Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005) - full transcript

[announcer] Please give
a warm welcome to Lee Scott,

our President and
Chief Executive Officer,

Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated.

[cheers and applause]

Well...

I know.

Thank you. Thank you.

I know. Every...

All right, all right.

Every year...

Okay, okay.



It would be a pleasure
for anybody to be
the CEO of this company

because, you know,
it doesn't matter
if you're Sam Walton

or you're David Glass
or you're Lee Scott.

When you come to this meeting,
year after year,

you get to say,
"We had record sales.
We had record earnings.

We had record reinvestment
back into our company."

I say all that,
but let me tell you,
my friends,

you better be ready
to be better.

Because, today,
for whatever reason,

whether it's our
success or our size,

Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated

has generated fear,
if not envy,
in some circles.

And that makes it
more important than ever

that we focus on
doing the right thing



and doing things
right every time.

There's two things
that we should do.

Number one is tell
the Wal-Mart story.

Get the message out there.

And the second thing
is stay the course.

Wal-Mart is too important
to individual families
who are stretching a budget.

We're too important
to the suppliers who
employ millions of people.

We're too important
to our associates

for who we have so much
love and value so much.

And your company will
continue to demonstrate

our citizenship
as a good employer

and a member of the
communities that we serve
so well around this world.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I'll promise you this,

we're gonna stay the course.

And this company is
gonna continue to grow.

[Don] Actually,
H&H was started...

1962.

Started on Main Street
in Middlefield.

Little country store
that, at that time,

I was starting a family,
and it was pretty
difficult to know.

It was a big decision.

My brother-in-law and I decided
we were going to take that step.

We went into business.

Started in a little
one-room building
that had a full basement.

We did all of the plumbing
in the basement.

The upstairs retail area
was very small.

We were there for
a year and a half
to two years,

then we moved on to a larger
store in a shopping center

and spent several years there.

Then proceeded, in 1992,
and built this facility here.

This gentleman here
happens to be my son.

He's been a right-hand man
for many, many years.

It was much easier
to retire in '96

when he was here to take over.

[Jon] One of the biggest parts,
being in the rural areas,

what we call
our hardware section--

The nuts and the bolts
and the nails and
all type of fasteners.

That's always been good

because a lot of the farmers
were always mending machinery

and things around the farm.

Some of the kids that were kids
when I was growing up in here,

now they've got families,

and they come in here
for the fix-it-up-type things.

Probably since I was eight,

come down on Friday nights
after school, work till 9:00.

Do you have the car?

I worked here since
I was six. [laughs]

Swept or helped customers
when I was young, too.

At the end of the day,
grandpa or dad would give us
their pocket change.

I spent a lot of late
nights in here, too,

especially when
we were building it.

I generally arrive here
about 7:15 in the morning,

and I unlock the door.

I come in and turn
the lights on,

and I get the day money for
each drawer in the registers

I open up the registers,
and usually at that time,

Tom is here.

Tom goes ahead and kind of
tidies up the front of the store

and sets out the American
flag and the benches for
our customers to sit on.

The Amish fellas
on their way to work

will stop here for things they
need for their day's projects.

They'll come and get plumbing
or electrical supplies

or, a lot of times,
sporting goods.

We have a busy
sporting goods division.

[Don] Jon has been
preparing for it,

trying to change
stock and inventory.

Keeping in mind, basically,
to stay with service.

If you can't compete
in one area,

we're going to stay with
something that is not offered

or that you can compete in.

[man] I've probably been
shopping here for
32 years or so.

All my needs that
I need for hardware.

[Jon] The mass merchandisers,
to a great extent,

do not provide
excellence in service.

I'll use Wal-Mart as an example.

You're really lucky if they have
anyone in the plumbing section

who knows anything
about plumbing.

We've been trying to get ready
for them for the last,
probably, 10 years.

I had a meeting
with all the guys.

Explained the purpose
of our job and make sure
we do everything right.

Thorough.
Explained what Wal-Mart did

and what we do and
what we can do different.

This was brought to us
by an Amish customer of mine.

He's so much against
the Wal-Mart movement
after reading this book

that he wanted to get some in
and start passing them out
or selling them to friends

whatever it cost him.
So that's basically...

I got a few extra ones.

He's taking several of them
and is getting rid of them,
and I'm doing the same.

Will I? I have never been
in a Wal-Mart store.

I never intend to go
in a Wal-Mart store.

I've never had the need,
and I've never liked
their principles.

That's not nice to say
at all, probably,

but I've seen
a lot of small communities
crucified and forced out.

Ma-and-pa operations that have
been in business for years
that are out on the street.

They just had to
close their doors
just because of one entity

and it appears that
that is their intent,

to come into a community
and force everybody out.

They did nothing but
lay down the frickin'
red carpet for them.

I know how hard it was
for my dad, my grandfather

to build this building
on this lot.

They went through
everything to try to get
the commissioners and stuff

to allow them to build here.

We had sign issues.
Gotta be a certain size.

We had to make sure we had
enough green around the area.

[Jon] I'm all for
free enterprise,

but when you look
at the big picture,

the people who own the company
are the richest people
in the world.

So, in reality, I think
they could spread that out.

I'm curious to see how much
they'll actually give back
to the community.

To even use American with
Wal-Mart in the same
sentence just...

Just I don't agree
with at all. It's...

It's like a Chinese company
to me, only with American
board members.

It's not a mystery.

They come right out on record
and said they don't
buy American.

[Dr. Bruening]
All it's done is give China
a better distribution center.

Whereas before,
they would have had to
find contacts to sell to

and develop their own markets.

Now they've got a pipeline right
into everybody's living room
by going through Wal-Mart.

[Glassburner]
I think the government
should have more control.

You talk about monopolies.

If Wal-Mart's not a monopoly,
I don't know what is.

I'm not at all in favor of any
kind of communism or socialism.

I believe America should always
and forever remain free.

However, I think there
need to be regulations
established wherein...

You know,
they busted up Standard Oil.

And they busted up Ma Bell.

But Wal-Mart seems
to be going on a rampage
through the American economy

and nobody's even
paying attention.

I don't...

The logic of it escapes me.

I spend a lot of time
thinking about it.

I'm a Republican.
I'm a Conservative.
And...

But I'm following very closely
what's happening
with the unions.

It used to be the union wage
was something everybody
would look up at

and say,
"Wow, he's a union worker.

He's making $18 or $20
an hour."

I realized that's what
we're paying our people.

We're not union.

I'm all for the unions
doing whatever they can do,

whether it be Wal-Mart or Kmart
or any store that's not
gonna pay a fair wage.

I'm a staunch American.
I love America.

It's the finest, freest
country in the world.

I'd still, at my age,
fight and die for this country

But it seems there are things
going on within this country

particularly from a business
and economic standpoint,

that aren't for the good
of the people.

I mean, the people en masse.

A segment of the population is
doing well by what's happening,

but the greater majority
of the people are being
made subservient.

Sam Walton, I don't think,
would be comfortable with
the way things are going.

I don't think this was why
he started the store.

It wasn't to crush
other competition.

[Faenza]
We have people in this town,

families who can't feed
their children.

And families who have
the entirety of their belongings

in a car and in a trailer

and are spending most of their
life in their car or at the mall

because they've been evicted
from their homes.

Because they can't find work,
they can't find work.

I think there's a lot of people
that don't realize

there are those people
in town, too.

You say that's in Middlefield.

-Oh, no.
-Exactly.

That's not the case.

I was dreaming all of a sudden
that the people in this town
caught on to a great extent,

and we were all out
in the street, protesting.

But I think the likelihood
of that happening is...

We'll probably see pigs
fly before that.

[Jon] I put this
business plan together

with the help of different
organizations and people.

I went to several different
banks to check on some funding

and when I got an appraisal on
the business and the buildings,

the appraiser actually came in
and devalued the building.

And, here, I figured it would be
appreciating after 10 years.

And he came in
with a lower value.

And I questioned him.
I said, "How can this be?

"With inflation and
the economy's not great,

but it still should be
at least holding its value."

And he said, "No.

"Anytime a Wal-Mart's
coming into a town,
they knock the values down

"because, sooner or later,
there's gonna be
a bunch of empty buildings

and none of them
are gonna be able to sell."

Any community on a grand opening
is going to see a change,
drop in sales.

It happens regardless of whether
it's Wal-Mart or somebody else.

You'll get a drop in sales.

So there will be a dramatic
change of some type.

How long it'll last...

It can't last forever because
you can't stand the overhead

if you don't have the business.

So something has to happen.

And let's hope it doesn't
come to that point,
but you never know.

[Jon] Well, right now,
after we liquidate product,

I'm in the process
of trying to sell the...

We own the building,
so I'm trying to sell
the building

as well as get somebody in here
that'll be able to lease, too.

