How callous does one have to be to refuse a donation because the person in question spent a little less at your store? For that matter, why should their donation be dependent on spending money at all?

Here's the story from TMZ:

NFL Star: Wal-Mart Left Kids Out in the Cold

NFL superstar Andre Johnson claims his charity got stiffed by Wal-Mart -- it all involves water and ice. Yes, ice.

Johnson ordered 750 bicycles to be given to underprivileged kids at an event sponsored by the Andre Johnson Foundation -- in return for the purchase, Wal-Mart agreed to donate water and ice for the May 3 event.

But there was a problem with the order, so Johnson ended up buying fewer bikes than planned. Wal-Mart countered by not giving the water and ice as promised. That's cold.

Wal-Mart is trying to rectify the situation. They tell TMZ, "We are reaching out to the Andre Johnson Foundation as we speak to rectify the situation. It's disappointing that this happened."

Here's the article:

Wal-Mart and the Chinese Earthquake: Cheap Help for A Cheap-Labor Country

Wal-Mart Stores has put out a press release patting itself on the back for promising the equivalent of about $430,000 for disaster relief and reconstruction for the area of China hit by a massive earthquake this week. The gesture was laudable but the amount was less than impressive.

After all, the giant retailer would be nowhere today without the countless Chinese workers who toil in sweatshops so that American consumers can be offered the cheap goods that are at the core of the company’s business model. Last year those largely Chinese-made goods brought Wal-Mart profits of $12.7 billion, or about $1.4 million every hour of every day. The $430,000 contribution thus represents less than 20 minutes of profit.

Wal-Mart also profits from Chinese consumers. The company operates more than 200 stores in China (through joint ventures and minority-owned subsidiaries), several of which have been shut down because of the tremblor. Wal-Mart was so eager to operate stores in China that it agreed to let its employees there be represented by unions (though of the government-dominated variety).

Wal-Mart has a history of using relatively inexpensive amounts of disaster relief to boost its reputation. After Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, Wal-Mart maneuvered to get maximum exposure for its prompt delivery of relief supplies. A fairly routine operation for a company possessing the most advanced logistics infrastructure was seen as nearly miraculous, given the ineptitude of federal and state public officials.

The company made an initial faux pas (quickly reversed) in announcing that employees at its stores shut down by the storm would be paid for only three days. It also started out offering a measly $2 million in relief but soon overcame its parsimonious instincts and upped the figure by $15 million, thereby winning wide praise. The wave of favorable coverage went on for several months, thanks at least in part to the efforts of its army of p.r. operatives from Edelman and a conservative blogger who was paid to tout Wal-Mart’s hurricane work in the blogosphere.

Wal-Mart may have to part with more than $430,000 to get a similar public relations bonanza from China’s suffering.

Here's the story from The Independent:

Tax evasion 'costs lives of 5.6m children'

The lives of more than five million children could be saved in the developing world – if the super-rich and the world's largest companies paid their fair share in taxes, according to a leading British charity. In Death and Taxes: the True Toll of Tax-dodging, Christian Aid says that the extent of tax abuse "is so widespread and damaging that it is tantamount to a new slavery".

The charity estimates that governments in the poorest countries are being cheated out of at least $160bn (£82bn) a year in tax revenues, much more than the $40 to $60bn the World Bank estimates is needed to pay for the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The MDG aim of halving poverty by 2015 would save 350,000 children's lives a year.

The director of Christian Aid, Dr Daleep Mukarji, said: "We predict that illegal trade-related tax evasion alone will be responsible for the deaths of 5.6 million children under the age of five between 2000 and 2015. That's almost 1,000 a day". Christian Aid believes that up to $11 trillion of funds may be stashed away in tax havens.

If you don't think a campaign about Wal-Mart's business practices matter, think of the 2 million plus employees at Wal-Mart; it matters to them.

Here's the story from the AP:

Wal-Mart Reaches 2 Million Workers

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ Imagine Houston being populated only by Wal-Mart workers.

Houston proper, with its population of just over 2 million, has about the same number of people as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. now employs worldwide.

