This is another one of those information items I heard on the radio, and it amazed me at the numbers involved. For instance, this piece from the article.

Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's the world's largest company--bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric.

Wal-Mart sold $244.5 billion worth of goods last year. It sells in three months what number-two retailer Home Depot sells in a year.

That's just an incredible number! And talk about influence on the US economy, look at this amazing line.

The giant retailer is at least partly responsible for the low rate of U.S. inflation, and a McKinsey & Co. study concluded that about 12% of the economy's productivity gains in the second half of the 1990s could be traced to Wal-Mart alone.

Anyway, take a look at the article. I am sure it will amaze you.