Let me start this by saying I am a member of a union, but I shop at wal mart, sam's club, target, kmart, or wherever the best prices are.

Having been in a non-union workplace that a union was trying to "organize", I have to question how one sided the reporting on Wal-mart's tactics were in dealing with the union organizers. Much of the reporting on Wal Mart has a blatant agenda. When the company I used to work for was targeted by a union, the employees were given pamphlets on their way in to work (at the entrance to the plant, which was a public way, so they weren't trespassing), and supervisors and mangement were harrassed. The union pamphlets were full of half truths, telling the workers how much their hourly wages would go up under the proposed union contract, but left out the fact that overtime would disappear (by the proposed contract, a third shift would be added, instead of 2 shifts), and that the plant that was working under that contract was closed 3 months out of the year because it was cheaper to run the plant 24/7 for 9 months and then lay everyone off for three months than to keep it running all year. The plant owners were threatened, their CHILDREN were threatened, etc.. It was fairly ugly for a while, the employees looked at the proposal, and did not even hold a vote once everything was on the table.

There isn't a major employer out there that hasn't been sued for discrimination, sexual harassment, labor law violations, you name it. While I was a supervisor in another company, I had 13 employees working for me. All but one was of hispanic extraction (salvadoran, columbian, and mexican). Out of those 12, I had one who was constantly threatening me and the company with lawsuits for race discrimination, labor law violations, and harrassment. He even went to the local congressional delegation with his complaints. They went nowwhere, but you could easily add the company to the list of "bad employers" because of the multitude of complaints filed by one person.

There are other experiences I have had with this issue, including the product demands of the big box stores, but I have no problem with them. They are just trying to get the most from the supplier, and if the demands are unreasonable they aren't going to find a supplier.

Again, I shop wherever the cheapest prices are, and that includes the local grocery store, which frequently beats Wal Mart on both price and quality.