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TAMPA - When Karen Armatrout died in 1997, her employer, Wal-Mart, collected thousands of dollars on a life insurance policy the retail giant had taken out without telling her, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. Armatrout was one of about 350,000 employees Wal-Mart secretly insured nationwide, said Texas attorney Michael D. Myers, who estimated the company collected on 75 to 100 policies involving Florida employees who died. Myers is seeking to make the Armatrout lawsuit a class-action case on behalf of the estates of all the Florida employees who died while unwittingly insured by Wal-Mart. "Creepy's a...

With Wal-Marts come tough choices BY PAUL HAMMEL WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER NEBRASKA CITY - From the wooden aisles of his 51-year-old hardware store downtown, Walt Wenzl calls Wal-Mart a greedy corporation that mainly sells foreign-made products. Hardware store owner Walt Wenzl isn't afraid of a new Wal-Mart planned for Nebraska City, Neb. "As long as the good Lord is willing, I'll be here," said Wenzl, 77. "To hell with Wal-Mart." Yet others in this river town of 7,228 say they welcome the building of a Wal-Mart Supercenter here. They say it may provide better paying jobs and keep shoppers from...

When I was a kid growing up in a small Louisiana town, there was exactly one place to buy groceries: Gerald's. It was properly called the Red & White, but nobody ever used the store's proper name. Gerald was the town grocer, and the word people used to refer to the place reflected their relationship to it. It was personal, not merely commercial.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which has gained a reputation for leaving opponents limping into bankruptcy court, is taking on Target Corp. (TGT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in a fight that it just might lose. Wal-Mart, the No. 1 retailer, is widening its array of stylish-but-cheap goods in hopes of winning over middle-income customers, putting it head-to-head with a rival that has proved it can compete and thrive against a company six times its size. "Can Wal-Mart make merchandise improvements that will drive incremental sales? Absolutely," said Darrell Rigby, head of the global retail practice at consultants Bain &...

The food, makeup, underwear is at "Everyday low prices" but a Wal-Mart "date" could be for free. Wal-Mart's taking on the role of retail matchmaker to some of its customers. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Just when you thought you'd heard it all from the king of discount shopping, Wal-Mart is now pitching itself as the new dating hot spot -- with everyday low prices to boot.

Wal-Mart faces a class-action lawsuit that claims it knew full well its cleaning contractors were hiring illegal immigrants, paying them slave wages and locking them inside the stores at night. All in the name of everyday cheap prices by Brita Brundage - December 23, 2004 Wal-Mart. That boxy behemoth with its neatly stacked rows of toilet paper and DVDs, trampolines and hooded sweatshirts, cheese balls and wrapping paper. With its employees wearing the signature bright-blue smocks emblazoned with sunny yellow smiley faces. Here, shoppers push carts piled high with discount electronics, cookies and XXL T-shirts along endless waxed aisles that...