At the risk of veering off topic but hoping to fill our foreign friends in on a debate currently taking place in American life, a brief overview of the "case against Walmart" is:

They have a large employee base and are alleged to pay substandard wages and offer little, if anything, in the way of affordable health insurance. Please note the use of the word "alleged".

They tend to run smaller shops - the so-called "mom and pop" operations - ou of business by low-balling prices.

Their stores are called "big box" stores for a reason: that's what they look like. The argument is made that they contribute to urban sprawl and build a set, formula format of store that is considered unattractive and architecturally unredeemable.

A certain percentage of their merchandise is imported from the Far East...this mitigates a claim that they made several years back that they were the "All American" store and promoted "Made in the USA" products.

Those things having been said, they do have adherants who will argue that:

They have low prices on both everday necessities (like toilet tissue) and big-ticket items (like flat screen tv's), thus making the consumer's dollar stretch further.

They're a true "one stop shopping" destination.

They do offer entry level employment to people from a diverse cross section of the population who are just getting into the workplace.

They do contribute to local economies through sales and employment taxes.

They are no more "evil" than any other organization out to make a buck...the essence of capitalism is that markets will find their own level and Walmart is just another development in that set of dynamics.

So, the jury's till out. Recently, there was an ordinance in the Chicago City Council that would have imposed higher levels of wages and insurance contributions for "big box" employees. It should be noted that there are very few Walmart stores within the actual city limits of Chicago...Walmart will, literally, build right across the street from the city limits. The "inner city" is crying out that they need stores like Walmart in their neighborhoods for both the access to goods and the local employment that they offer. The "big box ordinance" was finally voted down after much political wrangling, thus paving the way for Walmart to expand into its "final frontier", the inner city.

Keep an open mind; try to look at it from all sides. There is no simple solution and nothing is truly inherently evil.

Best

AA