour days, mornings one week and evenings the next."

This may have worked for Mr. Castro-Wright in Mexico when he ran Wal-Mex, but it won't fly here. In my home state of Georgia, a right to work state, Wal-Mart employees email me talking union, motivated by this sort of employee abuse. Wal-Mart is the Tin Man, a logistics machine that can't find its heart.

I made a film extolling Wal-Mart. Robert Greenwald made a film criticizing them. It looks like he was probably right.

Copyright 2006 © HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

Chelan Wal-Mart built, but will it ever open?

2007-01-17T20:30:00.000-05:00

Chelan Wal-Mart built, but will it ever open?
By Lynda V. Mapes
Seattle Times staff reporter

CHELAN — About two weeks from now, Wal-Mart was supposed to celebrate a grand opening here, ushering in a new era in retail shopping — and big changes for this scenic tourist town on the lake.

The shelves are still being stocked. Construction workers are gluing up trim and decking the food court in plastic plants. And some 200 new employees are ready to go to work.

But it's quite possible the big celebration is off. A county judge last week delivered a giant legal victory to a small group of local opponents of the 162,000-square-foot big-box behemoth, agreeing that the project violated the city's zoning rules.

Now they aren't just talking about stopping the grand opening. Some people are talking about tearing the whole thing down.

The dispute has also ignited a vigorous, sometimes bitter debate among neighbors in scenic Chelan, population 3,600, over the future of its character amid a changing economy. While the opponents are celebrating their rare victory as a David-vs.-Goliath battle to protect their way of life, a lot of people have been looking forward to all the amenities and low prices the world's largest retailer would offer.

"I have very mixed feelings on it," says Cindy Aston, who runs a greeting-card and gift shop downtown in what used to be her father's pharmacy.

"Is it going to hurt us? Yes, it will, businesswise. If I didn't think so, I'd be crazy. On the other hand, I think we could use a Wal-Mart."

Bait and switch?

Only a single blue tarp flapping on the exterior wall reveals that the Wal-Mart building on the outskirts of Chelan, where acres of apple orchards have been ripped up for subdivisions, isn't yet complete.

Opening day had been set for Jan. 22 when Chelan County Superior Court Judge Lesley A. Allan on Dec. 29 ruled that the project's building permits are invalid.

The judge sided with Defenders of Small Town Chelan, a group of locals and well-heeled Seattleites with second homes in town, in ruling that the store was inconsistent with the plan as originally approved by the city. The legal dispute revolves around whether the city's zoning for the 18-acre lot intended to limit construction to 50,000 square feet per acre, as Wal-Mart contends, or 50,000 for the entire project, as the opponents maintain.

"This was a bait-and-switch on the part of the city and Wal-Mart," said Kathy George, a Seattle lawyer who represents the opponents. "The city told the public this was going to be a nice business park with buildings up to 50,000 square feet, and that it would be good for jobs. It skated through the process with hardly any public concern. Years later, we get a 162,000-square-foot store."

For Laurel Jamtgaard, who heads the group that has managed to raise all of $15,000 for the cause, the issue is fundamentally about protecting the town's charm.

"It is just so out of scale for a small community," Jamtgaard said. "I'm totally empathetic to people trying to buy goods at lower prices and tired of driving to Wenatchee or Omak. But every small town doesn't have to have one of these stores. Part of living in a place like this is being further from that kind of convenience."

Now the group plans to ask the judge to send the permits back to the city, and yank the temporary occupancy permit Wal-Mart has been using to stock the store, hire employees and get ready for opening day.

No one here thinks it's likely the building will be torn down, but no one can say it won't, either. That wouldn't just cost the company millions. Near as anyone can tell, it would be a first in the long history of fights between communities and the Arkansas-based retailer.

Weighing options

Wal-Mart admits the judge's decision caught it by surprise, to say the least. The company had been continuing to work toward the big opening, with workers stocking shelves since early December under a temporary permit. It had assumed it would win the case, assured that the project was legal because the permits had been issued.

"We've never had anything like this happen before," said Jennifer Holder, a Wal-Mart public-affairs manager based in Seattle. "We are weighing our options. We'll be talking to the city and to our attorneys to figure out what we need to do to make the situation right."

Meanwhile, city officials are bristling at the ruling — and the assertions from Jamtgaard and others that the public was left out of the decision to allow Wal-Mart to come to town.

"The city's position is we have not erred, and we followed the city's laws and procedures to a T," said Dave Fonfara, the city administrator. The city is weighing whether to appeal, he said, but the next chapter in this story is "a matter of speculation."

A sore subject

The Wal-Mart issue clearly is about much more than zoning codes.

"I think it is going to divide the town," says Gene Kelly, owner of Kelly's, a hardware store that sells everything from shotguns to tricycles. It's the oldest business in town, family-run since 1958, and currently employs 20 people.

"There are some benefits to having it. But Wal-Mart is kind of a sore subject. Big is trying to swallow little. We have a lot of small shops that aren't going to survive."

A few doors down, at Cindy Aston's store, Aston's Cards and Etc., the stuffed head of a bull elk gazes down at the froufrou where her father's pharmacy counter used to be. Now it's a pink wall to complement an inventory of lacy, scented girlie things.

Aston, who serves on the local chamber of commerce, said she prides herself on small-town service that includes personally delivering cards to customers in the local nursing home so they may make their selections bedside, and even mailing the cards. But she also knows people can use the products Wal-Mart will offer. And the city can certainly use the jobs and the tax revenue.

"But those are the only things I can come up with that are good."

Amid all the debating and the legal wrangling, another group of locals has been hard at work, too.

Kevin Huff of Wenatchee was hired to work in the garden center, and has been busy helping to get the store ready for a grand opening he is certain will come.

If not in two weeks, he figures, then eventually.

"I'm not worried about it," Huff said.

"These things have a way of working out. Most people want the store."

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com.

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company

Wal-Mart Clarification Statement Admits 8% Increase in Enrollment Was Incorrect

2007-01-15T21:06:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart Clarification Statement Admits 8% Increase in Enrollment Was Incorrect
04:05 PM, January 13th 2007
by Dan Nicolae Alexa

Wal-Mart issued a statement to clarify its misleading health care figures. According to Wal-Mart's latest statement, the company says that it was wrong when it told the New York Times, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and other media publications that it provided company health care to 638,000 Associates in January 2006.

Now, Wal-Mart claims that the actual number of Associates covered under the company health care plan was 615,000 Associates in January 2006.

If Wal-Mart's new number is true, that means Wal-Mart's statement on January 11, 2007, that it increased its health care enrollment by 8%, was false. Under Wal-Mart's new number the company would have only increased its enrollment by 3.7%, if that's even true, less than half of its original claim.

In addition, Wal-Mart continues to mislead the press about the percentage of its employees covered under the company health care plan. In yesterday's news reports, Linda Dillman, Wal-Mart's executive vice president of benefits knowingly misled the public when she told the Associated Press, "Whatever numbers you use, the fact is there is a consistent upward trend."

