Wal Mart

During her lunch break yesterday, Isabel Arana left her sales counter in the ladies apparel department of the Bradlees store here and hurried across the Liberty Square shopping center - to Wal-Mart. She wasn't being disloyal. Arana and several of her colleagues, joined by about 45 other members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, went over to tell potential Wal-Mart shoppers to go to Bradlees instead. Members of the union have been exercised ever since the nonunion retail giant with a reputation for undercutting prices and wages opened at Liberty Square in January.

After two years of wrangling with the township, private citizens, unions and other business owners, Wal-Mart is set to come to Warminster. Well, almost set. A lawsuit against Wal-Mart by the owners of Center Point Place shopping center is still pending over the proposed 117,000-square-foot store at the corner of Street and Jacksonville Roads. However, Wal-Mart attorney Jordan Warshaw said he didn't think the suit would stop the development. Chris Chandor, the attorney for the owners of Center Point, said the reason behind the suit is that the township gave Wal-Mart zoning variances that Center Point had been denied.

Wal-Mart, America's largest retailer, has set its sights on the Kennett Square area. The discount giant has signed an agreement of sale with Peter Alonzo Jr. for about 16 acres in East Marlborough Township, on Route 1 northeast of Kennett Square. But a Wal-Mart spokesman said there was no information on the agreement and he could not comment on company plans for the property. There are 1,853 Wal-Mart stores and 256 Sam's Clubs - a discount buying club owned by Wal-Mart - in 45 states and Puerto Rico.

Last week's opening of a Wal-Mart department store at the Liberty Square shopping center on Route 541 has aroused concerns among members of a union that represents employees at other area stores. While union officials said they would not try to unionize the nonunion Wal- Mart, they voiced concern that the discount giant might drive other stores out of business. The officials said they planned to launch a campaign to persuade people not to abandon existing stores. "This is not a union issue," said Susan Michielli, an organizer with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1360 in Berlin.

After two years of wrangling with the township, private citizens, unions and other business owners, Wal-Mart is set to come to Warminster. Well, almost set. A lawsuit against Wal-Mart by the owners of Center Point Place shopping center is still pending over the proposed 117,000-square-foot store at the corner of Street and Jacksonville Roads. However, Wal-Mart attorney Jordan Warshaw said he didn't think the suit would stop the development. Chris Chandor, the attorney for the owners of Center Point, said the reason behind the suit is that the township gave Wal-Mart zoning variances that Center Point had been denied.

PennDot has conditionally approved a controversial plan for safety improvements on Route 1 near the proposed site of a Wal-Mart store. After two years of arguing over whether a left-turn lane should be built on the stretch of road in front of the Longwood Inn and the proposed Wal-Mart, supervisors last month approved a plan that was drawn up in 1988, before Wal- Mart entered the picture. The plan would allow two jug-handle turns and a widened median strip that could be removed to form a left-turn lane if one is approved in the future.

The three Republicans seeking re-election to the Township Council are in their mid-40s - or older. Their Democratic challengers are all in their 30s. Age is the most obvious of the issues defining the race, but not the most contentious by a long shot. Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the council. The loss of a single seat would flip control to the Democrats. In a booming if controversial period of development in the Deptford Mall retail complex, stakes are as high as in any area election.

IAGREE WITH your editorial on Wal-Mart and how it treats its employees. Wal-Mart, while employing many, is a detriment to the small-business owner. It is a symbol of our dwindling culture, and its TV ads that tout Americana and down-home values are nauseatingly contrived. But "Sprawl-Mart" and other companies should not be forced to offer the health benefits cited in your editorial. The market should regulate Wal-Mart's bad policies: employees should find other jobs at places that pay better and offer better benefits, then Wal-Mart will be forced to pay more and offer better benefits in order to compete.

It was a cross between a camp meeting and a high-school pep rally: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer, yesterday celebrated the opening of its first store in the Philadelphia area. At the Turnersville store in the Cross Keys Commons shopping center, department managers led 100 salespeople in a cheer, spelling out W-A-L-M-A-R- T. "What's that spell?" "Wal-Mart!" "Louder!" "Who's number one?" "The customer!" And the new workers bowed their heads as assistant store manager Tom Mascerello gave an invocation, thanking God for the "opening of our Wal-Mart store and for our jobs.

After a protracted two-year effort that included skirmishes with private citizens, unions, and other business owners, Wal-Mart is coming to town. Construction on the 170,000-square-foot store on Street Road near Jacksonville Road began Monday. The owners of neighboring Center Point Place Shopping Center had filed suit against the township, saying that Wal-Mart was given special zoning variances that Center Point had been denied. According to Wal-Mart attorney Jordan Warshaw, the suit has since been dropped.

An African American shopper who says he suffers emotional distress and mental afflictions caused by a racist intercom announcement he heard two years ago at a Wal-Mart store in Washington Township, Gloucester County, is suing the retail giant for $1 million. Donnell Battie, 35, of Winslow Township, was in the crowded store on Route 42 the evening of March 14, 2010, when a male voice said over the loudspeaker: "Attention Wal-Mart customers, all black people must leave the store.

In Friday's issue, parts of this story were garbled or left out because of a production error. The entire story is reprinted here.   It was Joyce Parker's final wish. As the original Miss Tootsie - whose premier soul-food restaurant at 13th and South bore her nickname - lay dying of pancreatic cancer last year, she made her son, Keven, promise to "get the work done. " Keven understood exactly what she meant. Giving back was always in Joyce Parker's DNA. Even before there was a Miss Tootsie's - which Keven has since expanded and transformed from a neighborhood spot into the luxe Miss Tootsie's Restaurant Bar Lounge - Joyce would find a way to help those in need.

WASHINGTON - The Senate rejected a Republican attempt Tuesday to overturn new regulations designed to give unions quicker representation elections in their effort to organize more workplaces. The 54-45, largely party line vote against a resolution of disapproval leaves intact National Labor Relations Board rules that are scheduled to take effect April 30. Among Philadelphia-area senators, only Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) supported the resolution. Unions had sought the rules changes while business groups opposed them.

N EED A JOB? City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson will be holding a job fair from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday with more than 50 employers at the Myers Recreation Center on Kingsessing Avenue near 58th Street, Southwest Philadelphia. Participating employers include the Philadelphia Fire Department, the state Department of Transportation, the Philadelphia Gas Works, Wal-Mart and more. The fair is sponsored by the African American Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

Cute as a button, this new portable food warmer from Crock-Pot guarantees a hot lunch by slowly, gently reheating last night's leftovers. Keep the base on your desk for daily use, and tote the spill-proof inner lining to and from home, or grab the whole pot for al fresco dining. Crock-Pot LunchCrock food warmer, $24.99, at Wal-Mart or crockpot.com . — Ashley Primis

In late August, Charles Palmer ate cantaloupe bought at a Wal-Mart store in Colorado. Two weeks later, he began feeling sick, then became unresponsive and was rushed to a hospital where doctors diagnosed a listeria infection. Now the 71-year-old retired Marine isn't just suing Granada, Colo.-based Jensen Farms, which grew the tainted cantaloupe that he says sickened him. He's also suing Wal-Mart for selling the fruit. Fallout from the outbreak that has killed 29 Americans is broadening to other major retailers that sold the tainted produce and is spurring a national debate on the role groceries and stores should play in making the food-supply chain safe.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Wednesday announced a multibillion-dollar women's initiative, three months after winning dismissal of a sexual-discrimination case from the U.S. Supreme Court. The plan includes buying $20 billion of products from businesses owned by American women in the next five years and training to sharpen the skills of 60,000 women working in factories that supply products to Wal-Mart and other merchants. And it plans to teach life skills - from punctuality to financial literacy - to 200,000 women overseas and to 200,000 low-income women in the United States.

NEW YORK - Consumers might not be confident, but the stores that sell to them certainly seem to be. Wal-Mart and Home Depot, two of the nation's largest retailers and bellwethers of the U.S. economy, on Tuesday joined a string of other merchants that have raised their outlooks for the year despite a flow of bad economic news that suggests they have no reason to be optimistic. TJX Cos., which owns TJ Maxx and Marshall's; Macy's Inc.; Kohl's Corp.; and Nordstrom Inc. have all boosted their profit outlooks in the last week.

By throwing out the largest employment discrimination case in U.S. history, a gender-bias complaint against retail giant Wal-Mart, the Supreme Court has set a daunting precedent for future class-action suits against large corporations. The court appeared to be technically correct in ruling Monday that the claims of nearly 1.5 million women, who cited statistical evidence of lower wages and fewer promotions, could not be consolidated against Wal-Mart. All nine justices agreed that the class-action rules under which the case went forward didn't apply to monetary claims.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court blocked the largest sex-discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history yesterday, siding with Wal-Mart and against up to 1.6 million female workers in a decision that makes it harder to mount large-scale bias claims against the nation's other huge companies, too. The justices all agreed that the lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. could not proceed as a class action in its current form, reversing a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit...