Boycott Wal-Mart

'interact' correspondent Kurt Graves sends in this piece on Wal-Mart's draconian tactics with suppliers. Wal-Mart bad.

a McKinsey & Co. study concluded that about 12% of the economy's productivity gains in the second half of the 1990s could be traced to Wal-Mart alone.

I've long argued that Wal-Mart is all about cheapest price and nothing else matters: worker conditions - here and overseas, the health of rural Iowa communities, environmental concerns, humane business practices. If that's you, then, by all means, keep shopping at Wal-Mart.

One corrollary to this story that I don't know the answer to is: what have been the results of NAFTA. Has the open market been good? more and more I'm hearing 'no'.