Wal-Mart
Here is an interesting post on Wal-Mart over at Truck and Barter. The city of Los Angeles is trying to decide whether or not to allow Wal-Mart to build a supercenter inside LA's boundaries. Here is the money quote from Wal-Mart:

"Wal-Mart will build Supercenters to serve residents of the City of los Angeles. The real choice, therefore, is not between Wal-Mart and no Wal-Mart. Rather, the choice is whether Wal-Mart will serve Los Angeles residents from within the city's boundaries or from without..."

In my job I do some work with the folks at Wal-Mart and while they are generally nice people, you basically have to do whatever the fuck they tell you to, and quickly. They are so big that they are in a position to bully their suppliers, which they do. I typically don't shop at Wal-Mart, mostly from a convenience standpoint (its too far), but more and more by choice.

I recently read this Fortune article about Costco, "The Only Company Wal-Mart Fears", which provides some hope for people who believe that you can pay your people well and beat Wal-Mart. Although it still isn't clear whether Costco can fully satisfy their customers, employees and shareholders at the same time.