I've got a couple people
on the line right now

that want to talk to me
within the next couple days.

Hopefully, we'll work
something out where
we can sell the property

and I'll be able
to pay all my bills

and walk away without any debt.

That's if it all
works out right.

I pray that it will.

[Nicholson] I remember that
like it was yesterday.

The hell with it.
Wal-Mart will buy the damn town.

We'll shut them down.

We used to drive through
towns going, "Six months.

Three months. Six months,"
of when we'd be closing them.

[man] You drive all the way up
to New York City on Route 80.

You can pull off at Clarion
or any of those towns up there

and you'll see a Wal-Mart
up on the hill.

You'll see a Perkins
and maybe a Burger King.

Then you'll drive
farther into the town,
and you'll see an empty town.

It looks like
a neutron bomb hit it.

[Springsteen] * Well, I rode
that ribbon of highway *

* I saw above me
the endless skyway *

[Norman] They don't get it.

When we start talking
about quality of life,

they start talking
about cheap underwear.

I keep saying,
you can't buy small-town
quality of life at a Wal-Mart.

They don't sell it.

But once they steal it from you,

you can't get it back
at any price.

* I followed my footsteps *

* Through the sparkling sands
of her diamond deserts *

* And all around me... *

[Thibodeaux] We thought it was
the most fantastic thing
in the world

that Wal-Mart was coming
to Hearne, Texas.

I mean, it was like they had
bestowed some great honor
on the community.

And we welcomed them,
literally, with open arms.

We could not say enough
good about them.

Could not do enough for them
to help them come.

When Wal-Mart first made
the decision to come here,

you could come to town
on a Saturday evening

and not find a parking
place anywhere.

I came to downtown Hearne
on Saturday before Christmas

and there was 12 cars
in downtown Hearne.

I counted them.
12 cars in downtown Hearne.

That is pathetic.

* This land is your land *

* This land is my land *

* From California *

* To the New York Island *

* From the Redwood Forest *

* To the Gulf Stream Waters *

* Oh, this land was made
for you and me *

Wal-Mart was a great thing
for our community.

It's really awakened
the west side of our town.

I think Sam Walton
would tell us,

just as he did
before he passed away,

that the number-one thing in
this company is our associates.

We've got stores that
aren't treating associates

as well as they
should be treated.

It's a community college.

I didn't have much
for anything else.

I was doing really well,
you know?

I had a 4.0 average.
But life happens.

My dad got sick.
My mom got sick.

And things happen,
and it just didn't work out

the way I thought
it was going to.

When I started working there,
I had so much pride in my job.
I did.

I didn't mind being there
when they needed me.
I didn't mind doing...

I knew that we were
short-staffed.

At that time, I didn't know
it was a purposeful thing.

That's their intention.

They had stacks like this
of applications in the back.

-They just didn't hire them.
-Right.

We're told,
"We don't know what to do.
We don't have the people.

We don't have this.
We don't have that."

And I really did, at first,
I was really...

I felt bad for them.

It was like,
"Oh, okay. I'll give you
an extra hour here.

I'll come in early tomorrow.
I won't take my day off."

[Devoy]
Always having to stay late.

Supposed to work till 11:00.
You're there till 12:00, 12:30.

Keep the number of associates
from being full-time
as many as you can.

Keep them part-time
as much as you can.

And just keep reducing
that expense.

The company doesn't
allow the stores

enough payroll dollars
on their budget
to get the job done.

And the job is enormous.

This company is raking
in the dough, in the sales.

My store alone did
over $100 million in sales
the year that I left.

[Devoy] Having to get up
with the kids.

Just getting them out to school
after four hours' sleep.

They don't care
about what you sacrifice.

It doesn't matter how many
people lose their families.
It doesn't matter

if the associates
have good healthcare.

It doesn't matter, anything,

other than what
the bottom-line profit is
for that store that month.

It makes it really difficult
to have a good family life
at Wal-Mart.

If you can squeeze every dime
out of them, you go for it.

It doesn't matter what
happens to their families.

If they fall apart,
they get sick,
the hell with them.

We're troubled by the fact
that there are people
who work full-time

who, in fact,
cannot provide enough

for their families
to live decently.

It was just impossible for me

to pay my bills and pay
for day care and work.

You should have plenty of time
to go into the office.

The money I did get went
right back into Wal-Mart.

I'd get my check.
Have it deposited.

Go shopping.

I had-- When I first
started Wal-Mart,

I had my kids
on the Wal-Mart insurance.

It got to the point where
it just was too much
for me to handle.

I just couldn't afford it.

I'd have to pay
my premiums at work.

And when I took
them to the doctor's,
I still had to pay.

I always had to pay
a chunk of money.

I'm proud of the fact that we
have the benefits that we have

and that we have
the wages we have.

People making $7 an hour
that has to go to a doctor,

they're not going to be able
to meet their deductible.

[woman] I have
an 18-month-old baby,

and he didn't have
any kind of insurance.

When he was sick, I would have
to try and fix him myself.

Get him medication myself.

If he had to go to the doctor,

I would have to take him
and pay it as I could.

Sam Walton believed
that it was inappropriate

for an associate
with illness in the family

to have to worry about how
were they going to survive
the financial impact.

[Noble] I was under
my mom's insurance plan

with a local grocery store
that she worked for.

Any prescription it was,
it was $5.

And now, through Wal-Mart,

for that one bottle of pills,
I'm paying $70.

I can't afford
to put my children
on the Wal-Mart insurance

because it's too expensive.

There's no way I can afford
to have $75 taken out of
each check just for medical.

That's why,
because I'm such low-income,

I am able to get
the Medicaid for the kids
through Colorado State.

But they're
a billion-dollar corporation,

so I don't see why
they cannot offer

a better medical package
for their associates

so that we can afford to get
our families on insurance.

You start weighing,
"Okay, he's sick.

We eat.
Which one do we do?"

"Well, let's give him
an Aspirin."

No matter what anybody says,
they're at poverty level.

I watched so many people
go without lunch in the lounges

that I stopped eating
in the lounges.

I had my managers eat in there
because I couldn't stand it.

They just wouldn't eat,

and we weren't allowed
to offer them any money.

And there were people I'd see
that didn't eat nothing.

They'd take an hour lunch
and just sit there.

We had full-time employees
that worked at Wal-Mart.

And they had medical.

But the medical was so high,

so they had to go
out and get medical,
some type of government medical.

While I was working at
Wal-Mart, I was on WIC.

It's an excellent program.
It saved my life, really,

because you got all the formula
and cereal and stuff
you needed for the baby.

And I also went
to the Medicaid office.

It can be a real hassle
having to deal with the offices,

but at least they're there.

I'm thankful for the programs
that are available.

It's not a fun situation.

It's demeaning.

I always heard people say,

"There are so many people
who just use the system."

I can't imagine that,
because there is no way

I would want to spend
any length of time

having to do what you have
to do to get assistance.

You talk about
using the system.

Look at the way Wal-Mart
is using the system.

They're promoting people
to go to healthy kids

and to get food stamps
and Section 8 housing.

They're the ones
that are using the system.

Yeah, it's pretty bad
when you need to tell
your employees that,

"All these programs
are available for you

because we're not
paying you enough money."

Retail giant Wal-Mart

is encouraging its workers
to go on welfare.

Instead of paying for employees
to have health benefits,

she says Wal-Mart is making
the government take care of it.

In Florida, Wal-Mart has more
employees and family members

eligible for Medicaid
than any other company.

Critics accuse the retail giant
of using Medicaid and state
programs for the poor

as its health-care plan.

[man] This report from
U.C. Berkeley researchers

concludes Wal-Mart costs state
taxpayers $86 million a year

and county taxpayers
as much as another $25 million

to pick up the tab for public
healthcare, income-tax credits,

housing subsidies,
and food stamps.

[woman] Evelyn Dees used to
work full-time for Wal-Mart

but didn't have company
health-care benefits.

She literally couldn't
afford to pay for it,

so she turned
to government assistance.

[woman 2] What the public
doesn't understand

is that those
"everyday low prices" are
based on taxpayer subsidies.

Wal-Mart is getting away
with it because they can.

I talked to the regional
personnel manager

about who was going to take care
of the Wal-Mart associates

and their health-care needs.

He said, "Let the state do it."

The personnel manager
told me personally

that there's assistance
out there for people.

They should be
able to go use it.
Use your taxpayers' dollars.

I had a list of all
of the government agencies

and the different places
people could go

if they needed money
for their utility bills,

if they needed to apply
for food stamps,

or if they needed to apply
for WIC or for Medicaid.

So your dignity is not there.
Your pride is not there.

You go to work knowing that
you're not making enough money

to really make ends meet,

but yet you gotta go with
a smile on your face
and fake it.

