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A story out today from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette helps to clear up some of the questions about Wal-Mart’s recent logo change. The article explains that Wal-Mart The Company will continue to use the current, hyphenated form of the logo but that Walmart The Store will use the fancy new non-hyphenated version. As if that weren’t confusing enough, the article explains that the ever popular “squiggly” will remain in the Wal-Mart cheer. Yes, questions of how to spell Wal-Mart’s name will now involve a lengthy existentialist examination.

Exactly why Wal-Mart feels the need to make this distinction - between “the company” and its stores - remains unclear. The company wanted a new look for its stores, but changing every instance of its logo might have proven too complicated. Wal-Mart is, after all, the world’s largest company. But the distinction also plays in to an issue we raised yesterday - Wal-Mart The Company is beginning to distance itself from its stores. The company’s new Marketside shops bear no mention of their Bentonville parent, and perhaps the hypen/no-hypen distinction plays in to that. Does Wal-Mart The Company exist separate from its stores? Can it ever?

‘Walmart’ new, but store’s familiar [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]

Wal-Mart or Walmart ? That depends, the company says. With the June 30 announcement of its new, nonhyphenated store logo, “Walmart” started showing up in some of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ’s news releases and other statements and has been appearing in its printed advertising and in-store signs since then.

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One of our supporters forwarded this on to us - it’s the stock reply Wal-Mart is sending in response to letters about Friday’s Wall Street Journal article. The company insists it’s bipartisan ("We use our size to influence all kinds of politicians!") but admits the Employee Free Choice Act would be bad for profits ("We don’t want to pay our employees a dime more than we have to.")

Dear [redacted],

Thank you for contacting us about the news story that ran in the Wall Street Journal on August 1, 2008.  The article focused on the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as “the card check bill,” and the training we provided to managers and hourly supervisors.  It quoted several Wal-Mart associates who felt the training encouraged them to vote against democratic candidates, especially Senator Obama because of his strong support for labor unions. The training has concluded, but we want to assure you that as a company we are not taking sides in this election.  If anyone representing Wal-Mart gave the impression we were telling associates how to vote, they were wrong and acting without approval.  We will work to make sure misunderstandings like this do not happen again, regardless of the subject.

We believe that the card check bill is bad for business and have been on record as opposing it for some time.  We feel that educating our associates about the bill is the right thing to do.  However, we are a bi-partisan company and our associates, just as the customers and communities we serve, reflect the wide range of attitudes and political diversity of this country.  We work with both Republican and Democratic leaders and our political contributions reflect that as well—this year we gave roughly half of our PAC dollars to each party.

We are at the beginning of what will be a historic election and campaign period.  Our company will remain bipartisan.

Thank you,
Wal-Mart Customer Relations

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In a recent Minnesota “wage and hour” lawsuit, Judge Robert R. King Jr. found Wal-Mart kept inadequate records of employees’ hours and fined the mega retailer for violating state law 1.5 million times. A story out today from Arkansas Business condemns Wal-Mart even further, explaining that managers actively knew that employees were not taking mandatory breaks - a violation of labor law - yet due to pressure to keep labor costs down, did nothing about it.

Wal-Mart’s low prices are made possible by strategies like this. Cutting labor costs - by keeping wages low, preventing employees from earning seniority (and benefits) and denying mandatory breaks - are why Wal-Mart’s prices are so low. But these strategies are often unsustainable, and when the company faces legal fines of up to two billion dollars for its labor violations, it makes a low-wage/poor-benefit model seem like a pretty bad plan in the long run. Wal-Mart’s iron-fisted approach to payroll spending has been the key to its success, but may ultimately be its downfall as well.

To learn more about Wal-Mart’s wage and hour violations, download our fact sheet, “Saving Money on the Backs of Employees.” (PDF)

Wal-Mart Knew of Labor Violations, Documents Show [Arkansas Business]

Wal-Mart managers were told in 2000 that employees were not taking breaks required under company policy and state laws, but ignored the findings of the company’s own internal audit, court documents show.

“Stores were not in compliance with company and state regulations concerning the allotment of breaks and meals,” said the report, referred to as the Shipley Audit. A judge said Wal-Mart’s management, instead of responding to the audit’s findings, “put their heads in the sand.”

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. now faces more than 70 lawsuits across the country accusing the Bentonville retailer of failing to award rest or meal breaks to its employees or forcing employees to work off the clock without pay.

