Wal-Mart announced this week that it will scale down its expansion plans in fiscal 2009 and 2010 due to concerns about a weaker economy. This year, Wal-Mart built 243 new stores, but in these relatively uncertain economic times, the retailer said it plans to construct just 212 new stores in 2009 and 177 in 2010. Before the economic crisis ramped up, one of the only things to successfully slow Wal-Mart’s sprawling juggernaut was threatening to unionize its stores.
