Quotes from some Wal-Mart Critics

"Some people like the idea of Wal-Mart because they want to be able to shop there, but they have to realize that because of the way that Wal-Mart treats its employees, the city as a whole would lose money because it would have to make up the difference for benefits for health care and things like food stamps."
Councilman Michael McMahon

"The ultimate costs [of Wal-Mart] are not limited to subsidies for underpaid Wal-Mart workers. When a Wal-Mart comes to town, the new competition has a ripple effect throughout the community. Other stores are forced out of business or forced to cut employees’ wages and benefits in order to compete with Wal-Mart."
Congressman George Miller

"Consumers shop at Wal-Mart and other huge retailers because they offer 'rock bottom' prices. The reason they can do so is because they often give their employees 'rock bottom' health benefits."
Senator Jon S. Corzine, former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs

"Wal-Mart has a proven history of low wage jobs that provide poor benefits, hostility to unionizing and workers’ rights, and reliance on cheap foreign labor that hurts local businesses here at home and encourages exploitation abroad."
Congressman Anthony Weiner

"While its workforce has one of the best productivity records of any US corporation, it has kept the compensation of its rank-and-file workers at or barely above the poverty line. As of last spring, the average pay of a sales clerk at Wal-Mart was $8.50 an hour, or about $14,000 a year, $1,000 below the government's definition of the poverty level for a family of three."
Simon Head, New York Times Review of Books

"In careful studies all over the country economists have found that Wal-Mart does not create jobs at all. In fact, Wal-Mart destroys jobs."
Mary Campbell Gallagher, Newsday

"Wal-Mart is the modern equivalent of the 19th century Coal mine."
Sheryl McCarthy, Newsday

"Wal-Mart has a terrible record with respect to workers’ rights; not simply the right to organize a union."
NY State Senator Diane Savino

"At Wal-Mart, it takes a woman an average of 4.38 years to get promoted to assistant store manager, while it takes a male 2.86 years to reach the same position."
Carolyn Sapp, Miss America 1992