Yeah, that's pretty bad.

Come up with some
type of healthcare

that a full-time person
can afford.

and don't have to
put on the scale,

"healthcare"
or "feed my family."

"Why is it that a corporation
that, in 2003,

"had an outstanding
$240 billion in sales

would not provide a livable
wage and affordable healthcare
for their employees?"

There's nowhere around
that there's a company

that makes this much money
and still turns around

and makes their associates
go to the state for aid.

[woman] I think my company
takes family very seriously.

They'll help you achieve
anything you want.

The possibilities are absolutely
endless at Wal-Mart.

Think of the careers that
get started in this company

and the difference it makes
in people's lives.

But most importantly to me,

jobs that come with opportunity
for personal development.

[Noble] When I first started
working at Wal-Mart,

I was still in high school.

I didn't have any plans
to go to college later on.

The people that I was working
with were just so nice.

I just thought
that was awesome.

My job function as a tire
and lube express technician

is performing an oil service,
doing tire changes,

battery service,
stocking the inside shelves,

writing up work orders
and greeting the customer,

running the cash register,
ringing people out

for groceries they bought
throughout the store,

and they want it all done
at the same time.

All I'm worried about
is the one 4% raise a year
that you get from Wal-Mart.

I've worked there three years,

and I have gotten,
I think, $1.07 raise.

I don't have good
health benefits.

I can't afford to live
on my own anymore.

Most of it is the poor treatment
from management at Wal-Mart.

I don't know.
It's just weird.

I've always been
kind of quiet and shy.

And now I kind of need to stand
up for myself and my community

So I just searched
the Internet for a while.

Whatever I typed in
brought up the same thing.

I'd type in "employee rights."
It would bring up the union.

"Fair labor practice"
would bring up the union.

These corporate people
in the Wal-Mart corporation

don't even really like
to say the word "union."

To them, it's a curse word.

"Third-party representation"
is the way they put it.

[Lehman] Wal-Mart is
very opposed to unions.

One of the most anti-,
if not the most aggressively
anti-union company

in the history
of the United States.

Just relentless in their
search for union activity

and try to squelch it, kill it.

-We got a few.
-Ed Dupontes.

Ed Dupontes.
He gave you a call, right?

He gave me a call,

and he says he didn't want
nothing to do with the union.

His answer was, "No, no, no."

I had a worker that came to me
with a piece of paper

that someone had typed up
on a computer.

In big, bold, black letters,
it said, "We need a union."

No signatures.
That's all it said.

That in itself is
enough to require me,
as a store manager

to go and make a phone call.

And the phone call
comes to Bentonville.

And that afternoon,
I had to personally
drive to the airport

and pick up three guys that
flew in in a corporate jet

and pick them up and bring
them back to my store.

We have to do this for
the reasons we started it.

[Fortune] What they do
is they basically walk in
and tell the store manager,

"You're no longer in charge
of this store.

Every decision goes through us."

[Nicholson] They taught me
how to profile people.

Of course, I didn't know
that was the term then.

And it was identifying people
that were the strongest
representers

of the petition to organize,
or at least get a vote.

Anita we need to
contact still.

Possibility there.

You walk up to
a couple of associates,
and they're talking.

They walk away from each other.

They gotta go.

They're conspiring
to do something.

[horn honks]

[man] Be noisy. Be happy.

Be boisterous.

We're here to support folks
who are trying desperately

to fight against
the world's largest,

richest, and probably
meanest corporation.

[Fortune] The associates
in the automotive department

were flooded with brainwashing
material against the union.

I got fooled by a union.
Fooled bad.

All the union is working at
is taking a cut out of my pay.

Yeah, take your money
and spend it to help
political campaigns

and help people
I don't even vote for.

Because they know a union
would just mess it up.

But don't take my word for it.

Just ask the associates
working here in the building

Now I can't get within
the store of 50 feet

before somebody approaches me,

or there's somebody
following me around the store.

[man] I was never alone.
I was followed wherever I went.

Truly, the managers
would follow me.

[Lehman] During the process
of intimidating them,

they make their
lives miserable.

They do illegal surveillance.

They put cameras up
in work stations,
work areas, break rooms.

You got a target on your back.

Everybody else know, "I gotta
stay away from this person

because I can get fired
for talking to this person."

They're targeting
a lot of it at Josh.

They were talking about Josh
being held up on their shoulders
and paraded around.

They're like,
"Yeah, he's just using it

for a way to get,
you know, attention."

[Fortune] One of their favorite
tactics is to come out and say,

"We have to freeze
all the raises in the store

because we can't appear
to be bribing anybody."

[Kuc] It was a great political
ploy by Wal-Mart, in my mind,

to say that's why they
weren't getting raises.

Because some of those employees
started putting pressure

on the TLE people,
the Tire and Lube
Express people,

because, "Hey, we can't get
raises because of you."

I was so scared
to go to the break room

because they made us all
go to break together

because it was really
dead after that.

We start walking through,
and, like,

customers and other associates
were giving us dirty looks,

I was like, "I'm not sitting
in that break room.

They're gonna jump me
or something."

Alicia's good.

Alicia's way good.

Yeah.

Talked with her
quite a bit.

And Cody, we know Cody's good.

-Right.
-Cody's with us here.

It struck the managers to start
hiring associates in the store.

And what they do this for is to
try to dissolve the percentages

of the people in the store
that are for the union.

-James.
-James is another new hire.

I'm not even sure
who that is.

Yeah.

But this is our store.
This isn't their store.

We're the ones...
We're making them money.

We're the little
worker ants, you know.

So, what's your prediction?

Right now, it's at 50-50.

I mean, the few people
in the middle

are just gonna make it
or break it right now.

I think you lost Alicia.

No. I've talked
with her quite a bit.

She's just kind of
a hard-to-read-type person.

I hang out with her
on the weekends.

She's definitely into it.
She's real strong.

I just believe it's really
just gonna go like, pfft, done

'cause Cody's not voting.

Ryan's not voting yes.
And I'm still kind of...

I kind of really
don't want to vote,
but I kind of have to because...

You're getting all freaked out
because of what they're saying.

They're not gonna know
how you voted.

All it's gonna be is a bunch
of numbers right now.

So we've got six for a no.

Another six yes.

So we've got one, two,
three, four, five, six,
seven on the fence.

[Lehman] The company does
everything that it can,

and that means anything.

They will kill it.

They'll kill the campaign.

Wal-Mart winning out, as you
said, 17-1, but the union...

[Fortune]
It's not a fair battle.

It's not according to the
National Labor Relations Act.

But when they find that
there's a campaign going on,

everything that can be done,

fair, unfair, legal,
maybe not-so-legal,

is done to keep the union out.

[man speaking German]

[interpreter]
Wal-Mart was very lucky

to acquire two really
good companies.

But, of course,
they were already unionized.

Wal-Mart had no choice.

[interpreter 2]
Because of the union,

we get 36 days
of vacation a year.

Usually, people take
three weeks in the summer,

three weeks in the spring.
It depends.

You can split your vacations
into two or three
times per year.

Or even more often,
if you prefer.

[interpreter 3]
My job is very important.

And if I have to fear for
my job, it's a bad thing.

A very bad thing.

If Wal-Mart says
we're all a big family

and we have nothing to hide,
everything's great,

then I don't understand
why the colleagues in America

can't have a workers council,
can't establish a union.

I can't understand that.

[man] Wal-Mart is a career.
It's not just a job.

Good quality of life.

Good educational opportunities
for my children.

It is right for the 1.2 million
Wal-Mart associates,

including more minorities

and more seniors that work in
any other company in America.

Wal-Mart offers the right job at
the right time in their lives,

and it gives them a step
up that economic ladder.

My name is Edith Arana.

I live here
in Southern California.

I have two girls.

I go to school to be
a preschool teacher.

I worked for Wal-Mart
for six years.

They explained to me the
different things they offered

and the type of company
Wal-Mart was.

I said, "That's a company
I want to work for."

I always found it
rewarding to me

to help the customer find
what they were looking for.

I could work wonders.
[laughs]

"Do more with less.

"I know the true meaning
of do more with less.

"They want the associates
to do more

and they're gonna
pay them less."

They would come in the
office or on the floor.

It didn't matter
where you were working.

They would say, "Well,
you know we have no overtime.

There is to be no
overtime whatsoever."

We may have five
baskets of merchandise
that need to be put back.

You may have 30 minutes left
on your eight-hour shift.

"But we need those
baskets put away."

And they usually
do it with a smile.

You would go along with it
because you needed that job.

And there was no ifs,
ands, or buts about it.

They would let you know,
one way or the other,

"If you can't do it, I'll just
get somebody else to do it.

