Walmart is now the focus of a national campaign for improvement of its business practices. This falls into three areas:

1. Employee relations
   
2. Outsourcing and supplier relations
   
3. Impact on local governments and business

I refer you to the recently started blog:
http://www.thewritingonthewal.net/
as a good entry point into the issues (lots of links to activists groups as well).

I'll just highlight some of the issues, if there is any interest we could have a separate thread on this topic.

1. Turnover is 50-70% per year. Not a sign of happy workers. Unionization is fought strongly even going so far as to shut stores which have voted to unionize. Many employees are on public assistance for health care or food stamps since full-time employment does not provide a living wage for a single wage earner family.

2. Demands on suppliers have forced many to migrate to China costing US jobs. There is also plenty of evidence of poor working and labor conditions for the foreign workers.

3. Walmart demands tax breaks and infrastructure development (like new roads) in communities where it opens new stores. This costs the tax payers money and unbalances the economy by putting existing retailers at a disadvantage. There is documentation that after Walmart's predatory marketing policies in a new area have been successful at driving out competition their prices rise.

Walmart has become the poster child for all the bad trends in corporate behavior and, being the biggest, is where the struggle is now being focused. The Walton family (Mrs. Walton and four children - one deceased) are among the richest people on the plant, while their workers and customers are in the lowest economic strata in the US. Each Walton is worth in excess of $4 billion.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape