Hispanics’ Hard Times Hit Wal-Mart

“Mr. Zamorano’s plight presents a challenge to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. The world’s biggest retailer by sales has increasingly relied on purchases by Hispanic shoppers both in the U.S. and in Mexico to fuel its sales growth. In particular, Wal-Mart has sought to draw Mexican and Mexican-American customers in the U.S. who send money to relatives in Mexico using the retailer’s growing wire-transfer business. The relatives then have the opportunity to stock up while at their local Wal-Mart-operated store.

But economic jitters — in particular, the softening U.S. housing market — have led to spending cutbacks among many in that group. Estimating the impact on a group as large and varied as Hispanics is difficult. But economists at Deutsche Bank estimate about 500,000 illegal Hispanic workers in construction have lost their jobs last year without showing up in government figures. The industry is heavily Hispanic, legal or illegal: The group makes up 25%, or 2.9 million, of the 11.8 million workers in the U.S. construction industry, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, with about three-quarters of them foreign-born.”

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