"You are not a person
that cannot be replaced.

"And we're hiring all the time."

And in your mind, you go,
"Look, I got these kids at home.

I'll just have to make
that sacrifice."
And you will.

They are asked to work
off the clock

with the implication that if
they don't work off the clock,

that is what is expected
at this particular store,

they are gonna lose their job.

And they do it
as a matter of survival.

And it comes from the top.

[woman] Wal-Mart is
fighting legal battles

with scores of former employees
in 31 states.

Hourly workers who say
the company has cheated them

out of hundreds of millions
of dollars in overtime pay.

The Wal-Mart corporation
paid approximately $50 million

to settle an off-the-clock
class-action suit in Colorado.

In Texas, it is estimated
that they cheated workers

out of up to $150 million
in unpaid wages.

Our policy is that we pay
everyone for every hour worked.

[laughter]

You're the CEO of Wal-Mart.
That's the best you can do?

"If you work here,
we'll pay you."

That's it?
"Work at Wal-Mart.

It's better than getting
kicked in the nuts."

[laughter]

Our district manager
actually explained to us

how to cheat workers
out of overtime.

He said, "This is how you can
come in on your payroll budget
for this week."

If you had, say,
three workers
that had overtime,

maybe an hour or even
20 minutes over 40 hours,

he explained to us how to go in
the system under a false user ID

to get into the computer and
move that time to the next week.

I've seen managers go in when
someone worked 41, 42 hours

and change it to 40 hours.

The people that are struggling

to just live on the basics
every day or do without

need that extra minute
or two on their paycheck.

And those are the ones
that are victimized the most.

I'm not the only one
that did it.

I've seen every manager,
except for one general
manager, do it.

[man] Wal-Mart refuses to
follow the very American ethic

that has served the country
well for many years.

People should be paid
for the work they do.

[man 2] Wal-Mart currently faces
lawsuits in 31 different states

for wage and hour abuses,

potentially involving hundreds
of thousands of workers.

As a store manager,

you're responsible for
reducing your expenses
every single month.

And the only way to do that

is to keep the associates'
numbers down.

[woman] I was just getting
about 19 hours a week.

That's just...
You can't pay bills with that.

It's just not right at all.

If you're not getting those
full-time hours for that week,
that's devastating.

It may help them
on their bottom line,

but it doesn't
help you at home.

When it comes to jobs,
we have good jobs.

74% of our people are full-time.

Most people in America
don't know that.

Although most people don't know

Wal-Mart considers full-time
employment 28 hours a week,

which, at their starting wage,
works out to under
$12,000 a year.

[man] I.N.S. agents arrested
250 undocumented workers

in 61 Wal-Marts across America.

Wal-Mart is paying $11 million
to settle federal allegations

it used illegal immigrants
to clean its stores.

I'm stunned that they would
employ illegal immigrants.

Very stunned.

[laughter]

You're stunned they hire illegal
immigrants for nearly no pay?

Lady, you just bought
a sweatshirt there for 29 cents.

Wal-Mart, the world's
largest retailer,

could be facing
the largest lawsuit

ever brought against
a private employer.

Lawyers suing Wal-Mart
will file their motion today.

If a judge agrees,
the company could be facing

a class-action lawsuit
for discrimination

against 1.6 million current
and former female employees.

I had no idea
about the lawsuit.

There were people in my store
that had no idea about it also.

Members of management
in the upper echelons
of Wal-Mart management

talk about how women
at Wal-Mart are useless.

I have done receiving manager.
I was operation manager.

I was merchandise manager.

So, it's like
I kind of did it all.

I cleaned the bathroom
every single day.

Ken would come to me and say,
"It's your turn again."

"I'd say to him,
it was my turn yesterday."

And he'd laugh,
and we'd joke about it.
We'd go back and forth.

I'd say, "I know. I'm the only
female that's working out here.

So, hence, I have to
clean the bathroom."

Nobody said, "Well, why a woman
been in this company
all of these years?"

You look at the evaluation.
Every general manager stated,

"She should be a G.M.
within a year.
Within six months."

Every evaluation.

What's wrong with this picture?

The company hides the fact
that these practices
are very systemic.

They're systemic, meaning they
come out of the home office.

Bottom line,
if you were a female,
you weren't worth it.

You just weren't worth the time.
You weren't worth the money.

You weren't worth
the effort, nothing.

A blind man.
My grandmother was blind.

She could see better than
what you guys are seeing.

Because you put the blinders on.
You didn't want to see.

When I called,
I called to file a petition,

or to file a claim
against them,

just to say that they
discriminated against me
because I was a woman.

I'm Betty.
I'm a Wal-Mart associate.

I love working at Wal-Mart.

I love that they pay me
less than men

because that means
I can't afford to eat as much

and I get to keep my figure.

Jim got promoted to management
over me, but that's okay,

because he's a cutie.

You go get them, honey.

When I applied for the assistant
manager training program,

I didn't get any
response back at all.

I went through everything
I had done for my store manager.

And I had done it, like,
you would do a check list.

Said, "You told me
to do this. I did it.

You told me to do this.
I did it."

He agreed with a nod.

And I said, "So now I want
what you promised me."

He just bluntly told me,

"There's no place for people
like you in management."

And I said, "Well, what do
you mean, people like me?"

And I said to him, I said,
"That I'm a woman
or that I'm black?"

He said, "well, two out
of two ain't bad."

I was called "milkboy,"
"nigger,"

at this particular store.

There was an incident
where this one guy's bicycle,

they hung it up in the ceiling,
and put a rope around it.

You know, literally put the--
Lynched this guy's bicycle.

I complained because,
to me, it was offensive.

And it was unacceptable.

What happened after that?
Nothing.

I don't know if I was more
devastated than humiliated,

but in my mind,
the way I love people,

I just couldn't see
another person,

maybe they are
not strong as I am,
to be able to take that.

This woman walked through
the hallway and said,

"Eenie, meenie, minie, moe,
catch a nigger by the toe."

I reported this incident.
Nothing happened.

If you complain
about discrimination,

they'll just let more
people out on you

to see if they can really work
you out of there or whatever.

And that's basically
what happened to me.
I just got tired.

I started going backwards
in my mind of all
the different stuff,

and it started clicking
and clicking,

and the more I thought,
the worse I felt.

Because I felt to myself,
"You're an idiot.

How could you have not known?"

I was devastated.

The time that I spent
on those roads,

I could've been at home
with my husband.

But I wasn't.

Because I was doing my end
of what Wal-Mart promised me.

"If you do this,
we will do this."

And it was not worth
my husband's life.

And the worst part about it is

is that nobody will ever
know how big this is,

what happens to people.

There's got to be more
people like me out there,

but they're too afraid
to say anything.

[woman] I love my job.

It's challenging,
but it's really satisfying.

We truly are living
the American dream.

It's out there,
and it's at Wal-Mart.

Great citizenship also means

that we're gonna support
the communities that we're in

through our charities
and the organizations
that exist there.

[Red] You know, the time
I was born, counting Hoover,

I have lived under about 36%

of the presidents
of the United States.

Think about that.

Hoover and Roosevelt,
Truman, Eisenhower,

Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford,

Jimmy Carter,
Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton,

Senior Bush, and Junior Bush.

So there's 13 presidents
out of 43 I've lived under.

We came here in 1959

and started the IGA store,
which is independent grocers.

We had approximately
150 employees.

And of these 150 employees,
the full-time employees,

and that was a great
number of them,

had full coverage on insurance,
health insurance.

We also had 401(k) pension plan
that they really appreciated.

In small family-owned
businesses,

you do become attached
to your employees,

and they're very
important to you.

We always tried to have
a Christmas party
or Christmas dinner

where all the employees came,
and we'd close the stores.

[Jordan] And every
day after school,

I'd get off the bus
and run up to the store,

'cause we lived a couple
of blocks up from it.

[Red] The bailer that
we use here is a bailer

that was left over from when
we closed down the stores...

in the late '90s.

[Scott] I don't believe
it's fair the way that
Wal-Mart can come in

with the funding
that they get

to put their sewers,
infrastructure,

road, parking signals,
ingress, egress, etc.,

compared to what the
independent retailer gets.

No, I don't believe it's fair.

Certainly, it's not fair,
and I think he, at one time,

did go talk to them
in Cameron and say,

"If we're gonna run a business
here, can you help us?"

Well, no, they couldn't do that.

[Red] I don't think
it's fair to help them

to build roads
for their business,

and at the same time
the store opens,

puts others out of business.

The competition
that we're up against

really hasn't
caused a problem

as much as the competition
being helped by our government.

From one level to the other,
they get all the breaks.

Wal-Mart is coming in
and running us out.

We know you helped them,
or you gave them tax abatements.

Will you give us
a tax abatement?

