The Wal-Mart Effect

The Times' 2003 series on Wal-Mart

November 23, 2003

First of Three Parts

An Empire Built on Bargains Remakes the Working World

Chastity Ferguson kept watch over four sleepy children late one Friday as she flipped a pack of corn dogs into a cart at her new favorite grocery store: Wal-Mart.

November 24, 2003

Second of Three Parts

Scouring the Globe to Give Shoppers an $8.63 Polo Shirt

When Wal-Mart Stores Inc. demands a lower price for the shirts and shorts it sells by the millions, the consequences are felt in a remote Chinese industrial town, at a port in Bangladesh and here in Honduras, under the corrugated metal roof of the Cosmos clothing factory.

November 24, 2003

Seams Start to Unravel

Sewing contractor Rob Reed shut down his Commerce factory this summer after 17 years, laying off 100 workers and adding his name to a long list of bankrupt U.S. manufacturers.

November 24, 2003

Audit Stance Generates Controversy

Safe working conditions. Reasonable hours. No child labor.

November 25, 2003

Third of three parts

Grocery Unions Battle to Stop Invasion of the Giant Stores

Inglewood seemed to offer the perfect home for a new Wal-Mart Supercenter, with low-income residents hungry for bargains and a mayor craving the sales-tax revenue that flows from big-box stores.

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