Wal-Mart Tops Fortune 500 List Again

1. Wal-Mart Stores

Rank: 1 (Previous rank: 1)
CEO: H. Lee Scott Jr.
Address: 702 S.W. Eighth St.
Bentonville, AR 72716
Phone: [phone]
Website: www.walmartstores.com
A facelift and even lower prices kept the world's largest retailer afloat in a troubled economy.

Staring down the barrel of brutal fourth-quarter retail forecasts, CEO Lee Scott dramatically cut prices on 15,000 items - including popular toys and electronics - by 20% more than usual to lure holiday shoppers. That rocked the industry, pressuring other retailers to squeeze already tight margins.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[MissingAmerica]

This is a company that has built it's fortune by destroying the middle class, causing job losses and entire industries to leave this country. So many say we love to shop there. Truth is, we have no choice. It still isn't a good deal, either, because the bulk of the goods give new meaning to the term "Chinese junk". Ah, for the good old days, when a Chinese junk was a boat, and the sticker "made in China" was a collector's item. Now, if you find anything made in this country, possibly you could sell it to a museum!

[sandiegoconservative]

My neighbor refuses to shop at Wal-Mart and purchase the "cheap Chinese crap and electronics" as he puts it.

Last week I helped him carry in some tupperware totes and some small home improvement items, and a television and stereo speakers he purchased from another business. After he bitched about the cost of everything, I pointed out that Wal-Mart sells the exact same items and for a lower price.

[Shaddup]

No news here. It's standard operating procedure in most totalitarian regimes that the masses are forced to shop at "the state store."

[hoopesaz]

Nah, you don't have to shop there. You get to choose.

[ohiomark]

Who, exactly, is holding a gun to your head and FORCING you to shop at Wal-Mart?

If you want to pay higher prices somewhere else, nobody is stopping you.

By the way, if you were actually living under a "totalitarian regime", you wouldn't be able to go on-line and bash "the state store". When you re-difine reality, this is what happens.

[Shaddup]

I haven't been to a Wal-Mart in years. It's simply that the end result of free market piracy is also the same result as communism, in the end you end up with a monopoly--that was my point. As for totalitarianism, why is the pentagon telling me how the war is going and not any of the soldiers on the round ala Ernie Pyle? Where are the pictures of the dead and wounded? Who's covering that story? Why are they dumping mercury in the water? How come a lumberjack is head of the EPA, and the FCC wants to privatize the internet?

[trinity]

No one is putting a gun to anyone's head but Walmart has put everyone else out of business. I think of where my grandmother lives in a small Texas town. Super Walmart moved in and ALL the local grocery stores went under, as well as all the mom & pop variety stores. Now all you see in empty shops after empty shops and the Super Walmart. One has to drive 30 miles to get to the nearest grocery store now.

[Podewumun]

Once upon a time, in Appalachian coal mining communities, you had no choice but to spend your "paycheck" at the "company store" because most coal miners didn't own a car. Now you have to spend it at WalMart since they've saturated the market and can take advantage of high gas prices.

[UnbiasView]

After all the Anti-Wal-Mart posts I'll go the other way: I LOVE WAL-MART . . . BEST STORE BEST PRICES!

[Shaddup]

So much for an "UnbiasView" .