A little over a year ago, news came to light that Wal-Mart had been spying on shareholders, employees and critics of the company, including staff of this organization. Aside from causing a mass deletion of Flickr accounts, MySpace pages and Facebook profiles, the news raised questions about the data Wal-Mart has access to, and just how closely the company watches its shoppers - and its critics.

To help Wal-Mart in its quest for ever more inside knowledge, the company has recently hired Oracle as its new “business intelligence” firm. Wal-Mart is notoriously secretive about the data it collects about shoppers, though sources indicate the retailer’s databases are massive. According to one New York Times article, “By its own count, Wal-Mart has 460 terabytes of data stored on Teradata mainframes, made by NCR, at its Bentonville headquarters. To put that in perspective, the Internet has less than half as much data, according to experts.”

Since that article was published, Wal-Mart has only started tracking more consumer data, now even going so far as to track shoppers’ movements inside the store. It sure does seem like Oracle has its work cut out for it. Till then, we’ll keep our vacation photos in scrapbooks, thanks.

Wal-Mart Selects Oracle for Business Intelligence [Dashboard Insight]

Oracle announced today that Wal-Mart has selected Oracle(r) Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus (Oracle BI Suite EE Plus) to provide comprehensive data intelligence and analysis from across Wal-Mart’s operations.

Wal-Mart plans to use the system to administer its logistics, transportation, category management, finance, human resources, real estate, merchandising, store and club operations and other business resources, within Wal-Mart and Sam’s Clubs.

Wal-Mart selected Oracle for its proven track record of success in the retail sector, and Oracle BI Suite EE Plus for its ease of use, scalability and ability to integrate with other applications in the Wal-Mart environment.

Information Technology has long been regarded as a core strength that enabled Wal-Mart to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. The company recently implemented Oracle Retail applications including Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning, Oracle Retail Item Planning, and other elements of the Oracle Retail Suite as part of its merchandising transformation initiatives.

“Technology and analytics are essential to help us be more responsive and effective in serving Wal-Mart customers and Sam’s Club members,” said Rollin Ford, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Wal-Mart. “The Oracle solution is very robust and it integrates well with our other applications, particularly as our business continues to grow in scale and complexity.”

“Oracle solutions are designed to help companies such as Wal-Mart deliver measurable results on a global scale,” said Duncan Angove, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Oracle Retail. “Our retail applications are especially well-suited for Wal-Mart, which designs everything it does around improving its customers’ shopping experience.”

Every day, communities across America choose to side with Wal-Mart, the world’s largest corporation, rather than local workers and small businesses. Wake Up Wal-Mart, along with community leaders across the country, are standing and demanding a change. From WakeUpWalMart.com:

Starting today, supporters of WakeUpWalMart.com and local elected officials will hold hundreds of press conferences throughout the country to launch a new campaign “Give Workers a break, not Wal-Mart.” The national effort will call on local officials and candidates at the local, state and federal level to side with workers, not Walmart.

As part of the launch of this new campaign, local WakeUpWalmart.com supporters, elected officials and candidates for office will gather outside Walmart stores to speak out about how the world’s largest retailer stands to profit from John McCain’s tax plan while working Americans continue to struggle in this tough economy. Supporters of WakeUpWalmart.com will hand out flyers to tell Wal-Mart customers how the retail giant stands to save billions under John McCain’s tax plan.

Elected officials, community leaders and candidates will also sign the “Give Workers a Break, Not Wal-Mart Pledge” which calls on John McCain, as well as local and state governments to demand that Wal-Mart end its irresponsible and immoral business practices.

Similar to other suits filed since 2006 against big employers (think Boeing, John Deere and General Dynamics), the 401(k) suit against Wal-Mart—Braden v. Wal-Mart was filed in March and is currently seeking class-action status—claims that the company breached its duties as a fiduciary by allowing its 401(k) plan participants to be charged “unreasonably expensive” fees. In its answer, Wal-Mart said disclosures about such things as “how investments options were selected” or “revenue sharing arrangements” are “demonstrably immaterial to any investment decision faced by participants.”