Unfortunately for Wal-Mart and Ms. Dillman, the 47.4% figure the company cited in its press release yesterday is below the 48% figure that appears both in the internal Wal-Mart health care memo authored by then-Senior Vice President for Benefits Susan Chambers and the 48% reported by Business Week in February 2005, almost two years ago.

"We understand why Wal-Mart would want to try and cover up the fact that it fails to provide company health care to over half of its employees, but this is starting to get ridiculous," said Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com. "Apparently, Wal-Mart fails to understand that this is not just some game where you can make up the numbers or pick arbitrary dates during the year to put the best spin on poor results. We hope Wal-Mart will stop playing games with the American public, lawmakers, Wall Street, and the media and will start telling the truth."

Wal-Mart accused of mislabeling ‘organic’ food

2007-01-14T14:07:00.000-05:00

Published - Saturday, January 13, 2007
Wal-Mart accused of mislabeling ‘organic’ food
By Reid Magney
Lee Newspapers

ONALASKA, Wis. — Wal-Mart has begun offering hundreds of organic items alongside its conventional grocery products.

But that “Wal-Mart Organics” sign on the store shelf doesn’t always mean the product is organic, critics claim.

Friday, a Wisconsin-based organic food watchdog group filed a complaint against Wal-Mart with the state’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

The Cornucopia Institute, a progressive farm and food policy research group, contends Wal-Mart’s Onalaska store mislead consumers by using “Wal-Mart Organics” signs on products that are not organic.

To be labeled “USDA Organic,” food must be produced in accordance with certain standards, without pesticides, artificial fertilizers, hormones and other ingredients.

Wal-Mart corporate spokeswoman Karen Burke said any mislabeling was “inadvertent.”

Cornucopia co-founder Mark Kastel of La Farge, Wis., said Friday that Wal-Mart doesn’t take the mislabeling seriously. His group has documented similar problems at dozens of Wal-Marts across the country, he said.

Kastel wrote to Wal-Mart’s CEO about the problem in September. When nothing changed, Cornucopia filed a complaint with the USDA in early November.

“Someone needs to take action to end this abuse of the organic label, and we are calling upon the

See WAL-MART, page 3A

state of Wisconsin to act if the USDA and Wal-Mart are unwilling or unable to correct the problem,” Cornucopia said in its complaint to DATCP.

Cornucopia charged that “Wal-Mart Organics” cards were used to advertise tubs of non-organic Stonyfield Farms yogurt in Onalaska. The cards were printed with the product’s name and price.

Friday, the La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune verified Cornucopia’s claim about the labeling for Stonyfield Farms yogurt and pointed it out to a Wal-Mart manager. The La Crosse Supercenter had no such labeling on the yogurt.

The Tribune also found “organic” point-of-sale signs on shelves with non-organic eggs and non-organic rice milk at the Onalaska Supercenter. At the La Crosse Supercenter, “organic” signs were on cooler shelves in the produce section containing non-organic Asian food products.

“Although Wal-Mart has more than 2,000 locations that may offer up to 200 organic selections in addition to thousands of non-organic offerings, we believe it to be an isolated incident should a green organic identifying tag be inadvertently placed by or accidentally shift in front of the wrong item,” Burke said. “The USDA certification label is featured on the packaging of the organic selections we offer for further customer information and verification.”

She added, “We continue to work with our store associates to have the identifying tags checked periodically for accuracy.”

Natural food stores and cooperatives, once the only source for organic foods, have been concerned Wal-Mart’s entry into organics could lead to weakened standards.

Michelle Schry, general manager of the People’s Food Co-op in La Crosse, said people who are new to organics “really need to be able to count on not only the package labeling, but also the store signage, because they’re being introduced to a whole new class of products.”

Schry also is president of the National Cooperative Grocers Association, whose 106 members have combined annual sales of more than $700 million. “Our biggest concern about Wal-Mart getting into the organics business, is that we want them to be a partner to ensure that they maintain the integrity of organics,” she said.

Rob Pretasky, specialty foods director for Onalaska-based Festival Foods, said their sales of “natural” foods, including organics, have doubled in the past three years, making it the fastest-growing category.

“We never put any signs up on anything and say it’s organic unless it is a USDA-approved organic seal product,” said Pretasky. “We’re very fussy about how we sign our items.”

On the Web

Wal-Mart Organics site:

walmart.triaddigital.com/Walmart-Organics.aspx

The Cornucopia Institute:

www.cornucopia.org

USDA National Organic Program:

www.ams.usda.gov/NOP

A photo of the “Wal-Mart Organics” sign at the Onalaska Wal-Mart with non-organic Stonyfield Farms yogurt can be seen online at www.rivervalleyblogs.com

Reid Magney can be reached at (608) 791-8211 or rmagney@lacrossetribune.com.

Copyright © 1997 - 2005 The Winona Daily News. All rights reserved.

Fabric may be permanently pulled from Wal-Mart’s shelves

2007-01-13T06:27:00.000-05:00

Fabric may be permanently pulled from Wal-Mart’s shelves
by Jaime Baranyai - Staff Writer
Published: Friday, January 5, 2007 6:00 PM CST

The fabric departments in several Wal-Mart stores may soon be done away with, which would mean more traveling and higher prices for those who sew or quilt in the area.

Although some customers who shop at the St. Robert Wal-Mart SuperCenter said the management there has told them the fabric department will be taken from the store sometime within the next four months, the management would not confirm that for the Rolla Daily News. Management at the Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Rolla also declined to say whether the rumor was true.

“We can’t really say anything,” a manager at the Rolla Wal-Mart SuperCenter who wished to remain anonymous said. “You’ll have to call corporate.”

After more than a dozen phone calls to corporate and two hours later, the Rolla Daily News received an e-mail from a Wal-Mart communications official relaying the following details.

“Wal-Mart will continue to carry cut fabric in most of our stores,” the letter from Jami Arms, Wal-Mart spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Corporate Communications, stated. “In keeping with our emphasis on being a store of the community, Wal-Mart is converting the fabrics and crafts department in some stores to a newly expanded assortment of merchandise that focuses on life’s celebrations. We are thrilled to offer our customers this exciting new crafts and celebrations center that makes available craft and party planning needs along with information on current trends and new ideas in the area of life’s celebrations such as holidays, weddings and birthdays.”

The letter went on to say that in those stores where the new crafts and celebrations center is placed, merchandise commonly referred to as notions, such as sewing machines, yarn, needles, thread, etc., will continue to be included in the product offerings.

“As part of this conversation, most of our new and remodeled stores opening in early 2007, as well as a small number of existing stores, will feature the new crafts and celebrations center in place of cut fabrics,” Arms wrote. “Because the evaluation of stores is still in progress, we do not have available to share a list of stores scheduled to receive the new crafts and celebrations center.”

While there is still no official word on whether the fabric departments in Wal-Mart area stores will stay or go, area residents aren’t taking the rumors lightly. One from St. Robert is even starting her own petition against it.

