The Wal-Mart Watch Blog

| Nov 30, 2009

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If you were only reading the major papers, you might think that was the case. They are all talking about how calm Black Friday was. If you look a little closer at some local press, however, you start to see a different story. At many Walmart stores across the country, fights broke out, crowds became unmanageable, and the police were called. Of course there were no tragic and fatal stampedes this year, but the stories coming out are disturbing enough. After all, anytime there is a change of bodily harm from an everyday task like shopping, there is reason for concern.

Here are a few of the stories about out of control Black Friday experiences:

Fight breaks out at Florida Walmart

Police and managers calm Upland Wal-Mart shoppers by emptying store

Black Friday: Police also called to Wal-Mart in Rancho Cucamonga

Black Friday shoppers at Wal-Mart scuffle over GPS units

Black Friday Walmart scuffle brings out police in Seminole County

| Nov 25, 2009

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We just told you about Stork Craft, a manufacturing company which has had two major recalls on their cribs recently. They manufacture cribs for brands like Fisher-Price and sell their products at stores like Walmart. We did a little digging around and found Stork Craft’s website. Here’s a screen shot of their webpage. Keep in mind that this is not a subpage, this is their home page, and it is the only page:

Doesn’t it seem odd that Stork Craft’s ENTIRE web page is dedicated to recalled items? Is there nothing else this company thinks its customers might want to know?

And given that the only public information this company feels you need to know is how many recalls they have, shouldn’t Walmart think twice before buying products from them? 

| Nov 24, 2009

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This morning, the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission made a statement and declared ‘drop side’ cribs unsafe. The statement comes after a massive recall on cribs from Stork Craft, a Canadian manufacturer. The recall covers cribs of various brands, including Fisher-Price, and were sold at Walmart, Sears, and other retailers. It seems that not only are ‘drop side’ style cribs unsafe in general, but that,

“defects or installation problems can cause the drop side to detach in one or more corners and create space between the drop side and the mattress, making it possible for infants or toddlers to get trapped and suffocate. When the drop side detaches completely, children can fall from the crib.”

While some of these cribs were manufacture in Canada, most are made in China and Indonesia.

Details are still very sketchy on the recall, but it is no surprise that Walmart appears in this story. Walmart’s business model is predicated on paying as little as they can for goods and services to keep their prices down. It may seem like a good deal, but pressuring manufacturers to sell their goods at extremely low prices can lead to cutting corners, sweatshops, and, unfortunately, situations like this one, where infants end up injured and dead.

You can read the full article here.

| Nov 20, 2009

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What happens when Walmart comes to town? Other retailers “self destruct,” which is no surprise, but there’s a whole new study out proving it. According to a new study from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, when Walmart enters a market,other mass merchandiser’s sales dropped by 40 percent and supermarket’s sales dropped by 17 percent. That is a pretty big hit for some stores, and, as we’ve documented in the past, often Walmart’s entrance in an area means the demise of local businesses.

You can read the full article from BNET here. We’ll also keep our eyes out for the full report when it is released. What has your experiences been? Have local stores shut down in your area due to Walmart?

| Nov 18, 2009

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Two Christmases ago, Walmart was inundated with complaints and bad press about carrying products that were dangerous. Chief among those concerns were products that contained dangerous levels of lead. You see Walmart’s business model is based on selling their goods for the cheapest price possible. Often that means pressuring their manufacturers to cut corners or use the cheapest factories around. The result is products that are tainted with lead, contain other harmful material, or are physically dangerous.

While the fervor has died down, Walmart hasn’t stopped carrying dangerous products because their business model hasn’t changed. As evidence, today the state of California has asked several companies to remove several products from their shelves because they contain dangerous levels of lead. On the list, are the Kids Poncho and MSY Faded Glory Rebecca Shoes which are sold at Walmart.

Walmart might have cheap prices, but often there is a hidden cost behind that price tag. The hidden cost of an unsafe product, of environmental degradation, of sweatshop labor, or of labor abuses.

Here is an excerpt from the article from the Los Angeles Times:

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown issued a safety warning Tuesday, alleging that seven toys and other products tested by the Center for Environmental Health this month contained illegal levels of lead.

