Re: Walmart sales & gas prices

[Lance Murdoch <lancemurdoch@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 8/27/05, Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> But there's also some evidence that WMT itself has hit something of a wall -
> its base market is saturated and needs desperately to move into more
> affluent, urbanized markets, where it has serious political and image
> problems. (They're just starting to advertise in Vogue to work on the
> image probs, and they're trying to buy black preachers and elected
> officials to work on their political probs.) 

The US market may be saturated but the world market is not.  30% of
Wal-Mart's stores are outside of the United States, and you can be
sure that many new Wal-Marts will be opening outside of the US in the
coming years.

Much of Wal-Mart's political activity is somewhat hidden, but it is
massive - they were behind Oklahoma becoming a right to work (for
less) state, and are a major force in the RTW campaigns in other
states.  The Walton Family Foundation gives $10 million a year to just
one of the school privatization foundations it supports (CEO America).

In the 1980s, Sam Walton was travelling in Central America around the
maquilas that manufacture goods destined for Wal-Mart, and he became
concerned about how nationalist (and even socialist) views were
permeating some of the professional class down there, so he began a
program, WISP, to bring students from Central American countries to
several Christian universities in the Bible Belt.  He said "The
students will learn skills through the liberal arts curricula of these
three fine colleges that will encourage...private development of their
countries."

-- Lance