“I’ve been told that all the fabric departments in Wal-Mart stores nationwide are going to be shut down and be replaced with those celebration centers,” Judy McFarland of St. Robert said. “Sam Walton would roll over in his grave if he knew what was happening. I’ve made phone calls, written letters, sent e-mails and now I’m trying to get a petition together. I don’t usually do this kind of thing, but this really hit me hard and it’s something that means a lot to me.”

Her reasons for wanting to keep the fabric departments open in Wal-Mart stores are many. McFarland is most concerned about the price she and others will have to pay, as well as the distance they’ll have to travel, to buy material and sewing or quilting supplies if the Wal-Mart fabric departments close.

“For many people, Wal-Mart is the only store that has affordable sewing materials and is within a reasonable driving distance,” she said. “For the people who sew and make quilts in the Rolla, St. Robert, Salem, Houston and Lebanon areas, Springfield would be the next closest place for us to find what we need and that’s about a two-hour drive away. Many of the women in my community and quilting club wouldn’t even be able to make that kind of a drive.”

Nina Decker, of Rolla, has some of the same concerns.

“It would be especially bad for the Rolla area because Wal-Mart is the only store where you can buy fabric at a reasonable price,” she said. “There are a few other places, but they charge higher prices and I can’t afford that.”

Decker is also apprehensive about having to drive outside the area to get the sewing supplies she needs.

“I’m concerned that if the fabric department leaves Wal-Mart then I’ll have to drive to Jefferson City to get what I need to make clothes for my grandchildren,” she said. “That’s a bit far to drive just for some sewing supplies, but I guess that’s where I’ll have to go if this ends up happening.”

If Wal-Mart decides to get rid of its fabric departments, Decker hopes the store will keep stocking basic items needed for sewing and quilting such as buttons, zippers and thread.

“If they have to pare it down I hope they can keep the basics, even that would help,” she said. “People in this area just don’t have anywhere else to go for these things.”

McFarland is also worried about the wide range of people who will be affected if Wal-Mart decides to discontinue its fabric departments.

“This isn’t just going to affect women who like to sew,” she said. “Mothers who sew their children’s clothes, schools and home economics departments who teach sewing projects, church groups who quilt blankets, wives from the fort who work on fabric projects, people in nursing homes who sew and quilt, and many others rely on the Wal-Mart fabric department for affordable supplies, patterns and material. ‘What’s going to happen when they can no longer get what they need?’”

McFarland said she learned of a managers’ meeting scheduled to take place in Kansas City in a few weeks during which closing the fabric departments will be discussed. She would like to have her petition ready by then.

“The managers can’t just go up there and say, ‘I don’t think we should do this,’” she said. “We have to give them the backup they need. They need signatures, letters and phone calls so corporate realizes it doesn’t have to do this. I think the managers really want to be there for us, but they’re stuck in the middle. If we give them some backup, then maybe they’ll have some more power. I’m sure they’re trying their best, but I know their hands are tied.”

Those wishing to make comments to Wal-Mart can do so by calling 1-800-Wal-Mart or writing a letter to Wal-Mart Headquarters, 702 S.W. Eighth St., Bentonville, AR 72716. To sign the petition, visit the Web site: http://www.petitiononline.com/savefab/petition.html, or call Judy McFarland at (573) 336-7482.

Copyright © 2006 GateHouse Media, Inc. Some Rights Reserved.

WAL-MART'S NEW HEALTH CARE FIGURES PROVE THAT WAL-MART’S HEALTH CARE CRISIS WORSENED IN 2006

2007-01-12T15:21:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart's New Health Care Figures Prove That Wal-Mart's Health Care Crisis Worsened in 2006

January 11, 2007-->

Our latest press release:

WAL-MART'S NEW HEALTH CARE FIGURES PROVE THAT WAL-MART’S HEALTH CARE CRISIS WORSENED IN 2006

WAL-MART’S FIGURES CONTRADICT EARLIER STATEMENTS AND SHOW THE NUMBER OF WAL-MART EMPLOYEES INSURED BY THE COMPANY ACTUALLY DECREASED IN 2006

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Wal-Mart falsely claimed that the number of Wal-Mart employees covered by the company health care plan increased in 2006. Wal-Mart’s latest health care numbers directly contradict Wal-Mart’s figures from last year and prove that the company’s health care crisis actually worsened. In fact, both in absolute numbers and on percentage basis, the number of Wal-Mart workers covered under the company health care plan actually decreased in 2006.

Last year, at the end of Wal-Mart’s health care enrollment period, Wal-Mart made public statements to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets claiming that "638,000 workers were now insured by the company.” Today, Wal-Mart said at the end of this year’s enrollment period it now insured only 636,391 workers. Therefore, Wal-Mart’s new health care enrollment decreased, not increased, by almost 2,000 workers compared to the same time last year.

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart wrongly claimed today, and several media outlets mistakenly reported on this wrong number, that Wal-Mart’s figure of 636,391 employees represents an 8% increase in enrollment.

It is impossible for Wal-Mart to have increased enrollment by 8% unless Wal-Mart lied to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and only insured 589,250 employees last year, not the 638,000 it claimed.

Even on a percentage basis, Wal-Mart’s figures are not accurate. This year, Wal-Mart claims it increased the percentage of workers covered under the company health care plan to an embarrassing 47.4%. But, at the end of last year, Wal-Mart told the Wall Street Journal that it provided company health care to 49% of its workers. Therefore, the 47.4% actually represents a decrease of 1.6%.

Based on the misleading statements made today by Wal-Mart, WakeUpWalMart.com released the following statement attributable to Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com.
"Incredibly, Wal-Mart's own health care numbers prove that the Wal-Mart health care crisis has worsened. The sad truth is that despite making $11 billion in annual profit, Wal-Mart still fails to provide company health care to over half of its employees.
Given the enormous cost American taxpayers must pay to subsidize Wal-Mart’s health care crisis, we call on Wal-Mart to stop misleading the American people and our elected leaders who expect, if nothing else, that America's largest private employer will live up to it's health care responsibilities.

At a minimum, Wal-Mart should have the decency to remember how many workers they actually provide health care to and stop changing the numbers in a deliberate and desperate attempt to mislead the public and the media as the company tries to repair its faltering public image.

In the end, we hope that Wal-Mart will wake up and realize that continuing to make misleading statements about its health care crisis will not only fail to improve its faltering public image, but will only further stoke the anger of the American people and our elected leaders who expect Wal-Mart to finally change for the better.”

#######
Click here to read the story in the Washington Post.
Posted by Laura - January 11, 2007 10:56 AM - Hard to Believe

© 2005 United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Privacy Policy
This site is in no way connected with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. or any affiliate of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

The views expressed in the comments posted on this site are those of persons writing those comments and not necessarily those of the Change Wal-Mart Association, WakeUpWalMart.com, or the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. The Change Wal-Mart Association, WakeUpWalMart.com and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union do not vouch for the accuracy or truthfulness of any posted statement or opinion. The Change Wal-Mart Association, WakeUpWalMart.com and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union have, however, refrained from posting any item containing any statement known to be inaccurate, false or baseless.

