LaToya Machado Mystery Solved!
For Immediate Release
Monday, March 26, 2007
An article in the current issue of The New Yorker (“Selling Wal-Mart,” 4/2/07) solves one of the more intriguing public relations mysteries of 2007: Who is LaToya Machado and why is this lone Wal-Mart employee so excited about Wal-Mart’s controversial “Open Availability” automated scheduling system? Answer: Wal-Mart’s public relations “War Room” is flacking her out to reporters who can’t find a single hourly employee who’s actually willing to praise “Open Availability.”
Machado, a cashier at Supercenter #266 in Grapevine, Texas, makes a cameo appearance in the New Yorker piece, when a Wal-Mart public relations representative refers reporter Jeffrey Goldberg to her for a defense of “Open Availability.” The New Yorker reference marks Machado’s sixth media appearance of 2007 and puts her on pace for 24 appearances in 2007 – a likely record for hourly Wal-Mart employees willing to praise the company’s policies.
The piece also includes the following revelations about Wal-Mart’s expensive public relations operation:
Wal-Mart is spending $10 million annually on Edelman, its primary PR firm, to “renovate its reputation.” Wal-Mart’s much-hyped “Jobs and Opportunities Zones” was “intended by Edelman as a public-relations maneuver to soften Wal-Mart’s image among minority communities.” The program’s total budget is $500,000 over two years. Former Edelman executive and current Wal-Mart executive Leslie Dach is the real life inspiration behind a character in “Thank You For Smoking,” a novel and movie about a Washington tobacco lobbyist’s attempt to defend his industry’s disastrous public image.
The New Yorker: Selling Wal-Mart
LaToya Machado: Best of 2007
- The New Yorker, April 2, 2007: “Sometime later, [Wal-Mart public relations staffer Sarah] Clark suggested that I interview an employee about flexible scheduling, and she provided the name and number of one who would talk to me: Latoya Machato, a cashier at a Texas Supercenter.”
- Wall Street Journal Letter to the Editor; January 18, 2007: “I have been a cashier at Wal-Mart for about a year and a half, and I believe your article about new scheduling adjustments didn’t reflect the many benefits to associates and customers. These new initiatives have helped my co-workers and me work at times that are convenient for us, while still allowing us to work the hours we need… LaToya Machodo, Grapevine, Texas ”
- Marketplace; March 15, 2007: “Some employees seem to love the new system. La Toya Machado is a full-time cashier at a Wal-Mart in Grapevine, Texas. She spoke by phone from the store, with a Wal-Mart executive on the line. Machado says her shifts used to be unpredictable, and planning childcare was tough. Machado: ‘And now since we have the new program, whatever, we made out our own schedule. So my schedule never change. I always know what time I’m gonna get off and I know what time I’m gonna come in.’”
- Newark Star-Ledger; January 7, 2007: “Latoya Machado, a cashier in Grapevine, Texas, near Dallas, said her previous work schedule changed every week. Now, she works Monday through Thursday between the hours of 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. and on Sunday between 3 and 9 p.m. It doesn’t bother her that she no longer gets overtime because she would rather be certain she can leave by 5 p.m. each day to pick up her two sons from day care. Previously, she had to arrange for someone else to pick them up or pay a late fee. Machado said the Texas store has more associates available at 5 p.m. when it gets busy. ‘There are less lines for the customers, and I don’t have to pick up anybody else’s slack,’ she said.”
- Springdale (Ark.) Morning News; January 20, 2007: “Ditto, said LaToya Machado, a cashier at the Wal-Mart store in Grapevine, Texas. She said the new scheduling system is much fairer than what the company had previously. ‘I like it. It works for my personal life as well as bringing money home for the kids. I know my schedule two weeks ahead, and it will stay that way unless I change it. Basically, you manage your own schedule, so if you didn’t get what you wanted you didn’t do the schedule right,’ Machado said.”
