Wal-Mart's Dog and Pony Show

It's Wal-Mart Week in Bentonville, Arkansas and the retail giant is throwing its annual celebration for 20,000 of its workers and shareholders, complete with concerts by stars like Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, and Journey. All this serves to distract shareholders from Wal-Mart's failure to address the chronic problems that negatively affect their image and result in obstacles to growth into new geographic and demographic markets A Handshake with Sam [PDF], an agreement of common principles with Wal-Mart first released in 2006, offers a roadmap out of this crisis.

Polling that we conducted last fall shows that 28 percent of all consumers developed a more negative opinion of the company over the previous twelve months. And there are plenty of real examples to demonstrate this. Just in the past 12 months, Wal-Mart has had to back out of 69 communities, including Chicago, where their poor business and labor practices were front and center.

It's a problem that gets lost in all the noise and pretty lights. The one part of the shareholders meeting designed to address the situation -- eight shareholder resolutions [PDF] -gets ignored. At last year's shareholders meeting the company rejected every single proposal. And this year, each one will receive about two minutes of consideration -- compared to the four days of concerts and parties going on this week.

The resolutions Wal-Mart will quickly reject tomorrow have clearly failed to get their attention, including the following examples:

Human Rights Committee: Proposes the establishment of a human rights committee at Wal-Mart to "review the implications of company policies...for human rights of individuals in the U.S. and worldwide."

Amend Equal Employment Opportunity Policy: Proposes amending Wal-Mart's equal opportunity employment policy to include protection for gender-identity-based discrimination.

Social and Reputation Impact Report: Proposes to require Wal-Mart to issue a report to shareholders on the negative social and reputational impacts of the company's non-compliance with the International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions and standards on workers' rights.

Political Contributions Report: Proposes to increase transparency about "direct and indirect political contributions to candidates, political parties or political organizations; independent expenditures; or electioneering communications on behalf of a federal, state or local candidate."

These seem like reasonable proposals that would go a long way toward making Wal-Mart a more responsible, more humane company. But by tomorrow they'll end up in the dustbin, and Wal-Mart will plow ahead with its greedy and unsustainable practices.

That is why Wal-Mart Watch has re-introduced "A Handshake with Sam," a set of seven principles that challenge Wal-Mart to be the fair, honest business Sam Walton intended it to be. We're asking our supporters to sign the "Handshake with Sam" and urge Wal-Mart to commit to these important principles.

We rooted these principles in Sam Walton's own beliefs in the hopes that they might be more palatable to Wal-Mart than if they were just written by their critics. It is Wal-Mart's abandonment of these beliefs that have led them to become such a distasteful presence to an increasing number of communities and shoppers.

After all, the one thing Wal-Mart's leaders care about is the company's bottom line. When the public outrage over its treatment of brain-damaged former employee Deborah Shank became overwhelming, Wal-Mart gave in and returned her medical funds. We will continue to apply that kind of pressure until Wal-Mart recognizes that it can no longer afford to be stubborn -- the same way it realized it could no longer afford to avoid doing the right thing for Ms. Shank.

Tomorrow's shareholders' meeting may not make Wal-Mart reform its practices, but Wal-Mart Watch will continue making sure the public knows the truth about Wal-Mart, whether it takes another year, five years or ten.

Comments

[kanglecap]

Wal-Mart is basically the only place I shop. I can"t afford the prices at other stores. When you can get a jar of Ovaltine for $1.30 less than say at Giant Eagle or Kroger, why would you even consider paying the Giant Eagle or Kroger price? Hey, if you have the $1.30 to throw to the wind, fine. I don"t, and over a whole order of groceries the savings are substantial!

Anyone believing that the business practices at W-M are anymore, let"s just say, self-indulgent than they are at any other large corporation needs to go to the doctor and ask for a reality check-up!

I happen to know for a fact that W-M is extremely generous to many charities, among them, Breast Cancer and Children"s Leukemia.

I"m sure that many changes WERE made to the company after Sam"s passing and that some of these changes were probably a little hard for those current employees to swallow. But such is the case with MANY companies that loose their founder, their human compass if you will, and in spite of what many people want others to believe, W-M isn"t unique here.

Remember too, some changes are needed to company policy based solely on the times ¦ doing business today is a little different than doing business yesteryear. In a global economy we are all loosing our identity, businesses included!

I have shopped at W-M for years and will continue to do so.

[JScott]

Hey Walmart what is the compelling reason I should shop at your store?

[JanSP1971]

I was glad to read Wal Mart did the right thing when it came to Ms Shank. I stopped shopping at Wal Mart when I read and saw what this company and it's top men were doing to their employee and her family. I am thrilled that they were shamed and pushed into doing the right thing but....... I will NEVER give Wal Mart another penny of my families hard earned money. I hope that the attorneys that handled Ms Shanks case also did the right thing by her and her family.

[gorideabike]

Some years ago I worked for Wal*Mart. They got more work out of me for less money than any employer ever did, and I was happy doing it. When Sam Walton passed on, there was an immediate change implemented to stay open longer hours and reduce the number of associates in every department of the store. Customers had to be avoided to finish the increased work load. Bentonville squeezed more money out of the stores. As a result, customers saved money but wasted time. I bagged the job after two months of the new regime.
Sam Walton gave his retail empire an authentic human touch that corporate HQ could never conceive of. Wal*Mart was making some money in those days too, judging from Mr. Walton's heirs.