Wal-Mart Stores Inc. / WMT

About Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

702 SW 8th St., Bentonville, Ark. 72716
www.walmartstores.com | 479-273-4000 | Founded: 1962

Industry: Retail | Category: Top Companies Headquartered Outside Region

There were dramatic changes at Wal-Mart last year as it struggled to redefine itself as more than just a low-cost leader. Efforts to upgrade its merchandise to attract more affluent shoppers and fuel growth met with mixed results. Shoppers embraced its pricier organic produce but balked at its fashion-forward skinny jeans.
Such missteps have hurt Wal-Mart's bottom line. Sales at U.S. stores open at least a year dipped 0.1 percent in November compared with the same month a year earlier, marking the company's first sales decline in a decade. The retailer spent the rest of the holiday season cutting prices on toys, electronics and other products to help drive shoppers into its stores.
Meanwhile, unions continue to criticize the health benefits Wal-Mart offers its workers. But the company won a major battle in July after a federal judge struck down a Maryland law that would have required it to spend at least 8 percent of its payroll on health care or contribute to a state fund for the poor. In February, Wal-Mart partnered with the Service Employees International Union, a longtime foe, to create a coalition to study ways to improve health care.
Wal-Mart has also begun working with activist groups. In February, it partnered with Oxfam America and Earthworks-Mineral Policy Center on a campaign to reduce the environmental and social impact of gold mining and worked with TransFair USA to produce its own fair-trade coffee. The company also has worked with the innovative Rocky Mountain Institute on energy efficiency and opened two "green" stores.

2007 Financial Data

Total employees: 1,800,000 | Local employees: 14,900