Walmart rescinds policy of locking up multicultural hair products.  Walmart is ending a long-standing policy under which some of its stores kept personal care products designed for people of color in locked display cases.  The retailer's about-face comes after years of criticism of the practice, including a black shopper in Colorado this week who called it "ridiculous.'  The company on Wednesday [6/10/2020] said it is abolishing the practice in place in about a dozen of its 4,700 stores nationwide and that it will no longer keep multicultural hair care and beauty products under lock and key.  "Like other retailers, the cases were put in place to deter shoplifters from some products such as electronics, automotive, cosmetics and other personal care products," Walmart said in a statement sent to CBS MoneyWatch.

Portland Passes "Green New Deal" Carbon Tax, First Of Its Kind in the Nation.  Referring to it with happy little buzzwords such as "climate justice," the city of Portland will soon be implementing the first (and hopefully only) "green new deal" carbon tax in the nation, which city "leaders" estimate will suck $60 million out of the economy.  The money will allegedly be going toward "creating" "green energy" jobs.  They say the tax will only affect The Evil Corporations™ specifically referring to Walmart.

Bedbugs intentionally released into Pennsylvania Walmart, police claim.  The parasitic insects were first found last Thursday crawling inside a closed pill bottle that was found in a boy's jacket left in a changing room of the store in Edinboro, Pennsylvania State Police said in a release.  Experts from health safety company Ecolab were called in the following day — and an employee soon found bugs crawling around the men's changing rooms, the force said.  On Saturday [1/4/2020], yet another bottle with live bugs was found in the men's department near where belts are sold, police said.

DOJ sues Walmart for allegedly refusing to hire employee with naval reserve obligations.  The Justice Department filed suit Wednesday [10/30/2019] alleging Walmart denied a Navy Reserve officer a job due to upcoming reserve duties.  In May 2016, Hunger said she applied for a summer job at Walmart while in the Naval Reserve.  After applying online, she received a call from a Walmart in Grand Junction, Colo.  At the end of the call, Hunger mentioned she had to attend a mandatory two-week annual training for reserve duty during the summer.  The personnel coordinator from Walmart told Hunger Walmart could not support that kind of time off, and ended the call.  She never heard from the superstore again.

Homeless set up camp in Walmart parking lot, police say they can't do much about it.  I've written a lot about homelessness on the west coast and the property crime that tends to go with it.  This story from Garden Grove in Orange County is happening just about five miles from my house.  Homeless people have set up a camp of sorts in the parking lot of a local Walmart.  There are complaints about harassment of shoppers, break-ins and vandalism of parked cars, and shoplifting from the store itself.  And yet, not much is happening to change it.  A nearby store has hired security guards to patrol the lot as well as maintenance people to clean up the trash left behind by the homeless but that doesn't solve the crime or other problems.  According to KCAL 9, the Walmart where this homeless camp is being set up has refused to ask people to leave and local police say there's not much they can do.

Walmart's CEO Caves to Socialist Bernie Sanders.  When Bernie Sanders crashed Walmart's shareholder meeting Wednesday and lectured executives on how they should run their business, CEO Doug McMillon should have laughed him out of the room for his ill-informed claims and for pushing a minimum wage hike that would hurt the very people it's supposed to help.  Instead, McMillon waved the white flag.  He told the company's owners that the current federal minimum wage is "too low" and that "it's time for Congress to put a thoughtful plan in place to increase the minimum wage."

Everybody's Business.  Consumer tracking surveys tell us that 95 percent of American shoppers spend money at Walmart every year, though the retail giant has been derided as a downtown killer, exploiter of workers, and anti-union powerhouse since the mid-1980s, when as a young reporter I covered the company's implausible rise.  Close behind is McDonald's, where nine out of ten Americans make purchases every year, despite a drumbeat of criticism about the quality and nutritional value of the chain's food.  Similarly, a recent analysis of consumer data ranked Facebook as America's most hated company.  Yet more than half of all Americans use it, and that number appears to be growing, albeit modestly.

Bernie Sanders Wants To 'Stop Walmart'? From What?  Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-declared socialist who's never held a steady job outside government, thinks he knows better than CEOs how to run a business.  And yes, he's serious.  Fresh off what Sanders sees as success in pushing Jeff Bezos to raise Amazon's minimum wage to $15, Sanders has set his sights on a longtime bete noire of the left:  Walmart.  With typical Sanders subtlety, his new legislative proposal is called the "Stop WALMART act."  Under it, big employers like Walmart would be banned from buying back shares in their own company unless they paid all their workers at least $15 an hour.  They'd also have to cap CEO pay at 150 times the median employee pay, and provide seven days of paid sick leave.