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A little over a year ago, news came to light that Wal-Mart had been spying on shareholders, employees and critics of the company, including staff of this organization. Aside from causing a mass deletion of Flickr accounts, MySpace pages and Facebook profiles, the news raised questions about the data Wal-Mart has access to, and just how closely the company watches its shoppers - and its critics.

To help Wal-Mart in its quest for ever more inside knowledge, the company has recently hired Oracle as its new “business intelligence” firm. Wal-Mart is notoriously secretive about the data it collects about shoppers, though sources indicate the retailer’s databases are massive. According to one New York Times article, “By its own count, Wal-Mart has 460 terabytes of data stored on Teradata mainframes, made by NCR, at its Bentonville headquarters. To put that in perspective, the Internet has less than half as much data, according to experts.”

Since that article was published, Wal-Mart has only started tracking more consumer data, now even going so far as to track shoppers’ movements inside the store. It sure does seem like Oracle has its work cut out for it. Till then, we’ll keep our vacation photos in scrapbooks, thanks.

Wal-Mart Selects Oracle for Business Intelligence [Dashboard Insight]

Oracle announced today that Wal-Mart has selected Oracle(r) Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus (Oracle BI Suite EE Plus) to provide comprehensive data intelligence and analysis from across Wal-Mart’s operations.

Wal-Mart plans to use the system to administer its logistics, transportation, category management, finance, human resources, real estate, merchandising, store and club operations and other business resources, within Wal-Mart and Sam’s Clubs.

Wal-Mart selected Oracle for its proven track record of success in the retail sector, and Oracle BI Suite EE Plus for its ease of use, scalability and ability to integrate with other applications in the Wal-Mart environment.

Information Technology has long been regarded as a core strength that enabled Wal-Mart to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. The company recently implemented Oracle Retail applications including Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning, Oracle Retail Item Planning, and other elements of the Oracle Retail Suite as part of its merchandising transformation initiatives.

“Technology and analytics are essential to help us be more responsive and effective in serving Wal-Mart customers and Sam’s Club members,” said Rollin Ford, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Wal-Mart. “The Oracle solution is very robust and it integrates well with our other applications, particularly as our business continues to grow in scale and complexity.”

“Oracle solutions are designed to help companies such as Wal-Mart deliver measurable results on a global scale,” said Duncan Angove, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Oracle Retail. “Our retail applications are especially well-suited for Wal-Mart, which designs everything it does around improving its customers’ shopping experience.”

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Wal-Mart has been inducted to Corporate Accountability’s Corporate Hall of Shame for the second year in a row, just a day after being recognized as the largest company in the world by Forbes. Also being inducted today are Blackwater and Archer Daniels Midland, companies that share Wal-Mart’s love of stellar profits and government subsidies. Congratulations, Wal-Mart. We’re sure Sam Walton would be proud.

Blackwater, Archer Daniels Midland, and Wal-Mart Inducted into Corporate Hall of Shame [Corporate Accountability]

Today Corporate Accountability International announced the 2008 inductees into the annual Corporate Hall of Shame: military contractor Blackwater, agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and big box retailer Wal-Mart. More than 30,000 votes were cast online and through the mail.

Inductees have been responsible for the murder of innocent civilians in Iraq, gross labor law violations, and accelerating climate change.

“The voting tells us that people are frustrated with a broad range of corporate abuse,” said Leslie Samuelrich, deputy director of Corporate Accountability International. “They are tired of being lied to about corporate greed under the veil of environmentalism and they are tired of seeing their hard-earned dollars subsidizing human rights abuses abroad.”

In the weeks before the polls closed:

-- Blackwater was raided by federal agents in a firearms probe;
-- Wal-Mart was fined $2 billion by the State of Minnesota for cutting worker break time and forcing employees to work off the clock;
-- ADM has been called to task by Rainforest Action Network and Greenpeace for helping make Indonesia the third largest emitter of CO2.

With 28 percent of the vote, Blackwater earned the dubious honor of the year’s most abusive corporation. More than 20 percent of the votes went to ADM and 15 percent to Wal-Mart for runner-up. Wal-Mart, the largest corporation in the world, is facing its second consecutive nomination.

Corporate Accountability International will now continue to monitor Blackwater, ADM, and Wal-Mart’s activities, exposing abusive practices throughout 2008. In previous years, corporations like Columbia HCA and Waste Management have earned their way out of the Hall by reforming their practices in response to this type of direct pressure.

