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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 Forbes magazine, which called Al Wal-Mart's #1 Enemy. 60 Minutes called Al "the guru of the anti-Wal-Mart movement." Al was a consultant for the film "The High Cost of Low Prices," and was featured in the films "Store Wars," "Wal-Mart Nation," and "Up Against The Wal." His website is www.sprawl-busters.com. His latest book is Occupy Walmart, which was released in May of 2012.

Blog Entries by Al Norman

There's Nothing 'Fair' About the Internet Sales Tax

(42) Comments | Posted May 8, 2013 | 10:23 AM

Just over two years ago I wrote a columnin this space which charged that giant retailers like Wal-Mart and Target were using mom and pop stores as human shields in their battle against Amazon.com over taxing online sales.

Powerful real estate investment trusts along with big box...

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Warren Buffett, Waltons Get Welfare From Wisconsin Taxpayers

(116) Comments | Posted April 3, 2013 | 8:54 AM

Two of the richest families on the planet -- the Waltons and the Buffetts -- have taken public welfare from taxpayers to help clean up a contaminated land that will soon sprout a Wal-Mart superstore.

On April 10th, the Walton Family will open another superstore on...

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Dentist Sues Wal-Mart: 'They Stole My American Dream'

(9) Comments | Posted February 20, 2013 | 3:56 PM

Ask almost anyone who has sued Wal-Mart over the past half century, and they will tell you that getting justice out of the giant retailer is like pulling teeth. That may be a good sign for a California dentist who claims that Wal-Mart conspired with others to steal his concept...

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Vermont Governor Takes Heat for Warming Up To Wal-Mart

(47) Comments | Posted January 26, 2013 | 9:20 PM

Environmentalists in New England were stunned recently when Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin publicly embraced a proposed Wal-Mart superstore as "good news" for his state.

Shumlin joins ranks with former Vermont Governor, Republican Jim Douglas, who stumped at a pro Wal-Mart rally in St. Albans, Vermont in January of...

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Wal-Mart Discovers 'Made in America' -- Again

(7) Comments | Posted January 22, 2013 | 9:27 AM

The giant S.S. Wal-Mart is finally steaming home. After decades of sourcing goods from foreign ports, Wal-Mart is turning its cargo ships around, and discovering America -- once again.

In a nearly 3,700 word speech before the National Retail Federation in New York City, Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill...

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The Wal-Martyrs of Mexican Bribery

(18) Comments | Posted December 23, 2012 | 5:10 PM

Anti-Wal-Mart activists in Mexico have walked a more dangerous line than those of us in America. They have learned that that the truth will not set you free -- it will imprison you.

At the conclusion of its lengthy expose of Wal-Mart's intense bribery campaign in Mexico, the

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Demanufacturing Wal-Mart: Profiting From Prison Labor

(39) Comments | Posted December 3, 2012 | 7:37 AM

One thing you can say about Wal-Mart chain stores: at every link in the chain, someone is being exploited, from head to tail. The public knows next to nothing about the exploitation which takes place at the tail end of the business cycle -- something called "demanufacturing."

Every year, Wal-Mart...

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Pushed Over the Fiscal Cliff by Wal-Mart

(14) Comments | Posted November 19, 2012 | 7:50 AM

Was it Bill Clinton who inserted Wal-Mart on President Obama's short list for Fiscal Cliff discussions at the White House recently?

Clinton promotes Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke like the late Sam Walton used to push Moon Pies. But it's hard to imagine Barack Obama suffering through a meeting with...

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Shopper Assaulted Over Wal-Mart Pumpkin

(41) Comments | Posted October 29, 2012 | 1:49 PM

Rockey Carter is asking Wal-Mart for an apology. But he is unlikely to get one.

On October 16th, Carter was shopping at a Wal-Mart in McKinney, Texas. "I walked through the store selecting the items on my list, and sorted them in my basket according to food type as I...

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Wal-Mart in Libya? Don't Bet Your Hog Futures On It

(9) Comments | Posted September 28, 2012 | 1:17 PM

At the heart of American arrogance is the notion that what we have in this country is what the rest of the world needs -- they just don't know it.

How else to explain President Bill Clinton's absurd question to the head of Wal-Mart: "If the new president...

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Wal-Mart Discloses "Nada" in Mexigate Bribery Case

(12) Comments | Posted August 17, 2012 | 6:04 PM

Nearly four months after the Wal-Mart Mexican bribery case landed on the retailer's plate like a PR hot tamale, two leading members of U.S. Congressional oversight committees say the company has given them absolutely nada. Even worse, lawmakers now charge that Wal-Mart's own documents suggest that the company may have...

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The Wal-Mart/Facebook Social Genome

(4) Comments | Posted July 30, 2012 | 6:16 PM

You are what you tweet. And blog. And post. It's part of your social genome.

According to a statement from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, he and his top management team travelled to Bentonville, Arkansas to "deepen" its relationship with Wal-Mart. That's "deepen" as in pockets. But it's...

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It's Time for Wal-Mart Employees to Stop Killing Shoplifters!

(38) Comments | Posted June 11, 2012 | 9:00 AM

A couple hundred million people shop at Wal-Mart stores every year, so its no big deal that every once in a while someone gets killed there for shoplifting. Shoplifting is not a capital offense -- except sometimes at Wal-Mart. When encounters with the retailer's "Asset Protection" staff goes too far...

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Wal-Mart Gives Workers Justin Timberlake in a Grass Skirt

(7) Comments | Posted June 4, 2012 | 8:06 AM

I'm exhausted from Wal-Mart's 50th birthday bash held in Fayetteville, Arkansas last Friday for shareholders like me. Reuters described it as an "upbeat event," but aside from the Nashville/Hollywood glitz on the stage -- the event was more of a corporate mea culpa.

I didn't even go...

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Wal-Mart At 50: A Crisis of Governance

(12) Comments | Posted May 7, 2012 | 9:00 AM

In less than a month, Wal-Mart will celebrate a Golden Anniversary at its annual shareholder's bash at Bud Walton Arena on the campus of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Last year, entertainers Will Smith and the Black Eyed Peas were brought in to divert the 16,000...

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Wal-Mart's 'Terrifying' Attack on the First Amendment

(14) Comments | Posted April 16, 2012 | 5:00 PM

Cathy Kern is somewhat of a folk hero in North Tonawanda, N.Y.

But if you ask folks at city hall, or at Wal-Mart corporate headquarters, what they think of Cathy Kern, you'll get the opposite response. Over the past six years, Kern and other anti-Wal-Mart activists have filed 5...

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Police in Georgia Evict Anti-Wal-Mart Occupiers

(30) Comments | Posted March 12, 2012 | 11:39 AM

The cops in one southern city were busy this past week cleaning a group of Occupiers from the front steps of City Hall in the middle of the night.

The city of Athens, Georgia--home to 30,000 University of Georgia students--has long enjoyed a reputation as a unique southern setting....

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An End to Wal-Mart Poaching?

(10) Comments | Posted February 29, 2012 | 10:29 AM

The term 'retail rustling' describes the efforts of one community to steal the merchants that are doing business in another community. It's a form of business poaching that has been going on for many years, but has gotten so cut-throat in some areas that local officials are attempting to get...

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Life & a Cheap Death at Wal-Mart

(74) Comments | Posted February 8, 2012 | 6:12 PM

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

(99) Comments | Posted February 1, 2012 | 6:39 AM

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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