Union Walmart protests fizzle as a Black Friday tradition.  Unions have stopped trying to use Walmart's day-after-Thanksgiving 'Black Friday' sales to launch public relations blitzes against the corporation, effectively conceding that the once-high profile efforts were making little headway toward organizing a union at the nation's largest employer.  "We actually don't have any events planned for Black Friday," said Amy Ritter, spokeswoman for Making Change at Walmart, a nonprofit activist group funded and run by the United Food and Commercial Workers.

Amazon Fights Walmart for Low-Income Shoppers.  Amazon.com Inc [...] said Tuesday [6/6/2017] that it will offer a nearly 20% segment of the U.S. population — people who obtain government assistance with cards typically used for food stamps — a $5.99 monthly Prime membership, less than the $10.99 a month or $99 annual plan for other consumers.  The membership buys access to unlimited two-day shipping, video and music content, photo storage and other perks.

Myth Busted:  Taxpayers Are Not Subsidizing Walmart's Low Wages.  It's tax season, which means that union groups are once again out in force claiming that because Walmart doesn't pay its workers enough, taxpayers are forced to make up the difference.  This is, to put it politely, pure poppycock.  The latest to make this claim is Lonnie Sheppard of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, who says that "every American taxpayer is paying a tax they never heard of:  the Walmart Tax." [...] (By the way, Walmart actually paid $6.2 billion in federal income taxes in 2014.)

U.S. judge rules that investors can sue Walmart over Mexican bribery claims.  Walmart will face a class-action lawsuit amid accusations that the retail giant defrauded its shareholders by allegedly concealing bribes that helped the company expand its operations in Mexico.  The decision was handed down on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey in Arkansas, who rejected claims by the world's largest retailer that a Michigan pension fund has no legal standing to lead the case because it had not suffered any stock losses.

Obama Finds an Ally in Walmart, Whose Stores He Once Shunned.  As a freshman senator with his eye on the presidency, Barack Obama said he'd never shop at a Walmart and held the company up as an emblem of corporate greed.  Today, Walmart Stores Inc. is one of Obama's most reliable corporate allies, a go-to partner that's backed the White House on more than a dozen business initiatives, particularly Obamacare and climate change.

Walmart to reopen 5 stores closed for plumbing issues that became a labor dispute.  Walmart is planning to reopen five stores it closed last April for major plumping problems including two in Texas located in Midland and Livingston.  The abrupt store closings became the subject of a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union on behalf of the 2,200 employees.  The complaint filed in April [2015] argued that the closings were retaliation for labor activism.

Walmart stores that were suddenly closed for plumbing issues haven't sought permits.  Employees of a Walmart in Brandon that abruptly closed Monday were among more than 2,000 employees nationwide who learned almost simultaneously they were being laid off.  In a nearly identical manner at every store, Walmart corporate officials visited the five locations, called an impromptu meeting in the back of the store and told employees that the stores would be closing that evening.  Besides Brandon, the affected locations were in Pico Rivera, Calif., Livingston, Texas, Midland, Texas, Tulsa, Okla.

Walmart suddenly closes 5 stores, lays off 2200. Why?  Conspiracy theorists are working overtime to explain why Walmart suddenly closed 5 stores in 3 states this week, laying off 2200 workers.  The stores are expected to reopen in 6 months.  The company claims the closings are releated [sic] to ongoing and pervasive plumbing problems.  But the conspiracy theorists believe it has more to do with workers who took part in the Black Friday strike than with faulty sewers.

Is Walmart connecting to the US underground tunnel network?  Speculation is mounting after Walmart's shocking and abrupt decision to shut down 5 of its stores, each for 6 months, in 4 different states (Pico Rivera, CA; Midland, TX; Livingston, TX; Tulsa, OK; Brandon, FL). Apparently, employees were given only 5 hours notice.  They were also given 60 days severance pay.  The official excuse given by Walmart is plumbing problems, which is sheer nonsense.  It does not take 6 months to repair a few toilets, or even to replace a sewer line.  In fact, Walmart could erect an entire new store within that time frame!  Giant corporations run on greed and profits; it is unthinkable that they would willingly forgo 6 months of revenue for such a small problem.  So what's really going on?  It's not just labor activism.  Is Walmart perhaps preparing for some massive event due to come?  Are they connecting to the US underground tunnel system?