Wal*Mart to Offer Just In Time Children for Parents with Just In Time Schedules

2007-01-12T14:39:00.000-05:00

Wal*Mart to Offer Just In Time Children for Parents with Just In Time Schedules
By Joan Chalmers Williams

When I saw the headlines about Wal*Mart moving to flexible scheduling, I was see that the company has decided to become a leader in the work/life arena. Here's a bit from The Wall Street Journal:

[U]sing a new computerized scheduling system, [WalMart] will start moving many of its 1.3 million workers from predictable shifts to a system based on the number of customers in stores at any given time. The move promises greater productivity and customer satisfaction for the huge retailer but could be a major headache for employees...

The WSJ seemed worried about what would happen to Wal*Mart associates' children if the ability to arrange child care were hamstrung by schedules that changed unpredictably from week to week.

No worries. I have it on inside information that Wal*Mart is just about to announce that it is providing its associates with Just In Time Children to enable associates to work the new Just In Time Schedules.

Here's how it works. As each Wal*Mart store shifts over to Just In Time Scheduling, associates' children will be magically transformed into beings who can be freeze-dried whenever their parents are called to work at a time there's no one to care for them.

It's simple. Say you have a working family where both parents work, but on different shifts -- one in four American families "tag team" this way, and Wal*Mart associates are likely to because who could pay for child care if you are working at a Wal*Mart associate's salary? So the family has it worked out that dad cares for the kids when mom's at work, and mom does when dad's at work.

But with Just In Time Scheduling, mom's schedule is changed from week to week. Not a problem, though, because now with Wal*Mart's new Just In Time Kidz, you can freeze dry those little ones and store them safely away for those hours and hours when they otherwise would be home alone. No more worries about 8 years old taking care of 5- and 3-year old siblings, or about toddlers left home alone, or about what in God's name the teenagers are doing from 3 to 6 that make that period when most teenage pregnancies and crimes take place.

What a business opportunity for Wal-Mart! In fact, the company is secretly working on a plan to market its Just In Time Schedules and Just In Time Kidz in Europe. Then Europeans will be able to abolish all their expensive, old-fashioned "real time" child care, and flexible schedule schemes that give workers some control, and replace them with schedules and children that meet the needs of a globalized world.

What will they think of next? Hat's off, Wal*Mart.

Jan 5, 2007 -- 01:43 PM EST

Copyright © 2006 TPM Media LLC. All Rights Reserved

Wal-Mart Recalls Trail Mix After Reports of Glass, Plastic

2007-01-11T20:44:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart Recalls Trail Mix After Reports of Glass, Plastic
Jan 2nd - 6:02pm
By MARCUS KABEL AP Business Writer

(AP) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. recalled a house brand of trail mix and took remaining bags off shelves nationwide after three customers said they found glass or hard plastic in bags bought in two states, the retailer and the mix's maker said Tuesday.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said it ordered stores over the weekend to remove Sam's Choice "Nature Trail" Trail Mix from sale. It also programed cash registers at all stores to block sales of the product, spokeswoman Karen Burk said.

The product is supplied to Wal-Mart by Jessup, Md.-based Ann's House of Nuts.

Jim Giles, vice president of quality assurance for Ann's, said the company had launched an investigation at its plant in Robersonville, N.C., where the trail mix was produced.

Giles said three Wal-Mart customers in Ohio and North Carolina had called the retailer to report finding what looked like glass or hard plastic particles in 28-ounce bags of the product. The bags had not yet been collected from the consumers, but one consumer described the particles as being "about the size of a 1-carat diamond," Giles said.

No injuries were reported, he said.

Ann's has asked a food lab to collect the bags and analyze the contents to determine what kind of product the glass or plastic came from, which could help determine the source of the problem, Giles said.

"We're thinking that maybe it was in one of the six ingredients in this product," he said.

But Ann's is still looking at other possibilities and plans to interview the production line crew when they return to work Wednesday from a New Year's break.

There was no evidence of deliberate tampering, and law enforcement officials were not involved, Giles said.

Ann's produces over 30 million bags a year of various brands of trail mix and has had no other complaints like this, Giles said.

Wal-Mart said the Sam's Choice "Nature Trail" in question is marked "Best by APR-23-2007." The bags are also marked "MFG OCT-23-2006" to reflect the manufacturing date.

Wal-Mart asked customers who purchased the affected trail mix to return the product for a full refund or replacement.

(Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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

Former Wal-Mart employee arrested for check fraud scheme in Spring

2007-01-09T22:34:00.000-05:00

Former Wal-Mart employee arrested for check fraud scheme in Spring
Suspect accused of re-running shoppers' checks
By Jeff Ehling

(12/06/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - A former Wal-Mart employee is behind bars for her role in what authorities are calling a check fraud scheme.

When you write a check at Wal-Mart, you hand it to a clerk who then runs the check through an electronic scanner and hands it back to you. Unfortunately some Wal-Mart shoppers in Spring did not get their checks handed back to them and it cost them thousands of dollars.

Pam Davis never thought writing a $37 check at Wal-Mart would cost her thousands of dollars, but that's exactly what happened.

She said, "I had gone to Wal Mart and written a check for $37 and did not realize I did not get that check back, which is the custom with electronic transfer. You are supposed to receive the check back."

Davis says -- and authorities confirm -- a clerk at the Wal-Mart on Kuykendahl never returned Davis' check at the time of purchase, the clerk was able to re-run the check through the electronic reader again and again.

"Five times, they changed the amounts each time," Davis claimed. "It was almost $3,000."

On Tuesday Precinct 4 constables arrested that now former Wal-Mart clerk. Dazzie Mingo is charged with aggravated felony theft. Authorities believe Mingo gave the checks to other people who then went on shopping sprees inside the store.

Capt. Mark Herman with Precinct 4 said, "In some of the cases they were getting $300 Wal-Mart gift cards, clothing, just all kinds of purchases."

Constables say Mingo did the same thing with checks written by other Wal-Mart customers.

"Right now we definitely have four victims identified," Capt. Herman told Eyewitness News. "We have other cases that we know, that she used other accounts. We have not identified the victims in those cases yet because all we have are the account numbers."

Davis says when she contacted Wal-Mart about the fraud, the company started an investigation and Mingo left shortly thereafter.

Normally in a case like this the bank would reimburse a customer who falls victim to wire fraud. But because Davis did not discover the fraud until after 30 days had passed, the bank is not required to replace the money and Davis says Wal-Mart will not refund the missing $3,000 either.

When we asked Wal-Mart about refunding the money, all the company spokesperson would say was, "The associate is no longer with the company. Please refer to the local authorities for details."

