Discount折扣 stores sell goods at low prices. They succeed only if they sell a lot of goods and keep their costs low. One company has succeeded beyond imagination. Wal-Mart is bigger than any competitor竞争者.It has more than 4 000 stores in the United States and 9 other countries. It has more than 1 million workers. It is America's largest private employer. Wal-Mart reported sales of almost 260 000 million dollars in 2003.And profits利润?The company reported earnings of 9 000 million dollars that year. Sam萨姆 Walton沃尔顿 opened the first Wal-Mart store in 1962.He began to use computers to control the flow流动，【河水】泛滥 of goods. He reduced折扣价格 prices to levels no one thought 想法、关心possible. By 1985,Sam Walton was the richest man in America. He added some businesses and opened more Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Marts are big stores. They sell just about everything. Wal-Mart Supercenters特大购物中心 are even bigger. They include a market full of food. Other food stores are worried. So are labor unions工会 in that industry. To keep labor costs劳动成本 low, Wal-Mart has worked hard to prevent预防 its employees from joining a union联盟.The company has faced面临 legal法律上的 actions over some of its employment activities. But labor劳动 is not the only issue. Critics评论家，批评家 say Wal-Marts ruin small businesses and replace them with low-paying jobs. Wal-Mart denies否认 this happens. It says people save money which they can spend on other things.
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