Wal-mart: Loved Financially, Hated Socially

In Colorado, where Wal-Mart is the largest employer, "anti-Wal-Martism is relatively new, having seriously made its appearance only within the past year." However, the "anti-Wal-Mart sentiment has gone beyond simple protest to become a social phenomenon. Outrage against the store is politically energizing neighborhoods. It is introducing neighbor to neighbor--in a sense, binding the communities that opponents of the retailer argue Wal-Mart would destroy....Hate of Wal-Mart cuts across all geographic and demographic areas, from inner cities to rural towns to affluent suburbs." One business history scholar commented that the current outrage "resembles that against Standard Oil in the late 1800s."