Is Wal-Mart Satan In Bentonville Arkansas?

There is a church every quarter mile on the main highway to Bentonville. They range in architecture from grand edifices to single wide trailers. This is not a wealthy town, (with the exception of Sam Walton's heirs) but you wouldn't know it from the number of churches all over town. I mean if you are a Baptist, why do you need so many baptist churches, can't they get together and build one or two churches for everyone?

Sam Walton, by the way, was not all that religious. He moved to Bentonville because of his wife's wish to live in a small town and the availability of a dime store on the town square that was for sale at the time. There is a lot of new money in Bentonville and that helps to explain the number of churches around town. A lot of the new money came in after the death of Sam Walton in 1992. Vendors who sell their wares to Wal-Mart, and let's face it Wal-Mart buys by the trainload, started to locate their offices in Bentonville. Before that, it was taboo to flaunt wealth, so there were no ostentatious churches before old Sam died.

As stated above the number of vendors moving into Bentonville has changed the town for better or worse. The vendors have no reason to follow Sam Walton's rules, he's dead and they don't work for Wal-mart in the first place. They have churches that rival european cathedrals now, and the congregations are more affluent, better educated and likely to have more disposable income than the original residents of the town. The churches are bastions of righteousness and good. They represent the defenders of the faith. Where there is good, there must be evil, and Wal-Mart in the role of evil fits the bill!

The 2004 photo shown above is of toxic herbicide and fungicide stored next to a storm drain. This stuff was removed after much controversy. However the practice of storing toxic chemicals in their parking lots may be continuing. They have a ton of toxic chemicals in the parking lot of the Wal Mart super store near my home, all near storm drains.

Wal-Mart claims to have an excellent record on environmental issues. Is this the truth, or just corporate hype? The following is some of Wal-Mart's environmental record in North and South Carolina(right down the road from my home) and it appears our friends at the 'Mart' may be pulling the wool over our eyes. Read on and decide for yourself.
On January 22, 2004, the Catawba Riverkeeper prepared comments & testified as an expert witness in a conditional use permit hearing for a Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed for construction in Belmont, NC. In preparation for the hearing, the Riverkeeper conducted an investigation at Wal-Mart stores north, south, east & west of the proposed Belmont Wal-Mart site. At those regional stores, we found without exception that Wal-Mart has a practice of storing tons of lawn & garden products on pallets outdoors in the parking lot.

Some of these products are organic in nature - like peat moss & pine nuggets. Others contain chemicals that that are known to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm & are extremely toxic to aquatic life. Wal-Mart's practice of stockpiling tons of these chemicals outdoors in the open results in chemicals washing into storm drains when it rains. Storm drain collections systems eventually discharge accumulated rainwater to streams & tributaries of the Catawba River or to the river itself.

The Catawba River provides drinking water to 22 towns or cities in the 14 counties of the watershed. More than 1 million people rely on the river as the primary source of their drinking water.
Results of the Catawba Riverkeeper Investigation

January 22, 2004

At the Belmont City Council Hearing on January 22, 2004 City Council members, more than 100 members of the public, Wal-Mart representatives from corporate headquarters & attorneys representing Wal-Mart were shown pictures of the toxic chemicals stockpiled at area stores. As a result of the Catawba Riverkeeper's testimony & investigation, the city of Belmont voted to prohibit Wal-Mart from storing chemicals out in the open where rainwater can wash them into the town's public water supply. They still do!

After the hearing, the Riverkeeper spoke directly to Wal-Mart corporate representatives & requested that they contact our office to coordinate a plan for removing toxic chemicals stored in parking lots at all Wal-Marts in the Catawba River valley. They never enacted this!

January 29, 2004

After 7 days, no one from Wal-Mart had responded. The Riverkeeper® called Wal-Mart corporate offices in Arkansas on January 29, 2004 & requested Wal-Mart take immediate action to remove the toxic chemicals & fertilizers. Of course they did nothing!

January 30, 2004

Sherri McGowan, a paralegal from Wal-Mart's legal division, called back to say after two days, Wal-Mart still had not determined who was in charge of this issue at their corporation.

