Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has been improving its consumer electronics sections in stores for some time now as a way to better compete with national retailer Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY). Best Buy has, from what I have seen, been way more aggressive in laptop PC pricing for at least a year.

When Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) changed its corporate slogan from "Always Low Prices" to "Save Money. Live Better" over a year ago, little did the retailer know that a recession would pour many new customers into its doors for bargains. With millions of families still strapped for cash, the retailer is still booking green at a time when many retailers are seeing red on the bottom line. The question, then, becomes this: can Wal-Mart retain its newer customer legions once the economy returns to normal (whatever normal is)?

When Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) joined up with India's Bharti a few years back to bring the world's largest retailer to India, it probably thought things through very well. Of course, entering huge markets like India and China was a no-brainer for Wal-Mart, after failing in markets like South Korea and Germany. Little did Wal-Mart know that violence would someday delay its grand opening in India.

Welcome to the 102nd 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 to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has had one big, black eye in recent time that it just can't get away from: its relationship with labor. Wal-Mart's fiercest critics have pointed out many examples of the low pay, pricey health insurance, and low-end working conditions.

Are Wal-Mart workers really in that big of a bind, or does the largest retailer in the world have pay and benefit parity with all its competitors? When you're the biggest, you have the target painted on your back -- and Wal-Mart has been there for some time. However, the company has just announced a rather large bonus plan for its employees with a sizable target indeed: $2 billion dollars.

Welcome to the 101st 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 to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has been the sole shining light at retail for over a quarter now as the recession deepens and retailers see huge slowdowns in spending. More customers have "traded down" to Wal-Mart to conserve cash while buying the basic necessities and the world's largest retailer has seen consistent growth as a result.

The company, in many ways, is doing what has always worked: marketing on value. The company can try as many upscale experiments as it wants, but it is and always will be the place where the masses shop for everything they can while saving every possible penny. But Wal-Mart is not resting on the value proposition alone from recent changes I've seen. The stores are getting cleaner, less cluttered, and easier to navigate. Yes, this is a big deal.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) will hook up with PC maker Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) to enable physician offices across the U.S. to have electronic health record availability. It will also sell data information management systems to clinics and doctor's offices in cooperation with Dell. In other words, Wal-Mart may be planning to expand beyond traditional retail and into health care. Again.

Welcome to the 99th 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 to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has had a pretty good track record in clamping down on labor unionization inside its global contingent of stores. In North America, the retailer actually shut down the automotive department of a Canadian location after it unionized.

Will unions be able to ever crack the Wal-Mart barrier and sign up the retailer's employers to some kind of collective bargaining agreement? Wal-Mart's million-plus labor force would probably welcome union choice if it appeared in U.S. locations. The wages offered to many employees are not really in the realm of livable, and the retailer's critics have been extremely vocal about the company's growing sales and revenue -- even in this economy -- happening at the same time as employee wage stagnation.

So far, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has performed admirably well in the rough economic environment facing the U.S. and global consumer. 2009 is being hailed as most likely being the worst retail year in decades, but that's not stopping the world's largest retailer from planning for growth and profit, regardless of the gloomy outlook.

Welcome to the 97th 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 to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has always been about customer choice. The retailer has risen from the backwoods of Arkansas to the largest company in the world by providing the largest selection of products with the lowest arrangement of prices.

Would Wal-Mart drop incredibly popular items from its shelves -- and ones that sit near every checkout line in almost all its U.S. stores? Sounds crazy, doesn't it? But, that is what has happened to many popular magazine titles, in what will really grate on the nerves of millions of customers in the coming months.

Welcome to the 95th 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 to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) continues to rack up sales as other retailers in general continue to see waning customer response and lower sales. This is not only due to the extreme downward turn the U.S. economy has taken recently, but those same customers are also flocking to anywhere that has the lowest price.

For category after category of products, Wal-Mart's reputation as a low-price leader has never wavered since its founding in the 1960s. Wal-Mart's "Save money. Live better" marketing slogan still hints at its status as "the discounter" of all discounters. It wants to save you money so you can spend it (of course) on other things that are important to you.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has been keen on international expansion in the last 18 months or so, with its exit from some unprofitable markets and entrances into more promising ones. In recent developments, the world's largest retailer has opened an office in Moscow, Russia, amid efforts to take advantage of another significant non-U.S. opportunity for growth.

