When I look at a downtown devastated by empty storefronts and For Sale signs, I see lost jobs, reduced property and sales taxes, and deteriorating infrastructure.

But when erstwhile presidential contender Steve Forbes looks at the same downtown, he sees the churning forces of the Free Market at work.

As many as 70 elderly and disabled residents of Palm Springs, Florida, may soon be evicted to make way for another Wal-Mart superstore.

The hapless residents of Sunshine Village are watching as the sun goes down on their mobile home park. This homestead of predominately low-income older people has...

The words "small" and "Wal-Mart" don't fit well together.

Yet the dominant retailer on the globe has been telling Wall Street analysts for several years running that small is beautiful.

Last year this time, at an analyst's meeting, Tom Shoewe, Wal-Mart's Executive Vice President, summarized his company's strategy on new...

You steal, you die.

That's the international policy apparently at Wal-Mart stores, where reports indicate another alleged shoplifter has died at the hands of a gang of overzealous Wal-Mart workers -- this time in China.

According to the Associated Press report this week, Yu Xiachun, a 37-year-old woman, died 500...

While many American retailers are just one lackluster back-to-school season away from disaster, the malingering recession has been very good to some retail manufacturers -- especially in China.

American shoppers at Wal-Mart have made investors in Hong Kong very wealthy. By one estimate, in 2006 every Wal-Mart store in...

Wal-Mart Files Injunction Against Circular Objects

This news story out of Canada belongs in the "circular" file.

Wal-Mart is trying to limit the use of circular and oval objects. Over the years, the giant retailer, in exercising its own brand of censorship, has forced recording artists to...

It was announced this week that Wal-Mart has agreed to shell out up to $35 million to a class of its employees in Washington State who sued the company for denying them rest breaks and meal breaks, and for forcing them to work off the clock, which is illegal. But...

Advertising Board Says Wal-Mart's Savings To Shoppers "Not Even Close"

The driving mission of the Wal-Mart corporation is to make money by saving its customers money. "At Wal-Mart," the company says, "everything we do flows from our purpose of saving people money so they can live better."

This...

Wal-Mart Makes Empty Claim of 22,000 Jobs

Don't pity the laid off United Auto Workers in Michigan. They're not facing a bleak economic future at all. They can always find a good job waiting for them at Wal-Mart.

The giant retailer put out a press release late last...

Give Your Workers Better Health Insurance Instead!

It's free ice cream day at Wal-Mart today! What could be wrong with that?

Plenty.

Wal-Mart wants Americans to stop going to ice cream parlors or restaurants for ice cream. For the second year in a row, Wal-Mart is getting sweet headlines...

Worker's Death Draws $7,000 Fine

In a remarkable role reversal, Wal-Mart has managed to walk all over two agencies that were supposed to sanction the giant retailer for the tragic trampling death of one of its employees on Black Friday last November.

Six months after the death of a...

Phony Expense Plan Fails To Convince Judges

North Carolina's textiles industry has been economically undone by Wal-Mart's China First procurement policy. As if those employment losses weren't bad enough, the state has also been engaged in a multi-year legal battle to get the giant retailer to pay its fair share...

The Wal-Mart corporation has been carefully nurturing its image as a strong supporter of the Latino community in America, opening stores designed for Latino shoppers, and hosting economic summits for Latino businesses. So it was especially embarrassing for the corporation to find itself in the national headlines late last week...

Company Reneged On Its Job Creation Subsidy

On March 29th, I posted the story of Wal-Mart's welfare deal in Ohio, which cost state taxpayers $1.8 million. Ohio development officials were blind-sided when a job tax credit subsidy involving a Wal-Mart optical lab imploded. The giant retailer shut down a lab...

Illegal Aliens Deliver Fear & Loathing To Wal-Mart Pharmacies

By Al Norman

One of the world's largest drug store chains is employing a very unusual---and provocative---method for sourcing its drugs.

This week mighty Wal-Mart found itself at the center of a street-level drug deal that raised...

I received an email late last night from the Governor of Oregon.

I had written to Governor Ted Kulongoski asking him why the taxpayers of his state were subsidizing Wal-Mart with a $3.7 million tax break they didn't deserve. "Thank you for sharing your ideas and concerns," the Governor told...

"They shut us down with no warning," says Wal-Mart worker

Wal-Mart Payouts Vs. Employee Free Choice

By Al Norman

This week, Wal-Mart President and CEO Mike Duke told the Arkansas Morning News, "We have a lot to be thankful for this year."

Compared to the rest of Wall Street, Wal-Mart's stock drop of 1.5% over the past year...

New "Add It Up" Plan Doesn't Add Up

By Al Norman

The head of the embattled Bank of America told members of the Boston College Chief Executive Officers Club this week that his company is now making money.

"Bank of America should generate more than $100 billion in revenue...

Retailer Organizes "Customers" To Lobby For More Stores

Did Wal-Mart put one over on the L.A. Times?

On February 27th, the Los Angeles Times ran a 1,342 word story about a resident of the Florence-Firestone neighborhood near Watts, in Los Angeles, California, who is circulating a petition in support of...