The first-ever Wal-Marts are coming soon to four retail-starved Washington, D.C. neighborhoods.  There have been lots of arguments against Wal-Mart: low, non-union wages, adverse effects on local merchants, child labor violations, predatory behavior, monopsony power, poor benefits and working conditions, traffic congestion, etc., there is even an entire Wikipedia listing for “Criticism of Wal-Mart,” but note that there are not comparable listings for “Criticism of Target” or “Criticism of Home Depot”). 

Well, Wikipedia can now add some new criticisms for Wal-Mart, based on this recent Washington Post article:

“Washington, D.C. residents worry that the store would suffer severely or even fail because of petty theft. ‘There will probably be a lot of shoplifting going on. They’ll need a lot of security,’ local resident Terriea Sutton, 35, said.

Brenda Speaks, a Ward 4 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, actually urged blocking construction of the planned store in her ward at Georgia and Missouri avenues NW partly because of that risk. Addressing a small, anti-Wal-Mart rally at City Hall last Monday, Speaks said young people would get criminal records when they couldn’t resist the temptation to steal [from Wal-Mart].”