Costco is a big box store retailer that sells bulk household items. It has more than 490 stores throughout the world and sells jewelry that violates international labor and human rights standards. Many communities oppose the opening of new Costco stores in their neighborhoods because they argue that the store puts locally owned stores out of business and funnels money out of the local economy.
CVS Caremark Corporation, is an integrated pharmacy services provider, combining one of the U.S.'s leading pharmaceutical services companies with the country’s largest pharmacy chain. The company manages more than one billion prescriptions per year, more than any other prescription benifet manager. CVS Caremark provides pharmacy services through its 6,200 CVS/pharmacy stores; its pharmacy benefit management, mail order and specialty pharmacy division, Caremark Pharmacy Services; its retail-based health clinic subsidiary, MinuteClinic; and its online pharmacy, CVS.com.
Excerpt: "This is a report of a Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) labor rights assessment of Lianglong Socks Co. Ltd (hereafter “Lianglong”), a hosiery factory in Zhuji City, People’s Republic of China. Zhuji City is located in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang and is a major center of hosiery production. Lianglong is a producer of hosiery for RJ McCarthy, a supplier of Catholic school uniforms for a number of Catholic District School Boards in Ontario, Canada. The factory also reportedly produces for Wal-Mart.1 According to factory management, Lianglong employs roughly 200 workers.
Founded in 1869, Sainsbury's Supermarkets is the UK's longest standing and, earning almost £19,287 million in 2008, is its second largest major food retailing chain. J Sainsbury plc consists of Sainsbury's – 502 supermarkets and 290 convenience stores – and Sainsbury's Bank. Its large stores offer 30,000 products with an increasing focus on non-food products and services and internet-based home delivery.
Metro AG is a diversified retail and wholesale/cash and carry group based in Germany. It has the largest market share in its home market, and is one of the most globalised retail and wholesale corporations. In English it often refers to itself as Metro Group. It was established in 1964 by Otto Beisheim.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is the largest private employer in the world and the fourth largest utility or commercial employer, trailing the People's Liberation Army of China, the National Health Service of the United Kingdom, and the Indian Railways.
