The creepy video featured here shows the virus-like expansion of Wal-Mart in the United States (much clearer full-size animated map here). We all know that Wal-Mart is huge, but did you know that their annual sales are greater than the GDP of Saudi Arabia? Or that they employ more people than live in Idaho? I’ve strangely never shopped at Wal-Mart, not because of snobbishness or political correctness, but probably more because of geography. Wal-Mart has a strategy (see When Wal-Mart Is Gone) of opening several stores in separate rural areas and later closing the stores to condense the traffic into a “super store”, leaving behind what is known in real estate as a Dark Wal-Mart. For some fairly balanced insight into Wal-Mart in general, see this How Stuff Works piece. For a more anti-Wal-Mart view see Ask Al – The Battlemart Blog at WalmartWatch.com Or check out the DVD Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (it’s only USD9.99).