Wal-Mart invades China
Wal-Mart comes to China, bringing cheap melons and electric fans shaped like sad penguins. (Via Future Now)
Wal-Mart has no stores in South Africa, where big-box discounters are not yet pervasive. (Woolworth-style variety stores are found in most malls. In fact, the Woolworth name lives on in South Africa, but here it’s an upscale department store.) Earlier this year, public-interest groups slammed Wal-Mart with their “Public Eye Award For Irresponsible Corporate Behaviour.” The groups charged the company with ignoring pleas to improve “terrible” working conditions at factories in southern Africa and elsewhere that supply clothes to Wal-Mart.