In addition, Wal-Mart accused the suit of disregarding the relation of the fees to the overall costs of administering the plan and ignoring “the economics of participant directed individual account plans.” The company pointed out that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) does not call for plan fiduciaries to consider only price when selecting investment options or select the least expensive options.

The case was filed on March 27, 2008, against Wal-Mart on behalf of the Wal-Mart Profit Sharing and 401(k) Plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA. Braden v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., alleges that Wal-Mart and others, as fiduciaries of Wal-Mart’s retirement plan, failed to act solely in the interests of the participants and beneficiaries of the Plan, and failed to exercise the required skill, care, prudence, and diligence in administering the Plan’s assets from January 31, 2002, through the present.

The complaint claims Wal-Mart selected and offered to Plan participants unreasonably expensive retail funds, despite the ready availability of reasonably priced high-quality investment options. As a result, the plan squandered tens of millions of dollars of participants’ retirement savings in order to pay for overpriced mutual funds, which, on top of everything, significantly underperformed their benchmarks. This resulted in larger fees being spent on inferior products.

Just one day after this release chronicling Wal-Mart’s continuing reputation problems and the impact they have on the company’s business, a new study from the UK shows Wal-Mart’s branding is struggling overseas as well.

The Superbrands Council conducts an annual poll surveying the top UK brands. According to the group’s website, “Every year we commission an independent research process that asks a panel of experts and thousands of consumers their opinion on literally every major UK brand.” The survey included a wide range of consumer brands and ranked them according to respondents’ impressions of the company.

Wal-Mart’s wholly-owned UK subsidiary, Asda, dropped a whopping 253 places since last year’s survey, and came in a lowly #439 out of 500 companies, directly behind Kentucky Fried Chicken.

As we mentioned yesterday, the company’s continuing reputation for low wages, employee mistreatment, unethical sourcing and environmental damage undoubtedly contribute to its low scores in surveys such as this. It’s in Wal-Mart’s best interest to improve its brand quality from the bottom up, raising wages for its lowest earning employees and taking responsibility for its social impact all along its production chain.

Google ‘UK’s top consumer brand’ [BBC News]
Official Top 500 Superbrands 2008/09 (PDF) [Superbrands]
Wal-Mart’s Reputation Problems Continue [Wal-Mart Watch Press Release]

Maybe in some parallel universe - where marketers are kings and consumers buy everything that’s advertised - this strategy makes sense, but we just can’t seem to understand how holding a fashion show is supposed to send the message that Wal-Mart is no longer interested in fashion.

See, Wal-Mart has had a lot of problems with its apparel lines. When it sold basic (read: ugly) clothes like high-waisted jeans and shapeless t-shirts, no one bought them because they were, well, ugly. So then Wal-Mart started selling “trendy” items like spandex leggings. Unsurprisingly, the spandex leggings didn’t sell either and Wal-Mart vowed to never go upscale again.

So the retailer’s recent fashion show in San Francisco’s supertrendy Union Square doesn’t seem to make sense. Is Wal-Mart planning to roll out a line of leather mini dresses just in time for back to school? If not, what’s the value retailer doing with the likes of high end designers?

Wal-Mart’s fashion show previews back-to-school [Reuters]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc presented a colorful, casual line of youthful looks for kids and teens on Saturday at a fashion show that previewed the mass-market chain’s new low-cost offerings for back to school.

Wal-Mart has spent the last year desperately trying to improve its reputation. The company has bombarded consumers with new marketing, including a new logo, a new company tag line, and a new, friendly name - “Walmart.” The retailer also hired a new ad agency and launched a massive environmental marketing initiative, all aimed at eradicating criticisms of the company’s business practices.

Two new polls show these efforts are failing. The two surveys - from Harris Interactive (PDF) and the Reputation Institute (PDF) - indicate shoppers still don’t trust Wal-Mart, in spite of the retailer’s massive marketing overhaul.  The poll results support Wal-Mart Watch’s fall 2007 public opinion poll findings, which showed shoppers increasingly cite Wal-Mart’s poor business practices as a reason not to shop at the retailer’s stores.

