A return to one of my favorite topics--Wal-Mart.

1. If only busybodies were as entrepreneurial in creating useful things as they are in finding new ways to harass Wal-Mart. A case in point from the Detroit News:

LANSING -- State Attorney General Mike Cox said Wednesday he is taking legal action against Wal-Mart after an investigation at five of the retailer's stores found up to 80 percent of the merchandise didn't carry price tags.

Nearly 100% of the merchandise in my local Wal-Mart doesn't have price tags so what's the rub? Michigan has an item pricing law mandating that merchandise have old-fashioned price tags. So-called consumer advocates bleat about mispricing from scanners and barcodes, but the law is most likely a make-work sop to unionists. The Michigan AG is now using the law to beat up Wal-Mart--I'd bet dollars to donuts that it's either outright false or a case of selective enforcement.

BTW, Emory's Paul Rubin has a paper (with co-authors) examining the effects of item pricing laws. The money line:

We find consistent evidence across products, product categories, stores, chains, states, and sampling periods, that the prices at stores facing item-pricing laws are higher than the prices at stores not facing the item-pricing laws by about 25 cents or 9.6% per item.

2. Alan Reynolds had a nifty op-ed on Maryland's Wal-Mart bill; an excerpt:

Maryland's mandate does not compel Wal-Mart to spend a dollar more on employee compensation. All it demands is that Wal-Mart pays no more than 92 percent of compensation as wages (or non-health benefits). Compelling Wal-Mart employees to accept a larger fraction of their pay in the form of health insurance rather than cash is a particularly bad deal for housewives and students, who are usually covered under Dad's family plan. It is also a bad deal for seniors covered by Medicare.

3. A recent WSJ article ("Savior or Villain?" Feb 24, p. B1; no link) reports:

Ms. Adami, who is 47 years old, began working in a hinge factory straight out of high school, when manufacturing jobs were considered a secure stepping stone to a comfortable life .... When she was offered the Wal-Mart job [at a new distribution center in Sterling IL], the interviewer asked if the $13 per hour starting pay was appealing. She had to catch herself, she says.

A Wal-Mart spokesman says some 6,000 people have applied for the 675 jobs ...

So much for any notion of always low wages.