Go to www.waldemartwatch.com to sign up for an invitation-only sneak preview of “Harry Potter and the Prisoners of Waldemart” on October 30th. Look for the full release on October 31st, 2008, or watch the original.

The collection is from an undisclosed company - unnamed because of state tax confidentiality laws.

The REIT loophole issue, which focuses on the use of captive real estate investment trusts to avoid paying state corporate income taxes, has been in the national spotlight for going on two years now. In North Carolina, Wal-Mart saved millions of dollars in state tax bills by essentially transferring its properties to its own REIT and paying rent to itself, then writing it off as a tax deduction. These transactions were frequently followed by rather suspicious looking characters in black masks trudging back to Bentonville with big old gobs of money that could have gone to funding state programs.

North Carolina got wise to the scheme and assessed Wal-Mart for back taxes. Additional states have sought ways to close the loophole up, either through attacking it directly or by adopting combined reporting. Maryland is one of those states - last year Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot announced that his state would no longer allow payments to captive REITs to be deducted from state tax returns. Now following its first publicized audit since then, Maryland will receive $10.8 million in back taxes for a 3-year period from the unnamed company.

We’ve chronicled again and again that Wal-Mart is one of the worst offenders in this area. Simply closing the loophole is one way to fix it. Adopting combined reporting is another. At least in Maryland’s case, the effort has already resulted in nearly $11 million coming back into the state treasury.

Maryland collects millions after closing tax loophole [Washington Post]

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Wal-Mart’s official company position on politics is bipartisan, but glimpses into Wal-Mart’s corporate culture reveal this is far from true. Daily Kos diarist Arkydem wrote a post today about a party his adult daughter attended in northwest Arkansas hosted by two Wal-Mart executives. From the sound of it, Wal-Mart’s executive corps is made up entirely of the insensitive meatheads you hated in high school, but instead of teasing you about your lame off-brand sneakers, now they tease you about not being a Republican. Says Arkydem:

I live in the Republican stronghold of Arkansas, the northwest corner. The home of over 7,000 Wal-Mart employees and since early 2002 when Wal-Mart made the announcement that if you’re a vendor, you set up shop here, adding another 30-40K folks and a sea of vendor offices all over the county, all carrying the misinformation and hate that corporate Wal-Mart spreads through its ranks and its vendor slaves about Democrats and about a million other things.

Wal-Mart strives to be seen as a politically neutral company for several reasons. The politics of Wal-Mart have never been positive for the company: low wages, poor benefits and other stingy practices have dogged the retailer for years, and have damaged its reputation. The farther the company can distance itself from these issues, the better. But Wal-Mart is also desperate to break in to several predominantly Democrat markets, and aligning with Republican values never helps this cause. Stories like Arkydem’s present a real problem for Wal-Mart, and seriously hamper its attempts to woo Democrats. Stories like this one don’t help much either, but no one said the company was interested in actually changing its practices to achieve change.

They Attacked our Daughter [Daily Kos]
Wal-Mart on the attack [Arkansas Times]

For our readers in the Big Apple, beware. According to Reuters, “Starting this week in New York City, the retailer will put up a temporary store in Times Square and have a truck roving around the city to celebrate the launch of AC/DC’s new album.”

NYC has of course, always firmly rejected the idea of Wal-Mart in the city. Last year, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott famously told N.Y. Times “I don’t care if we are ever here.”

But over the past year, Wal-Mart seems to have gotten little bored with the country life and is jonesin’ again for some city kicks. It didn’t go very well in Chicago, but they’re still at it in D.C. - and it looks like they’re getting their wish in New York - if for only a bit.

(That is, unless loyal Gotham City Wal-Mart fighters make it...uncomfortable)

But the NYC stunt isn’t the only interesting angle to the AC/DC story. Remember that AC/DC signed the exlusive Wal-Mart deal as a way of bypassing iTunes. Check out this gem from lead singer Brian Roberts:

“Maybe I’m just being old-fashioned, but this itunes, God bless ‘em, it’s going to kill music if they’re not careful,” going on to add: “It’s a...monster, this thing,” he said. “It just worries me. And I’m sure they’re just doing it all in the interest of making as much...cash as possible.”

Which store is he talking about again? If a slew of censored and exclusive Garth Brooks and Eagles albums is the way to save the music industry...maybe we’ll just all need to start listening to more books on tapes instead.

Kim Morrison writes a nice piece in the NW Arkansas Morning News today about Wal-Mart Watch’s new website - waltoninfluence.com.

We’re glad to see that a Wal-Mart spokesman was asked by media to comment on the new site. Unsurprisingly, spokesman David Tovar had no comment. What he did say, however, was that Wal-Mart gives near-evenly to Democrats and Republicans.

