Is Wal-Mart Good Or Bad For America?
MSNBC Democratic Presidential Debate
Orangeburg, SC
April 26, 2007
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Senator Clinton, overall, is Wal-Mart a good thing or a bad thing for the United States of America?
SENATOR CLINTON: Well, it’s a mixed blessing.
WILLIAMS: How so?
CLINTON: Well because when Wal-Mart started, it brought goods into rural areas, like rural Arkansas where I was happy to live for 18 years. And it gave people a chance to stretch their dollar further. But as they grew much bigger, though, they have raised serious questions about the responsibility of corporations and how they need to be a leader when it comes to providing health care and having safe working conditions and not discriminating on the basis of sex or race or any other category. Brian, this is all part, though, of how this Administration and corporate America today don’t see middle class and working Americans. They are invisible. They don’t understand that if you’re a family that can’t get health care, you’re really hurting. But to the corporate elite and to the Adminstration and the White House, you’re invisible. If you can’t afford college, you’re invisible. So I think we need to get both public sector and private sector leadership to start stepping up and being responsible and taking care of people.
WILLIAMS: Senator, thank you.
Posted by Media Team on Thursday, April 26 | 11 comments | Permalink
Sam’s Club Job Cuts, Severance Agreements, and “Flights”
Wal-Mart recently revealed that they are cutting nearly 2,800 Sam’s Club managers as part of a “restructuring” that will replace them with 1,800 salaried positions. With these cuts there comes a severance agreement.
Rumors about these cuts have appeared for some time on Wal-Mart Associate boards and blogs, most notably Wal-Mart Blows. These cuts were rumored as part of what Wal-Mart Associate’s often refer to as “flights” - anti-employee policies implemented gradually or company-wide. The most notable of the flights is centralized computer scheduling (referred to as “just-in-time” scheduling by Wal-Mart’s home office) and pay caps. Many of these “flights” also implement elements of the Chambers memo (PDF). The entire point of implementing these policies is to push long-term employees out for a younger, part-time workforce.
If the Associate boards are to be believed - and they have been exceedingly accurate at predicting what anti-employee policy Wal-Mart will implement next - the Sam’s Club department managers may be the first to go, but they will not be the last.
The agreement that ex-Sam’s Club employees must sign in order to obtain severance pay raises several issues. One section of the agreement releases Wal-Mart from any claim based on age, gender, race, disability and a number of other federal and state laws pertaining to discrimination. This is problematic in light of the Dukes class action case involving gender discrimination, and also because of the clear intent of the Chambers memo to eliminate older employees and employees with health concerns. Wal-Mart may be using these severance agreements as a way to continue its discriminatory policies and potentially block any future employee efforts to receive just compensation.
Posted by Research Team on Thursday, April 26 | 21 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart’s Growing Pains
Wal-Mart’s Midlife Crisis [BusinessWeek]
John E. Fleming, Wal-Mart’s newly appointed chief merchandising officer, is staring hard at a display of $14 women’s T-shirts in a Supercenter a few miles from the retailer’s Bentonville (Ark.) headquarters. The bright-hued stretch T’s carry Wal-Mart’s own George label and are of a quality and stylishness not commonly associated with America’s über-discounter. What vexes Fleming is that numerous sizes are out of stock in about half of the 12 colors, including frozen kiwi and black soot.
Fleming may be America’s most powerful merchant, but a timely solution is beyond him even so. Wal-Mart failed to order enough of these China-made T-shirts last year, and so they and other George-brand basics will remain in short supply in most of its 3,443 U.S. stores until 2007’s second half, depriving the retailer of tens of millions of dollars a week it sorely needs. “The issue with apparel is long lead times,” says the quietly intense Fleming, who spent 20 years at Target Corp. (TGT ) before joining Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT ) “We will get it fixed.”
