Wal Mart

With a nation watching, Wal-Mart has ramped up its opposition to a groundbreaking bill that would force the retail giant to offer better benefits, a step that could be replicated in state houses across the nation next year. A dozen lobbyists, nine of them hired in the past six weeks, now represent Wal-Mart in the state capital, two months before lawmakers will consider whether to override Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s veto of the bill. Success for the retailer could be an important win in a nationwide battle of public relations and public policy over what responsibility the country's largest employer has to its workers.

A classroom blackboard in a former Roman Catholic middle school in Locust Point reads: "Basic Beliefs: 1. Respect for the Individual; 2. Service to our Customers; 3. Strive for Excellence." The credo is not from the Vatican but from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The world's largest retailer has been using the school as an employment center for its new store in Port Covington, which opens April 17. Over the past three months, Wal-Mart managers and employees have interviewed 1,400 job seekers in the school library at the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said yesterday that it fired three executives and four other employees for violating company policy. Jim H. Haworth, executive vice president of operations for the Wal-Mart Stores division, was fired, according to a report yesterday in the Benton County Daily Record, citing three people it didn't name. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams declined to provide the employees' names or say what rules were broken. Williams said the firings weren't related to litigation, criminal matters or the retirement next month of Vice Chairman Tom Coughlin.

The Wal-Mart company doesn't know how the Zoning Board voted June 24 on its petition to allow two warehouse-sized stores in Ellicott City.Wal-Mart's opponents don't know."

WASHINGTON -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. confirmed yesterday that it is seeking a senior manager to oversee "new strategic initiatives" in the mortgage business, but said the move does not signal an expansion into retail banking. Some bankers, lawmakers and Wall Street analysts disagreed, saying they believe the executive search shows the retail giant is planning to move into full-service banking, despite promises to the contrary to federal regulators. "This is the smoking gun. What more do you need?"

Retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will open a new store in a former Kmart in Columbia's Dobbin Center, a move that real estate observers say will help revitalize the aging center. The announcement comes almost a year after Kmart Corp. announced that it was closing the 108,000-square-foot store along Little Patuxent Parkway as part of a major downsizing. A spokesman for Wal-Mart, which has no store in Columbia, said the store will provide about 200 jobs. Local observers say it also will draw more shoppers and other retailers.

Ellicott City's growing retail competition gets another competitor tomorrow with the opening of a new Wal-Mart, the county's first, at U.S. 29 and U.S. 40.The 125,000-square-foot store -- the retailer's 2,303rd outlet -- means more competition for the area's older national discount stores, such as Kmart and Caldor, and for the new Target store in the nearby Long Gate shopping center.The new store also might challenge some of the smaller, independent retailers in Ellicott City's historic district.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is sending its strongest signal yet that it no longer intends to do business as usual, placing its advertising account in review. Word of the review, Wal-Mart's first in more than 30 years, comes after months of significant changes to the retailer's longtime marketing approaches. The move underscores Wal-Mart's eagerness to find ways to broaden its appeal to new upscale shoppers as the chain's revenue growth has lagged its smaller and hipper rival, Target Corp. Given the size of Wal-Mart's marketing budget, $578 million last year, the move is likely to set off a scramble among agencies.

NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, was dropped from Goldman, Sachs & Co.'s "recommend list" of stocks because the shares are expensive relative to those of its rivals. Goldman analyst George C. Strachan cut the rating to "market perform" in a report issued yesterday. Wal-Mart's price-to-earnings ratio is about 1.7 times that of the Standard & Poor's 500 index - a nine-year peak, Strachan wrote. The company's P/E-to-growth ratio is higher than those of rival general merchandisers, including Target Corp.

Nine Mexican immigrants who worked as janitors at Wal-Marts in New Jersey sued the company yesterday, accusing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and its cleaning contractors of failing to pay overtime, withhold taxes and make required workers' compensation contributions. The plaintiffs, who face deportation for being illegal immigrants, also accuse Wal-Mart and its contractors of discriminating against them by giving them lower wages and fewer benefits than other workers because of their national origin.