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A few days ago my best friend from High School sent me a 'Vietnam Veteran' hat. I never had one of these before and I was pretty hyped about it, especially because my friend Ronn was considerate enough to take the time to give it to me. Yesterday, I wore it when I went to Wal-Mart. There was nothing in particular that I needed at the world's largest retailer but, since I retired, trips to Wally World to look at the Walmartians is always good for some comic relief. Besides, I always feel pretty normal after seeing some of the...

Walmart is one of America's largest big box retailers. According to their website, Walmart has 8,400 retail stores in fifteen countries. A cross-section of America walks through Walmart's doors every day. These are some of the people photographed inside Walmart.

Walmart is a little different in China [16 Photos at the link]

NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Sunday it is cutting more than 10,000 jobs at Sam's Club, representing about 9 percent of the warehouse club operator's staff, as it outsources its product-sampling department to marketing company Shopper Events and eliminates another unit. "Our demos can be a competitive advantage and we want to take this member experience to the next level," said Sam's Club CEO Brian Cornell in a memo to staffers. Employees were told the news at mandatory meetings on Sunday morning. The company also cut its new business membership representative positions, affecting about 2 staffers per store....

Recently I saw two movies that attacked the controversial Wal-mart department store. A PBS documentary called Is Wal-Mart good for America? And Wal-Mart the high cost of low price an independent movie about Wal-mart and the Walton family. I also visited wakeupwalmart.com for more info this article is a refutation on most of the BS that appeared on the two documentaries. First of all we need to ask ourselves why "Wal-Mart is under ferocious attack by the left?" Wal-Mart delivers well on its promise of low prices to Americans. Being a resident of one of the poorest and liberal states...

Wal-Mart’s first company-wide voter registration drive has become entangled in national politics as a union group and the Rev. Jesse Jackson demand that the retailer fire a Republican consultant connected to a U.S. Senate campaign television ad that critics call racist. Veteran Republican strategist Terry Nelson is the head of an outside group that created the Tennessee ad for the Republican National Committee against Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Harold Ford Jr. Nelson is also one of two political consultants —— the other is a Democrat — that Wal-Mart hired last month to help get voter registration information to its more...

Largest retailer boosts organic market as nation tackles bulging waistlines For the organic grape tomatoes to land in Tara Smoot's shopping trolley required a tremendous act of will. First she renounced all junk food, banishing fried chicken and chocolate milk from her children's menu, and the pasta, crisps and sweets she and her husband had enjoyed. Then she prepared herself for a higher grocery bill. "It's a lot cheaper to eat unhealthily than healthily," she says. And there is temptation every step of the way. To reach the fresh produce section in this Wal-Mart super centre Ms Smoot had...

Four bus loads of students from O'Brien Middle School made the four-hour trip to Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo, Calif., only to find the amusement park's gates locked Monday. The school-sponsored trip was supposed to reward top students. "It was pretty much a fiasco," said Washoe County School District spokesman Steve Mulvenon. "They ended up wasting a day that those kids could have better spent in class or doing what they were going to do at the park." School officials said the $50 fee will be refunded, and the tour company that arranged the trip has agreed to pay...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Civil rights leader and former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young will become the public face of a Wal-Mart-backed group whose aim is to combat criticism of the world's largest retailer, the group said on Monday. Young, who was an aide to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights protests of the 1960s and served as ambassador to the United Nations under President Jimmy Carter, will serve as chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart's national steering committee, the group said in a statement. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was among the financial backers of Working Families for Wal-Mart,...

There's word that former Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Thomas Coughlin will plead guilty later this month to federal wire fraud and tax evasion charges. The Wall Street Journal reports the deal calls for him to plead guilty to five counts of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion. A court hearing on the plea deal is set for later in January, according to people familiar with the proposed plea agreement he has struck with prosecutors. The #2 man at the world's largest retailer left the company early last year amid accusations that he'd misappropriated as much as $500,000 from Wal-Mart...

