can't piss off the Waltons! They may refuse to re-buy their congress people.

middle and low income Americans. That's where your customer base lives.

on one side ends the game like in monopoly

that food stamps are an economy booster. It isn't just giving money to people - it's giving money to people that they then spend at stores.

Edit to add link: http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/29/news/economy/stimulus_analysis/

In findings echoed by other economists and studies, he said the study shows the fastest way to infuse money into the economy is through expanding the food-stamp program. For every dollar spent on that program $1.73 is generated throughout the economy, he said.

"If someone who is literally living paycheck to paycheck gets an extra dollar, it's very likely that they will spend that dollar immediately on whatever they need - groceries, to pay the telephone bill, to pay the electric bill," he said.

Think of the family!

And they can't put it on the shelf for sale.

LOL!

... they can restore those lost sales by paying their employees enough so they don't need food stamps to make ends meet.

They could break even, or better!

who is going to work with the administration to give long-term unemployed folks jobs. Is there any doubt as to their priorities?

The five members of the Walton family who own Walmart have an estimated 100 billion dollars worth of stock. Yes, that's one hundred billion. More than many countries.
And they have the gall to protest paying the staff what they are worth. These morally bankrupt Waltons can afford to give some back to their impoverished workers.

I'd love to see a reverse "Undercover Boss" where a worker is disguised as a regional executive and sent to Headquarters to uncover what goes on. Unfortunately it would have to be sanctioned by lawyers and other top bosses who have a vested interest in NOT allowing anyone to see how fucked up the top echelons of most corporations are. (Although they pretty much reveal it, anyways, on Undercover Boss&quot .

their sales. Long tern unemployment extension, the rise in energy costs due to the cold, the refusal to pass minimum wage bill and others are keeping us from buying even the things we really need let alone the extras in their stores.

In other news; Walmart executives say that paying their employees, ahem, associates enough money to live on would hurt earning for the foreseeable future. Grumblings at the board meetings took place where whispers of maintaining six-figure incomes and incentive bonuses for creating the Walton family more wealth was heard. "Your job isn't to make employees, ah associates happy. Your job is to make Mr Walton more money." The CFO later went on to petition Congress for more corporate welfare if "Walmart needs to subsidize it's underpaid workforce."

is people dumping Sams Club for Costco. I know I've talked everyone I could into making the switch. And that went across party lines - even republican friends think the business model for Costco is well worth emulating.