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Big Box Retailers The High Cost of Low Prices
Nowhere is the abuse of political power more clear than with Wal-Mart. As the nation's largest--and one of the most politically mighty corporations--Wal-Mart has invested millions of dollars to defeat citizen initiatives seeking to maintain community zoning standards, held fundraisers for and made gifts to politicians who later vetoed employee health care legislation that Wal-Mart opposed, and pitted communities against one another in gaining more than $1 billion in corporate tax breaks and subsidies; including $200 million in the last three years according to Walmart Subsidy Watch. Corporate Accountability International believes that dangerous concentrations of political power in the hands of unaccountable corporations lie at the foundation of many of the campaigns challenging Wal-Mart. We have called upon Wal-Mart to adopt our Standards of Political Conduct for Corporations by ceasing its funding of candidates, campaigns and citizen initiatives and by fully disclosing its lobbying activities throughout the world. Click here to see how Wal-Mart stacks up against key standards. Our members have called attention to Wal-Mart's abuses by participating in the national Quarantine Wal-Mart direct action held in June 2006 at Wal-Mart stores throughout the U.S.
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Related Links: Standards of Political Conduct for Corporations Political Profits: How Wal-Mart Stacks Up |
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Over the last two decades, Big Box retailers have changed everything from the looks of our communities to the labor standards that protect us as workers. There is a high cost to low prices: small businesses continue to disappear, traffic grows more snarled, local manufacturing jobs disappear as these powerful retailers demand ever lower prices from suppliers. Five Big Box retailers--Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Costco, Target and Sears--are among the 40 largest corporations on the Fortune 500 list. With their growing economic power, comes a dangerous growth of political power. 