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More of Flagler Video’s treasure trove of Wal-Mart videos have been uncovered by Steve Painter of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Read the whole thing if you have time, but here’s a few of the better excerpts:

Managers mocking a 12 year old boy who was badly burned by an exploding Wal-Mart gas can:

One tape from a meeting features a skit involving gas cans. When the display of cans is scattered by a riding lawn mower, an executive remarks that it’s a good gas can, “It didn’t explode.”

Lee Scott, concerned that Wal-Mart’s bullying of suppliers would attract Congressional action:

“The real danger you hear being talked about Wal-Mart is that Wal-Mart’s purchasing power will become so large that the impact will have a negative impact somehow on the suppliers who deal with Wal-Mart. And that we will dictate terms that are in fact bad for suppliers and anticompetitive in a sense that they won’t be able to do what they need to do for their shareholders or their employees or their other customers.”

Regional Vice President, Larry Williams:

“We’re going to quit breaking the law. The OSHA laws we have, the wage and hour laws that we have, the federal firearms law, we’re going to quit breaking the law.—”

Keep dreamin’ boss.

2 pay bills with Wal-Mart tapes [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]:

LENEXA, Kan. — In cramped, leased office space bordered by self-storage units in suburban Kansas City, Mo., Mary Lyn Villanueva and Greg Pierce spend their days figuring out how to keep the bills paid.

Not long ago, the company they own, Flagler Productions Inc., was a $ 10 million-a-year audio-video production and showstaging business with nearly 20 employees and one whopping big client: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville.

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You gotta hand it to Wal-Mart: when that company does something, it does it all the way. While most companies couldn’t break the law two million times if they tried, Wal-Mart has managed to do just that - and that’s in Minnesota alone. A recent case found that Wal-Mart has violated Minnesota state labor law two million times by forcing employees to work without breaks and without full pay.

The judge in the case called Wal-Mart’s labor policies “dehumanizing and reprehensible,” reinforcing what labor activists have long maintained about working conditions in the company’s stores. As details of the case come to light, Wal-Mart’s mechanized stinginess leaves little room for sympathy and instead reveal just how coldly calculating the retailer can be. Reporters, labor activists and bloggers weigh in.

Always Low Motives. Always. [Condé Nast Portfolio]

A million violations here, a million violations there: Pretty soon they being to add up. What they’ve added up to for Wal-Mart is at least $6.5 million in damages—and potentially much, much more…

Even worse for Wal-Mart: This is only one of 70 similar cases pending in courts across the country.

King, for one, sounded unsympathetic. “Wal-Mart’s failure to compensate plaintiffs was willful,” he wrote in a 150-page decision. “Wal-Mart was on notice from numerous sources of the wage and hour violations at issue and failed to correct the problem.”

More after the jump.

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Pink Magazine - “a beautiful career, a beautiful life” - devotes the cover story of its July/August issue to the top women of Wal-Mart. Included in the write up are Wal-Mart heavy-hitters Susan Chambers, Pat Curran, and Linda Dillman, as well as execs Betty Marshall, Wan Ling Martello and Rosalind Brewer. The title of the story: “Can These Women Save Wal-Mart’s Soul?”

What follows seems to be a Victorian-era lesson on the moral superiority of women, with Wal-Mart in the role of a beast/man to be civilized by the women of its executive workforce. Says one analyst in the article, “To be likeable you have to be more civilized, and to be civilized, you need to have women rising up the corporate ladder.” Emily Post would have been so proud.

Glibly passing over details like class action discrimination lawsuits and “longtime criticism surrounding associate wages and benefits,” the article emphasizes the “result of a more sympathetic female touch on the controls” of the company: greater likeability, emotive advertising and “female styles of collaborative management.” In one fell swoop, author Joanne Cleaver manages to insult both women AND Wal-Mart, simultaneously calling the retailer an untamed corporate heathen and relegating women to the role of doting school marms.

This ill-conceived characterization of Wal-Mart’s female executives is both misguided and misleading. If Ms. Cleaver had looked beyond the talking points of these few well-positioned women, she would have seen serious, systemic problems with Wal-Mart’s treatment of female employees. Susan Chambers is quoted in the piece saying “We’re not saturated [with women leaders] by any means,” and that’s an understatement. Wal-Mart is currently being sued by 1.6 million female associates for gender based discrimination. Ironically, fighting discrimination in the workplace is the subject of the article directly after the Wal-Mart piece in this magazine. If ending workplace discrimination is something that concerns the Pink editorial staff, perhaps it should reconsider writing a feature on the company embroiled in the world’s largest class action discrimination lawsuit.