Put another way, if a city had only families of four and one member of each household worked at Wal-Mart, that would be a perfect fit with the 8 million-strong population of New York City, a market Wal-Mart happens to covet.

During a recorded call with investors Tuesday, Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott mentioned offhandedly that the company now has more than 2 million "associates," as Wal-Mart terms its employees. Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe confirmed in an interview that Wal-Mart had reached the milestone.

The world's largest retailer is also the world's largest private employer. The company has about 1.3 million U.S. workers. As of April 30, Bentonville-based Wal-Mart had 7,343 units - 4,195 in the U.S. and 3,148 in its international division, which includes Puerto Rico.

Of course the study also confirms what we've known for a long time: Wal-Mart is bad for local businesses. The retail giant comes in and all the other businesses suffer.

The Chicago Tribune has the story about the new study:

Cities may mute effect of Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. appears to have played a role in putting some retailers out of business since opening its first Chicago store in Austin more than 18 months ago, but the effect on its smaller rivals is likely milder than what occurs when the giant store arrives in a rural town, according to initial findings of a new study.

Researchers from Loyola University Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago tracked 191 stores within a three-mile radius of Wal-Mart from March 2006, six months before the store opened, through November 2007. The team found 23 stores, or 12 percent, of the businesses in the study group shut down last year.

Their preliminary conclusion is that a "small but statistically significant relationship" exists between local companies going out of business and Wal-Mart's arrival in the city. The researchers cautioned they are "hesitant to draw any strong conclusions" until a third phase of research is completed later this year.

For more than two decades, academics have studied Wal-Mart's effect on small-town America, but little is known about how Wal-Mart affects jobs, wages, property values and sales in an inner city.

The world's largest retailer has been moving into big cities and stirring controversy, especially in the union-dominated North. The researchers claim this is the first empirical study of the local economic impact of a Wal-Mart in a large city.

"People have their opinions on Wal-Mart," said Phil Nyden, director of the Center for Urban Research and Learning at Loyola in Chicago. "The idea is to get some actual data to inform the debate."

It's a slow moving competition, but Consumerists' Worst Company in America is on to the second round, and Wal-Mart made it easily. Their next competition is Citibank, but we're not worried, we're pretty sure they'll go all the way.

Case on standby for woman who said Wal-Mart gave her car away

For Marta Velazquez, righting a wrong hasn’t been a speedy process.

In her attempt to seek damages from Wal-Mart, who she said gave her car to a man they believed to be her husband, she has been playing the waiting game with the judicial system for two years.

“It’s your typical Wal-Mart,” Velzquez said. “They are claiming to not be responsible.”

Lonnie Knowles, Velazquez’s attorney, said since Wal-Mart was first put on notice of the claim, there have been several attempts to contact the corporation, including a written demand on Jan. 2, 2007.

Knowles said when the company wouldn’t respond, they filed a lawsuit seeking damage reimbursements of $50,000 in June of 2007, nearly 10 months after the incident.

On Sept. 6, 2006, Velazquez took her 1999 black Pontiac Grand Am to the Wal-Mart on FM 1960 and Cutten Road to have a tire replaced, only to find out they had given her car to a man they thought was her husband. About a month-and-a-half later, it was found, destroyed, in a park in Acres Homes.

The inconvenience caused her to miss work. The house keys, mail and a laptop left in her car enabled one man access to her phone number, which he used to harass her. Fearing for her safety, she broke her apartment lease and moved.

Now awaiting her day in the 133rd Judicial District Court, Vazquez’z case has been on trial stand by since, April 30, meaning that when the court calls them, within two hours notice, lawyers for both sides will need to appear and be ready to pick a jury.

“There are a bunch of trials set to appear in that particular court, so the judge decides what the pecking order of those trials is going to be,” Knowles said.

The case likely won’t be tried this time around, he said. If not, their case won’t come up again for trial for four to six months at which point the standby process will recycle.

“We both indicated it would take no less than two days to try the case, and since the court hasn’t called as of 3 p.m. on Thursday, my experience tells me that we likely won’t be reached for this docketing period,” he said.

