By late next year, more than 75 stores are expected to close, resulting in a loss of nearly 2,000 Arizona retail jobs. The turnover likely will offer shoppers bargains at various going-out-of-business sales and could eventually inspire an influx of newer, trendier stores. But the closures also have city officials scrambling to cover revenue shortfalls and deter commercial blight.

While Wal-Mart may be able to absorb the cost of closed stores and their leases, cities and towns are left dealing with empty buildings that can lead to a rise in crime and vandalism, the lowering of property values, and depressed sales for neighboring retailers when the closed store is the anchor for a strip mall. And for states like Arizona, a drop in sales tax revenue. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance has pointed out that some cities, such as Oakdale, California, or Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, require retail developers set aside money that can be used by the city to either demolish or maintain the site should the store or shopping center become vacant.

Some cities, like Mesa, Arizona, aren’t so lucky.

The shell of a former Walmart sits 2 miles from a Kmart that will close in January. A Mervyn’s and Circuit City will soon depart the area. Such losses this year contributed to Mesa’s $62 million budget shortfall. The city announced 315 layoffs last month.

Cities try to cope with shortfalls in sales taxes, blight left by shut stores [Arizona Republic]

Victim’s kin file suit in Wal-Mart stampede death [Associated Press]

The family of a New York man who was trampled to death the day after Thanksgiving by a stampede of bargain hunting Wal-Mart shoppers has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

The family also filed notice that Nassau County, on Long Island, and its police department will be sued.

The lawsuit against Wal-Mart and the Long Island mall where it is located was filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court in the Bronx on behalf of Elsie Damour Phillipe. Phillipe is the sister of victim Jdimytai Damour (DHMEE’-tree Di-MOHR’), and is the court-appointed administrator of his estate.

Damour, a temporary worker hired for the holiday season, was crushed to death when some 2,000 customers stormed into the Valley Stream store.

None of the defendants in the lawsuit immediately responded to requests for comment.

After a great story ran yesterday on the front page of the the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star (to your right), a few local D.C. news stations have run our ‘Wilderness Wal-Mart’ video on air.

If you haven’t read about it here before, Wal-Mart is forging ahead with its plan to build a 148,000 square foot supercenter directly adjacent to the federally-protected Wilderness Civil War Battlefield in Central Virginia - where Generals Grant and Lee met for the first time in battle, and where there were 29,800 estimated American casualties.

Some are expecting Wal-Mart to file the application before the 1st of the year, and some shortly after. But what we definitely know is: Wal-Mart wants to build. The company has been asked repeatedly by media about the controversial plan, and has consistently said that it is pushing forward despite any and all opposition.

But the controversy isn’t going anywhere. The Civil War Preservation Trust is leading the charge against the plan, and has enlisted other groups like the National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Parks Conservation Association and Piedmont Environmental Council to join the fight as well. And media coverage in the nation’s capital won’t make it any easier.

WJLA-7 in D.C. went out to the battlefield yesterday and briefly interviewed Craig Rains, who lives nearby and is a member of the Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield:

NBC-4 in D.C. went down the battlefield as well, see the video here:

Watch the full Wal-Mart Watch video featuring Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee uniting to oppose the ‘Wilderness Wal-Mart’ here.

Laura brought the scorpion to a pet shop to ascertain it’s species.  It was determined that the scorpion was of the Israeli Gold variety which while not poisonous, has a very painful sting.  The Sun (UK) reports that an Asda spokesman had this to say of the incident:

“We have rigorous inspection processes in place from the moment our bananas are picked right the way through to reaching our shelves, so we’re scratching our heads as to how this could’ve happened,” adding: “We sell 10million bananas on a weekly basis and this is the only reported incident.”

Not so fast, unnamed Asda spokesman, ABC News reported about eight months ago about a 12-year-old girl being stung by a scorpion in a South Carolina Wal-Mart, that was hiding in a Watermelon crate.  Perhaps Wal-Mart Stores Inc. needs to take a closer look at their rigorous produce-inspection processes. Perhaps shoppers should also look into buying local produce to avoid a foreign insect invasion in their own homes!

Scorpion Found in Bananas [The Sun (UK)]

Laura Miller, 20, found the dangerous critter – which had crawled out of her fruit bowl – inside a pair of jeans.

The shocked mother-of-one went back to Asda in Wisbech, Cambs, where she had bought the bananas from.

But Laura, who has a six-month-old tot, was confronted by giggling workers.

