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Florida loves its Wal-Mart

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 22, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - With Christmas almost here, Wal-Mart enjoys a strong reputation with Florida shoppers - one that might even influence their vote in the 2008 presidential election.

In a survey of 1,066 Florida voters, 91 percent said someone in their household had shopped at a Wal-Mart in the past 12 months, and 72 percent said the Arkansas-based company has a positive effect on their area.

One in six said they'd be less likely to support a presidential candidate critical of the retail giant in the telephone survey by Quinnipiac (Conn.) University Polling Institute.

"Florida and Ohio are perhaps the two most important swing states in a presidential election and virtually all the potential and declared Democratic White House candidates have been critical of Wal-Mart and its business practices," pollster Peter Brown said Thursday.

"The issue is a loser for anyone raising it," said Brown, assistant poll director for Quinnipiac.

Just 4 percent of the respondents to the Quinnipiac survey taken Dec. 12-18 said they would be more likely to back a candidate critical of Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart, which has revenue of $315-billion this year worldwide, has been criticized by more than politicians, largely for environmental policies, its extensive foreign product outsourcing and its treatment of rank-and-file employees.

Wal-Mart has 246 facilities in Florida employing more than 93,000 residents at an average hourly wage of $9.85 an hour, according to the company.

"Wal-Marts are as much a part of life for Floridians as suntans and mosquitoes," Brown said. "Campaigning against Wal-Mart may work in New York or Chicago, but in Florida and probably through the Sun Belt, it just makes politicians sound like they are out of touch."

Emilio Venturini said he has heard negative publicity about Wal-Mart paying low wages but said that doesn't stop him from shopping at the store near his Maitland home in Central Florida.

"That's free enterprise," said Venturini, a 58-year-old truck driver.

Kathi Swensen, a retired registered nurse from Largo, said she has friends who work for Wal-Mart and that she's received "all the e-mails" regarding the company's labor practices.

"I know they are on the chopping block," Swensen said. "As long as they give me the hours I want, the prices I want and the merchandise I want, I am there."

The same survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, showed nearly three of five respondents, 59 percent, disapprove of the job President George W. Bush is doing, compared with 38 percent who approve.

[Last modified December 21, 2006, 23:04:06]