Constables tell us more arrests could be made in this case, and they are certain there are other victims who do not yet know money is missing from their checking accounts. If you think you may have been a victim of this, call the Precinct 4 constable's office at 281-376-3472.

There are a few tips for shoppers:

First, realize that not every store handles checks the same way but, if you shop at Wal-Mart, make sure your check is handed back to you after the clerk scans it.

Also, keep a close eye on your checking account transactions online, or by phone.

The moment you see any suspicious activity, call the bank.

And third, try sticking with credit cards, or at least, debit cards. It's easier to challenge fraudulent transactions, and you can limit your liability for illegitimate charges.

Jeff has more tips to protect yourself when paying cash, check or charge on the abc13.com Consumer Blog.

Copyright ©2007 ABC Inc., KTRK-TV Houston.

Wal-Mart workers may face shifting shifts

2007-01-08T20:24:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart workers may face shifting shifts
The discount retailer will move employees to working hours based on how many customers are in the store, according to a published report.
January 3 2007: 4:45 PM EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will start moving many of its 1.3 million workers from predictable shifts to a system based on how many customers are in stores at a given time, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Wal-Mart (Charts) will start making the changes this year with the help of a new computerized scheduling system, the paper said.

The move promises more productivity and consumer satisfaction but could demand more flexibility and availability from workers in place of reliable shifts and predictable pay checks, the Journal reported.

Wal-Mart started using the system for some workers, including cashiers and accounting-office personnel, last year, the paper also reported.

Company officials were not immediately available for comment.

Wal-Mart, which reported better than expected December sales last week, has faced tough competition from discounter Target (Charts) and department stores J.C. Penney (Charts) and Federated (Charts).

Copyright 2007 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.

Wal-Mart employees ask judge for $62 million more damages in break-time case

2007-01-07T21:32:00.000-05:00

Wal-Mart employees ask judge for $62 million more damages in break-time case
By Maryclaire Dale
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11:49 a.m. January 3, 2007

PHILADELPHIA – Wal-Mart workers in Pennsylvania who won a $78.5 million judgment for working off the clock and through rest breaks returned to court Wednesday to seek another $62 million in damages.

They argue that the approximately 125,000 class members deserve an additional $500 each in damages under Pennsylvania labor laws because the jury found Wal-Mart acted in bad faith. The plaintiffs already are expected to receive from about $50 to a few thousand dollars each, depending on how long they worked for the company.

Lawyers for Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, say the class members do not meet the state statute's requirements for so-called liquidated damages, which are designed to compensate people for the delay in payment.

It was not clear if Common Pleas Judge Mark Bernstein would immediately rule on the issue Wednesday afternoon or take it under advisement.

Bernstein oversaw the five-week trial, which culminated in October when the jury rejected Wal-Mart's claim that some employees chose to work through breaks and that the off-the-clock work was minimal.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., earned $11.2 billion in profits on $312.4 billion in sales in the last fiscal year.

Plaintiffs lawyer Michael Donovan of Philadelphia argued at trial that the unpaid work gave Wal-Mart an unfair advantage in the marketplace.

Lead plaintiff Dolores Hummel said she worked about 10 hours each month off the clock to keep up with work demands at a Sam's Club in Reading, where the single mother worked for 10 years to support her son. Sam's Clubs are a division of Wal-Mart.

The suit covers current and former employees who worked at Wal-Mart and Sam's Clubs in Pennsylvania from March 1998 through May 2006.

Wal-Mart is appealing a $172 million verdict in a similar California case and settled a Colorado suit over unpaid wages for $50 million.

Wal-Mart policy in Pennsylvania gives hourly employees one paid 15-minute break during a shift of at least three hours and two such breaks, plus an unpaid 30-minute meal break, on a shift of at least six hours.

© Copyright 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. • A Copley Newspaper Site

The Wal-Mart Flap

2007-01-07T00:28:00.000-05:00

Tales From The Marketing Wars
The Wal-Mart Flap
Jack Trout 12.19.06, 6:00 AM ET

Nothing has excited and riled up the advertising agency business as much as Wal-Mart's recent firing of Julie Roehm and the agency she just hired.

It was all over the business press, but nothing captured it better than the big headline in Advertising Age magazine that proclaimed: "Unruly Julie and the Scandal That Rocked the Ad World."

For those that missed the flap, Julie's problem was supposedly accepting fancy dinners in New York City, driving around in a fancy car with an agency head, pushing her favorite choice of agency or even having an affair with her assistant. The agency world hasn't had excitement like this since the time that Mary Wells of Wells Rich Greene married the CEO of her biggest client, Braniff International (and had to resign the account). Mary always had a lot of style.

Ms. Roehm was hired to help Wal-Mart change from a down-market, price driven image to one that would attract the likes of those suburbanites shopping at Target and other slightly up-market establishments. Famous for her edgy double entendre marketing at Chrysler, she rode into the Wal-Mart culture like a tank driving through a brick wall. Julie described all her problems to being a "change agent" in an organization that didn't really want to change.

What is missing in all these articles is an analysis of whether or not Wal-Mart can or should change. I've written in the past that once a brand has established itself in the value or price category, it is almost impossible to go up market and attract a group of customers that are already going for fancier brands. Wal-Mart is a mass merchandiser that clearly is all about "always low prices."

That's why people shop there.

And their culture, store layouts and advertising push price for all it's worth. Retailers such as Ames or regional price players such as Caldor's tried to compete on price but are long deceased.

Target played it perfectly. Rather than go head-to-head with Godzilla, they decided to offer mass with class, or department store type merchandise for less. They used unique designs and nicer store layouts to attract those folks that were a bit more up-market and tended to look down on the down-market, Wal-Mart shopper. Remember, when you walk into a Wal-Mart, you are telling the world you are a price shopper. When you walk into Target, you are telling the world you have a little more taste than a price buyer. When you walk into Neiman Marcus you are telling the world that you have a lot of money and a great deal of taste.

Like everything else in this very competitive world, trying to be everything for everybody just doesn't work. You are what you are in the minds of your customers and prospects, and leaving that position tends to generate confusion. Higher prices in a low-price store just suggests to your customers that you might be ripping them off.

The same goes for products. When Toyota went up market with a $50,000 automobile, it gave it a different brand name (Lexus), as did Honda (Acura). They didn’t want their customers to feel they were buying puffed up Toyotas or Hondas.

So, to me, someone at Wal-Mart recognized that change was not such a good thing for Wal-Mart to pursue. (Absolutely.) And with that realization, Julie and her new agency were no longer needed. In fact, if they hung around, all they would do is cause confusion among employees and customers. (Absolutely.)

Of course, this is past. What about the future? The answer to this question is now in the hands of John Fleming, the chief marketing officer. Already, you're reading about suggestions being lobbed by all the so-called experts. Be more targeted. Evolve. Stop making everything a commodity. My take is that if you're about value, talk more about value instead of price. You might even let your customers get a peek at what they do behind the shelves to offer that value. And you certainly can make the shopping experience better with friendlier service. (Think Southwest, which has flight attendants doing stand-up comedy.) What they shouldn't do is get fancy and try to go up market against the likes of Target.

