Wal-Mart Watch Daily Clips- July 1st 2009

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart Watch Daily Clips emails will be suspended indefinitely after today. Make sure to check the Wal-Mart Watch Blog for updates on what's happening in the world of Wal-Mart. 

WAL-MART SUPPORTS EMPLOYER MANDATE IN HEALTH CARE REFORM

• Wal-Mart Backs Drive to Make Companies Pay for Health Coverage [Wall Street Journal]
  In a major break with most other large companies, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Tuesday told the White House that it supports requiring employers to provide health insurance to workers, a centerpiece of President Barack Obama's effort to provide near-universal coverage to Americans. The support of Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, could give momentum to one of the most-contentious aspects of legislation taking shape in Congress to fix the health system. To help pay for covering the 46 million uninsured, lawmakers have proposed mandating that all but small employers provide insurance for workers or help pay for it.

• Wal-Mart Says It Backs a Mandate on Insurance [New York Times]
  Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, joined hands with a major labor union Tuesday to endorse the idea of requiring large companies to provide health insurance to their workers, a move that gives a boost to President Obama as he is pushing for health legislation on Capitol Hill."Not every business can make the same contribution, but everyone must make some contribution," Wal-Mart's chief executive, Michael T. Duke, wrote in a letter to White House and Congressional officials, adding that he favored "an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage."

• Wal-Mart, Union Jointly Endorse Employer Health Insurance Mandate [Workforce Management]
  Wal-Mart, in a letter about health care reform to President Barack Obama, has endorsed an employer mandate, undercutting employer opposition to the provision and delivering Democrats a key victory. The letter, sent Tuesday, June 30, reflects the company's effort to bury a Senate proposal that would require employers to pay for employees who get their health coverage with government assistance.

• Wal-Mart supports employer-mandated health coverage [Reuters]
  Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, said on Tuesday that it supports President Barack Obama's push to require large employers to offer health insurance to workers. "We are for an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage," stated a letter addressed to Obama and signed by Mike Duke, the chief executive of Wal-Mart; Andy Stern, the president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and John Podesta, the CEO of the Center for American Progress.

• Wal-Mart backs health insurance mandate [Jacksonville Business Journal (Fla.)]
  Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is backing President Barack Obama's push to require that large employers offer health insurance to their workers. Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) joined the Service Employees International Union and the Center for American Progress economic think tank in voicing support for mandated health coverage. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer is Northeast Florida's second-largest private employer and has come under criticism in the past for the quality of benefits offered to some workers. Wal-Mart has expanded benefits in recent years and supports federal health care reform that would include requirements that employers offer at least some coverage.

• Wal-Mart Joins the Ranks of the Health-Care Corporatists [Reasons.com]
  In May, Reason science correspondent Ron Bailey warned of the coming "health-care corporatism," writing that "the country's major health care producers, including insurance companies, hospital and physician organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and health care labor unions, promised President Barack Obama they would reduce the growth rate of their future incomes by 1.5 percent over the next ten years." Now you can add another corporate behemoth to the list of supporters of advocating more government involvement in health care: Wal-Mart. Today, the nation's largest retailer released a letter supporting an employer mandate.

• Chicago alderman pleads for a Wal-Mart [Chicago Tribune]
  In the latest bid to bring a second Wal-Mart store to the city, Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) made a public plea to fellow aldermen to vote to allow the world's largest retailer to build a Supercenter on the South Side.

• Chicago, IL. Chicago Alderman Still Hungers For Wal-Jobs [Battlemart Blog]
  What do Michael Bloomberg, Donald Trump, and Howard Brookins have in common? They all don't understand how Wal-Math works. The New York City Mayor, the entrepreneur, and the Chicago Alderman all think that Wal-Mart means new jobs. But according to "Wal-Math," one job created at Wal-Mart, minus one job destroyed at another retailer, equals one job.

• Key hearing set on Wal-Mart near Va battlefield [WMDT-TV (Va.)]
  A July 27 public hearing is scheduled in Orange County on a Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed near the Wilderness Civil War battlefield. The hearing scheduled by supervisors Tuesday night is the final step before the Board of Supervisors takes up the proposal.

• Seeking win-win in store debate [Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (Va.)]
  As the debate over a proposed Wilderness area Wal-Mart moves to the Orange supervisors, County Administrator Bill Rolfe has quietly thrown his ideas into the mix.

• I hate Wal-mart [San Diego Weekly Reader (Calif.)]
  Let's face it I'm a Target girl. I LOVE Target - love the way the stores are set up, love the prices, love the shopping experience - carts are clean, parking lot is litter free, etc. I can spend hours just browsing in Target. Coming from someone who doesn't like to shop this says a lot. I disagree with Walmart's business philsophies and how they treat their employees. I hate the way their stores are set up, very KMartesque, they just bother me. But sometimes when Target doesn't have what I need I have to go to Walmart and I hate it.

• 8th & Walton Expanding to Chile, Canada [Morning News of NW Arkansas (Arkansas)]
  A Bentonville firm that only is two years old is ready to spread into new countries to teach small- and mid-sized suppliers how to do business with Wal-Mart. 8th & Walton, a supplier education and consulting firm, opened a Mexico office in December and will open an office in the financial district of Santiago, Chile, on Wednesday, said Matt Fifer, 8th & Walton managing partner.

• Is Amazon the New Wal-Mart? [Fast Company Magazine]
  Egos at Amazon must be riding high this month. The retailer sold out of its flagship product, the Kindle DX, not once but twice. Then, to cap it all off, this morning investment research and banking firm Cowen and Company called Amazon a "next generation Wal-Mart." Analyst Jim Friedland wrote in a research note: "In our view, Amazon is a next-generation Wal-Mart, and we believe the company's focus on lower prices and a superior shopping experience versus online and offline competitors will result in substantial share gains over time."

• Walmart's $4 Drugs Coming From Indian Company Whose Products Have Been Banned In US and Canada [Burnt Orange Report (Canada)]
  Walmart, in one of their worst ways of prioritizing prices above qualities to date, turns to a foreign drug supplier, Ranbaxy Laboratories, LTD, who has repeatedly been investigated by the FDA and the DoJ for "inadequate" safeguards against contamination, falsification of records and submitting false information to the FDA. On top of that, just eight months before the FDA inspected Ranbaxy's Paonta Sahib plant and found significant violations, Walmart awarded the company a "Supplier Award" for improving shipping times and performance.

• Wal-Mart sets spring date [Press-Citizen (Iowa)]
  Construction on the controversial Wal-Mart Supercenter on Highway 1 will begin next spring, company officials said. The new store, which will employ 300 full-time and part-time workers, will replace the current store at the site. A building that housed the former Cub Foods and Staples will be demolished later this summer, said Ryan Irsik, public affairs manager for Wal-Mart.

• Crews set to break ground on Wal-Mart SuperCenter next month [Daily News (Wash.)]
  Wal-Mart plans to break ground on a new store on California Way in Longview in August, with the grand opening coming about a year later, a company spokeswoman said this week. The 150,000-square-foot SuperCenter, featuring a full grocery store, drive-through pharmacy and garden center, will open within months of a second SuperCenter in Woodland, said Karianne Fallow, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. Wal-Mart plans to keep its Ocean Beach Highway store in west Longview open.

• Monroe Wal-Mart? [Tribune Newspaper (Wash.)]
  If a developer brought a Wal-Mart to Monroe, would the City Council welcome it in pursuit of much-needed sales tax revenue to run the city? It is too early to tell whether a Wal-Mart, Costco or Target store will go in, and the council will likely not know which one until after the property is sold, but the plan is clear that the northern half of North Kelsey will get a big box store.

• Flory: Dumplin Creek signs Walmart [Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tenn.]
  Are those green shoots peeking out of the Dumplin Creek dirt? When it comes to the country's ongoing economic woes, it's hard to beat the erstwhile mountain at Exit 407 for symbolism. The developers behind Knoxville's Turkey Creek shopping center had identified the site - in Sevierville, along Interstate 40 - as their next big thing, and a couple of years ago an army of earthmovers began a massive grading push to prepare the way.

• Super Walmart Coming to Clovis [KSFN (Calif.)]
  Opponents heard a sour note in a supporter's musical pitch to bring in the super store at a city council meeting. Some people brought signs that read "keep Clovis safe" and argued the mega Walmart would drive out smaller businesses.Supporters said Clovis is big enough for another big box shop. "If you don't like Walmart, shop and target; and yes we can support two Wal-Marts. Soon we'll have two Winco's."

Posted by Research Team on Wednesday, July 01, 2009

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