Wal-Mart’s reputation remains the biggest obstacle to the company’s long-term growth potential, as its reputation affects both its ability to reach new shoppers and to build new stores. Both of these strategies are crucial to the company’s long term success, but are hampered by Wal-Mart’s recurring reputation problems.

Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director David Nassar said in a release, “There’s no doubt that Wal-Mart is profiting from the economic downturn and cash-strapped consumers. But, recent public opinion surveys indicate that although people are shopping there, they aren’t happy about it because they are still concerned about Wal-Mart’s poor business practices.”

Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of its workers and “save money at all costs” mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions. Dukes v. Wal-Mart is of course one large example (the largest class action in American history, actually), as are the myriad wage/hour/overtime class actions the company faces.

Just as important as those large class actions, however, are the countless suits filed by individual plaintiffs – the tiny David trying to win justice over Wal-Mart’s Goliath.  We at Wal-Mart Watch will be focusing on one of these stories each week, highlighting those cases that warrant further attention because of the light each sheds in its own way on how Wal-Mart does business.

James E. Faust v. Wal-Mart Stores East, L.P.

Wal-Mart Store Manager Grace Gibson hired James Faust as a store greeter at a Wal-Mart in Calera, AL in April of 2001.  Gibson was well aware of Faust’s physical disabilities, permitting him to rely on his own motorized scooter in the performance of his job duties for the first three years of his employment.  In February of 2005, Gibson disallowed Faust from leaving the scooter at the store overnight to recharge and informed him that he could use the store’s scooter (whenever it was not in use by customers).  Once Gibson prevented Faust from keeping his scooter at the workplace, Faust promptly filed a claim with the EEOC.

After the EEOC charge was filed, Faust was then prohibited from using Wal-Mart’s scooter, and was instructed to use the store’s (broken) wheelchairs.  Faust continued to work at the store for approximately three more months, walking and sitting as much as possible.  Before long, the lack of accommodation and disregard for his disability proved overwhelming, causing Faust to resign and file a complaint in federal court.

Hello faithful readers! For those of you familiar with our blog, you’ve probably noticed some changes to our format this morning. We’ve been working diligently to create some of those nifty features other blogs have like category tags and monthly archives, and we’re happy to announce that they’ve finally arrived! Check out the right hand navigation bar for our all-time Top Blog Posts, archives by month, Flickr stream and popular blog categories. We hope you find the new features useful.

We’ll be working out any kinks with the new format over the next few days, but in the mean time, enjoy!

This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

Civil Rights Group Gives Wal-Mart A C+
More than 1,300 delegates to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Convention were warmed up by Barak Obama and John McCain speeches---but the real heat in Cincinnati came during a debate over Wal-Mart.

During 5 days of conventioneering, the delegates took up 45 resolutions---one of the most contentious being the business practices of the World’s Largest Retailer.

On the Convention floor, NAACP Resolution #14 read:
“Oppose Wal-mart and Other Retailers Unfair Labor Practices Resolved: That the NAACP will challenge Wal-Mart and other retailers to overcome any of their practices that are inconsistent with the highest standards of Labor and Civil Rights, to ensure equal opportunity and equal pay for Women, people of color and other minorities, and work with local communities to effectively address Wal-Mart’s and other retailers negative impact on issues like the environment and local businesses, and establish a ‘Buy American’ program that annually increases the percentage of ‘Made in America’ goods purchased by Wal-Mart and Other retailers to help protect American Jobs.”

Washington D.C.—Wal-Mart’s sales are improving, but different measures of public opinion indicate that the company’s reputation continues to decline - primarily because of the company’s poor business practices. Wal-Mart’s reputation remains the biggest obstacle to the company’s long-term growth potential. 

