Wal-Mart Quick Facts

• Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer.  It is the largest corporation and private employer in the United States. 
• Wal-Mart is the biggest employer in 25 states. They set the standard for wages and labor practices.
• Wal-Mart employs 1.4 million workers worldwide and over 1 million in the United States.  More than half of Wal-Mart’s U.S. employees leave the company each year.
• Wal-Mart has more than 3,000 stores in the US and almost 1,300 International operations.
• The Walton family is worth about $102 billion.
• Wal-Mart topped the Fortune 500 list of America's largest corporations ranked by sales for the fourth year in a row.
• Wal-Mart is the top U.S. seller of products ranging from dog food to diamonds with sales of $244.5 billion in the fiscal year ended January 2003 up from $220 billion in 2001. 
• In 1970, the country's largest employer was General Motors, with 350,000 workers. Overwhelmingly union, they earned $17.50 an hour plus health, pension and vacation benefits and cost-of-living increases. Today, the country's largest employer is Wal-Mart, with over 1 million US workers. They earn an average hourly wage of $8.00, with no defined benefit pension, and inadequate health care.
• Wal-Mart was sued 4,851 times in 2000––or about once every 2 hours, every day of the year. Wal-Mart lawyers list about 9,400 open cases,” according to a report published in the August 14, 2001, USA Today newspaper.
• Wal-Mart plans to open only 15 to 20 of the traditional food-and-drug combo stores in 2003, down from previous projections of 20 to 25 outlets.  It will open 210 supercenters, the high end of its previous development range for that format.