Wal-Mart can be found in most cities around the United States and they employ roughly 1.4 million U.S. citizens. They provide Americans with everyday low prices and better deals that other local department stores cannot match. There is no doubt that Wal-Mart has the cheapest prices on most of their products. But this actually hurts Americans more than it helps! The anti-Wal-Mart campaign will reach its 20th birthday next year thanks to some very bad publicity and business practices held by the world’s largest supercenter. Communities everywhere are standing up to the giant, claiming that Wal-Mart is bankrupting their stores and providing less than adequate wages and benefits to their employees. Wal-Mart has on many occasions gone on the record as saying that they have nothing to do with the bankruptcy of local businesses. Despite this, communities are even more outraged by Wal-Mart’s apparent lack of care toward local businesses and the American way of life.
Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, was born March 29, 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma (Vedder).
As a young adolescent Sam was an Eagle Scout and high school football quarterback, showing his commitment to leadership and hard work. This continued as he got older, graduating from the University of Missouri with a degree in economics. After college Sam enrolled into the United States Army, where he served as an Army captain during World War II. When Sam Walton returned home from the military he took a loan from his father to start up his first retail store with his younger brother, James (A+E Networks).
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While it was named “Walton’s 5-10”, this store is known as the “Forerunner” for the future Wal-Mart stores it inspired (William Fischer).
The first Wal-Mart store opened in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. A disagreement in how the general stores should be run and which direction they should go in was the reason Sam branched off from his brother and created the first Wal-Mart store. Sam wanted a place where customers could go to purchase their goods for the lowest possible price; originally opening in rural areas, providing a service to those who needed it most. However, Sam was very much aware of the criticism brought upon him. Such criticism included how his stores were crippling local businesses and downtown retail. To combat this, Walton was very active in rural cities, promising job creation and donations to local communities (A+E Networks).
In 1988, Sam Walton stepped down as CEO of Wal-Mart Store Inc. and named David Glass as his successor (Wal-Mart Stores Inc).
The year before Glass was named CEO sales grew by $16 billion; the year after he was named CEO, sales more than doubled to $55 billion for the end of the year. There is no doubt that David Glass knew, fiscally, what he was doing when he took the job as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) but at what cost to the public and America did Wal-Mart make such astounding gains in 1993, the year that followed Sam Walton’s resignation? Following Wal-Mart’s record setting year, David Glass was under heavy scrutiny for practices conducted at Wal-Mart stores and manufacturing facilities around the world. In an interview with NBC, Glass was asked about Wal-Mart buying shirts from a factory in Bangladesh that used child labor (Saporito).
With Wal-Mart supposedly being a “Buy-American” company, this brought heavy embarrassment on Glass who did not know how to respond. The interview was then cut off prematurely by another executive from Wal-Mart. This interview could very well have started the publicity downfall of Wal-Mart. The company once known for low prices, community involvement, and a pro-America frame of mind, now find themselves on the wrong side of a publicity nightmare brought upon by immoral business practices and decisions.
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Wal Mart Stores Inc Abstract Explores the marketing strategies employed by Wal-Mart Corporation and their efforts to compete in the "new" economy. Includes an assessment of Wal-Mart's expressed and apparent positioning and value proposition based upon internal documents, public relations statements, web page and advertising. Includes an assessment of Wal-Mart's competitive position and strategy. ...
With the start of a publicity nightmare well underway, the media would only add fuel to the fire. New accusations of American manufacturing plants closing as a result of Wal-Mart buying clothes from international manufacturers resulted. Industry leading bicycle maker, Huffy, was at their peak in the 1970’s and 1980’s until the changing of the tides in 1988. By the mid-90’s Huffy was in deep financial trouble, accusing big-box stores of claiming most of their business. Wal-Mart was their biggest buyer, but wanted too many bikes for too low of a cost. Huffy, wanting to stay competitive, had no choice but to agree to the terms. If Huffy had declined the terms, Wal-Mart would’ve simply gone to the next bicycle maker making Huffy irrelevant. In 1995 Huffy’s bottom line was in the hole $5 million. Huffy even asked the Local Union that represented their workers if they could lower wages and the Union agreed. However, Huffy continued to lose money, eventually closing both American based plants for the cheaper manufacturing costs in China. Though, this too could not save the renowned bicycle maker, forcing Huffy to turn over their assets to their Chinese creditors due to bankruptcy in 2004. (Bianco).