Mystery surrounds Walmart's bizarre cover story of closing five stores for six months due to "plumbing problems".  Walmart has suddenly announced it is shuttering five stores from Florida to California for a six-month period due to what the company claims are "plumbing problems." Nobody except the ultra-gullible really believes the Walmart cover story, however.  "The retail chain announced Monday that five stores are shutting down — one in Brandon, two in Texas, one in Oklahoma and one in California — due to clogging and drainage problems," reports News Channel 8 in Florida.  The sudden closures were only announced five hours before they took place, thrusting thousands of employees out of work with little or no notice.

Get a look inside the renovated Walmart that was closed in April.  For six months, the closed Walmart Supercenter at 207 S. Memorial Drive seemed devoid of activity.  Not so on Thursday afternoon [11/5/2015] — dozens of employees scurried within the store, stacking the last of the merchandise, making adjustments on the displays and tightening up the fixtures in the restrooms. [...] For example, the signs identifying the aisles are now much larger and simpler, allowing customers to quickly identify where they need to go.  These include new signs on the walls, such as a large "Electronics" on the wall behind the electronics section.

The Editor says...
None of those changes would have required closing the store.  It is far more likely that Walmart closed the five stores for six months in order to lay off troublemakers and union organizers, and wipe out everybody's seniority in the process.

"Sweeping changes" usually aren't undertaken without notice.
Sweeping changes coming to the suddenly closed Walmart at Admiral and Memorial.  Walmart plans an extensive remodel at its recently closed supercenter before it reopens, according to permits recently filed with the city of Tulsa.  Walmart initially cited plumbing problems as its reason for closing the store at Admiral Place and Memorial Drive in April.  The permits, filed July 15, indicate the store is set to get a remodeled grocery, pharmacy, customer service center, nail salon, restrooms and auto center, along with new signs, repaired front doors and demolition, plumbing and electrical work.

Walmart's Pico Rivera 'Plumbing Problem'.  The Pico Rivera store is one of five Walmart stores around the country suddenly closed due to vaguely defined plumbing problems.  The others are in Midland, TX — where more than 400 employees got the news on a Tuesday afternoon that they no longer had a job on Wednesday — along with Livingston TX, Brandon FL and Tulsa, OK.  The United Food and Commercial Workers have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board asking that the 2,200 layoffs at the five stores be rehired.  As it is, if and when the stores re-open, workers must re-apply for their former positions, with no guarantees of a job.  The employees of two of the shut-down stores — in Pico Rivera and Tulsa — have been active in organizing efforts by OUR Walmart to improve working conditions.

After Closing Stores, Walmart's "Plumbing Problems" Excuse Doesn't Hold Water.  This week, hundreds of employees at Walmart stores across the country were informed that they no longer have a job at the retailer.  Walmart suddenly announced that it would be immediately closing five stores for at least six months due to "plumbing problems." While the company claimed the problems have persisted for the last few years, in each incident, Walmart only gave employees a few hours' notice that their stores were closing.  Remarkably, Walmart's spokesperson, Delia Garcia, claimed "these are not layoffs" just before clarifying that "everyone will have to reapply as if new employees" once the stores reopen.

Video: Walmart 'Plumbing' Issue Related To DHS Underground Tunnel Network:  "This Is A Very Real Situation".  There's been much speculation about the recent closures of Walmart stores around the country.  Walmart claims the their stores, closed almost simultaneously in different cities, is a result of plumbing issues.  But many employees and customers suspect that something else is going on, though no one, including store managers, has any idea what that might be.  Several theories have popped up, with some claiming that it is an economic issue and Walmart may have shut those stores down because of lackluster sales, but they don't want to announce falling retail sales so as to avoid a hit to their stock price. [...] Others have suggested that the closings may have something to do with upcoming military exercises and the possibility that the massive stores could be used as detention centers for American citizens.

Questions Swirl Over Bizarre Walmart Closures.  Employees and customers are not buying Walmart's explanation that it is closing five nationwide stores for six months due to "plumbing" issues, with questions swirling about the sudden closures that left hundreds of workers unemployed.

