Walmart has been prevented from establishing an actual bank by an unprecedented alliance of established financial institutions, concerned that the firm would drive down fees by leveraging its massive economic power and geographic reach (Gogoi 2007c). Yet Walmart recently established its own line of branded credit cards, proprietary prepaid debit cards, wire transfers, chequecashing services, and other low-fee financial services to ensure that consumers are unencumbered in purchasing all their lives' needs at Walmart's massive superstores, which today can include supermarkets, health clinics, pharmacies, hairdressers, restaurants and optometrists, as well as the entire range of commodities from hardware to furniture to clothing (Gogoi 2007b; Zellner 2005).

Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, loc. 278