Wal-Mart has a long history of aggressively pushing into Mexico’s banking sector, and trying to keep various forms of payment within its stores. For example, earlier this year Mexico’s Supreme Court criticized Wal-Mart’s practice of compensating its employees with “voucher” cards only redeemable for goods within Wal-Mart stores, comparing this program to the existence of “company stores” under early 20th Century Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz. Additionally, Wal-Mart also offers its own brand of banking services in-store, a practice that so far is illegal in the U.S. While Bancomer customers’ ability to pay credit card bills at Wal-Mart cash registers might seem beneficial, it could significantly draw business away from other banks who do not have access to the retail giant. And the move is particularly suspicious because Bancomer already administers Wal-Mart’s own brand of credit card, according to a recent USA Today story. With its own credit card, Wal-Mart has not exactly given fair lending terms: the card carries a whopping 69.6% annual interest rate, high even by Mexican standards. And given the recent financial crisis, caused in part by irresponsible lending practices, there is serious reason to doubt whether Wal-Mart’s offering of financial services to Mexico’s low- and middle-income consumers will serve their needs, or only drive them further into debt.

Mexican Customers Now Able to Pay Bancomer Credit Card Bills at Wal-Mart [El Sol de Mexico, 11/11/08]

Starting this week, [Mexican bank] BBVA Bancomer’s 5 million customers will be able to make credit card payments in Wal-Mart stores across Mexico, as part of the retailer’s and bank’s common strategy.

Bank customers will be able to make the payments in 745 locations of Wal-Mart de Mexico, including in different store formats, without paying additional fees and during more extensive hours than Bancomer’s own branch locations. They will be able to make payments 365 days per year in Wal-Mart, Bodega Aurrerá, Sam’s, Superama and Suburbia nationwide, taking advantage of the comfort, security and flexible hours that these stores offer.

Bancomer’s Director of Credit Cards and Consumer Banking, Rodrigo Manrique, commented that “the objective is to offer our customers more ways, and broader hours, to make their payments conveniently. Through this agreement, Wal-Mart de Mexico will receive an increased flow of customers in its stores, and both institutions will boost customer loyalty by offering them a superior service”.

For his part, Raúl Argüelles, Senior Vice-President of Corporate Affairs and Human Resources for Wal-Mart de Mexico, indicated that this commercial alliance permanently adds value to what his company offers to clients.

At the moment of paying at cash registers, users of this service will obtain a receipt of the transaction that has taken place, which they should keep since it will function as proof of payment should any further clarification be necessary. For the customer’s benefit, Bancomer will consider the day this transaction takes place, in any Wal-Mart de Mexico location, as the date of payment.

See the original article in Spanish here

This year, Wal-Mart remains in HRC’s do-not-buy zone with a “red” rating.  Wal-Mart’s overall score, 40 out of 100, remains stagnant from the HRC’s 2008 guide.

Other retailers such as Best Buy, Sears (Kmart), Target, and Walgreens all received HRC’s highest possible rating with scores of 100 out of 100.  Costco, CVS, and Home Depot also received HRC’s green rating with scores of 93, 90, and 85, respectively. 

Since 2007, Wal-Mart’s policies that support LGBT employees have been stalled after Wal-Mart bowed to the pressure of conservative critics and withdrew its support from the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.  In doing so, Wal-Mart cited its policy to “avoid highly controversial issues”.

Yet, the real controversy continues to lie within Wal-Mart’s non-inclusive policies which perpetuate the treatment of LGBT individuals as second class citizens with second class rights.  Until Wal-Mart makes the necessary changes to guarantee all its employees equal and fair rights, as HRC suggests, consumers should make the choice to shop elsewhere.

To download the complete Buying for Equality 2009 guide, visit the Human Rights Campaign.

Actually, the investigation and settlement announcement was a joint venture with San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who has a much shorter but waaaaayyyyy more interesting Wikipedia entry than AG Brown. In fact, Dumanis, a Republican, is the first openly gay or lesbian District Attorney in the county, and the first Jewish woman to hold the post. Fancy that.

Anyway, back to the story we’re here to tell. Apparently, Investigators conducting random price-checking across the state found that 164 Wal-Mart Stores in 30 counties had made scanning errors. On average, customers who were overcharged paid an extra $8.40 at checkout.

Christine Gasparac, a spokeswoman for Brown, said state investigators concluded that “these were systemic problems,” not just run-of-the-mill mistakes.

“Systemic problems” might sounds bad to some, but one person’s systemic problems are another person’s financial opportunity. As the LA Times blog puts it - if Wal-Mart’s price scanners are wrong, you can make a quick $3. So the moral to this story - and every blog post I write today will have a moral - is to shop at Wal-Mart, cross your fingers that their registers go insane, and then collect a cool handful of George Washingtons.

Wal-Mart now promises to give back $3 to customers any time a pricing mistake is discovered. If the mispriced item sells for less than $3, you get it free. The refund program begins immediately and will last for four years, but it’s up to shoppers to spot any disparity between what a product is listed for on the shelf and what’s rung up by the price scanner.

The company was also ordered to pay $1.2 million in penalties; $190,621 to reimburse costs to numerous state agencies and prosecutors’ offices; and $50,000 to a consumer-protection prosecution trust fund.

Wal-Mart to pay $3 if price-scanning errors occur [Sacramento Bee]

According to her complaint, which was filed last week in Oregon’s federal district court, Lynda deBarros had worked for Wal-Mart since mid-2000 and over the last 8 years had received consistently positive evaluations resulting in increased responsibilities. She had advanced from photo technician to assistant manager, and then was transferred to a new store to oversee its construction.

DeBarros began experiencing health problems in October 2007, of which I will let The Oregonian do the describing:

On Nov. 14, 2007, deBarros went to her gynecologist because of excessive menstrual bleeding, documents show. DeBarros “had a strong family history of cancer and was very worried that cancer was the cause of her excessive vaginal bleeding.” On Dec. 3, 2007, her doctor recommended an emergency hysterectomy, which was scheduled for Dec. 10. When deBarros notified her boss, Kenneth Hutchison, about her medical condition, the suit said, he scolded her and told her to go to the doctor on her time, not his.

The moral of the story is apparently this: don’t have emergency health issues during the holidays, as deBarros was advised to postpone the procedure because it was Wal-Mart’s “busiest time of the season” and they needed all hands on deck. All that excessive bleeding she was experiencing? Yeah, you just tough that out until the holiday shopping season is over...you’ll have plenty of time for your emergency surgery after the new year.

Two weeks after returning from FMLA leave, deBarros was demoted from her assistant manager position to a simple associate position. This is the second time in two months an FMLA case has made news in a major state paper - in October a West Virginia woman filed suit against Wal-Mart alleging she was wrongfully fired after she used her FMLA leave to care for her young son who had a rare bowel disorder, requiring 12 months of hospitalization and several surgeries. Despite working for Wal-Mart since 1994 with positive evaluations, Arlene Jett was reprimanded for absenteeism after taking her first FMLA leave. Both cases are ongoing.

Employee in Oregon sues Wal-Mart [The Oregonian]

Following its recent trend to focus expansion internationally, Wal-Mart is pouring money into Brazil to compete with French giant Carrefour, and Brazil’s own Pão de Açúcar. An article in La Prensa, a major Nicaraguan newspaper, discusses competition among the three giants:

Wal-Mart [recently] revealed in mid-August that it will invest between $900 million and $1 billion dollars into expanding in Brazil in 2009. This will be the largest investment made thus far by the company in Brazil, sufficient to open between 80 and 90 stores. For this year, Wal-Mart’s growth plan foresees $650 million and the opening of 36 locations (in the last four years, the company has invested $1.6 billion).

Wal-Mart’s recent success as the number-three chain in Brazil contrasts markedly with its earlier misreading of Brazilian consumers’ needs:

When it arrived in Brazil, Wal-Mart wasn’t a source of worry for the country’s market readers. Its presence was so timid and its actions so poorly adapted to Brazilian culture, that the chain became the butt of jokes, offering deals on golf clubs in the land of soccer.

The Brazilian retail market, similar to others such as India, is highly fragmented with several major chains competing for business. In order to succeed in this environment Wal-Mart has had to do away with its “big box fits all” business plan and expand through acquisitions:

Today, the U.S. retail chain in Brazil consists of 318 locations divided among eight brands: BIG, Wal-Mart, Hiper Bom Preço are “big-box” stores; Nacional, Marcadorama, Bom Preço and Todo Dia are supermarkets. And Maxxi is a wholesaler, in addition to Sam’s Club. With sales close to $8.5 billion in 2007 and a market share of 11 percent, Wal-Mart ranked third in Abras’s [Brazilian supermarket association] measures.

Regarding growing through acquisitions and ownership of a wide range of store brands, however, Carrefour is the clear market leader in Brazil and well-ahead of Wal-Mart, due to its ability to offer a wider range of services Brazilian customers demand.