For nearly five decades, Wal-Mart’s signature “everyday low prices” and their enabler—low costs—defined not only its business model but also the distinctive personality of this proud, insular company that emerged from the Ozarks backwoods to dominate retailing. Over the past year and a half, though, Wal-Mart’s growth formula has stopped working. In 2006 its U.S. division eked out a 1.9% gain in same-store sales—its worst performance ever—and this year has begun no better. By this key measure, such competitors as Target, Costco (COST ), Kroger (KR ), Safeway (SWY ), Walgreen’s (WAG ), CVS, and Best Buy (BBY ) now are all growing two to five times faster than Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart’s botched entry into cheap-chic apparel is emblematic of the quandary it faces. Is its alarming loss of momentum the temporary result of disruptions caused by transitory errors like the T-shirt screwup and by overdue improvements such as the store remodeling program launched last year? Or is Wal-Mart doing lasting damage to its low-budget franchise by trying to compete with much hipper, nimbler rivals for the middle-income dollar? Should the retailer redouble its efforts to out-Target Target, or would it be better off going back to basics?
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Posted by Media Team on Friday, April 20 | 14 comments | Permalink
Friday Blog Roundup: Security Spying, Self-Help and Emergency Contraception
SELF-HELP AT WAL-MART
This week Wal-Mart introduced a corporate initiative which will motivate staff to be more physically fit and more environmentally conscious. It sounds to us like Wal-Mart’s pushing its corporate problems on to its Associates, but we’ll let someone with firsthand experience talk about that:
Self-help at the Wal-Mart [Behind the Counter]
I was in line at the Starbucks earlier this week and saw the picture from this article and the word WAL-MART in the headline but never got to a library to look it up.
Three words: Public. Relations. Stunt.
This gem of a program has got ultimately got nothing to do with the environment and EVERYTHING to do with cash.
BIG BOX MEETS BIG BROTHER
Wal-Mart’s PR department exploded this week when a story in the Wall Street Journal probed deeper into their corporate surveillance practices. Wal-Mart first defended its practices, then apologized for them and eventually vowed to change. Not surprisingly, no one bought any of it.
Wal-Mart is Watching [Consumerist]
According to the recently fired employee who intercepted calls and text messages from a New York Times reporter (and a few other Walmart employees) Walmart’s surveillance tactics include:
• Scanning employee’s email
• Logging all employee key strokes
• Using monitoring software to detect vendors viewing pornography on their computers
• Using monitoring software to read employee personal email such as hotmail or gmail
• Investigating outspoken critics of Walmart
• Sending “a long-haired employee wearing a wireless microphone to Up Against the Wal’s Fayetteville, Ark., gathering, and eavesdropped from nearby.”
• Locating Nu Wexler’s vacation photos, “Wal-Mart has far bigger concerns than my vacation photos,” said Mr. Wexler, after being informed of the surveillance. “Someone would have had to dig for quite a while to find that link.”
Wal-Mart Is Reading This Post [Wall Street Journal Blog Roll]
A company, person or institution that puts defending its image and stifling criticism first and foremost – rather than addressing underlying problems that can lead to such a soiled image — puts itself at risk of seeming paranoid, thus further hurting its profile.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, April 06 | 0 comments | Permalink
States and the Battle Over Emergency Contraception
Planned Parenthood announced today that it has been notified by Wal-Mart that the retail leader has revised its nationwide corporate policy regarding emergency contraception. The new policy ensures that customers will receive their prescriptions of over-the-counter products without discrimination, harassment or lecture. Emergency contraception such as the Plan B pill will now be stocked and dispensed without discrimination or delay.
This is a turnaround from previous Wal-Mart policy” – last year, Wal-mart agreed to begin stocking Plan B with the caveat that the company’s conscientious objection policy, which allowed pharmacists uncomfortable with dispensing certain prescriptions to refer customers to another pharmacist or pharmacy, would remain in effect. Plan B was approved for over-the-counter sale in mid-2006, meaning a prescription is no longer required for women 18 or older.
