snip
On the other hand, it is an interesting example of how big
corporations are willing to try to deny justice to their customers,
even when it isn't in their long term interest.

How much business has the fallen arches lost because of this case?
It would have been far cheaper to settle rather than generate
worldwide resentment.
snip
When examined at slightly greater depth, "corporations" don't do
anything as these are a legal fiction. It is people acting in
the name of the corporation that act or don't act.

The question then becomes how did these person(s) get into [or
take] and retain their positions? It is an old question for
people studying organizational behaviors, and one for which there
are no [at least to me] convincing answers.

It appears that the problems of organizational paronia and
egotism are increasing rapidly in most organizations, and the
larger the organization the more it is affected.

In the United States on of the stock characters in many childrens
books and film clips was the snotty rich kid who always seemed to
say "it's my bat and it's my ball and if you don't play nice
like I want you to, I'm going to take them home." In his defense
these were his bat and ball.

Re Wal-Mart. It is a US discounter that has gross sales larger
than the GDP of 90% of the countries in the UN. It is so large
that it is beyond governmental control in the normal sense. I am
waiting for the U.S. Senate to ratify a treaty between the US
government and Wal-Mart. Like the mob, they make you offers you
can't refuse.

A sociologist once observed "at some point the qualitative become
the qualitative." Wal-Mart if well beyond that point, and the
normal "free market" conditions/restraints are no longer
operational.

Uncle George