...Other products that the center says have abnormal amounts of lead are the Kids Poncho and MSY Faded Glory Rebecca Shoes, both sold by Wal-Mart; Reversible Croco Belt sold by Target; Dora the Explorer Activity Tote sold by TJ Maxx; and Paula Fuschia Open-Toed Shoes sold by Sears

| Nov 17, 2009

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There’s an interesting story involving Walmart that is getting some national attention today. Rick Sanchez, who has a show on CNN every week day at 3, is covering a story about a young African American woman, Heather Ellis, who switched check out lines at her local Walmart store, apparently to join her cousin, and sparked a racially charged disturbance. Walmart called the cops and Health Ellis claims they were unduly harsh, using racial slurs and unnecessary violence. She is now facing a trial that could put her in jail for 15 years, accused of assaulting police officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace. Ellis also claims that she was hassled by Walmart employees before they called the police. You can read the full story from the AP here.

That this incident happened at Walmart is not really that shocking. For whatever reason, Walmart has a recent history littered with violent altercations between guests and security guards, and often involving police. Their extreme tactics with shoplifters have resulted in harsh injuries and, in a few cases, death. Walmart also has a history of racial insensitivity. Despite their official PR messages, their corporate culture seems to be lacking tolerance for minorities. Walmart sued for discriminating against African American truck drivers, there was a case where Walmart employees mocked a Muslim woman, and just last week a gay couple was accused of shoplifting and banned from the store for life despite Walmart and the police admitting they did nothing wrong. Finally, it seems that Walmart’s security team could have dealt with a simple line cutting. If elementary school teachers can keep kids in line on a regular basis, shouldn’t security guards keep rational adults from fighting with one another?

We encourage you to call in to Rick Sanchez’s show at 877-742-5751 or send him a message on twitter (@ricksanchezcnn) with your thoughts on this case.

| Nov 17, 2009

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With Thanksgiving looming, and Black Friday (the busiest shopping day of the year) coming on its heels, it’s worth remembering the terrible tragedy that happened on Black Friday last year. In its eagerness to get to the “door buster” deals, a crowd outside a Walmart literally busted a door, surged in to the store, and killed a temporary employee in the process. His name was Jdimytai Damour and he died sheltering a pregnant woman from the oncoming throng. The aftermath of the event was upsetting as well. There were no consequences for anyone. Walmart struck a deal with the local district attorney, giving the community $1.5 million and offering an insulting and paltry $400,000 to all the victims of the stampede (the Damour family and several other individuals who were injured).

The only discipline Walmart received was from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which hit Walmart with a ‘serious citation’ and a fine of $7000.

This article, over at the Southtown Star reminds us all of what happened last year, it is well worth a read:

Wal-Mart gets off easy in ‘Black Friday’ death

Only 10 days remain until Black Friday.-- All year, Wal- Mart has been busy, busy - occupied with damage control, lawsuits and district attorneys, making sure the bordering-on-poor American consumer will not let last season’s incident in which a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death stop her from living better by spending the little she has at the world’s largest retailer.--
Jdimytai Damour, 34, died Nov. 28 after a mindless herd pressed heavily on the glass door of the Valley Stream, N.Y., store, breaking it off its hinges moments before the 5 a.m. opening, with the crush of shoppers stampeding over Damour and injuring other workers.

Damour, a 6-foot-5-inch, 270-pound temporary employee, was hired for the holidays. The bargain-hungry mob knocked him to the floor amid broken glass and trampled him. He died not long after of asphyxiation.

Video of the incident shows emergency workers attempting to save his life with CPR as shoppers continue to stream hurriedly past in pursuit of bargains. A pregnant employee also was injured along with several others.--

I’m writing to ask all Wal-Mart addicts to behave this year. And to recap what’s happened since the Black Friday tragedy.--
Let’s see: No criminal charges were filed against any of the approximately 2,000 people in the crowd even though the culprits are on video. Manslaughter might be messy in court when committed by a frenzied mob.

