Yesterday, Wal-Mart announced that it employs 2 million people world wide, and that doesn't include the huge number of people who are manufacturing good for Wal-Mart, which would bump that number by a lot. Comparing Wal-Mart to other Fortune 500 retailers, Target employs 352,000, Costco just 132,000, Kroger 310,000, and Home Depot employs 355,000. We're talking more than 5 times more employees than other large retailers.

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.