Welcome to the 36th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Last week, I looked at the China supplier situation with Wal-Mart insofar as how the retailer is even squeezing the cost penny pinchers in China too far. The gist was this: Several major Chinese-based good suppliers seem to believe that they cannot make enough profit due to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) constantly lowering prices.

The retailer lowered price on over 15,000 items to kick off the holiday shopping season just recently, and that probably was the sign on the wall in China. As in, "speak up now or forever hold your peace." When Chinese suppliers start nagging the world's largest retailer to either keep prices steady or, gasp, to actually raise some prices a bit, the writing is on the wall. Wal-Mart's "always low prices" may start to mean "way too low prices" -- well, you get the idea.

This week, I'll be looking at the communication chain Wal-Mart has when it comes to communication highly time-sensitive information to store managers, regions and even consumers. And, I have a great example of this process from just this week. Read on.

Welcome to the 27th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

This past week, I discussed Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) possible move away from the "do it all" Supercenter and toward smaller and more customizable stores. Customers are wanting a more personal, customized experience when shopping these days, and the "circus bazaar" shopping feeling a standard Wal-Mart Supercenter gives off is falling out of favor.

But, that's been Wal-Mart's bread-and-butter recipe for growth since the early 1990s -- and the retailer shouldn't alter this successful recipe just because it's growth has slowed. Tell that to investors, though. The market continually clamors for more growth, and this is causing Wal-Mart to look at other store formats to make that growth happen.

Welcome to the 23rd installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

A little over a week ago, I discussed how Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has such a tight supplier relationship with China that it is exposing itself to possible consumer backlash in the wake of growing concern over the quality of Chinese goods from just about every conceivable angle. From tainted dog food to industrial chemical-infected toothpaste, China's imports, and indeed the entire country, is under the quality microscope as never before.

So this week, we'll return to a familiar theme when it comes to the world's largest retailer: the paying of wages and the hiring of young employees against not only labor laws, but against the backdrop of being a good and decent global employer. Wal-Mart's employment practices have been under fire in the U.S., and now Mexico may be joining that club. Read on.

Welcome to the 22nd installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Last week I discussed how Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) interacts with smaller suppliers and vendors. The pricing and supply demands of the world's largest retailer sometimes are a little too much to bear for many smaller suppliers, no matter how much business each of them stands to gain from a new retail relationship with Wal-Mart.

It's a Catch-22: give the retailer much of your business and you relinquish quite a bit of control over the way you run your business, from cost-sensitive manufacturing locations to yearly price reduction requests that are hard to meet. Don't give the retailer your business and watch the competition swallow you whole in many cases. Many innovative suppliers find a solution to that, and those are truly forward-thinking companies. In the case of shifting manufacturing locations to countries such as China, what are the pitfalls of a strategy like that? Many, but the huge quest for ever-lower prices by Wal-Mart's core customer won't bring on changes any time soon. Well, maybe.