February 3, 2004

On February 3, because Wal-Mart still had made no substantive response to concerns about contamination of public water supplies, the Catawba Riverkeeper contacted area news media. Channel Six News of Charlotte, an NBC affiliate, did a news story about the Wal-Mart situation. It aired on the 5:30, 6:00, 11:00 PM news shows & again the next day on the early morning news edition.

Ashley Storey, an attorney representing Wal-Mart, contacted the Riverkeeper on the day the news story broke. He said that the company is still working to determine who is the best person at Wal-Mart to address these concerns.

February 5, 2004

As of February 5, 2004 at 5:00 PM, Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters still had not determined who in their operational structure will work with the Riverkeeper® to resolve this issue.

February 6, 2004

Tom Oppenheim, Wal-Mart's head of storm water services at the corporate headquarters in Arkansas & Ashley Storey, Wal-Mart's attorney, were contacted by the Riverkeeper again. They were made aware that under NC law governing storage requirements for all pesticides, Wal-Mart's practices may be illegal.

Apparently stores in the Catawba area responded quickly after viewing the local news in the area. This helped Wal-Mart to head off an inquiry into their environmental practices and possible violations of local environmental laws.

In 2009 our friends were found to have a negative impact on clean air standards in California. Read on:
Traffic generated by Walmart worsens air quality.
In May 2009, a judge in San Bernardino County, CA overturned approval of Walmart's plans to build a Supercenter in Yucca Valley, CA, stating that Walmart's proposal underestimated the large amounts of greenhouse gas, dust, and ozone pollution that the store would generate.
A review of a proposed Walmart expansion in Fairfield, CA found that greenhouse gas emissions related to the expansion would have a "significant unavoidable impact". Not to mention their habit of storing toxic chemicals near storm drains.

Wal-Mart while espousing good religious virtues, what with their censorship policies and their effort to portray themselves as good upstanding members of the community, has some issues that don't quite jibe with their efforts. They are not all that good for any community, causing small neighborhood stores to close and the pollution problems connected to storing toxic chemicals on their parking lots.

Remember Satan tempted Jesus himself and tried to get him to turn away from God, his father! Look at some of the items listed on this page and you'll see what I mean.

Keep this in mind, Satan comes in the guise of someone who will help 'save' you from your troubles. Satan is not evil looking or ugly, he would look like anyone else if he approached you. Satan offers financial gain (Wal-Mart) offers low prices. Satan exacts a toll for his help and Wal-Mart in the form of low wages and sub-standard benefits offers their employees very low return, thereby exacting a toll!

Wal-Mart has about five hundred book titles, however they sell millions of books. I mean, Barnes and Noble, a legitimate book store has sixty thousand titles and they don't sell as many books. The reason for the limited number of titles is Wal-Mart uses a kind of censorship in order to sell books that they approve of and sanction. Publishing executives have to take into account the kind of books that do well there. Wal-Mart makes around 500 million in sales annually of magazines. They demand special placement for women's titles with racy covers, and they banish some men's titles. Wal-Mart (gangster style) told record companies that the lyrics in any songs sold by Wal-Mart would have to meet with their approval. Have you noticed that small book and record stores are as rare as hen's teeth these days?

This is also one of Satan's tactics according to the Bible, they will pander to those that agree with all of their ideas and thoughts. In otherwords they only sell products they approve of and have run through their censorship program or whatever they have over there. (they certainly won't tell me anything, I got all of this stuff from research!) In other words Wal-Mart has amassed unforeseen social and cultural power. It has just about wiped out it's competition and helped empty the center of hundreds of small towns and thrives at the expense of mom-and-pop stores. I am not trying to make a comment on anything religious here, we are a country that is proud of our ability to think and act for ourselves! Wal-Mart is forcing us to buy what they would have us buy simply by forcing the little man out of the market.

Walmart does not lead to net retail job creation.
A 2007 study found that Walmart store openings reduce retail employment in a county by 2.7 percent, meaning that every Walmart worker hired at a new store effectively replaces 1.4 retail jobs.

