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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will give nearly all of its hourly store employees a pay raise next month and not just minimum wage earners, an attempt by the country's largest private employer to combat a tighter labor market and chronic turnover.

Welcome To The New Normal: The Dow Crashes Another 390 Points And Wal-Mart Closes 269 Stores Did you know that 15 trillion dollars of global stock market wealth has been wiped out since last June? The worldwide financial crisis that began in the middle of last year is starting to spin wildly out of control. On Friday, the Dow plunged another 390 points, and it is now down a total of 1,437 points since the beginning of this calendar year. Never before in U.S. history have stocks ever started a year this badly. The same thing can be said...

Los Angeles residents of impoverished Chinatown were shocked to learn on January 17 that the Walmart they pleaded for years to get would be shut down at 7 p.m. Sunday evening due to the city’s new $15 minimum wage ordinance, and union harassment. (Update: The closure was described by the company as one of 154 closures “that took into account a number of factors, including financial performance as well as strategic alignment with long-term plans.”) Immigrant Hispanic and Asian residents of central Los Angeles campaigned for years for a “big box” retailer to locate in their economically depressed neighborhood to...

Walmart abruptly announced Friday that it was abandoning a promise to build stores in Washington’s poorest neighborhoods, an agreement that had been key to the deal allowing the retailer to begin operating in the nation’s capital. [Snip] "I'm blood mad," D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said at a Friday news conference. "It's an outrage," said former mayor Vincent C. Gray (D), who in 2013 completed the handshake deal for the stores. "This is devastating and disrespectful to the residents of the East End of the District of Columbia." [Snip ... buried toward the bottom of a long article] [Council...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Friday that it will close 269 of its stores globally, including 154 in the U.S., nine of them in California, as the company looks to reposition itself in a difficult retail climate. The retailer does not necessarily appear to be shrinking its U.S. footprint, however. The retailer said that in the next year, it plans to open more than 140 new stores nationwide. Plans include opening or expanding nine stores in California. Two Wal-Mart stores in Los Angeles -- one on Crenshaw Boulevard and one on West Cesar E. Chavez Avenue -- as well as one...

The last 12 months have not been kind to WalMart. When the world's largest retailer bowed to pressure to raise wages for its lowest-paid employees, the living wage crowd cheered. In short order, it became apparent that the reverberations from the $1.5 billion endeavor would spell trouble for the company. When a series of ill-fated efforts to squeeze the supply chain failed to plug the gap, the company resorted to store closures (or "plumbing" as WalMart calls it), job cuts in Bentonville, and reduced hours. Finally, in October, WalMart threw in the towel and cut guidance. Its shares plunged. Now,...

Walmart will shutter more than 250 stores worldwide and exit its Walmart Express small-store format entirely as the company adjusts to stiff competition from its online nemesis, Amazon. Walmart said in a statement on Friday that it would close 269 stores globally, of which 154 would be in the United States. That is about 2 percent of Walmart's global footprint of 11,600 stores, and 3 percent of its 5,310 locations in the United States. Those stores are scheduled to close by the end of January. The company has been slow to pull out of a flat sales period after the...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, more than half of them in the U.S. and another big chunk in its challenging Brazilian market. The stores being shuttered account for a fraction of the company's 11,000 stores worldwide and less than 1 percent of its global revenue. More than 95 percent of the stores set to be closed in the U.S. are within 10 miles of another Wal-Mart. The Bentonville, Arkansas, company said it is working to ensure that workers are placed in nearby locations. The store closures will start at the end of the month.

Wal-Mart said Friday it will close 269 stores across the globe, including 154 in the U.S. The world's largest retailer also will open as many as 405 stores globally in the coming fiscal year, as it shifts its focus toward Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets in profitable locations. In all, 16,000 employees will be impacted by the store closings, about 10,000 of whom are in the U.S. Also domestically, Wal-Mart will also close 23 Neighborhood Market stores, 12 Supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount centers and four Sam's Clubs.

I just accepted a job in Bentonville AR, for a company supporting Walmart. I'm moving "blind", as I've never been to that area. I would welcome any useful comments or suggestions about moving to, and living in, the Bentonville area. In particular, any suggestions about good or bad neighborhoods as I start looking for a place to live. I'd prefer to rent a house rather than an apartment, but I have a large dog (70lb husky mix), and I realize that may make it more difficult to find a place. Thanks in advance!