Aside from the bankruptcy of American-made businesses, Wal-Mart was also caught shelving imported goods under signs that displayed “Made in the U.S.A.” Wal-Mart, only caring about themselves blamed this on their low level employees, saying “The mistakes were made by associates who simply filled empty racks with merchandise without checking the labels for manufacturing origin (Saporito).” This is not a good business practice to publicly blame problems on your employees. Even if it was the mistake of the associates, which was most likely the case, do not go “on the record” saying it. A better response would’ve been to say, “We are aware that this has happened on a minor amount of occasions and we are working with our associates and staff to make sure better care is taken when restocking our shelves.” This provides more logic than placing blame on your associates. With the appointment of David Glass as CEO, Sam Walton ensured the continued financial success of Wal-Mart, but also inadvertently began the anti-Wal-Mart campaign that would gain heavy support for years to come.
The Business plan on Wal Mart Global Products Store
SWOT Analysis Wal-Mart Strength so Wal-Mart is a powerful retail brand. It has a reputation for value for money, convenience and a wide range of products all in one store. o Wal-Mart has grown substantially over recent years, and has experienced global expansion (for example its purchase of the United Kingdom based retailer ASDA). o The company has a core competence involving its use of ...
The smaller the town the more heavily that town relies on its small businesses for consumer retail and prosperity. When Wal-Mart comes in and opens up a “Supercenter”, it directly competes with many of the already established smaller retail stores. With Wal-Mart’s unbeatable prices, these local businesses are forced into bankruptcy. There are reports stating that Wal-Mart doesn’t hurt small businesses but rather help small businesses. These articles such as Matthew Bandyks “Should Small Businesses Fear Wal-Mart?” and Amy Barretts “Does Wal-Mart Really Hurt Small Business?” state that when a Wal-Mart opens, local businesses that directly compete fail miserably but make way for other non-competing businesses to come in behind them. These statements can be found in almost all articles relating to Wal-Mart and how they help small business. This has many community members outraged by the fact that Wal-Mart and their supporters are justifying these bankruptcies with the potential for future small businesses to open in their place.
Hearne, Texas was a small community of only 5,418 people. Their town filled with locally owned mom and pop stores and businesses which provided the town everything they needed. In 1982 Wal-Mart decided to open up a 46,000 square-foot discount store just on the outskirts of this small town (Bianco).
Over the next 5 years the town of Hearne, Texas would wither away as these mom and pop stores began to close under the pressure and competition that Wal-Mart created. In 1989, Wal-Mart announced they would close the store due to them being unable to operate at a profit. Citizens had to drive 30 minutes to College Station, Texas to buy much of their everyday necessities after Wal-Mart closed. The city of Hearne had grown in population in each census except one dating back 100 years, before the Wal-Mart discount store had opened (TSHA).
The Business plan on Wal Mart Kmart Stores Style
Kmart's main weakness was that it had an aspiration to be all things to all people - its dabbling's in drug stores, home improvement stores, bookstores, cafeterias and specialty stores in the 1980 s and early 1990 s seemed to spread the company very thin. This focus on diversification is just one example of how the retailer has often not made the wisest choices when faced with a tight spot. By the ...
Since then Hearne has yet to post one census where the population has increased, declining in each census over the last 30 years. Today, Hearne has a population of 4,459, an 18% decline since Wal-Mart hollowed out the once prosperous small community. There is hope for this community as local businesses have once again grown to become sole resource for its inhabitants. The biggest “corporate” business is now a McDonalds located across from the towns railroad station. Hearne, Texas is now on its way to economic and communal recovery after Wal-Mart had left them for dead.
Presently Wal-Mart tries very mightily to restore their once favored public image. However, in Arizona a battle ensues that would have Wal-Mart apologizing before everything was said and done. Flagstaff, Arizona with a population of 53,000 has become one of the most environmentally resourceful places in America. Just Google Image Flagstaff, AZ and pictures of wooded areas and scenic views take over the screen. This ecologically progressive city has community members that care for their city and the wildlife that surrounds them. In 2004 a city ordinance was approved that kept big box stores from taking over their city. The ordinance states that no store can be larger than 125,000 square feet. It also states that only 8% of stores floor plan could include groceries. “The goal was to have a mix of retailers that included national chains and locally owned business, but where no one store dominated,” said Beck Daggett, Executive Director of Friends of Flagstaff’s Future (Bianco).