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Wednesday, April 04 | 19 comments | Permalink
Women Score a Victory: Wal-Mart Begins Offering Contraceptives No Questions Asked
After examples of women being unable to obtain birth control from Wal-Mart Pharmisists, Planned Parenthood announced a major victory and a change in Wal-Mart’s written policy regarding the dispensation of pharmaceutical birth control. Wal-Mart’s pharmicists across the country are now required to dispense birth control without delay and without judgement. This means thousands of women in rural areas, where Wal-Mart is frequently the only pharmacy, now have access to birth control without fear of being denied by the pharmisist.
From Planned Parenthood:
Planned Parenthood Activists Nationwide Get Wal-Mart to Change Its Birth Control Policy at Pharmacies: Emergency Contraception Will Be Stocked and Dispensed Without Discrimination or Delay
Planned Parenthood’s “Fill My Pills Now” and “Pill Patrol” Campaigns Claim Another Victory for Women’s Health and Safety — and Access to Birth Control
NEW YORK CITY — In response to Planned Parenthood’s massive grassroots advocacy campaign “Fill My Pills Now,” Wal-Mart notified Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) today that it has revised its nationwide corporate policy with regard to emergency contraception. The new Wal-Mart policy ensures customers “will now receive their prescriptions or OTC products in store without discrimination (no harassment or lectures),” “without delay,” and “without judgment,” according to the Planned Parenthood survey that Wal-Mart returned to PPFA today.
“This is a huge victory for women’s health and for Planned Parenthood’s campaign for accessible birth control,” PPFA President Cecile Richards said. “We’re pleased that Wal-Mart has changed its policy to meet the real-life health care needs of women and families. Congratulations to our activists and supporters, especially our Pill Patrol, for making sure pharmacies respect and protect women’s health.
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Posted by Research Team on Wednesday, April 04 | 12 comments | Permalink
The Tragedy of ASDA’s “Comedy” Shirt
From The Sun:
ASDA has withdrawn from sale a T-shirt designed by women after complaints it was offensive to females.
Campaigners said the £4 T-shirt — with the slogan “If at first you don’t succeed, buy her another beer” — was an incitement to rape.
But it is believed to have been designed and produced by a women-only team. It was part of George at Asda’s “comedy” clothes range.
The supermarket giant apologised after it received “a number of complaints” when Rape Crisis launched a letter-writing campaign on internet chatrooms.
Asda had sold 15,000 of the T-shirts without complaint before the campaign.
Louise Robertson, of West Dunbartonshire Women’s Aid, welcomed the Asda move last night.
She said: “I am delighted so many people complained to Asda and they have seen sense and withdrawn this T-shirt.
“They were an incitement to rape and, having worked in this field for 22 years, I can tell you that rape is no laughing matter. Asda should make payment to Women’s Aid or a similar organisation.”
An Asda spokeswoman said: “We’re sorry anyone found the T-shirt offensive — that wasn’t our intention.”
Click here to learn more about ASDA.
Posted by Vasudha Desikan on Wednesday, April 04 | 11 comments | Permalink
Roehm Fires Back at Wal-Mart
Former ad executive Julie Roehm released a statement yesterday regarding her dismissal and ensuing legal fight with Wal-Mart, better known as the company that rules with an iron fist.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Statement by Julie Roehm
You ask for comments relating to my situation with Wal-Mart. They follow:
When I look back over the whirlwind of the last 15 months of my life, here’s what I see: I left a successful career in Detroit, uprooted my family to move to Arkansas, and took on a demanding job at Wal-Mart as part of its shift in marketing strategy. I threw myself into the job, traveling constantly and working tirelessly to master several components at the same time. I saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and costs right off the bat, just using my experience in selecting and negotiating advertising spots. I engineered a thorough and meticulous campaign to hire an advertising agency, and guided a company that had never been through the process before in selecting what everyone, from outside research parties to internal participants, agreed was the best candidate.
But somewhere along the way, senior executives at Wal-Mart seemed to feel that maybe change wasn’t such a good idea. Perhaps some did not like following or taking the advice of a woman. I received no guidance, direction, or communication about any unhappiness with my work. Yet I unceremoniously was removed from my job without explanation, and then informed that Wal-Mart would not even honor the terms of a separation agreement.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, March 29 | 45 comments | Permalink
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