Latest Headlines
Wal-Mart To Lay Off 300 At Bentonville Headquarters -02.17.10 | Arkansas Business

Walmart, others make money on Oregon’s energy tax credits -02.17.10 | The Oregonian

Former Avon Wal-Mart employees claim discrimination -02.17.10 | Associated Press

More News

Fact Sheets

The Employee Free Choice Act Legislation that will truly make a difference for Wal-Mart workers

Wage & Hour Issues Read how Wal-Mart continually fails to pay every worker for every hour worked

Health Care Wal-Mart's still insures barely over half its employees on the company plan

Always Low Wages Poverty-level wages make life extremely difficult for Wal-Mart's 1.4 million workers

The Environment How Wal-Mart's business model is detrimental for our planet

Wal-Mart in the News

Every day, our researchers scour newspapers big and small and the Internet to find out where Wal-Mart is making headlines.

TITLE DATE
Slim to Close Last CompUSA Stores The retailer has struggled for years, hurt first by competition from direct personal computer sellers such as Dell Inc. and more recently by intense competition in consumer electronics. Bigger rivals such Best Buy Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have been able to offer greater selection and lower prices for flat-panel televisions and other consumer electronics gear.
-- Wall Street Journal		 December 10
CompUSA, Falling to Competition, to Shut Down After Holidays CompUSA, the computer retailer that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim owned since 2000, will shut its doors after 23 years, succumbing to competition from Best Buy Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
-- Bloomberg News		 December 10
Investing: Retail stocks no deal this holiday season The holiday shopping season got off to what appeared to be a strong start, with Black Friday sales up 8.3 percent. But this isn’t the time to buy retail stocks, SmartMoney.com suggests. The triple threat of higher fuel prices, falling real estate values and steeper food prices will take a toll on holiday spending.
-- Courier-Post (New Jersey)		 December 10
Some Gains, but Stores Are Worried Cold weather, deep discounts and a quirk in the calendar rescued retailers from what threatened to be a dreary November, but it might not be enough to save the holiday shopping season...But signs of trouble remain - and stores are taking no chances. In an unusual move, Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest retailer, said it would offer steep early-morning discounts starting today, hoping to ignite the kind of shopping frenzy reserved for the day after Thanksgiving.
-- New York Times		 December 10
Green supply chains: moving beyond logistics In this respect, Mr Abdullah sees big brands as a force for good, pushing environmental standards down the supply chain. “When Wal-Mart sets the parameter for suppliers to work from it’s a significant thing, because who is saying no to Wal-Mart?” he says. “We’ve been seeing an anti-brand backlash in recent years, but this is a great example of how brands are driving things forward.”
-- Financial Times		 December 10
Al Norman: A $10 Minimum Wage At Wal-Mart? Better Wish For Two Front Teeth Season’s Greetings to Wal-Mart from the University of California/Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education! The UC Berkeley Labor Center has been producing research since 1964, but this week the research team released not one---but two---studies, neither of which you will find under Wal-Mart’s Christmas Tree.
-- Huffington Post		 December 10
The Wal-Mart Weekly: The living wage ordinance rears its head But, could Wal-Mart really raise wages for many employees—taking its own “minimum wage” to no less than $10 per hour—and not cause any price increases for its customer base? That is the ticket—Wal-Mart’s customer base is the most price sensitive of any other retailer in any industry. Raise prices by a few cents on many items and many customers will recognize. Or, will they? In a study by the University of California at Berkeley, the university’s center for Labor Research and Education concluded that the world’s largest retailer could increase its minimum wage to $10 per hour and greatly boost the well-being of its low-income workers with little financial impact on most shoppers. Sounds like a win-win solution, doesn’t it?
-- BloggingStocks		 December 10
Retail special: ‘You can’t win the Wal-Mart game by being a Wal-Mart’ In China, if retailers want to open a store, they would set up a mall, unlike retailers here in India, where real estate is at a premium...You cannot win the Wal-Mart game by being a Wal-Mart, but by being what Wal-Mart cannot. There will always be segments that would want preferential treatment, and would not like standing in the queue or helping themselves at the store.
-- Livemint.com		 December 10
