 | By 2004, Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, plans to open a
new store every day. They currently open a new store every other day. As
of April 2001, there are 2,971 open Wal-Mart stores in the US and 366
closed stores. Colorado has 51 stores open and 6 closed Wal-Marts. |
| "Wal-Mart stores are often the size of four or five football
fields - huge in scale compared to many of the small communities that
they neighbor. Criticized for deserting stores that under-perform,
Wal-Mart has left behind more than 25 million square feet of unoccupied
space across the country (May, 2000). The company claims it tries to
sell these properties, but the only potential buyers are other big
retailers, and Wal-Mart will not sell real estate to its competitors. In
one Kentucky town, an empty Wal-Mart was torn down at the taxpayers'
expense." |
| "People are surprised that Wal-Mart would even want to locate a
store at Ashland, with another one 10 miles away. But that's part of the
Wal-Mart saturation strategy. They place their stores so close together
that they become their own competition. Once everybody else is wiped
out, then they're free to thin out their stores. Wal-Mart has 390 empty
stores on the market today. This is a company that has changed stores as
casually as you and I change shoes," according to Al Norman, Sprawl-Busters
founder |
| During the show, Al Norman also said, "84% of Wal-Mart sales are
taken from existing businesses." |
| Money spent in locally-owned businesses is recycled through the
community four to five times. [Wal-Mart dollars, aside from sales taxes
and take home pay for workers who live locally, leave the community
immediately. In the case of the Baptist Road Wal-Mart, due to the low
pay, many of the est. 400 workers would have to commute from areas with
less expensive housing.] |
| Wal-Mart has over 1 million employees. [Latest figure: 1.244
million.] |
| Forbes magazine, based on a poll of business executives (not
employees) ranked Wal-Mart among the best 100 corporations to work for
yet due to high turn-over rate and expansion, Wal-Mart hires 550,000
employees every year. "The rapid turnover -70 percent of employees
leave within the first year - is attributed to a lack of recognition and
inadequate pay, according to a survey Wal-Mart conducted. Yet this can
work to the company's advantage, since it is more difficult for unions
to organize when there is constant employee turnover." |
| The employees (called 'associates') average take home pay is under
$250 a week. The salary for full-time employees is $6 to $7.50 an hour
for 28-40 hours a week. That is typical in the discount retail industry.
Wal-Mart employees start at the same salary as unionized employees in
similar lines of work; however, they make 25 percent less than their
unionized counterparts after two years at the job. |
| The pay scale places employees with families below the poverty line,
with the majority of employees' children qualifying for free lunch at
school. This amounts to a form of corporate welfare, as the taxpayer
subsidizes the low salaries. |
| One-third are part-time employees, limited to less than 28 hours of
work per week, and are not eligible for benefits. |
| Full-time employees are eligible for benefits, but the health
insurance package is so expensive (employees pay 35 percent - almost
double the national average) that less than half opt to buy it. |
| Another benefit for employees is the option to buy company stock at a
discount. Wal-Mart matches 15 percent of the first $1800 in stocks
purchased. Most workers can't afford to buy the stock. Not one in 50
workers has amassed as much as $50,000 through the stock-ownership
pension plan. Voting power for these stocks remains with Wal-Mart
management." |
| A 1995 study by University of Massachusetts Professor Barnes found
that having a Wal-Mart does not stimulate sales at other local
businesses and does not increase employment levels. |
| Wal-Mart ranked last among major discount retailers, donating
four-tenths of a percent of its earnings, well behind its competitors
(U.S. corporations average just over one percent). |
| Despite a well-publicized "Made in the U.S.A." campaign, 85
percent of the stores' items are made overseas, often in Third World
sweatshops paying 13 to 35 cents per hour with up to 96 hour work weeks. |
| Freedom of speech issues also come into play. Musicians are at the
mercy of Wal-Mart's stringent content rules, forcing many to create "sanitized"
versions of their albums specifically for the discount chain |
