This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English EconomicsReport.

Discount stores sell goods at lowprices. They succeed only if they sell a lot of goods and keep theircosts low. One company has succeeded beyond imagination.

Wal-Mart is bigger than any competitor. It has more thanfour-thousand stores in the United States and nine other countries.It has more than one-million workers. It is America's largestprivate employer.

Wal-Mart reported sales of almosttwo-hundred-sixty-thousand-million dollars last year. And profits?The company reported earnings of nine-thousand-million dollars lastyear.

Sam Walton recognized the power of low prices. He owned fifteenstores in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma before he began Wal-Mart.

Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store in nineteen-sixty-two.He began to use computers to control the flow of goods. He reducedprices to levels no one thought possible.

By nineteen-eighty-five, Sam Walton was the richest man inAmerica. He added businesses like Sam's Club membership stores. Andhe opened more Wal-Mart stores.

Wal-Marts are big stores. They sell just about anything. Wal-MartSupercenters are even bigger. They include a market full of food.Other food stores are worried. So are labor unions in that industry.

To keep labor costs low, Wal-Mart has worked hard to prevent itsemployees from joining a union. The company has faced legal actionsover some of its employment activities.

And, last October, federal immigration agents raided sixtyWal-Mart stores. They arrested more than two-hundred night cleaningworkers who were in the country illegally. Wal-Mart noted that anindependent company employed them. But labor is not the only issue.

Recently, the Los Angeles City Council began to consider apossible ban on huge stores like Wal-Mart Supercenters. Critics sayWal-Marts ruin small businesses and replace them with low-payingjobs. Wal-Mart denies this happens. It says people save money whichthey can spend on other things.

Sam Walton died in nineteen-ninety-two. He urged people to buyAmerican products to save jobs and to control the trade deficit.Today many goods are made in China. Wal-Mart says it believes inbuying American goods and is willing to pay more to offer them. But,it says, it cannot tell people what to buy.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by MarioRitter. This is Bob Doughty.