How the Discounters Hurt Themselves If one thing defined the marketing landscape of the 1990s, it was the power of cheap. Wal-Mart Stores, Southwest Airlines and Dell Computer reshaped their industries with low-cost models that forced competitors to adapt or die. Each of the power discounters thrived heading into the 21st century as their competitors often struggled. But each is now facing a much tougher battle for growth. Wal-Mart’s top line has continued to weaken; both its revenue and comparable-store sales—excluding grocery—grew slower than Macy’s last quarter.
-- Advertising Age		 December 10
When Safety Is the Product Despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of the products coming out China are defect-free, much of what the sourcing companies ship is now coming under renewed scrutiny because of a highly publicized series of mishaps over the past year. The name that is ringing everybody’s bell is Mattel, one of the biggest toy manufacturers in the United States, which announced in August that it was recalling 967,000 toys destined for Christmas shelves because they were covered with lead paint. Earlier in the year, RC2 Corp, a toy designer and marketer, announced it was recalling 1.5 million Thomas trains because they had been coated in lead paint as well.
-- Asia Sentinel		 December 10
Why you should buy from small toy shops, not Wal-Mart The Boston Globe reports that shoppers are buying toys for their children at small stores and avoiding Wal-Mart Stores Inc. whose Chinese toys they fear. One Cambridge, MA store, Stellabella Toys, has shifted its merchandise suppliers from Chinese to European and U.S. toy makers. Stellabella bought as many LEGO toys (made in Denmark) and Playmobil products (made in Germany) as possible. And it added new lines, including German stacking toys and wooden trains from Maple Landmark Woodcraft of Vermont.
-- BloggingStocks		 December 10
Not toying around The jump in Stellabella’s business reflects a trend in the industry as consumers worried about toy safety flock to small shops, helping to reverse sales declines to mass merchants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which often offer better prices. Domestic manufacturers also are seeing a boon for the first time in years as stores are stocking their shelves with more toys made in Europe and the United States.
-- Boston Globe		 December 10
Wal-Mart expands further in China Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s No.1 retailer, said it will keep an annual expansion rate in China at more than 30%, as it won government approval to open its 100th store in Changsha, Hunan Province. The U.S. retail giant currently runs 93 stores in 51 cities in China, with others in preparation. It has opened 22 in 21 cities in this year alone, among which more than three fourths are new destinations for Wal-Mart, Terrence Cullen, vice-president of development for Wal-Mart in China, said at a news conference today. 
-- China Knowledge		 December 10
Wal-Mart to grow by more than 30 pct annually in China Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, said it will keep expanding in China at more than 30 percent annually, as it won government approval to open its 100th store in the fast-growing consumer market. The U.S. retail giant currently has 94 stores open in China, with others in preparation, and has opened 24 this year alone, Terrence Cullen, vice-president of development for Wal-Mart in China, said at a news conference on Monday.
-- Reuters		 December 10
Disabled Wal-Mart Worker Gets U.S. High Court Hearing The Supreme Court in 2002 said in a 5-4 decision that disabled employees generally don’t have the right to bypass company seniority rules. The two sides in the Wal-Mart case disagree as to how the 2002 decision affects their dispute. 
-- Bloomberg News		 December 10
High Court to Rule On Wal-Mart Transfer Of Disabled Worker Wal-Mart gave the position to an employee with more seniority than Ms. Huber, however, and offered her a position at another company facility making significantly less money. She accepted the lesser-paying job and sued. A U.S. District Court ruled in favor of her. The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis in May 2007 reversed that holding and ruled for Wal-Mart. Attorneys for Ms. Huber, in the high-court appeal, said Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules require employers to favor disabled employees under the Americans With Disabilities Act, a federal law on the rights of the disabled. “The Eighth Circuit not only disregarded the statutory text but also entirely ignored the EEOC’s interpretation,” the attorneys said, adding the ruling deepened a split on the issue in the federal appeals-court circuits.
-- Wall Street Journal		 December 10
Supreme Court to Hear Wal-Mart Disability Case An Arkansas woman who claims Wal-Mart Stores discriminated against her after she became disabled has successfully appealed her case to the Supreme Court. The justices said yesterday they would rule on a lawsuit by Pam Huber, who remains a Wal-Mart employee. The case centers on how far employers must go under the Americans with Disabilities Act to accommodate disabled employees.