The article also fails to take in to account the other women of Wal-Mart: the hundreds of thousands of women working in Wal-Mart’s stores around the world. Those women, who make bare minimum wages and are the unfortunate casualties of the insufficient health care plan this article so extensively discusses, might not agree with Susan Chambers’ cheerful descriptions of company policy. Nor would the millions of women working in the sweatshop-like conditions of Wal-Mart’s supplier factories around the world. Some estimates put the female-to-male ratio in Shenzhen factories at 7-to-1, meaning women disproportionately bear the brunt of Wal-Mart’s inhumane sourcing practices as well. They would most likely have a different view of Wal-Mart, too.

Pink Magazine’s article is right about one thing - Wal-Mart’s soul does need saving. But executives buzzwords aren’t the way to do it. We hope Wal-Mart will someday make advances for women working all the way along its supply chain, not only promoting more women to executive positions, but paying better wages and providing better health care for store employees as well as sourcing from factories with fair working conditions for women overseas. Until Wal-Mart looks at the entire scope of its production chain, it hardly deserves accolades for progressive leadership.

Can These Women Save Wal-Mart’s Soul? [Pink Magazine]

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We were casually browsing through our back issues of Washingtonian magazine when we stumbled upon a notable note from July’s issue. Wal-Mart’s head of corporate affairs and government relations Leslie Dach bought himself a fine looking home in the tony D.C. neighborhood of Cleveland Park - it was so nice it made it to the “luxury homes” section of Washington’s most elite magazine - and it only cost him $2.7 million. It would take the average Wal-Mart worker, making $10/hour and working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no other expenses approximately 270,000 hours or 30 years to make that much money. The article duly notes that this house is an upgrade for the Dach family, who previously resided in an embarrassingly unfashionable six-bedroom home in Chevy Chase that was worth a mere $1.8 million.

Wal-Mart is growing more and more dependent on its public relations department, and Leslie Dach’s extravagant home is only one example. Were the company to take these funds and put it towards employee health care, raising wages or supporting local economies, more American families might be able to afford a fraction of the luxury the Dachs’ obviously enjoy.

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A report released today by market research firm Clark, Martire and Bartolomeo revealed some rather unsurprising news:  consumers do not perceive Wal-Mart to be a gay friendly business.  While this may be great news to some supposedly ”pro-family” associations, it’s bad news for Wal-Mart.  According to the same report, gay and lesbian consumers are nearly 70% more likely to patronize a business they perceive to be gay friendly.  For example, Apple, who recently surpassed Wal-Mart as the top music retailer, was perceived to be the most gay friendly of any retailer.

Unfortunately, these consumer perceptions are backed by Wal-Mart policy.  The Human Rights Campaign’s 2008 Buying for Equality Guide gave Wal-Mart a ‘red rating’ which reflects that it offers no domestic partner benefits and its discrimination policy does not include gender identity and/or expression.  Wal-Mart refuses to address the concerns of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community citing its policy to avoid “highly controversial issues”.  The real controversy, however, is Wal-Mart’s stagnant social policies and an inability to adapt to the growing needs and demands of an increasingly diverse population.

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Two news items listed side by side caught our attention this morning, and gave us pause as a ridiculous example of hypocrisy in marketing. Wal-Mart announced plans today for “healthier on-the-go eating” options. The retailer plans to install non-fast-food eateries in several stores. From the Associated Press via Arkansas Business:

Walk into an area Wal-Mart with hunger pains, and you will have the chance to order a cheeseburger and fries from a McDonald’s restaurant inside. In a matter of months, customers could have a different choice, perhaps a panini and a smoothie.

But in almost the same breath, Wal-Mart also announced plans to open Pollo Campero eateries - which specialize in fried chicken - in stores across the country. From the Associated Press:

Pollo Campero, a Latin American fried-chicken favorite that had been seen in the U.S. only in takeout boxes aboard arriving flights, has teamed up with Wal-Mart to expand its reach to the nation’s growing Hispanic population.

