Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Want Love? Live in Texas? Then I'll See You at Walmart

Walmart has anything you could need. Ninety-eight-inch televisions. Formica bookshelves. Palettes of alcohols. Piles of strollers. All for under $50, and all available just down the interstate. The Waltons have perfected the pursuit of capitalism, 102.7 billion times over. They've timed their sales ... More >>

Texas Crimes of the Year, 2012

As it turns out, Texans indulged in all seven of the deadly sins.

Heights Walmart Opened Over the Weekend; Redefines "Local"

Jeff Randall, the store manager for the new Walmart that just opened on Yale Street over the weekend, is incredibly eager and affable as he leads me around the giant Supercenter that covers 150,000 square feet of retail space -- and roughly triple that in a parking lot outside that the Walmart share ... More >>

Who Grills the Best Steak? Killen and Caswell Duke it Out in the Walmart Choice Steak Challenge

What better way to spend a sunny spring afternoon than to participate in a pop-up celebrity chef challenge at your local Walmart parking lot, where the main ingredient is steak? Last Tuesday, shoppers at the Walmart Supercenter # 1409 (10750 Westview Drive) had a lucky surprise when they pulled in ... More >>

Radio Blues

The Oh-So-Charming (Alleged) Sexual Slurs At A Bonham Car Dealer

Manager obsessed with oral sex, suit says​A veteran salesperson at a Bonham car dealer has sued to company, saying a supervisor there regularly used sexually abusive language in dealing with her. The plaintiff worked for the dealership for almost 10 years; the last five of those, she says in ... More >>

Eight Businesses We Expect Will Be Getting Custom Texas License Plates Soon

​We recently wrote about a new crop of Texas license plates with a variety of themes, most of them sports related. One of the designs, however, was for the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain that isn't even based in the Lone Star State. We certainly understand the passion of a sports fan, but ... More >>

Our List of Weird Criminal Names, Part Three: The Recent Alvin Walmart Vigilante Case Was Full of Them

Not this Lawless, but also a fighter.​News of the Walmart Wahoo Vigilante rang out far and wide over the Houston area the other day, but in case you missed it, here's the story in a nutshell: Three brothers walked out of an Alvin Walmart with three cases of beer they allegedly neglected to pay ... More >>

The Heights-Montrose-Museum District Council Seat: A Checklist for Potential Candidates

Must love Jon Stewart.​The proposed new map of city council districts includes one carved out of the Heights, Montrose and the Museum District, uniting the richest, hippest, proud to be Inner Looper bunch of white people possible. If you're planning to run for the seat, here are some things y ... More >>

Cowboy Diaries: Casey Colletti -- Bareback Riding Does Not Squeeze Horses' Balls

Mandy OaklanderCasey Colletti, bareback​​True cowboys and cowgirls are hard to find, but not at the Houston Rodeo. Life on the road leads them here this time every year for the biggest rodeo in the world, where they'll ride and wrangle livestock for cash and glory. Each day, Hair Balls will ... More >>

Walmart Wants to Be Friends on Facebook

​Although Texas has weathered the economic downturn better than most states, that's small consolation to those residents still unable to feed their families. According to research published by the Food Research and Action Center earlier this year, Texas has the 13th-highest rate of food hardsh ... More >>

Five Reasons Not to Shop on Black Friday

Ho Ho Ho! Merry Shopping Free-For-All!​Every year around this time in the United States, we celebrate a day so important, so American that it brings people together like no other day can. Around 3 a.m. this Friday, bleary-eyed shopaholics will power into retail outlets all over the country in ... More >>

Our Readers Go Loco for Zelko Bistro.

Heights-Area Walmart: The Invented Traffic Jam Wasn't Exactly Hellish

Photo by Dawn McGee​It's tough to say whether this weekend's "Carnage" protest in the Heights was a success or failure, but we can say for certain, it happened. Here are a couple conflicting accounts.

Heights-Area Walmart: Self-Created Traffic Jams To Prove A Point

Heights residents plan to stage a protest to show how bad traffic will be with a new Walmart. ​There hasn't been much noise lately about the Heights Walmart, except those embarrassing e-mails from city officials, but one group opposed to the development still has hopes that the project can be der ... More >>

Heights-Area Walmart: City Thought South Park Episode Would Help

Let the City Council record reflect......​Channel 13 and the Houston Chronicle have exposed e-mails from city staffers regarding the proposed Walmart near the Heights (a/k/a The Walmart In The Area To Which No One Can Agree On A Name).The e-mails are fairly typical intra-office political stuff, bu ... More >>

Walmart's Greatest Hits... Or Maybe Not (NSFW)

​Growing up in Pearland, Craig's Hlist didn't know anything was inherently wrong with Walmart. We didn't see it as trashy. How could a place where we got baseball cards and metal magazines every Saturday be trashy? But when we got older and heard the tales of Walmart's wrongful business prac ... More >>

Liveblogging the Walmart Vote

The City Council is set to vote this morning on a proposed 380 agreement with developer Michael Ainbinder, who plans to build a Walmart near the Heights. The vote could technically be delayed another week, but Mayor Parker said yesterday if a council member tries to do that, she'd overrule the ... More >>

Heights-Area Walmart Gets its Public Hearing

The mayor says the Walmart vote can't be delayed any longer; City Council must decide tomorrow. ​The public had its last chance today to talk to the mayor and city council members about a proposed "380 agreement" between the city and developer Michael Ainbinder, who plans to build a Walmart near t ... More >>

Heights-Area Walmart Poised For Vote Today: Let's Look At Three Recent Stop-Walmart! Fights

The City Council could vote today to bring a Heights Walmart one step closer. ​This morning, the Houston City Council is set to vote on a proposed "380 agreement" with developer Michael Ainbinder that would help him build a Walmart-anchored retail center near the Heights. The agreement, posted on ... More >>

Joan Ogunleye, 41, Bayou Body Count No. 219

Death in a Walmart parking lot​A woman was found shot to death in her car in a Walmart parking lot on the southwest side of town around midnight this morning, police say.No robbery was involved, and HPD told KTRK it did not appear to be "a random crime."The body of the victim, whose name has not b ... More >>

Heights-Area Walmart Not Needed, Opponents' Study Proves Conclusively

When an Austin company says the Heights doesn't need a Walmart, television news reporters listen. ​Unlike the first Heights-area Walmart meeting, area residents showed up for a second go-round armed with some real ammunition. Apparently, a local neighborhood nonprofit called Responsible Urban Dev ... More >>

Would Walmart Bring Low Grocery Prices to the Heights? Not Really

This could be your grandfather.​To say that people aren't thrilled with a Walmart moving into the Heights is an understatement. Last week's town hall meeting did little to resolve feelings on either side of the issue, with River Oaks resident Michael Ainbinder -- the developer behind the plan ... More >>

Heights-Area Walmart: Meeting Is Loud, Resolves Little

These happy people shown in a rendering of the planned Heights Walmart certainly weren't at last night's meeting. ​It didn't take long for the boos and jeers to start once developer Michael Ainbinder took the stage at last night's meeting about a planned Walmart development near the Heights. It al ... More >>

Walmart Drops Propaganda Mailer, Website for Proposed Heights Store

Walmart is in ur Heights krushing ur soulz.The battle over whether Walmart will open a new store in the Heights is heating up. Mailers proclaiming "It's time to clean up this property and put it to work for all of Houston" have been popping up in mailboxes around town trying to convince residents th ... More >>

Basketball Diaries

Readers respond to "Trash Talk"

Heights Walmart: City Council Gets An Earful

No Walmart, no peace​Members of the "Stop Heights Walmart" group came out in force to the City Hall meeting Tuesday to let officials get a glimpse of a small part of the opposition that has grown to more than 4,000 members in the past few weeks.Meanwhile, Houston officials told Hair Balls they are ... More >>

Heights Walmart: Lots Of Questions, Few Answers At Meeting

Walmart: concerns about crime, infrastructure and transparency​Even though it's not yet been signed and delivered, Heights residents are already trying to figure out how to deal with the possibility that a big-box monster might be moving in next door.Residents spoke at the Greater Heights Super Ne ... More >>

Man vs. Megastore

Readers respond to "Walmart vs. the Heights."

