A local Florida news station investigated area Wal-Mart stores and found some pretty serious discrepancies in prices on the same products from store to store. The woman who asked the news station to investigate alleges that Wal-Mart is charging more for many products in low income areas. This wouldn't surprise us in the least. Wal-Mart has a long history of making a profit off the backs of the poor. From the low wages they pay workers here in America to near slave wages they pay in factories across the country, Wal-Mart succeeds by exploiting the poor. It is no stretch to believe that Wal-Mart would also try to squeeze every extra penny out of poor consumers to make an extra buck.

Here's an excerpt from the Local 6 article:

Local 6's Steven Cooper reported that Barnaby's theory held up during a Problem Solvers test.

Sugar
$2.38 Mt. Dora
$2.36 Clarcona/Pine Hills
$1.76 Apopka

Condensed Milk
$1.54 Mt. Dora
$1.56 Clarcona/Pine Hills
$1.04 Apopka

Asparagus
$2.42 Mt. Dora
$2.54 Clarcona/Pine Hills
$1.86 Apopka...

"When we see that a nearby competitor might temporarily lower a price on an item, our stores have the authority to adjust their price lower. This can happen in a very small vicinity of stores," the company said in a statement to Local 6.

However, the Problem Solvers found that the prices concerned were not temporary as Wal-Mart described, but consistent over a period of at least two months.

Barnaby said she thinks that Wal-Mart is charging more for the same products in poorer neighborhoods than in neighborhoods with higher incomes.

"It disgusts me that the people who can least afford to buy the food have to pay more money than everyone else does," Barnaby said.