Following the approval of this ordinance, Wal-Mart, being the bully that they are put together a fierce plan to reverse this and open up a store in Flagstaff. The laws reversal vote would be called Proposition 100 which would be left up to the town’s citizens in a popular vote. In this situation Wal-Mart targeted Flagstaff’s low-income families, which were plentiful given the fact that the city of Flagstaff has a cost of living 14% higher than the national average (Economic Research Institute).
The city, however, would target those living or studying at Northern Arizona University which offers a master’s program teaching views on sustainable societies; which is one that can progress without catastrophic setbacks in the foreseeable future (Chen).
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... Wal-Mart claims to have given more than $1 million in Wal-Mart Environmental grants to community recycling and environmental education programs in 1999, in Flagstaff ... where Wal-Mart is now opening its superstores. Located off exit ramps on the outskirts of cities or in counties, these stores ... pull the local dollars out of the core of the city, and the ...
Wal-Mart brought with them an ad that would spark physical community outrage, as they approved one in the Arizona Daily Sun that would compare the proposition supporters with Nazi book burners. The aftermath would have people screaming at each other on the streets, death threats, and vandalism to personal property. “I am appalled and offended by the full-page ads in the Daily Sun, paid for by Wal-Mart and Protect Flagstaff’s Future,” said Marcus Ford, a homeowner in Flagstaff (Ford).
In the few days leading up to the vote Wal-Mart spent about $300,000 in advertisements, an amazing feat that the opposition could not match. The vote sided with Wal-Mart by a narrow margin that totaled 51% to 49%. Wal-Mart eventually apologized for the ads that appeared in the newspaper, but could only be attributed to Wal-Mart now trying to repair its public image after such distasteful tactics.
Community leaders strive every day to make their neighborhoods safer and more sustainable for their members. The future and well-being of its members and environment is the top priority for anyone who is considered a leader. The ability to inspire its members to take action for the better good is all a community leader can do. Wal-Mart is here to stay, whether we like it or not. They are too big to push around, and too big to get rid of. In a report published earlier this year, Wal-Mart had been recycling 64% of waste produced in their domestic stores and operation and is now recycling 80% (Clifford).
It appears as if Wal-Mart is having a change of heart when it comes to how they are affecting our communities and environments. Wal-Mart has also taken to the streets of the cities they reside in to help out local communities, donating $125,000 to 12 local children’s organizations each of its “12 Day of Giving” starting December 1st of this year (Wal-Mart Press Release).
The total will be $1.5 million after the 12 day event. While Wal-Mart is trying to enhance their public image, the jury is still out on whether they can actually repair their image and repair the lives of those in the communities destroyed when a new Wal-Mart opens up.
Works Cited
A+E Networks. “Sam Walton.” 2012. The Biography Channel Website. 19 Nov 2012.
Bianco, Anthony. The Bully of Bentonville. New York City: Doubleday, 2006.
The Essay on Wal Mart Community Store Online
In Sam We Trust When Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, it was the beginning of an amazing success story. At its heart, Wal-Mart is a place where prices are low, and value and customer service are high every day. Since then Wal-Mart has become the world s number one retailer with over 2, 500 stores worldwide. With this expansion, Wal-Mart has also been the ...
Chen, Steven. “What is a Sustainable Society?” 07 09 2007. Sustainable Society USA. 1 12 2012.
Clifford, Stephanie. “Unexpected Ally Helps Wal-Mart Cut Waste.” 13 April 2012. The New York Times. 2 December 2012.
Economic Research Institute. “Flagstaff, AZ Cost of Living.” 04 12 2012. Cost of Living.net. 19 11 2012.
Ford, Marcus. “Nazi book-burners offend decency.” 10 May 2005. Arizona Daily Sun. 1 12 2012.
Saporito, Bill. “David Glass Wont Crack Under Fire.” 18 February 1993. CNN Money. 6 November 2012.
TSHA. “Hearne.” Almanac. 2010. Report.
Vedder, Richard and Cox, Wendell. The Wal-Mart Revolution. Washington D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 2006.
Wal-Mart Press Release. “12 Days of Giving.” 1 November 2012. Wal-Mart News. 26 November 2012.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. “History Timeline.” 2012. Corporate Wal-Mart. 11 November 2012.
William Fischer, Jr. “Walton’s 5 and 10.” 11 April 2012. Historical Marker Database. 19 November 2012.