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 begins with a new study from the group Good Jobs First, which reveals that cash-strapped states are forgoing a total of roughly $1 billion annually in tax revenue because of little-noticed laws that permit retailers to keep a slice of the sales taxes they collect for the government. In fact, the study finds thirteen states do not cap the amount that a retailer can receive as vendor compensation for collecting sales tax, resulting in millions of lost tax dollars.

A large focus this week is also on Wal-Mart’s announcement that Lee Scott will step down as CEO in February 2009, to be replaced by Michael Duke, Wal-Mart’s Vice Chairman of its International Division. In addition to the CEO change, you’ll find stories on the battle over the Employee Free Choice Act, how Wal-Mart will deal with the Obama Administration from a labor perspective, and related news on Wal-Mart’s labor battles in Canada.

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 has founded a new consumer group in New England geared towards fighting Wal-Mart opponents, and has purchased its own wind-energy supply based out of Odessa, Texas

Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials [November 21, 2008]

Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of its workers and “save money at all costs” mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions.

Dukes v. Wal-Mart is of course one large example (the largest class action in American history, actually), as are the myriad wage/hour/overtime class actions the company faces. Recently, we also reported on Wal-Mart’s poor treatment of its disabled workforce.

Wal-Mart Watch will be focusing on these individual stories, highlighting cases that warrant further attention because of the insight each gives in its own way on how Wal-Mart feels about its employees.

John Lennex v. Wal-Mart Stores East, L.P.

John Lennex was hired by Wal-Mart on September 7, 2004, as a Bicycle Assembler. You take your kid into Wal-Mart, buy him the latest Huffy bicycle (now conveniently made overseas, since Wal-Mart forced the bike manufacturer to go broke), and John Lennex will put it together for you. Or he would have, had he not been fired.

Lennex has coronary artery disease. He requires a defibrillator to regulate his heart beat, and is limited in his life activities. He is recognized as have a life-limiting disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And when he was hired, his managers were well aware of his condition.

When he was hired, bicycle assemblers were also allowed a certain comfort in their job – that is, they were actually allowed to sit on a stool while they built their bikes. When he received a new department manager in 2005, however, this changed. His new supervisor, Tye Wilson, told the employees to say bye-bye to stools or chairs. Despite knowing of Lennex’s disability and the fact that stools were readily available, AND that Lennex had performed his job admirably to that point, Wilson refused a request by Lennex for a reasonable accommodation that would let him continue to sit.

Since becoming Vice-Chairman in 2005, Michael Duke has presided over Wal-Mart’s international division. Unfortunately, the company’s international track record during these three years has been less than stellar. While aggresively expanding into Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China and recently India, Wal-Mart has been accused of sourcing from sweatshops, selling dangerous foreign products on its shelves, union-busting, and attempting to monopolize employees’ business by paying them in vouchers.

Here’s a little background on the man who will shortly run the biggest company in the world.

Early Life and Education

Michael Duke, 57, was born in 1950. He has a wife, Susan, and two daughters and a son. He graduated from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering in 1971. He serves on the Board of Directors of the US-China Business Council as well as CIES-The Food Business Forum. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Morehouse College and on the University of Arkansas Board of Advisors. He is also a Company Director on the Board of Directors of Arvest-Bank of Bentonville and the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

Professional Life

Before joining Wal-Mart, Duke spent 23 years working for Federated Department Stores and May Department Stores.

Mike Duke, currently the Vice Chairman, International Division, will take the reins from Lee Scott on February 1st. Check out Wal-Mart Watch’s official statement here.

And check back later for more on Mike Duke…

The other day, a Wal-Mart buyer who received a supply trade bribe was arrested by the Shenzhen prosecutor’s office.

The buyer had been with Wal-Mart for many years, revealed the “Daily Economic News”, making known for the first time a large scale bribery case.  The incident also airs Wal-Mart interior staff’s employment of “secret service” to monitor and investigate Wal-Mart staff.

Information from Shenzhen’s Futian police illustrates that the local police station has gathered two months worth of evidence to successfully uncover a 20,000 RMB bribery case.  At present the suspect as been arrested. 

In September, the local police station received the case from Wal-Mart’s investigations department reporting a Wal-Mart buyer and a Shandong egg supplier.  Wal-Mart buyer Liao Mou demanded 20,000 RMB from the egg supplier as an “entrance fee”. 

The police investigation discovered that last year Liao Mou indeed demanded 20,000 RMB from a Shandong egg supplier, having the money transferred to a far away relative’s bank account.  Moreover, one Wal-Mart staff also discovered that Liao Mou met a supplier in a park to receive a bank card with 100,000 RMB.

