Other participants pointed to a four-month labor dispute in which the grocery workers' union fought a push by Southern California supermarket chains to cut wages and benefits for many workers because they feared Wal-Mart's expansion plans.
"The fact that it is starting to produce a backlash in a lot of different areas has heightened the interest," Strasser said.
But Hoopes questioned whether price-minded American shoppers would ever rush to the barricades to battle Wal-Mart.
"Wal-Mart has been tremendously helpful to the American consumer," he said. "It's lowered prices for lots and lots of people. People are voting with their feet and with their dollars by shopping at Wal-Mart."
He added, "If anybody is proposing that they're going to solve what they see as the Wal-Mart problem by urging people not to think of themselves as consumers, they're barking up the wrong tree."
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