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Good Job, Wal-Mart:

Wal-Mart Stores has agreed to provide 400 free bicycles, cash donations to charity and other free products to settle a dispute with a non-profit charity founded by Andre Johnson of the Houston Texans to help needy, inner-city children. According to Hillel Presser, a prominent Fort Lauderdale attorney who negotiated the settlement, problems arose after Johnson paid nearly $26,000 retail for hundreds of children’s bicycles to be given away during an annual Foundation sponsored event featuring food, music, and festivities for under-privileged children in Miami Gardens, Florida. The bicycle purchase was to include free ice and water for the children. Wal-Mart was unable to supply all the various sizes of bicycles ordered and a Wal-Mart employee then revoked the ice and water offer without notice, citing the smaller number of delivered bicycles, even though Wal-Mart was responsible for the shortage. Said attorney Presser: “This settlement is a win-win for the needy children, for my client, Andre Johnson, and for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart values its reputation for supporting local charities and events and Andre is able to help more deserving children get bicycles.” In addition to the 400, free bicycles and cash, Wal-Mart will supply free ice, water, and food to the next event for 1500 children.

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So I’m browsing The Consumerist looking for rip-off alerts and I come across these two excellent posts that prove that 2008 is going to be a bang up year:

Woman Asked To Leave After Shopping At Walmart For 72 Hours

Police escorted a woman home after she was shopping, eating, and sleeping in a Georgia Walmart for three days straight. She blended in with the general Christmas madness and sustained herself by eating at the on-site Blimpie. When asked by employees at the end why she stayed for so long, she said, “I’m shopping.”

Woman Stays At Gwinnett Wal-Mart For Three Days [WSBTV2 via BoingBoing]

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Chuck Norris: “I Can’t Do All That Stuff”

Chuck Norris is suing publisher Penguin and author Ian Spector over the book “The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 facts about the World’s Greatest Human”. Among other claims, the suit states that the “book’s title would mislead readers into thinking the facts were true.” This means that apparently Chuck Norris cannot cure your cancer with his tears, he did not create a giraffe by uppercutting a horse, and he cannot speak braille. If only Kevin Trudeau could be so honest.

“Chuck Norris sues, says his tears no cancer cure” [Reuters]

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Look who’s the newest aspiring cartoonist.

You can find this and other great toons over at Planet Joon.

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Looks like Wal-Mart has jumped the shark. Surprise surprise. According to the NYT - they’ve squeezed all they can out of the American consumers and foreign consumers don’t want what they’re selling. I’m guessing the leaking lead paint from the toy section won’t help the situation going forward.

Using a combination of low prices and relentless expansion, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. emerged from rural Arkansas in the 1970s to reshape the world’s largest economy. Its co-founder, Sam Walton, taught Americans to demand ever-lower prices and instructed businesses on running a lean company. His company helped boost America’s overall productivity, lowered the inflation rate, and strengthened the buying power for millions of people. Over time, it also accelerated the drive to manufacture products in Asia, drove countless small shops out of business, and sped the decline of Main Street. Those changes are permanent.

Today, though, Wal-Mart’s influence over the retail universe is slipping. In fact, the industry’s titan is scrambling to keep up with swifter rivals that are redefining the business all around it. It can still disrupt prices, as it did last year by cutting some generic prescriptions to $4. But success is no longer guaranteed.

Rival retailers lured Americans away from Wal-Mart’s low-price promise by offering greater convenience, more selection, higher quality, or better service. Amid the country’s growing affluence, Wal-Mart has struggled to overhaul its down-market, politically incorrect image while other discounters pitched themselves as more upscale and more palatable alternatives. The Internet has changed shoppers’ preferences and eroded the commanding influence Wal-Mart had over its suppliers.

As a result, American shoppers are increasingly looking for qualities that Wal-Mart has trouble providing. “For the first time in a long time, quality has a chance to gain on price,” says Lee Peterson, a vice president at Dublin, Ohio-based brand consulting firm WD Partners Inc.

Now, the big-name brands that fueled Wal-Mart’s climb to the top are forging exclusive distribution deals with other retailers, or working to reduce their reliance on its stores. PepsiCo Inc., which favored mass-market campaigns a decade ago, recently skipped Wal-Mart when launching a new energy drink in favor of Whole Foods Market Inc. Consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble Co. gets 15% of its revenue from Wal-Mart, down three percentage points from 2003.

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