Let Walmart know that you think Target (and others) are right in not discriminating against transgender customers’ use of their bathrooms and that you support Target’s stance by informing Walmart headquarters—via email or phone: 800.925.6278—that you intend to shop at only GLBTQ-friendly retailers. In other national news on the story: Yale introduces gender-neutral bathrooms amid […]

I can’t begin to count the number of stories I’ve read about citizen groups failing to stop a Walmart being built in their community. Stopping a Walmart is like stopping a Tsunami. So much so that I have given groups that have contacted me about how they might be successful little to no hope for […]

Who could doubt that Walmart has made financial contributions to the campaign to elect Donald Trump the next President of the United States? I have no doubt that Walmart made contributions to all the Republican candidates, Hillary Clinton and maybe, just maybe, even Bernie Sanders, but I would imagine that Bernie would have sent that […]

If you’re going to hang the greater part of your very existence to selling cheap plastic crap from China to Americans then cutting out the cost of shipping by selling cheap plastic crap from China in China makes perfect sense. That has been part of Walmart’s strategy for 20 years. There have been bumps in […]

There are people at Walmart that customers actually love. In a worlds where underpaid and overworked employees don’t have time to be cordial or even helpful, those who make the effort to smile and make the shopping experience not so horrible get noticed. Workers like Frank Swanson come to mind, but there are many others. […]

[Update on 13 July @ 0600: Suzanne Goldenberg, writes Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests.] While I was in college I volunteered at the local food co-op once a week in exchange for a discount on food I bought there. I stocked shelves, sliced and wrapped cheese and performed […]

There are two tasks that all politicians like to be able to boast success about: making the lives of voters safer and making the lives of voters more prosperous. The latter often involves the promise of jobs. Lots of jobs. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo made such a promise and as New York Times […]

On Thursday, 30 June, the Court of Appeal of the State of California, Second Appellate District, Division Eight found in favor of Walmart in the case of Walmart v. United Food And Commercial Workers International. From Court Documents: In September 2014, the trial court issued a permanent injunction barring defendants United Food and Commercial Workers […]

Forty-four years ago, on 2 July 1962, the first Walmart store, in Rogers, Arkansas, opened the doors for customers. Rogers, population ~6,000 in 1962, is also the home of Daisy, maker of the iconic Red Ryder BB gun. Happy birthday Walmart. Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

Years ago I worked as executive editor of a small, family owned publishing house. I learned a lot there from the owner who, while he did not match his financial success, did share what I think of as many of the good qualities of Sam Walton. I remember a conversation we had once regarding Wall […]

When Los Angeles Laker Coach Pat Riley trademarked the phrase—coined by Shooting Guard (and future Lakers coach) Byron Scott—Three-Peat, he associated the term with the team’s remarkable effort, but ultimately failure, to win three successive NBA championships. The recent distinction of the Walton family to top Forbes’ list of wealthiest families in the United States, […]

Two stories popped up this morning that relate to Walmart’s continuing battle to figure out how to transform dominance in bricks-and-mortar retail sales to the same kind of crush-the-competition success in the virtual world of online sales. First up is this report by Madeleine Johnson headlined Walmart’s Unoriginal ShippingPass is Still No Match for Amazon […]