No, they couldn't do that.

So, you know, the county
nor the city would do that.

And, of course, everybody
knew it was unfair,

but what can you do about it?

Maybe... Well, there is
nothing you can do about it.

Sewer, water, any of that stuff,

as far as I know,
we never received
one dime from the city,

county, or any place like that.

If you tell them

that you don't want them
in your city limits,

there has been nothing
to stop them

from buying five
acres out here,

outside the city limits,
popping their building down,

hooking up to rural water

and having all the negative
effects on the city

and none of
the positive effects.

[Red] They have
a supercenter in Cameron.

It took about 40% of
our business in Cameron

and about a third of our
business here in Hamilton.

In Brookfield, it took over 50%
of our business overnight.

[Dee] It's hard to
make those payments

with our wholesaler
having problems.

So everything just
kind of culminated
in everybody having problems.

To pay the employees,
we used cash
from the inventory.

And then you didn't
have any inventory.

[Ernest] In the process
of all this,

I had to borrow money
to put in the stores
with the farm as collateral.

It went down from there,

so we had no recourse
but to just close them up.

It was 40 years of hard work

and seeing it disappear
all at once,

it wasn't a very easy thing
to adjust to, but...

And now you can see,
Herb is still saddened a lot.

It certainly wasn't
what he planned.

But we had a lot of good times.

He did a lot things.
He knows lots of people.

And they respect him.

And so I don't know what else
you're gonna get out...

I closed that store,
and that was a Sunday morning.

I'd went down to open and...

Just...

Yeah, I remember him
coming down the stairs

and sat down on the couch,
and Mom told me.

And I started crying.

It was like a family member.
We were there every day.

It was a big part of our life.

It was probably
my favorite place.
I liked being there.

They wanted it from me.

And I love them to death for it.

But, you know, they wanted
it from me and my family.

And if Wal-Mart still gains
ground and have a monopoly,

where will our families and
where will our children be?

And what will they have to do
to work and to be competitive,

and in ten years,
it's probably
going to get to be

very, very serious
for the nation.

It might happen that way now.

I hope it don't for
our children's sake,
but it could be...

It could be real serious,
be a revolution.

I won't say
it would be a civil war,
but it would be a revolution.

I don't think anybody
wants that.

I'm Kim Rossetta,
and I'm a fourth and fifth
grade bilingual teacher

in Denver, Colorado,
in the Denver Public Schools
at Newlon Elementary School.

Wal-Mart received subsidies
of about $1.7 million,

and with that $1.7 million,
our Denver metropolitan area,

that could have kept
the three schools

that we just closed down
this spring open.

I am Monica Jefferson.
I am a speech-language
pathologist.

And I work for
Special School District
of St. Louis County.

Wal-Mart receives over
$31 million in subsidy
from the Missouri government.

Cathedral City made
a $1.8 million investment,

but because of Wal-Mart's lies

and not stepping up to the plate
with their commitments,

we're short on policemen,
we're short on firemen.

We've eliminated the Recreation
Division of this city.

We're not able to provide
the services to our residents

that they need and deserve.

We're going to have lives
hanging in the balance

because we're not going to be
able to provide these services.

My name is Charles Hussey.

I have been a 4th grade
teacher in Washington
State for many years.

When I think of the million
dollars that Wal-Mart received
for its distribution center

and what we could have
done there for students,
it's outrageous.

Taking revenue away
from our community

that will have a direct impact
on our ability to continue to
provide some level of service.

In Illinois,
Wal-Mart has received
$100 million in subsidies,

and that has affected
our school systems.

That money could go
into our school systems

to rehire all of those support
teachers that we need back,
the support personnel.

We could have our school
psychologists back,

our social workers back,
our counselors back.

We could pick up...

These programs are
being cut because Wal-Mart
has received subsidies.

Now, what we're facing currently
is that Wal-Mart and Sam's Club,

which are the same people,

have, in fact,
for business purposes,

decided that they are going
to leave our community.

And not moving 20 miles away,
they were moving two miles away.

[Sowles] One is being built
right on the property line
of our city,

which we still will not receive
any benefit from.

[Pettis]
Just outside the city limits,

so just as we were about
to begin to receive a 100%

of the sales-tax revenue
from that deal,

we found out that
we had been the chumps

to end up with a vacant building

of the size that most
businesses can't fill.

so you have a huge
building that sits vacant
for months and years.

[woman] That's why at Wal-Mart
we give back five dollars
every second

to the communities we serve
throughout the holidays
and all year long...

To make the season and
every day a little brighter.

Responsible citizenship
also means looking out
for the environment.

We can make a difference
in this area's sustainability.

[Lisenby] One of the most
exciting things about
a riverkeeper organization

is working with the public,

and we have a lot of volunteers
that volunteer to keep
their part of the Catawba River.

Because the Catawba River
is dammed 11 times

and it has 11 lakes on it,
we have lakes with coves,

and so we call our
volunteers cove-keepers.

And these cove-keepers

work to safeguard and
protect the Catawba River.

Essentially,
we did an investigation,

and we visited
about seven Wal-Marts
in the Catawba River valley

to see what their
environmental practices were

and judge whether their current
environmental practices
would have an impact

on the drinking water
in the town of Belmont.

What we found
in every single case

is that Wal-Mart had a practice
of storing herbicides,

pesticides, and fertilizers
in the parking lots.

What concerned us most
about this particular case

was the proximity
of this Wal-Mart

and the creek running
right by the Wal-Mart site,

and that creek empties right
here at the intake site.

For me, when I'm out on
patrol and on the river

and there's a drinking-water
intake right there,

what I know is that there
is a mom somewhere who's
at a kitchen sink

and she's putting water
in a bottle to make
formula for her baby,

and that baby is drinking...

The labels on some of the
herbicides and pesticides said,

"This product known
to cause reproductive harm

by the state of California
and birth defects."

These pallets with bags
and bags of this material,

many of them broken and busted
and spilling on the pavement,

every time it rained,
all this material was washing
right into the storm water,

and eventually making its way
here, to the Catawba River,

the source of drinking water
for almost two million
people in the region.

So we began calling Wal-Mart
to really express our concern

about these chemicals
making its way into
the public drinking water,

and they gave me a name
and a phone number

of somebody in Arkansas,
headquarters, to call.

That person, when I talked to
him, wasn't the right person.

They said they didn't think
they had an environmental person

that was in charge of handling
environmental affairs,

but they would try and find out.

They never called.
So, again, I called back.

This time I called
their attorneys.

I called the contact name
they gave me and said,

"Look, I'm not getting
any answer from anyone
at corporate Wal-Mart,

"and because I haven't,
I'm going to start a weblog,

"and every contact
I have with you,

"I'm going to put
on my website

"and report what
your response is.

And if there's no response,
that's what's going to be
on our website."

So that's what I did.

Two or three days later,
they still didn't call back.

We then sent them the law.
And I elevated the rhetoric

and said, "It appears to us
as if you are violating
the storage laws.

We are getting ready
to contact our attorneys."

Still, no one called.

Finally the attorneys
for Wal-Mart

who had testified
in the hearing

gave me the name
of a person that they
thought was their contact.

I finally reached that person
at Wal-Mart headquarters
in Arkansas,

and he said he had
just started the job.

He had been in training
for the last two weeks,

and he didn't know
what to tell me.

So at this time,
I started calling the news media

and asking them to do a story.

We got a great
local news station

here in Charlotte,
North Carolina,
that responded on camera,

showing these pallets
and pallets and pallets

of chemicals, herbicides,
fertilizers stored
in the parking lots

right beside
the storm-water drain.

It ran in the morning,
the noon time,

the 6:00, and the evening
news on that day.

It just so happens that
the Wal-Mart manager
for the local store

where most of
the video was shot,

that had 81 pallets
of the material out
in the parking lot,

saw the story.

Called his regional manager
first thing the next day
and said,

"You won't believe what I saw
on the news last night."

And for all his stores
in the region,

he had them pull those
chemicals from the parking
lots and put them under cover.

As I read the case history
on all the environmental finds,

and particularly
the consent decrees

from the Attorney
General's office

ordering Wal-Mart to establish
better environmental protection,

what flabbergasted me
most about the lack
of corporate response

is their apparent disregard
for these consent decrees

and that they hadn't taken
them very seriously.

It's only the local guys.

I can say in my history
as riverkeeper,

I don't think I've ever
encountered a corporation,

be it a power company,
an oil company,

as unresponsive as Wal-Mart.

Wildlife conservation
is very important to me,

but it's really exciting
when a company like Wal-Mart

makes it a priority, too.

We have a great relationship
with the Chinese government.

They have treated us very fairly
in what they have done.

They actually,
much like in the U.S.,

they hold us to
a higher standard.

