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Yikes, is that true, or just an alarmingly plausible throwaway line that you made up?

Dude, do you work for Zogby?

Anyway, to answer this question, I have heard just that about a half a dozen times from as many sources. I just spent 5 minutes looking for a primary source on the Internet and can not find the exact number for American Shoppers but I did find that 176 million customers visit Wal-Mart each week, globally. (http://www.walmartfacts.com/FactSheets/7262006_Merchandising.pdf)

IIRC, there were about 120 Million voters in the last US Presidential election. So it is entirely possible and even probable that more than 120 million Americans visit a Wal-Mart store within the the time span of a year. Moreover, many American's only vote once every 4 years so it seems even more probable that some number over 120 million Americans shop at a Wal-Mart every 4 years.

While perusing the Wal-Mart site looking for the exact number of American Wal-Mart shoppers, I found that the company has 52,623 "associates" in the state of Georgia alone and 1.3 million nationally.

Oh, I just found the number! "More than 127,000 Million customers shop at Wal-Mart NATIONWIDE every week."

http://www.walmartfacts.com/FactSheets/7262006_Economic_Benefits.pdf

Please feel free to ignore everything I wrote before the last paragraph. :~)

It would actually be 176 million customer VISITS, rather than 176 million CUSTOMERS, with people who go more than once being counted multiple times (no store of that type has any way to track individual customers, when many are making small purchases with cash). But it's still entirely possible that the number who shop at Wal-Mart and the number who vote are neck-and-neck. I said "Yikes", but I'm not sure I really meant it. Given Wal-Mart's performance in the aftermath of Katrina, which was head and shoulders above that of any government agency (local, state, or federal), I had already suggested elsewhere that FEMA's responsibilities should just be contracted out to Wal-Mart. Perhaps the entire federal government's operations should be.