Walmart reopens 4 closed Supercenters.  Four of the five Walmart Supercenters that abruptly closed this spring due to what the company called plumbing issues reopened on Friday [11/6/2015] — all four featuring elements of an upgraded décor and a new layout for certain departments rolled out for the first time last month at a pilot store near company headquarters in Rogers, Ark.  The reopened stores are located in Tulsa, Okla., Midland and Livingston, Texas, and Pico Rivera, Calif.  A fifth store in Brandon, Fla., remains closed.

Anti-Walmart Union Stays Quiet as Hillary Gets Big Donation From Heiress Alice Walton.  A major anti-Walmart union is staying tight-lipped about billionaire Walmart heiress Alice Walton's six-figure donation to Hillary Clinton.  The United Food and Commercial Workers Union endorsed Clinton in January, less than one month after Walton contributed more than $353,000 to a pro-Hillary fund.  International president of the UFCW Marc Perrone wrote in a statement, "It is our members' strong belief that Hillary Clinton is not just the strongest presidential candidate, but the right one."

District leaders furious Walmart breaking promise to build stores in poor neighborhoods.  Walmart abruptly announced Friday [1/15/2016] that it was abandoning a promise to build stores in Washington's poorest neighborhoods, an agreement that had been key to the deal allowing the retailer to begin operating in the nation's capital.  The giant retailer cited increasing costs for the new projects and disappointing performance at the three D.C. stores it opened over the past several years.  But news that Walmart would pull out of two supercenters planned for east of the Anacostia River, where its wares and jobs are wanted most, shocked D.C. leaders.  In one case, the city had already committed $90 million to make a development surrounding one of the stores viable.

Mob of 50 Black Teens Storm Georgia Walmart, Destroy and Steal Store.  Do you think the Old Media establishment will report this story of a mob of 50 black teenagers swarming a Walmart in Georgia and destroying the place? [...] But imagine if it was a mob of 50 white kids doing this?

Video: Who's really protesting Walmart?  Tis the season, once again upon us, when an age old tradition returns to cities and towns across the nation.  I don't mean the usual Thanksgiving feasts of yesterday or even the commercial mayhem of Black Friday.  We're talking about the annual protests of Walmart by their beleaguered workers who want a fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage and, much more to the point, official union representation. [...] This collection of students and paid union regulars represent the segmented factions pushing Walmart to turn their workforce over to organized labor.  They recently experienced a split in their ranks as some factions decided that the old ways weren't working, but they've still managed to assemble some AstroTurf to get the word out.

Killing the Golden Goose.  Under three different CEOs, Walmart has done all kinds of somersaults to appease left-wing critics.  In 2005, Lee Scott set goals of "zero waste" and "100 percent" conversion to renewable energy.  In 2009, Mike Duke, the next CEO, took on Obamacare — as an outspoken supporter of the unpopular health care bill.  This was "a stunning metamorphosis," the Wall Street Journal declared in a company profile.  Walmart had gone from being a "whipping boy of the political left to corporate leviathan now welcomed with open arms by a Democratic White House."

Why won't middle class people shop at Walmart?  Walmart's stock took a steep drop as the company announced that it was expecting lower profits.  There are a number of problems Walmart has, such as its website and fulfillment not being quite as good as Amazon.com, but Walmart is primarily a brick and mortar store, not an internet company.  The basic problem as I see it is that middle class people are afraid to shop there.  If you look at reviews on Yelp one of the most common words used to describe Walmart is "ghetto".

Walmart sued for denying health insurance to gay worker's wife.  A Walmart Stores Inc employee sued the retailer on Tuesday [7/14/2015], saying its prior policy of denying health insurance to the spouses of gay employees violated gender discrimination laws.

Organized mob (of no particular race, according to media) ransacks a Walmart, attacks handicapped man in motorized cart.  The fragile bonds of civilization that keep society peaceful and orderly are fraying in the face of mobs organized online.  Last Sunday [6/28/2015], an organized mob of about four dozen people attacked a Walmart in Macon, Georgia, intentionally doing damage to displays and merchandise and dragging a man out of motorized cart and throwing him to the floor.

