by Ted Sherman

Created on: September 13, 2007   Last Updated: September 16, 2007

For the first time in two decades, big box store giant Wal-Mart has changed its theme: "Always Low Prices". The old TV commercial that went with the slogan showed cartoon happy faces flying around the store slashing prices.

I like the new commercial, "Save Money. Live Better", which is pitched to the start of the school year. It features live on-camera actor-customers giving testimonials about how they're better off because "saving money on little things adds up and helps families live better."

With 5,000 stores throughout the world, Wal-Mart's annual revenues exceed $350 billion. It has two million employees, and will soon expand its 44 stores in China by buying out its closest rival there, Trust-Mart. This could add as many as 250,000 more employees to its payroll, with still lots of space to expand in the largest country in the world.

All is not rosy for Wal-Mart. It is constantly fighting off criticism, as well as numerous lawsuits and penalties imposed by local and federal government agencies. Its most publicized problem is the accusation that it encourages illegal Mexican immigration with promises of jobs in its US stores, and then pays the undocumented employees wages far below what citizens earn at similar jobs.

US labor unions are up in arms about the Mexican immigrant competition, accusing Wal-Mart's employment practices cause loss of jobs for its members. Even the Chinese stores are beginning to show labor rights rumblings. Recently employees in its Shanghai store, the biggest and most successful in China, formed a chapter of the Communist Party, and are demanding better working conditions and higher pay.

Wal-Mart has also been accused for many years of opening big-box branches of its store in communities and devastating all retail competition within a radius of 26 miles. However, Wal-Mart continues to expand around the world, and counters criticism by showing statistics that its employment and prices practices save families thousands of dollars a year, thence the new slogan, "Save Money. Live Better." Maybe a more realistic new theme should be, "All's Fair In Love And Retail."

I like the new slogan, and will continue to shop at Wal-Mart. At least I will until someone proves to me that I save money because the merchandise is made by underpaid child slave laborers, and I meet too many poverty-stricken store clerks there who can't speak English.

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