Stop the Wal-Mart Supercenter

*Wal-Mart is planning to upgrade its Miles City location to a Supercenter, which adds groceries to its product line.

*The population of greater Miles City is comprised of roughly 11,000 persons and is forecast to contract due to out-migration during the next ten years.

*There are already three large grocery stores currently serving the greater Miles City area.

*Therefore, the addition of a Wal-Mart Supercenter to our market would likely decrease the market share of each of the existing grocery stores to critical levels and would put at least one regional grocery store out-of-business.

*When Wal-Mart moved its discount store to Miles City, several locally-owned independent retail stores were closed within months as a result of Wal-Mart's predatory pricing.

*Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer and second-largest corporation with annual revenue exceeding $245 billion, which equals the gross domestic product of five northern European nations.

*Wal-Mart controls 25-30% of the sales of consumer products in all categories.

*On average, Wal-Mart sales clerks earn $13,861 per year. The poverty line in the U.S. is $14,630 for a family of three.

*Wal-Mart is being sued by 1.6 million former female employees for systematically denying women equal pay and opportunities for promotion.

*Wal-Mart purchased $12 billion worth of Chinese goods in 2002, representing 10% of all U.S. imports from China.

*For each Wal-Mart employee hired in Miles City, it is estimated that seven jobs are lost from locally-owned businesses.