Wal-Mart

As students return to Champaign–Urbana after a long winter break, they are met with the challenges of a new daily schedule. For many, this includes a new fitness regime.

The University branch of Amnesty International held its "Jamnesty" benefit concert last week, uniting local and Chicago bands to raise money for victims of human trafficking.

What are you gonna do with all that junk? Fergie is not the only one to have asked this question. Participants in the Sustainable E-Waste Design Competition, sponsored by the School of Art and Design, are trying to find the answers.

NEW YORK - Shoppers passed by the jewelry counter in January, delayed buying their favorite perfume and even skimped on buying clothes for their growing kids. If they looked at status handbags, they put them back on the shelf and walked away. The dismal January sales that retailers reported Thursday foreshadow a cold spring as consumers worry about massive layoffs and their dwindling retirement funds.

Consumers may be suffering because of the state of the economy, but for Wal-Mart locally and nationally, the recent slump has had little effect.

According to a company letter sent by Tom Schoewe, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Wal-Mart, the company reported sales of $106 billion for the most recent quarter, making it the first retailer to have sales exceed $100 billion.

Two weeks ago, Chicago's Mayor Daley vetoed Chicago's Big Box Ordinance. This ordinance would have required "big box" stores such as Wal-Mart and Target to pay workers a minimum of $10/hr with additional benefits of $3 per hour by the year 2010. The bill would have effected stores with more than 90,000 square feet of floor space and stores owned by companies that have $1 billion in sales annually.

I feel the column by Renee Thessing on Feb. 1 had some very misleading evidence used to fight against the opening of the new Wal-Mart. She wrote that Wal-Mart discriminates against women because only 33 percent of the management employed there are women. One piece of information that was left out was that according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, only 35 percent of all management positions nationwide are held by women.

(U-WIRE) AMES, Iowa - Men and women fell over each other. Children ran screaming. Professionals and analysts looked on, both worried and excited. When the dust cleared, it was uncertain how much damage had been done.

No, it's not the recap of your Thanksgiving dinner.

(U-WIRE) FULLERTON, Calif. - Ironically, the man who wanted no part in Robert Greenwald's documentary, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," maintained the largest speaking role of anyone else filmed.
Wal-Mart's Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. narrated Greenwald's film, which the Cal State-Fullerton organization, Left Bank, sponsored on Sunday.

I don't think that we should merely disregard Wal-Mart's business practices for the sake of convenience as Denny Gibbons suggested. That is the reaction Wal-Mart is depending on. Wal-Mart has muscle.

Companies will lose money by breaking ties with them, and we'll have to pay a little more if we shop somewhere else.