Report: Macon Walmart mob wanted to see how much damage it could do.  Surveillance video of a wee-hours ruckus at a Macon Walmart on Sunday shows a teenager race inside flashing gang signs ahead of a mob of four dozen or so people who burst in and smashed merchandise.  The commotion, which caused an estimated $2,000 in damage, appears to have been planned.  Some in the crowd also snatched a man, apparently a shopper at the Zebulon Road store, from a motorized shopping cart and dragged him to the floor, Bibb County sheriff's officials said Monday [6/29/2015].

Mob of 50 Black Teens Storm Georgia Walmart, Destroy and Steal Store.  Do you think the Old Media establishment will report this story of a mob of 50 black teenagers swarming a Walmart in Georgia and destroying the place?

Also posted under black mobs.

Walmart Workers Manifestly Reject Big Labor's Class-Warfare Propaganda — And With Good Reason.  Today [11/28/2014] the union-boss front group Our Walmart staged its third annual nationwide "Black Friday" protests against America's largest retailer at more than 1500 store locations across the country.  This year, once again, only a tiny fraction of the protesters were actual Walmart employees, and among the 1.3 million Americans who work for Walmart the overwhelming majority did not participate in or otherwise support the demonstrations.

Walmart workers scarce at Black Friday anti-Walmart protest in D.C.  Organizers of a post-Thanksgiving protest on behalf of workers at a Walmart in downtown Washington, D.C. identified only one of the participants as actually working at that store.  The admission underscores the fact that few Walmart workers have been involved in the protests.  "Thirty striking workers from Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland took part in today's protest, and Melinda Gaino, one of the striking workers, works at the H Street Store," said Julie Anderson, a spokeswoman for the 1.3 million member United Food and Commercial Workers union, which organized the event.

Ferguson Protests Move to Target, Walmart Stores.  According to Johnetta Elzie, who had been tweeting and posting videos of the protests, demonstrations occurred at a Walmart and Target in Brentwood, two Walmarts in St. Charles and one Walmart in Manchester.

Why Democrats need rich people, too.  The populist Democratic senator from Massachusetts was in the Dirksen Senate Office Building [11/18/2014], hosting an event to push Walmart to raise wages and improve working conditions.  "No one in this country should work full time and still live in poverty," she said, wearing a green wristband to show solidarity with Walmart workers.  "Today a person can work full time, and a momma and a baby on a full-time minimum job cannot keep themselves out of poverty — and that's wrong."

The Editor says...
The minimum wage was never intended to support an entire family, or to support any individual in perpetuity -- especially a single mother.  If you're still living on one minimum-wage job when you're 30 years old, there's something wrong with your ambition glands, or with your education.

Walmart's Response To The New York Times Is Great.  The Arkansas-based company responded to an article from New York Times columnist Timothy Egan, titled "The Corporate Daddy" by doing the work that it felt Egan's Times editors should have done. [...] The retail giant apparently couldn't resist sarcasm after it found what it considered numerous problems with Egan's piece in which he criticized the company for paying its 2.2 million employees what he called "humiliating wages."  "Walmart is a net drain on taxpayers," wrote Egan in the missive, adding that the company forces "employees into public assistance with its poverty-wage structure.  "We are the largest tax payer in America," Tovar wrote in his edit.  "Can we see your math?"

Walmart hands NY Times' editors their own posteriors.  I have never met David Tovar, Walmart's vice president, corporate communications, but I'd like to shake his hand.  In this brilliant response to a column by Timothy Egan of the New York Times, Mr. Tovar puts to shame the editors who worked on the Egan piece, literally taking a red pencil to the piece they deigned to publish, and showing them how to do their jobs.

Mayor's alternative to Walmart? Downtown baseball stadium.  In an effort to block Walmart's proposed store in the city's downtown, Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt is pitching the idea of instead using the site for a new baseball stadium.  Schmitt has floated the stadium idea privately to several aldermen and other civic leaders as an alternative to Walmart's planned retail superstore in the Broadway shopping district.

Robert Reich Rips White House 'Numbskull' Who Arranged Obama Walmart Speech.  Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich ripped into the White House on Friday [5/9/2014] for the decision to allow President Barack Obama to hold a press event at a Walmart.  Calling the staffer at the White House who planned the event a "numbskull," Reich wondered how it was possible for the president's staff to essentially endorse Walmart in spite of what he said was their unfair compensation practices.  "What numbskull in the White House arranged this?" an incensed Reich wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday [5/8/2014].  He went on to lambaste the company over its carbon emissions and it's [sic] labor practices.

Anti-Walmart union leader once threatened janitorial company with death threats.  The anti-Walmart crusader leading the fight to unionize the company once threatened a non-union janitorial company with death threats, The Daily Caller has learned.  Dan Schlademan runs the United Food and Commercial Workers Union's (UFCW) Making Change at Walmart group, which is fighting for pay hikes for Walmart employees and to block the retail giant from opening new stores that could drive down wages in various regions.  The Making Change at Walmart campaign is organizing employees at every stage of the Walmart supply chain, including logistics and warehouse workers.

Surprise! Walmart health plan is cheaper, offers more coverage than Obamacare.  New Obamacare health insurance enrollees may feel a pang of envy when they eye the coverage plans offered by Walmart to its employees.  For many years, the giant discount retailer has been the target of unions and liberal activists who have harshly criticized the company's health care plans, calling them "notorious for failing to provide health benefits" and "substandard."  But a Washington Examiner comparison of the two health insurance programs found that Walmart's plan is more affordable and provides significantly better access to high-quality medical care than Obamacare.

Can a Minimum-Wage Hike Really Motivate Voters?.  [Scroll down]  Also, Walmart, another corporation the Left sees as evil for paying insufficient wages, opened its first two stores in Washington, D.C., yesterday [12/4/2013].  The D.C. council had spent much of the year debating a law that would have required Walmart to pay $12.50 an hour in wages and benefits.  The law would have applied to any "big box" store, but not to smaller businesses.  The D.C. council instead decided to raise the minimum wage in the city to $11.50 by 2016.

At Last, Walmart Opens in Washington, D.C.  At the corner of First and H Streets in Northwest Washington, the balloons were all set, hanging stories high in the cold morning air. [...] The time had finally come for Washington, D.C. — the last holdout in the lower 48 — to get its first two Walmart stores.  In 1996, Vermont was the last state to go Walmart blue.  Now it's Washington's turn, and four more stores are planned.

Union Member Admits Being Paid To Protest Against Walmart On Video.  On Black Friday [11/29/2013], leftists organized a nationwide protests at several Walmart locations in order to try to extort union dues from the supermarket chain's vast employee pool.  Ostensibly, they were advocating for higher wages, but among the long list of the demands was their true intent — to unionize the nation's largest employe, second only to the federal government.  Walmart haters have a long history of pushing lengthy demands onto the retail chain.

Walmart says only 20 employees joined Black Friday protests.  A press conference call by the activist group OUR Walmart turned awkward when the group was repeatedly unable to say how many Walmart employees had joined in the group's long-planned Black Friday protests.  Walmart itself put the figure at just 20.

Black Friday union strikes against Walmart likely to fizzle.  The "widespread, massive strikes and protests" targeting Walmart on Black Friday will almost certainly fall flat, says one union watchdog closely monitoring the labor group planning the pickets.  OUR Walmart, a close affiliate of the massive United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), is threatening the big-box chain with crippling strikes and angry crowds during next week's crucial Black Friday sale unless the company raises worker wages.

How Big Labor enlisted the NLRB against Walmart.  Big Labor's campaign against Walmart got a major new ally Monday [11/18/2013]:  the federal government.  The National Labor Relations Board announced it is pursuing charges that the nonunion retail giant retaliated against some of it workers for engaging in union activities.  The NLRB's action suggests Big Labor is reaping some serious rewards for its aggressive push to get the administration to stock the labor law enforcement agency with union-friendly appointees.

EBT benefit card glitch sparks Walmart shopping sprees in Louisiana.  The Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system allows recipients of government food stamps to purchase goods using a digital card with a set spending limit, but for a few hours over the weekend, that limit disappeared for many users visiting Walmart stores in Louisiana.  Walmart and local police in Springhill and Mansfield confirmed to CBS affiliate KSLA that officers were called into the stores to help maintain order Saturday as shoppers swept through the aisles at two stores and bought as much as they could carry.

The Louisiana Heist.  On Saturday [10/12/2013], Louisiana's "EBT" system malfunctioned, causing spending limits on users' food-stamp cards temporarily to be lifted.  In two counties at least, recipients noticed the error, spread the word, and set about trying to check out as much as they could fit into shopping carts. At Walmarts in the towns of Springhill and Mansfield, employees called corporate headquarters to ask what they should do.  They were instructed to "keep the registers ringing."  This they did — and with a vengeance.  By the time that proper limits on the cards had been restored a couple of hours later, the shelves had been all but stripped bare.

