Availing itself of PR firm Edelman's deep political connections, Wal-Mart recruits civil rights leader and former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young to chair its company-funded Working Families for Wal-Mart.

In an August interview with an African American newspaper in Los Angeles, Young says the megaretailer "should" displace its urban corner-store competition.

"You see, those are the people who have been overcharging us.... I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans, and now it's Arabs."