  Walmart: A tipping point  Sunday, September 08, 2013 2:57 AM
We're not fond of the cliche "tipping point," but sometimes it's
appropriate.  An example could be Walmart's recent announcement
that it would offer health care benefits to employees' same-sex
partners.  In 2012, Walmart was the world's third-largest public
corporation, the biggest private employer with more than 2
million employees worldwide and the world's largest retailer.
Size matters, so when Walmart does something, it matters.  "You
can go to your board, and all of a sudden you're not swimming
against the stream as much as you were yesterday," Wallace Hopp,
of the University of Michigan, said in reference to Walmart's
announcement. "You can say, 'Jeez, Walmart does it.' "  Back in
1995, when the Walt Disney company announced it would extend
health care benefits to the live-in partners of gay and lesbian
employees, there were calls for boycotts of Disney theme parks
and movies.  That won't be the case for Walmart. And given its
size, we doub