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Al Norman
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Al Norman achieved national attention in October of 1993 when he successfully stopped Wal-Mart from locating in his hometown of Greenfield, Massachusetts. Since then he has appeared on 60 Minutes, and gained widespread media attention from the Wall Street Journal to Fortune magazine. Al is the editor of the monthly Sprawl-Busters Alert, and has traveled throughout the U.S. helping dozens of local coalitions. 60 Minutes called Al "the guru of the anti-Wal-Mart movement." His website is www.sprawl-busters.com.

Blog Entries by Al Norman

Life & a Cheap Death at Wal-Mart

Posted February 8, 2012 | 2/8/12

Ten months ago, Sprawl-Busters first reported the death of a Brazilian immigrant worker during a botched renovation job by an unlicensed crew inside a Wal-Mart in Massachusetts.

Romulo de Oliveira Santos died at the age of 47 on the floor of a Wal-Mart vision center in Walpole, Massachusetts....

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Say Goodbye to the Wal-Mart Greeters

95 Comments | Posted February 1, 2012 | 2/1/12

News that Wal-Mart soon will be removing its "people greeters" from the mouth of every store across America was ironic given how hard it was for Sam Walton to get them there in the first place.

According to Tom Coughlin, Wal-Mart's former COO and Vice Chairman of the...

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Occupy Wall-Mart: Save America. Live Better.

Posted December 5, 2011 | 12/5/11

If there is a teaching moment for economic injustice -- Wal-Mart is it.

This enormous corporation has been built upon the backs of the 99% -- the 1.4 million American workers who have been exploited for 50 years to produce the richest family in the United States: the Walton heirs....

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Wal-Mart Has an "Oops" Moment

Posted November 14, 2011 | 11/14/11

Wal-Mart had its own "oops" moment this week when it had to quickly pull the plug on a widespread news story about its ambitions to create a nation-wide health care program.

A 14 page "confidential" Wal-Mart document was leaked to NPR. The document was a solicitation for...

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The Incredible, Vanishing Wal-Mart

Posted November 9, 2011 | 11/9/11

Wal-Mart has stumbled onto something really big: stores that are really small.

After ripping up our nation's landscape for nearly half a century, Wal-Mart has discovered that you can open up a store 1,000 square feet in size -- and then fold it up and disappear two months...

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Target, Wal-Mart Divide Up Canadian Spoils

Posted October 17, 2011 | 10/17/11

THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO -- This week, I received an urgent email plea from residents in Thunder Bay, Ontario concerned about the logo saturation of their community by Wal-Mart and Target.

"As you may be aware," the Thunder Bay residents wrote, "Canada's Hudson's Bay Company sold the leases to some...

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Wal-Mart's Manhattan Project

Posted September 25, 2011 | 9/25/11

New York Study Says Retailer Will Kill 14,000 Jobs

By Al Norman

Unlike the top secret Manhattan Project in the 1940s, which produced the first atomic bomb, Wal-Mart has made no attempt to hide its ambition to carpet bomb all five boroughs of New York City with its stores....

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Dancing on Wal-Mart's Grave

Posted August 20, 2011 | 8/20/11

In less than 11 months, Wal-Mart will turn fifty.

No longer a company in its adolescent growth spurt, the giant retailer is showing its advancing age. In fiscal year 2011, Wal-Mart's U.S. store count grew by only 49 units, or 1.3%. In 2010 by only 52 stores,...

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Wal-Mart's Museum: Let Them Eat Art

Posted August 2, 2011 | 8/2/11

In just over 14 weeks, a new museum of American Art will open in a small town tucked away in the Arkansas Ozarks. It is being financed and built with profits made by the Wal-Mart corporation, and stocked with artwork collected by the second richest woman in the...

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Summertime and the Givin' Is Sleazy

Posted July 18, 2011 | 7/18/11

Two days into the summer of 2011, a group called the National Summer Learning Association issued 10 press releases across the nation, heralding the award of $11.5 million from the Wal-Mart Foundation -- one of the largest ever made to a single group -- to create summer learning...

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"I Ain't Gonna Work On Martori's Farm No More"

Posted June 29, 2011 | 6/29/11

For the past 20 years, Wal-Mart has fed its stores with agricultural produce from a company called Martori Farms. According to Hoover's profile of the company, Martori is "a fruit and vegetable grower, packer, shipper, and wholesaler and is the largest commercial agricultural company in Arizona.

The agra...

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Rahm Emanuel's 40 Days in the Desert

Posted June 19, 2011 | 6/19/11

CHICAGO -- Like some modern-day Moses, Chicago's new Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been wandering in the "food desert" of southside Chicago, looking for giant chain stores to feed his people.

But just as Moses never reached Canaan, Mayor Emanuel may never emerge from the food desert if he keeps...

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The End of EZ Money in California?

Posted June 15, 2011 | 6/15/11

On May 16, 2011 California Governor Jerry Brown released a revised state budget to address what he called the state's "Wall of Debt."

One of the Governor's more controversial proposals was to reform California's Enterprise Zones (EZs) program, which was created in 1986 to stimulate economic activity...

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Wal-Mart Welcomes Back 'Dirty Tricks' Republican Operative

Posted May 25, 2011 | 5/25/11

Terry Nelson, all is forgiven.

The Republican operative who was fired by Wal-Mart five years ago for his role in a race-baiting ad, has now been welcomed back to the fold in Bentonville.

Nelson, a native of Iowa, who began his political life in the Hawkeye...

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Argentina to South Africa: Beware of Wal-Mart!

Posted May 10, 2011 | 5/10/11

South Africa has been warned.

A global coalition of organized labor converged this week on Pretoria, South Africa -- where a government office known as the Competition Tribunal is considering a mega-acquisition of MassMart by Wal-Mart that will reboot the retail landscape of an entire continent. MassMart owns roughly 290...

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Wal-Mart Wants You to Pay Online Sales Tax

Posted April 10, 2011 | 4/10/11

Giant retailers like Wal-Mart and Target are using mom and pop stores as human shields in their battle against Amazon.com over taxing online sales. The powerful real estate investment trusts that build bricks-and-mortar malls, along with the big box stores they rent or sell to, now want you to pay...

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Yes, Wal-Mart Is Too Big to Sue

Posted March 29, 2011 | 3/29/11

You have your answer now, in case there was any doubt.

When the U.S. Supreme Court votes in late June to decertify the class of low-income women who are suing Wal-Mart for sex discrimination, here is what the public will conclude from the media headlines:

  1. Wal-Mart has been found not...
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Wal-Mart: Unions Love Us

Posted March 13, 2011 | 3/13/11

Last month Wal-Mart commissioned a poll which purported to show that 75% of union members in New York City were "all for" a Wal-Mart in the city. The New York Post ran a story which began, "New York City's union workers love Wal-Mart."

The improbable results of this...

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'Janie Q's' Class Warfare at Wal-Mart

Posted February 23, 2011 | 2/23/11

What Happens When You Have No Collective Bargaining

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Wal-Mart bosses refer to their women workers as "Janie Q's." That's according to lawyers who are representing 1.6 million Janie Q's who are suing the giant retailer for sexual discrimination.

Woman at Wal-Mart face a "classic glass...

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Wal-Mart Buys San Diego

Posted February 4, 2011 | 2/4/11

It's clear now who is running San Diego.

Wal-Mart needed only 8 weeks and maybe thirty thousand dollars to scare the daylights out of the City Council in San Diego. One local official in San Diego, California called it a "dark day for democracy."

In December of...

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