All this points to a simple truth: It's never too early or too late to correct a mistake. No matter what the embarrassment.

With more than 40 years of experience in advertising and marketing, Jack Trout is the acclaimed author of many marketing classics, including Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Marketing Warfare, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Differentiate or Die, Big Brands Big Trouble, A Genie's Wisdom and his latest, Trout on Strategy. He is president of marketing consultancy Trout & Partners and has consulted for such companies as AT&T, IBM, Southwest Airlines, Merck, Procter & Gamble and others. Recognized as one of the world's foremost marketing strategists, Trout is the originator of "positioning" and other important concepts in marketing strategy.

Lansing family can't have cake and eat it, too

2007-01-01T06:27:00.000-05:00

Published December 28, 2006
[ From Lansing State Journal ]
Schneider: Lansing family can't have cake and eat it, too

Once Jim Kavalaris managed to chisel out the first serving of an unusually hard-to-cut birthday cake, he called out to his mother:

"THIS IS NOT A REAL CAKE."

Kavalaris' mother, assuming he was just being a brat, conceded that she probably should have gone to a real bakery for a high-quality cake, but she ran out of time, etc., and he should quit complaining ...

Advertisement

"No - look for yourself," said Kavalaris, motioning for his mother to come closer and see what he meant. "It's not REAL."

As in NOT CAKE.

In an e-mail to me, Kavalaris, who lives in Delta Township, described what he and his mother gazed upon: "Bubbles of the same stuff used as packing material were all over the plate, the knife and what was left of the frosting ..."

Beneath the edible icing, the cake, bought at Sam's Club at Eastwood Towne Center, was pure Styrofoam.

Double birthday

That was on Christmas Day, as the family worked a double-birthday celebration into their holiday. The honorees were Jim, about to turn 37, and his grandmother, Chrisoula Limber of Lansing, who will soon turn 96.

The cake was nicely decorated with red and green flowers on a white background and the words, "Happy Birthday Mom and Jim."

After the candles were blown out and Jim tried to cut the cake, he thought maybe it was slightly frozen and considered popping it in the microwave oven - "just to loosen it up a little."

Imagine how that would have smelled.

For display only

Responding to my inquiry, Sam's Club manager Jeff Hartsaw theorized that an employee must have mistakenly picked up a Styrofoam display cake coated with white frosting, thought it was real and added the finishing touches ordered by Kavalaris' mother.

"We'll make it right," he said.

And Hartsaw did just that. He phoned Kavalaris Tuesday and invited him back to the store. The manager gave Kavalaris:

• A refund for the original cake.

• A fresh cake decorated just like the original one.

• A letter of apology.

• A $100 gift card to the store.

"Jeff Hartsaw was very gracious," said Kavalaris, who was pretty gracious himself about the whole thing.

"I know there was nothing malicious going on here - just an honest mistake," he said, adding that while the family didn't get its birthday cake that day, they got a generous wedge of triple-layer family lore that will make them laugh for years to come.

On his way home from Sam's on Tuesday Kavalaris stopped by the City Rescue Mission, in downtown Lansing, and donated the gift card.

What do you think? Call John Schneider at 377-1175.

Copyright ©2007 LSJ.com All rights reserved.

Christians accuse Wal-Mart of exploitation

2006-12-31T17:35:00.000-05:00

From Monsters and Critics.com
Religion News
Christians accuse Wal-Mart of exploitation
By UPI
Dec 20, 2006, 18:55 GMT

DALLAS, TX, United States (UPI) -- A group of Baptist pastors and leaders has spoken out against Wal-Mart for exploiting workers to increase profits. The self-styled low-price leader has also recently come under attack from pro-gay groups for backpedaling on diversity initiatives.

Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, recently lead the charge against Wal-Mart on national TV. He appeared Dec. 15 on CNBC`s 'On The Money' to discuss a letter and television ad in which Joe Phelps, pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., demanded the retailer adhere to the Golden Rule -- Jesus` command to 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you,' Associated Baptist Press reported Tuesday.

The TV ad, which aired Dec. 14 in 25 states and 43 markets, was funded by the union-backed WakeUpWalMart.com. The group accuses the company of gender-based discrimination, child-labor law violations, and failure to provide health care to workers.

Parham appeared on CNBC opposite Ira Combs, pastor of Greater Bible Way of the Apostolic Faith in Jackson, Mich., who defended Wal-Mart for its history of creating jobs and providing inexpensive goods in low-income neighborhoods.

On the show, Parham said Jesus would be 'more concerned about health care for the children of Wal-Mart employees than low prices.'

'When we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who gave us the moral imperative, the Golden Rule, and ... we believe that the Golden Rule challenges American consumers to think about where they should shop,' he said in the interview, which is archived on CNBC`s website.

Parham said all people of faith affirm the value of the Golden Rule, so Wal-Mart should 'strive to be a Golden Rule company -- not follow secondary standards and seek only profit for a few....'

Combs responded by pointing out that Wal-Mart is 'not running for sainthood' but operates in a capitalist, free-market system. He said the store has become a target simply because it meets consumer needs better than competitors. In a subsequent recap of the event, Parham noted Combs serves on an advisory group recruited by Wal-Mart to counter negative public opinion.

'I think that the problem here is this is not really a theological question and debate, this is really an ideological one, which deals with social and economic issues,' Combs said. He also blamed Parham for philosophy 'steeped in a great deal of the union philosophical bent with regard to how these businesses and corporations should operate and carry out their business.'

On the WakeUpWalMart.com TV spot, Phelps asked shoppers: 'If these are Wal-Mart`s values, would Jesus shop at Wal-Mart? Should you?'

Apparently, the answer is no. In a column that appeared on ethicsdaily.com, Phelps said shopping at Wal-Mart is 'an insult to God ... What we buy matters to others and to God.'

Phelps said he made the ad to 'wake up the American consumer, especially those with Bible values, to the reality that our buying power has real power to affect a lot of people around the world.'

'Everyone wants lower prices, but not at the expense of neighbors who work for Wal-Mart, or people around the world who make their products,' he wrote. 'Our purchasing choices are the crucial link in granting companies like Wal-Mart our tacit permission and our financial support to continue practices that exploit the young, the vulnerable, and the working poor.'

A spokeswoman for Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group formed to defend the store, called the ad campaign 'shameful,' especially during the holidays. 'While the union leaders are wasting their members` dues on an attack campaign, Wal-Mart is benefiting tens of millions of working families through its low prices and quality job opportunities,' she said in a press statement.

More than 176 million people shop at Wal-Mart each week. The retailer has more than 1.8 million employees worldwide, 1 million of whom have health plans, according to the Wal-Mart website.

Phelps is a board member of the Baptist Center for Ethics, which commissioned a petition letter to the same effect as the TV commercial. The letter, drafted by Parham, was sent in partnership with WakeUpWalMart.com to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott. As of Dec. 19, 132 people had signed it, including activist Tony Campolo, seminary professors and many Baptist pastors.

