Live from Fayetteville, Ark.: Wal-Mart Shareholders Meeting 2008

Welcome again to this year’s liveblogging of the Annual Shareholders Meeting. The meeting will be starting shortly. Meanwhile, check out our full coverage in the run-up to the meeting here: http://walmartwatch.com/blog/cat/shareholders_meeting

7:55: Our colleagues, B and A, who are at the meeting just messaged us: “They’ve got a rock band warming up the crowd followed by a laser light show with trapeze acrobats!”
8:02: How could such a notoriously cheapskate company be willing to shell out so much money for this extravagant circus performance? More importantly, why is this happening at SEVEN IN THE MORNING???
8:05: NO!!! QUEEN LATIFAH PUT AWAY THE TOXIC FLIP FLOPS!
8:08: Is this the MTV Video Music Awards or the Shareholders Meeting? Is Wal-Mart trying to reach out to a new urban demographic...?
8:11: Does the Queen really think CFLs are going to save all of Wal-Mart’s environmental problems?
8:13: Wal-Mart is giving back to the community yall, especially to their frenemy best friend, China, for disaster relief.

8:18: Tell us again, Mike Duke, how the Chinese love Wal-Mart’s food safety policies?
8:19: He’s talking about the JV with Bharti in India and how they opened a retail store...wanna talk about how much the Indians want you out of their country? And how successful they were in getting Wal-Mart and Bharti to push back their plans to conquer the country?
8:20: The Trust-Mart merger is going smoothly?  Then why all the layoffs? 
8:23: At least Duke is confident in Seiyu
8:26: They are playing a cheesy video on Wal-Mart around the world and the lyrics are something along the lines of: One world....Wal-Mart it’s about you and meeeee. They also showed Italy on the screen, hm...a little nostalgic about their Italian tax fraud perhaps?
8:32: Could’ve practiced that scene change better… we’re still waiting for more.
8:35: Yeah! Let’s hear it for those six white men and one black women running Sam’s.  YAY DIVERSITY!
8:38: Doug McMillon is patting himself on the back for Wal-Mart/Sam Club’s excellent sustainability practices. My head is going to explode from the hypocrisy…
8:39: Another cheesy video on Sam’s Club
8:43:: Joss Stone is performing. She sucks so instead here’s a picture of the blinding bright lights sent from the meeting by B.

