Tag Archives | Wal-Mart

British Supermarket Chain Starts Dating Service Based On Shopping Habits

By JacobSloan on March 23, 2011 in News 8

Asda, a British retail giant owned by Wal-Mart, has launched an online dating site which matches singles by the products they purchase. Because, really, you are what you buy, and who would want to cohabit with someone who consumes a different brand of toilet paper? Business Review Europe gets starry-eyed:

Asda customers may be able to find love among the cabbages. According to Asda, the novel idea came about after a survey conducted on 10,000 of their shoppers showed that 71 percent of men and 64 percent of women look for a possible match in their local supermarket. And 41 percent said they viewed contents of fellow shoppers baskets to try and gauge whether they were single. Asda has decided to give the lonely hearts of our nation a helping hand!

Asdadating.com is the ‘perfect matchmaking option,’ explains a Asda spokesperson, ‘you can chat to fellow shoppers you like the look of whilst getting your weekly shop done.’

Asda’s dating website matches potential partners based on their shopping habits.

… Read the rest

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2010 Fortune 500: Wal-Mart’s Number One

By Pelliciari on December 20, 2010 in News 0

Fortune 500 has come out with the top ranking stocks of 2010. Wal-Mart’s taken over the top stop, pushing Exxon to number two. Did the lack of employment encourage consumers to shop at Wal-Mart where they “roll back prices”? Read the Top 1000:

Rank      Company                     Revenues               Profits
1               Wal-Mart Stores        378,799.0               12,731.0
2               Exxon Mobil            372,824.0               40,610.0
3               Chevron                    210,783.0               18,688.0
4               General Motors         182,347.0               -38,732.0
5               ConocoPhillips          178,558.0               11,891.0
6               General Electric        176,656.0               11,891.0
7               Ford Motor                 172,468.0               -2,723.0
8               Citigroup                   159,229.0               3,617.0
9               Bank of America       119,190.0               14,982.0
10               AT&T            118,928.0               11,951.0… Read the rest

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Wal-Mart’s Competitors Help Fund Activist Campaigns

By majestic on June 8, 2010 in News 7

When we helped Robert Greenwald distribute his classic exposé documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, we trumpeted the fact that we were receiving support from a panoply of unlikely allies, from the Sierra Club to the Petroleum Institute. It turns out that some of the megastore’s competitors have been helping out too, according to this report by Ann Zimmerman for the Wall Street Journal:

MUNDELEIN, Ill.—Robert Brownson long believed that his proposed development here, with its 200,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter, was being held hostage by nearby homeowners.

He had seen them protesting at city hall, and they had filed a lawsuit to stop the project.

What he didn’t know was that the locals were getting a lot of help. A grocery chain with nine stores in the area had hired Saint Consulting Group to secretly run the antidevelopment campaign. Saint is a specialist at fighting proposed Wal-Marts, and it uses tactics it describes as “black arts.”

As Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

… Read the rest

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24 Hours Inside Walmart

By disinfogreg on April 30, 2010 in News 27

If ants ever make it to the top of the food chain, it might look something like this. From Bernstein & Andriulli:

Stephen Wilkes took a photo every 10 seconds of the day for a time-lapse video inside Walmart for Fortune magazine. All in all, 8,640 frames were taken (1,800 that are actually used) and the entire 24 hours is compressed into two minutes. The shoot took place on April 6, 2010 in New Brunswick, New Jersey from 9:14 am [sic] to 9:14pm. Says Photo Editor Lauren Winfield, “The inspiration was to show that Walmart never sleeps… open 24 hours with no real daylight, you have no sense of what time of day it is. We wanted to see what the traffic flow of people coming in and out of the store looks like as a day in the life.”

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Wal-Mart Fires Associate Of Year, Cancer Patient, For Medical Marijuana Use

By ralph on March 13, 2010 in News 6

Smiley Says No Pot Steve Elliott writes on Toke of the Town:

Despite medical marijuana being legal in Michigan, WalMart has fired a cancer patient and former employee of the year who tested positive for the drug, which was recommended by his doctor.

“I was terminated because I failed a drug screening,” ex-WalMart employee Joseph Casias told WZZM-13.

In 2008, Casias was Associate of the Year at the WalMart store in Battle Creek, Mich., despite suffering from sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor. At his doctor’s recommendation, Casias legally uses medical marijuana to ease his pain.

“It helps tremendously,” Casias said. “I only use it to stop the pain. To make me feel more comfortable and active as a person.”

Casias said he went to work every day during his five years at WalMart. “I gave them everything,” he said. “One hundred and ten percent every day. Anything they asked me to do, I did.