What struck Jim Wier first, as he entered the Wal-Mart vice president's office, was the seating area for visitors. "It was just some lawn chairs that some other peddler had left behind as samples." The vice president's office was furnished with a folding lawn chair and a chaise lounge. And so Wier, the CEO of lawn-equipment maker Simplicity, dressed in a suit, took a seat on the chaise lounge. "I sat forward, of course, with my legs off to the side. If you've ever sat in a lawn chair, well, they are lower than regular chairs. And I was on...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Wal-Mart apologized to a black man who was falsely accused of trying to pass a bad check when he went to the store to buy thousands of dollars' worth of holiday gift cards for employees at a manufacturing company where he is human resources manager. "I keep going over and over the incident in my mind. I cannot come up with any possible reason why I was treated like this except that I am black," Reginald Pitts said. Employees of a Wal-Mart Supercenter called sheriff's deputies last week to arrest Pitts after he handed over a...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Security guards wrestled a man to the ground in a Wal-Mart after he cut in line to get laptop computers that were on sale Friday, a television station reported. The man started arguing with people inside the store, WFTV-TV in Orlando reported. He then started fighting with the guards, the station reported One man told WFTV that the laptops were being thrown into the air and people rushed toward them, collapsing on each other. Another man described the scene as crazy. Orlando police and Orange County sheriff's officials didn't return phone messages seeking comment. The store's manager...

Wal-Mart profit misses forecast; outlook weak CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Thursday reported a weaker-than-expected profit and said second-quarter results would miss Wall Street forecasts as steep energy prices and cool, wet weather cut spring sales. Shares of Wal-Mart, which said gasoline prices would continue to curb consumer spending in the current quarter, fell 4 percent in premarket trading. The world's biggest retailer said it expects trends to improve in the second half and remained optimistic about the U.S. economy. "Our results were not up to Wal-Mart standards," Chief Executive Officer Lee Scott said on a recorded message,...

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...

At night on a dark country road, all that the headlights catch are the shadowy legs the size of tree trunks rising out of the pavement. Standing six feet at the shoulder, weighing up to 1,000 pounds, with massive antlers more than five feet across, moose tower over automobiles and have no fear of them. AP Photo Increasingly the undisputed giants of the northern forest are tangling with traffic as they expand south. Massachusetts motorists hit 52 moose last year, a more than sixfold increase in four years. For decades road officials have relied on warning signs and publicity campaigns...

There are dark clouds on the horizon for cities, which for decades have used eminent domain or its threat as a tool to replace run-down neighborhoods with tax-generating, job-creating businesses. Not only are courts across the nation beginning to side with private-property rights' advocates, the Utah Legislature is cracking open the door to have a look. This is at the behest of educators and Gov. Olene Walker, who note the loss of revenue to schools from some redevelopment projects. Cities also are paying attention to Kelo v. City of New London, a case scheduled for arguments before the U.S. Supreme...

TEOTIHUACÁN JOURNALNo, the Conquistadors Are Not Back. It's Just Wal-Mart.By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.Published: September 28, 2004 AN JUAN DE TEOTIHUACÁN, Mexico, Sept. 21 - The market in this small town is a warren of streets with canopied stalls and battered storefronts, where one can buy everything from fresh avocados to jeans to a vaquero's saddle. As they have for centuries, the merchants here ply their trade midway between the ruins of giant pyramids built by the Maya and the stone steeple of the town's main Catholic church, which Spanish monks founded in 1548.Now another colossus from a different empire...

New Haven-WTNH, July 21, 2004 11:05 PM) _ A new Wal-Mart store that opened in New Haven will not be selling guns. This comes after local officials took a stand against the store selling the firearms. When the discount chain opened today in New Haven it did so without any of those weapons. The new store is on Foxon Blvd. New Haven officials asked the company not to sell guns and the company complied. Many customers are happy the new Wal-Mart will not sell guns. Darlene Ross says,"Because guns are dangerous. I have young kids and I just don't like...