Wal-Mart said they couldn’t comment on a matter that is currently in litigation.

The Chicago Tribune has the story of a major victory for those who think Wal-Mart needs to change its ways before it expands:

A closeout for Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s hard-fought battle to turn Chicago into a beachhead for urban expansion across the country has come to a quiet end, at least for the foreseeable future, as big-city politics held sway over low prices.

Now the world's largest retailer is turning its attention to a backup plan of opening stores just outside city limits, banking that thousands of low-to-middle-income city dwellers will travel to collar suburbs to shop at the discount store. Among the suburbs Wal-Mart is looking at are Calumet Park, Cicero and McCook, according to people familiar with Wal-Mart's plans.

Wal-Mart got the word from city officials last month that Mayor Richard Daley doesn't want to risk a messy showdown with unions over Wal-Mart—like the big-box store battle of 2006—while Chicago is still in the running as a host city for the 2016 Olympics, according to people familiar with the matter. The International Olympic Committee is slated to make that decision in October 2009.

Wal-Mart faces the largest gender-discrimination lawsuit of all time, with 1.6 million women suing over unequal pay and unequal opportunities. Its managers have told women they "don't belong in management" and that they "can't manage men." More recently, Wal-Mart has repeatedly denied military moms leave to see their children before they deploy to war zones.

Instead of printing more 20 page "Mom's day" ads, Wal-Mart should be printing 20 page apologies to every woman hurt by its unfair policies.

Today, we need to ensure that Wal-Mart respects the hardworking mothers employed in their stores. This Mother's day, join our mission to change Wal-Mart's anti-family policies for the betterment of women and mothers across America. Add your name to our petition to CEO Lee Scott and 3 demands for change.

Click this link to sign our petition

Change won't come on its own. We've seen time and again that Wal-Mart has little respect for mothers, or the sacrifices they make for their families. Just ask Olga Sanchez or Susan Lyons, two long-time Wal-Mart workers.

When Olga's son, Mark, was deployed to Iraq, she requested leave to see him off. Her request was denied. Wal-Mart told Olga that, as a department manager, her commitment was to the company. At Wal-Mart, unfair scheduling policies often take precedence over families, and over the morale of America's armed service members.

Olga's story is just the beginning. Last September, Susan Lyons learned her daughter would be on leave from Iraq during the following December. Susan requested a mere two days of vacation time to see her. Wal-Mart denied the request because of the holiday shopping season. When she expressed her disappointment, Wal-Mart told Susan that if her daughter's deployment upset her so much, her daughter "should not have joined the Military."

These stories are a slap in the face to mothers, and they insult the dignity of the armed service members we also celebrate in May.

Don't let Wal-Mart continue to treat mothers this way. Sign our petition today. Keep the pressure on Wal-Mart to change and you can make these outrageous policies history.

Sign on to our 3 demands for change, add your name to our petition today

Thanks for taking action, and have a happy Mother's Day.

Meghan Scott
WakeUpWalMart.com

"The economy continues to get tougher and the 'paycheck cycle' is more pronounced for customers than in past months," Eduardo Castro-Wright, head of Wal-Mart's U.S. store division, said in a statement.

"As money gets tighter for them toward the end of the month, sales drop more than we have seen in the past."

Poor, poor Wal-Mart. They're the worlds largest corporation, the number one fortune 500 company, rake in billions of dollars a year, but their sales may go down a bit because average American families are having trouble making ends meet. If it is not bad enough that Wal-Mart is complaining about not making that extra few million while their workers and working families across the country are facing real hardship, consider that Wal-Mart helped create this mess. By not paying their employees a living wage, driving down area wages, forcing companies to move jobs to China and elsewhere, and not providing adequate benefits Wal-Mart had a hand in creating the "paycheck cycle" they now bemoan.

Here's the Reuter's article via the Washington Post:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) on Thursday reported a better-than-expected 3.2 percent rise in April sales at U.S. stores open at least a year, boosted by demand for basic items like groceries and medicine.

But the world's largest retailer gave a tepid outlook for May as the economic situation gets more difficult and consumers try to stretch their dollars by purchasing cheaper cuts of meat or trading down to pasta.

