The World According to Wal-Mart
WAL-MART JANITORS FILE CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT FOR UNPAID OT AND SUBMINIMUM WAGES.....CASE COULD INCLUDE WORKERS FROM AS FAR AWAY AS MONGOLIA AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC....
http://lists.iww.org/pipermail/iww-news/2004-December/007514.html
Sisters May Have Bilked Wal-Mart With Fake Bar Codes
(Nashville, Tenn. -AP, December 31, 2004) — Two sisters and their husbands in Tennessee may have printed up fake bar codes that tricked Wal-Mart scanners in 19 states out of $1.5 million over the past decade.
Authorities say they printed up fake UPC bar codes for high-priced items at cheaper prices.
The total is still adding up for Wal-Mart and two other retail chains allegedly hit by the two couples along with 30 accomplices. More arrests are expected.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/features/strangenews/apress_123104_walmartscam_strangenews.html
U.S. Stocks Rise on Higher Consumer Confidence; Wal-Mart Gains
Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rose after a measure of consumer confidence climbed to the highest since July, boosting retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and reviving a rally that's lifted benchmark indexes to three-year highs.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=aO_R810yVEsA&refer=home
Wal-Mart says on track with tracking tag rollout
NEW YORK (Reuters) — Wal-Mart Stores, the world's biggest retailer, on Monday said it was on target to expand its use of electronic inventory tracking tags next month, which is expected to pave the way for others to follow.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/gear/parts/2004-12-28-walmart-rfid_x.htm
Wal-Mart gets key approval
By Brandon Keat
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
A developer hoping to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the former Dixmont State Hospital site won approval Monday of a key environmental permit from the state.
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/pittsburgh/s_287476.html
WTOC This Year--Wal-Mart, Target, and the Truman Parkway
This year, a couple of stores were in the headlines a lot. Retail giants Target and Wal-Mart expanded, and so did the Truman Parkway. Phase three was completed late this year.
http://www.wtoctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2741323&nav=0qq6UcUu
Thank you for calling your 'Arkansaw' City Wal-Mart
Retailer word gaffe offends local residents
By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer
A lot of riled-up Wal-Mart customers in Arkansas City want to know why the local store doesn't seem to know how to pronounce the name of the town.
http://www.arkcity.net/stories/122804/com_0002.shtml
Wal-Mart owns its sign, but not land
ANDREW TUTINO
Journal Staff
VanCort
ITHACA -- In the 1930s, Tompkins County was deeded a small, quarter-acre parcel of land along Elmira Road that was to be used for highway development. Long forgotten and thought to have been transferred to the state, the county owned the land without anyone knowing it.
http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20041228/localnews/1794737.html
Wal-Mart, Kmart Holiday Sales Results Boost Shares (Update1)
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Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said a surge in after-Christmas shopping boosted December same-store sales for a gain of about 3 percent, at the high end of its forecast. Kmart Holding Corp. said profit rose 10 percent during the holiday season after it controlled inventory to avoid deep discounts.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aM8QZzopcE5o&refer=news_index
Wal-Mart ups Dec. comp. sales view
By Susan Lerner, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 4:05 PM ET Jan. 3, 2005
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Wal-Mart shares climbed Monday after the retailing giant provided an outlook for December same-store sales that was above the target provided in its previous forecast.
Wal-Mart shares closed up 53 cents, or 1 percent, at $53.35....
Pasted from <http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/archivedStory.asp?archive=true&dist=ArchiveSplash&siteid=google&guid=%7BC1EA1075%2D319C%2D47EE%2D968B%2D69E2D4433041%7D&returnURL=%2Fnews%2Fstory%2Easp%3Fguid%3D%7BC1EA1075%2D319C%2D47EE%2D968B%2D69E2D4433041%7D%26siteid%3Dgoogle%26dist%3Dgoogle%2C+%26archive%3Dtrue%26param%3Darchive%26garden%3D%26minisite%3D>
Dow Average Advances as Oil Drops, Wal-Mart Gains; Exxon Falls
Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, said December sales were at the top of its forecast, and oil prices dropped.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=az26.31Wd9lI&refer=us
Wal-Mart Shares Climb on Sales Uptick
January 4, 2005 6:28PM
In its weekly sales update, Wal-Mart forecast a rise of 3 percent in same-store sales for December. Based on the gain, Oppenheimer analyst Bernard Sosnick believes Wal-Mart should be able to meet its outlook for fourth quarter earnings of 71-73 cents a share.
