Wal-Mart, among other things, is battling a sexual discrimination lawsuit by female employees, as well as new laws on the books in municipalities across the country banning big-box stores in efforts to keep out the retailer.

Among the national newspapers in which Wal-Mart has placed full-page advertisements are the New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. The ads are in the form of a letter written by Scott.

The website, at http://www.walmartfacts.com, touts its diversity as an employer (206,000 of its 1.6 million employees, it says, are African American and more than 220,000 are senior citizens) and its charitable deeds (it says the company gave $158 million to community groups and non-profits last year).

In the Atlanta area, where the largest retailer in the world has battled opposition to stores, the company took out ads in seven local newspapers. Wal-Mart officials say that its nearly 18,000 employees in the area make an average of $10.80 per hour, nearly double the federal minimum wage.

Wal-Mart operates about 3,600 stores in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom. The company posted a 3% year-over-year same-store sales gain last month.

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