Wal-Mart is already the largest corporation in the world, with more than two million employees.  In order to further increase sales the company must either sell more products to existing customers or identify new ones.  Wal-Mart’s reputation affects both its ability to reach new shoppers and to build new stores. 

“There’s no doubt that Wal-Mart is profiting from the economic downturn and cash-strapped consumers,” said David Nassar, Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director.  “But, recent public opinion surveys indicate that although people are shopping there, they aren’t happy about it because they are still concerned about Wal-Mart’s poor business practices.”

In the past two weeks alone, Wal-Mart received failing marks on two different scales of corporate trustworthiness and likeability. The two surveys - from Harris Interactive and the Reputation Institute - indicate shoppers don’t trust Wal-Mart, in spite of the retailer’s massive marketing overhaul.  These results support Wal-Mart Watch’s fall 2007 public opinion poll findings.

The Harris Interactive survey found that shoppers consider a company’s labor practices above all other social responsibility issues. Considering that Wal-Mart has done little to improve working conditions in its U.S. stores, refuses to raise wages and continues to provide a substandard health care plan for its employees, it is not surprising the retailer ranked so low on Harris’ list.

Meanwhile, the Reputation Institute ranked the 150 largest U.S. companies based on “the overall trust, esteem, admiration and good feelings consumers have toward them.” Wal-Mart, long known for damaging communities, sourcing from sweatshops and discriminating against female employees, came in at number 136 out of 150 companies, dropping 76 places from number 57 in 2007. Wal-Mart was joined in the bottom 15 by several oil companies and defense contractors, including Halliburton.

High profile cases also continue to draw negative attention and damage the company’s reputation. In March, for example, Wal-Mart’s unconscionable treatment of former employee Debbie Shank sparked national outrage and earned the company Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” designation for three nights in a row on MSNBC’s Countdown. Just two weeks ago, Wal-Mart made headlines again for violating labor laws two million times in Minnesota, and faces up to $2 billion in damages.

“So despite the millions of dollars Wal-Mart spends to improve its image, these negative public opinion surveys and headlines combined with opposition to new Wal-Mart stores in communities across the country clearly show that Wal-Mart’s reputation problems are not resolved,” said Nassar.  “If Wal-Mart wants to retain shoppers after the economy improves, it will need more than a new logo or advertising campaign.  The company needs to change its business practices; it can start by treating its employees fairly, paying higher wages and providing adequate health care plans.”

# # #

The Christian Science Monitor today tells us that Rio Tinto, the company Wal-Mart signed to supply it with “sustainable” jewelry, is currently blamed for thousands of deaths in the South Pacific:

The raw materials for Wal-Mart’s Love, Earth line are extracted by the Anglo-Australian mining company, Rio Tinto, and a major gold producer, Newmont Mining Corp. These companies are interesting choices, to say the least. Rio Tinto is currently fighting a suit under the federal Alien Tort Claims Act that blames the company for the deaths of thousands of Bougainville islanders in Papua New Guinea. Rio Tinto’s copper mine, the suit alleges, resulted in environmental destruction and crimes against humanity stemming from a military blockade motivated by civilian resistance to the mine.

You gotta wonder...what kind of companies will be supplying the other 90% of Wal-Mart’s jewelry?

(*the above picture is a Cyanide lake at a Russian Gold Mine. Wal-Mart’s mine in Nevada will also use Cyanide, although supposedly in more “sustainable” way.)

WAL-MART ROLLS OUT THE ECO-BLING

Wal-Mart introduced a line of jewelry this week that “can be traced from mining site to store”, drawing much applause from the MSM. Meanwhile, a couple crack reporters from the blogosphere veered away from Wal-Mart’s talking point to cover the details that just happen to matter. Like the fact that Wal-Mart only committed to making 10% of its jewelry come from sustainable sources. And the fact that the company Wal-Mart is teaming up with to make sustainability goals and set industry standards is currently accused of thousands of deaths in the South Pacific.

Wal-Mart Launches Eco-Bling Project [TakePart Blog Network]

Wal-Mart is stepping up to answer the call for more eco-friendly bling. Jewelry has always held a special place in our cultural history, but the industry doesn’t exactly have the best reputation for being environmentally friendly and conflict-free. The movie Blood Diamond comes to mind, but did you also know that a single 1/3 ounce 18-karat gold ring creates 20 tons of mine waste?

Wal-Mart greening its jewelry? [Bright Green Blog]

The raw materials for Wal-Mart’s Love, Earth line are extracted by the Anglo-Australian mining company, Rio Tinto, and a major gold producer, Newmont Mining Corp.

These companies are interesting choices, to say the least. Rio Tinto is currently fighting a suit under the federal Alien Tort Claims Act that blames the company for the deaths of thousands of Bougainville islanders in Papua New Guinea. Rio Tinto’s copper mine, the suit alleges, resulted in environmental destruction and crimes against humanity stemming from a military blockade motivated by civilian resistance to the mine.

According to Scorecard, a US pollution information site, in 2002 Newmont was operating some of America’s dirtiest mines. According to The New York Times, villagers in Buyat Bay on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island filed a $543 million lawsuit against Newmont contending that arsenic waste from their mining killed an infant and destroyed local fisheries.

WAL-MART IS PERHAPS MAYBE JUST A LITTLE GUILTY FOR NOT PAYING ITS ASSOCIATES A FAIR WAGE

Sometimes, we get this odd, guttural feeling that one of the reasons for our current economic downturn is that good, living-wage jobs (i.e., manufacturing) are being replaced with part-time Wal-Mart jobs. Imports from China certainly do not help, we suspect.

Polling the Ohio Pols [MOJO Blog]

An NPR poll conducted with the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard’s School of Public Health shows (.pdf) more than 50 percent of respondents in both states say their pocketbooks will be the most important issue guiding their votes in November. When pollsters combined respondents’ first and second most pressing concerns, the economy showed up 70 percent of the time.

This could bode well for Obama and his fellow party members, especially in Ohio, where some counties face unemployment rates of more than eight percent. “It does help the Democrats,” says Johnnie Maier, chairman of the Democratic party in Stark County, Ohio, which historically has acted as bellwether county in presidential elections. “When George W. Bush took office, we had a budget surplus. We didn’t have a housing crisis. Now we’re replacing what used to be living-wage jobs with part-time jobs at places like Wal-Mart—a major Chinese importer. It’s beyond a mess.”

After the jump, read about worker activism, Wal-Mart’s flirting with mothers, and more up-to-the-minute coverage of Wal-Mart’s new logo.

Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of its workers and “save money at all costs” mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions. Dukes v. Wal-Mart is of course one large example (the largest class action in American history, actually), as are the myriad wage/hour/overtime class actions the company faces.

At Wal-Mart Watch will be focusing on one of these stories each week, highlighting those cases that warrant further attention because of the light each sheds in its own way on how Wal-Mart does business.

It looks like Wal-Mart’s been dumping dumping hazardous waste again. This time in Oklahoma.

The United States government and the State of Oklahoma filed a complaint in Federal Court on June 20, 2008, claiming that Wal-Mart, amongst other notorious companies (including “Worst Company in America 2008 nominees” Sears, American Airlines, and former nominee Halliburton), contributed hazardous waste to the Double Eagle Superfund site in Oklahoma City, OK.

“The United States and the State of Oklahoma bring this civil action under Sections 107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as amended (”CERCLA”), 42 U.S.C. 85 9607, and Title 27A O.S. 661-2-101, 1-3-101, and 2-3- 101 for recovery of response costs they have incurred, damages to natural resources, and declaratory relief as a result of releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances.”

Do you have a Wal-Mart near you? Wal-Mart has been charged with dumping the following chemicals into the Superfund site:

“Some of the contaminants of concern analyzed in the risk assessment included lead, arsenic, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ("’PAHs") and chlorinated hydrocarbons, heptachlor and chlordane, 1.2-dichloroethane, trichloroethylene ("TCE"), 1 ,l,l-Tetrachloroethane, 2-butanone, vinyl chloride, polychlorinated biphenyls ("PCBs"), and alkyl benzenes.”

