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Early in 2010, I bought a new Roadmaster bicycle from Wal=Mart. This was a 26 inch Chinese made mountain bike (bicycle). I had a number of problems with the bike from the start. The brakes did not work and had to be worked on. In only two months, the brake pads were worn out -- something I had never since before. I have riding bikes -- on and off -- since learning during the presidency of Dwight David Eisenhower. I took the foot pedals off to see if I could swap with pedals that had two straps. Standard 26 inch...

Texas Governor Rick Perry is being called to task by an author and investigative journalist for vetoing bills that would have blocked construction of the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor. Dr. Jerome Corsi has been one of the leading voices warning the American public about the consequences of the Trans-Texas Corridor, which will be part of a superhighway -- purported to be four football fields wide -- that will allow Mexican trucks to enter the U.S. and traverse the core of the country all the way to Canada. The best-selling author asserts that Governor Perry cleared the way for construction to begin...

TAMPA - When Karen Armatrout died in 1997, her employer, Wal-Mart, collected thousands of dollars on a life insurance policy the retail giant had taken out without telling her, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. Armatrout was one of about 350,000 employees Wal-Mart secretly insured nationwide, said Texas attorney Michael D. Myers, who estimated the company collected on 75 to 100 policies involving Florida employees who died. Myers is seeking to make the Armatrout lawsuit a class-action case on behalf of the estates of all the Florida employees who died while unwittingly insured by Wal-Mart. "Creepy's a...

WACO, Texas (BP)--If an Internet user types the word “gay” into the search engine for Wal-Mart’s online bookstore, more than 1,000 titles turn up -- including titles from “Gay Power: An American Revolution” to “The Gay Disciple: Jesus’ Friend Tells It His Own Way.” Granted, some of the 1,000-plus titles are duplicates and a few are written in opposition to the homosexual agenda, but what is clear is that Wal-Mart continues to dabble in supporting a lifestyle that is contrary to what many of its customers believe is natural and safe. By offering book selections that cater to the gay...

Faced with public demonstrations of discontent by its employees, Wal-Mart Stores has developed a wide-ranging new program intended to show that it appreciates its 1.3 million workers in the US and to encourage them to air their grievances. As part of the effort, Wal-Mart managers at 4,000 stores will meet with 10 rank-and-file workers every week and extend an additional 10 percent discount on a single item during the holidays to all its employees, beyond the normal 10 percent employee discount. The program, described in an internal company document, was created during a volatile six months period, starting when the...

The line outside the new Wal- Mart in Kearny began form ing long before the 8 a.m. grand opening on Wednesday. This corporate behemoth is opening stores everywhere on earth these days, including this 43rd outlet in New Jersey, built on the foundation of a vacant trucking terminal a mile or so from the New Jersey Turnpike. You may have heard that Wal- Mart treats its employees as disposable parts, paying low wages, offering lousy benefits and crushing any effort to form a union. That's all true, which explains why almost half their employees quit every year. But on Wednesday...

The Wal-Mart Model The American economy continues to surge ahead, though you won't read much about it in mainstream media. Economic growth in the third quarter was 4.1 percent--despite Hurricane Katrina!--the 10th consecutive quarter with growth over 3 percent. Unemployment is 5.0 percent--lower than the average for the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s. Since April 2003 the economy has created a net 5.1 million new jobs. Core inflation is only 2.1 percent, and gas prices, which surged above $3 a gallon after Katrina, are now down around $2. Productivity growth for the five-year period of 2000-2005 is 3.4 percent, the highest...

THERE'S A COMIC side to the anti-Wal-Mart campaign brewing across the country. Only by summoning up the most naive view of corporate behavior can the critics be shocked — shocked! — by the giant retailer's machinations. Wal-Mart is plotting to contain health costs! But isn't that what every company does in the face of medical inflation? Wal-Mart has a war room to defend its image! Well, yeah, it's up against a hostile campaign featuring billboards, newspaper ads and a critical documentary movie. Wal-Mart aims to enrich shareholders and put rivals out of business! Hello? What business doesn't do that?

We've heard all the horror stories about the retail giant. They're just not true. STEVE MAICH There's a place on the western edge of Cleveland that encapsulates the story of the city -- its proud industrial past, its slow depressing decline, its hopes for a brighter future. But the battle now being waged over that patch of land tells an even bigger tale. It's called the steelyard flats, a 130-acre plot of barren wasteland at the intersection of Interstates 90 and 71, in what was once the heart of Cleveland's thriving steel industry. The site has sat idle since 2000,...

That's what one hears as the giant retailer sops up the vitality from middle-class families, local communities, and the national economy . This happens in three different but related ways. First, there's the clobbering of Main Street: Wal-Mart moves in on the edges of towns, and the much smaller downtown merchants, unable to match its prices, soon go under. Second, there's the miserable wage and benefits package offered by Sam Walton's creation. And third, there's Wal-Mart's purchasing strategy, which seems to be about buying American-made products only as a last resort -- to the point that today Wal-Mart, by itself,...

