Jobs with Justice has voted Walmart, the United States' leading retailer and leading employer, the "Grinch of the Year" for 2004. Despite nearly $9 billion in annual profits, many of its workers are eligible for food stamps, and its employees seek nearly $86 million in state aid due to inadequate wages and benefits. The source article can be found at www.truthout.org.

The article also details another of WalMart's tactics, one I can verify. In stores that are not open 24 hours, employees are locked in the store from closing time until opening time the following morning. Walmart has reluctantly admitted to this.

To those who are savings conscious: does it make sense to save pennies to drive local retailers out of business and grant a monopoly to WalMart, a store that sends its profits, not to the local community, but to Bentonville, Arkansas? And does it make sense to support a store that refuses to assist local food banks with its wasted food, but rather dumps the food out rather than allow the poor access to it? (I have witnessed over 500 pounds of watermelon being thrown out in a single day in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and have witnessed the difficulties that help agencies have had in quixotically dealing with WalMart in hopes of assistance based on the store's overhyped exaggeration of its commitment to the community).

To those who think that the claims against WalMart are mere sour grapes, I urge you to look closer. They have a number of rather serious pending suits against them, and claims are consistently verified from stores across the country. If you do not wish for WalMart to represent the future of American retail, I think it's in your best interest to explore other retail opportunities.