Not only that, but Wal-Mart has joined the Russian Association of Retail Companies, one of the larger trade groups in that country. Wal-Mart still has not released a public timeline regarding actually opening stores in Russia, nor has it released what kind of strategy it will have there. Although it may seem like the retailer is just getting its feet wet in another international market, it will move swiftly once it decides where it wants to go. Expect that decision sometime before the summer of 2009.

Wal-Mart's share price, which today hovers near the $48.18 mark, has not taken a beating in recent market downward trends at all. In fact, it has stayed pretty normal considering it is operating the largest retail presence on the planet, with a global economy in upheaval and the U.S. transforming its economic model to a pseudo-socialistic one in many industries. The population can't stop eating or buying clothes, though. As a result, Wal-Mart keeps benefiting and bringing its retail flair to other countries won't hurt a bit.

Welcome to the 92nd 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 to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has tried and failed in recent times. Tried to recruit a new legion of shoppers who don't make purchases on price alone and who crave environment and customized, tailored shopping experiences. Throughout 2007, these shoppers leaned more and more towards competitor Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT).

The tide changed with the financial and housing industry collapses in 2008 that brought many industries and consumers to their knees. As Wal-Mart probably knew all along, the only thing most of the U.S. consuming public cares about is price (although not many will admit it). It's reaping the rewards of growth as consumers pinch every penny they can and avoid much of retail like the plague. That is, except Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) will settle an employee class-action lawsuit for $54 million over allegations of off-the-clock work and slicing break time for employees. Over 100,000 current and former hourly Wal-Mart employees are included in the suit, which covers a 10-year period from September 1998 to November 2008.

The Minnesota judge who ruled in the case indicated that labor laws were violated by the retailer over two million times as it allowed breaks to be shortened and not taking actions against managers who forced employees to work off the clock, thereby condoning their actions.

Wal-Mart spokesperson David Tovar said that the company is committed to paying workers for all time worked, and that managers who violate its policies were subject to punishment up to and including firing. Wal-Mart's argument was that employees had missed breaks voluntarily, but Judge Robert King Jr. ruled that Wal-Mart knew about the off-the-clock work and did not take any action against it.

Wal-Mart's settlement with Minnesota comes after a similar suit in Pennsylvania, where a $78.5 million verdict was awarded in 2006, and in California's 2005 $172 million verdict claiming Wal-Mart denied lunch breaks. The retailer is appealing both cases. It did, however, settle a Colorado suit for $50 million over unpaid wages.

Welcome to the 88th 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 to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is a bit of an enigma these days: it's riding out the terrible U.S. economy in fine fashion as it grows sales and beats profit expectations. This is in the midst of one of the worst economies we've seen in a generation by some accounts.

The easy answer given by most on why Wal-Mart is excelling is due to its prevailing image of the low-cost leader. When times are tough, consumers want bargains and goods for next to nothing more than ever. Wal-Mart is more than happy to fulfill that need after a few years of trying to recruit other customer groups. Now, more than ever, all customer groups are searching for bargains, not just the prolific penny-pinchers. But what about holiday retail sales?

I have always disliked the moniker 'Black Friday.' Explaining that 'Black Friday' refers to the day that retailers go from losing money to making it strikes me as awkward -- particularly when my first instinct on hearing that phrase is to think of something very bad happening on a Friday.

Which is why today's deadly events combining shopping for the holidays and death seem so strange and sad. This morning, a Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) clerk at a store in Valley Stream, Long Island was trampled to death by a crowd of 2,000 people eager to grab bargains. "The impatient crowd knocked the man to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion," according to AP. If store cameras can identify who trampled the store clerk, criminal charges could be brought against them.

Later in the day, two people were shot dead at a Toys 'R' Us in Southern California. The Riverside Country sheriff's department reported an argument between two teenagers preceded the shooting. A third person, a male, apparently pulled out a gun, according to AP.