• Wal-Mart has announced that when it opens a new store next week in Sao Paulo, Brazil, it will become the company’s 3,000th store outside the US – by any measurement, a significant milestone.
Since opening its first international store in Mexico in 1991, the Wal-Mart International Division has grown to become a $77.1 billion business that, standing alone, would rank as the world's fifth largest retailer in terms of sales revenue.
According to a statement released by the company, the new Sao Paulo supercenter will “incorporate many sustainability features in its design. For example, a plant preservation area will feature 170 plant species from the Mata Atlantica, a Brazilian region threatened of extinction by deforestation. Three adult trees were transplanted to the store site, two Jerivas, a type of Brazilian palm tree native to the Mata Atlantica, and an avocado tree. The store facade will feature a ‘green wall,’ covered in climbing plants, contributing toward better integration of the building with the surrounding landscape. Two sewage treatment stations were built at the store site for water reutilization in the store's toilets and for garden irrigation. In the store's parking lot, a mixture of concrete and grass was used to allow better rainwater absorption, and therefore make it less disruptive to the environment.”
• When Wal-Mart lost a class action suit in Pennsylvania case that charged it with forcing employees to work off the clock, it was ordered to pay roughly $140 million in penalties. But now, the retailer may have to dig even deeper – because it also has been ordered to pay the legal fees and expenses, plus interest, for the lawyers who represented the plaintiffs. The new bottom line: $187.6 million.
Since opening its first international store in Mexico in 1991, the Wal-Mart International Division has grown to become a $77.1 billion business that, standing alone, would rank as the world's fifth largest retailer in terms of sales revenue.
According to a statement released by the company, the new Sao Paulo supercenter will “incorporate many sustainability features in its design. For example, a plant preservation area will feature 170 plant species from the Mata Atlantica, a Brazilian region threatened of extinction by deforestation. Three adult trees were transplanted to the store site, two Jerivas, a type of Brazilian palm tree native to the Mata Atlantica, and an avocado tree. The store facade will feature a ‘green wall,’ covered in climbing plants, contributing toward better integration of the building with the surrounding landscape. Two sewage treatment stations were built at the store site for water reutilization in the store's toilets and for garden irrigation. In the store's parking lot, a mixture of concrete and grass was used to allow better rainwater absorption, and therefore make it less disruptive to the environment.”
• When Wal-Mart lost a class action suit in Pennsylvania case that charged it with forcing employees to work off the clock, it was ordered to pay roughly $140 million in penalties. But now, the retailer may have to dig even deeper – because it also has been ordered to pay the legal fees and expenses, plus interest, for the lawyers who represented the plaintiffs. The new bottom line: $187.6 million.
- KC's View:
