Inside the Controversial Powerhouse

An inside look at the controversial retail powerhouse.

CNBC investigates whether new leadership, aggressive green policies and a full-scale store overhaul signify real change for Walmart.

• Visit the "The New Age of Walmart" website

Five years ago, CNBC's "The Age of Walmart" took an unprecedented look inside the world's largest retailer. Since then, much has changed. A brutal onslaught of lawsuits, intense criticism and a plummeting stock price have forced a major shift in strategy at what is now the world's biggest company. As a result, there’s now new leadership, smartly renovated stores and a focus on environmentally friendly policies.

Walmart is the nation’s largest employer with 1.4 million workers in the US and up to 30,000 new hires annually. But the company’s low-cost operating model may be threatened by proposed legislation – The Employee Free Choice Act – that would make it easier for unions to organize. A store in Miami may become the first unionized Walmart in the country.

Mike Duke, 59, is the fourth CEO in Walmart’s 47-year history and made his debut at the company’s 2009 annual meeting. Duke believes Walmart is the “largest family in the world.” He strongly opposes employee unionization.

Duke: “Actually, what we really do is we just love our relationship with our associates, the direct relationship we have, where we’re a family. We don’t want to see the family broken up.”

Union organizers like Meghan Scott are working behind the scenes to keep up the pressure. Scott heads up “Wake Up Walmart” – a group funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

Scott: “The company had $13.5 billion in profits last year…however, they’re paying their workers an average of $10.86 an hour, ends up being for full time, a little over $19,000 a year, keeping them below the poverty line for a family of four.”

Walmart has more than 4,200 US 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.

Located at the base of the Catskill Mountains, the village of Ellenville has been an economic hardship case for years.  Once a major resort destination, the area is now littered with shuttered businesses and for sale signs.

You might think the prospect of a brand new Walmart Supercenter would be an easy sell to the community.  But, the plans have residents bitterly divided over what a new Walmart will mean.

Joan Kerovpyan owns a clothing store in downtown Ellenville, NY.

Kerovpyan: "I'll probably end up closing. I cannot compete with the prices that Walmart has. If I get hit with a 10 to 20 percent discount in my revenues, I'm done."

Walmart’s Phil Serghini is sent to communities across the country to meet with residents and allay concerns.

Serghini: “I found that just really coming to a meeting and shaking hands…just having Walmart people in a room with the citizens really engenders some trust.”

Local merchants and others opposed to Walmart have a vocal ally in semi-retired marketing consultant Steve Krulick. He's joined a lawsuit demanding the town of Wawarsing, where the village of Ellenville, NY, is located to fully study the impact of a new Walmart on policing, traffic and the local economy."

Krulick: "The saddest thing…is that neighbors are already pitted against neighbors just over whether Walmart should come in. They’ve already done a disservice to this community by making it an angrier, more divisive community."

Walmart is expanding on a global scale. China’s robust economy, growing wealth and a marketplace of 1.3 billion people present a huge opportunity for companies looking to expand, and Walmart is taking notice. There are more than 250 Walmart stores in China, and that figure could one day surpass the number of stores in the US.

The man overseeing the stunning growth in China is 42-year-old Doug McMillon. His international division contributed $99 billion in sales – roughly a quarter of the company's 2008 year total.

McMillon to a customer: "We would like to learn more about how you live and how you shop. And we would really like to know what we can do better."

Catering to customers in the various global markets has helped make Walmart International the company’s fastest growing division.

As Walmart expands its global footprint, the company says it’s trying to reduce its carbon footprint. 

A Super Center in China was recently renovated to become more environmentally friendly. The store has pushed through a 23% reduction in energy use and a 16% reduction in water use.

Walmart is also asking its suppliers – 100,000 of them around the world – to create and sell their products in a new way. Products would be rated on their environmental and social cost.

CEO Mike Duke: "We have three objectives. First, to build an environmentally and socially responsible supply chain. And second, to make our stores more sustainable through more efficient use of water and energy. And third, to bring our customers here in China and around the world products that are more sustainable."

CEO Mike Duke says Walmart's current expansion is just the beginning.

Duke: “As a matter of fact, many of the urban markets across the United States I hear from say...'Why don’t you have a Walmart that I can shop at? Why can’t I have one in my town?'”

What’s the answer?

"We’re coming," Duke says.

Go inside the controversial powerhouse with CNBC’s The New Age of Walmart.

• Visit "
The New Age of Walmart" website