Interesting Facts

Allegedly, the two biggest welfare recipients in America today are Wal-Mart and McDonald's. (So, how does that work out?  Well, according to a report in Bloomberg, American fast food workers received more than $7 billion dollars in public assistance between 2007 and 2011. McDonald's even had a “McResource” line that helped employees and their families enroll in various state and local assistance programs. It exploded into the public when a recording advocated that full-time employees sign up for food stamps and welfare, and has since been closed down. According to the same report, Wal-Mart employees are the largest group of Medicaid recipients. They are also the single biggest group of food stamp recipients. Wal-mart’s "associates" are paid so little, according to Congressman Alan Grayson, that they receive $1,000 on average in public assistance. Once upon a time, if you were unemployed you needed financial help.  Working hard and still needing government hando...

Wal-mart employs more than 2.1 million 'associates' (I think they mean people) worldwide, including more than 1.4 million in the United States. (It is not only one of the largest private employers in the U.S., but the largest in Mexico and one of the largest in Canada. It is a diverse employer with more than 257,000 African-American 'associates'; more than 41,000 Asian and 5,900 Pacific Islander 'associates'; more than 171,000 Hispanic 'associates'; more than 16,000 American Indian and Alaskan Native 'associates'; more than 869,000 women; and more than 430,000 mature 'associates' who are 50 and older. But, according to the UFCW (the United Food and Commercial Workers Union), more than half of Wal-Mart’s U.S. employees leave the company each year. That's some turnover!)

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. It is also the largest corporation and private employer in the United States. (Yes, in England it might feel as if Tescos is, but Wal-Mart is way ahead of them. In the U.S., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates more than 4,300 facilities including Walmart supercenters, discount stores, Neighborhood Markets and Sam’s Club warehouses. Internationally, Wal-mart operates more than 4,000 additional stores in 15 markets worldwide, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile’, China, Costa Rica.)

According to the Evening Standard, only four postcodes in the UK do not have a Tesco. They are the Outer Hebrides, the Shetlands, Orkney and Harrogate. (Tesco plc is a United Kingdom-based international supermarket chain. It is the largest British retailer by both global sales and domestic market share, the world's third-largest grocery retailer, and is the fourth-largest retailer behind Wal-Mart of the United States, Carrefour of France, and The Home Depot of the United States. As of 25 February 2006, there were 1,897 outlets in the UK, covering a total of 25.9 million sq ft.)