Wal-Mart (WMT) is the favorite whipping boy of labor unions and leftists who blame the retail giant for everything from low wages to a lack of health insurance. But don't tell the people of Oakland, Calif........Wal-Mart workers and customers see things differently. Take those at the new store in Oakland. Built on a once-empty field, it has brought 350 jobs averaging $10.82 an hour to a heavily minority area. It'll also bring in a half-million badly needed tax dollars.And how many people applied for those 350 jobs? 11,000. No, we didn't accidentally add a zero. That's 31 applicants for each...

When I was a kid growing up in a small Louisiana town, there was exactly one place to buy groceries: Gerald's. It was properly called the Red & White, but nobody ever used the store's proper name. Gerald was the town grocer, and the word people used to refer to the place reflected their relationship to it. It was personal, not merely commercial.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which has gained a reputation for leaving opponents limping into bankruptcy court, is taking on Target Corp. (TGT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in a fight that it just might lose. Wal-Mart, the No. 1 retailer, is widening its array of stylish-but-cheap goods in hopes of winning over middle-income customers, putting it head-to-head with a rival that has proved it can compete and thrive against a company six times its size. "Can Wal-Mart make merchandise improvements that will drive incremental sales? Absolutely," said Darrell Rigby, head of the global retail practice at consultants Bain &...

Americans are junkies. We’re addicted to consumerism. We’re addicted to things––and China is our main supplier. China is the man. In 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, we imported a whopping $197 billion worth of goods from China, and exported $35 billion worth of goods to them, chalking up an I.O.U. for $161 billion in the process. China is the main supplier feeding our consumer habit, but Wal-Mart, according to the Congressional Committee on Education and the Workforce, is China’s biggest street pusher, responsible for slinging up to one eighth of the Chinese goods sold in the United States....

As Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has grown into the nation's biggest grocer, St. Louis is one place where its Supercenters have been curiously scarce. Now, Wal-Mart says the area needs more of its grocery megastores. "We really like St. Louis," said spokesman Ryan Horn. "We're looking very closely at a number of places in the St. Louis area, and that's not going to change." A lot of others wish it would.

MONTREAL (Reuters) - The Canadian unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. closed a store in Quebec on Friday where employees had obtained union certification and were seeking a first labor contract. Kevin Groh, spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada, said the 130,000-square-foot Jonquiere store closed at noon. Its 176 workers will be paid until May 6, the original target date the company had set for closing the outlet. "It's slightly misleading to say it closed a week early," Groh said. Union officials accused Wal-Mart of shutting the store a week earlier than planned to avoid publicity over the controversial closure. Yvon Bellemare, president...

Wal-Mart Leaves Bitter Chill Quebec Store Closes After Vote to Unionize By Doug Struck Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, April 14, 2005; Page E01 JONQUIERE, Quebec -- The baby buggies are all gone. In electronics, only "Le Gros Albert" and a few other leftover DVDs remain. A few pairs of pink boots are left in the shoe department. Over in household goods, red and yellow liquidation tags dangle beside thin skillets as Wal-Mart prepares to close.

ROGERS, Ark. -- Wal-Mart is "good for America" and the barrage of criticism against the company is an effort to protect the status quo in retailing, President and CEO Lee Scott said Tuesday in a sharp attack on organized labor and retail rivals. Addressing about 50 journalists gathered at the company's media conference -- it first ever media event – Mr. Scott defended its wages and health care plans, criticized by labor groups as inadequate, and said that the company is able to save customers big money as it drives costs out of its system. "Innovation and competition tends to...

Wal-Mart Denounces Health Bill Retailer Says Maryland Could Lose Future Jobs By Michael Barbaro Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page E01 ROGERS, Ark., April 6 -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. yesterday said approval of a bill that would require it to boost health care spending in Maryland could endanger its plans for growth in the state, including a new distribution center that would employ as many as 1,000. The company questioned the motivation behind the bill, which is backed by a top competitor and its labor union. Wal-Mart "will have to rethink its future growth in a state...

To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor, Labor Reporter Contact: Pat Purcell, 973-583-9651 (cell - on site); Paul Blank of the Wake-Up Wal-Mart Campaign, 202-466-1503 or 310-701-3003; or Anson Kaye, 202-412-4004, for Rep. Weiner News Advisory: -- Local Activists, Rep. Anthony Weiner Call on ABC's Good Morning America to Drop Wal-Mart as Sponsor -- Demonstration Organized for Tuesday in Front of Good Morning America's Studio In front of ABC's Good Morning America (GMA) studio, local activists, community leaders, and Congressman Anthony Weiner will call on ABC's News President David Westin to immediately drop Wal-Mart as the sponsor of GMA's patriotic-themed "Only in...