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Are the times over when the U.S. business community was admiring Wal-Mart for its fast growth? Is the company's lack of social responsibility beginning to take its toll? Is the fairy tale of corporate America losing its lustre?

Wal-Mart has been dropped from the top position on Fortune's list of the companies most admired by its peers in the executive suites and analysts' chambers in the United States. Now it is computer company Dell that occupies the first position, followed by General Electrics and Starbucks.

Investors are worried about lack of responsibility

An even bigger reason for concern in Bentonville has apparently been the underperformance of the company's share price. Investors are quite apparently not convinced about the long-term performance of world's number one retailer. The class action suit for discriminating women workers, as well as other regular reports on poor employer behaviour creates concern about management capabilities to sustain the company's economic performance.

Expansion itself has caused problems. More often than before, new stores may lead to Wal-Mart cannibalising itself through competing with its own existing outlets. And there are limits for growth in the U.S. market. The retailer's focus on lower-end consumer segments contributes to set these limits, as does the strong opposition in many communities against a Wal-Mart entry.

Public relations campaigns do not help if behaviour itself is bad

Wal-Mart's ambitious public relations campaign does not seem to have worked. When the company's behaviour itself is bad, both media and the public can easily see through any cosmetics operations. The recent decision to close the unionised Wal-Mart store in Jonquière, Canada rather than to accept a collective agreement relationship did not add to the credibility of the Bentonville multinational. Neither did it help that Wal-Mart got caught for misuse of young workers for dangerous jobs, more-or-less at the same time.

Federal U.S. investigators are now looking into the sweetheart deal between Wal-Mart and the George W. Bush Labor Department. This arrangement, which gives Wal-Mart a fifteen day advance warning before child labour inspections can be done in its stores, has raised many eyebrows in the United States. The fact that Wal-Mart has been a major supporter of the Republican election efforts last year does not make this affair look better at all.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy is concerned about dark side of Wal-Mart

Commenting on Wal-Mart's record profits for last year, Senator Edward M. Kennedy expressed concerns that are shared by many, including the U.S. trade unions:

- Wal-Mart's record profits announced today have a darker side that deserves a closer look by Congress and the country. Its soaring profits flow in large part from two key facts -- it buys as many of its products as possible from overseas, and it pays its 1.2 million employees the lowest possible wages to sell them, Senator Kennedy said last week.

- Wal-Mart now imports more than half its non-food goods. And every day the employees who sell those goods work long hours for low pay -- far too low for them to afford the health benefits that Wal-Mart cynically claims it offers. Wal-Mart breaks child labor laws, forces its employees to work off the clock to avoid paying them for overtime, closes stores when employees attempt to form a union, and discriminates against women and people of color.

- Hardworking Americans deserve fair treatment, fair pay and fair benefits on the job. But in today's global economy, fewer and fewer American workers are getting their fair share. Those harsh costs don't appear in Wal-Mart's profit statement, but Congress can't ignore them, Senator Kennedy concludes.