[Adam36]

I read something that Walmart made 259 billion in sales last year. Can you believe that. 259 billion.
No one can compete with them.

[kcvl]

Wal-Mart's annual sales quadrupled from $55.5 billion in its Fiscal Year 1993, to $244.5 billion in FY 2003 (which ended Jan. 1, 2003).

Walmart says its sales yesterday(day after Thanksgiving-2003) set a single day record at just over 1.5 billion dollars.

Five members of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton's family tied for the fourth spot(richest people), each with a net worth of $20.5 billion.

[Fledermaus]

No one?

Then I guess I'm hallucinating when I see Target, Kohl's, Lowe's, Home Depot, Costco, K-Mart, Sears, JCPenney, Dollar General, Fred's, Circuit City, Best Buy, The Gap, Heicht's, Dillard's, etc. open for business and full of customers.

[WhiteyAppleseed]

In 1935, Congress was trying to do something about the evils of the chain stores (Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Wards) that people saw as a threat to the smaller stores. I found a stack of old Congressional Records in an old house that my wife and I purchased to remodel. They had some legislation that had to do with enabling the small stores to band together and buy in bulk, enabling them to compete, the theory went, with the large stores.

Congress was also hearing from some homeowners who were trying to be compensated for fires that got out of control, set by government controlled railroads in 1918.

The more things change, the more they stay the same?