http://www.cio-today.com/ciobusbrf/story.xhtml?story_title=Wal-Mart-Shares-Climb-on-Sales-Uptick&story_id=29475&category=ciobusbrf
Sandy Residents Want Wal-Mart Issue on Ballots
Jan. 4, 2005
John Daley Reporting
It's crunch time for Sandy citizens looking to stop a pair of big box retailers from building at the site of the city's last large parcel of open space. They're trying to put the issue on the ballot.
http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=142496
2004 in review: Wal-Mart wants in
By ROY GRABER
(Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of four stories that review the news of 2004.)
Wal-Mart made its plans to build a Supercenter south of Winfield known when representatives of the company requested that a 23-acre tract of land be annexed into the city.
City and county officials eventually approved the annexation, but plenty of people were less than enthusiastic about the retailer’s plans. Leading the opposition were residents of the area, afraid to lose the quality of life offered by rural living.
http://www.winfieldcourier.com/w050108/Tues3.html
Scouring the Globe to Give Shoppers an $8.63 Polo Shirt
Wal-Mart, once a believer in buying American, extracts ever lower prices from 10,000 suppliers worldwide. Workers struggle to keep pace.
By Nancy Cleeland, Evelyn Iritani and Tyler Marshall, Times Staff Writers
SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS — When Wal-Mart Stores Inc. demands a lower price for the shirts and shorts it sells by the millions, the consequences are felt in a remote Chinese industrial town, at a port in Bangladesh and here in Honduras, under the corrugated metal roof of the Cosmos clothing factory.
http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-fi-walmart24nov2403,1,7288517.story
Audit Stance Generates Controver
By Evelyn Iritani and Nancy Cleeland, Times Staff Writers
Safe working conditions. Reasonable hours. No child labor.
These are among the rules that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other retailers imposed on their foreign contractors after a series of scandals in the 1990s. Yet just how well Wal-Mart's contractors abide by its standards is something of a mystery — and a source of controversy.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-nucodenov2403,1,765709.story
Grocery Unions Battle to Stop Invasion of the Giant Stores
Wal-Mart plans to open 40 of its nonunion Supercenters in California. Labor is fighting the expected onslaught, but the big retailer rarely concedes defeat.y Nancy Cleeland and Abigail Goldman, Times Staff Writers
Inglewood seemed to offer the perfect home for a new Wal-Mart Supercenter, with low-income residents hungry for bargains and a mayor craving the sales-tax revenue that flows from big-box stores.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart25nov2503,1,2907749.story
4 Tennesseans charged in Wal-Mart scam
By Colin Fly
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NASHVILLE - In a town so small it doesn't even have a Wal-Mart, two Tennessee couples have been arrested in a scheme that used forged bar codes to defraud the retail giant of $1.5 million in 19 states over the past decade.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/nation/10542255.htm
Lafayette OKs efforts to entice Wal-Mart
Council approves incentive package; neighbors object
By Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News
January 1, 2005
LAFAYETTE - The City Council has approved an economic incentive package that it hopes will persuade Wal-Mart to construct a super center on 27 acres on the west side of U.S. 287.
The council agreed late Thursday to enter into negotiations with the company that would offer the world's largest retailer $2.3 million in incentives.
Pasted from <http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3438313,00.html
Sarasota County Commission's roadblocks stop Wal-Mart in its tracks
Sarasota County's controversial Wal-Mart denial is an illustration of the vagaries of handling growth and the sometimes arbitrary nature of decision-making on zoning issues.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041231/COLUMNIST55/412310463
Wal-Mart to become AmCan sign of the times?
Sunday, January 2, 2005
By DAVID RYAN
Register Staff Writer
The fast-growing city of American Canyon showed its divisions with a debate that ignited the community, cast a long shadow over the city council race and has now become a court battle. The question of whether a 176,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter would buoy or sink the city's economy was the biggest story in Napa County commerce in 2004, and it remains unresolved.
http://www.napanews.com/templates/index.cfm?template=story_full&id=592AA7BF-6381-4E34-89CA-6248AF470091
Wal-Mart opens store here
Friday, January 2, 2005
By Jessi De La Cruz
Staff Writer
The rolled-back prices, fears of destroying independent stores and potential for traffic snarls on the city's west side hit Jackson on July 21.
http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1104663954150150.xml
Wal-Mart, Home Depot spark concerns among Juneau residents
Assembly to hold public hearing about Home Depot on Jan. 10
By TONY CARROLL
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Residents seem to agree that the cost of living in Juneau is high. But the prospect of international retailers coming to town with the promise of low prices has sparked debate.