-- Associated Press via Washington Post		 December 10
Wal-Mart retreats from county Wal-Mart has scrapped plans for a supercenter at a hard-fought location in Mill Creek and is delaying new stores in Arlington and Marysville.
-- HeraldNet (Wash.)		 December 07
St. Martinville Wal-Mart Shutting Down “People from around here are gonna have to go further - spend more on gas,” says Donnel Albert.  Brandie Perrodin says, “I think it’s good because they don’t have much of a selection at this store.” No matter what shoppers think, losing this store will be a big blow to St. Martinville.  The store generates almost 20% of the city’s sales tax revenue - that’s about $300,000 a year.
-- KATC 3 (Lousiana)		 December 07
Weak jobs number in store(s) A generally modest November employment report is due Friday from the Labor Department, and don’t be surprised to find weakness in an area where you’d expect strength this time of year: the local shopping mall.
-- CNN Money		 December 07
Calloway buying superstores Calloway REIT is banking on the further success of Wal-Mart Canada Corp. and its superstore concept to plump the bottom line.
-- Toronto Star (Canada)		 December 07
Calloway gains on rival with $680M Wal-Mart deal Calloway Real Estate Investment Trust has bought 10 more shopping centres from its largest unitholder and Wal-Mart Canada Corp.—a move that closes the gap between the REIT and one of its closest rivals.
-- Financial Post		 December 07
Wal-Mart seals $849 mln buyout of Japan’s Seiyu Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Wednesday it had completed an $849 million bid to buy out minority shareholders in loss-making supermarket chain Seiyu Ltd. (8268.T: Quote, Profile, Research), raising its bet on the Japanese market. The world’s largest retailer launched a tender offer for shares in Seiyu in late October, aiming to buy the roughly 49 percent it did not already own in the firm. The offer closed on December 4.
-- Reuters		 December 07
Dell hopes Best Buy partnership reverses market share slide This past year hasn’t been particularly kind to Dell. The company’s US market share declined to 29.1 percent during the third quarter, down from 32.3 percent in the third quarter of 2006. The company isn’t sitting by and watching this happen; Dell has signed deals that put the company’s systems on the shelves of several major retailers, but it hasn’t managed to stop the leak. Sam’s Club/Wal-Mart was Dell’s first partner back in April and deal with Staples came in late October. Today, Dell announced another addition to its list of retail sales outlets—Best Buy. 
-- Ars Technia		 December 07
Dell moves to begin selling PCs at Best Buy Dell Inc., the world’s second-biggest maker of personal computers, will sell notebook and desktop PCs through Best Buy Co., expanding its push into retail to challenge larger rival Hewlett-Packard Co...Chief executive Michael Dell has put his PCs in more than 10,000 stores since retaking command of the company in January. His entry into retail after years of direct sales began with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in June.
-- Boston Globe		 December 07
No love for license in isles The move came after Mayor Mufi Hannemann on Wednesday called the promotional plastic card “inappropriate” advertising, fearing minors could use it to pass as adults or buy alcohol. The city notified local authorities and even the Department of Homeland Security about the cards.
-- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Hawaii)		 December 07
Wal-Mart halts ‘Superbad’ gimmick in Hawaii In response to criticism by Honolulu officials, Wal-Mart yesterday agreed to stop selling DVDs of the movie “Superbad” here in packaging with fake Hawai’i driver’s licenses.
-- Honolulu Advertiser (Hawaii)		 December 07
Lost Wal-Mart Deal Stings UTi Shares However, shares were stung after the company disclosed in its earnings conference call that it expected to lose a $60 million contract with Wal-Mart next year due to the retailer decided to take the services in-house, Thompson, Davis and Co. analyst David Campbell said. Investors were also spooked by a 26 percent increase in quarterly expenses, Campbell added. 
-- Los Angeles Business Journal		 December 07
Wal-Mart Takes Wind From UTi’s Sales The ailing freight logistics company UTi Worldwide got slammed on Thursday after Wal-Mart terminated an outsourcing contract as of March 1, 2008. The news counteracted any positive sentiment investors may have felt after the company reported earnings for the third-quarter of 2008 in line with Wall Street’s expectations. Wal-Mart terminated their outsourcing agreement in UTi’s Baytown, TX facility in order to handle the supply chain in-house.
-- Forbes		 December 07
