The New Age of Walmart

A look at the how the world’s largest retailer is trying to reinvent itself. CNBC’s David Faber investigates whether new leadership, aggressive green policies and a full-scale store overhaul can signify real change for Walmart. (Original Air Date: September 23, 2009)

Walmart has more than 4,100 U.S. stores and continues to expand. Often, residents are bitterly divided over what a new Walmart will mean to their community. As powerful as Walmart is, community protests can still delay plans to open a new store for years or kill a project entirely.

Walmart is the nation’s largest employer with 1.4 million workers in the U.S. and up to 30-thousand new hires annually. But the company’s low-cost operating model may be threatened by proposed legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize. A store in Miami may be the first unionized Walmart in the U.S.