Shopping for Subsidies (Good Jobs First)

This report from Good Jobs First examines Wal-Mart's use of local taxpayer money to subsidize its exansion. From the introduction:

"Over the past few decades, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has grown from a regional discount store operator into the world’s largest retailer. In fact, with annual revenues of $256 billion, it is the world’s largest corporation. It has more than 3,500 stores throughout the United States and another 1,600 abroad. Its profits last year were nearly $9 billion.

What is not widely known is that this wealthy company’s aggressive U.S. expansion has frequently been financed in part by taxpayers through economic development subsidies. This report, the first national study of the subject, documents more than $1 billion in such subsidies from state and local governments to Wal-Mart; the actual total is certainly far higher, but the records are scattered in thousands of places and many subsidies are undisclosed.

The subsidies go not only to Wal-Mart’s stores, but also to the network of nearly 100 distribution centers it has created to facilitate its rapid retail expansion. We found that more than 90 percent of the company’s distribution centers have been subsidized."

Click here to download "Shopping for Subsidies"