Wal-Mart Canada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wal-Mart Canada is the Canadian unit of Wal-Mart and was founded in 1994 in Mississauga, Ontario with the purchase of the Canadian Woolco stores.
Beginning in the fall of 2006, Wal-Mart opened new Supercentres in select Canadian cities with 14 new stores by the end of 2007. Sam's Club locations already carry limited grocery items in Canada.
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[edit] History
Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Wal-Mart Canada was established in 1994 with the acquisition of the Woolco Canada chain of 122 stores.
[edit] Stores
- 273 stores - plans to open 15-20 stores each year / 122 former Woolco locations
- 6 Sam's Clubs
- 7 Wal-Mart Supercentres
- 70,000 employees
[edit] Top 3 stores in Canada
- 3055-Square One Mall-100 City Centre Drive, Mississauga
- 3012-Marlborough Mall-Memorial Drive and 36th Street, Calgary
- 3029-South Edmonton Common-9717-21ST AVENUE N.W., Edmonton
[edit] Community Involvement
- Raised and donated $3 million to Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) to support children's hospitals across Canada.
- Contributed $2.9 million to more than 1,000 local non-profit organizations through Wal-Mart's Local Matching Grant program.
- Raised and contributed $865,000 million for the Breakfast for Learning Canada program, a school nutrition program and partnership with a goal to ensure all school children attend class well nourished and ready to learn.
- Became the top corporate sponsor of the Canadian Red Cross, with $1 million in relief aid related to Hurricane Katrina, the India earthquake and other projects.
- Donated $300,000 to Evergreen, a Canadian non-profit environmental organization to help community groups create and improve green space in urban areas across the country.
- Awarded $115,000 in scholarships to Canadian university and college students.
- Supported 150 Canadian schools through a number of programs including Wal-Mart Canada's Adopt-a School program.
[edit] Supercentres in Canada
With the success of both Wal-Mart in Canada and Wal-Mart Supercenters in the United States, it was announced in late 2005 that the Supercenter (or, in Canadian English, Supercentre) concept would be arriving in Canada. On November 8, 2006, Canada's first three Supercentres opened in Ancaster, London, and Stouffville in Ontario. Wal-Mart already has plans to open up to 14 new Supercentres in 2007.
[edit] Controversy
Wal-Mart is often criticized by many people because they claim it has low labour standards and drives local and small businesses out of business because they can offer very low prices (because it is a huge international chain).
A documentary, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" (a Robert Greenwald Film; BraveNew Films), was released in 2005 highlighting the criticisms of the international chain.
Please see Wikipedia file: Criticism of Wal-Mart for more information
In June of 2006 Wal-Mart launched a marketing push aimed at residents of Quebec. The stated goal - highlighting Quebec-based suppliers has been seen by some as highly cynical. A conversation with a Wal-Mart spokesperson on http://bustedwrench.com points to some of the inconsistencies in the program