8:53: Eduardo Castro Wright is talking about focusing on “our people” first...how about starting by supporting living wage ordinances and paying your people better wages?
8:53: Save Money, Live Better
8:54: Save Money, Live Better
8:55: Save Money, Live Better
8:56: Save Money, Live Better
8:57: Are you brainwashed yet?
8:59: Keeper of the Walton flame, Rob Walton, is up on stage and he is introducing the rest of the Wal-Mart demon spawn family.
9:03: You know what else Sam Walton would have liked to see Rob? You don’t...oh well, please let me (re)introduce you to Handshake with Sam!
9:11: Snoozefest...Rob is boring us with more nonsensical propaganda. Now we are saying Goodbye to two Board members, Roland Hernandez and Jack Shewmaker. Aw, sadness (not)! Read more about them here.
9:12: From B: “Sitting here makes me realize how much these Wal-Mart people must hate us (i.e. Wal-Mart Watch).”
9:15:The Walton clansmen (and woman) are all on stage together! From A: “Aw...my family has reunions at multibillion dollar company meetings too.” They are presenting an entrepreneurship award or something. The amount of money they spend on this garbage could really go towards improving health care, providing better wages, and being a better company overall.
9:16: With all that money, you’d think at least one of the Waltons could get a decent haircut.
9:21: From A: “Jim’s having a hard time with the teleprompter.”
9:23: Alice is on, presenting an award to the sustainability team. One word: Greenwashing. Remember Lee Scott’s words: We are not green.
9:28: Head of Evil People, Susan Chambers is on!!! “We are a family and we take care of each other.” Where do I even begin to start exposing the lies! Shall we return to the infamous Chambers Memo?
9:30 Wal-Mart employees are the real Wal-Mart story:  Let me introduce Deborah Shank
9:35 Wal-Mart honors soldiers, Susan says… by not hiring them.
9:39: Susan is still going on about soldiers.  From B: “Chambers is trying real hard to care”
9:40: Wal-Mart cares about disabled people and the ADA...obviously, all those lawsuits against alleging discrimination based on disability are a farce.
9:48: Now we are going to go kick it with ASDA...the ASDA meat department workers look like Santa’s elves in their hideous green outfits.
9:51:Almost two hours in… it’s time to get to the business portion! of our… business meeting!
9:54: Rob is talking about two nominees to the Board, Arne Sorenson and Greg Penner, recipient of nepotism Rob’s son-in-law.
9:59: The important shareholder proposals are coming up soon. Here’s a full list of them. This is probably how it will go.
10:00: Proposal No. 4: No mention of gender identity in Wal-Mart’s employment opportunity policy. The Board says they got it covered. Yeah right. This woman is amazing btw.
10:04: Proposal No. 5: A LIUNA representative is saying that they filed the same proposal with other companies and Wal-Mart is the only company who did not reach out to their pension fund to talk about this issue. This woman is ALSO amazing!
10:07: Proposal No. 6: Sol Kwon from UFCW is up. Rob Walton is making comments about “nodding off” during this time.
10:10: Proposal No. 7: Trina Tocco from the Big Box Collaborative is on to talk about the human rights commission proposal. She is discussing the Big Box Collaborative’s set of demands to Wal-Mart. Because of Trina, “a vein in Rob’s forehead is about to burst” (according to A).
10:15: Proposal No. 8: Issues with executive pay.
10:17: Proposal No. 9: Reverend Hunter from Fayetteville (big up!) is there to talk about corporate political giving.
10:20: Proposal No. 10: Social reputation proposal was withdrawn. The Rev is up again, it was withdrawn as Wal-Mart has agreed to meet with stakeholders to discuss how the company implements its domestic labor policies. They are supposed to do this by the end of October.
10:21: Proposal No. 11: Rob just asked people to keep down their conversations. Are we in 3rd grade? The Rev is up a third time to talk about having special shareholder meetings.
10:22: I just want to congratulate and convey my deepest respect for all of the activist shareholders who drafted these proposals and also presented at the meeting. It takes a lot of courage and presence of mind.
10:23: The business portion is already over?
10:25: OMG it’s Jennifer Hudson!  From A: “Bah - Jennifer whatsename”
10:31: Why is Jen talking about Japan?  Doesn’t she know Wal-Mart sinks more money into Seiyu each year than this production?? Faux pas!
10:32: From B: “Here’s the jam we have been waiting for...”
10:36: Phew- Ms. Hudson is done. The Queen is back...how the mighty have fallen! They are showing news clippings from around the world glorifying Wal-Mart. We got clippings too- check out our blog for the latest on the company: http://walmartwatch.com/blog
10:37: MULTIBILLION DOLLAR COMPANY can’t hire a spellchecker? It’s Bharti not Bhartu!
10:40: Tom Schoewe, CFO, did some crazy acrobatics (not really, it was his stunt double) and is now talking about the finances of Wal-Mart. Basically, Wal-Mart has grown $263 billion in the past 10 years. Perhaps you’d want to share that wealth with your Associates?
10:42: From A: “AHH! People are dying of boredom all around me. OH THE HUMANITY.” Here’s a shot of the crowd from B.

10:58: OMG Schoewe just finished. That was painful. And now...we have the winner of this year’s American Idol: David Cook.
11:11: YES! Lee Scott is on to spread more lies and be his awkward, bumbling self.
11:13: From A to Lee: “Do I need to give you ‘Sam would be disappointed’ fodder?”
11:14:  ”Our hearts” and a little pocket change go out to the Chinese who suffered the earthquake disaster.
11:17: Save money, live better is embedded in the Wal-Mart culture, you guys. You know what else is embedded in Wal-Mart’s culture? Discrimination!
11:21: From A: “Scott pauses from discussing sustainability to drink bottled water.” Seems like it’s his MO.
11:25: Lee Scott: We understand poverty - we help create it!
11:31: “We have the best global footprint.” If by best, you mean biggest, then yes, Lee Scott, you do.
11:34 Our model can work anywhere in the world.  Did Lee forget about Germany… Korea… Japan… DENIAL!
11:37 Lee to associates:  I know you will ALWAYS work to make Wal-Mart better… because you’ll never earn enough to retire.
11:38: Shareholder resolutions were all defeated - everyone cheered. Could it be the Walton’s over 40% stake in the company?
11:40: Let’s celebrate the defeat with some...TIM MCGRAW! Ugh...this is the reward for nearly 4 hours of liveblogging?
11:44: From B: “This is great. Now I want to get some of his special edition Fritos.”
11:50: Over, at last.

Posted by Media Team on Friday, June 06, 2008

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