Walmart's entry into an area depresses wages and displaces better-paying retail jobs.
Walmart's entry into a metropolitan area eliminates similar jobs that pay about 18% more than Walmart and decreases the average earnings of general merchandising workers by 0.5 to 0.8%, according to a 2005 study.

A 2007 study found that the opening of a single Walmart store lowers average retail wages in a county.
Small businesses are particularly hurt by Walmart's entry.

The presence of big box stores, such as Walmart, causes "a substantial reduction in net employment growth at smaller retailers, which is mostly accounted for by an increase in job destruction from store exit" according to a 2009 study by the U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies.

Walmart makes taxpayers pay for the consequences of its low wages.

Public assistance used by Walmart associates cost California about $86 million a year, according to a 2004 study.
Wal-Mart doesn't care what your community thinks.

In 2005, Wal-Mart real-estate manager Jeff Doss spoke about an oft-cited remark by company founder Sam Walton that Wal-Mart would not build stores in towns if the residents did not want them. "Were that the case," he (Doss) said, "we'd never build a store anywhere".
Walmart closes down stores and departments that unionize.

Walmart closed its store in Jonquiere, Quebec in April 2005 after its associates received union certification. The store became the first unionized Walmart in North America when 51 percent of the associates at the store signed union cards.
In 2000, when a small meatcutting department successfully organized a union at a Walmart store in Texas, Walmart responded a week later by announcing the phase-out of its in-store meatcutting company-wide.

Walmart has issued "A Manager's Toolbox to Remaining Union Free."
This toolbox provides managers with lists of warning signs that workers might be organizing, including "frequent meetings at associates' homes" and "associates who are never seen together start talking or associating with each other." The "Toolbox" gives managers a hotline to call so that company specialists can respond rapidly and head off any attempt by associates to organize.
Walmart is committed to an anti-union policy.
Walmart's labor law violations range from illegally firing workers who attempt to organize a union to unlawful surveillance, threats, and intimidation of associates who dare to speak out.

International NGO Human Rights Watch calls Walmart "a case study of what is wrong with American labor law." According to the report:
"Walmart's aggressive campaign to prevent union formation also creates a climate of fear at its stores."
"Walmart also has used an arsenal of tactics that violate US law and workers' internationally protected right to freedom of association."
There is a history of numerous class action lawsuits for wage and hour violations against Walmart.

Walmart reported in January 2009 that the company was involved in at least 73 class action lawsuits alleging wage-and-hour violations. According to The New York Times, the suits include allegations Walmart forced "employees to work unpaid off the clock, erased hours from time cards and prevented workers from taking lunch and other breaks that were promised by the company or guaranteed by state laws."

Walmart's settlement is worth little to workers and less to the company.
In December 2008, Walmart announced it would settle 63 of the outstanding class action suits over wage-and-hour violations for an amount between $352 million and $640 million.

Walmart's settlement represents the company's 2008 sales for a mere 13 hours and 56 minutes.
Walmart's Minnesota settlement is a raw deal for local workers.
Walmart settled a Minnesota wage-and-hour lawsuit for $54 million. Had Walmart continued with the penalty phase of the trial, they could have owed over $2 billion in penalties to the State of Minnesota.

One plaintiff, Nancy Braun, wasn't allowed bathroom breaks while working as the only server and cook at an in-store restaurant. As a result, Ms. Braun "ended up soiling herself several times."

Walmart's $54 million settlement represents the company's 2008 sales in 1 hour and 11 minutes.

Walmart is still appealing $188 million in awards to workers in Pennsylvania.

Walmart is still appealing a $188 million verdict in Pennsylvania for not providing employee meal and rest breaks.

Walmart's claim that it's a changed company is betrayed by recent lawsuits.

Two class action suits were filed as recently as the fall of 2009, and the Minnesota class action suit was accepting new plaintiffs the month before the settlement.

"Even adjusted for its size, Walmart stands out for the number of its US labor law violations."

I don't know, Wal-Mart certainly does not seem to be employee friendly, unless of course, you follow their rules and are strictly anti-union.