Higher standard of sanitation,
higher standard of employment.

[interpreter]
My name is Wang Qi.

I'm 21 years old.

I'm from the Shanghai province.

My family plants corn,
paddies, and potato.

I wanted to earn some
money so that their
life could be easier.

At least, I didn't want
their life to be too hard.

They would work
from dawn till night.

They would begin to work
on the farm at daybreak

and wouldn't get back
until night.

I thought about
working in the factory
when I was in middle school.

At the time, I thought
that it would be interesting

and exciting to work
in the factory.

I left my hometown
on April 29th this year

and then began to look
for a job in Shenzhen.

At that time, I had a friend
working in that factory

who also came from my hometown.

So I went to see my friend
each day at the factory gate,

which is just in front
of Wien Yie's room.

[interpreter 2]
My name is Wien Yie,
and I come from Hunan province.

[interpreter 1]
He heard my dialect when
I was talking with my friend.

Then he spoke with me
using the same dialect.

He asked me where I was from.
I didn't tell him the truth.

I said I was from
the Chungking area.

He served for the army
in Chungking for
a couple of years,

so he can speak
the Chungking dialect.

That's the way we got
to know each other.

[interpreter 2]
My girlfriend and I work
in the same Wal-Mart factory.

She works in the old workshop,
and I work in the new one.

I am on the night shift
and finish work at 7:00
in the morning.

She begins to work
at 7:30 each morning

and works overtime
until 10:00 p.m.

We don't have much time
to spend together,

but whenever there
is an opportunity,

I'll cook some
delicious food for her.

[interpreter 1] We like singing
karaoke, shopping around,

and buying some little things.

And that way,
you feel more relaxed.

Most of the times
we go to karaoke,

sing songs, and listen to music,
and we get in a good mood.

[music playing]

We tend to rent a room outside
and cook by ourselves,

because the meals
offered by the factory
are really disgusting.

However, the dilemma is
whether you live in the dorm

that the factory
allocated or not,

they always deduct
the rent from our wages.

You have no choice
but to live inside.

If you're going to
move out of the dorm,

the factory will tell you,
"You can move out

"and we will not charge
you electricity or water.

But rent will still be charged."

You see, if we live
inside the dorm,

we pay not only the rent
but also the utilities,

which is charged
by how much you use.

There are very few fans
installed in my workshop.

It's extremely hot inside.

If they plan to
install a new fan,

then the others will tell us
that we can only have one fan

or the fans that are there.

In my working position,
there is no wind at all.

Can you imagine,
I'm sitting there

and dripping with
sweat all day long.

My body never gets dry.

[interpreter 2]
Wal-Mart informed the factory

that it was going to send
people here for the inspection

and they will tell us how
to lie for the inspector.

For example,
the workers must respond
as though they work six days

when asked how many
days they work,

even though they actually
work for seven days.

[interpreter 1] Then we workers
don't dare to say anything wrong

because we're really afraid
of being punished by managers.

Wal-Mart informs us
in advance and has a meeting
to teach us how to lie.

If you lie well,
you'll be rewarded.

If not, you'll be
punished or fired.

The worker is given
a fake pay slip.

And they never let you have
the chance to speak the truth,

but threaten you to deliver
false information.

We really work day and night

in order to get the wage of less
than three dollars a day.

My mom wants me back
home because she feels
it's too toilsome.

But I don't think so.

Everybody else here has
the same situation as me.

If they can do this,
I can do it also.

I always think about my mom
when I'm very tired.

That would be wonderful
if she could be here with me.

She takes care of me
very well when I'm sick.

She'll let me have a good rest

and cooks anything
that I'd like to eat.

She's really very nice to me.

[interpreter] I would
respectfully like to ask
the boss of Wal-Mart

to give the Chinese workers
some consideration

and a chance for
a little time off.

[interpreter 2]
Customers of Wal-Mart,
when you wear expensive clothes,

when your children play
with high-quality toys,

think about China
and the Far East.

[interpreter 3]
Those profits you made

and the wonderful life you have
are the sweat and tears

and overtime working
of Chinese people.

If one day I encounter
a lady who just bought
a toy from Wal-Mart,

I'll say, "Respectable customer,
respectable Wal-Mart customer,

"do you know why you can buy
such a cheap toy from Wal-Mart?

That's because we workers work
all day, every day and night."

We added 125,000 new
jobs around this world
this past year--

Good jobs.

[cheers and applause]

Jobs and benefits.
We have profit sharing.

Retirement savings accounts
for our associates.

But most importantly to me,

jobs that come with opportunity
for personal development.

[man] 189,000 young women
in Bangladesh

are sewing garments
for Wal-Mart.

These workers are getting up
at 5:30 in the morning,

they brush their
teeth with their finger,
using ashes from the fire,

because they can't
afford a toothbrush.

Forced to work from
8:00 in the morning
until 10:00 at night,

14 hours a day,
seven days a week

on these wages of 13
to 17 cents an hour.

These are women who are
hit by their supervisors,

trapped in utter misery.

As the largest company
in the world,

Wal-Mart sets the standards
that other companies
are going to follow.

So, Wal-Mart right now

is sucking down standards
all across the world.

These are workers
who have no rights.

The outlook for this company
today is very positive.

In every country
that we operate in,

the Wal-Mart model works.

Because once your
associates know

that you will stand up
for what is right,

then when they see
a wrong occur,

they're more likely
to contact you.

And we have a very
aggressive program
under way

to make sure, and have had now
for the last couple of years.

[Lynn] I was a global
services manager for Mexico,
Central and South America.

My job function entitled
three things.

Oversight of all factory
certifications,

which means you go in there
and you make sure

that there are humane
working conditions.

Big deal with the factory
certifications is to make sure

that the workers are in a clean,
safe, humane environment.

When I was in a factory,
you know, you talk
to the people,

and the people are so nice.

And they were so good,

and they were just working
for so little money

and without any condition
of fairness whatsoever

with their compensation
and their working conditions.

I went back to my hotel room
and just wept the first time.

You know, after dinner,
I had picked up the phone.

I was calling my wife
and just telling her
what I'd seen,

and I started crying about that.

Telling her... She was like,
"It's going to be all right."

And I was like, "I know.
We're doing the right thing."

I just couldn't imagine
it was this way.

I thought that a company
like Wal-Mart,

once we started
reporting the truth

of what was happening
at the factory,

that it would take quick action

to try and make the
working conditions better.

I believed in the mission
and the culture

which I thought
existed at Wal-Mart.

I led more Wal-Mart cheers than
just about anybody that I know.

I didn't even mind
being the squiggly.

I mean, if you
would have cut me,

I would have bled
Wal-Mart-blue blood.

I didn't know that we weren't
gonna make it the goal

to correct the violations.

I didn't think
that any retaliation

would be brought against
me for doing my job.

I now realize
I was pretty naive.

But it just didn't occur to me

that Wal-Mart would do anything,
except for the right thing,

once they were faced
with the truth.

I kept going into
other factories

and seeing the same things
over and over again.

And it became apparent
to me that this was
not an isolated issue.

All you got to do
is follow the money,

and the ones who are
in power right now

have tremendous pressure
on them to perform
like never before.

The system was designed
to keep the goods flowing

to the United States.

When push came to shove,

they did not stand up
and do the right thing.

What really happened
was we were getting fired

for telling the truth about
the factory certifications.

And that was shocking.

It was embarrassing.
It ripped my heart out.

To have all of that
ripped from you

and then to get
sold out and lied to...

Wal-Mart let me down,

and when I needed somebody
to look out for me,

even though I was trying to look
out for Wal-Mart for years.

We want to make sure
that our suppliers comply
with local country codes,

with human rights standards.

That people are not underage,
that they're paid well.

"Made in the U.S.A."
It means something.

"Made in the U.S.A."
means a job for somebody.

[announcer]
But we've made it our policy

to find more U.S. suppliers
who can compete

because American goods
mean American jobs.

At Wal-Mart, we pledge to
support America's sources

whenever we can
so you can, too.

If we keep our prices low

and raise our average
wage substantially,

we would, in fact,
decrease our profitability
disproportionately.

And we would sacrifice
a healthy chunk

of what it is that our
shareholders expect from us.

[Rev. Lawson] It is written
in the New Testament,

"The love of money
is the root of all evil."

This does not say
that money itself is evil.

The fact that I shared a room
with Tom Schoewe, our C.F.O.,

while we were in
New York, saved $200.

The fact that my dinner
was $10 last night saved money.

[Rabbi Jacobs]
You shall not steal.

Doesn't this teach us that
keeping everything for ourselves

is a form of stealing,

or are we commanded
to help those less fortunate

to find enough to eat?

Today I want you
to know, however,

that five members
of that family

together are worth
$102 billion.