… Read the rest

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Working For Walmart

By aaroncynic on March 10, 2010 in News 1

Outside the Wal-Mart in Orland Hills, IL, by Clean Wal-Mart.

Kevin Robinson writes on Chicagoist:

As part of our on-going coverage of Wal-Mart’s attempt to break into the Chicago retail market, we take a look this week at the company’s employment practices in the Chicago metropolitan area. Chicagoist met up with three Wal-Mart employees to talk to them about their jobs, company policy, and why they work there.

Roslyn Lindfair also knows what it’s like to be hurt on the job at Wal-Mart. She worked at the Cary, Illinois store for five years as a cashier before she was fired after her arm got caught in a turnstile.

“It was maybe about 7:30, I was ringing up a customer, and she was turning the turnstile one way, and I was turning another way. And it hit me in my arm. It hurt, and I just kinda waited a while, and I noticed my arm started swelling up.

… Read the rest

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Detroit Schools Offer Class in How to Work at Wal-Mart

By phunkychic666 on February 13, 2010 in News 3

Wal-Mart Worker Muriel Kane writes on RAW Story:

Wal-Mart has been widely condemned for offering its employees only low-paying, dead end jobs. Even President Obama criticized Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign for having served on Wal-Mart’s board and stated that the firm ought to pay “a living wage.”

In inner-city Detroit, however, where the unemployment rate is estimated at an astonishing 50%, the prospect of a Wal-Mart job may appear far more attractive.

Four inner-city Detroit high schools have decided that employment with Wal-Mart is an opportunity worth training their students to pursue. The schools have teamed up with the giant merchandiser to offer a for-credit class in job-readiness training that also includes entry-level after-school jobs.

Man Arrested for Peeing on Steaks at Ohio Wal-Mart

By bluemana on January 28, 2010 in News 7

Anyone think Wal-Mart’s going to resell the steaks? ALWAYS LOW PRICES! : )
Pete Kotz writes on True Crime Report:

When heading off to jail, it’s best to commit a crime that will provide you with a manly story to tell your fellow inmates, something a little more desperado-like than, say, knee-capping a rival figure skater. Working as a hired gun for the Mafia always sounds good…

Armored car heists always have a nice ring to them. And even if you’re not quite up to something this ambitious, you can still trot out the old resisting arrest.

Unfortunately, Robert T. Jenkins now sits in jail with probably the worst criminal tale ever. He was arrested at a Wal-Mart in Canton, Ohio for peeing on steaks. Yes, you heard that right.

Cops were called to the store after Jenkins simply walked up to the meat counter, pulled out his manly apparatus — which we hope isn’t capable of reproduction — and begin peeing on the steak selection.

No one seems to know why he did it, unless he was practicing a bold new form of marinating.

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Wal-Mart Uses Fake Community Group to Manufacture Support

By aaroncynic on January 28, 2010 in News 0

Wal-Mart From the Chicagoist:

The controversy over Wal-Mart’s attempts to break into the Chicago retail market has flared up again recently. Opponents argue that Wal-Mart drives down wages, destroys local businesses and leads to no net increase in jobs or tax revenue for the city.

Wal-Mart and its allies contend that neighborhood residents deserve to have a say in what happens in their neighborhood, and people that don’t live there should stay out of the matter. The lack of good options available to people that live on the South and West sides of Chicago has been well-documented, and it’s very plausible that there is a substantial and passionate movement in those neighborhoods to bring Wal-Mart to their communities as a solution. Wal-Mart would have us believe that such a sentiment exists, but it turns out that support for their expansion into the city is being manufactured by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, a local public relations powerhouse, and by Wal-Mart itself.

… Read the rest

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Wal-Mart Sued for Videotaping Employees and Customers in Bathroom

By Join Or DIE on December 27, 2009 in News 2

StopWalMart NATHALIE TADENA writes on ABC News:

A Pennsylvania Walmart Supercenter videotaped employees and customers in a unisex bathroom, several former and current Walmart employees alleged in a lawsuit filed this week.

Seven former and current employees from the Tire and Lube department at the Walmart in Easton, Pa., filed a lawsuit in county court against the Arkansas-based corporation and four local managers Dec. 21.

Several employees discovered an “off-the-shelf” video camera in a store bathroom March 31, 2008, according to the court filing. The unisex bathroom, which also served as a changing room, was used by employees and customers. Customers and employees were not notifed of the surveillance, according to the court filing.

“I am incredulous that anyone would think that it’s appropriate conduct for any reason to photograph people in a changing room and bathroom,” said Erv McLain, the plaintiffs’ attorney.