"The economy continues to get tougher and the 'paycheck cycle' is more pronounced for customers than in past months," Eduardo Castro-Wright, head of Wal-Mart's U.S. store division, said in a statement.

"As money gets tighter for them toward the end of the month, sales drop more than we have seen in the past."

Here's the story from the Wall Street Journal:

Health Clinics Inside Stores Likely to Slow Their Growth

The boom in walk-in health clinics located inside pharmacies, supermarkets and big-box retailers is showing signs of slowing.

Hailed as an inexpensive option for treating minor health ailments like sore throats and rashes, the retail clinics have grown in
number to 963 as of May 1 from just 125 three years ago. The clinics typically feature nurse practitioners who can prescribe basic drugs, and the price for a visit ranges from $50 to $75.

But in recent months, retail health-clinic operators based in New York, Nevada, Indiana and Alabama have closed their doors, shuttering 69 clinics in 15 states, including ones operating inside outlets of Shopko Stores, Meijer Inc., Bi-Lo LLC, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Medicine Shoppe unit of Cardinal Health Inc.

Now, the biggest retail-clinic operator, CVS Caremark Corp., says it is scaling back expansion plans for its Minute Clinic brand.

"We have seen fallout in this industry, on a smaller scale, that is not unlike the dot-com bubble," says Tom Charland, the owner of industry consultant Merchant Medicine LLC and a former vice president for strategy at Minute Clinic. "The big mistake was for people to think they could reach break-even in six months," he says. "People are learning this is an 18-to-24-month process to get to break-even."

Mr. Charland says the venture capitalists and private-equity firms that backed many of the retail clinic operators failed to appreciate how complicated and expensive the clinics are to operate. Research shows that patients are enthusiastic about the clinics' convenience and quality of care, but acceptance has been slow.

Now, they seem to be putting more emphasis on online sales, having just sealed a deal with Warner Music Group to vastly expand their music offerings. One wonders how much of this move is due to a bruised ego over losing to an online service.

hyperbot has the story:

WalMart Adds WMG MP3's. Napster Next?

The Warner Music Group family of labels has widened its full catalog mp3 offering to include WalMart.com. Previously Amazon was the only North American based download provider with the catalog.

Hypebot reported yesterday that WMG was about to broaden its DRM-free program to include other sites. Last month WalMart drop all tracks from WMG, Universal and Sony BMG and took its digital store DRM-free. EMI and a limited number of indies provided content until this morning when WMG effectively doubled WalMart.com's catalog.

Here's the article from the Telegraph:

Wal-Mart was whistleblower in OFT's supermarket investigation

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, was the whistleblower behind the Office of Fair Trading's current probe into alleged price fixing of food and toiletries, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The investigation has embroiled some of the world's largest consumer goods manufacturers such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser, as well as UK retail giants, including Tesco and J Sainsbury.

In blowing the whistle, Wal-Mart, which owns the Asda chain, has guaranteed itself immunity from a fine should the OFT discover any cartel activity. Any company found guilty could be fined up to 10 per cent of its annual worldwide sales, which in Wal-Mart's case would be $37bn (£18.7bn).

The move is likely to make the US retailer deeply unpopular with the companies involved, many of whom are its largest suppliers.

Last weekend this newspaper revealed that around 100 OFT officials and lawyers raided the offices of the country's biggest supermarkets ten days ago over allegations of price-fixing involving dozens of popular household brands, such as PG Tips, Aquafresh toothpaste and Andrex toilet roll. Consumer goods companies in the UK and the US were also visited or asked to provide pricing information.

It is understood that following an earlier OFT investigation into price-fixing of dairy products, which resulted in some supermarkets and dairies paying fines of £116m, senior Wal-Mart and Asda executives made the decision to go to the OFT with new information.

All the companies involved in the probe have strenuously denied that they are involved in any cartel activity, and Asda's decision to tip off the OFT does not mean that price-fixing has necessarily occurred. The OFT has refused to comment on the investigation.

Legal experts believe it will be at least two years until the OFT publishes any findings.