I'm not a big fan of Wal Mart's hard-ball business ethos.

I would strongly disagree with the view that good business practice is based on the premise of maximizing profits at any cost, and I've owned and run a reasonably successful business for 27 years. Now granted, mine is much (much) smaller than Wal Mart (hey, whose isn't?), but it's certainly easy enough to survive financially when each exchange of money is viewed as a win-win (I win, You Win)opportunity rather than an "I win, You Lose" proposition. You also sleep a hell of a lot better at night.

While I would agree that it's laudable to avoid patronizing ANY business you regard as a predator, regardless of whether it's preying on it's suppliers, it's customers or it's employees, I'm afraid I view it as rather unfair to single out Wal Mart for this distinction.

If I avoid Wal Mart because it has been painted in the media as a ruthless beast, how do I know the alternative stores are any better?
Is K-Mart, IKEA, Safeway, Costco, or whatever a better corporate citizen, or are they equally ruthless but with their sins merely less well known? In my town there are some "mom and pop" operations who would take you for every last dime if you were to give them half a chance.

Wal Mart makes an easy target becuase of it's size, but making certain we're spending our dollars only with responsible corporations, big or small, requires a lot more time and expertise than most of us possess.