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/010205/loc_20050102006.shtml
Wal-Mart's women -- employees and customers -- in unhealthy relationship
By LIZA FEATHERSTONE
GUEST COLUMNIST
On the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year, Wal-Mart's many progressive critics -- not to mention its business competitors -- finally enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude when the retailer had to admit to "disappointing" sales. The problem was quickly revealed: Wal-Mart hadn't been discounting aggressively enough. Without low prices, Wal-Mart just isn't Wal-Mart.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/205768_focus02.html
$1.5 Million Bar-code Scheme Bilks Wal-Mart Stores
Posted by samzenpus on Fri Dec 31, '04 02:59 AM
from the your-total-is-one-dollar dept.
nomrniceguy writes "Two couples have been charged in a price-switching scheme that allegedly defrauded Wal-Mart stores in 19 states of $1.5 million over the last decade. Authorities said the scheme involved using a home computer to produce UPC bar codes for cheaper products and slipping them over the real codes on high-priced items. The suspects then allegedly sold the merchandise, or returned it for refunds or store gift cards that also were sold."
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/31/0321231&from=rs
Colorado Wal-Mart workers reject union
By JON SARCHE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
A pedestrian walks past a Wal-Mart sign in Loveland, Colo., Friday, Feb. 25, 2005. There was a vote to unionize at the Loveland location. Workers at the Tire & Lube Express voted 17-1 against union representation Friday, rejecting efforts to establish what would have been the first union inside any Wal-Mart store in the United States. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)
LOVELAND, Colo. -- Workers at a Wal-Mart Tire & Lube Express voted 17-1 against union representation Friday, rejecting efforts to establish what would have been the second union inside any Wal-Mart store in the United States.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Wal%20Mart%20Union&searchdiff=3&searchpagefrom=1
AFL-CIO chief details agenda for meeting
By CHRISTINA ALMEIDA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LAS VEGAS -- AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said he'll study slashing member contributions by as much as half so that local unions would have more money to boost recruitment and reverse years of shrinking membership.
Pasted from <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Labor%20Meeting%20Vegas&searchdiff=3&searchpagefrom=1>
Wal-Mart to pay $14.5M over gun violations
Seattle Post Intelligencer - Seattle,WA,USA
By JIM WASSERMAN. SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to pay $14.5 million in fines and other costs to settle a ...
Wal-Mart employees to exchange vows at work
Associated Press
JUNCTION CITY, Kan. - Paula Alvarez and Dale Thompson knew their friends and fellow employees at Wal-Mart might not be able to attend their wedding because of work.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/10572702.htm
Bar-Code Scam at Wal-Mart: A Matter of Priorities
By
Evan Schuman
January 5, 2005
Opinion: The fact that shoplifters nabbed $1.5 million across 19 states is not a technology, people or training problem. Rather, it shows that management needs to re-evaluate its obsession with keeping the line moving.
The most well-planned and meticulously detailed crimes are often foiled by the commonplace. The thieves might map out their route precisely, coordinating it based on when various employees come and go. But security guard No. 9 gets a flat tire that morning, shows up 35 minutes late and ruins everything.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1748547,00.asp
City follows proper path on Wal-Mart rezoning
By TONY MESSENGER
Published Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Well, Toto, at least we’re not in Kansas anymore.
That’s the path some Columbia residents wanted to send our city down with their anti-Wal-Mart protests that reached a fevered pitch early this week.
Columbia city council members - most of them, anyway - resisted drinking the Kool-Aid and instead did the only thing they could do Monday night. They passed a rezoning request that guarantees a Wal-Mart will be built at the corner of Broadway and Fairview Road but also ensures that important improvements to the site and surrounding roads will come with it.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Jan/20050105Feat001.asp
Wal-Mart, U.S. Retailers Post 2.7% Dec. Sales Gain (Update7)
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Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Saks Inc. posted the second-biggest December sales gain in five years after discounts sparked a late surge in holiday shopping.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aRX91kmWk0Q8&refer=us
continued...
This is going to take a while to put up.