The widow and four children
have, in the last 20 years,

emerged on the list of the
top ten wealthiest people

in the United States.

They could easily take
ten billion of that

and see to it that every
employee of Wal-Mart
in the United States

has healthcare,
adequate pension,
and adequate wages.

Wal-Mart, after the 9/11 attacks
on the World Trade Center
and Pentagon,

they apparently decided that
they needed to have a bunker.

There's a facility
for the Walton family

in case of
an apocalyptic attack,

a residence
that they can live in
in case they had to do that.

There's a helipad behind
the facility back there

where they can come in
by helicopter,

and there are satellite uplink
dishes behind the facility.

Most of it is underground,
as you can see.

You can't really see
much from the gate,
which is all fortified.

Faith means nothing at all
if it does not involve us

loving one another as neighbors,
in compassion for the poor...

[woman] When you hear
these bells at Wal-Mart,

do you remember the people
they're ringing for?

They remind us of our
friends and neighbors
who could use a little help.

That's why at Wal-Mart
we give back...

...throughout the holidays
and all year long.

Of course, the most important
beneficiary of this store
is our customer.

It's a customer who lives
in that neighborhood.

I was actually selling
cars for six months,

but prior to that,
I actually had
my own business.

I was doing wood
refinishing on boats.

And I actually did
quite well at that.

Getting a little too old
for that. [laughs]

You know, if I was going to go
through all that I went through,

I wanted something to come
out of it, something good.

There was a truck to one side.
There was a van to one side.

I thought, you know,
I've always said, you know,
"You don't want to be

in the spot where
nobody can see you."

But I thought, "Four car
spaces from the front door."

And I thought they had
security outside.

Okay, well, "I should be fine."

When I got out,
there was two of them.

Unfortunately, he caught me.
I got outside, but he caught me.

And that's when I
realized he had a gun.

He had a gun in the arm
that was holding me.

That's when they told me,
"Get back in the car

or I'm gonna blow
your head off."

The year before when I worked
at the phone company,
we had a safety meeting.

And it was around Christmastime,

and they had the Sheriff's
department there.

And they were talking about
if you're in a parking lot
and this happens,

what to do,
don't go with them.

If you go with them,
you're likely
not going to live,

because, I guess,
statistically,
that's what happens.

They'll kill you.

That's what first
went through my mind,

is that, "I'm not going
to survive this."

Sorry.

So that's why, you know,
the decision to jump out,

because I thought,
"I want to choose."

I thought they were
going to rape me, too.

When he said
he didn't want the car,

I thought they were
going to rape me.

So, when they got me
back in the car and
after looking at the gun,

I just kind of resigned
to, you know...

There was nothing I could do.

And you go kind of cold inside.

This is the parking lot
where Laura Tanaka
faced her attackers.

Inside the store,

Wal-Mart had more than
200 security cameras

and four security
guards on patrol.

Outside, there was nothing.

The police did recommend
on-site security.

There was none.

They had assured the people
of the neighborhood

that they would provide
armed security

and make sure it was safe
for the neighborhood.
That wasn't done.

It was evident
that Wal-Mart knew

they had substantial problems
in their parking lots.

Wal-Mart was aware

that the majority of the crime
throughout the states

occurred in their parking lots.

Despite the fact that
80% of the crime occurred
in their parking lots,

they had done almost nothing
to protect the customers
in the lots.

Rape, murder, kidnapping,
all of these shocking
allegations,

and they come from
Wal-Mart shoppers.

[woman] Report of a Wal-Mart
parking-lot attack.

Tonight, North Texas police
are on the hunt for
a would-be kidnapper.

A violent attack
in the parking lot of
an Orange County Wal-Mart.

At least one man
tried to carjack,
rob, and shoot a woman.

[man] ...who shot and killed
33-year-old Mark Korenek
in the store's parking lot.

A bold and deadly shooting.

It happened this morning
at the Wal-Mart...

A Taylor woman is recovering
tonight after fighting a thief
in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

[woman] A man is arrested
after a tire-iron attack.

It happened in the parking lot
of this Wal-Mart.

[woman 2]
The two teenage workers
shot while gathering carts

in the parking lot yesterday
at this Glendale Wal-Mart.

[woman 3] It happened
at 1:48 this morning

in the Wal-Mart parking lot
in Riverdale.

She turned to run
from the subject and
was shot in the back.

[woman]
Wal-Mart has conducted research
on crime in its parking lots,

and critics accuse the company

of a nationwide pattern
of covering up that research,

of failing to turn it
over in lawsuits.

Here's what Wal-Mart
did not want to show.

As early as 1994,

as you can see
in this internal document,

a Wal-Mart study showed that 80%
of crime at Wal-Mart locations

occurred in the parking lot.

And when the company added
roving patrols at several sites,

the crime rate dropped
to as low as zero.

A district judge
in Beaumont tonight

is fining Wal-Mart
stores $18 million.

Judge James Mahathy
is sanctioning Wal-Mart

for what the court believes
was a pattern of deception.

It involves the case
of a Southeast Texas woman

who was sexually
assaulted and raped

in the parking lot
of Wal-Mart.

The court found that
Wal-Mart did not disclose

that it had conducted
a safety study,

a study that found
if Wal-Mart

would put employees
in golf carts patrolling
its parking lots,

crime there would
drop to zero.

[Stahl]
Judge Sherilyn Wood
heard a case

against Wal-Mart
in Houston, Texas, in 1999

involving an assault
in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

She says that in
17 years on the bench
and over 25,000 cases,

she's rarely seen such
flagrant abuse of the system.

It was very disturbing to see

such an intentional course
of conduct. It was corrupt.

[Stahl] She's charging Wal-Mart
with cheating in court.

And she's not the only one.

This is one judge.

"Is there something in
the drinking water in Arkansas

that says perjury
is all right?"

Another judge:

"Rarely has this court
seen such a pattern

"of deliberate obfuscation,
delay, misrepresentation,
and downright lying."

True.

[Fortune] Unfortunately
for the customer,

they really don't
care what goes on

after you spend
your money in there

and come out into
the parking lot to go home.

[man] Police found
Holden shot to death

along the side of a road
in Stanton, Texas,

400 miles from where
she was abducted.

[Kirkpatrick]
Megan was very special.

We grew up together.
We lived together.

She's really, really gonna
be missed a whole lot

because she has a lot
of people that love her.

She was just a very
sweet person and...

She never wanted
a whole lot out of life.

But she just wanted to live
and, you know, be happy.

That's all she wanted.

Just recently, before she died,

we were in her room
listening to a CD.

We were singing together.

And we could just be
open with each other.
We didn't care.

[man] Police say Megan Holden
was chosen at random
on the way to her pickup truck

in the Wal-Mart parking lot
just before midnight.

After that crime was caught
on surveillance video,

police say Williams,
a marine veteran with
a history of drug offenses,

sped off in Holden's truck,
heading west,

where he apparently
murdered the 19-year-old
junior-college student

and dumped her body
near some railroad tracks

in the West Texas town
of Stanton.

I just think that
there's a lot of things
Wal-Mart could have done.

There should be somebody
watching the cameras.

Somebody should have been
watching the cameras.

Wal-Mart has those cameras
out there in their parking lot,

and I thought that
they were watching.

[man] A security camera
without someone watching it

is of no use at all.

The abduction and murder
that happened in Texas

happened at a store

where the loss-prevention team
was sent in to set up

a security system outside

that would track the union
activity in that store.

And the only reasons that they
had the pictures that they did

was because they had
the union package on
the outside of the store.

Wal-Mart focuses on
protecting their property
and not their patrons.

A multi-million dollar company.

Couldn't you pay someone like
$12 an hour to watch a camera?

If people are putting
profits before safety,

they're putting profits
before human life,

I don't think there's anything
you can say to them.

[woman] A man is suing
a Wal-Mart in Newcastle,

saying his mother died after
a botched robbery attempt
in the store's parking lot.

[man] The random shooting
happened here.

That three people are dead
and three others injured...

[reporters speaking]

The shooting happened in the
middle of a busy shopping day.

At least one man
tried to carjack, rob,
and shoot a woman.

Report of a Wal-Mart
parking lot attack...

Tonight, North Texas police
are on the hunt
for a would-be kidnapper.

-A bold and deadly shooting...
-A shooting rampage...

Random shooting...

-A bold and deadly shooting...
-It just happened this morning.

The shooting happened...

Tonight, North Texas police
are on the hunt
for a would-be kidnapper.

A Wal-Mart store has
a responsibility to society

to make sure that what
we do fits in and represents

what it is society expects
from a big company.

We need to figure out how do we,
in fact, work together

to cause them to want
to have a Wal-Mart.