Much of this contradictory juxtaposition is about demographics: while Wal-Mart is still trying to go upscale in many areas of the country, it’s also broadening its appeal to Hispanic shoppers in the south. The company’s duplicity here is telling of its broader marketing strategies - it goes to show that Wal-Mart will make changes only when it suits the company. Though executives are selling the proposed “Camille’s Sidewalk Cafes” as good for their customers, the reality is that Wal-Mart is only interested in what sells. The company should drop its veneer of altruism and focus on low prices: its platitudes to social responsibility are tiresome.

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Remember when Wal-Mart told Jim Shank on April 1 that the company would not claim Debbie Shank’s money in her trust so it could be used for her medical care? Apparently, Wal-Mart is not keeping its promise to Debbie and her family. They still have not released a single penny to the Shank family.

In fact, Jim Shank called the bank this week and is no longer authorized to request a statement on the account.

After a massive public outcry against Wal-Mart’s efforts to sue this brain-damaged former employee for the money in her trust, Wal-Mart finally agreed in writing to let Debbie keep her money to pay for her ongoing medical care. But it’s a month later, and Wal-Mart has failed to make good on its word.

Wal-Mart did what it needed to do to put out a public relations fire, yet it’s not keeping its promise to Debbie Shank and her family. We know that the only way Wal-Mart will act is if we keep the pressure on.

Send an e-mail to tell Wal-Mart’s executives that the company needs to keep its promise to the Shank family right now:

http://action.walmartwatch.com/promise

When Wal-Mart tried to grab the little bit of money Debbie Shank has for her medical care, thousands of people like you took action. Together, we called on Wal-Mart to relinquish its claim to the remaining $200,000 settlement money in Debbie’s trust fund so her family could continue to pay for her medical expenses. 

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Each year, thousands of Wal-Mart employees and shareholders convene near Wal-Mart’s home office in Bentonville, Arkansas for a meeting that’s part corporate business, part spectacle.

At this year’s shareholder meeting – scheduled to take place on June 6 – shareholders will have the opportunity to vote on a number of resolutions, all of which can be found in the company’s proxy, here.

As shareholder resolutions tend to be glossed over during annual meetings, we’d like to take the time here on the Wal-Mart Watch blog to analyze some of the proposals on this year’s proxy and evaluate what effects they could have on Wal-Mart’s corporate governance practices and business strategy.

First up, a proposal to increase the transparency of Wal-Mart’s corporate spending on political activities. The resolution proposes to increase transparency about “direct and indirect political contributions to candidates, political parties or political organizations; independent expenditures; or electioneering communications on behalf of a federal, state or local candidate.”

What kinds of political donations does Wal-Mart make?
Federal law prohibits Wal-Mart from making political contributions at the federal level.* However, Wal-Mart can legally donate directly to state and local candidates. Based on calculations from Congressional Quarterly and the National Institute on Money in State Politics, the proposal proponents estimate that Wal-Mart has contributed at least $5.6 million in corporate funds since the 2002 election cycle.

Compounding the difficulty in understanding Wal-Mart’s donations is the fact that - on top of contributions to candidates and political parties at the state and local level - Wal-Mart is able to exert political influence through “soft money” donations to 527s, trade associations and other tax-exempt organizations that often engage in political activities. 

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Hey - what does Lee Scott need this year? Another raise! According to Wal-Mart’s most recent filing, Notorious H.L.S. took 2007 straight to the bank.

AP reports that Scott’s compensation is a 27 percent increase from last year, and Bloomberg reports that his “salary and bonus” went up 75 percent. We know Scott pulled in almost 30 million bones this year - which our calculations show are definitely enough to buy one of these.

(Oh. Average hourly wage of Wal-Mart worker: still 10 bucks, last we heard.)

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Wal-Mart has avoided paying thousands of dollars in state taxes over the years by paying rent to itself in a process known as “captive REITs.” After the Wall Street Journal exposed the practice last year, several states have revised their tax code to prevent large corporations from exploiting the hole. Colorado is now the latest state to move to close the controversial loophole, with legislation pending that would force corporations to pay their full share of taxes. “Captive REITs” and Wal-Mart’s other tax avoidance strategies are discussed in the latest issue of Wal-Mart Watch In Depth: “The Great Tax Dodge. Click the image at right to download the full document.

Bill targets Wal-Mart ‘tax evasion scheme’ [Rocky Mountain News]

Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, introduced a tax bill designed to stop Wal-Mart and other companies from deducting real-estate expenses they’re paying to themselves.

Levy calls the technique an illegal tax evasion scheme.

The tactic, revealed by The Wall Street Journal in February 2007, involves Wal-Mart giving its stores and land to a real estate investment trust, which it then pays rent to. REITs pay no corporate taxes if they pay out most of their income to shareholders.

Another Wal-Mart subsidiary owns the REIT and gets the income. The rent is then deducted on state income taxes as a business expense.

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Dan Rather airs new video from the Flagler archives in this report on Wal-Mart’s political action committee. [HDNet Video]

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Wal-Mart has once again topped Fortune’s list of the 500 most profitable biggest companies in the world. For everyone who has ever said the company can’t afford to pay better wages, provide better health care or go the extra mile for the environment, keep these profit listings in mind.

1. Wal-Mart Stores

Rank: 1 (Previous rank: 1)
CEO: H. Lee Scott Jr.
Address: 702 S.W. Eighth St.
Bentonville, AR 72716
Phone: 479-273-4000
Website: http://www.walmartstores.com

A facelift and even lower prices kept the world’s largest retailer afloat in a troubled economy.

Staring down the barrel of brutal fourth-quarter retail forecasts, CEO Lee Scott dramatically cut prices on 15,000 items - including popular toys and electronics - by 20% more than usual to lure holiday shoppers. That rocked the industry, pressuring other retailers to squeeze already tight margins.

The tactic worked: Wal-Mart grossed $100 billion, breaking its fourth-quarter sales record, and soundly beat Target in same-store holiday sales for the first time in nearly a decade.

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Life is tough for CEOs like Richard Edelman. Edelman is the head of the biggest PR firm in the country - Edelman Public Relations - which represents the biggest company in the world - Wal-Mart - and life just ain’t what it used to be. In this interview with the Dallas Morning News, Edelman reminisces about the good ol’ days when CEOs could lie and get away with it. Life was so sweet! Too bad they have to deal with all this accountability nonsense nowadays.

According to a new study from his company, Edelman explains, trust for corporate CEOs is at an all time low. We can’t imagine that a string of broken promises, unfulfilled initiatives or an inhuman lack of care for employees has been helping Lee Scott in that department.

Business gains trust but CEOs are losing it [Dallas Morning News (Texas)]

Richard Edelman makes it his practice to gauge how trusting we are.

And when it comes to our faith in the business world and its leaders, the 53-year-old public relations executive has discovered a curious disconnect.

“Trust in business as a sector is rising,” says the president and chief executive of Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations firm. “But trust in chief executives is at an all-time low – as low as it was in 2002 with all the Enron and WorldCom scandals.”

Companies are getting credit for social initiatives such as efforts to stem global warming or pay Third World workers a living wage, but the credit isn’t extending to the top executives, he says. There are still too many times when CEOs let us down with half-truths, missteps or bald-faced lies.

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As Americans around the country file their taxes this week, Wal-Mart continues to use a number of loopholes, legal strategies and untruths to avoid paying its fair share of taxes. Learn more about all the company’s tax avoidance strategies in Wal-Mart Watch In Depth, issue 5 - “The Great Tax Dodge.” From the introduction:

When Wal-Mart wants to build a store in a new community, it makes a lot of promises. The company paints an alluring picture of a bustling local economy with more jobs, increased tax revenue and a thriving shopping district all centered around the town’s sparkling new Wal-Mart store. As American communities struggle to cope with budget shortfalls and a slowing economy, it is not surprising that many bend over backwards to bring Wal-Mart to town.

Unfortunately, communities often experience a much different reality. Studies have shown the retailer routinely drives down area wages and eliminates retail jobs. As local businesses close their
doors, towns become more dependent on Wal-Mart for tax revenue. However, the company has developed elaborate mechanisms for avoiding its taxes, leaving our cities and towns high and dry.

Throughout this issue of In Depth, we examine the myriad ways that Wal-Mart avoids paying taxes or uses public dollars for its private endeavors. Many of these practices, while technically legal, effectively abdicate the responsibilities Wal-Mart agreed to when it negotiated to enter a community. This is unfair to the working men and women who shop at Wal-Mart and pay their taxes every day.

Click here to download the document (PDF).

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There appears to be a bit of a bargaining impasse between Wal-Mart and Flagler Productions. A $144.5 Million impasse, to be exact. 

Wal-Mart posted the following letter to their website as a press release today. Needless to say, things don’t seem peachy between Wal-Mart and the once-successful video productions company they effectively put of business.