The Editor says...
The government has the names and addresses of everyone who committed this fraud.  Why haven't the perpetrators been arrested?

Walmart food stamp bonanza proof of abused system.  A week ago, the technology that assessed spending limits on debit cards for food-stamp recipients malfunctioned.  As a result, there was no way for stores to tell how much value was left on individual cards.  Many merchants refused to accept the cards until the problem was fixed.  Not wanting to risk having anyone go hungry, Walmart allowed people to use the cards.  Unfortunately, the food-stamp recipients treated the stores' generosity as a bonanza, and filled carts with much more than they were entitled to.  As word got out, the two Walmarts quickly found themselves overwhelmed by other food-stamp recipients doing the same.

Walmart compared to Hitler at DC living wage rally.  Comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory compared Walmart to the leader of Nazi Germany at a "living wage" rally in front of the D.C. City Council on Tuesday [9/17/2013].  "When you look at Hitler and those thugs, you can put Walmart right next to them," Gregory said in his speech to the 150 or so people at the event.  The crowd was gathered to protest D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray's veto of a bill that would have singled out the retail giant and forced it pay its employees $12.50 an hour.

D.C. Mayor Gray vetoes 'living wage' bill aimed at Walmart, setting up decisive council vote.  Mayor Vincent C. Gray vetoed legislation Thursday [9/12/2013] that would force the District's largest retailers to pay their workers significantly more, choosing the potential for jobs and development at home over joining a national fight against low-wage work.  Gray's quandary is playing out in many U.S. cities, where local leaders who generally sympathize with worker causes are also eager to lure jobs and commerce for their constituents.

Walmart workers to strike for higher wage, right to unionize.  Thousands of Walmart employees around the country will hold a massive strike on Thursday [9/5/2013], demanding higher wages, the right to unionize and the rehiring of more than 70 employees fired for striking earlier in the summer.  The strike is being organized by a group called "OUR Walmart," according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  It comes on heels of last week's strike by fast food workers with similar demands.

The Editor says...
Here is a bit of advice for the union organizers:  If you are employed by a store, that doesn't make it your store.

Walmart Shrugs: Pulls Plans to Build Stores in Washington, D.C.  Writing in the Washington Post on Tuesday [7/11/2013], Walmart's regional general manager Alex Barron told Washington, D.C.'s city council that if they voted to pass the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA), his company would "not pursue [building] stores at Skyland, Capitol Gateway or New York Avenue" shopping centers, and they would "thoroughly review" their interest in completing three other stores near completion elsewhere in the district.

DC Politicos Block Walmart, Help Special Interests, Hurt The Poor.  Why, when there is no question that nothing has created more wealth and eradicated more poverty than capitalism, do left wing politicians hate it so much?  After all, it's supposed to be the left that cares about the poor.  The latest chapter in this ongoing saga of economic perversity is action being taken in Washington, DC, to prevent Walmart from opening stores there.

The Left, Walmart, and the D.C. City Council Fiasco.  Yesterday, the liberal majority of the D.C. City Council voted that if Walmart opens three stores in the underserviced poor areas of the nation's capital — inhabited largely by African-Americans — it cannot do so unless the chain raises the minimum wage of its employees to $12.50 per hour.  That action reflects how far removed from reality the council members are.

D.C. Council approves 'living wage' bill over Walmart ultimatum.  D.C. lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to a bill requiring some large retailers to pay their employees a 50 percent premium over the city's minimum wage, a day after Walmart warned that the law would jeopardize its plans in the city.  The retail giant had linked the future of at least three planned stores in the District to the proposal.  But its ultimatum did not change any legislators' minds.  The 8 to 5 roll call matched the outcome of an earlier vote on the matter, taken before Walmart's warning.

DC City Council bullies Walmart to enrich unions.  The city council of the nation's capital is engaged in a game of chicken with the nation's biggest private employer, Walmart.  Legislation custom-designed to force the Arkansas retailer to employ unionized workers in its planned new stores in the District has been passed, and in response the company has threatened to stop construction on 3 stores underway, and cancel plans for 3 more.