But don’t think Wal-Mart got off easy because it’s the biggest retailer in the world. No, no. The U.S. Department of Labor really cracked down.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted an inspection and found that the New York store “fail(ed) to implement reasonable and effective crowd management principles,” including training that was “inadequate” to accommodate the advertised “Blitz Friday” that offered cheap-o electronics for all.

OSHA slapped Wal-Mart with a “serious citation” and the maximum fine of $7,000. Uh, no, I’m not missing any zeros. That’s seven thousand dollars. Wal-Mart Stores promised to implement a crowd management plan for its New York stores and went to work consulting with big-event security firms.--

Meanwhile, the deceased employee’s family sued for wrongful death, and Wal-Mart put out statements saying Damour had been part of the Wal-Mart family. Touching.--

The retail supergiant then cut a no-prosecution deal with the district attorney, promising beefed-up Black Friday crowd control along with generous contributions to the community - $1.5 million worth of local generosity and $400,000 in compensation to the victims of the incident.--

Next week, things will be different. While the special sales will commence at 5 a.m. Nov. 27, as in the past, the stores will have been open since 5 p.m. Thanksgiving night. This is intended to create a flow of customers rather than a ravenous pack.--
I hope the plan succeeds and that no one gets hurt.--

As Wal-Mart shoppers again seek cheap goods and to contribute to their future unemployment risk, let’s remember that it’s people who trample linebacker-sized door guys - not the global corporations that work all year to offer awesome, 32-inch flat-screen TVs for less than $400.

| Nov 13, 2009

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This story from the LA Times is not directly about Walmart, but it’s worth a read anyway. It details the problem associated with workers who don’t have paid sick leave and may be disciplined for taking time off of work when they get sick. The Senate is currently working on a bill that would provide paid sick leave for most employees in the country which is not only a great relief for many working folks, but really good public policy to boot. It will help folks out who really shouldn’t be working and help to stem the spread of the flu and other contagious viruses. Of course it is unfortunate that companies aren’t doing this on their own. You would think that businesses, especially retailers like Walmart, would want to make it a point to not spread the flu among their employees, not to mention their customers.

Of course it should come as no surprise that Walmart’s policy strongly encourages employees to come to work sick through demerit points and loss of wages. We wrote about their policy here. We’re also working with Moms Rising on this issue, and you can go sign their petition and send Walmart a demerit badge for their terrible sick day policy.

Read the full story from the LA Times here.

| Nov 12, 2009

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Recently we told you about the community that Walmart is trying to displace to build another store. Here is our friend Al Norman’s take on it:

Wal-Mart Walking on Sunshine

As many as 70 elderly and disabled residents of Palm Springs, Florida, may soon be evicted to make way for another Wal-Mart superstore.

The hapless residents of Sunshine Village are watching as the sun goes down on their mobile home park. This homestead of predominately low-income older people has been around for decades on 10th Avenue North. But this week, the Palm Springs Land Development Board voted unanimously to rezone 17 acres of land from residential to commercial, to pave the way for the 11th Wal-Mart within ten miles of Palm Springs.

A developer called Cornerstone Palm Springs LLC, which owns Sunshine Village, warned residents about a year ago that the property was up for sale. The site is reportedly slated for a 175,000 square foot Wal-Mart supercenter. There’s already a Wal-Mart supercenter only 4 miles away in West Palm Beach, and two more supercenters roughly 7 miles from the site.

The developer can’t just toss these old folks out on the street, however. Florida law requires that the residents of Sunshine Village receive at least six months notice of eviction, and be given some relocation costs. Cornerstone Palm Springs told the Palm Beach Post that it’s going to cover all the relocation costs for the families being evicted.

But the Sunshine Village Neighborhood Association is not going to sink slowly in the west. The group has approached the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach for help, and an attorney for the Society told the Post, “We don’t think it will be possible to move them. There’s not a lot of places for these folks to rent.”

Cornerstone apparently has informed the mobile home owners that Wal-Mart wants to move in when they move out. In fact, the developer will have a site plan ready to submit in December. The Village Council voted last winter to amend its comprehensive land use plan to accommodate a shopping center---so the project has been in the works for almost a year. Within months, Wal-Mart could literally be walking on Sunshine.

