WASHINGTON - January 3 - WakeUpWalMart.com, America's campaign to change Wal-Mart, began the New Year by officially announcing the group had achieved a series of record milestones during its 2006 "Hope for the Holidays" campaign, including reaching over 306,976 supporters as of Dec. 31, 2006. In stark contrast, Wal-Mart experienced its worst holiday same-store sales performance in six years -- even worse than last year's poor performance.

As a result of a mounting public image problem, worker unrest and management woes, Wal-Mart's same store sales for December rose 1.6 percent -- significantly lower than last year's disappointing 2.2 percent increase. In fact, over the last six years, Wal-Mart's December same-store sales performance has steadily declined from 8.0 percent in 2001 to 1.6 percent in 2006. A breakdown of Wal-Mart sales performance between 2001 and 2006 is below.

"Even with unprecedented price cutting, a November decline in same-store sales, and an extremely low December comp, Wal-Mart faces the harsh reality of another poor holiday season. Wal-Mart must wake up and realize that the American people care about values, and want America's largest employer to change for the better. The big question for Wal-Mart this year is will 2007 finally be the year that Wal-Mart realizes its image problem is now its business problem and it is time to wake up and do what is right for America? We can only hope," said Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com.

During the last two months of 2006, WakeUpWalMart.com executed its most ambitious and aggressive holiday campaign to date. The group's six-week non- stop 2006 Hope for the Holidays campaign achieved new records in grassroots support by building 1,172 events in 43 states, distributing over 400,000 flyers and holding actions such as candlelight vigils and press conferences at over 925 Wal-Mart stores during the holiday season.

Wal-Mart's December Same-Store Sales Performance 2001-2006 (combined Wal- Mart Stores & Sam's Club):

-- 2006: 1.6 percent
-- 2005: 2.2 percent
-- 2004: 3.0 percent
-- 2003: 4.3 percent
-- 2002: 2.3 percent
-- 2001: 8.0 percent

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