Quality issues open gap in Chinese retail For the past two decades, John Kashani has been buying cheap goods from Chinese factories and exporting them to the US. Now he wants to sell made-in-the-US goods in China, and to do it from Yiwu, a provincial city that has become a shop window to the world for Chinese manufacturers and one of the country’s main export hubs. Mr Kashani is vice-president of California-based Concord Enterprises, one of the largest distributors to discount “dollar stores” in the US. Apart from buying cheap Chinese goods, Concord also sources from clearance sales by large US retailers such as Wal-Mart and ships those unsold products to 33 countries, including Mexico and Chile.
-- Financial Times		 December 07
Trade, Food Safety in US-China Talks Chinese officials say they are willing to discuss ways to ease China’s massive trade surplus with the U.S. in talks next week with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other U.S. officials. However, the officials, speaking Friday at a background briefing for reporters, indicated no new willingness to allow the Chinese currency to appreciate faster against the dollar.
-- Associated Press		 December 07
China Reports Progress in Food Safety China said on Thursday that it had demolished the facilities of more than 2,800 rural food makers as part of its effort to crack down on shoddy, fake or substandard food, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
-- New York Times		 December 07
Union boss acts locally, thinks globally As president of the Washington-based Service Employees International Union, Stern, 57, has attracted attention for standing with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. and other corporate leaders, some of them decidedly anti-union, to push for a healthcare overhaul and for meeting with government officials in China in an effort to help improve working conditions there.
-- Los Angeles Times		 December 07
Wal-Mart offers more holiday sales Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, said Thursday it would offer more in-store specials for holiday shoppers Friday. The chain said it was ‘turning back the calendar with another ‘Black Friday’-style price event’ this weekend beginning at 8 a.m. Friday and lasting through Sunday.
-- Associated Press via CNN Money		 December 07
Retailers want to stop growing so fast Pressed by a slowing economy, retailers are starting to scale back expansion plans, in an attempt to curtail expenses and boost profits at existing locations. Wal-Mart said earlier this year that it will slow square footage growth to 5 percent to 6 percent, down from a historical pace of 9 percent, a move that is expected to improve earnings by lowering projected costs.
-- Fortune Magainze		 December 07
Retail Chains Record Mixed Sales American consumers opened their wallets mostly on a need-to-buy basis last month, or when big sales lured them to the mall, bolstering concerns that the nation’s retailers will need persistent discounting to move merchandise this holiday season.
-- Wall Street Journal		 December 07
U.S. Retailers’ November Sales Are Mixed on Discounts “Apart from Black Friday, this month was a continuation of mediocre results,’’ said Eric Beder, a retail analyst at Brean Murray Carret & Co. in New York. “In December, we’re going to see this game of chicken where consumers wait for the last minute to try to get the biggest discounts.’’
-- Bloomberg News		 December 07
Wal-Mart Shoppers Avoiding Small Toys Wal-Mart shoppers are buying more electronics and sporting goods this year as the toy category has weakened, according to a national survey on Christmas retail sales conducted by America’s Research Group (ARG). The motivation cited by parents is that these products are “non-chewable.”
-- Consumer Affairs		 December 07
Wal-Mart Summons Santas for Xmas to Inspire Religious Shoppers Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, is getting back into the Christmas spirit. Two years ago, the discount chain substituted the word “holiday’’ for Christmas references and encouraged store greeters to do the same, in line with other retailers’ removal of “Christmas’’ from advertising and stores. Now, after criticism from religious groups, Wal-Mart is getting back in the spirit. For the first time, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based merchant is bringing Santas into its 3,407 stores. And, following an experiment at a few locations last year, the retailer has set up a “Christmas Shop’’ in each of its 1,500 outlets with garden centers. 
-- Bloomberg News		 December 07
U.K. authority fines supermarkets over dairy prices The U.K.’s Office of Fair Trading said Friday that Wal-Mart Stores’ division Asda, Dairy Crest, Sainsbury, The Cheese Company and Wisemanhave all admitted involvement in anti-competitive practices related to the retail price of dairy products. The companies have agreed to cooperate further with the OFT’s investigation and will pay combined penalties of 116 million pounds.
-- Marketwatch		 December 07
U.K. Supermarkets Fined For Dairy Price-Fixing U.K. supermarket giants J Sainsbury PLC and Asda, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart Inc., have admitted to fixing milk and cheese prices and have agreed, along with a number of dairy firms, to pay fines totaling more than £116 million ($235.7 million).
