The Case Against Wal-Mart

Al Norman, who has been called the "guru of the anti-Wal-Mart movement" by 60 Minutes, has just written a new book calling for a national consumer boycott of the giant retailer.

The timing couldn't be better.

Wal-Mart is drawing more heat than ever in its 42-year history. It has become perhaps the most disliked retailer in America today.

The Case Against Wal-Mart is presented as a legal brief against Wal-Mart – with "counts" against the company ranging from its employment practices to its "Made in America" mythology.

It presents evidence to make its case that Wal-Mart:

* Forces its own workers to labor "off the clock" without pay
* Uses overseas sweatshop labor to manufacture its corporate brand clothing
* Sells knock-off and counterfeit merchandise that misleads and confuses its customers
* Destroys acres of environmentally sensitive lands to build new Wal-Marts, close to existing Wal-Marts that will be closed
* Has eliminated all competition in many towns across the U.S. by illegally lowering prices below wholesale
* Has forced the movement of thousands of manufacturing jobs out of the U.S.
* Calls "full-time" 28 hours per week and pays wages so low that many of its employees qualify – and accept – welfare payments
* Demands millions of dollars in tax breaks to locate in communities all over the U.S., while it earns billions of dollars in profits.

Written by Al Norman, the world’s foremost expert on and leader of the anti-sprawl movement, The Case Against Wal-Mart calls on consumers to go on a "Wal-Mart diet." Norman says that only a consumer boycott of Wal-Mart will show the company that U.S. citizens disapprove of its business tactics.

This is a book every American shopper should read before making another trip to Wal-Mart. As Al Norman says, "Friends don't let friends shop at Wal-Mart."