Walmart says it will pull out of D.C. plans should city mandate 'living wage'.  The world's largest retailer delivered an ultimatum to District lawmakers Tuesday, telling them less than 24 hours before a decisive vote that at least three planned Walmarts will not open in the city if a super-minimum-wage proposal becomes law. [...] The D.C. Council bill would require retailers with corporate sales of $1 billion or more and operating in spaces 75,000 square feet or larger to pay their employees no less than $12.50 an hour.  The city's minimum wage is $8.25.

D.C. Council poised to chase off 900 jobs because they don't like Walmart.  Businesses are not obligated to open in your city or your neighborhood, particularly when you incentivize them to locate elsewhere. Washington, D.C. is particularly susceptible to losing potential jobs (particularly in entry-level and working class retail positions, as opposed to lobbyist slots) to nearby jurisdictions because it doesn't take much to simply cross the bridge to friendlier climes in, say, Virginia.

D.C.'s minimum wage folly.  The nation's post-election leftward lurch is gaining momentum.  Six states, including New York and California, are agitating for a boost in the minimum wage.  Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, wants the federal government to set a nationwide wage floor that will automatically rise each year.  Not to be left out, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson on Tuesday circulated his proposal for a 55 percent increase in the minimum wage over the federal level, which he would only apply to employees of the "big box" retailers that liberals love to hate.

Walmart and Hostess: Two Union Stories.  Yes critics can argue that Walmart gets its products cheaply made in China, wrecking jobs here.  That's a legitimate point.  However, does anyone seriously think shutting down Walmart will stop that trend?

Paid Enough to Buy the Product.  In the past several years, a virtual industry has been created in bashing Walmart.  From leftist church groups to the AFL-CIO to the Chronicles, Walmart has been the favorite whipping boy of people on all sides of the political spectrum.  Thus, it was no surprise when I recently received an emailed article from the quasi-Marxist Sojourners magazine not only attacking Walmart for the usual set of "sins" that the critics claim, but also a new transgression:  Walmart's business practices, on net, make our economy worse off and leave us poorer.

Walmart: Only 50 employees protested; UFCW disputes.  Walmart claimed today [11/23/2012] that the much-hyped Black Friday protests at the non-union retail giant fizzled out, with only 50 associates — their term for employees — taking part.  The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which organized the protests, disputed that figure though.  It said "hundreds and hundreds" joined in at events across the country.

Failure Of Walmart Walkout Underscores Union Decline.  Despite gaining a stranglehold over the public sector, unions are losing ground in the private sector.  This was seen again in the failed union walkouts against retail giant Walmart.

Fail: Lone Union Worker Walks Out of Walmart.  The walkout was led by — and entirely constituted by — Vanessa Ferreira, 59.  She told her manager that she was going on strike.  The other workers watched her leave, shrugged, and went back about their business.

So, How Did Those Walmart Protests Go?  Well, in Chicago, protestors were bussed in to stand with the lone store employee who decided to protest.  Our Walmart claims there were protestors in over 100 cities today, which would be an astronomical number of people protesting.  Walmart had a slightly different estimate.  "We estimate that less than 50 associates participated in the protest nationwide.  In fact, this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year," Walmart chief executive Bill Simon said.

Would-be killer decides against rampage at 'Twilight' screening for Walmart instead.  A homicidal Missouri man who planned to slaughter viewers watching the "Twilight" movie series finale instead targeted a nearby Walmart to rachet up the death toll.  Blaec Lammers, 20, remained held on $500,000 bond Saturday [11/17/2012] after his mass murder plot was undermined by a phone call from his terrified mother to police.

Walmart files U.S. labor charge against union.  Walmart Stores Inc is taking its first legal step to stop months of protests and rallies outside Walmart stores, targeting the union that it says is behind such actions.

Understanding the Progressive Mind.  [Scroll down]  In a recent editorial, the editors of the Chattanooga Times called for the imprisonment of Walmart executives and the destruction of Walmart stores because the company did what every other company has done when it wants to do business in Mexico:  pay some bribes.

Walmart In Court Fight Over 'Wal-ocaust' T-Shirts.  A Georgia man has filed a lawsuit against Walmart in federal district court in Atlanta in a fight over his T-shirts that compare the retailer's business practices to the Holocaust.

The Editor says...
This is a very common Democrat tactic:  They will say or do something outrageous, and if there are any objections, follow up a few days later with, "Can't you take a joke?"  Examples abound:

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