Calling themselves 'moral theologians,' the signers said: 'We believe that Wal-Mart has been given and entrusted with much wealth, power and influence,' the letter said. 'Wal-Mart`s leaders need to recognize their moral obligations to be good stewards of what the corporation has been given and entrusted, not simply through acts of charity but with justice for working-family employees who have built, but not necessarily benefited, from Wal-Mart`s vast earnings.'

WakeUpWalMart is sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.

p Five Companies We’d Be Better Off Without, #4: Wal-Mart

2006-12-29T00:02:00.000-05:00

Thursday, November 30, 2006
Top Five Companies We’d Be Better Off Without, #4: Wal-Mart
Author: Nick
Category: Money
Tags: business

Number Four on my list of companies that ought to be removed from the space-time continuum is probably Number One on a lot of people’s lists: Wal-Mart.

The Big W has earned the ire of countless websites, its own employees, and even entire cities.

So if nobody likes Wal-Mart, why isn’t it the #1 company we’d be better off without? The answer to that question is the same as the answer to this question: if nobody likes Wal-Mart, why is it still around?

The answer: because people still shop there, and they always will. Some have no choice because they can’t afford to shop anywhere else. I was in that boat myself just a few years ago. I’m still occasionally forced to shop there because they carry a lot of stuff in one place, and the convenience is too much to resist. Bad Nick, bad.

Wal-Mart may be evil, but it has made itself into a necessary evil for many people. While the world might be better off without it in the long run, there’d be a lot of hurting for low-income families in the meantime.

Teenager locked inside gun safe at Wal-Mart

2006-12-27T22:08:00.000-05:00

Teenager locked inside gun safe at Wal-Mart

STAFFORD, Va. There was some drama at a Stafford Wal-Mart yesterday after a teenage girl somehow became locked in a gun safe.

Assistant Chief Roger Sutherland of the Stafford County Fire and Rescue Department says the store manager reported a child playing in the sporting good section had gotten locked inside a safe.

Sutherland says rescue workers pumped extra air into the safe as a precaution, even though it had ventilation.

No one was sure how the 15-year-old became stuck.

The manager initially couldn't get the combination to work and rescue workers were about to force their way in when the manager finally managed to open it. The whole thing took about 30 minutes.

Witnesses say the girl was crying during and after the incident, but otherwise seemed O-K.

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

All content © Copyright 2000 - 2006 WorldNow and WRIC. All Rights Reserved.

Wal-Mart Wins Ruling on Foreign Labor

2006-12-26T16:42:00.000-05:00

December 19, 2006
Wal-Mart Wins Ruling on Foreign Labor
By BLOOMBERG NEWS

Wal-Mart Stores cannot be held liable under United States law for labor conditions at some of its overseas suppliers, a federal judge has ruled.

A complaint filed last year in Los Angeles by the International Labor Rights Fund contended that employees of Wal-Mart suppliers in China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Swaziland and Nicaragua were forced to work overtime without pay and in some cases were fired because they tried to organize unions. The group sought to represent hundreds of thousands of employees of Wal-Mart’s overseas suppliers.

The foreign workers sued as third-party beneficiaries to Wal-Mart’s contracts with garment factories outside the United States. The complaint said that the contracts required suppliers in the five countries to comply with local labor standards and that what the plaintiffs deemed the company’s failure to enforce those terms meant the employees were working under “sweatshop” conditions.

Judge Andrew Guilford of United States District Court in Central California said in a preliminary ruling Dec. 12 that the facts presented by the labor rights group did not support the claim for breach of contract or negligence.

Lawyers for the workers will be allowed to file an amended complaint, according to the ruling.

“This is basically a local wage and hours violations case and should be handled in those countries,” said Beth Keck, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart. “It is very inappropriate that Wal-Mart should be made part of this.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Tariff waivers signed into law

2006-12-25T21:09:00.000-05:00

Tariff waivers signed into law
This article was published on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 6:11 PM CST in News
By Aaron Sadler
The Morning News

WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Thursday signed into law a wide-ranging bill that included hundreds of tax breaks on imported goods, including some benefiting Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart will save on eliminated or reduced tariffs for clock radios, rubber floor mats and nail clippers among other items.

Broad tax legislation containing 520 tariff suspensions was approved on the last day of Congress' term earlier this month.

Critics of tariff suspensions charge they amount to special-interest legislation benefiting a small number of companies that profit from not having to pay fees on goods they import and then sell to U.S. consumers.

Others, like Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said the practice helps home-state interests and home-state jobs. She sponsored many of the provisions benefiting the giant Bentonville-based corporation.

"The process is a customary practice that is intended to make products that are not domestically produced more affordable to customers," Lincoln said in a statement. "I am happy to help any Arkansas company pass along savings to customers."

Congress passed more than 800 tariff suspension bills during its most recent term, estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Lincoln also sponsored bills to reduce or eliminate tariffs for chemicals used by Ciba Chemicals, with operations in West Memphis, and Eastman Chemical Company, which has a plant in Batesville. Those tariff suspensions also were rolled into the legislation Bush signed into law.

In September, Lincoln backed away from another piece of legislation suspending tariffs on imported dog collars, leashes and muzzles. An upstate New York woman complained to the U.S. International Trade Commission the 2.4 percent tariff reduction could jeopardize her domestic operation. Tariffs are instituted not only as a way to generate revenue, but to also shield American manufacturers from foreign competition. Companies often request tariff suspensions when no domestic manufacturer produces an item.

The bill Bush signed into law suspends tariffs until 2009 for clock radios and AM radios without a clock. Tariffs for certain rubber floor mats and manicure/pedicure sets would fall from 2.7 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, to 1.96 percent.

All four tariff measures were requested by Wal-Mart.

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman did not return a call Wednesday seeking comment.

The clock radio waiver was estimated to cost $855,000 annually in lost federal revenue, while the AM radio suspension will cost less than $3,000 annually, according to trade commission estimates.

Reductions on manicure sets were estimated to cost about $588,000 this year up to $770,000 in 2010. Lost revenue from the floor mat waiver is estimated at $784,000 by 2010.

All content © The Morning News. Unauthorized distribution prohibited.

Bratz dolls made under harsh working conditions: report

2006-12-24T16:03:00.000-05:00

Bratz dolls made under harsh working conditions: report
Last Updated: Friday, December 22, 2006 8:28 AM ET
The Associated Press

The pouty Bratz dolls so popular as Christmas presents are made at a factory in southern China where workers are obliged to toil up to 94 hours a week, among other violations, a labour rights group said in a report released Friday.

The report by U.S.-based China Labour Watch and the National Labour Committee details allegations of harsh working conditions, especially during peak delivery months, and of violations of workers' rights to injury and health insurance.

The edgy, urban-styled rival to Barbie is made by a subcontractor in the southern export hub of Shenzhen, as is typical of many products sold in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Workers are paid the equivalent of 17 cents US for each doll, the report said, while the dolls retail for $16 US a piece or more.