[Laney] On December 6th,
there was an article on the
front page of our local paper,

and it said that Wal-Mart
was going to build a supercenter

on the corner of Queen Creek
and Almond School,

which is just a very short
distance from my house.

And this particular
location was within
our planned community,

and it was within walking
distance of an elementary school

and a junior high school.

And I felt that it was
an inappropriate location

for something of that magnitude.

So I decided to form a campaign

and say, "No Wal-Mart
in our neighborhood."

[Rev. Perez] Living as
Christ has taught us,

we begin to transform
the world.

This transformation is
visible in the reading
that we have from Acts.

We're really trying to show
why the work that we're doing

is the work of the gospel.

The lesson we learned
in Inglewood

is that we have the ability,
through our democracy,

to take power and take control
and actually hold big
companies accountable.

As a nation in this world,

the most powerful,
the most affluent,

we have the power to make sure
that all have what they need,

that this is not some
pie-in-the-sky vision,

but instead, that this is
our call, as Christians,

to make this happen.

[Laney] One of my neighbors
and I went and hand-made
some little posters

and we decided that we were
going to have a meeting
in the local park,

which was about
a block from here.

We had no idea how many
people would show up.

We were absolutely amazed,

and all of them
wanted to do something.

[Rev. Perez] In the beginning,
it was only a few of us.

Not a lot of people
came to the meetings,

only some supermarket workers
and a couple of churches.

And then more people until they
started feeling the pressure.

They wanted
to build the Wal-Mart
on this whole parcel.

It was going to be
215,000 square feet.

And there was going to be...

Wal-Mart was going to
take this whole space.

It's like 17
football fields big.

And they were going to build
one big box that was Wal-Mart

and then little
stores in between

and another big box
that was Sam's Club.

[Laney] People volunteered
to do the various chores
that we had,

and then we solicited
what I call a core committee,

and that was a group of people

who would be responsible
for the strategy,
the press releases,

everything that needed to be
done to organize our campaign.

[Rev. Perez] Then the coalition
started getting bigger,

and before you knew it,
everybody felt like,

if they weren't
part of a coalition
for a better Inglewood,

they weren't standing up
to defend the community.

[Aparicio] The other lesson
learned in Inglewood

is that there's no kind of
magic potion to suddenly...

You click this,
you put this together,

and suddenly
you're going to win.
It's a hard process.

There are a lot of things
that have to come in place.

But when you put those
things in place,
you can win.

It includes the ability
to organize regular people,

small-business owners,
workers...

We got our message focused.

We hammered away on the phones,
hammered away on doors.

People saw us coming and going
when they went to church

and every time they went
to a store in Inglewood,

there was a flyer
about our effort.
We held rallies.

It was legal strategy.

Enough resources to have
the research to be able
to make your case,

to be able to have
the materials.

It includes the ability to get
out your message to the press,
to do media events.

[Laney] We grew
to 187 volunteers,

and we had block captains,
and we had area chairmen.

We proceeded to gather
signatures on our petitions,

and we started out
with 1,500 signatures.

And by the time we got through,
we had 4,000 signatures.

And they were all
from people within our...
What I call our area code.

Our zip code. Zip code.

I always get the two
mixed up. Zip code.

[man] Inglewood
is the first test

for Wal-Mart's ambitious
plans in California,

and activists say
the stakes here are huge.

This is like
"Godzilla Eats Tokyo."

This is much bigger
than David and Goliath.

All of the information
coming from Wal-Mart

kept saying,
"It's a done deal.

"There's nothing
you can do about it.

"We have our zoning.

Don't waste your time."

But [chuckles] we knew better.

Then we had numerous public
meetings to let the public know

what was happening,
what the status was.

It is not like they came into
the small towns in the south

or towns that have no business
and they brought in business.

No. This is something
completely different.

They represent,
from Bentonville, Arkansas,
plantation capitalism.

The future of this community
depends on our ability

to stop the monster
in its tracks.

[man] Wal-Mart sponsored
the ballot initiative after
Inglewood's city council

opposed building a Wal-Mart
supercenter on the site.

Today, Wal-Mart opponents
charged the initiative,
Measure 4A,

hijacks the city's
planning process.

It is 71 pages
of legal fine print

that seeks to cut the community

out of its own
development process.

[Hutchinson]
What they did was essentially
tell the city of Inglewood,

"Get out of here.

"We are the biggest
corporation in the world.

We can go in and essentially
buy an election."

[Laney] We held public meetings.
We did our letters.

We held private meetings
with city council members.

We were out on the street
and doing the work

to ensure the people understood

that to those who
much has been given,
much will be expected.

I'm sure the Walton family
believes that they're
a good Christian family.

But I think they have
made millions at the
expense of poor workers.

And I'm sure
there's a lot of people

that think that they're
good Christian companies.

Not if they're going
to make money

off the backs of people
who are suffering.

[Laney] A lot of
people sacrificed

an awful lot to have all
the freedoms that we have.

And that flag, to me,
represents all of our freedoms.

Our freedom to fight Wal-Mart.

Our freedom to live
where we want to,

work where we want to...

Have a say in our government.

They can say and believe
whatever they want about,

you know, trickle-down
theories of capital

and whatever other nonsense
they want to invent

to hold on to their capital.

But as Christians,
we don't have that option.

That's not our option.

That we're not about capital,
that we're about people.

[Laney] We came before the city
council for the final vote,

and the council
voted 6-0 to deny Wal-Mart
and Best Star, the developer,

the right to build the
store on that property.

[man] Residents of Inglewood,
California, are voting today

on whether to approve
the construction

of a new shopping development
dominated by Wal-Mart.

[Rev. Perez] We gathered
at a local restaurant
hoping for a miracle,

but braced to go back to court
if the measure passed.

[woman] And now,
the votes are coming in

on a proposed Wal-Mart
super store in Inglewood.

-3,100...
-[cheers and applause]

[woman] This small group of
people took on a giant and won

and it was really meaningful,

because nobody thought
we could win this.

We didn't think we could win.

David beat Goliath!

David beat Goliath!

David beat Goliath!

The city council of
Monroeville, Pennsylvania,

handed Wal-Mart
their hat today.

Wal-Mart packs its bags
in Cobb County, Georgia.

Community resistance paid off
in Hickory, North Carolina.

Wal-Mart hit the road.

Anti-Wal-Mart candidates sweep
the Helotes, Texas election.

Another trip down the long
and dusty for Wal-Mart
in Biloxi, Mississippi.

When you have a group of people,
a small group of people,

who don't want you
in the community,

does that mean you're
not gonna go there?

Thornton, Colorado,
defeated Wal-Mart.

-Wal-Mart beaten...
-Wal-Mart loses
to Plainfield, Illinois.

-Las Vegas, Nevada,
defeated Wal-Mart.
-Victory in Maine...

When you have
a group of people,

a small group of people,
who don't want you...

Don't want you
in the community...

Wal-Mart loses to
Charlevoix, Michigan.

Neighborhood fights off
proposed Wal-Mart store.

Wal-Mart beaten.

Wal-Mart loses
to Chicago, Illinois.

Wal-Mart zoned off
from Flagstaff, Arizona.

Arlington, Texas,
rejects Wal-Mart.

Victory in Colchester,
Connecticut.

Success. Centerville, Utah.

Victory. Harrison, New Jersey.

An anti-Wal-Mart slate
was elected to city council
in Deptford, New Jersey.

Voters rejected Wal-Mart
in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

The Wal-Mart man? Defeated.
In Glendora, California.

Wal-Mart beaten
in Medford, Oregon.

Who's going to take
the picture, you?

[man] One million people a year

visit Washington's adult
home in Mount Vernon.

On this President's Day,
there was disbelief that anyone

would dream of disturbing
his boyhood home.

Because there's plenty of
places for a shopping center,

but there's only one
Washington Farm.

[man] Surveyors have already
marked off the property line
for the Wal-Mart.

[woman] No. That's history.

They shouldn't destroy
people's history like that.

[woman] May 29th,
a Hawaiian group sued,

claiming Wal-Mart and the state

violated grave-desecration
laws and public trust.

Where do you get off coming
here, you know, a foreign...

What if it was their
great-grandfather
that was desecrated?

For now, the remains are being
stored in a trailer below a ramp

leading to a parking
garage at Wal-Mart.

[man] We put a sign up in the
Worthington, Minnesota store

that was ten feet
over the city code there.

And the building inspector
red-tagged it.

And the next thing I know,
there's an overnight--

They call me and tell me

there's an overnight
package coming for me

and I'm to take it
to this person.

The envelope wasn't sealed.

And so I just opened it up,
and there's a $10,000 check.

And I gave it to the individual,

and the very next day,
the red tag's off the sign.

When you have
a group of people,
a small group of people,

who don't want you
in a community,

does that mean you're
not gonna go there?