Wal-Mart pays a price

For Wal-Mart, it seems, July is the cruellest month. The world's biggest retailer has had to blink - not once, not twice, but three times in rapid succession.

In Germany, it is admitting defeat and selling its business to a rival. In China, it has acknowledged that a state-controlled union has succeeded in organising its workforce. In Chicago, the city's aldermen have voted to require large retailers - with sales exceeding $1bn (£532m) - to pay their staff $13 per hour (with $3 accounting for health benefits) by 2010. Partisan audiences are cheering the film, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price."