Walmart / Community Development

Wal-Mart is more than just another large company. It is the largest corporation in the world, with total revenues of $285 billion in 2005. It employs over 1.2 million workers in the

United States, at about 3,600 stores. To put this in perspective, the Wal-Mart workforce represents just under one percent of total employment in the United States, and just under ten percent of retail employment. It exceeds the number of high school teachers or middle school teachers, and is just under the size of the elementary school teacher workforce. Wal-Mart is reported to be the nation’s largest grocer, with a 19 percent market share, and its third-largest pharmacy, with a 16 percent market share (Bianco and Zellner, 2003).

During the past two decades, as Wal-Mart started to compete with a wider range of retailers and pushed into more areas, it increasingly encountered resistance from local communities. Opponents of Wal-Mart have tried to block its entry on many grounds, including the prevention of urban sprawl, preservation of historical culture, protection of the environment and “main-street” merchants, and avoidance of road congestion.2 Yet two of the most commonly-heard criticisms are that Wal-Mart eliminates more jobs than it creates for a community and that Wal-Mart’s wage levels pull down standards for all workers—not simply creating low-wage jobs, but driving down wages.3 Wal-Mart executives dispute these claims. For example, its Vice President Bob McAdam has argued that there are many locations where Wal-Mart helps revitalize rundown communities and creates jobs in other businesses in addition to what Wal-Mart itself offers (PBS, 2004). And Lee Scott, Wal-Mart President and CEO, has asserted that “there are some who say that Wal-Mart’s wages and benefits have some kind of negative impact on wages across the board.