As If You Needed More Reasons To Shop Elsewhere...

Wal-Mart by the numbers:

• According to a study done by Iowa State University, within the first decade after Wal-Mart arrived in Iowa, the state lost 555 grocery stores, 298 hardware stores, 293 building supply stores, 161 variety stores, 158 women's apparel stores, 153 shoe stores, 116 drugstores, and 111 men's and boys' apparel stores.

• Wal-mart runs ads featuring the United States flag and proclaims "We Buy American". In 2001 they moved their worldwide purchasing headquarters to China and are the largest importer of Chinese goods in the US, purchasing over $10 BILLION of Chinese-made products annually. Products made mostly by women and children working in the labor hell-holes China is famous for.

• Their average employee working in the US makes $15,000 a year, $7.22 per hour!

• The company brags that 70% of their employees are full time, but fails to disclose that they count anyone working 28 hours a week or more as full time.

• There are no health care benefits available until a person has worked for the company for two years.

• Wal-Mart holds the record for the most suits filed against it by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A lawyer from "Business Week" (not exactly the bastion for supporting Labor) said, "I have never seen this kind of blatant disregard for the law." They had to pay $750,000 in Arizona for blatant discrimination against the disabled! The judge was so incensed that he also order them to run commercials admitting their guilt.

• Nearly 1 MILLION women are involved in the largest class-action suit every filed against a corporation. Although women make up over 65% of this corporations work force only 10% of them are managers. The women who have become store managers make an average of $16,400 a year LESS then the men.

• With 4,400 stores they practice "predatory pricing." They come into a community and sell their goods at below cost until they drive local businesses under. Once they have captured the market the prices go up.

• The Wal-Mart Corporation contributed $2,159,330 to GW Bush and the GOP in 2000 and 2002.

(from intellectualpoison.com)