If Wal-Mart were only about low prices, we might be inclined to look favorably on the retail giant's recently announced plans to add grocery operations to four of its St. Louis stores. According to a study released over the summer by professors Emek Basker of the University of Missouri and Michael Noel of the University of California, when a Wal-Mart Supercenter comes to town, grocery competitors lower their prices by 1 percent to 1.2 percent.

Sometimes, just the anticipation of Wal-Mart expansion affects competition.

But low prices are only part of the Wal-Mart picture.

At Schnucks, Dierbergs and Shop 'n Save, St. Louis' three major grocery chains, a new union contract ratified earlier this month pegs the average hourly wage of a full-time worker at $16.43, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655. The labor group represents 9,500 employees at the three firms' 98 stores.

The contract also includes comprehensive health coverage for workers and their families, for which employees currently pay no premiums. In 2009, they will begin paying a modest part of the cost of their health insurance. Nearly all workers take the coverage.

In contrast, the average hourly pay for non-supervisors at Wal-Mart is $10.47, according to the company. It says that it provides some level of health insurance coverage to 47 percent of its workers, although critics have said its available health plans fall far short of comprehensive. Other Wal-Mart employees are covered under a relative's health insurance policy, and some make so little that they qualify for Medicaid. Nearly 10 percent of Wal-Mart workers have no health insurance coverage at all.

Four years ago, the grocery chains, their workers and our community endured a 25-day strike after contract negotiations broke down. The issue: the supermarkets' demand for concessions in the face of growing competition from Wal-Mart. This time, the companies and the union reached agreement on a new contract without a strike.

Wal-Mart's low prices are partly the result of efficient management practices, but they also are the result of employees who receive low wages and skimpy benefits. A healthy American economy needs more than low prices. It also needs good wages and decent benefits for working people, which are exactly what strong companies and strong unions can achieve when they work together and bargain in good faith.

Americans want low prices, but they also want to know that the checkers and baggers and stock people who serve them at the supermarket can provide for themselves and their families, too.