Battle in the Heights

Walmart brings out the passion.

Walmart Vs. The Heights: About What You'd Expect (Plus Annise Parker Weighs In)

Trouble in Quirkytown​The Heights may soon be dealing with an unwanted resident, and they're going to have to put up a strong fight to keep them out. The possibility that Houston's seventh Super Walmart could land in the historic area has residents squirming, and a strong reaction for and against ... More >>

Going Gluten-Free At Walmart

​At the risk of reigniting the gluten-free debate once again, I mentioned in yesterday's post on gluten-free pancakes that I'd found a trove of cheap GF products at -- of all places -- Walmart. I don't know why I was completely surprised by this discovery, but I was. It makes sense when you t ... More >>

How To Get A Rush In The Piney Woods Without Using Meth

​You know what's boring? Babysitting two kids while schlepping around your own two kids, that's what's boring.A gal with joie de vivre needs a little excitement at such times. What to do? Duh -- You leave the kids in the pick-up truck (engine running, of course), head into the Walmart and do a lit ... More >>

Monday Mix Bag: A Mic Pass In Atlanta, New Felony Video And Some Wal-Mart Confessions

Back in the day when we were teenagers in the hood, there was this guy with a really great personality who would come to our door once a month with brand new store merchandise. We're talking about anything from bicycles to VCRs (we said it was back in the day) to woman's costume jewelry. They were ... More >>

When Black Friday Comes, I'll Stand Down By The Door: Tips On Surviving

​If the excessive Black Friday advertising has you overwhelmed, don't fret, we're here to help.  We've been scrutinizing the quadrillion press releases and ads that have been bombarding us in e-mails, on TV, in last Sunday's paper and in any other existing media form you can think of to come ... More >>

This Week In Deliciousness

Katharine Shilcutt ate all this chicken and did not save any for you.Welcome back to the weekly Eating Our Words round-up, where the food is well-prepared, plentiful and, more often than not, weird as all hell. To start with, Robb Walsh introduced us to the concept of a Wal-Mart supermercado, ... More >>

Don't Work -- It's Cyber Monday!

Thought the holiday uber-shopping craze was limited to Black Friday? Welcome to Cyber Monday.Admittedly, the day was first a gimmick by Shop.org (they coined the term back in 2005), but over the years, more and more stores have jumped on board and as many as 82% of online retailers are offering spec ... More >>

What's Wal-Mart Got Against Sex Offenders?

Sex offenders have rights too. Don’t they? At least one Missouri City woman who was convicted of a sex crime is out to prove just that in court after being fired from her job at Wal-Mart. Rebecca Vlasek, 37, claims that Wal-Mart fired her and more than 800 registered sex offenders, in line ... More >>

Green: The New Red, White and Blue

Thomas Friedman looks at environmental patriotism

Morris the Cat, Back in Action

Cheap Criminals

Shell Game

Over the Hedge wants you to feel bad about what it's selling, which is everything

Brave New Art

Artists take on corporations and the government in "Thought Crimes"

Case Closed

Wal-Mart finds the ultimate bargain: beating a family's $20 million verdict

Behind the Happy Face

Labor pains flare in a worker's fight with Wal-Mart

Drastic Unilateral Action

Universal hopes to JumpSTART flagging CD sales with aggressive price cuts. Who benefits the most?

At What Price?

Plus: So-So What, Right with Wong, Love Lessons

Pay Snubs

Wal-Mart's biggest bargain? It may be squeezing free overtime out of workers.

Will the Real Texas Musician Please Stand Up

The land of gee-tars and fiddles