Winners and Losers
Wal-Mart employees cheer as they await the grand opening of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza store on January 22, 2003. (Brian VanderBrug / LAT)
Kelly Gray, a mother of five, lost her job as a Raley’s supermarket clerk after Wal-Mart’s expansion into the grocery business in Las Vegas led Raley’s to shut 18 stores and lay off 1,400 workers. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
Glenn and Debbie Miraflor shop at a Wal-Mart in Las Vegas. Glenn, a member of Ironworkers Local 416, dislikes the retailer’s anti-union stance but asks, “Where else are you going to find a computer for $498?†(Genaro Molina / LAT)
Rob Reed, seen on the sewing floor of his company “Stitches,†a sportswear company in the City of Commerce. After demands for lower prices squeezed his profit, he had to close down the factory. (Carlos Chavez / LAT)
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Isabel Reyes, 37, feeds her 2-year-old son at the home of a friend during her lunch break. Isabel works at a clothing factory in San Pedor Sula, Hondoras. (Beatrice De Gea / LAT)
In San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Ariel Isaac Reyes, 2, sleeps in a hammock set up in the middle of the kitchen while his cousin, Joseph Reyes,12, watches him. (Beatrice De Gea / LAT)
Mala, a Bangladesh apparel worker, shares a small room with 10 members of her cousin’s family. She used to work for a factory that produced garments for Wal-Mart, but she quit that job because the hours were too long. (Rafiqur Rahman Raqu / For the Times)
