Wrestling with Wal-Mart: Tradeoffs Between Profits, Prices, and Wages
By Jared Bernstein, Josh Bivens, and Arindrajit Dube
Economic Policy Institute, June 15, 2006

This analysis refutes the findings of a 2005 study by Global Insights (GI) that found that Wal-Mart saves U.S. consumers $263 billion annually, or $2,329 for the average household. The Economic Policy Institute concludes that the GI study is "fraught with problems." It identifies major internal inconsistencies in GI's figures and finds that the firm's statistical analysis "fails the most rudimentary sensitivity checks." The authors state, "Once we addressed these weaknesses the statistical and practical significance of Wal-Mart's price effects effectively vanished."

Time to Switch Drugstores?
Consumer Reports, October 2003.

"If you're among the 47 percent of Americans who get medicine from drugstore giants such as CVS, Eckerd, and Rite Aid, here's a prescription: Try shopping somewhere else. The best place to start looking is one of the 25,000 independent pharmacies that are making a comeback throughout the U.S." opens this article, which presents the results of a year-long survey of more than 32,000 readers about their drugstore experiences. The survey found that, by "an eye-popping margin," independent drugstores outranked all other pharmacies-- --including drugstore chains, supermarkets, mass merchandisers (e.g., Wal-Mart), and internet companies---in terms of providing personal attention, offering health services such as in-store screenings, filling prescriptions quickly, supplying hard-to-find drugs, and obtaining out-of-stock medications within 24 hours. Prices at independent pharmacies were lower than at chain pharmacies, but higher than at mass merchandisers and internet companies.

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