Gig Economy & Retail Stores

Toxics in the United States that are dumped in other countries may come back to haunt U.S. consumers. This blog item provides links to studies and new films on this impact, as well as some alternatives. Read More

A battle over Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s effort to get into financial services might derail the growth of company-owned banks, as well as Utah's ambitions to become to such lenders what Delaware is to corporations. Read More

A consumer group is suing the operator of the KFC to try to stop it from frying foods in an artery-clogging trans fat. Read More

Three former top officers of Buca Inc., an operator of Italian restaurants, have agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud charges in connection with a scheme to create false profits for Buca and allow executives to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for a wide range of expenses including the use of an Italian villa and visits to strip clubs. Read More

Every October, some 50 former Home Depot managers, calling themselves the Former Orange-Blooded Executives, after the home-improvement chain's trademark bright orange color, gather in Atlanta to reminisce, chat about new jobs and pass around pictures of their children. Read More

Shopping in a Target store, you know you're not in Wal-Mart. But, critics say that in terms of working conditions, sweatshop-style foreign suppliers, and effects on local retail communities, big box Target stores are very much like Wal-Mart, just in a prettier package. Read More

Wal-Mart said it will build the stores in neighborhoods with high crime or unemployment rates, on sites that are environmentally contaminated, or in vacant buildings or malls in need of revitalization. Read More

Skyrocketing energy prices propelled ExxonMobil (XOM) to the top of the 2006 Fortune 500 list, and consigned Wal-Mart (WMT) to the No. 2 spot on the magazine's annual ranking of the nation's largest publicly traded companies. Read More

Wanted: two people to help defend the nation's largest retailer against critics. Requirements: plenty of experience managing a crisis. Read More

One of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s most vociferous critics launched a campaign Tuesday with 17 current and former Wal-Mart workers speaking out against health insurance coverage they claim is too expensive, leaving them uninsured or on taxpayer funded programs. Read More