The official winner of our Unofficial Wal-Mart Logo Redesign Contest is......Chris Clark! We received many great entries covering a variety of important points about Wal-Mart’s business practices - but this one stuck out to us. We like it because it focuses on Wal-Mart’s too-close-for comfort ties to China, an apt message especially with the Beijing Olympic Games less than a month away. Humanitarian organizations around the world have called on China to improve its human rights standards, and it’s a sad fact that Wal-Mart continues to rely heavily on China for its sourcing despite these pleas.

Congratulations to Chris! We’ll be printing t-shirts with this logo on them, and each of the finalists will receive a copy. Check out all the finalists - just a sampling of the dozens of entries we received - after the jump.

As Wal-Mart site fights go, there aren’t too many stories more troubling than that of Moon, Pa.

On July 3rd, the Beaver County Times reported that after an exhausting 6-hour meeting the Moon Township commission voted against a Wal-Mart proposal, 3-2. Only three days later on the 7th, the Times reported that the commission was reconsidering the issue. At least two of the commissioners who voted “no” were surprised when they were notified that a “special meeting” was to be held on the 10th to reconsider the issue. Lo and behold, two commissioners switched their votes and gave Wal-Mart a 4-1 green light.

And it doesn’t end there. One of the commissioners who switched his vote is Mike Hopper, who was recently injured in a car accident, has been not been present at any of the recent Wal-Mart city meetings, and has failed to respond by phone or email to any residents.

So what happened? Wal-Mart’s legal team. Clearly, Wal-Mart’s lawyers threatened to sue and sent a major scare into Moon Township’s lawyers – who convinced the commissioners that the Township, and possibly them commissioners personally, would be sued unless they reversed their votes. So they waved the white flag, and surrendered to Wal-Mart.

The result: despite widespread public opposition, and a town commission that voted against the project, Wal-Mart looks to move forward in Moon.

Says the Beaver County Times:

“According to Hopper, board solicitor Michael Santicola told supervisors during an executive session after the board’s July 2 meeting that the township and supervisors individually could potentially be on the hook ‘for the property itself, which Wal-Mart bought for $7 million; for their engineering costs and fees; and even for the potential loss of sales.…And apparently there were concerns if our insurance carrier would be willing to cover that liability,’ he added.”

Unfortunately, Moon is not alone. There has been a startling trend in recent years of Wal-Mart filing and/or threatening to file SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) lawsuits against public groups that oppose Wal-Mart – with the express purpose of stamping out the opposition and/or scaring officials into turning their votes around.

Wal-Mart’s Global Purchasing Center has cut another 180 employees from the payroll - this after previously firing 110 employees last November and essentially closing their Shanghai office last week, firing 50 employees.  Is this a sign that operations in China are doing poorly?  Or is this payback for the successful negotiation of higher wages by the local Shenyang labor union?

According to Wal-Mart, the layoffs are in part due to Wal-Mart’s hiring of Intertek, which will be partly responsible for purchasing. 

Wal-Mart China’s spokesperson, Dong YuGuo (Jonathan Dong) on July 16 told reporters that “Wal-Mart had selected the Tian Xiang group (Intertek) to handle Wal-Mart China’s purchasing services.  In the wake of passing on this business to Intertek, Wal-Mart would end working relations with 180 employees.”

However, there are certainly more factors at play than Wal-Mart’s PR spin would have one realize. Wal-Mart’s purchasing from China has held steady at $18 billion over the past few years (the Economic Policy Institute, however, calculates that Wal-Mart’s China purchasing is closer to $27 billion). But factoring in inflation and the rising costs of raw materials and labor, Wal-Mart’s total sourcing in China has actually decreased, a fact which would would certainly warrant some layoffs from the purchasing center.