Calls to the Van Nuys, Calif., headquarters of MGA Entertainment Inc., which launched the Bratz brand in 2001, were not answered and there was no immediate response to an e-mailed inquiry to the company's public relations office.

Calls to the China-based spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., a main distributor of the dolls, went unanswered Friday.

The allegations in the report describe practices found at many Chinese factories producing name-brand products for export. They include required overtime exceeding the legal maximum of 36 hours a month, forcing workers to stay on the job to meet stringent production quotas and the denial of paid sick leave and other benefits.

The report shows copies of what it says are "cheat sheets" distributed to workers before auditors from Wal-Mart or other customers arrive to ensure the factory passes inspections intended to ensure the supplier meets labour standards.

It said workers at the factory intended to go on strike soon to protest plans by factory managers to put all employees on temporary contracts, denying them legal protection required for long-term employees.

More than 120 million Bratz dolls have been sold since the toy debuted in 2001.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

Copyright © CBC 2006

Dayton commission urges Wal-Mart to value workers

2006-12-24T09:18:00.000-05:00

Dayton commission urges Wal-Mart to value workers
By Joanne Huist Smith
Staff Writer
Thursday, December 21, 2006

DAYTON — The Dayton City Commission sent a message to Wal-Mart on Wednesday, calling on the nation's biggest discount chain to treat its employees fairly and with dignity.

Supporters claim the commission's resolution is the first of its kind in the nation.

About 100 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1099, acting with Wake-Up Wal-Mart, crowded into the commission chambers to ask for support in their fight to encourage the corporation to provide affordable health care for all employees, living wages and a fair workplace.

The commission endorsed the union's efforts in an informal resolution. Commissioner Joey Williams abstained.

"The passage of this resolution is the first of its kind in the nation," Bill Dudley, director of organizing and strategic operations for the union, which represents 20,000 Kroger, CVS and Meijer employees in southwest Ohio. The commission plans to send a copy of the resolution to Wal-Mart corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

"We're making a statement because Wal-Mart is a large employer," said Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin. "We expect Wal-Mart to lead by example."

Brigid Kelly, political coordinator for the union, said they're not trying to unionize Wal-Mart employees.

"We're asking Wal-Mart to treat their employees and the community better," Kelly said. "Employees there don't have the benefit of having a union like we do."

Marisa Bluestone, Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said the company would appreciate an opportunity to respond to the allegations to the city commission.

"We're a good community partner," Bluestone said. "Our superstores each donate $30,000 to $50,000 a year to local communities for education, police and fire."

Bluestone said employee wages are based on years of experience and that the average full-time hourly worker earns $10.11 per hour in the United Sates and has 18 health-care plans to choose among.

"Three-quarters of our store managers began as hourly employees," she said.

Copyright ©2006 Cox Ohio Publishing, Dayton, Ohio, USA. All rights reserved.

U.S. judge may toss suit blaming Wal-Mart for Third World sweatshops

2006-12-18T21:38:00.000-05:00

U.S. judge may toss suit blaming Wal-Mart for Third World sweatshops
The Associated Press
Published: December 15, 2006

SANTA ANA, California: A judge is expected to toss a class-action lawsuit blaming Wal-Mart for alleged sweatshop conditions in five Third World countries that supply the retail giant.

U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford, who heard arguments Monday and said he would issue a decision later, indicated he would dismiss all claims against Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The suit, filed on behalf of garment factory workers in China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Swaziland and Nicaragua, alleged Wal-Mart broke a promise to enforce its "Standards for Suppliers" demanding foreign companies obey local labor laws and treat workers fairly.

The suit, filed in October 2005, also alleged Wal-Mart misled Californians by promoting the standards policy as reason to shop at its stores. The suit asks for injunctions to protect the workers and enforce the standards.

One allegation in the lawsuit is that Wal-Mart violated the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act by allowing suppliers to withhold pay from foreign workers.

Guilford wrote in a tentative ruling that he "is sympathetic to the plight of the plaintiffs" but added the alien tort law must be applied narrowly.

"Plaintiffs' theory of liability would have broad applications if accepted," the judge wrote. "Such a rule would support a federal claim for relief whenever any employee was denied pay ... while living under difficult economic conditions."

The suit seeks damages for thousands of workers that could amount to "perhaps millions of dollars," plaintiffs' attorney Anne K. Richardson said.

The main contention of plaintiffs is they have the right as "third-party beneficiaries" to enforce the contracts between Wal-Mart and its global suppliers.

Wal-Mart requires foreign manufacturers to obey its supplier standards, which are included in the contracts, but the retailer failed to conduct proper inspections as promised, the suit said.

If Guilford rules against the plaintiffs, the judge said they could amend their complaint and try again. Richardson said Thursday that she and other plaintiffs' lawyers will likely refile or appeal if the judge tosses the suit.

Plaintiffs' attorney Terry Collingsworth of the International Labor Rights Fund in Washington noted workers in places such as China cannot sue their local employers.

"This is their sole place to try to be heard," Collingsworth said.

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved

Bad Meat? Wal-Mart Doesn’t Care.

2006-12-17T22:08:00.000-05:00

Bad Meat? Wal-Mart Doesn’t Care.

A news team in Wisconsin does the gassed meat story again and guess what large grocery chain was one of the losers?:

We went shopping back in July. We bought packages of ground beef from stores all over the area. Within a couple of weeks, many of the packages had turned brown or green and smelled bad. But some remained bright red, looking fresh.

The FDA says it’s OK for a meat packer to add carbon monoxide to its products. The meat is then packed in a handy, airtight container. We found those containers at Aldi and Super Wal-mart in Mukwonago. We suspected the packages contained carbon monoxide, because weeks after the expiration dates passed, the meats were still bright red.

We took those bright red packages of meat to a food scientist at SF Analytical labs in West Allis in November - four months after buying them.

“That looks good,” said Mark Moyer, our expert. But when we popped the containers open…

“That’s just rancid. That’s rancid meat,” he said, breathing through a mask we had provided him to help alleviate the smell.

The problem? Some of the meat still looked good.

“The worst case is that there’s e. coli or salmonella in there,” Moyer told us. “There’s a deception there, this one obviously looks good, and it’s way past.”

As bad as it was, one package bought more recently - just six weeks ago - didn’t smell bad. It didn’t look bad either. “There’s a possibility somebody could get sick eating that,” Moyer explained his concerns.

What you need to remember is that months ago Wal-Mart claimed it had already stopped selling carbon monoxide treated meat.

In the end though, I’m no longer surprised by stuff like this. Remember the Nazi t-shirts that still aren’t off the shelves (as of last week)? Besides, how can Wal-Mart control what gasses their suppliers use when they’ve outsourced the cutting process to those suppliers at the same time they regularly shake them down for ever-lower prices.

Now more than ever: Only a fool would eat meat from Wal-Mart.

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