Wal-Mart targets mobile home parks, because local officials are often anxious to level these ‘eyesores’, and move the residents out of the area. The homeowners, who are stigmatized as “trailer trash,” are marginalized politically, and have no clout in town. One reader of the Palm Beach Post submitted the following comment on Sunshine Village:

We need to get rid of all these low rent trailer parks. They bring in the worst kind of people. A lot of illegals will be living in these rusted out old trailer parks. Palm Beach county should take a vote on closing all trailer parks...Keep the migrants where they belong. Out in the fields picking my tomatoes.
Last August, Wal-Mart displaced 40 families from a mobile home park in Marion, North Carolina. In February of 2009, 15 homeowners lost out to a Wal-Mart supercenter in North Vernon, Indiana. Around Christmas of 2006, 80 residents in a mobile home park in Berlin, Wisconsin saw their homes rezoned from residential to commercial. In January of 2006, 54 families in the Monticello Mobile Home Park in West Asheville, North Carolina, were forced to relocate to make room for a 180,000 square foot Wal-Mart superstore. In 2003, 122 residents in a mobile home park in St. Petersburg, Florida were displaced by Wal-Mart. The world’s largest retailer swallows up trailer parks whole, and spits out the people who live there.

Not all of these attempts by big box stores to push mobile homeowners off the map have been successful. Residents in Santa Rosa, California, and Hood River, Oregon, for example, beat the big boxes and kept their homes. But more often than not, mobile home property owners like Cornerstone sell out the families that have depended on them for decades. It’s hard for landowners to resist the lure of Wal-Mart’s top dollar. The owners of Sunshine Village will surely “live better” when Wal-Mart pays them millions for their little corner of this village.

The village of Palm Springs, population around 14,000, only covers a two and a half square mile area. It won’t be easy for these elderly and disabled residents to move their mobile homes. Many of the homes might not structurally survive any relocation at all.

The Village Council in Palm Springs will take its first vote on rezoning on November 13th. If they vote down the rezoning, the elderly and disabled residents of Sunshine Village won’t have to move.

Ironically, Palm Springs likes to call itself “A Great Place to Call Home.” Readers are urged to email Karl Umberger, the Palm Springs Village Manager at with the following message:

Please let the Village Council know that I am appalled that any community would toss out dozens of elderly and disabled residents from their homes just to make way for another Wal-Mart like the 11 you already have within 10 miles of your Village. How can the Village---which says it’s ‘A Great Place To Call Home’---evict these low-income people to make way for a Wal-Mart? Where are these folks supposed to live? Urge the Council to ‘Save Sunshine Village,’ and tell Wal-Mart to find land that isn’t already somebody else’s home.

| Nov 10, 2009

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Walmart’s appetite for growth is insatiable. With about 4000 stores in the US alone and many more around the world, Walmart is huge and growing fast. Walmart is especially targeting China, India, and Mexico abroad for growth, and large cities domestically for growth. Of course that is not stopping the giant retailer from going after its more traditional locations. Many communities fight back when Walmart tries to steamroll its way in to town, but we haven’t heard of of a case where Walmart would actually displace an entire community. But that is exactly what they are doing in one Florida community.

If Walmart gets its way, it will complete replace a mobile home community, forcing its 60 residents to move. The article is short on details, but we have to imagine that most of these folks aren’t too happy about having to move. Here’s the article from the :

Palm Springs to decide whether Walmart will displace park’s 60 mobile homes and residents

A Walmart might replace Sunshine Village, a decades-old mobile home park on 10th Avenue North.

The village’s Land Development Board tonight is scheduled to make a recommendation to the village council on a zoning change that would clear the way for the store.

About 60 homes with residents — who would have to relocate — are on the community’s 17 acres, estimated James Dower, president of the Sunshine Village homeowners association.

Cornerstone Palm Springs LLC, which owns Sunshine Village, about notified residents a year ago it was seeking buyers, Dower said.

Cornerstone’s application says that the proposed shopping center wouldn’t exceed 175,000 square feet.

The 6:30 p.m. meeting is in the community room of Palm Springs Village Hall, 226 Cypress Lane.

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