The Wal-Mart Supercenter at the Crossroads Towne Center is setting the trend for Wal-Marts across the East Valley and across the nation, according to officials with the retail giant.

Wal-Mart Corp. has begun a “grass roots” effort to gather support from its Gilbert shoppers.

Wal-Mart Corp. has begun a “grass roots” effort to gather support from its Gilbert shoppers.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - After watching its sales momentum surge over the past four decades, Wal-Mart Stores now finds it has to work harder to grow — with 3,900 stores nearly saturating the U.S. market, it’s the company’s sales strategy, not new retail outlets, that will determine Wal-Mart’s future.

TAMPA, Fla. - It’s not a union, but some Wal-Mart workers say it might be the next best thing. Searching for a voice in their work lives, employees of some central Florida Wal-Mart stores have formed a workers group to collectively air complaints about what they claim is shoddy treatment by the retail giant.

In the Aug. 9 edition of the Tribune, Jim McLaughlin, president of Local 99 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, wrote a column that suggested Wal-Mart spends all its time thinking up ways to rip off taxpayers and oppress its workers.

April 9, 2005

Wal-Mart has joined the Riverview at Dobson developer and an Ernst and Young representative in drafting a letter that emphatically denies the company will receive incentives at the Mesa site.

September 14, 2004

Wal-Mart wants to build another Supercenter store in Mesa — two miles down the road from an existing one.

LITTLE ROCK - Wal-Mart Stores, stung by allegations that it knew contract cleaning services used illegal workers, said Friday it would review all of its 1.1 million U.S. workers and fire any that aren’t legally employed.

Wal-Mart development applications in the East Valley have led to neighborhood protests, terminated applications and a referendum, but resistance to the latest Gilbert proposal has been nonexistent.