-- Wall Street Journal		 December 07
Possible Frostburg Wal-Mart may need roundabout While the Maryland State Highway Administration and Wal-Mart continue to dicker over what kind of entrance would be at a possible new store near Frostburg, a company spokeswoman would not confirm Wednesday that such a structure will be built. 
-- Cumberland Times-News (Maryland)		 December 06
Online styles as different as Target and Wal-Mart As online shopping goes mainstream, the nation’s top two discounters, Target Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., are taking vastly different approaches to their websites. Wal-Mart has made the Web central to its holiday sales plan, publicizing special post-Thanksgiving Day sales and tripling from a year ago the number of online-only deals in the last week of November. Minneapolis-based Target, on the other hand, has shied away from trumpeting Web-only deals. For now, at least, it is sticking closely to the carefully crafted holiday promotions offered in stores.
-- Star-Tribune (Minnesota)		 December 06
New ETF Family FocusShares Offers 4 Niche Funds The Wal-Mart Suppliers fund may be the most innovative of the bunch. It holds a set of companies that sell a large percentage of their goods through Wal-Mart: household names like Kellogg and Mattel. The index has significantly outperformed Wal-Mart itself, and is an interesting proxy for the American retail economy. Investors who are no longer enamored with the retailing giant from an investment perspective ... but who think the company could continue to take a bigger slice of the retailing pie ... may find this product interesting.
-- Seeking Alpha		 December 06
New ETF tracks Wal-Mart business partners Want some numbers? Here you go: Del-Monte gets 31% of its business from Wal-Mart, Kellogg gets 18% and Mattel almost 20%. That’s putting some awfully large eggs in one basket, but you can own them now for a lowly 0.35% to 0.6% in fees if you’d like. The fund opened November 30 for trading.
-- BloggingStocks		 December 06
‘Wal-Mart will improve quality, service’ Retail consultant John Williams is certainly not carried away by the whole big Wal-Mart phenomenon. The retailer is no doubt known for its successful best practices, but there have been episodes which have put the brakes on Wal-Mart’s success story, he says. Williams does have a word of caution for the retailer, especially on what to expect in India. He believes Wal-Mart will see success in the country provided it learns from its past mistakes (Wal-Mart had to pull out of Korea and Germany after it failed there) and adapt to local needs, says Williams, Founder, J. C. Williams Group, a retail consultancy firm based in Toronto.
-- The Hindu Business Line (India)		 December 06
Retailers accused over sweatshop labour A leading charity has accused leading retailers of doing little to put an end to ‘sweatshop’ conditions in Bangladesh. War on Want said today that workers are still being paid only 5p an hour - and have to work 80-hour weeks - to produce clothes for retailers such as Primark, Tesco and Asda (part of the Wal-Mart group).
-- Religious Intelligence (U.K.)		 December 06
Wal-Mart venture disappointing in Korea, fails to adapt to Asian market SDSU professors, students and Brookings community members gathered on Dec. 3 to hear Korean exchange professor Dr. Kye-Chung Song speak on the Asian perspective of the globalization of American firms. Song specifically discussed the failure of Wal-Mart in Korea and contrasted it to the success and economic growth experienced by the Korean division of GM.
-- The Collegian (South Dakota State University)		 December 06
Analyst: Look out, Canada, Wal-Mart could take over your grocery business Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, could double its share of Canada’s grocery market in as little as five years by opening more supercenters with lower food prices, posing a threat to the country’s existing grocers, said financial services provider BMO Capital Markets. Wal-Mart might account for 9 percent of Canadian food sales in the next five to 10 years after increasing its supercenters to 90 from 23, BMO analyst David Hartley said in a report Tuesday. 
-- The News Tribune (Wash.)		 December 06
Wal-Mart buys more Seiyu shares Some analysts, however, question whether Wal-Mart understands how to succeed in Japan. Jun Kawahara, analyst at Shinko Securities Co. in Tokyo, said Japanese shoppers frequent neighborhood shops on their bicycles and comparison-shop at many stores, as opposed to American shoppers who may prefer one-stop shopping. “Japanese consumers are very sophisticated. It’s not enough that products are cheap,” he said. 
-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette		 December 06

Page 88 of 272 pages « First  <  86 87 88 89 90 >  Last »

ARCHIVES

SEARCH WAL-MART WATCH

Enter your search terms below:

MAKE A DIFFERENCE