Law requires stores to verify carry license or turn them away.More laws, more problems. That's always the way it is. The more rules you have, the more trouble it is for everyone. And in this case, stores like Wal-Mart are reportedly bearing the brunt. Texas recently began allowing open carry of handguns by folks who are licensed for concealed carry, and naturally, some folks are doing just that. But that creates a problem for retailers who sell alcoholic beverages such as beer and wine. Apparently, Texas has a law that dictates that any business selling alcolohic beverages cannot "knowingly allow"...

Myrtle Beach police arrested a woman for biting off part of a Walmart Employee's finger during an altercation early Sunday morning. About 2:10 a.m., loss prevention officers at the Walmart at 541 Seaboard Street witnessed Carolynn Wright, 23, allegedly concealing merchandise. Two employees tried to stop Wright as she was leaving the store. However, a physical altercation ensued. According to the police report, Wright punched one of the employees in the head causing bleeding. Wright then bit down on another employee's finger, biting a portion of it off. A customer witnessed the incident and attempted to call 911. While calling,...

BAY CITY, MI Shortly after a Bay City man proposed to his girlfriend at Walmart, the pair shoplifted jewelry and sex toys, police say, leading the newly engaged couple to spend their New Year's Eve in jail. About 6:14 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 30, Bay County sheriff's deputies responded to the Spencer's Gifts store inside the Bay City Mall at 4101 E. Wilder Road in Bangor Township for a shoplifting complaint involving a man and a woman. Both suspects fled the area prior to deputies' arrival, but deputies found the woman walking between Bob Evans and Taco Bell, followed by a...

Managers at Wal-Mart stores in Texas have a new task to add to their list of duties: asking customers if they have a permit to carry a handgun. To comply with state liquor rules, the world’s biggest retailer sent a written notice last month to stores that sell alcohol, telling managers to ensure that customers who openly carry firearms under a new law have licenses. Cashiers or door greeters who see someone with a gun are to alert the highest- ranking employee, who is to approach the customer and ask to see the paperwork.

What this woman did at her local Wal-Mart made national news December 28, 2015 | Tom Tillison http://www.bizpacreview.com/2015/12/28/what-this-woman-did-at-her-local-wal-mart-made-national-news-288531?hvid=4TFUwx Here’s another “people of Wal-Mart” story … with a twist. A Florida woman driving a motorized shopping cart around a local Wal-Mart made herself at home while in the store, eating and drinking to her heart’s desire. Josseleen Elida Lopez, 20, was arrested by the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office after she consumed $32.36 worth of food and wine, according to WFLA-TV. Included among her dining choices were cinnamon rolls, mini muffins, sushi, a rotisserie chicken with sauce and two bottles of S....

LECANTO, Fla. — A woman is accused of shooting up meth and riding a motorized cart through a Walmart while eating chicken and drinking wine. WFLA reported that 20-year-old Josseleen Elida Lopez faces charges after the incident reported at a Walmart in Lecanto, Fla. on Tuesday. The suspect allegedly shot up meth and then ate sushi, cinnamon rolls, rotisserie chicken and drank wine while driving a motorized shopping cart at a Walmart....

Backlash is growing for the CEO of Sam's Club after she discussed her dislike for dealing with white men on CNN. BPR reported Sunday that the company's black, female CEO Rosalind Brewer planned to call a supplier she met with because she was disgusted that his management staff was filled with all white males. It was more important to Ms. Brewer that a staff be racially and gender diverse rather than the best people be picked for their jobs. A practice she admitted to CNN's Poppy Harlow she practices herself. The president and CEO of WalMart Stores Inc., who owns...

Nobody argues against the fact that there needs to be diversity at the top of large companies, but the Left is pushing for over-representation of minorities, and they make no bones about it. Sam's Club CEO Rosalind Brewer told CNN how she deals with the white patriarchy.  “Just today we met with a supplier and the entire other side of the table was all Caucasian males.”  She went on to say how “there were actually no females, like, levels down” in the company.  She vowed to “place a call” to the CEO. Brewer said that it has to start at the top, adding that...

<p>Possibly a concealed carry person took care of business. Hopefully was warranted.</p>

Economy: In the latest swipe at Wal-Mart, a new report suggests the retail giant has cost the U.S. 400,000 jobs due to purchases from China. In the bigger picture, this statistic is misleading and meaningless. The New York Times sums up the "study" nicely: "Imports from China by Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer and biggest importer, eliminated or displaced over 400,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2013, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research group that has long targeted Wal-Mart's policies." As the Times itself seems to suggest, this study is really...