That, of course, is laughable.

A quick look through the donation data on waltoninfluence.com (pulled from opensecrets.org) shows that the Wal-Mart PAC has always given the vast majority of its money to Republicans and conservative causes. Wal-Mart likes to brag that in the 2008 cycle, it has given slightly more to Democratic House candidates ($456,700 for Dems compared to $418,500 for Republicans.) But its giving in the Senate more than compensates for this - and according the openssecrets.org the Wal-Mart PAC has given more total to the GOP candidates in the 2008 cycle (47% to Democrats, 53% to Republicans).

And what about this year’s donations to non-candidate political groups? The top 5 and the vast majority are all Republican groups:

Washington State Republican Party: $50,000
Mitch for Governor Campaign Committee: $48,000
National Republican Congressional Committee: $30,000
National Republican Senatorial Committee: $30,000
Republican National Committee: $30,000

But regardless, Wal-Mart’s giving in 2008 is the exception to rule. Kim Morrison quickly points out that Democrats have received 22% of less of Wal-Mart’s support in the previous two elections. And if you look further and further back, you’ll see a company whose giving to Democrats moves closer and closer to zero percent.

The point is that Wal-Mart has seen turning of the political tide, and has decided to make a one-time handout to the party on the rise. What it is, is a shrewd (and probably wise) political move, what it isn’t is a sign of a bipartisan company.

Group tracks Wal-Mart’s political involvement [NW Arkansas Morning News]

WAL-MART AND THE ‘POORING OF AMERICA’
I’m not sure where the phrase “Pooring of America” came from, but it’s perfect to explain Wal-Mart’s effect on working families. Seeking Alpha ponders why Wal-Mart and McDonald’s are doing so well right now.

What are McDonald’s and Wal-Mart Telling Us? [Seeking Alpha]

I am very intriqued by our top 2 choices for the “Pooring of America” trend - Walmart (WMT) and McDonalds (MCD) - what exactly are the charts above telling us?  If we are to enter a long drawn-out recession, which I have believed, these seem to be screaming buys here. The only question is credit - how does a lack of credit potentially hurt both. They are not expanding a ton, in the U.S. at least - perhaps with Wal-mart it’s financing of inventory, but I cannot wrap my mind around this behavior.

Wal-Mart gets downgraded while stock up in 2008 amid the turmoil [BloggingStocks]

Will Wal-Mart weather the storm? To a point, it already is. Sure, all retailers are expected to have a dismal holiday season this winter, but Wal-Mart will do better than the competition. It has more stores, more pricing leverage and more wherewithal to hold customers hostage with lower prices and inventory turns at a time when it’s needed most. Perhaps we’ll see WMT return to the $60/share level by Thanksgiving—if not sooner.

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Wal-Mart Watch has launched a new website - http://www.waltoninfluence.com - which analyzes and tracks the Walton family’s and Wal-Mart’s growing influence on American politics.

Although Sam Walton believed his company should stay out of politics and stick to retailing, Wal-Mart’s strategy changed immensely after his death. From 1999 to 2007, Wal-Mart’s lobbying expenditures for outside firms increased 7425%. Although Wal-Mart attempts to tout its bipartisanship, the Wal-Mart PAC has given the vast majority of its over $7.5 million in the past decade to the Republican Party and other conservative groups.

With more than $12 billion in profits last year, Wal-Mart is the biggest and arguably most powerful corporation in America. Sam Walton’s heirs, the majority owners of the company, are worth over $100 billion - making them the wealthiest and certainly one of the most influential families in America.

During the past year, Wal-Mart Watch conducted an analysis of public lobbying and political contribution records for the Walton family and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in order to determine how this influence is used to affect politics and policy. The conclusion is clear: Wal-Mart and the Walton family spend millions of dollars every year to fund an extreme right wing corporate agenda that is often directly at odds with the interests of Wal-Mart’s workers and shoppers.

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Check out this week’s issue of the Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials – a compilation of Wal-Mart news from across the country and beyond.

This week’s issue focuses on Wal-Mart and the current economic crisis. You’ll find stories on how Americans are shifting to thrift stores in order to save money, and whether September’s retail sales figures reflect a downturn in consumer spending. You’ll also find an article from CNN Money discussing whether the state of the economy will affect Wal-Mart’s hiring, especially with the holiday season coming up.

In addition to the economy, you’ll find stories on Wal-Mart’s move to small stores. Are Wal-Mart’s Marketside Stores the wave of the future? And in health care news, Wal-Mart is rolling out electronic personal health records to all of its employees, and has announced changes to its health plan for 2009.

And finally, check out our “Stateside” and “Wal-Mart International” sections to find out what’s going on with Wal-Mart around the country and across the globe.

Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials [October 10, 2008]

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