Handshake With Sam
While Wal-Mart’s founder, Sam Walton, steered his company’s growth over its first thirty years, he never let anyone forget that with such tremendous success come certain moral responsibilities. He led by example, and he did business with a handshake.
Today’s Wal-Mart has lost Sam’s way. That’s why we’ve proposed a new contract with Wal-Mart’s current leadership—to help Wal-Mart take its place as a responsible business leader for the new century.
Wal-Mart Retains Position of “Worst Company Ever”
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
We don’t really have much to say on the issues this author brings up with Google, but we’re glad to see that Wal-Mart’s still being held up as a bastion of all things wrong with corporate America. Author Ranjit Mathoda actually does a pretty good job enumerating all the problems Wal-Mart still faces with its corporate ethics.
Is Wal-Mart Actually ‘More Evil’ Than Google? [Seeking Alpha]
In one of the Democratic primary debates, Barack Obama slammed Hillary Clinton by saying, “While I was working on those [Chicago] streets, watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board of Wal-Mart.”
The accusation played very well with the audience, and was hailed by commentators as a stinging blow. Yet the blow is only stinging, the accusation only biting, if an association with Wal-Mart (WMT) is something to be deeply ashamed of.
That Wal-Mart is evil seems like conventional wisdom these days. The message of Wal-Mart’s evil is promoted through documentaries, magazines, books and on numerous websites. In the Democratic party, the view of Wal-Mart as evil has prevailed so significantly that even Mr. Obama, who demonstrated in his book The Audacity of Hope (see my book review) a willingness to admire some Republican policies and who has generally held himself to a tone of polite political discourse, reminded Hillary of her role as a Wal-Mart director with a combination of ferocity, incredulity, disdain and relish (see the debate video).
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Wal-Mart Dramatically Increases Lobbying Expenditures in 2007
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
When Wal-Mart cuts costs on employee health care or product safety, the company doesn’t always pass the savings along to its customers. Sometimes, Wal-Mart passes it on to its multi-million dollar lobbying firms. Wal-Mart increased its lobbying expenditures by 60% last year, spending a total of $4 million to have its way with the American legal system. Why is the company doing this? Wal-Mart isn’t satisfied to simply abide by the law. The company is used to getting its way with suppliers and employees, and from the way the company is investing in lobbyists, it seems Wal-Mart wants to get its way with the U.S. legal system, too.
Topic for discussion: is it fair for Wal-Mart to use its power to influence politics this way? Is this a legitimate form of political participation, or is the company behaving unethically?
Wal-Mart Lobbying Up 60 Percent in 2007 [Associated Press via Forbes]
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, jacked up its lobbying budget by 60 percent in 2007, spending $4 million to influence the government on issues ranging from energy efficiency to retail crime.
While its lobbying budget is still pocket change compared with other major trade groups and corporations, Wal-Mart’s increased spending marks a growing recognition that the bottom line in Bentonville, Ark. is subject to the ways of Washington.
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Wal-Mart’s Asda Problems Are Worse Than They Seem
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
Wal-Mart has been struggling with its U.K. stores for some time, facing both stiff competition in the country and strict development rules that prohibit the company’s normal expansion practices. It seems that Wal-Mart’s problems in Britain are even worse than they’ve appeared: the company considered leaving the U.K. last year. The news has analysts questioning the stability of Wal-Mart’s U.K. branch, and is drawing comparisons to the company’s failures in Germany and South Korea. Asda is one of the major components of Wal-Mart’s international expansion plan, an increasingly important part of the company’s growth strategy as U.S. expansion slows.
Could Asda be kicked out of Wal-Mart? [Telegraph (U.K.)]
When Wal-Mart swooped to buy Asda in 1999 for £6.7bn analysts predicted that the arrival of the world’s largest retailer would change the UK high street forever - sparking a savage price war and a wave of mega mergers.
But the doom-laden predictions of 1999 have proved wide of the mark. The combination of intense competition and planning restrictions have frustrated Wal-Mart’s ambitious plans for Asda and the UK.
In fact, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that Wal-Mart president Lee Scott became so dismayed at the failure to crack the UK market and the constraints on future growth that last year he ordered a strategic review that could have seen Wal-Mart float a minority stake in Asda or even pull out of the UK entirely.
According to sources the strategic review has - for now - been shelved. Asda refused to comment.
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Friday Blog Round-Up: Leap Day Edition
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
APPLE TO WAL-MART: SURRENDER NOW
It’s not official yet, but for all the speculation it might as well be: Apple’s poised to overtake Wal-Mart for the No. 1 music retailer slot this year.
Apple Second Only To Wal-Mart in Music Sales, But For How Long? [Gizmodo]
Apple just slipped out a second press release this AM bragging that, according to NPD, it is now the #2 music retailer in the US, behind the megalithic Wal-Mart.
Apple’s iTunes set to displace Wal-Mart as largest music retailer in U.S. [BloggingStocks]
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world’s largest retailer, and the largest U.S. retailer of music. The retailer sells more CDs than anyone, but that dominance is being threatened in a paradigm shift that’s been coming for years now: the digital download.
