About the only thing to laugh about as it is very sad news. This failure though is due more to the public buying on price than anything the Directors or government can do. The public should not complain when jobs are lost as local services are forced to close through lack of support and then prices eventually rise through lack of competition.

Which means what?
It doesn't tell us how good an employer they are, whether they are good for the economy or anything other than the fact that Wal- Mart are enormous.

Would you rather deny the public the choice?

It probably tells us more about the NHS than anything else.

You think a huge store like Wal-Mart increases choice?

Steady there fella, part of the Wal- Mart methodology is to remove choice ... I.e. undercut until the smaller opposition goes under and then revert to pricing as Wal- Mart sees fit.
This has been observed across the US.

Stagecoach did much the same in the UK to expand into new local bus service areas.

You''ve lost me there.

In choosing to shop at Wal-Mart or not?

Consumers can always choose not to shop there.

By the way, I have only been to the US three times (NYC twice, and a trip around Texas) and saw plenty of alternatives to Wal-Mart there.

All the businesses, armies, health care providers, and various forms of employer, across the whole world......You don't think it stands out that the British NHS, when counting all those, is the third largest employer?

Either being a big employer is a good thing or a bad thing, you don't get it both ways

Absolutely.

Fishman was astonished to find that, where Wal-Mart opened a store, then jobs were hit and, within five years, poverty levels in that area had increased.

He also talks of the impact on quality – particularly citing a major brand of jeans (can't remember off the top of my head) where quality had been cut in order to reduce the price, as demanded by Wal-Mart.

Just to say (not directed at BG), Fishman is not anti-Wal-Mart or anti-capitalist. He clearly started the project with a massive admiration for the compnay and found himself increasingly disquieted by what he discovered. And would still love to be able to see it as part of the 'American Dream'.

No, that fact , on its own, is not informative.
For it to be informative I would need to know how many people it treats, and how successfully, compared against other developed nations.

We've been through this before.

When 'choice' is limited to what one store decides to sell, it is not the same as choice provided by a range of outlets selling a range of different products – say, for instance, bread.

Having, say, three different sizes of Tesco in a town is not greater choice than when people had a Tesco [iand[/i a range of small, independent shops (which is very similar to the situation experienced in my local area over a period of 30-40 years).