In terms of operating costs, virtual trumps bricks-and-mortar. Walmart has invested in, and fought long hard battles for, actual locations where customers have to travel to to buy merchandise. These fixed costs—maintenance, light, heat, employees—add up and are nearly impossible to eliminate. Walmart’s principle competitor, Amazon, has avoided nearly all of these costs by staying […]

I think Walmart figured out a while ago that being on the wrong side of the GLBTQ Rights struggle is bad for business. A tiny number of homophobic bigots who still believe that Walmart is their place to shop, however, haven’t, and they stirred the pot again because their particular mythical structure is threatened by […]

When your job is security, every person looks like a security threat. No. I’m not talking about the Transportation Security Administration (thank gawd I don’t fly), I’m talking about retail security guards, working two jobs and likely bored out of their skulls and afraid that if they do nothing, their employer will figure out that […]

Organic food first appeared on our radar back in October of 2006. Since then, more than 50 stories have come under the organics category. Walmart has always seemed like an unlikely place to buy organic food (akin to buying solar panels from the Peabody Coal company) but I do believe the company is trying. I’ve […]

Yeah, that’s how I feel after writing about Walmart, and protests by local residents when the Bentonvile Behemoth threatens to come to town, for more than a decade. The Writing On The Wal, nee No Cleveland Walmart, began as just one such protest in the Spring of 2005 and over the years communities have reached […]

This story has a strange vibe. The headline from Arkansas Business declares: Wal-Mart Reveals $1.9M Paid to UA in FY 2015 and adds the note that while the University expects future payments of the same, stockholders might not be told because: Wal-Mart has to disclose its dealings with the UA because former Chancellor G. David […]

So, the cashier Frank Swanson started a new job at one of Walmart’s competitors. In today’s litigious society, mega corporations like Walmart have to have meticulous, lawyer-approved, rules and regulations in place where matters of hiring and firing are concerned. Sometimes, however, the rules, devoid of any human touch, can backfire. Donald Bradley, reporting in […]

I haven’t watched Superstore yet, no television and all that, but I’ll order the DVD from the library when copies are available. This was my favorite bit from Brian Moylan review in Superstore: Walmart-inspired sitcom isn’t such a bad deal for The Guardian: Do they ever leave the store? No. Really? Who wants to spend […]

Yes, I know, Walmart is not the only bad actor in this story. The headline on Jane Reed’s story—Wal-Mart, Sysco And Fancy Feasts May Be Getting Their Products From Slaves clearly tells the reader that the link goes beyond the Bentonvile Behemoth. Reed goes further in the body of her story to list The supply […]

The short answer is, of course, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon is worth exactly what the (newly reshuffled) board says he is worth. Still, you think they might be aware of how the peasants (sometimes known as stock holders) are faring with all the, internal and external, changes the company is dealing with and tone down […]

Forbes contributor Panos Mourdoukoutas, writing in Who Earns $149,000 In Walmart? answers the question: techies. Walmart has a reputation for paying very little money to its low-skill floor employees. But it pays big money to recruit and retain talent for its eCommerce division, where starting salaries can be as high as $149,000 a year, according […]

Back on Friday I considered the rationals behind Walmart’s expansion to curbside and pickup services for customers who shop on line. Fortune contributor Neil Stern, writing in For CVS And Walmart, Curbside Pickup May Be A Great Idea That Customers Don’t Want asks the most basic question for any business: is there money in the […]

Two mentions of a presidential candidate endorsement crossed my desk this morning that, while I sure she is glad to have the nod, Hillary most likely wishes the leg-up stayed under the radar. The first comes from the far-right propaganda machine, The Reason Foundation. Headlined Hooray for Hillary Clinton’s Ties to Walmart, reasonista and editor […]

The headline on a story this morning informs us that Wal-Mart Donates $1,000 To Local Charities, Through Community Foundation Of The Lake. Good on you Walmart, you get a tax write off and good press for your $1,000 (which might be what? a nanosecond’s worth of sales?) but what about your workers who continue to […]

So, we all get that there are people, lots of people, who think that the Bentonvile Behemoth is not a good actor in the world economy, but I can’t remember the last time I came across such a visceral reaction as that from Delta2, who wrote: Walmart has been doing this for years. Although I […]