So we know Walmart wants to tag individual items of clothing, even if it means they could track you with it after you leave the store. The RFID Journal Blog asks, “Why isn’t Walmart killing the tags:” A member of my staff told me it didn’t makes sense for Wal-Mart Stores to tag clothing and [...]

Haven’t done one of these posts in a while, but thanks to the American Prospect I have the impetus: Most organic consumers know premiums for cleaner food are 10, 20, 50 percent — and can reach 500 percent or more — but this produce is also demanding for farmers to grow. It’s so expensive because [...]

Yes, as a matter of fact, that is the scariest headline ever. It’s discussing Walmart’s new plans to put RFID tags on individual items of clothing rather than just pallets of items. Here’s the potential privacy problem: “This is a first piece of a very large and very frightening tracking system,” said Katherine Albrecht, director [...]

From a Texas TV station: Last night, I headed to Walmart for what I expected to be a very quick trip to grab some chicken and other items. The cashier was unfamiliar with the comp-ad process (not unusual) so she called a customer service manager over to assist. The CSM proceeded to hand me back [...]

Ever since Jeff published that nice memorial post marking the one year anniversary of Robert’s passing, I’ve been meaning to have my two cents. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but had trouble finding what I remembered in our now voluminous archives [We certainly have been at this a long time, Jeff.] I [...]

A whole bunch of pictures from what purports to be inside a Chinese Walmart showed up in my inbox this morning. [I don't doubt their authenticity, but there is simply no way for me to confirm it.] My correspondent was sickened by them. Me? Not so much. The pictures reminded me of what has come [...]

You know, Ii all of Walmart’s customers get diabetes, they won’t have as much money to spend on cheap plastic crap.

Something occurred to me when I was watching this (thanks Bob): The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News Walmart’s next announcement on the education front will be that they are offering student loans to their own employees, probably funneled by some two-bit Arkansas lender [...]

Jdimytai Damour was the poor security guard who got trampled on Black Friday a couple of years ago. Walmart was fined S7,000 for the incident. That’s outrageous. The fine should have been much higher on principle. Nevertheless, Walmart won’t pay. Take it away NYT: Wal-Mart officials worry that if the OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health [...]

The Chicago Reader has an excellent interview with our friend Nelson Lichtenstein. While I recommend the whole thing, I was particularly struck by how clear he is on this point: It’s not just a question of lower wages and lower benefits—you don’t have a career at Walmart. Retail is not built for careers. There’s a [...]

Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle doesn’t like the unemployed. Transcript from the Huffington Post: RALSTON: You think that a bunch of people are sitting out there saying, “You know what, this is great! I got my unemployment check coming in, I’m not going to go out and look for a job?” ANGLE: No, they’re not. [...]

I’m a little late to the party on the Walmart Chicago wage story, but Progress Illinois points out that obvious problem: Who will ensure Walmart holds up its end of last week’s tenuous agreement that apparently cleared the way for a second Chicago store? Ald. Howard Brookins Jr. (21st Ward), an ardent supporter of Walmart’s [...]

Cross-posted from my other blog. “[For-profit colleges] serve a purpose and some do a good job, but there’s obviously an incredible number of bad actors and I would like to shut them down.” – Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota), at yesterday’s Senate hearing on for-profit colleges. While you might discount this because you think that Franken [...]

…but one Home Depot parking lot on Long Island has its own graveyard.

Um…no. From the Chronicle of Higher Education (welcome back to my world): [S]everal experts pointed out that public colleges might provide a more affordable option. The Western Association of Food Chains, for example, has a partnership with 135 community colleges in the western United States to offer an associate degree in retail management completely online, [...]