On October 15, police detained Liao Mou as a criminal.  On October 23, Liao Mou was arrested by the prosecutor’s office as a suspect in business bribery.

Wal-Mart’s public relations department staff told the “Daily Economic News” that honesty is Wal-Mart’s number one principle.  Wal-Mart welcomes the supply trade investigation and will work to create a series of mechanisms to prevent bribery cases from happening.  “The ways this incident was handled first gives a warning to employees and second gives the supply trade something to think about.”

There are two key players involved in Walton investments:  Madrone Capital Partners and Greg Penner.

Madrone Capital Partners is the Walton’s private equity firm and was an early investor in Baidu, the largest internet search engine in China.

Greg Penner is not only a partner in Madrone Capital Partners, Penner also sits on the board of Baidu.  And interestingly enough, Penner is also Rob Walton’s son-in-law.  (A little family history:  Penner is married to Carrie (Walton) Penner, the daughter of Samuel Robson Walton (aka Rob Walton). Rob Walton is chairman of Wal-Mart and son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.)

With Walton money and family members on hand, it’s not hard to implicate the Walton family in Baidu’s latest scandal:

Slated to open in March, the store will be located on the east side of I-540.  Jenn Glass, a Target representative was quoted in the Benton Daily Record (Arkansas):

“Target opens new stores in October, July and March of each year,” said Jenn Glass, Target representative. “We’re projecting a March 8, 2009, opening in Rogers. “According to Glass, the Rogers location will be a traditional Target retail store, not a Super Target. The Minneapolis-based retailer has 70 new stores scheduled to open in the United States in 2009.

Not to be outdone, Wal-Mart plans to open a Neighborhood Market DIRECTLY across from the new Target, in an awkward, immodest attempt to keep the citizens of Bentonville shopping at the “right store.” Wal-Mart doesn’t typically open Neighborhood Markets as frequently as they used to, and seem to be making every attempt to upgrade all of their regular stores to Supercenters.  Way to keep the gloves on, guys.

Target set to open in March [Benton County Daily Record (Ark.)]

ROGERS - Target Corp. ‘s red bull’s-eye is hardly a household trademark in Benton County. For years, the nearest Target store has been in Fayetteville, in neighboring Washington County. But the bull’seye has been shining brightly along Interstate 540, in the shadows of the Pinnacle Hills Promenade, for the past couple of weeks.

Crossland Construction crews continue to erect Benton County’s first Target store, situated across the street from the Pinnacle Hills Promenade, along the east side of I-540. The exterior of the 127, 000-squarefoot Target store is nearing completion, the signage has been erected, and the parking lot has been paved. But for those who are planning to get some holiday shopping done at the Minneapolis-based retailer, it’s still going to require a drive to Fayetteville this winter.

Not a day goes by without talk in the media of the ‘Wal-Mart Economy’ and Wal-Mart’s role in a recession. Similarly, with the proposed auto bailout being debated on Capitol Hill, we’ve heard endlessly about the supposed failures of GM, Ford and Chrysler to adjust and adapt.

Everyone tends to agree that more Americans are now forced to shop at Wal-Mart - whether they love or whether they hate it. Likewise, the talking heads know that the Big Three are suffering - whether or not they need to be bailed out, or are getting what they deserve.

But the two aren’t separate stories.

A couple of columns by the Washington Post Writers Group over the past two days have done a great job of laying out the differences between Bentonville and Detroit – and what that has meant for the American economy.

Warren A. Brown writes mostly about cars. A lot of his column defends Detroit’s efforts to make greener cars, but more importantly (for this blog post at least) - he draws a more realistic picture of what’s been happening in America:

“Here is where newspaper columnists—Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times comes to mind—routinely dismiss the idea of federal aid to an ailing Detroit, suggesting that the city and its automobile industry be consigned to the scrap heap of history, having failed dismally in their core mission to design and develop the kinds of cars and trucks Americans really want.

It is sophist nonsense, of course, the kind of tale spun by people who haven’t bothered to check the numbers, and who have paid even less regard to the history of their supposed knowledge.

The truth, all things considered, is that Detroit has done reasonably well. The American Three—General Motors, Ford and Chrysler—still hold an estimated 47 percent of a home market that is wide open to competition from car companies all over the world. Until July of 2007, domestic automobile manufacturers historically held more than a 50-percent U.S.-market share. But in a country where consumers have made Wal-Mart the retail king—that’s Wal-Mart, one of America’s biggest importers of foreign goods—that was bound to change.