Studies

Taking The High Road: How the City of New York Can Create Thousands of Good Retail Jobs Through Neighborhood Rezoning
In 2014, Mayor de Blasio announced a plan to redevelop multiple neighborhoods across the five boroughs through an elaborate rezoning effort that will include a significant retail component. ‘Taking the High Road’ demonstrates how advocates and decision-makers can use the rezonings to advance a set of job quality standards that are overdue in the retail industry, and how doing so will not only serve to keep Walmart and its entire business model out of NYC, but will also pave the way for the progressive business model our city needs and deserves.

Low-Wage Rage: How Walmart and the Walton Family Harm New York City’s Workforce
Brought to you by Walmart-Free NYC. Low-Wage Rage demonstrates how New York’s workforce suffers in a low-wage economy created by Walmart and the Walton family. We conclude that Walmart can treat its workers better, and offer specific recommendations for Walmart and other low-wage employers.

How Walmart is Dodging Billions in Taxes: And Scheming to Avoid Billions More
This new Americans for Tax Fairness report exposes how Walmart uses tax breaks to dodge a whopping $1 billion in federal taxes each year, on average. It also shows how Walmart is working behind the scenes to help lower the U.S. corporate tax rate to 25%, which would allow Walmart to cut its tax bill another $720 million a year, on average.

Retail Politics: How America’S Big-Box Retailers Turn Their Economic Power Into Political Influence
The political spending of the country’s largest big-box retailers demonstrates how firms with low-wage business models turn massive profits into political leverage, embedding the inequality they perpetuate in the economy into the political system. This report examines the federal campaign spending and lobbying of the nation’s top earning big-box retailers, and finds that it is large and growing, and targeted at maintaining their economic power through political influence.

Walmart’s Hunger Games: How America’s Largest Employer and Richest Family Worsen the Hunger Crisis
New report from Eat Drink Politics shows how the nation’s largest retailer is a poverty incubator, contributing to the hunger crisis in America while Walmart and the Walton family get richer.

Wal-Mart’s Economic Footprint: A Literature Review
Prepared by Hunter College Center for Community Planning & Development and New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, the report analyzes economic impact Walmart will have on New York communities.

The Walmartization of New York City
Having saturated rural and suburban markets and losing market share for the first time in its history, Walmart is spending millions to break into urban markets like New York City in order to continue growing. But what would be the costs to NYC of Walmart’s continued growth?

This report by ALIGN’s Josh Kellermann and CUNY’s Stephanie Luce suggests that Walmart’s likely plans for expansion in NYC would dramatically shift the city’s entire retail landscape for the worse.

The Impact of an Urban Wal-Mart Store on Area Businesses: An Evaluation of One Chicago Neighborhood’s Experience
The opening of a Walmart store in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood in 2006 has not increased retail activity or employment opportunities, according to a study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Loyola University Chicago.  The study found that stores near Walmart were more likely to go out of business, eliminating the equivalent of about 300 full-time jobs — about as many as Walmart initially added to the area.  The findings support the contention that urban Walmart stores absorb sales from other city stores without significantly expanding the market, said study co-author David Merriman, head of the UIC department of economics and professor of public administration.

Walmart on Tax Day: How Taxpayers Subsidize America’s Biggest Employer and Richest Family
Millions of American people and small businesses pay their fair share of taxes — but every Tax Day, they’re getting stuck with a multi-billion dollar tax bill to cover the massive subsidies and tax breaks that benefit the country’s largest employer and richest family: Walmart. This report delves into the subsidies and tax breaks that further boost Walmart’s corporate profits and the family’s already massive wealth — at everyone else’s expense.

Report: The Phony Philanthropy of the Walmart Heirs

Based on an analysis of 23 annual tax returns filed by the Walton Family Foundation, this report shows that, if the Foundation is their primary vehicle for giving, the Waltons give much less generously than their billionaire peers and ordinary Americans.

 

Related Campaigns

 

OUR Walmart: http://www.forrespect.org/
OUR Walmart works to ensure that every Associate, regardless of his or her title, age, race, or sex, is respected at Walmart. We join together to offer strength and support in addressing the challenges that arise in our stores and our company everyday. 

Making Change at Walmart: http://www.makingchangeatwalmart.org/
Our vision for American workers – in grocery, retail, and in our communities – is respect and dignity at jobs that pay fairly and guarantee workers a voice.

The Walmart 1%: http://walmart1percent.org/
Want to meet the people behind the world’s largest corporation? Welcome to the Walmart 1 Percent, where you’ll find in-depth information on the Walton family and the other people behind the Walmart empire.

The Walmart Economy: http://walmarteconomy.com
Real stories of struggling to get by in the Walmart economy.

Big Box Tool Kit: http://www.bigboxtoolkit.com/
Big Box Tool Kit has the resources you’ll need to both beat the big box and to chart a new course for economic development in your community.