LAT: Wal-Mart Seeks Unbiased Research -- and Gets It

[DeepModem Mom]

Wal-Mart Seeks Unbiased Research -- and Gets It
A conference about the retailer's effects on communities yields some negative findings.

By Abigail Goldman, Times Staff Writer


....As part of an increasingly aggressive campaign to burnish its image, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. decided in August to sponsor an academic conference to explore the retailer's effects on the U.S. economy and local communities.

And to make sure the findings were credible, the company turned over management of the conference to independent consultant Global Insight, which pledged to select papers only for their academic rigor, not for their pro-Wal-Mart bent....At the conference Friday in Washington, billed as "An In-Depth Look at Wal-Mart and Society," the retailer will be stuck with (the findings)....

***

At least two (studies) concluded that Wal-Mart stores' pay practices depressed wages beyond the retail sector. Another found that states on average spent $898 for each Wal-Mart worker in Medicaid expenses.

One study concluded that Wal-Mart's giant grocery and general merchandise Supercenters brought little net gain for local communities in property taxes, sales taxes and employment; instead, the stores merely siphoned sales from existing businesses in the area.

Not all the news was bad for Wal-Mart. Several of the studies noted that its stores led to lower prices throughout a region. Two suggested that Wal-Mart increased a county's total employment, with one pegging that long-term gain at 1% to 2%....


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart3nov03,0,1659160.story?coll=la-home-business

[blackcatpgh]

1. what a lot of people have known for years:

"...instead, the stores merely siphoned sales from existing businesses in the area."

well, no shit!

[rmgustaf]

2. Good article

Thanks for the heads up!

[Synnical]

3. Kick n/t