Wal-Mart’s PR spokesperson denies the recent layoffs are a result of a plan to move sourcing to other, cheaper countries. But several Wal-Mart China employees have cited a sourcing shift as the reason behind the layoffs. All of this while Wal-Mart’s Chinese competitors are trying (and partly succeeding) to eat them alive might mean Wal-Mart’s internationally is hitting a roadblock.

We got dozens of submissions from people around the country in our Unofficial Wal-Mart Logo Redesign Contest. Thank you to everyone who entered - it was really tough deciding which entries would make it. Below are the six finalists in no particular order. We’ll be announcing the winner tomorrow.

From Brent M.:

From Scott M.:

From Rob L.:

See the rest of the finalists after the jump.

For years, the correlation between Wal-Mart stores and increased crime has been well-documented. A lesser-examined corollary to this phenomenon is the burden placed on city and county police forces when Wal-Mart refuses to patrol its own grounds. A recent article in The Repository reveals a disturbing picture of crime unleashed – Wal-Mart style – in the town of Canton, Ohio:

In the first half of this year, Canton police have been called to the two city Wal-Marts a combined 425 times, police records show.

Police reports show both 24-hour stores — the second is located at 3200 Atlantic Blvd. NE and off U.S. Route 62 — deal with everything from forged checks to armed robbery. A city officer was seriously injured after being attacked by a bat-wielding Wal-Mart customer last month.

Between Jan. 1 and June 30, officers were called to the Wal-Mart at 3200 Atlantic Blvd. NE 275 times. The majority of those calls — 150 — were for shoplifters, police records show…

The crime-related problems faced by both stores also are a problem for the Canton Municipal Courts, so much that Court Administrator Michael Kochera said an additional bailiff may be hired just to handle booking misdemeanor offenders.

In another instance, the increase in crime (and the taxing effect upon law-enforcement officials) was projected far in advance by city officials in an area where Wal-Mart would soon arise. In a memo uncovered by a community group in Suisan City, CA, the police chief admitted that the “commercial activity” of a Wal-Mart Supercenter has the “potential...for increased vehicle and residential burglaries.”

This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

Wal-Mart is raising wages for its employees—in China, that is. Yes, the labor union representing Wal-Mart’s Chinese workforce won yet another fight against Wal-Mart, successfully negotiating for an 8 percent raise for 2008 and 2009 as well as setting terms for paid vacation, social security, and overtime. This comes at a time when China’s economy is booming, and demands for higher wages and better benefits are being pushed by none other than the Chinese government. Meanwhile, as the U.S. economy falters and Wal-Mart benefits, Wal-Mart’s U.S. hourly workers are experiencing nothing short of a wage “rollback.”

Sadly, wages for the average hourly U.S. Wal-Mart employee have actually fallen when adjusted for inflation. In 2004, Wal-Mart reported an average (Wal-Mart refuses to disclose a median wage which would provide a more accurate picture of wages at the company) hourly wage of $9.68. In 2008, the reported wage is $10.86. But in 2004 dollars, the average hourly wage is $9.55, which means workers are worse off today than they were four years ago. So, while the price of gas, food and health care are rising, Wal-Mart employees’ wages are falling.

Vietnam to Lend Dollars to Makers of Wal-Mart, Hilfiger Clothes [Bloomberg]

Vietnam will lend dollars to members of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group to allow makers of clothes for Tommy Hilfiger Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to maintain production.

The State Bank of Vietnam asked state-owned commercial banks to make dollars available to the 120 member companies of Vietnam National Textile, known as Vinatex, according to a statement posted on the State Bank of Vietnam’s Web site yesterday. Vinatex members contributed about $1.3 billion to Vietnam’s total $7.8 billion garment exports last year.

Access to foreign currency may allow the companies to pay for imports of raw materials to maintain production and allow Vietnam to meet its export target for this year. The government is restricting lending of dollars to certain industries to narrow the trade deficit and slow inflation.

``Without dollars to pay for raw material imports, garment and textile companies cannot deliver the products on time and they may be fined heavily,’’ Le Quoc An, chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, said yesterday.