Gizmodo goes on to note that the real music dominance battle might not be between Wal-Mart and Apple, but between Wal-Mart and Amazon:
More and more people will soon discover Amazon’s download store, with higher-res, lower-priced non-DRM MP3s, plus automatic loading into iTunes. Many iPod owners will also be drawn to Wal-Mart’s own increasingly busy download department, though in our Battlemodo we decided Amazon was the better bet.
iTunes Becomes No. 2 Music Retailer Despite Majors’ Efforts [Idolator]
iTunes leapfrogged over Best Buy and Target--which came in second and third, respectively, to iTunes’ fourth place the last time the NPD Group conducted their music-buying survey--as paid downloading experienced an overall spike of 50% between 2006 and 2007...Related to that, NPD is claiming that one million people just stopped buying CDs completely last year; maybe it’s because of my scouring Soundscan during the year, but does that number seem a bit low to anyone else?
After the jump, techies weigh in on the DVD format wars and Wal-Mart’s new designer brings some interesting ideas…
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Wal-Mart Wastes Food
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
We’ve discussed before how Wal-Mart’s food disposal policies harm local food banks. Now, news from Missouri where Representative Jo Ann Emerson is urging the company to change its policies.
Castro-Wright Named to MetLife Board
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
Executive Vice President of Wal-Mart’s U.S. Stores, Eduardo Castro-Wright has now also been named to the board of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Wal-Mart has consistently come under fire for its life insurance policies, namely a “dead peasant” policy where the company stands to profit when low-level employees die. Since Castro-Wright surely can’t be taking this new position for the employees’ benefit, what could he possibly be doing with his time on the MetLife board?
MetLife names 2 to board [Associated Press via Boston Globe]
Insurer MetLife Inc. on Wednesday said it named the CEO of Wal-Mart Stores USA and the CEO of Tupelo Capital Management to its board of directors, effective Monday.
more stories like thisEduardo Castro-Wright, 53, is the president and chief executive of the U.S. division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer.
Earlier:
Wal-Mart’s ‘Dead Peasant’ Insurance Suit Gets New Life [Find Law, 6/13/2006]
“Dead Peasants” at Wal-Mart [Daily Kos, 4/4/2005]
The Trouble with Wal-Mart: An interview with Liza Featherstone [Stay Free]
Anyway, this woman’s husband was working 80 hours a week. I think he had a weak heart. One day, he was exhausted from working because he was understaffed, but he had to help a customer carry a TV to her car, and when he did, he had a heart attack and dropped dead. So, this is already a really sad story, but then his wife found out that Wal-Mart had an insurance claim on him. They were actually collecting money from his death.
Dell’s Partnership with Wal-Mart Backfires
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
For those who still believe partnering with Wal-Mart is a golden ticket to solid sales, think again. Dell was once such believer, but its partnership with Wal-Mart has actually hurt the computer company, and it hasn’t helped Wal-Mart out much either. Dealing with the megaretailer is a dangerous game: as Cott cola’s story earlier this week demonstrated, Wal-Mart’s market dominance can make or break a company. As I write this on my trusty Dell desktop, I can only hope the company can salvage its current situation. It should certainly make Wal-Mart’s potential partners think twice about settling for Wal-Mart.
Dell Recovery Stymied as Computers Sit at Wal-Mart [Bloomberg News]
Michael Dell gave himself until August to prove he can rescue his personal-computer company by selling machines through retailers. Shoppers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. aren’t buying it.
Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sony Corp. are crowding out Dell Inc. computers at chains including Wal-Mart and Staples Inc., said Cowen & Co. analyst Louis Miscioscia in New York, who has had a “neutral” recommendation on the shares and an “outperform” assessment of Hewlett-Packard since August 2006.
One year after Dell’s return as chief executive officer, the turnaround he promised remains elusive. Dell, down 14 percent since January 2007, costs 13 times estimated profit, almost as much as Hewlett-Packard, which became the biggest PC maker in 2006. Dell will fall further behind with sales growth of 6.7 percent this year, compared with Hewlett-Packard’s 10 percent, according to analysts’ average estimates.
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Wal-Mart Makes Another Attempt at High Fashion
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
Wal-Mart tried to go upscale with its apparel line last year...and failed miserably. Sales declined as customers decided against that fashion-forward pair of neon spandex leggings, and Wal-Mart’s bottom line started hurting. Everyone agreed that it’s probably for the best if Wal-Mart sticks to oil changes and solid color, loose-cut t-shirts.
But it turns out Wal-Mart just isn’t ready to give up on its dream of being a fashion plate. After reorganizing its apparel department earlier this year, Wal-Mart today announced a partnership with designer Norma Kamali. Kamali, if you’ll remember, is the designer responsible the comedically-ugly parachute pants and the sleeping bag jacket. So maybe Wal-Mart’s not planning to be fashionable after all…
Kamali to Design Line for Wal-Mart [Women’s Wear Daily]
Make no mistake, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is serious about fashion.
Norma Kamali will create an exclusive collection for the world’s largest retailer in an agreement brokered by Cherokee Inc. The licensing deal is long term, and the designer will establish a lifestyle brand under her own name that will encompass categories such as women’s wear, children’s clothing, accessories, footwear and home — all at Wal-Mart’s mass prices.
At a time when some retail chains are reconsidering the merits of long-term fashion lines by marquee designer names, Wal-Mart appears to be moving full-steam ahead with the concept. More deals are in the pipeline, sources said.